california-based photographer jean-paul bourdier has sent images of his collection of photographs entitled 'bodyscapes',
of which he is gathering funding for a book of 240 works titled 'leap into the blue' in a kickstarter campaign .
bourdier concentrates on the beauty and geometry of the human body, combining landscape and flesh as a canvas to create a visual union,
with all of the images having been shot on site in analog photography, without the use of digital manipulation.
he explains his understanding, motivation and expression of the human form behind his compositions:
'arising in each visual event conceived are the geometries generated by the body as a determinant of 'negative space'—
not the background of the figure and the field surrounding it, but the space that makes composition and framing possible in photography.
as an organizer of space, the body also serves as a primary measuring unit, by which one perceives and constructs one’s environment.
such an approach can be linked to the practices of literally using the body as a first unit of measurement, which were not only common
to the building of vernacular architecture around the world but were also at work in the temples of India, Egypt and Greece, for example.'
intersecting many disciplines - photography, sculpture, performance, dance, land art, body art, design and acrobatics - the artist creates and
choreographs each vibrant piece with a strong philosophy directing each scene, using the medium of photography, known to capture the 'real',
to achieve the seemingly impossible, with thoughtful and surreal outcomes:
'in working with the bare and painted body, I am also working with the demands and challenges of a body-mind state that I call 'not two—many twos'.
for example, without clothes the body regains its undivided primary nature, being intricately part of the forces of the universe.
one and many. the visual works I come up with are thus a continual experiment of how we physically, rhythmically relate to this universe from the specific,
intimate bodyhouse.'
'rather than being a mere recording of an encounter between event and photographer, the photograph is an event of its own: long prepared,
and yet full of unexpected moments; a still manifestation of an encounter between desert light, body light and camera eye.'
the 'bodyscapes' project, to now be documented in a publication, establishes a clear and unadulterated reverence to something shared by all,
creating corporeal experiences that extend beyond to that of the natural cosmos and defining the sometimes forgotten innate relationship with the two.
'body of wind'
'you and I'
'twice one self'
'the other side'
'somnambulists'
'couple mirage'
'boxed in'
'hitchhiking'
'one stroke mountain bow'
FUN UNIT
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Tuesday, 31 July 2012
bodyscapes
Sunday, 29 July 2012
BMW to sell luxury cars for less online
The BMW i3 concept car at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show in January. (John T. Greilick / Detroit News)
BMW will sell cars over the Web for the first time as the world's largest maker of luxury vehicles seeks an inexpensive way to reach more buyers to recoup spending on its electric models.
A direct online sales platform for BMW's new I sub-brand will be unique in an industry where, outside of small-scale experiments, competitors leave Internet orders for cars to dealers. BMW's range of strategies for the models, including a roaming sales force backing a limited showroom network, reflects the challenge carmakers face as low-emission vehicles trickle into dealerships to sluggish demand after years of development.
"There is considerable risk in BMW's approach of promoting the I brand so prominently," said Stefan Bratzel, director of the Center of Automotive Management at the University of Applied Science in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany. "There is the image risk, if they don't succeed as quickly as expected, and then there's the main risk of costs, which can only be countered with high deliveries."
BMW opened the I models' first showroom Tuesday in London, although only prototype cars and informational materials will be displayed at first because the vehicles themselves won't go on sale before next year. BMW is spending about $3 billion developing the i3 battery-powered city car and i8 plug-in hybrid supercar, according to an estimate by Frost & Sullivan. Industry sales of electric cars last year, at 43,000 vehicles, were only 57 percent of the 75,000 deliveries predicted by Sarwant Singh, a London-based automotive partner at the consulting company.
Starting prices posted
The four-seat i3, scheduled to reach the market in late 2013, will be priced at about 40,000 euros ($48,500), Bratzel estimated. That compares with a 23,850-euro starting price ($29,388) in Germany for the 1-Series, the cheapest BMW-brand car. The i8, targeted for sale in 2014, will cost more than 100,000 euros ($123,221), according to Ian Robertson, BMW's sales chief.
Details of how I-model buyers, the website and dealerships will interact are "still in the planning process" and will be communicated later, Linda Croissant, a spokeswoman at Munich- based BMW, said last week. Sales will be focused on the world's major urban areas, she said.
The online sales option is aimed at a generation of drivers used to making daily purchases over the Internet, and will be an extension of the car configuration that most automakers offer customers to view models with desired options such as interior colors, seat materials and roof styles.
Test drives not an option
The Internet platform may take a while to catch on because "many customers will still want to go somewhere to look at and drive the vehicle before buying," said Ian Fletcher, an auto analyst in London at research company IHS Global Insight.
