It’s not every day when you see a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera that can fit in the palm of your hand. That’s why we jumped at the chance to take a look at Panasonic’s new Lumix DMC-GM1, which offers many of the features of its larger siblings, in a much smaller package. Read our first impressions review after the link.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Nikon has taken the wraps off the Coolpix S02 – a tiny metal-bodied 13MP compact camera with a smartphone-sized CMOS sensor and 2.7-inch touch-sensitive LCD. The entire package, built around a 3x (30-90mm equiv) zoom lens is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. In possibly the most cringeworthy press release we’ve seen from a major manufacturer this year, Nikon describes the S02 variously as ‘stylish’, ‘hip’, and ‘fashionable’, and suggests that it would make an ideal gift for a ‘trendy individual’. If this is up your street, note that the S02 will be available later this month in no less than three colors, at an MSRP of $ 179.95.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]
Electrical boxes beware – Evol is back to up to his old tricks, turning urban fixtures and unused walls into tiny cityscapes using a deceptively simple toolbox comprised of cardboard, stencils and spray paint.
From process to execution, this artist is both scrappy and calculating, employing quick-and-dirty materials that are easy to obtain and fast to install, but with a remarkable eye for detail, right down to windows, balconies, satellite dishes and flower pots.
Dotting the sidewalks of Berlin, perhaps aptly at the urban intersection of where communist East once met democratic West, the faux structures themselves are almost relentlessly monotonous from a distance. The facades are just drab and generic enough style-wise to look (perhaps ironically) incredibly lifelike and believable.
Up close, these sprayed-in-place or pasted-on building faces exhibit not only convincing architectural details but also anticipated (yet always-unpredictable) marks of weathering, which in turn reinforce their apparent realism.
Le Corbusier, who many blame for the preponderance of ugly mass-produced architecture born of mid-century urban renewal, called buildings “machines for living in.” For better or worse, Evol seems content to continue this tradition at a smaller scale, relentlessly building whole cities worth of micro-machine habitats.
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Think ants are only interested in crashing your summer picnic? When they’re not after our stray watermelon slices, it seems they’re busy in engaging in ant-to-ant combat. Alex Wild’s macro photography reveals the warring nature (and surprisingly frightening jaws) of these seemingly unassuming insects. His photos reveal fights over territory, conflicts between colonies and brutal take-downs that rival UFC brawls – all going on otherwise unnoticed at our feet.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
[ By Steph in Design & Guerilla Ads & Marketing. ]
Advertising is so ubiquitous that billboards aren’t even restricted to fixed positions anymore; they’re often found moving from one spot to another on trailers, always in search of those all-important eyeballs. Inside these trailers are little spaces that, one would imagine, are too small to be of any real use. But Belgian artist and hacktivist Karl Philips has taken some practical function from these ugly urban fixtures by turning them into tiny ‘parasite apartments.’
The series, entitled ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,’ consists of three billboard trailers which have been hacked into living spaces just the right size for a single-person mattress and a small collection of possessions.
Billboards take up a considerable amount of space, and it can be argued that most of them don’t have a positive impact on society. By turning them into houses, the revenue from the ads goes to the people who live within.
According to Philips’ biography, he is particularly interested in the margins of society, focusing on “themes such as gaps in legal, economic and social systems, the omnipresence of advertisement, unrestrained capitalism and consumerism, etc.” His previous work includes a parasite apartment built onto the back of a conventional billboard, invisible from the street.
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[ By Steph in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]
Taking a stroll along Westerstraat in Amsterdam, you might notice that an entire clump of houses seems to have disappeared. The addresses jump from 54 to 70, with nothing but a four-inch crack between them. Where did those houses go? Ad agency Natwerk has its own creative take.
The agency restored the seven ‘missing’ row houses, building tiny models in the same style as the full-scale homes that surround them. Just barely peeking out from the dark void, these cute little sculptural installations invite passersby to stop and look closer.
Urban interventions are a fun way to temporarily alter the environment in public places. Some are fleeting, like chalk tracings of shadows that document a passing moment, or tiny, like Slinkachu’s miniature scenes. Some require no more than a couple plastic eyeballs to make people smile. Others are more disruptive, altering familiar objects like street signs, trash cans and traffic markings.
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Minox has released the latest generation of their ‘Digital Classic Camera’, whose miniature rangefinder body harkens back to the 1950’s. The DCC 14.0 features a 14 Megapixel CMOS sensor, 41mm-equivalent fixed lens, optical viewfinder, 2″ LCD display, and VGA video recording. The camera will be available soon in your choice of black or silver for $ 239.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]
Giant receptacles for trash have been transformed into the most unexpected things – swimming pools, bars, giant pinhole cameras, and now tiny ‘living containers’ on wheels. German designer Philipp Stingl envisions a future in which the growing elderly population requires cheap and portable housing, and these lockable rolling dumpsters would certainly fit the bill.
The set of ‘housing containers’ includes a larger yellow dumpster with a door, window and a drinking canister; the top opens like a normal dumpster and has a net in the lid for storage. The second unit is smaller, meant to be used as a bath tub.
