Interactive Architecture dot org is a weblog about the emerging practice within architecture that aims to merge the digital virtual with tangible and physical spatial experience. Instead of defining a fixed architectural product it is an architecture in constant flux best suited to prototyping and semi-perminant installations.

This is a great resource for experiential and physical interface designers, as well as anybody interested in interactive technology and information design.

Regarding the Saab Aero X mentioned below: sweet Beelzebub, that would make a most acceptable Sonett replacement - and the official microsite is beautifully done too.

a couple things from carland:

Mike D's dream SAAB? HOT...has to be the best showcar in a long time.

What not to do your million dollar Ferrari Enzo. Doh!

if you u like RJD2 or similar-minded electronica/hip hop producers check out my sometimes collaborator bARRY sTYLES. check the Dilla(RIP)-inspired beats on the excellent "Inside"

i also jumped on the myspace bandwagon with a page for my project quinqui. check 'er out por favor

14 Days, 7 Artists, 103 Meters of Canvas in Milan

[Wooster Collective]

What if Microsoft redesigned the iPod package?

thanks for that last post Josh, i until now i though YouTube wasn't good for things other than America's Funniest outtakes. not so:

Miles Davis "So What"
Led Zeppelin "Dazed and Confused"
Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters "Chameleon"
Cocteau Twins "Pearly DewdropsDrops"
Digable Planets "9th Wonder"

She Blinded Me With Rockit Wonder

Solvent vs. Dethlab tonight!
See Ghostly.com for more.

What kind of tools would you need to make a functional interactive prototype of a media player in 30 minutes?

d. tools!



d.tools is a hardware and software system that enables designers to rapidly prototype the bits (the form) and the atoms (the interaction model) of physical user interfaces in concert. d.tools was built to support design thinking rather than implementation tinkering. With d.tools, designers place physical controllers (e.g., buttons, sliders), sensors (e.g., accelerometers), and output devices (e.g., LEDs, LCD screens) directly onto form prototypes, and author their behavior visually in our software workbench.

I've been in NYC for few weeks and if I tried to list all of the amazing things I have seen here, I'd fill the page so here are some highlights:

1. Thomas Hirshhorn's show using Emma Kunz's drawings



I thought I was the only person on earth who knew of Emma Kunz. Her works are maps and tools for energetic healing work that she did with clients. She was part of the Kandinsky/Madam Blavatsky school of abstraction. Her works are basically function as tonal/astral maps. Tomas Hirshorn has the foresight to put her works next to some of the most brutal images of human dismemberment I have ever seen. Faces in pieces staring up from concrete, limbs torn apart by us weapons and children missing heads where warms ups for some of the images in this show. Mix that with mannequins covered in nails and there you have it. AMAZING. To quote the press release, "I want to do artwork beyond history. Not against history."


2. Gang Gang Dance

Wow. It was a strange crowd at an unannounced show full of the usual weapons NYC A+ list. They tore it up. If you haven't heard them, do it now. Full on psychedelic, improv trance with lost scraping female vocals. My favorite part came from Bryan K, who mentioned they are all very into grime. The keyboardist had on a Dizze Rascal shirt. How perfect is that?


3. Motomichi

We hung out and have been friends for a long time, but this time the man rearranged my brain. His new work is out of control. Blood, blood and more blood.




4. Bird ov Prey

KILLER new blood/skull fashion for us dorks.




5. Jeff Soto at the Jonathan Levine gallery



For those of you who have seen my little creatures, you can see why I found this show so joyful and amazing. Go. Go now before they take it down.


6. Get your ass to Chelsea and see the show up at Feigen now called "Blessed Are The Merciful." The most amazing stuff I saw in the show was by Cedric Tanguy.




7. Julie Heffernan at PPOW

to quote the site: "Heaven and Hell marks a change in Julie Heffernan's paintings. In these new self portraits, she has replaced her dominant central figure with corporeal cornucopia-like bushes, vines, and bouquets; all intertwined with multi-vignettes and visions. In the painting, Self-Portrait with Holes in my Head, Heffernan wraps a lattice-like structure of intoxicatingly beautiful flowers stretching from the center to the periphery of the canvas. The central structure holds and hides lizards on the hunt and snakes wrapped through vines, vignettes of fiery war scenes, saints aglow with aura, and a cavern revealing an orgy scene resembling Ingres' Turkish Bath. Each one of these scenes expands upon the painting as being a 'self portrait'. The accumulated vignettes act like entries in a journal, telling and retelling dreamlike narratives through her own symbolism. Heffernan's feminine miasma echoes that of surrealists like Leonora Carrington, creating new histories and narratives through her own personal ingrained iconographies."


