Creativity « 360Photography

RSS

Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

World’s Largest Indoor Farm is 100 Times More Productive

12 Jan

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

indoor farm japan interior

The statistics for this incredibly successful indoor farming endeavor in Japan are staggering: 25,000 square feet producing 10,000 heads of lettuce per day (100 times more per square foot than traditional methods) with 40% less power, 80% less food waste and 99% less water usage than outdoor fields.

indoor factory lettuce farm

indoor farm high yield

Customized LED lighting developed with GE helps plants grow up to two and half times faster, one of the many innovations employed in this enterprise by Shigeharu Shimamura, the man who helped turn a former semiconductor factory into the planet’s biggest interior factory farm.

worlds largest indoor farm

Shimamura has shortened the cycle of days and nights in this artificial environment, growing food faster, while optimizing temperature, lighting and humidity and maximizing vertical square footage in this vast interior space (about half the size of a football field).

indoor future led farming

With a long-standing passion for produce production, he “got the idea for his indoor farm as a teenager, when he visited a ‘vegetable factory’ at the Expo ’85 world’s fair in Tsukuba, Japan. He went on to study plant physiology at the Tokyo University of Agriculture, and in 2004 started an indoor farming company called Mirai, which in Japanese means ‘future.’”

indoor farm interview detail

The beauty of this development lies partly in its versatility – since it deals in climate-controlled spaces and replicable conditions, a solution of this sort can be deployed anywhere in the world to address food shortages of the present and future. Saving space, indoor vertical farms are also good candidates for local food production in crowded and high-cost urban areas around the globe. Aforementioned strides in waste and power reduction also make these techniques and approaches far more sustainable and cost-efficient.

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

WebUrbanist

Comments Off

Posted in Creativity

That’s No Moon: Artists Launch Huge Human Head Balloon

11 Jan

[ By Steve in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

ojisora_human_head_balloon_Japan_main
A bizarre art installation based on a dream saw a 50-ft tall balloon become a bizarre “Man In The Moon” as it rose above the streets of Utsunomiya, Japan.

ojisora_human_head_balloon_Japan_1

ojisora_human_head_balloon_Japan_2

Residents of Utsunomiya, a smallish city roughly 60 miles (100 km) north of Tokyo, Japan, experienced the shock of their lives on the evening of December 13th, 2014 when they espied the full moon rising over the horizon.

ojisora_human_head_balloon_Japan_19

ojisora_human_head_balloon_Japan_20

ojisora_human_head_balloon_Japan_21

No doubt dozens of necks suddenly snapped in a group double-take as residents suddenly realized that’s no moon… it’s the enormous inflated head of one of their neighbors!

ojisora_human_head_balloon_Japan_3

ojisora_human_head_balloon_Japan_4

Give credit to Japanese art trio Me (in collaboration with the Utsunomiya Museum of Art) for the uniquely unusual “Ojisora” project, an artistic effort spanning over two years from conception to realization. Its origin rests with one of the three artists, Haruka Kojin (above, right), who as a junior high school student dreamed of an old man’s grossly enlarged and disembodied head floating over town and country .

ojisora_human_head_balloon_Japan_6

ojisora_human_head_balloon_Japan_5

Upon awakening from her dream, Kojin quickly sketched her recollection and then just as quickly forgot about it. Many years later, she came across her sketch and wondered… was there some way to recreate her dream in real life? After consulting with her two co-artists and with the support of the Utsunomiya Museum of Art, Kojin took the first step towards realizing – and sharing on a mass scale – her odd dream from so many years before.

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Thats No Moon Artists Launch Huge Human Head Balloon

[ By Steve in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

WebUrbanist

Comments Off

Posted in Creativity

Beware of Colour: Activists Highlight Decay with Pink Paint

11 Jan

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

pink abandoned building photo

Splashed with bright buckets of paint from roofs and windows, the colorfully defaced buildings of downtown Johannesburg have evoked different reactions from supports and detractors who variously see this work as an act of protest or crime of vandalism. Before we delve too deep into the sides represented, keep in mind that Beware of Colour employed water-soluble paint in these interventions.

pink painted historic building

pink buildings people foreground

pinked architecture

Colombian-American Yazmany Arboleda and the other artists behind the work note that all of the buildings targeted have been abandoned for decades despite a housing crisis – a fifth of the region’s population needs a place to live, currently dwelling in shanties or on the streets. Historic preservationists, meanwhile, decry the defacement and suggest that other methods could be used to raise public awareness of civic problems.

