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An Entire Amusement Park Smashed Into a Four-Ton Cube

22 Jun

[ By Delana in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

compressed amusement park

Amusement parks are a big part of most peoples’ childhoods, with fond recollections of roller coasters and snow cones dancing in our memories. But what happens to those amusement parks after they have lived out their lives? For artist James Dive of The Glue Society, one amusement park from his past was turned into a creepily touching piece of art.

james dive compressed amusement park

The sculpture, entitled Once, contains an entire amusement park compressed into a single four-ton cube. Dive’s treatment of the park is gentle and reverent while being inherently violent. To prepare for his unusual work of art, Dive first did the exact opposite of his ultimate goal: he carefully cleaned, painted and restored every bit and piece of the park.

smashed amusement park

Over the following two weeks, a 28-ton excavator smashed and crushed the entire amusement park into a neat, gigantic cube. Parts of the park’s former life can still be glimpsed – a brightly-painted sign here, a string of lights there, some creepy dolls scattered about. The feeling Dive tries to evoke with this exceptionally odd sculpture is “the finality of a missed moment. And how brutal that can sometimes be.”

old compressed amusement park

The irony of this piece lies largely in its finality, given that the pleasures of an amusement park are so transient and fleeting. In this sculpture they become more permanent, all compressed into one strangely savage yet sentimental four-ton cube. Once was installed as part of the Sculpture By the Sea program in Aarhus, Denmark.

[ By Delana in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

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Kim Jong Il Leaves an Unusual Architectural Legacy

21 Jun

[ By Steph in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

Ryugyong Hotel North Korea 1

Started in 1987 and still not complete, North Korea’s Ryugyong Hotel is perhaps its most potent architectural symbol, and an odd legacy for an odd and secretive leader. The 105-floor, pyramid-shaped hotel has towered over the city of Pyongyang in a mostly abandoned state since 1992, when construction was halted due to a period of economic crisis after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Ryugyong Hotel North Korea 4

The 1,080-foot-tall (330-meter) tower was slated to be completed this year, but it retains its title as the tallest unoccupied building in the world. It was initially intended to be complete by the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students in June 1989, at which point it would have been the world’s tallest hotel; however, it was eclipsed in 2009 by the spire atop the Rose Tower in Dubai.

Ryugyong Hotel North Korea 5

For the sixteen years in which the tower was abandoned, it was a glaring concrete eyesore. Called “The Worst Building in the History of Mankind” by Esquire Magazine, the 3,000-room hotel has sucked up more than two percent of North Korea’s gross domestic product, while a large number of the nation’s citizens go hungry. Why would Kim Jong Il have believed that this city, which is so poor it can’t afford to light up the streets at night, would need to accommodate so many visitors?

Ryugyong Hotel 1
Ryugyong Hotel North Korea 2

(all images via: Wikimedia Commons)

Construction resumed on the hotel in 2008, and in 2011, the mirrored facade was finally completed thanks to an influx of $ 180 million from an Egyptian telecommunications company. The group that reportedly manages the hotel has refused to give an expected completion date, saying “Market entry is not currently possible.” The fate of the hotel remains unclear.

[ By Steph in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

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Nail House: Holdout Building Had Highway Built Around It

21 Jun

[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

nail house highway

China is full of strange stories of so-called ‘nail houses’ – homes of people who refuse to move to make way for a large development project. Still, this one was particularly unique: its owners held out while a whole major motorway was constructed on all sides.

nail house demolition ruins

Situated in Wenling, its owner Luo Baogen refused the compensation deal offered to him and the owners of over 400 nearby properties. After a full year of waiting with his wife as they were hemmed in by highway, they finally accepted an improved offer from the government and moved.

nail house china mall

In another similar situation, owner and occupant Wu Ping refused an offer (one out of nearly 250 in that case) to move, and found herself surrounded by a sunken pit as shopping mall developers began excavating prior to constructing a new shopping center. Structures in this situation are dubbed ‘nail houses’ because, like a nail wedged deep into a board, they can be stubborn and difficult to remove.