"With new technologies, there may be even greater skepticism about buying a car over the Internet, as in many cases you'll have to win the confidence of customers that it works and there is support for them," Fletcher said in an email.
The setup may help BMW reduce expenses: Internet sales require less than half the cost of distributing through a dealership, according to Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer of the Center Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. That allows online car prices to be 5 percent to 7 percent less than showroom tags.
Still, BMW sees standard dealerships as "the backbone of what we are doing in the interface with the customer" for the I models, Robertson said in June at a press presentation at the sub-brand's Park Lane showroom in London.
Dealer selection criteria
Outlets will be restricted to dealers with high BMW-brand sales volume who have floor space as well as capacity to work with I models' powering technology and carbon-fiber body material, Robertson said. The carmaker has chosen 45 of its approximately 200 dealers in Germany to sell the i3 and i8, a ratio that will probably be similar elsewhere, he said.
Dealers will be designated as agents for the I models, which provides an "advantage" by keeping the vehicles on the carmaker's books, the association of BMW distributors in Germany said in an email.
Electric vehicles' disadvantages versus conventional cars include costly battery packs, limited ranges and the time needed to recharge. Consumer reception to models like the Nissan Motor Co.'s Leaf and General Motors Co.'s Chevrolet Volt has been tepid.
"Currently available electric cars have a limited market success because they are a big compromise," said Arndt Ellinghorst, a London-based analyst at Credit Suisse AG. "Customers are not willing to compromise and spend a lot of money."
Carbon fiber bodies lighter
BMW Chief Executive Officer Norbert Reithofer started Project I at the end of 2007 as tighter emissions regulations threatened the viability of sporty sedans. BMW chose to create all-new vehicles that use expensive carbon fiber for a lighter body to make up for the weight of the battery system.
The approach contrasts with a decision by Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz Cars division to convert existing models, such as the van-like B-Class or two-seat Smart, to electric power.
To make its electric vehicles more attractive, Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler's Smart brand offers to lease the battery separately from the car. The automaker has a target of selling more than 10,000 of the models next year, with a starting price of 18,910 euros plus monthly battery rental at 65 euros.
The I models' new technology poses risks for BMW, "but they have no choice if they want to keep their premium and image as an innovation leader," Ellinghorst said.
The i3 and i8 will probably be among BMW's lowest-selling models through 2024, alongside the existing Z4 roadster, according to IHS estimates. In 2014, the first full year of production, BMW will probably deliver 31,380 i3s, compared with 564,760 of the best-selling 3-Series model and 18,101 Z4s, a study by the research company shows.
BMW's stance is that the models should produce earnings from the start, sales chief Robertson said.
"We clearly, as a company, go into any product launch with the view of making profit, which is no different with the I brand," Robertson said. "This is a car line just as every other car line, and we intend to make profit from Day 1."
'happiness refill' for coca-cola
happiness refill machine - by ogilvy brazil for coca-cola
ogilvy brazil designed the 'happiness refill' for coca-cola that gives out mobile data credits as ‘refills’.
situated in a beachfront concept store in rio de janeiro, the machine has the look of a drink dispenser
but instead of using a cup to get a beverage, users push their cellphones against the tab
to receive megabytes of data they can then use as they wish.
happiness refill machine - video stills
Although Olympic officials have been forced to offer ticket refunds to seats with obscured views in the London Aquatics Centre, Zaha Hadid Architects denies that this issue is a result of bad design.
During last few days, critics have been accusing Zaha’s curvaceous roof as a design blunder that has blocked many of the top rows from viewing the 10m diving board – the highest diving board that will host eight events and Beijing Olympics hero Tom Daley.
As reported on bdonline, a spokesman for Zaha Hadid has insisted this is the result of a ticking issue, as the ticket holders were not informed about the restricted views upon purchase. He stated, “The brief for the building from Locog was to provide 5,000 spectator seats with uninterrupted views of the 10m diving platform events.”
“The centre actually provides over 8,000 seats with uninterrupted views of the 10m platform events. This is more than 3,000 additional seats than the brief required.”
He further explained, “Locog approved the sightline studies and seating layouts over two years ago.”
Continue after the break for more images and a revealing cross section.
Cross Section (Olympic Mode)
This metal staircase stopped me in my tracks when I saw it.
Designed by Francesco Librizzi Studio, it sits in House C, a 1900s house in Milan that still has many original details. The staircase takes up little space in the small room and leads to a loft-like sleeping area.