pink window splashes

pinked out building protest

pink abandoned structure balconies

pink beware of color

The case is more complicated, though, than either single viewpoint might suggest and the case for preservation is nuanced. As CityLab’s Ryan Lenora Brown points out, “appealing to history in contemporary South Africa is hardly a straightforward matter. Buildings like Shakespeare House were originally built for the exclusive use of whites, back when Johannesburg’s inner city was the center of one of the modern world’s most infamous projects of racial segregation …. The slumped and broken building has become a symbol for a different Johannesburg, one blighted by decades of white flight and municipal neglect.”

pink city artist statement

pink derelict structure splashed

pink architectural urban intervention

Arborleda was eventually caught with a crew of people and arrested for “malicious destruction of property” after being spotted entering one of the buildings on their list. This has, for now, put an end to this particular vintage of urban activism in South Africa.

pink architecture site plan

pink south africa press

Most of the structures the 30-some artists threw paint upon are either owned by the city or by Urban Ocean, a development group with a significant number of centrally-located and historical holdings. It remains to be seen whether this project will make a difference in the course of the city’s development, or become just another piece in the area’s persistently puzzling blight.

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

WebUrbanist

Comments Off

Posted in Creativity

Hut Above the Rest: Elevated Cabin for the Athens Skyline

10 Jan

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

athens rooftop hut 1

Far from its typical location in the woods and other remote places, an archetypal cabin looms over the bustling city of Athens from its rooftop perch two meters above the top of most high-rises. Proposed by Panos Dragonas and Varvara Christopoulo, the elevated urban hut brings a structure with a rural connotation representing quiet and solitude into an environment that’s nearly the exact opposite.

athens elevated cabin 2

Instead of hills and trees, the hut looks out onto a landscape of man-made design. But the designers posit that these urban spaces, busy as they may be, can still provide a space for meditation and peace – as long as you go to extremes.

athens elevated cabin 3

Urbanization has made isolated spaces hard to come by, so the dream of escaping to a cabin in the woods is not as achievable or even idyllic as it once was. This project emphasizes how much the world has changed as our cities have grown, replacing nature with streets, skyscrapers and antennas.

athens elevated cabin 4

The hut is a mere nine square meters (96 square feet) and lacks any modern amenities, offering only a few platforms for sleeping and sitting, much like a camping shelter in the wilderness.

athens elevated cabin 5

“The urban hut creates a voluntary isolation cell over the ruins of the new Great Depression. The hut returns to the city both as a primary form and as a standard of minimum living, and establishes a heterotopia in the stepped skyline of Athens.,” say the architects.

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

WebUrbanist

Comments Off

Posted in Creativity

Exo-Prosthetics: Light, Cheap & Custom 3D-Printed Body Parts

09 Jan

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

3d bio printed leg

Lightweight, individualized and inexpensive, this design and manufacturing strategy bends artificial limbs in new directions and promises a more personalized product for those in need of a replacement (or upgrade).

3d custom titanium prosthesis

Developed by Adam Root, the process involves inverted laser scanning, 3D modeling and printing to generate form-fitting body parts that are comfortable, affordable and suited to a particular individual. The result is a “highly precise virtual model of the patient’s residual limb and matches its anatomy to within a fraction of a millimeter” which together with the “MIT biomechatronics lab-developed fitsocket captures leg tissue properties to enable a better fit.” Off-the-shelf parts round out these customized creations.

3d proesthetic pictures renderings

3d space frame mesh

A custom-patterned mesh model forms the basis for fabricating an exo-skeletal structure, held together with titanium dust particles that are laser-sintered into place for strength and durability. This technique obviates the need for cumbersome central supports by spreading the loads in a sort of three-dimensional ‘space frame’, to borrow an architectural term. The resulting aesthetic is not only personalized but compelling – stylistically, it leaves choices up to the user and gives a unique look to each individual creation.

3d scanned bio limb
3d stage two rendering

3d printed limb connections

3d modeled exo prosthetic

Gizmag puts these developments in context: “There are over 2 million amputees in the United States with 185,000 amputations every year. More than 90 percent of these involve amputations of the lower limbs. Traditional prostheses can be prohibitively expensive due to their complexity and the specialized labor required to customize them for each patient. They also have a very mechanical and robotic look and feel about them, which can exacerbate the sense of loss and negatively affect the psychological wellbeing of some amputees.”

