© Universal Everything / Hyundai (via Vimeo)
Ocean is an artful representation of recycling ocean plastic into the fabric used in the interiors of the all-electric Hyundai IONIQ 5 car.
Ocean is a beautiful large-scale video installation from Universal Everything, “a remote-working collective of digital artists, experience designers and future makers” to celebrate the launch of Hyundai Motorstudio in Jakarta, Indonesia.
© Yuki Kawae (via Vimeo)
In traditional Chinese culture, the moon is a carrier of human emotions. The full moon symbolizes family reunion. Due to the Covid restrictions between China and the United States, my trip to see my family in Beijing, which was scheduled in early 2020, is on an indefinite hold. While waiting to go back for the past two years, I decided to create a video series with the general intention of bringing the moon down to me on the earth, inspired by a Chinese legend of the Han dynasty entitled, “The lake reflecting the divine moon.”
Every winter since 2020, I’ve filmed myself alone tracing moon patterns by dragging a suitcase on the snow-covered ground in the parking lot adjacent to my apartment building in Chicago, as if to create circular mantras suspended in a time of waiting. I also made two summer counterparts of the same ritual on a sandy beach by Lake Michigan. As long as I’m unable to go back to China, I will continue to film this same ritual in the summer and winter.
This installation by Yuge Zhou called Moon drawings reminds me a lot of the beautiful patterns Yuki Kawae draws in his zen garden —but in an entirely different dimension. Gorgeous, even more so when you know the background behind the piece.
© ladelune / Haeri Cho (via Vimeo)
The idea started with my everyday repeating life, and I found the concept of ‘Repetition’ is a common ground between the pattern and everyday life.
So, what if the normal actions in our daily life could turn into rhythmical and enjoyable moments with patterns?
The entire goal of this thesis is to explore various moving patterns using various mediums and creating a short film with visual interests through those patterns.
— South Korean designer Haeri Cho about her beautifully crafted thesis project Routine Rhythms.
© Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (via YouTube)
© Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
© Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
© Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Before I decided to join the creative industry to make a living, I wanted to become a marine biologist and I’m still fascinated by the manifold creatures of the sea. There’s a lot of beauty in nature –not just in the ocean, but everywhere– providing valuable inspiration for the different branches of design in my opinion.
Just look at the graceful movement and the very textile appearance of this giant phantom jelly –the bell is one-meter in diameter, the arms can grow to more than 10 meters in length– living in the so-called midnight zone of the deep-sea in ~6600 meters depth for example. I think, there’s a piece of clothing waiting to be made here.
If you want to learn more about this rarely documented jellyfish and some other exotic animals check out the “Creature feature” section on the website of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, there are interesting forms and colour schemes to discover and a lot of fresh inspiration to gather.
© NOW (via YouTube)
Tell them you have a new project. It will never be finished.
— from the poem The Art of Disappearing by Naomi Shihab
© Hannah Sun (via Vimeo)
The animation explores the topic of screen addiction, the new norm of our life today with digital technology, and the feeling of isolation and distraction a lot of us share but often neglect.
This short by Hannah Sun is addictive in itself, I could watch this all day. Superb colors, buttery smooth animations, amazing sound design, and a spot-on concept on a relevant topic. Brilliant.
© Jan van IJken (via YouTube)
Jan van IJken filmed the plankton through his microscopes, revealing the beauty and delicate structures of the minute organisms in the finest detail. The film is without any voice-over or explanation.
A sequence from Planktonium, a short by filmmaker and photographer Jan van IJken. The ~15-minute documentary is showing the microscopic base of the oceanic food chain –and thus the foundation of life on this wonderful planet– in a new light with astonishing imagery. Go buy (or rent) the whole film, if you like the short clip.
© Tavo Studio (via Vimeo)
Where is your OASIS?
There is always a space between art and design, and that’s the spot where everyone
wants to be.
Oasis is a manifiesto in favor of the search for the balance between design and art.
Where is the border between client´s requests and your aspirations?In short, it is a difficult balance to achieve.
© Craig Mod / Carina Fushimi (via YouTube)
A lovely short documentary on the Japanese craftsmanship involved in the making of a photo book called Kissa by Kissa. Besides The Craft of “Kissa by Kissa” — Bookmaking in Japan, Craig Mod has a lot more unpretentious videos from Japan to discover on his YouTube-Channel.
Watching those makes me dream about travelling the world myself again —and hopefully Japan someday, too.
© Yuki Kawae (via YouTube)
Because we all need less noise.
I could watch this all day: Meditative video by Yuki Kawae exploring different patterns in his minimal Zen garden. Tempted to use the practical tips from his website to build my own little Zen garden now.
© Sam H. Buchanan (via Vimeo)
By far and away the silliest thing I’ve ever made, felt appropriate to make something silly this year [the short was filmed in 2020].
Loving this absurd short: Every Sport a Bowling Ball.
© Jason Bruges Studio / Sam King (via Vimeo)
An interesting installation by London based Jason Bruges Studio for the past Olympic and the upcoming Paralympic Games in Tokyo:
The Constant Gardeners will create a new visual language to communicate and celebrate the motion of the professional athletes and their feats of physical prowess. The installation will produce dynamic, representative patterns, which ‘the gardeners’, a team of four industrial robot arms mounted on linear rails, will precisely rake into a large-scale gravel canvas, consisting of fourteen tonnes of crushed black basalt, surrounded by a further four tonnes of silver-grey granite. In a series of daily performances, ‘the gardeners’ will work together to create around one-hundred-and-fifty unique illustrations throughout the duration of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
© IntCDC, University of Stuttgart (via YouTube)
The bioinspired pavilion showcases how novel co-design processes that account concurrently for geometrical, material, structural, productional, environmental, and aesthetic requirements, together with advanced robotic fabrication techniques applied to natural materials, are capable to generate a unique architecture that is at the same time ecological and expressive.
The livMatS Pavilion is the latest outcome of a long-standing research collaboration between the Universities of Freiburg and Stuttgart. Developed by an interdisciplinary team of architects, engineers and biologists, the fibre construction in the Botanical Garden of the University of Freiburg utilizes robotics to create a net-like flax weave inspired by the wood structure of a cactus.
Besides being a strong believer in the interdisciplinary approach, I’ve been particularly hooked on design and architecture with an environmental focal point for quite a while now. The Pavilion reminds me of the visionary work of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), Space10 or Neri Oxman, all of which I admire a lot, so I can’t wait to check the pavilion out in person.
intcdc.uni-stuttgart.de/research/building-demonstrators/bd-5