[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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Secret Speakeasy: Abandoned Water Tower Nightclub in NYC

20 Jun

[ By WebUrbanist in Culture & Cuisine & Global. ]

secret water tower bar

New York has a long history of hidden and illicit venues – one that did not stop when prohibition was lifted. There is the innocuous pizza shop where dialing the right number in their phone booth lets you through a secret door into the pub. Or the various hole-in-the-wall places where you add your number to a wait list and hope for a call. And then this, the now-defunct bar inside an abandoned water tower in Chelsea.

secret speakeasy new york

Per the New York Times (images by Benjamin Norman), “The Night Heron was an invitation-only nightclub held illegally in a water tower atop a vacant building in Chelsea.” Guests had to make their way through a deserted building, then climb up a ladder to reach their destination.

secret hidden room bar

All-nighters were common for this bustling little sweet spot, with last guests being let in as late as three in the morning. Live music reverberated within the wooden slats of the tightly-packed circular interior, with bottles of whisky reinforcing the retro (albeit a bit hipster) vibe of the whole affair. Alas, all good things must come to an end – particularly when they are a little less than legal in the first place.

[ By WebUrbanist in Culture & Cuisine & Global. ]

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15 of the World’s Weirdest Low-Tech Film Cameras

19 Jun

[ By Steph in Technology & Vintage & Retro. ]

Unusual Cameras Main

A pistol that shoots photos instead of bullets, a harness for pigeons, a cane and a human skull are among the unexpected objects that have been turned into film cameras since the dawn of photography in the 19th century. Here are 15 strange and unusual cameras, including historic collector’s items and new experiments in low-tech techniques like pinhole photography.

Miniature Pigeon Camera

Unusual Cameras Pigeon Surveillance

Inventor Julius Neubronner’s tiny harnesses fitted with cameras were received with understandable skepticism when he first unveiled the idea in the early 20th century, but once he put the photos taken by pigeons on display, his idea took off, and even the military took interest. But it wasn’t long before the invention of the airplane made the need for pigeon photographers null and void for reconnaissance purposes. Each pigeon was trained to wear the harness and fly to a specific location, and a timer in the camera took care of the rest.

Skull Camera

Unusual Cameras Skull 1

Unusual Cameras Skull 2

Photographs taken from inside a human skull are suitably eerie and nightmarish. The Third Eye Camera by Wayne Martin Belger is made from the 150-year-old skull of a 13-year-old girl. It’s a pinhole camera, with a hole drilled between the eyes letting light hit a piece of photo paper placed inside.

900-Pound Camera from 1900

Unusual Cameras Mammoth Oversized

The world’s largest camera at the time, this monster made by Chicago camera builder J.A. Anderson weighed 900 pounds and required 15 men to load it onto a horse-drawn van for transport. And it’s all because the Chicago & Alton Railway company wanted to show off their new train to the world. The camera had a 8-by-4.5-foot glass plate to take the largest possible photo of the train, which was displayed at the Paris Exposition in the year 1900.

Turtle Shell Camera

Unusual Cameras Turtle Shell

Virtually any hollow object can be turned into a pinhole camera, as demonstrated by Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs in their two-volume series of books, “As Long as It Photographs” and “It Must Be a Camera.” The pair found their turtle shells, taxidermy animals and other objects at flea markets.

Cane Handle Camera, 1903

Unusual Cameras Cane Handle

Made in 1903, the Ben Akiba cane handle camera features a shutter released by pulling a knob below the handle. When a roll of film is exposed, you just remove the side face of the handle to pull it out, and a new roll pops up from a storage area inside the cane. Both originals and replicas of this odd camera are in demand these days, with one selling for $ 27,000 in 2002.

