Artificial Russia
What is it with these big fake islands that look like things from the air? We’ve had palm trees, a map of the world, and now an island that looks like Russia! Particularly annoying is that these edifices are only appreciated from above, and maybe in the sales pitch, but certainly not as you approach. This time a very accomplished Dutch Architect, Erick van Egeraat, is the designer and one wonders how he became involved in this seemingly unoriginal and ridiculously opulent gesture. Anyway, it’s called Federation Island and is a 330ha artificial archipelago in the shape of Russia, to be built in the Black Sea near Sochi and completed in time for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Apparently Vladimir Putin inquired about technical details and construction time. Erik van Egeraat assured him that the Dutch, more than anyone else, knew how to reclaim land from the sea. The question is why?
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Check out these brilliant origami-inspired Green Berry Tea bags from Russian-based designer Natalia Ponomareva. While the tea seeps, the bag gradually expands into a poetic and delicate paper crane. The design hasn’t made it to store shelves yet but the concept is so impressive that it deserves sharing.
Russian political science professor Igor Panarin recently caused a bit of a stir, predicting that the US will break apart in 2010, when the current financial crisis will have resulted in social crisis big enough to tear the Union into six pieces. Kevin Kelly, Editor-At-Large for Wired Magazine, has posted a discussion on the likelihood of Panarin’s prediction coming true.
I grew up hyper aware of the expectations that people might have of me based on my ethnicity and I always strived to defy them, which is why I decided to suck at math and I refused to go to the kung-fu school they make us all go to when we’re kids. When I see people reveling in their stereotypes, it just makes me feel like giving up and chowing down on a cat.
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This house has many facets that make it an intriguing example. First of all, it is a very aesthetically pleasing project with the use of light horizontal timbers and a clean pitched roof. Designed by MOS, an interesting design collective based in America, the secret to the Floating House is that it floats on a structure of steel pontoons. The house rises and falls with the changing waters and is frozen in place depending on the season. The steel pontoons were constructed first and towed to the lake outside the contractor’s factory and then the house was built atop of it. When finished it was towed to its position, anchored and enjoyed in its unique position. Finally, it forms a bridge between the land and an island. Wonderful!
Dutch uber-firm OMA, headed by Rem Koolhaas, has created this concept in Mexico City to symbolize the coming two hundred years of Mexico’s independence. There are many layers of symbolism in this building, from Mayan pyramids to which part of the building controls the park and which part controls the city, to the fact that the bulge of the building is below the centre height, and that it all happens on a relatively small footprint. Most of all, in this building there is a barely contained energy that seems near to release and it may be that this is what Torre Bicentenario represents.
The Danes are renowned for their considered and subtle design. However, in these times of change, they must feel they need something with this selection of a bridge building as the winner of a recent architectural competition in Denmark. The American architect Steven Holl designed this building with a pedestrian bridge that links two sides of the harbour in the distinctly low-rise Copenhagen. Read more
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Gregory Jacobsen’s grotesque paintings are disturbed reinterpretations of classical themes and compositions, the product of a tortured imagination that smears the distinctions between the sexual and the scatological, the beautiful and the perverse. Read more
Melbourne’s Alice Euphemia has been a swinging shrine to Australian independent fashion for a decade now, hosting some of our favourites including Romance Was Born and TV amongst countless others. The success continues, with Alice Euphemia having opened a second store in 2007 in the old Craft Victoria building on Gertrude Street in Fitzroy, Melbourne. Read more
Colombian illustrator Catalina Estrada, whose work has recently adorned Zune players, has designed a t shirt for charity project Comparte Corazon, which benefits a group of women artisans in Ayacucho, Peru.
I tossed and turned through three chapters of an epic Russian novel last night. Or so it felt as a constant stream of characters made their way past the stringent casting couch and into the deepest reaches of my dreams. Read more
The uber-hip French producer M83 has compiled a Secret Playlist for us in which he props Brian Eno, Julee Cruise, and Tears For Fears’ Head Over Heels: ‘This song was the biggest influence for my new album. Our track, Kim and Jesse, takes a lot of inspiration from 80s bands like Tears for Fears. This is one of my favourites’. Read the rest of M83’s Secret Playlist.
Back in the day, when I was a skinny teenager on the great pedestal of life, I had a real obsession for the understated, low-fi, deliciously melodic and somewhat blurry sounds of the New Zealand Flying Nun bands. I would pool my meagre savings and canvas the local record shops, scouring the racks for the latest cassettes from The Bats, The Chills, The Clean, and, later, The Straitjacket Fits. Read more
Things continue to improve for New York’s metal scene, if Batillus are any indication. The sludge/doom trio from Brooklyn offer crushingly heavy, down-tuned and down-tempo instrumental riffage that sounds like what a mutant that has crawled out of Newtown Creek might have on his iPod. The band recently added vocalist Fade Kainer of Inswarm (Jarboe’s touring band) to its line-up.
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Scanners’ new single Salvation
I love this track by London based rock group, Scanners, which is off their latest album, Submarine. Having toured with acts such as The Horrors, The Wedding Present, The Charlatans, Electric Six, and Juliette & The Licks, Scanners could well blow up in 2010. Figuratively speaking, not literally. No, that wouldn’t be fun.
There is not a medium that UK illustrator Lizzy Stewart cannot wrap around her little finger to make the most beautiful, whimsical images. Read more
Hong Kong-based illustrator Man-Tsun draws dark and beautiful painterly images that look like they are straight off a high-end Japanese animated film. Read more
Trip out with Sparrow Vs Sparrow’s retro illustrations, I love their aesthetic, color use and sense of humor. Read more
Charlie Immer’s pastel-pallete sometimes obfuscates the gory violence in his surreal images. At other times, it heightens the gut-wrenching and visceral effect of his work. Read more
Thanks to Sony Australia, four Lost At E Minor readers will win personal audio prizes, including the new 8GB Walkman S series video MP3 player and the MDRXB500 Extra Bass headphones. Read more
The Plus One t shirt by New York designer Ryan Sullivan is printed by hand, one at a time, using a dye-based print and printed on cotton/poly blend tees. Size is true to fit.
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