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

WebUrbanist

Comments Off

Posted in Creativity

10 Vintage London Paintings Superimposed on Street View Images

09 Jan

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

london church street montage

Blending fiction and reality, art and history, this series of superimpositions takes ‘then-and-now’ imagery all the back to the 18th Century on the streets and rivers of England’s capital city. Most of the added classics (spliced with Google Street View shots) are largely unedited, a few are strategically cropped but many show a naturally stark contrast in colors, tones, lighting, and of course: street life.

london historical street view

london history meets modernity

Collected and collaged by Halley Docherty, these hybrids show historical structures in their built environments like St. Martin in the Fields, shown at the top (painting by William Logsdail in 1888), a church situated on the opposite side of Trafalgar Square to Northumberland House, pictured directly below (painted by Canaletto in 1752 and since demolished).

london then now painting

london ships boats river

Various views of the River Thames show how the riverfronts, skylines, ships and boats and shifted in type and number over time, or highlight key points and storytelling scenes of local history set against the everyday backdrop captured by Street View vans.

london historical painting war

london street chapel view

Many major streets are shown at least partly as they were, albeit with some embellishments or artistic license here and there, as well as the vehicles and people that populated them (just surrounded by contemporary persons and contexts).

london historical contemporary collage

london gardens park neighborhood

london street view hybrid

Other paintings shown in this collection include: A View of Greenwich from the River by Canaletto (1750–52), Blackman Street London by John Atkinson Grimshaw (1885), View of The Grand Walk by Canaletto (1751), The 9th of November, 1888 by William Logsdail (1890), The Strand Looking East from Exeter Exchange by Anonymous (1822), Covent Garden Market by Balthazar Nebot (1737), The River Thames with St. Paul’s Cathedral on Lord Mayor’s Day by Canaletto (1746) and Westminster Abbey with a Procession of Knights of the Bath by Canaletto (1749).

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

WebUrbanist

Comments Off

Posted in Creativity

Caricature as Furniture: Pop Culture in Functional 3D Form

08 Jan

[ By Steph in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

caricature chairs 1

The Simpsons and other characters and pop culture figures are translated into minimalist chair designs in this eclectic collection from 56th Studio. Can you guess who the rest are supposed to be? The designers took the most recognizable features of each and distilled them to their most basic forms. Naturally, the exaggerated hairstyles of Bart, Marge and Lisa make them easy to spot, while the others are subtler.

caricature chairs 3

caricature chairs 2

“At the beginning, this project is an exploration of minimal illustration that has eventually expanded into pieces of furniture,” say the esigners. “We believe that objects possess power of communication, therefore, we decide to take a tongue-in-cheek look at investigating Pop and Hollywood Culture in tangible forms, in hoping that it would make the line that separates Graphic from Furniture become thinner.”

caricature chairs 4

caricature chairs 5

caricature chairs 6

Inspired in part by the ‘cubical appearance’ of iconic singer Grace Jones, the project definitely blurs the lines between art objects and functional furniture. Jones is represented by one big pair of lips, and you might be able to spot Harry Potter and his owl, too.

[ By Steph in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

WebUrbanist

Comments Off

Posted in Creativity

Art in Abandoned Places: 15 Unexpected Urban Installations

08 Jan

[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

abandoned art time lapse

Translucent jellyfish put on a serene display in the window of a derelict shop, ghostly images of long-dead patients seem to haunt a disused hospital and surreal oversized spider webs appear in the basement of an old factory in these 15 eerie installations bringing art and design to abandoned places.

Glowing Jellyfish Aquarium in an Abandoned Building

abandoned art jellyfish 1

abandoned art jellyfish 2

A glowing blue tank full of eerily floating jellyfish is probably one of the last things you’d ever expect to see in an abandoned shop window. Artists Walter Hugo and Zoniel built this striking aquarium as part of the Liverpool Biennial, inserting it behind the shutter of the derelict building. The installation, entitled “The Physical Possibility of Inspiring Imagination in the Mind of Someone Living” was not promoted in any way so people could come across it on their own and experience the wonder of such a discovery.

Ghostly Portraits in Ellis Island’s Abandoned Immigrant Hospital

abandoned art ellis island

abandoned art ellis 2

abandoned art ellis island 3

The ghostly images of the very same nurses, doctors and patients who once roamed the halls of Ellis Island’s immigrant hospital remain in the building like a psychic imprint thanks to an installation by French street artist JR, who installed paste-ups of archival photographs. The hospital treated 1.2 million immigrant patients between 1901 and 1954, when it was abandoned, and has since been re-opened to the public. The exhibit is entitled ‘Unframed – Ellis Island’ and will remain in the building as it continues to decay (photographs by Allison Meier of Hyperallergic.)