I love the black steel against the stark white walls. It adds a sculptural element to the room with its lines and geometry. What a way to think outside the box when it comes to ladders and staircases!
I
You might have already seen this ABC bookshelf floating around the interwebs but we couldn’t resist posting it.
Designed by Eva Alessandrini and Roberto Saporiti for the Italian brand Saporiti, the bookshelf is a modular system that is made up of individual cubes. Each cube is a letter or number giving you the freedom to spell out just about anything your little heart desires. So don’t just read the items on your bookcase, you should Read Your Bookcase too!
Grungy Garage to Handsome Home in Bordeaux
Turning this former stable and garage into a livable home was certainly a challenge. To begin with, de Marien and Buchholtz were not able to make changes to the roofline, which meant that they were forced to work with the existing space. A few of the ways that they turned this 430 square foot space into a working home:
• de Marien designed a large "house within a house" – a structure that includes a wardrobe, bed, desk, bathroom and lots and lots of storage.
• A sliding door that acts as a new facade for the space also opens up to provide fresh air and light.
• A small patio welcomes in the outdoors, making the small space feel much larger.
In the end, this tiny space feels not only livable but absolutely inviting.
Iconic Olympic Buildings
The London 2012 Olympics start today, and once again architecture is on the spotlight. With a big focus on reusable and adaptable structures, the lineup includes renowned architecture firms such as Wilkinson Eyre Architects, Hopkins Architects, Populous and Zaha Hadid Architects.
On this infographic we introduce you the iconic buildings of the Olympics since 776 B.C. until today! Follow our London 2012 Olympics coverage in its dedicated page.
'plastic garbage guarding the museum' is the latest street intervention by spanish art collective luzinterruptus
Displayed as part of the 'oh, plastiksacki' exhibition at the gewerbemuseum of winthertur, a show curated by ida-marie corell
and susanna kumschick revolving around the common plastic bag.
in constructing the large-scale installation, luzinterruptus invited city inhabitants of the swiss town to bring disposable shopping sacs
to the museum in exchange for tickets to visit the institution's various exhibitions. this initiative helped them collect more than
5,000 bags to create the colorful and illuminated work whereby they filled the bags with air - resulting in balloon forms -
placed thousands within two large dumpster bins, each outfitted with a light, to form a mountain of rainbow hued plastic.
each situated on either side of the museum's front door, the project is meant to bring forth discussion about consumption
and the reality of plastic bags, that when not used or disposed of correctly can be very damaging to the environment.
displayed over the course of four months, the work was also a documentation of the plastic bags' evolution,
sitting outside to face the elements demonstrating in a visual manner the reality of this common day object.
'plastic garbage guarding the museum' container
installation view of the colorful mountain of plastic bags
detail
containers guarding the museum
'plastic garbage guarding the museum'
bag details
bag detail
inauguration of the project
the installation after four months
forming the installation
setting-up
Thursday, 26 July 2012
Paper Passion, a scent from Geza Schoen for Wallpaper magazine, makes its wearers smell like freshly printed books
Paper Passion, a scent from Geza Schoen for Wallpaper* magazine, makes its wearers smell like freshly printed books. I suppose it can be alternated with "In the Library," a perfume that smells like old books.
Paper Passion fragrance by Geza Schoen, Gerhard Steidl, and Wallpaper* magazine, with packaging by Karl Lagerfeld and Steidl.
“The smell of a freshly printed book is the best smell in the world.” Karl Lagerfeld.
It comes packaged with inside a hollow carved out of a book with "texts" by "Karl Lagerfeld, Günter Grass, Geza Schoen and Tony Chambers."