8. Martha Colburn's work at the Stefan Stux gallery

My favorite comment was made my a 10 year old boy who said, "orgasmic arachnid spider sex is good with me". The same little boy said "disgusting" when a penis went flying in the air and some animal grabbed it in their mouth. Fun stuff!


9. Yesterday I went to Scott Pagano's new website. Maybe I am already a convert, but I must say that I had to watch Cream3 at least three times. It's the new SpeedyJ video.




10. I am off to see The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black tonight at Deitch Projects.


This isn't even a quarter of what I have seen. God help my exploding brain. This doesn't even cover all of the amazing nights at Subtonic on Friday or the Wolf + Lamb parties. Wow. Ms. Kendra's birthday party is tonight at Subtonic FYI!

Tonight: my first taste of Frankfurt nightlife and Cocoon, with Sven Vath and Mathew Jonson (thanks to sk-1 for the hookup!)

Multi-disciplinary artist Floria Sigismondi has been very busy since lending her trademark dark eye for texture and symbolism to the White Stripes' Blue Orchid video last year. Recently featured in style and culture magazines such as Bon and SOMA, the Canadian artist who has produced lush, visually provocative work for everyone from Marilyn Manson to Bjork, recently released her second book. Immune is a collection of her recent work in photography, music videos, film and sculpture, including many never before seen images.

I just finished creating a series of images that will be projected inside Oslo this Friday night for the Solvent vs. Dethlab show.

I quite like how they turned out. Then again, I think the NyQuill just kicked in.

Advance warning: DethLab is heading to Toronto May 20th to catch one of our favorites, Zombie Nation a.k.a. Dekathlon Records founder John Starlight. (I hope he doesn't eat our brains...) ZN's Souls at Zero is the fourth song featured on Radio Dorkwave episode 4.



Speaking of Toronto, this Friday night our favorite Canadian Solvent will be making a rare guest-DJ appearance in Detroit. Expect plenty of one-upmanship in both cheesetastic new-wave and obscure minimal-wave, with a fair dose new dark elektro-pop rockers.

thank you SLAVES!

In order to raise the spirits of an Italian prince burdened by the cares of his position, a musician created for him a cat piano. The musician selected cats whose natural voices were at different pitches and arranged them in cages side by side, so that when a key on the piano was depressed, a mechanism drove a sharp spike into the appropriate cat's tail. The result was a melody of meows that became more vigorous as the cats became more desperate. Who could not help but laugh at such music? Thus was the prince raised from his melancholy.

Behold the Cat Piano.

[via we make money not art]

BCN:

Someone's back in town!

This coming Sunday (Feb. 26):

Zen Club (@ City Hall- Ramba de Catalunya, 4)

Geoff White
Jeff Samuel

Spectral night- Guaranteed good music.

(Welcome back Blanco!)

--Step back three days:

Thursday (Feb. 23)-

Club4

Same place (City Hall- Ramba de Catalunya, 4)
Great new weekly organized by Christian Smith (Tronic) and Paco Osuna.
-John Selway provided the atmosphere a couple weeks ago. Steve Bug- this Thursday past-

This week:

Marc Houle
Marco Carola

See you there.

Detroit. Demolition. Disneyland.

In the "D", "D" doesn't really stand for "Detroit", but "Demolition." Take a look around and you'll notice a great number of buildings marked on the front with a circled "D" in faint chalk. Off to the side, many of these same buildings will also have a noticeable dot, courtesy of our own native son, Tyree Guyton. These dotted buildings have stood for so long that they have become, arguably, the most memorable landmarks of our fair city.

[via: we make money not art]

Your irregular Monday reminder that Cowboy Mark is on EVR this afternoon form 4-6pm e.s.t.

Tune in. Freak out.

