iceOrb: Make Your Ice Cubes do More For You!

Can you have a "crush" on a product? I think I do!

With this brilliant invention, the ice cubes you make double as a cooler for wine, dips, or whatever you want to put in the container.

Check out the video and more info >

3D Flash thing

Check it out!

by Den Ivanov

Exposure: This event sounds cool...

...and features my favorite band in NYC!

"I never really took photography seriously until I went totally blind." This extraordinary statement comes from Pete Eckert, a uniquely talented photographer who was just announced the winner of the major photography competition: "Exposure" hosted by Artists Wanted.

http://www.artistswanted.org/pete_eckert.html

Following in the footsteps of recent public art exhibitions that have permeated the city, Mr. Eckert's figurative work, which features explosions of light and teeters on the verge of abstraction, will be projected on a massive scale on buildings and rooftops within Chelsea, Dumbo and Williamsburg.

On Thursday August 7th from 6 to 9 pm, the projection series will culminate in an opening at the Leo Kesting Gallery at 812 Washington Street in the Meat Packing District. A special press preview will take place before the event from 5 to 6 pm (RSVPs should be directed to exposure@artistswanted.org).

We hope you will join us and The Hungry March Band for this exciting event! Check out this press release for more deets:exposure.pdf

Fidg't: Your Social Network Address Book

Looks promising: http://www.fidgt.com/

Southstar-- cool LED light art

By Josh Goldberg and Glen Duncan

Lily Pad Arduino

Nice mix of tech and craft!


The embroidery uses traditional floss and techniques mixed with lights and sounds generated by the board's software. The amount of light sensed by the sensor changes the speed and pitch of the lights and sounds generated, with more light increasing the overall pace.
Rebecca Stern's Lilypad Arduino embroidery on visualcomplexity.com

more about her project


The LilyPad Arduino is a microcontroller board designed for wearables and e-textiles. It can be sewn to fabric and similarly mounted power supplies, sensors and actuators with conductive thread. The LilyPad Arduino was designed and developed by Leah Buechley and SparkFun Electronics.
more about the LilyPad Arduino

Cool Art by Levi van Veluw

see his gallery on behance.net

via Flavorpill

more cool sites curated by Flavorpill

Scrabu-less on Facebook

Oh, sad day! No more Scrabulous on Facebook...Scrabulous.com is next...

read the article on MSNBC >

image courtesy of msnbc.com

Cool Kids' Toy: Make Crazy Forts!

CRAZYFORTS

I love it. Then again, I'm not a mom who has to do the laundry afterwards. :)

More Screenshots from the Spore Creature Creator

Spore Released their Creature Creator Today!

WOW!! For Mac and PC too!

Try it out: http://www.spore.com/trial

Cute Animation: David Shrigley Promo for Blur

Watch the video:


thanks to jessica for the link

Make A Social Network From Your Phone Bill

http://skydeck.com/

Analyzes your phone bill and who you call the most to build a social network for you. It's supposed to uncover your "true" social network and help reduce your phone bill...not sure about that, but tracking client calls and how much time and money you spent on them can definitely help with expense reports.

What interested me about this product was the social network graph, being able to visualize your contacts, but I'm not sure this is part of the product -- anybody used it and know?

Wii + Flash + Papervision3D + Phidgets ServoMotor

cool.


Thanks to Caution Mike for the link

Ballet Mécanique event in NYC - electronic installations and music

This sounds cool:
http://www.hourglassgroup.org/antheilslegacy.html

A Telescope that reaches from Brooklyn to London

A cool installation is in the works (see photo of giant drill!)
It's a "Telectroscope" that bridges NY and London -- you look into it in NY and see London and vice versa. Great idea! Kind of like a portal.
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/telectroscope/

read the NY Times article >

the artist is Paul St George, a 53-year-old artist based in London.

The Telectroscope will be in place at the Fulton Ferry Landing in Dumbo, Brooklyn, from Thursday morning (May 22) until June 15, 2008.

Opportunity for Photographers

This sounds cool...The Deadline is June 17th, 2008

EXPOSURE is a nation-wide search for photography. Artists Wanted
(http://www.artistswanted.org) is looking for photographers of all
backgrounds who speak exquisitely in the language of lenses and
aperture.

