Category: image

Origami Tessellated Brooch

This little thing that I present today is an origami brooch I “invented” a few days ago. I started from a hexagonal piece of paper, with the intention of folding a tessellation (that is, when you fold the paper so that it creates a seamless repetition of shapes). While working on it I decided to Continue reading Origami Tessellated Brooch

Lego of choice: Doraemon

http://www.geocities.jp/jun_brick/doraemon.html

http://www.geocities.jp/jun_brick/projectd.html

Doraemon, the cosmic cat, must be one of the cutest japanese cartoon characters ever, and my personal favourite: he’s always smiling (unlike Kitty, which “speaks from her heart” and therefore has no mouth: duh!), and he always has some cool gadget to amuse Nobita (he’s got a magic four-dimensional pocket!!). This said, I was really pleased to know that someone had made a “real-size” Doraemon out of lego blocks. (Another proof that anything can be replicated with Lego blocks: it’s just a matter of patience and blocks -and the money to buy them). Continue reading Lego of choice: Doraemon

Girls and Video Games

Women, that beautiful 50% of the population which handle more than 50% of the small consumer’s money! Let’s go over a couple quick facts related to girls and interactive computing:

1. No sane woman will ever enter a Micro, Game, Microplay -or whatever they are called. Have you seen those places? They are full of nerds, have enormous cardboard figures of a half naked Lara Croft on display -or worse: featuring a six-feet-high Mario!… If they were searching for ways to repel girls, they really Continue reading Girls and Video Games

Sliding Blocks Galore!

http://www.johnrausch.com/SlidingBlockPuzzles/Default.htm

Here you will find a good amount of sliding block puzzles ready for you to play from the computer, from recreations of wooden classics to modern designs. There are so many and so varied as to dare to say that they’ll keep you frustrated entertained for a very long time.

On the same topic, www.johnrausch.com/ offers links to several other puzzle-themed sites, covering all sorts of details from books to craftspeople. Loosely related to the sliding block puzzles, you shouldn’t miss the boxes designed by Yoshio Okiyama, most likely impossible to open even with instructions, or a heart-shaped “Love Box“, very appropriate for Valentine’s Day.

The art of folding tree leaves

The figures below have been made by my friend Xerome by folding carefully chosen tree leaves. I consider him an expert in origami, able not only to fold the most intricate models but also to create new ones of his own. With these new creations he has gone a step farther in his art, not only being able to fold the leaves as if they were normal paper but also to bring hidden shapes out of them in a series of impressive masks. As far as he and I know nobody has ever done this before, but beyond the novelty of the technique I believe that these figures show an artistry that very few people can achieve.

Update 26.02.06 I added a picture of Xerome taken at the Origami meeting which took place this weekend in Santiago.

Forecoming gadgets: round, interactive and shaky

When I first wrote an article on Hitachi’s waterscape, I defined the device as a “study for new, more intuitive ways of accessing data in electronic devices”, also pointing out that the technology could also be useful for playing interactive videogames. Now, it seems that other major companies Continue reading Forecoming gadgets: round, interactive and shaky

An alternative vision of war: “Gallipoli”

I’m going to seize the première of the last film directed by Sam (“American Beauty”) Mendes, “Jarhead”, just to talk about War considered from a different point of view. “Jarhead” is the most recent opportunity for realizing that war movies have generated a sub-genre: the antiwar movies, which reflect the feelings and expectations of the soldiers before the war, and their angst, doubts and behaviour when exposed to real combat situations. Continue reading An alternative vision of war: “Gallipoli”

The Universe fits in a glass

http://www.bathsheba.com/crystal/largescale/

The cosmological model for this piece is tuned to match the Sloan Survey, an investigation of all galaxies we can see in one quadrant of the sky. It takes us out to within 1000 megaparsecs of Earth. The survey isn’t finished yet, so you are looking at current research.

Bathsheba Grossman is an artist at ease with the convergence between sculpture and science. The subjects of her work, whether mathematical shapes, proteins or galaxies, are by their complex nature impossible to render by means of traditional techniques, which has led her to Continue reading The Universe fits in a glass

Kite aerial Photography

http://www.oldaerialphotos.com/History_of_Aerial_Photography.cfm

the oldest conserved aerial photograph.

(fig. 3)

Long before airplanes travelled across the skies, aerial pictures took off by means of balloons and kites. Since then, kite and photography enthusiasts around the world have kept the spirits and the pictures high, producing photographs of amazing quality.

http://scotthaefner.com/kap/

it isn’t completely ridiculous to suspend an $800 camera from a kite(…) Be sure to see my 360° virtual reality (VR) panoramas taken from a kite’s eye view.

Scott Haefner, an accomplished professional photographer, puts his skills to good use in obtaining crisp detailed pictures that are always delightful to Continue reading Kite aerial Photography