Scott Wilson, Purity Rocking Chair
walter reed middle school
In case you were wondering what that weird building was behind John McCain.
I’m surprised this hadn’t occurred to me. But several readers have suggested that perhaps one of the tech geeks charged with setting up the audio/visual bells and whistles for the evening was tasked with getting pictures of Walter Reed Army Medical Center but goofed and got this instead. At first I thought, No, that’s ridiculous. This is a major political party with big time professionals putting this together. Nothing is left to chance. I mean, is this the RNC or a scene out Spinal Tap or Waiting for Guffman? I still have a bit of a hard time believing they’re quite that incompetent. But when you figure in what appears to be the utter lack of any logic for this school being behind McCain and the fact that it has ‘Walter Reed’ in its name, I’m really not sure you can discount this possibility.
Domestic divination
The Housewives’ Tarot, designed by Headcase.
Ladies and Gentlemen
via Quips
Mehrzeller Caravan Concept
More than a Renovation
Deron blogged about Blake’s house in Dwell. The article refers to his house here in Austin as a renovation. I am lucky enough to know Blake and his house. I thought he had built it pretty much from scratch, so I asked if it was indeed a renovation. Here is what he said.
Well, to answer your question, no, the house isn’t a renovation. It’s built from the ground up. That gets a little confused on occasion. And I can understand why. I bought an old house, lived there the entire time, and put another house in the same location, so it’s easy to see why people would call it a renovation. Truth is, I lived there, knocked the whole thing down in stages and built back up. What still exists from the old house is the slab (now about 60% of the whole house footprint), which I had to completely repair and later pour on top of anyways. I also reused material from the house, like doors and framing lumber, too, but nothing else about the original house exists now. I put some pics online awhile back that illustrate the process a little.
It truly is beautiful right down to the wall mounted bottle opener in the kitchen. You can see his pictures of the process here and more of his stuff on his website.
North Korean Propaganda Posters
Click the picture for more (via kottke)
contemporary renovation in Austin
The most recent issue of dwell has an article on Austin artist Blake Dollahite’s renovated home. It struck a chord with me as we are wrapping up a little renovation project of our own. In 2003, Blake, just out of college, bought a small, decrepit property in a good neighborhood in north Austin. He transformed the bungalow into a beautiful mix of traditional space and contemporary design. Everywhere you see the attention to detail that makes life worth living, creating beauty in the patterns around us. The online version of the article has the same text, but is limited in pictures. If you have access to the magazine, it’s well worth checking out.
Patricia Urquiola, Lazy Night
paging Christopher Walken
More specifically, paging the Christopher Walken who posted this delicious polaroid.
Mark Melnick seems interested in using the photo for a book of poems from Penguin. It looks like you can get in touch with Mark on his website.
Please let us know how this turns out.
Very pleasing.
dear clusterflock
Favorite book cover.
Writing Spoon
The spoon’s website (via Quispsologies)
Geekini
I’ll let you guess where “select” and “start” were placed (John Nouanesing via Complex).
Circles and Squares
“On February 25 2004, a new square wheel bike was unveiled at Macalester. Designed by Wayne Roberts, it has many improvements over the old one. The ride on the catenary roads is now much, much, much smoother. It is always in place on the lower level of the [Macalester College] science center for anyone who wishes to take a ride.”
This works because it’s an inversion. The circle of the wheel is now the bend in the road.
Roger Goldammer: World Champion of Custom Bike Building
why America is fucked
This made the rounds recently but since we’re all seeming so patriotic lately I thought I’d point you to an interview with designer Aaron Draplin on why America is fucked.
Narrative, Design, and Games.
Michael Abbot of the Brainy Gamer has a very fine olio of quotes with commentary on what is hopefully a new movement in game design:
As far as I can tell, the current momentum for change has its roots in a presentation by Doug Church entitled “Abdicating Authorship,” delivered at GDC in 2000. Church observed:
Our desire to create traditional narrative and exercise authorial control over the gaming world often inhibits the player’s ability to involve themselves in the game world. … The revelation of the [game] designer’s intent is not interactivity. [1]
This core notion - that “interactive gaming” in its current state is essentially a sender-receiver relationship between designer and player - serves as the basis for nearly all the brainstorming and deep thinking about narrative video games today.
Update: Chris over at The Artful Gamer on narrative and games:
Since Pong, we’ve relied upon the idea that what is physically on the screen should change whenever the player does something. Player-game interaction is what we typically mean by interactivity. Player choices and decisions are tantamount here, and the game enables the player to accomplish her/his goals.
But doesn’t that seem a bit suspect? Like the first time a cat sees its reflection in a mirror and realizes that it can make its doppelganger do its bidding? Have we been pushing pixels around a screen for 25 years and marveling at the novelty of technology?
Kitsune Noir’s Wallpaper Project
designer: Tavis Coburn
Perspective Signage
I’d post something,
but y’all are looking at that tramp stamp down below — now, aren’t you?
McNulty Tramp Stamp
a couple favorite things
favorite logo:
designers: Jeffrey Keyton, Jim Debarros, Stacy Drummond, Leslie Legare
favorite magazine cover:
designer: David Carson
web without sense
From web without sense via ToB
Moroso - My Beautiful Backside
Objectified: The Documentary
From the makers of Helvetica comes a new documentary (still in production) about industrial design:
The term objectified has two meanings. One is ‘to be treated with the status of a mere object.’ But the other is ‘something abstract expressed in a concrete form,’ as in the way a sculpture objectifies an artist’s thoughts. It’s the act of transforming creative thought into a tangible object, which is what designers in this film do every day. But maybe there’s a third meaning to this title, regarding the ways these objects are affecting us and our environment. Have we all become objectified?