some recent updates from stills photographer vincent van gurp this month
me news
£3.99
…so, firstly, yes, I realise toasting bread over a fire would’ve been a lot easier. But was a piece of toast (or designing a better toaster) really the point of this project?…
the subject is entirely serious and worrying but it is one of the funniest books i have read in a while: the toaster project by british graduate thomas thwaites… within half a chapter it became clear that this guy had one of the best degree projects i’ve ever seen
the premise is simple: thomas bought a cheap toaster for a few pounds and then decided to try to make his own one, using a set of ‘dogma’like’ rules to restrict his process including sourcing and fabricating all of the raw materials needed himself; a tale of consumerism, our hunger for things and the damage we are doing to the environment; a highly recommended, troubling and hilarious book…
the ‘lego turing machine’
built in honour of the anniversary (yesterday) of mister alan turing (link via ‘uwe’)
boys toys
i certainly don’t post about cars very often as i find the whole subject slightly boring, this is an exception however: a very rare one-off BMW ‘spicup’ cabriolet in metallic jade green designed by bertone back in 1969 and since two years in the hands of a dutch collector, breathtaking…
(via my mate ‘eric wie’ who does like talking about cars)
d13 #1
last week i spent a few days visiting the latest (and much criticised) edition of the (5 yearly) ‘documenta’ art festival in kassel, germany
some of the works which i apparently found interesting enough to photograph (and therefore blog about) included this stunning installation from romanian artist istván csákány: a deserted sweatshop full of sewing machines, steaming presses, swivel chairs/desks etc, whereby every single object has been fashioned from pine wood, no nails or other materials are visible… the whole installation is somewhere around 120% of actual size which somehow heightens the eerie effect you feel when walking around the warehouse
even the chaotic piles of random hydraulic cables, masses of looped wires and the enormous metal cage it is contained in has all been sculpted from wood, reflecting the intense manual labour that would normally take place within this environment
of course writing about this project doesn’t come anywhere near to the experience one undergoes when actually seeing it