Eerie Installations in Abandoned Churches by Herbert Baglione

abandoned art baglione 1

abandoned art baglione 2

abandoned art baglione 3

abandoned art baglione 4

Painted shadows floating around in an abandoned mental hospital in Italy aren’t the only evocative and subtle works that Herbert Baglione has completed in derelict places. The Brazilian artist also brought his signature figures to a 16th century church in Celles-sur-Belle, France. Says Baglione, “The ‘reading’ of these places allows me to take the shadow to a unique path, which usually feeds and broadens the discussion because it brings light to the abandoned environment, and so I put the name of this series as ‘The path that the soul takes.’ The idea for the name came from a conversation I had with my brother ‘William Baglione’ about the places to do these installations. It is as if the soul is leaving an invisible trail on these places.”

Trampolines Suspended in an Abandoned Mine

abandoned art trampolines

abandoned art trampolines 2

An abandoned Welsh slate quarry twice the size of St. Paul’s Cathedral is now home to a rainbow-hued installation of nets as part of Bounce Below, the world’s largest underground trampoline. The new tourist attraction features three gigantic trampolines ascending to 180 feet above the floor of the cavern, with ten-foot net walls keeping anyone from bouncing right out.

Stop-Motion Time Lapse in an Abandoned House

Abandoned houses served as some of the unsettling locations that make up the backdrop for ‘Circle of an Abstract Ritual,‘ a stop-motion time-lapse by artist Jeff Frost. The film was created using time-lapse photography – no special effects or graphics were added.

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Art In Abandoned Places 15 Unexpected Urban Installations

[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

WebUrbanist

Comments Off

Posted in Creativity

Flowerworks: Pictures Capture Plants Exploding Like Fireworks

07 Jan

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Photography & Video. ]

flower red starburst white

A novel take on a New Year’s staple, crafty photography and flower power, these bright botanical arrangements (set against dark night-like) backgrounds seem to burst in midair.

flower plant art photos

flower tracer arc light

flower orange purple explode

This Flowerwork photo series from Berlin-based artist Sarah Illenberger stemmed from her combined interest in art, photography and graphic design as well as a fascination with other dimensions of everyday options.

flower purple green explosion

flower green white buds

flower like firework art

Working together with photographer Sabrina Rynas, buds and blossoms were set against a faux night sky, appearing to be much larger fireworks shot from off-screen at first glance. In some cases the stems trail like streamers or one plant seems nested in another like some kind of grand finale.

flower burst light dark

flower fire photography shoot

More about the artist: “Sarah Illenberger is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Berlin working at the intersection of art, graphic design, and photography. With a focus on analog craftwork using everyday items, Sarah is renowned for creating vivid, witty images that open up new perspectives on seemingly familiar subjects.”

flower exploding firework botanical

flower draping falling sequence

flower grand finale art

“Her ability to transform ordinary materials into complex and unexpected visual experiences has been utilized to develop concepts for clients from the fields of culture and business in several countries. In her aim to explore the fertile overlap between art and design, she’s collaborated with numerous photographers and artists, and filled exhibition spaces with self-initiated projects in Paris, Tokyo, and Berlin.”

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Photography & Video. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

WebUrbanist

Comments Off

Posted in Creativity

Waste-Free Future: 5 Package Redesigns for Everyday Products

07 Jan

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

packaging redesigns

Starting with name-brand versions of popular products found in virtually any home, this designer has come up with a series of clever solutions to eliminating the waste from each package system on a case-by-case basis.

waste free bag roll

Aaron Mickelson took on this challenge as a master’s thesis project at the Pratt Institute, asking (and answering) the question: can any product be truly garbage-free, leaving little or nothing unused in its wake? The strategies employed here are also potentially versatile – each could be applied to a type or category of packaging (and would-be trash).

wasteless bag design concept

waste free garbage bags

The bag of garbage bags design for GLAD products is fairly straightforward, to the point where one has to wonder why they are not using this strategy already: the last bag contains the rest of the bags, both to make it functional as a bag itself but also to leave it as a reminder to buy more bags (which you can see coming thanks to it being partially transparent as well).

waste free packaging concept

no waste consumer pods

wasteless dishwasher pods package

wasteless pod washing machine

The laundry (or dish) pods for Tide are designed to dissolve in water, leaving nothing behind that you need to take out of the wash, obviating the need for a container entirely.

waste free food boxes

waste free container design

waste free pop containers

The OXO pop containers feature soap-soluble ink that breaks down when you wash it, taking the branding materials with it and leaving you with an all-purpose container. As a bonus: these could also come pre-loaded with food rather than simply sold as containers, too, allowing you to buy products then keep the plastic boxes for other uses.

wasted packaging milk bar

waste free soap box

The Nivea bar of soap comes in a septic-safe dissolving paper wrapper that you can bring into the shower or bath with you and not have to worry about throwing out, eliminating a step as well as reducing landfill.

no consumer packing waste

no waste tea bags

Finally, this Twining tea bag variant eliminates the wax lining that typically prevents composting and instead integrates each tea packet directly into the compost-friendly packaging design that unfolds like an accordion for use.