Peter Saville's Process Garden: Saville's re-design of St Luke's Gardens in Clerkenwell, entitled 'The Process Garden', reflects the district's printing heritage; flower beds grow in four colour CMYK in the shape of printers registration marks and the typeface used was designed by a local in the 18th century.

Commercial Spaceport to be built in UAE: Sign me up!

iTab: Someone is so going to get a cease and desist letter.

[via Protein OS]

Momus previews his performance piece for the the Whitney Biennial.

I may look like a carpenter (well, perhaps more like some kind of art ninja), but instead of a saw I'll turn up for work at the Whitney equipped only with a maxim: "Every lie creates a parallel world... the world in which it's true."

This is... intertesting: Correspondence between DDV, aka 'Belgium's most Bizarre Artist' and John Wayne Gacy, aka the 'Killer Clown'.

Italy's Felice Varini is a design ninja whose latest project has me in awe at it's simplicity and sheer awesomeness.

It's called 'Denial Of Perspective'. Proteinfeed and 2loop have more stills here and here. There's some screencaps, jerky video, and additional stills on Varini's website, as well.

A torrent of his DVD is quite due.

This video about the Graffiti Research Lab's "LED Throwies" [instructables.com] is totally cool for two reasons: sticky throwable LEDs, and the fact that it leaves hundreds of lithium batteries everywhere, thereby ruining a small sliver of the environment.

Both the electronics nerd and anti-environmentalist in me are pleased greatly.

Ever wonder where to find essentials like Geiger counters, Tesla Coil plans, Aerogel, jet engine kits, magnetic fluids and "misc. radioactive items"? United Nuclear Scientific Equipment and Supplies can fill all your mad scientist needs at the click of a button.

I want a jet bike.

[thanks Stu at Core77]

re. last post: Oh, we're so on that. Jonnie O played Passion Boys are Firemans Saturday night, and it brought the house down. Hungary definitely knows what's up.

is this possible? "MySpace now has 2 1/2 times the traffic of Google Inc."

And during my own exhaustive perusal of MySpace i came across usual Detroit/Burnlab suspects such as Untitled, Les Infants, Ghostly (several of whose artists have dedicated pages), as well as....

An unexpected find and my new favorite band: Hungary's heroes(?!) Passion Boys. These guys are fantastic...Do yourself a favor: listen to their songs and make sure to read the bio, their influences and their lyrics. Oh sweet baby Jesus, and then there's the band photo! Awesome, yes...genius??? You decide.

I feel like an 18 year old goth girl: this is my new favorite song. It's by an Austrian band called Collapsing New People I stumbled across on MySpace. According their bio, the band was formed at an Einsturzende Neubauten concert! You can't make this stuff up. It's by no means mind-blowingly innovative, but it is mind-blowingly good. I mean... it's good! I want to bring these kids to the States. I would have definitely hung out with them in high school... the "too smart to stay out of trouble" crew. (Oh, wait... that's what Dorkwave is! Except we're just old, bitter fuckers who know way too much and still have the same high school attitude...) Seriously though, I haven't been this floored by a song in two years, with the exceptions on Photographs by Soviet, and the Two Lone Swordsmen cover of the Gun Club's Sex Beat. That's saying a lot.

I've been meaning to get around to this for a long time: you may have seen all three 'versions' of Benny Benassi's Satisfaction video, but probably not all at once!

Original Version [by Kalimera]
Girls and Power Tools [by Colonel Blimp]
and of course,
Rock Your Burger [by Wendy's]

Polish movie poster designs. Amazing.

[thanks Theakston!]

A sad, sad day. R.I.P Index Magazine, you will be missed.

FYI: if you can't wait for Tiga's amazing new LP Sexor in record stores, iTunes has it here.

Video clips of Richie Hawtin's section of the Winter Games opening ceremony here - with commentary in Spanish.

(I got a chuckle out of the inclusion of Substance Abuse in the context of the Olympics.)

I swore I wasn't going to play records on school nights anymore, but rules are made to be broken, right?



Dethlab is very flattered to have been invited to play an industrial set with Asrock of The Final Cut and Strider this Wednesday night at Delux. We'll be mixing old faves like Skinny Puppy and Cabaret Voltaire with new ones like Millimetric and Black Strobe. Should be a ton of fun!