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15 Of The Worlds Weirdest Low Tech Film Cameras

[ By Steph in Technology & Vintage & Retro. ]

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Unauthorized Installations: The Fine Art of Urban Subversion

19 Jun

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

street art brad downey

Brad Downey is familiar with both sides of the art world, with a fine arts degree and gallery exhibitions, on the one hand, and run-ins with the authorities about his sometimes-unsanctioned street art on the other.

street sidewalk ripped up

His work is harder to describe that it is to simply see, since it is often in the most public places you could imagine (or documented via extensive photography) – erupting from sidewalks, disrupting bicycle lanes or literally ripping up cobbled streets

street art object manipulations

Per the pictures, sometimes these installations transpose ideas and objects from other contexts, but they also frequently warp existing everyday objects like bicycles, cars, signs, benches, shopping carts and garbage cans.

street alley art wedging

Sometimes he works alone – sometimes collaboratively. Some of his pieces are stand-alones and one-offs while others form sets, like Wedging (shown above), which is a series of experiments of balance and obstruction in alleys with ordinary household items.

street art impossible bicycles

He has had run-ins with police while working in cities ranging from London to Amsterdam, on both art and guerrilla marketing projects performed in that gray area of public and possible vandalism.

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

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Walk on Water: Hydro-Floors Hide Secret Swimming Pools

18 Jun

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

hidden pool on demand

Adding a swimming pool or hot tub means displacing something else – usually a outdoor lawn, yard or deck or dedicated room inside a house. But what if you could have the best of both worlds: a usable space or surface replaced by a body of water when you want it?

hidden pool deck deployed

These designs effectively let you walk on walk on water, in a sense, thanks to dynamic and on-demand functionality right beneath your feet. Designers of the exterior and interior swimming and wading pools (as well as hot tubs) shown here include companies like Hydrofloors (images above) and Agor (video below).

At the push of a button, decking descends autometically and water fills in the void left behind – conceal, reveal, rise and repeat as desired, turning a cocktail into a pool party and back again.

hidden indoor swimming pool

Depending on the nature of user needs, the mechanically-controlled platforms lower to become pool bottoms but also steps down into the resulting water.

hidden movable floor tub

Aside from issues of cost (and one can only imagine how expensive such custom solutions must be – there are no list prices), the question that remains, of course, is: how hard is it to clean and maintain? Perhaps if you have enough money to afford to build one of these liquid luxury machines, that price point is moot.

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

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Colorful Contrast: Geometric Street Paintings in France

18 Jun

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

Geometric Street Paintings France 1

A broad stripe of bright paint in a zig-zag pattern contrasts with muted, understated urban surroundings in the latest urban art installation by artist duo Sabina Lang and Daniel Baumann. Working together since 1990 as Lang-Baumann, the artists bring unexpected visuals to public spaces. Street Painting #7 in Rennes, France will be visible in the heart of town until May 25, 2014.

Geometric Street Paintings France 2

Geometric Street Painting France 6

Geometric Street Paintings France 3

The installation was applied directly to the asphalt using road marking paint, introducing a new sense of vibrancy and modernity to this historic city block. The painting obliterates expectations for the type of public art that’s acceptable for this kind of setting.

Geometric Street Paintings France 4

Geometric Street Paintings France 5

Six previous geometric street paintings have graced smaller, even quainter communities like the picturesque Vercorin, Switzerland, as well as major cities like Moscow.

outside-stairs-stairway-heaven

Other works by Lang-Baumann are similarly disruptive, including inflatable parasitic sculptures clinging to the sides of buildings, and terrifying stairs to nowhere that will make your stomach drop just from looking at the photos.

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

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Decor on Demand: 14 3D-Printed Home Accents

17 Jun

[ By Steph in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

3D Printed Home Decor Main

3D printing has enabled designers to take the manufacturing process into their own hands for the creation of one-of-a-kind objects, many of which you can buy to liven up your home decor. The computer-generated designs are printed in three dimensions in materials like plastic, ceramic and metal, and are often based on mathematical algorithms. Here are 14 lamps, light switches, tea cups and more that are available for purchase.

Jellyfish Lamp Shade

3D Printed Home Decor Jellyfish Lamp

This intricate two-piece Jellyfish lampshade was designed using fractal techniques and 3D computer-aided design methods, inspired by a modified Mandelbulb fractal. The dangling ‘tentacles’ are chains that billow around in the wind. It works with a standard IKEA bulb kit.

