Painting: City DNA

"City DNA" Series by Chinese painter Lu Xinjian

City DNA is a set of acrylic paintings representing cities as seen in aerial views from Google Earth. They represent what in architecture is called "city DNA," the structure and form, whether planned or happenstance, of an urban settlement. the colours of each piece are chosen based on the official city and national flags.

   

Photography: Victor Enrich

Twisted Cities by Victor Enrich

Spanish photographer Victor Enrich has two skills: taking amazing architectural photographs and then twisting them via photo manipulation to create astonishing architectural anomalies. Personally, they look like great zombie-defense fortresses, so maybe he’s onto something.

Installation: Game Of Space

Game Of Space by Source Organization Network

On exhibit at SICF12 in Tokyo and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Hiroshima

This installation was created using "Game of Life" cellular automaton devised by John Conway to represent the emergence of self-organizing systems. A cellular automaton is a discrete model that consists of a regular grid of cells and simple rules, studied in many fields including mathematics and science. We developed this system in 3d models and tested it across projects of various scales.

The pattern that is created by this system is a mix of order and chaos, which is similar to natural conditions. "Game of Space" expresses the complex phenomenon that is generated by simple rules, yet also creates architectural forms such as slabs and arches. Since cellular automaton is a scale-less system, we believe the system can work in different design fields. Some different scaled figures are located inside this installation to visualize the world that is created by cellular automaton.

Link Round-Up: February 3, 2012

Cathedral of Light

Luminarie De Cagna, an Italian company specializing in illuminated installations, converted a street into a monumental facade and hall lit by 55,000 LEDs for the 2012 Light Festival Ghent in Belgium. The light installation is visible in the beginning of this light festival video Lieven Vanoverbeke. Watch the video at Vimeo.

Infographic: The psychology of color

News: The Prado Museum in Madrid has what they had considered to be an inferior late-era replica of the Mona Lisa, a portrait surrounded by black. But when conservators compared infrared images of their copy with images taken in 2004 from the Leonardo's masterpiece, they found that the Prado replica closely resembled early under-drawings covered by the Mona Lisa everyone sees. Yesterday, Prado held a news conference to announce that their restoration efforts are nearly done and displayed the work in progress. The comparison is striking, showing details that might have been visible when the Mona Lisa was fresh, 500 years ago. The Guardian has more details and a high-detail portion of the apprentice's painting, believed to be by Francesco Melzi.

 The Game Crafter is the world’s first web-to-print game publisher.  The site has helped to develop over 8,000 games, to date, and offers everything from playing cards and tuck boxes to foldable game boards and boxes for packaging.

I want to say that an old issue of Mad or Cracked a cartoon where buildings were made out of similar stuff to what this artist is making stools out of.

If you've got a fat wallet, Heritage Auctions is currently auctioning a piece of Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes calendar art you can bid on.

Princess Bride-themed wine. Have fun killing the bottle!

Link Round-Up: January 30, 2012

LEGO PMD by Rosan Bosch & Rune Fjord

Photographed by Anders Sune Berg

LEGO’s developmental department known as LEGO PMD have a new space to inspire their creative juices. The Rosan Bosch & Rune Fjord masterminded space is very much in line with the brand’s disposition as one of the world’s premiere toy companies with several opportunities for adults to reminisce in their childhood. A wide-open work space covers different points of interest whether it be a large metallic slide and massive display cabinets, to a peaceful bonsai garden and parts bin where children and adults alike can feel comfortable creating.

Interview: Meet the artist who takes being 'immersed in his work' to an entirely new level. Levi Van Veluw fuses sculpture, photography and installation art to stunning effect as he camouflages himself to fit into a series of carefully constructed backgrounds.

Dennis Maitland takes urban photography to new heights by taking pictures of himself leaning down the side of rooftops in this daring new series that takes #fromwhereistand to the next level….

USS Enterprise Coffee Table is furniture’s final frontier

I hope that if my kid becomes a Lego freak he'll make stuff like the Citadel from Mass Effect. The rest of the photostream has more really cool Lego creations, so browse away.

Robot Media is offering a utility for creating interactive children's books for tablets.