Dark Course presents
Love is Like a Razor Blade
Wednesday 2.15.06
Delux Lounge
350 Monroe, Detroit (Greektown)

Huge thanks to everyone who came out to the Dorkwave Valentine's Ball on Saturday. Extra thanks to Panic and Burgundy, Sneak, Michelle, Lauren and everyone who made it a great night, and especially my fellow dorks. It's always an honor and a pleasure.

Since a lot of people asked, here's what I played, more or less in order:
!!! - Take Ecstasy with Me
The Crash - New York (FU Tourist Remix)
Atomizer - Hooked on Radiation
The Magnetic Fields - You and Me and the Moon
M83 - Teen Angst
Vitalic - Fanfare
Mylo - Destroy Rock & Roll
Combichrist - This Shit Will Fcuk You Up
The Neon Judgement - Tomorrow in the Papers
Christian Morgenstern - Violence (I think... it was either that or Sleaze 2 Please by Superstars of Love, or 3 Weeks by Tiga... I forget.)

The Beastles is what the whole hip world would be listening to on Saturday nights if the Nazis had won the war.

Its funny I came across this, what with Rich brining a bit of style to the Olympics, which begs the question, What if Canadians rules the world

(A worth1000 photoshop contest)

i was shocked to just read an email from URB that detroit's legendary superproducer Jay Dee died yesterday of kidney problems due to exhaustion. he was just getting started...

I clearly don't have much interest in football, celebrity-spotting and watery beer, but Detroit's very own (okay... Windsor's very own) Richie Hawtin proved tonight that sports and culture need not be mutually exclusive.

Hawtin co-created this evening's stunning Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Turin with choreographer Enzo Cosimi, which featured dozens of dancers, acrobats and spectacular theatrical design.

"Enzo and I are very much interested in pushing boundaries, both as artists and for our audiences. Working together for the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Games delivers the creative endeavor to not only entertain a huge audience, but to also introduce them to sights and sounds that they may have never experienced before."

Slideshow at the New York Times.

Quick design hits: After a $33M restoration, The Atomiumin Brussels will reopen on February 18th, BBH designs a wicked campaign for the new Audi RS4, and a computer in a whiskey bottle.

Reviewing the fall '06 ready to wear previews in New York, Costume National easily grabs the Burnlab seal of approval. With razor sharp lines and sinister wit, Ennio Capasa captures "centuries of rebel poses, from the silk-scarfed dandy to the biker, the Teddy boy, and the glam rocker. There was even a whiff of a Clockwork Orange future." I quite like the diabolical banker look (or is it mercenary surgeon?) above left.

Back-to-back quality entertainment this weekend in Detroit:



Interdimensional Transmissions presents Irresistable Bitch, featuring:
Goudron [Ersatz Audio, IT] live
with DJs BMG of Ectomorph and Patrick Rusell
+ sex, fashion and scissors by Infinite Dimensions

Friday 2/10/06
OSLO
1456 Woodward Ave., Detroit MI
10pm|18+


and then Saturday...



Dorkwave presents the L.I.T. St. Valentine's Ball, featuring:
Richard Panic and Nathaniel FH Burgundy IV [PAS/CAL, We R DJ]
and party music for the people from your resident Dorkwavers

Saturday, 2/11/06
Corktown Tavern
1716 Michigan Ave., Detroit MI
10pm|18+|FREE

The prince of Gnarzania, T. Raumschmiere a.k.a. Marco Haas has compiled an album of unreleased ambient tracks. Random Noise Sessions 99-05 will be released on Shitkatapult in October. Marco is also currently producing an LP with his punk band Crack Whore Society. Release date TBA.

Several people have forwarded me this very impressive record collection on auction at eBay. (huh... I wonder why...) If you're interestd in any of these gems, the auction ends this afternoon.

What? Only one bid on the blue vinyl Christian Says 12"?!

[thanks Christina Wheeler, Robert Galo, et. al]

Spanish fashion photographer Eugenio Recuenco.

Just back from Chicago, where the project was a huge hit. Many thanks to Ghoslty for the soundtrack, and a about a bazillion other people. Will have a detailed report later on, as well as much other blogging, including a full weekend of activities.

