Touchscreen gestures brought to life

An artist has decided to immortalise gestures used with touchscreen products. In her project 'Multi-touch gestures', Gabriele Meldaikyte built 5 different sculptures that used the main gestures associated with touchscreen devices.

The gestures, which seem to be becoming second nature to most, including some babies trying to swipe a magazine to read it, are also seen as a signature of the Apple iPhone.

Gabriele believes that these will be completely different in 10 years time so wanted to immortalise them by translating this interface language of communication into 3D objects which mimic every multi-touch gesture.

The Shed at the National Theatre

A new temporary venue has been built on an unused plaza  of the National Theatre in London.

Called 'The Shed', the venue will show new productions that it deems "adventurous, ambitious and unexpected".

Open for a year from April, The Shed provides a new way to watch theatre, offering seats from £12 up to £20, with special days planned, including talks before or after shows. 

Seats are either located at stage level or in a gallery providing patrons with an intimate view of the productions.

The building was designed and built by Haworth Tompkins, who are also incharge of the current redesign materplan for the artistic hub, and the design would seem to match the type of productiosn they plan to put on, with its vibrant colour and shape.

To find out more watch a video of lead architect Paddy Dillon talking about the design below.

haworth tompkins: the shed at the national theater, london from designboom on Vimeo.

Pop-up craft shop in Farringdon

Tobyboo is opening a pop-up shop in Clerkenwell for a week commencing on April 8th. The shop will showcase their work in bags and accessories, tableware and stationary among others.

They have been previously commisioned by the Museum of London for their Doctors, Dissection and Resurrection Men exhibition as well as creating a special ballerina box for a chairty auction by Coutts.

Founded by Tina Crawford, who does all her own design work and embroidery, the company sells unique pieces made in Britain.

Find out more about what they are up to on their blog.

Edinburgh's giant balloon sculpture

A sculpture made completely of balloons has been unveiled as part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival at the National Museum of Scotland.

The piece was designed and built by American artist Jason Hackenwerth, who is known for his organic and biological forms made from latex balloons.

The sculpture, titled Pisces, is the artist’s interpretation of the legend of Aphrodite and Eros: in Greek mythology, Aphrodite, the Goddess of love and her son, Eros, escaped the fearsome monster Typhon by transforming into a tightly woven spiral of two fish, a figure which later became a constellation called Pisces.

The piece is made up of 10,000 balloons, which took 3 staff members 6 days to inflate before Jason and his assistant Leah Blair wove them carefully into this three dimensional structure.

Pisces will be on display in the Grand Gallery of the National Museum of Scotland through April 14th, 2013. More images are available on Flickr.

'David Bowie Is': a retrospective

The V&A Museum was lucky enough to gain access to the David Bowie Archive to curate the museum's latest attraction.

The sold-out exhibition, titled 'David Bowie Is', features over 300 pieces, including costumes, photographs, album covers and video exerts from films and live performances.

Spanning the career of the Brixton-born musician, the retrospective also includes some more personal items such as never-before-seen storyboards, handwritten set lists and lyrics, as well as some of Bowie’s own sketches, musical scores and diary entries, revealing the evolution of his creative ideas.

The exhibition was brought together by the V&A's theatre and performance curators Victoria Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh and will explore the creative processes of Bowie as a musical innovator and cultural icon, tracing his shifting style and sustained reinvention across five decades.

'David Bowie Is' opened on the 23rd March and will run until the 11th August 2013. Find out more here.

Twitter for business relaunched

Twitter has relaunched its business platform; Twitter for Business.

The relaunch includes best practice guides and case studies from companies such as Porsche and Hubspot. The site has been redesigned to make it easier for anyone to use; either a seasoned marketer or a small business owner.

Encouraging businesses to utilise Twitter is pretty simple, getting them to advertise and spend is more difficult and the relaunch of this platform lends itself to the idea that Twitter wants to be a bigger advertising medium than before.

Twitter has also released the video below outlining some quick tips to enhance your Twitter usage.

10 of the most unusual homes in the world

Delightfull, a lighting company, has compiled a list of 10 homes that have an unusual characteristic. From the world's slimmest house to a replica Flintstones' house, it has them all.

The collection is a series of 'homes' that have been designed and built with a unique idea behind them, including a 1sq.m house (not sure how you could really live in there),  a fully transparent house and our favourite, a house with a giant slide.

Take a look at the full list here.

