the late friday night eclectic buffet

well here it is friday night. i've had a strong cup of coffee and i have this idea that i'm going to do some house cleaning. there are a number of links i've collected that lead to subjects that could probably be expanded into blog entries in their own right but instead i'm going to offer them up as a sort of eclectic buffet.

the first one leads to the work of artist chris gilmour. chris hails from stockport which is a spit's distance from where i spent a chunk of my childhood. this lends him a sort of yob credibility in my books. chris works with corrugated cardboard. that's right. corrugated cardboard. the sort of cheap, lowest common denominator material you can find in recycling bins all over the world. what chris does though is to elevate this lowly material into objects - familiar objects - that are extraordinary achievements of assemblage particularly considering the fact that the material is not laid over a frame but is glued together.

go here to see chris's work

on the "green" front an item has been developed (and according to some of my more informed friends is currently in use), that i think has tremendous potential in a lot of applications - vehicles, tents, houses, sheds, backpacks you name it. flexible solar sheeting that can be cut to fit around irregular objects. called a "nanosolar power sheet", i think you'll see what i mean when you read this article which appeared in the 2007 popular science innovations of the year feature.

check it out right here

a tremendously intriguing design for a building - the "blur" building is situated on lake neuchatel in yverdon-les-bains, switzerland. and generates its own fog or cloud such that in the right light and from the right perspective, it appears to be just that - a cloud hovering over the water.

here's a lovely picture of the blur building -


the light that thinks it's a candle. this is one of those "why bother" items that carries a strange appeal because it's really clever. read the text and skim the images. the features of the product are for me more appealing than its actual appearance.
electric candlelight

this company creates products that have real appeal . i had a friend a long time ago who orchestrated fires around colour themes by using different types of wood. i've also seen the beautiful effect that placing a length of copper pipe has when placed in a fire. these oil candles are very lovely. this summer i think i see these around my swimming pool.

well that's it for now. enjoy the buffet.