In internets news: Computerlove.net,one of the very best design portals on the web - which has been conspicuously absent for almost two years, will be returning very soon. I'll be beta testing version three in the coming weeks, and will offer up early reports right here.

unbelievable...how did the man who did this become governor of california? (or better yet how did this not come out during his election??). oh, and the word he says later that he learned is the portuguese word for whore. charming

There is one sport worth getting excited about.
This is dedicated to Mark Lazar.
[thanks Rob Theakston!]

The SuperBowl came and went, and viewed from Chicago it looks like Detroit faired well in the media spotlight. All in all, it was probably a very good thing for the city of Detroit, though I doubt anywhere near the level it was hyped to be. (I heard someone say the SuperBowl would "increase property values." What? Put the crack pipe down before you're interviewed on TV, okay?)

The root of my concerns leading up to it, and still, is that all the hype and effort was for all the wrong reasons. The flurry of demolitions, hastily covering vacant lots with digitally printed murals, the rounding up of the homeless, fake store-fronts and seas of fake smiles over an obsession with MTV pop culture trash and sports (NFL football at that...) If we could only make the city an authentically nicer, functioning place for the people who live, work and visit on a regular basis instead of for one night of television. That's all I'm saying.

The Art of R. Black is amazing. I really might be late on the train with this one, but it's really nice line art for posters and flyers. All our old favorite goth/industrial loves like skinny puppy seem to have had him do work. My recent favorite I stole from a street corner and it's the flyer for the new My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult tour. It's a girl with arm bands, a knife and a little bear... can't go wrong there.

On another note, I am in love with Iron and Wine....

We're off to Chicago for four days, and just in time as StupidBowl madenss grips Detroit. We've been working on so much cool stuff at the studio, but you'll have to wait until Tuesday to hear about it on the news. I can say that Ms. Toybreaker made some awesome costumes, and we've been editing footage to LCD Soundsystem all week. I'm amazed we get paid to do this stuff...

The original Society of Arts and Crafts is coming down right now. It was probably not salveageable, though I sure hope artifacts were better cared for than the fiasco that was the Mowtown Building demolition.



The Society was founded in 1906 by George Booth and built in 1916 by architects William Stratton and Maxwell Gyrlls; by the 1960 most activities had moved to the current CCS campus and in 2003 it was ruined by fire.

More on the Arts and Crafts history in the Detroit area.

A few weeks ago there was also an eerily predictive story in Real Detroit Weekly about the next buildings speculated to be demolished.

Brain surgeon wasps and zombie roaches.
Rad.

[thanks Kevin McFancy! Kevin, where have you been?]

Blackbx and Burnlab.net present the 2nd Annual Les Infants Terribles Saint Valentine's Ball.



Richard Panic and Nathaniel F.H. Burgundy of PAS/CAL and We R DJ return for more debauchery and party music for the people, with your resident Dorkwavers.

Saturday, February 11th
Corktown Tavern
1716 Michigan Ave., Detroit MI
10pm-? | 18+ | FREE


Full size flyer here.

Nam June Paik, 1932-2006

Memorial informatin at paikstudios.com

The 2006 Snow Show takes place outside of Turin, February 6 - March 19.

The Snow Show explores the issues related to Art and Architectural investigation by creating works from the ephemeral materials of snow and ice. Conceived in 2000 by independent curator Lance Fung, The Snow Show has since constructed seventeen structures that furthered the discussion of interdisciplinary collaboration and set the tone for the current Snow Show. This year, the artists and architects have created interactive experiences inspired by the dramatic natural beauty of Sestriere and the athletic competitions of the Olympics.



This year's featured artists and architects include many personal favorites, such as Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, Norman Foster, Lebbeus Woods, Kiki Smith and Yoko Ono. More at the NY Times, including an audio slideshow.

[NYTimes construction photos, top: Penal Colony by Yoko Ono and Arata Isozaki, and above: Looking Glass by Kiki Smith and Lebbeus Woods.]

The Skyline GT-R in Tenzin's last post inspired me to mention (although those who know what a Skyline is probably already know this) that Nissan will be releasing the next genration GT-R as a "world car", which means the legendary AWD muscle car will be coming to North America for the first time in 2007... reportedly with a 500 horsepower V8. Now that's the buisness.

Oh, hell yes: Post-Punk dot com

(another great music resource/procrastination enabler...)