Aqueduct Mini Planter Set

3D Printed Home Decor Aqueduct Planter

This 10-pack of Aqueduct Mini Planters hooks together into a modular system that shares water from one unit to the next. The water flows from the top planters into the bottom. Made up of 3 double-channel planters and 7 single-channel planters, it can be assembled in all sorts of configurations and hooked up with additional sets to create window-sized screens of plants.

Switch-a-Lope

3D Printed Home Decor Switch-a-Lope

This fun light switch plate adds both visual interest and extra functionality: the antlers can be used as hooks for keys or to hold your cell phone.

Star Lamp

You can get this cool star lamp customized to a specific place, date and time in history to reproduce the sky of a special moment, like when you were born. Printed in sandstone and fitted with a battery-operated light, it makes for a cool accent lamp or night light.

1st Floor Mug

3D Printed Home Decor 1st Floor Mug

Says the designer of this unusual 3D-printed mug, “In the grand manner of the very best salons of old, this mug is raised up on an arcade so that it may occupy the airy summit of its own ‘Piano Nobile’. Elevated above the common detritus of your breakfast table, this dining item elegantly maintains the dignified sanctity of your morning brew.”

Pencil Icosahedron

3D Printed Decor Pencil Icosahedron

Build your own three-dimensional Icosahedron out of 30 pencils using a simple kit of 3D-printed plastic joints. The resulting object can be used as a functional lampshade, a toy or decor. You can even adjust the size by using shorter or longer pencils.

Birds Nest Egg Cup

3D Printed Home Decor Bird Egg Cup

Put a bird (back) on your egg with these cute little 3D-printed egg cups, which will hold medium eggs or flex to accommodate larger-sized eggs.

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Decor On Demand 14 3d Printed Home Accents

[ By Steph in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

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Floating on Ephemerisle: Seasteading Event ala Burning Man

17 Jun

[ By WebUrbanist in Global & Travel & Places. ]

floating city event ephemerisle

For all its art and controversy, the desert is perhaps the most unique defining characteristic of Black Rock City, home of the Burning Man Festival in rural Nevada. Potentially even more challenging than harsh heat and dust storms: Emphermisle, a temporary autonomous zone on the water, coming to California again this year in the middle of July.

floating burning man event

From its creators: “We construct a floating city on the Sacramento River Delta and live on it for five days. Ephemerisle has elements of Burning Man in the early 1990s: a new adventure into an alien environment, with discoveries, adventures, and mishaps along the way.” Unlike the current form of Black Rock City, though: “There are no tickets, no central organizers, and no rangers to keep you safe.”

Its creation, though, is about more than just at temporary experience: “Seasteading seeks to move human communities out into the vast expanse of our planet covered in water. Ephemerisle gives an introduction into the physical challenges of being water and learning ways to deal with them. It also provides for small scale experimentation in differing forms of governance.”

floating seasteading project experience

Atossa Abrahamian describes the experience of arriving this year at the event, with its patchwork neighborhoods, impromptu parties and unpredictable ad hoc public transit system: “It looked, at first, like a shapeless pile of floating junk, but as the boat drew closer, a sense of order emerged. The island was made up of two rows of houseboats, anchored about a hundred feet apart, with a smaller cluster of boats and yachts set off to the west. The boats had been bound together with planks, barrels, cleats, and ropes, assembled ad-hoc by someone with at least a rudimentary understanding of knots and anchors. Residents decorated their decks with banners and flags and tied kayaks and inflatable toys off the sides”

[ By WebUrbanist in Global & Travel & Places. ]

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360Photography

Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

An Entire Amusement Park Smashed Into a Four-Ton Cube

Kim Jong Il Leaves an Unusual Architectural Legacy

(all images via: Wikimedia Commons)

Nail House: Holdout Building Had Highway Built Around It

Secret Speakeasy: Abandoned Water Tower Nightclub in NYC