The Top Photographer will be selected by New York Times Photo Editor
Patrick Witty, Supermodel and Fashion Icon Tiiu Kuik and NYC Gallery
Owner David Kesting and will have their work presented in a massive
scale photo show on buildings in the top New York City Art Districts:
Chelsea, Dumbo and Williamsburg. Their work will also be featured at
an Opening Event at the Leo Kesting Gallery in Manhattan on August 9th
and they will receive: $2,008 cash, a full-press promotional campaign
and a feature in our upcoming publication, "The Annual".

THE CALL

Artists Wanted is proud to announce EXPOSURE: a nationwide open call
for photography! All photographers will have their own online
portfolio & receive a complimentary copy of JPG Magazine.

The Grand Prize: The Top Photographer will have their work
presented in a massive scale photo show on buildings in the top New
York City Art Districts: Chelsea, Dumbo and Williamsburg. Their work
will also be featured at an Opening Event at the Leo Kesting Gallery
in Manhattan on August 9th and they will receive: $2,008 cash, a
full-press promotional campaign and a feature in our upcoming
publication, "The Annual".

Student Award: The Top Student Photographer will receive a
$1,000 scholarship; a feature in "The Annual" and their work will be
presented at the Opening Event.

Educator's Grant: The Educator of the Top Student Photographer
will receive a $500 discretionary grant and a feature in "The Annual"
for Teaching Excellence.

People's Choice Award: The public will vote on all the
portfolios on our site and select their Favorite Artist. The People's
Choice Photographer will receive a $500 grant; a feature in "The
Annual" and their work will be presented at the Opening Event.

details and applications: www.artistswanted.org/exposure/

Airborne Jellyfish

Air jelly!

check out this video:
http://www.festo.com/cms/de_de/5890_6299.htm

CrAzY zoom thing!

reminds me of zoomquilt

check it out > http://www.scifi.com/tinman/oz/

you can change the speed at the top left

Wacky "Got Milk?" Campaign (White Gold)

is this old? I'm not sure. It's pretty nutty. Worth checking out because of the design and humor guaranteed to make you snicker, but I'm not sure wtf is going on with the navigation.

http://www.whitegoldiswhitegold.com/

Thoughts on Preciousness and Simplicity

The term "precious" has some negative connotations, but I've been thinking about it in the context of Japanese design (prompted by surfing this site: http://www.jetro.org/trends/food.php)

You see it in food, design, and other almost ritualistic aspects of culture in Japan. I do think you appreciate things more when there are fewer of them -- the perceived value of small packages and so forth.

The same is true for product design, and products in general: having fewer products in your house, but having them be better ones, is a simple pleasure and almost an art.

Enjoying minimalism is a simple pleasure in this consumerist age-- and simplicity is a worthy pursuit whether you are working on a website, product, or...just life.

However, it's something that ironically takes a lot of work-- and isn't always simple!

Creative 3D Environment for Kids

I was just thinking that there isn't enough cool 3D stuff out there that is designed specifically for kids: but there is. Edusim is a virtual world for kids, supposed to be used in the classroom. Check it out:


Edusim is a free opensource 3D virtual world specifically for your classroom interactive whiteboard. Edusim is a powerful way to engage your students by bringing a 3D virtual environment that allows direct haptic manipulation of the 3D virtual learning objects directly from the interactive whiteboard surface. Edusim is extendable allowing multiple classrooms to connect their interactive whiteboards for collaborative learning session.

Data Art Made of...SHEEP!!

Artist Aaron Koblin's collection of 10,000 sheep, all drawn by random strangers through Amazon's labor distribution mechanism, The Mechanical Turk, where each person was paid 2 cents for their contribution.

The result is an amusing (and quite beautiful!) work of art. See more on his site.

iPhone + LEGO = 2 of my favorite things

The LEGO Touch is a concept which lets you play LEGO bricks on your iPhone with the multi-touch capability of the touchscreen of your iPhone or iPod Touch. It's an idea developed by PlayNYC. In theory, you could use any LEGO brick, which you choose via a “Brick-Bin” that shows you all the available pieces in a ‘Cover Flow’ style. It makes great use of the touch-screen functionality. Also, you can send your LEGO masterpiece to your friends via SMS or email.

The LEGO Touch app also allows you to enter various LEGO building competitions. The demo is a bit weird, but you can see it here. Of course, this has nothing to do with the LEGO company but I thought it was a fun idea.

via techchee