Monday, 23 July 2012
The houses that Brad Pitt built
Brad Pitt is used to living it up at his £35m estate in the South of France, or any of the half a dozen homes he owns all over the world, but the leading man has downsized his vision and indulged his passion for architecture to build a £130,000 house he hopes will be a model for sustainable living. It's all for a good cause, of course, and Pitt had help from Frank Gehry, no less, the architect better known for the shimmering Bilbao Guggenheim Museum in Spain. Their pink house stands in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, one of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina when it tore up the Louisiana city in 2005. Pitt promised to build 150 such houses after the disaster left thousands of people homeless. He set up the Make It Right foundation and called on his impeccable contacts in the architecture world to come up with designs. This is the first house designed by Gehry, a Canadian-born architect more used to creating concert halls and skyscrapers. The building incorporates a three-bedroom and a one-bedroom house and includes a rooftop patio covered with a canopy of solar panels. Its price is typical for its size and location, despite its big-name backers. This is more than a pet project for Pitt. He has secured funding from philanthropists including Steve Bing, and, in 2009, met President Barack Obama to promote his dreams of green housing as a national blueprint that might attract federal money. Gehry, meanwhile, said in a press release that he approved of the finished product: "I love the colours that the homeowner chose. I could not have done it better." Pitt has long been a student of design and architecture, lavishing millions on his homes with his wife, Angelina Jolie. In 2005, he was rumoured to be involved with Gehry in plans to build a tower in Hove, on the East Sussex coast, but, perhaps unsurprisingly, the scheme didn't get very far. He is modest about his work in New Orleans, telling talk show host Ellen DeGeneres (to whom he sold his Malibu home for about £8m) in March: "This took a lot of very smart people coming in and attacking the situation... I get far too much credit for bringing [them] together." He also joked about his architectural ambitions for at least one of his six young children. "Yeah, I'm pushing them that way," he said. "When you see them drawing crayon houses, 'That's a beautiful house, honey.' You just keep pushing them.'"
BMW art car collection 1975-2010
art drive!
july 21st - august 4th, 2012
great eastern street car park, shoreditch, london
the institute of contemporary arts (ICA) in london showcases the BMW art car collection, presented over six floors of the
NCP car park on great eastern street in shoreditch which designboom visited this past weekend. this is the first occasion
in which the vehicles are on show in the UK.
the initiative began more than 35 years ago when french racing driver and auctioneer hervé poulain invited his friend alexander calder
to design a car that married artistic excellence with 'an already perfect object'. the resulting automobile would compete in the
le mans 24-hour race in 1975 and hence the BMW art car was born. since then, other leading international artists have transformed
BMW cars including: frank stella, roy lichtenstein, andy warhol, ernst fuchs, robert rauschenberg, m.j nelson, ken done, matazo kayama,
cesar manrique, jeff koons, A.R. penck, esher mahlangu, sandro chia, jenny holzer and david hockney.
BMW art car M3 GT2 by jeff koons
image © des
'art drive! - BMW art car collection 1975-2010' is presented in partnership with BMW, the mayor of london and the london 2012 festival
and will be on show until august 4th, 2012.
front view of koons' design
image © designboom
BMW art car M3 GT2 by jeff koons, 2010
the last car to join the collection is that by american artist jeff koons. as part of his creative process, the artist gathered images of race cars,
related graphics and combined them with vibrant colors, speed and explosions, resulting in a vivid artwork which expresses the feeling of power,
motion and bursting energy. the car's silver interior in combination with its striking exterior imparts a dynamic appearance,
even when it's standing still. first premiered on june 2nd, 2010 at the centre pompidou, koons's BMW art car went on to compete at the
24 hours of le mans on june 12th, 2010. the car he designed has been driven by andy priaulx (GB), dirk müller (DE) and dirk werner (DE).
it first started with the number 79 - atribute to andy warhol's BMW art car from 1979 - but encountered technical problems and had to retire
after only five hours of racing.
'these race cars are like life, they are powerful and there is a lot of energy. you can participate with it, add to it and let yourself
transcend with its energy. there is a lot of power under that hood and I want to let my ideas transcend with the car – it’s really to
connect with that power.' - jeff koons
technical specs of koons's BMW M3 GT2
- a 4.0-liter V8 engine
- displacement: 3.999 cm
- power output: 500 bhp
- top speed: 300 km/h
profile view
image © designboom
The 'martian embassy' for 'the sydney story factory',
'the martian embassy' by LAVA, sydney, australia
image © brett boardman and peter murphy
international firm LAVA has recently completed the 'martian embassy' for 'the sydney story factory', a non-profit organization in redfern.
the space is designed to take the visitor out of their ordinary surroundings and stimulate their creativity and imagination. 1068 CNC-cut
curvilinear plywood sections capped with martian-green paint comprise the interior of the writing centre, resembling a strange intergalactic
fusion between a 'whale, a rocket and a time tunnel'. assembled on-site like puzzle pieces, the wooden frames use their shape as ornament
and the intermediate negative space for shelves, benches, displays and storage to effectively utilize one hundred percent of the structure.
the entrance receives humanoid visitors and introduces them to an alien environment complete with lights and sound effects.
further exploration will take the children to the red planet traveler's shop, where an array of martian products can be purchased.
the final destination is the classroom, where earthling volunteers are available to assist the students in creating and developing their stories.
martian embassy, entry
timber ribs define interior spaces and create fixtures and effects
red planet martian supply store
shop
shop and writing centre
store displays
writing center
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