The designer created these containers for a rather bleak future in which social systems collapse and “from the ashes an aging society will rise, marked by crime, sickness and poverty.”
One can only imagine that Stingl is being satirical when he states, “Essentially, these ‘living containers’ testify to an active and creative lifestyle for the old age without compromises.” It’s hard to ignore the implications of placing the homeless and elderly in trash containers. However, this concept isn’t much different from many other economical ideas for homeless housing, which can also be used as emergency shelters in the event of a disaster.
Dutch designers create miniature ‘trash villages’ in urban locations by transforming dumpsters into bars and restaurants using discarded building materials.
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Tiny houses are growing in popularity because of increasing environmental consciousness and a desire to reject unnecessary material goods.
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[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]
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[ By Marc in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]
Tiny houses are growing in popularity because of increasing environmental consciousness and a desire to reject unnecessary material goods. Transitioning from paper books and files to digital copies is a boon to those who want to make their life leaner, and is helping minimalist housing flourish.
The Tumbleweed Tiny House Company is at the forefront of designers in the field, pumping out an amazing variety of tiny house designs. The house featured above is their Epu plan, a straightforward house design that is incredibly mobile and can comfortably house two people in a space that is 8 x 15 feet.
This house is built primarily out of two shipping containers and can house up to 4 occupants. It’s not as small as many of the examples featured, but in terms of environmental impact, and in relation to the average home, it’s quite a step up.
The Enesti is a tiny house plan that lays out a small, but permanent structure. At pricing around $ 60,000 for nearly 900 square feet, it is significantly less expensive than the typical home.
The top home is totally mobile and designed by Maximus Extreme Living Solutions to stand up to the toughest elements. This North Carolinian build was created during a tiny house workshop and has beautiful modern lines. This gypsy style buggy is the perfect place for two people to crash after a long day on the road. The final design is unusual, in that it actually opens up in the middle to give much more space to the occupants. In foul weather, it’s a simple fix to seal it up tight.
These houses show the versatility of tiny house designs. With such little space to work with, creativity is a must, and builders are able to use the low cost to add deluxe features that would be prohibitively expensive in a full sized house. For example, a house shaped like a castle turret would cost a fortune, but that’s not the case when it’s this tiny. An entire house can fit in the backyard, as the perfect place for guests to spend the night. A curved house design gives the bottom right house a unique look, while the final house mixes modern elegance with cozy cabin stylings.
A man’s home is his castle…except when it’s barely bigger than the tool shed. These tiny houses encourage simple living and a smaller environmental footprint.
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These three structures couldn’t be more different in all ways except one: they all look like individual houses piled on top of each other into vertical towers.
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[ By Marc in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]
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[ By Marc in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]
Slinkachu is a UK-based artist who creates tiny scenes on city streets that are both humorous and compelling. He photographs each scene and then leaves it to be discovered.
The urban-dweller’s relationship with wildlife is depicted interestingly in Slinkachu’s photos, with a humorous twist. A father defending his child from a bee takes a bit of a heavy handed approach that actually depicts a fairly typical reaction to bees during the summer. Deer struggle to integrate into an environment that’s not quite as clean as the pristine forests they’re known to inhabit, and of course a snail would find itself tagged with graffiti. It’s difficult to say whether the roaches in this photo are depicting protesters, or the actual fight against infestation.
In the tiny world that Slinkachu inhabits, people do the same thing they do in our much larger spaces. A creative skateboarder uses the environment to create a great half pipe, people visit KFC for a quick lunch, and an outdoor sculpture stands tall with a plaque describing the artist’s intent. There’s work to be done so a man studiously chops wood in one photo. The final photo depicts the hilarious scene of a little girl literally being carried away by the size of her bubblegum bubble.
It is fun to imagine how a little world would deal with its limitations. In a comic take on the typical urban dweller, Slinkachu portrays a tiny man struggling with his earbuds, while a family takes a trip to the local waterpark… at a storm drain. No soccer field? No problem – a little chalk solves that problem. In this tiny world, a kid walking around with a bag of Skittles turns into a kid sitting on Skittles.
It would be really enjoyable to stumble on one of Slinkachu’s miniature scenes. Whether it’s a painter carefully crafting his ant portrait, or a romantic who grabbed a flower for his significant other, it pays to be more aware of one’s surroundings. Even a puddle on a sewer cover could house a mini art installation; in this case, a boy enjoying a summer swim with his floaties on.
Normal city scenes take on a whole new level (literally) when brought down to a comically small scale. These miniscule urbanites might just be painted railroad props, but they still need to dry out their clothes, mail letters, lose weight, hail a cab, and go to the ATM for some cash. They are not so different.
Wonderfully creative urban street art. These photographs, taken around town in London and even shown in galleries, are just a small portion of his “little people” collection.
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These amazingly detailed replicas of architecture like the Eiffel Tower, the Burj Khalifa and the Golden Gate Bridge were created using just a single toothpick.
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[ By Marc in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]
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