360Photography

Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

World’s Largest Indoor Farm is 100 Times More Productive

That’s No Moon: Artists Launch Huge Human Head Balloon

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Thats No Moon Artists Launch Huge Human Head Balloon

Beware of Colour: Activists Highlight Decay with Pink Paint

Hut Above the Rest: Elevated Cabin for the Athens Skyline

Exo-Prosthetics: Light, Cheap & Custom 3D-Printed Body Parts

10 Vintage London Paintings Superimposed on Street View Images

Caricature as Furniture: Pop Culture in Functional 3D Form

Art in Abandoned Places: 15 Unexpected Urban Installations

Glowing Jellyfish Aquarium in an Abandoned Building

Ghostly Portraits in Ellis Island’s Abandoned Immigrant Hospital

Eerie Installations in Abandoned Churches by Herbert Baglione

Trampolines Suspended in an Abandoned Mine

Stop-Motion Time Lapse in an Abandoned House

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Art In Abandoned Places 15 Unexpected Urban Installations

Flowerworks: Pictures Capture Plants Exploding Like Fireworks

Waste-Free Future: 5 Package Redesigns for Everyday Products

Pages

Archives

Categories

Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

Tons of Art: Christo Unveils World’s Largest Indoor Sculpture

Swinging Times: 13 Stylish & Fun Indoor Swings

Urban Farm Kit: Modular Chicken Coops, Planters & Benches

Next Page – Click Below to Read More: Thats No Moon Artists Launch Huge Human Head Balloon

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

If You Believe, They Put Google Maps on the Moon. Mars?

Jason Hackenwerth: Weird & Whimsical Balloon Sculptures

Head Light: Popup Wall Lamp Has Horns that Glow in Shadows

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

Dark Tower: Decay Inside Africa’s Tallest Apartment Complex

Urban Camo: Body Paint Blends Humans into City Backdrops

Blanking Banksy: Artists & City Paint Over Pricey NYC Graffiti

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

Bunyan’s Pride: 19 Log Cabins That Stack Above The Rest

Norway Mountain Cabin Roof Doubles as a Ski Slope

Manifest Destiny! Parasite Cabin Clings to San Francisco Wall

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

3D-Printed Prosthesis: Custom Casts & Artificial Limb Covers

Bio-Mobile: 3D-Printed Car Body Inspired by Turtle Shell

Getting a Leg Up: 6 Amazing Prosthetics Changing the Game

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

Little People of London: Miniature Urban Street Art Images

5 Google Street View Images: Errors, Glitches & Mistakes

Nine Eyes of Google: Street View’s Strangest Images

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

The Eyes Have It: Funky & Functional Occular Furniture Art

Origin III: Minimalist Furniture Inspired by Boat-Building

Absolutely Absurd: 18 Playful Furniture Pieces for All Ages

Glowing Jellyfish Aquarium in an Abandoned Building

Ghostly Portraits in Ellis Island’s Abandoned Immigrant Hospital

Eerie Installations in Abandoned Churches by Herbert Baglione

Trampolines Suspended in an Abandoned Mine

Stop-Motion Time Lapse in an Abandoned House

Next Page – Click Below to Read More: Art In Abandoned Places 15 Unexpected Urban Installations

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

See What? 14 Amazing & Unexpected Urban Art Installations

Painted Shadows: Dark Art Haunts Deserted Psychiatric Hospital

Abandoned Intervention: Sliding Facade Reveals Decay

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

Cyclonic Pictures: Long Exposures Spin Art from Light & Air

3D-Sculpted Pictures: Innovative Photography Sculptures

Flowering Potholes: Lovely Tile Plants Fill Ugly Street Voids

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

Unverpackt: Zero-Waste Grocery Store Packages No Products

Package Equals Product in 5 Innovative Industrial Designs

Crazy Cargo: 30 Steel Shipping Container Home Designs

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Thats No Moon Artists Launch Huge Human Head Balloon

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Art In Abandoned Places 15 Unexpected Urban Installations