Payphones become time machines in Manhatten

In New York City a project by Droga5 in collaboration with the New Museum has allowed inhabitants to listen to the sounds and memories of 1993. 

Part of an exhibition which highlights 1993 as a year of change for the city and the world titled "NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star," the payphone experience gets users to call a special number from selected phones across the city, which in turn allows them to relive that location in 1993.

The phone project titled Recalling 1993 is a huge undertaking, using tour guides and locals to re-tell stories, and is the first use of the payphones whose future is facing some speculation since the age of the smart phone.

An interactive map of the payphones included can be found here. Below is a video outlining the project.

Recalling 1993 from Droga5 NY on Vimeo.

Touchscreen gestures brought to life

An artist has decided to immortalise gestures used with touchscreen products. In her project 'Multi-touch gestures', Gabriele Meldaikyte built 5 different sculptures that used the main gestures associated with touchscreen devices.

The gestures, which seem to be becoming second nature to most, including some babies trying to swipe a magazine to read it, are also seen as a signature of the Apple iPhone.

Gabriele believes that these will be completely different in 10 years time, and so wanted to immortalise them by translating this interface language of communication into 3D objects which mimic every multi-touch gesture.

Minimalist ballet posters increase attendance

When designer Gil Shuler was asked by a friend to create a series of posters for the Charleston Ballet company's 2012-13 season, he felt they should head in an opposite direction to previously.

The company used to feature principle performers as the centrepiece for their posters, now the focus is on the feet.

The simple and seemingly effective new deisgn has the point shoe, a classic article of ballet clothing, as the focal point of the posters.

The response so far has been positive for the company with an increase in ticket sales and Shuler had been asked on many occassions for reprints.

Google Chrome experiment creates perfect time-waster

Google's latest innovation in time-wasting fun is the Chrome World Wide Maze, and it isn't an April Fool's joke.

Coming from Japan, it is a browser experiment that turns any Web page of your choosing into a 3-D maze. You guide a marble via a smart phone synced with your computer (and, of course, installed with Chrome for Mobile for this to work properly). The aim is to collect 'power-ups' whilst completing the maze, and avoiding falling off.

The mobile-phone-as-game-controller idea has promise and isn't much different from the Wii U's current setup. It isn't the first time Google has played with this idea previously releasing Chrome Super Sync Sports and hopefully won't be the last.

Take a look at the promotional videos below.

Heinz creating a noise with Beanz

We're sure that most of you will be familiar with the childhood rhyme that gives the adage of beans being a musical fruit, now Heinz are playing on that with some deluxe flavours.

The 5 special flavours, will be available from London's Fortnum & Mason in a special pack which includes a themed bowl and a special spoon that will play music or sounds whilst you eat.

The spoons contain a special MP3 player with pre-recorded sounds that can only be heard whilst eating through vibrations that travel up the jaw-bone to the ear.

Each flavour has a distinct sound associated with it, be it an Elgar ditty played with a cheese wire or the sound of rustling garlic skins. 

The special edition bowls are also tailored to the unique flavours which includes, cheese, curry, barbecue, garlic and herb, and chili. 

VW advert aims to catch the fast-forwarders

In a world of DVR recorders, Sky+ and TiVo it's becoming harder for advertisers to reach their audience as many record their shows just so that they can skip the adverts.

In an attempt to tackle this issue head-on DDB Brussels has produced a special TV ad for Volkswagen that when fast forwarded still works as an advert.

Given the moniker 'slowmercial', this new format features the VW beetle convertible in action, mainly closing the roof. At normal speed this could almost be painful to watch were it not for the relaxing birdsong in the background, but at a fast forward speed the ad works well.

The advert is only presently only being shown in Belgium but you can see it below.

It is a clever concept but does it impact upon the effectiveness of the normal speed ad, after all you cannot bore people into buying a product1

PuLSaTe pop-up installation

Architects Lily Jencks and Nathanael Dorent have been commissioned by Capitol Designer Studio to design a unique pop-up installation in London called PuLSaTe.

Using Marazzi’s SistemN tiles, from a range stocked by Capitol, they fitted out a showroom in Primrose Hill to create PuLSaTe, a pop-up installation that will not only show off the uses and colours of the tiles but also provide a cultural hub.

The zig-zag design, along with sloped floors, plays with your perception. Benches built into the walls of the installation become a consumer experience like no other. The pop-up installation on Chalcot Road, opened on the 21st March and will remain open, running a variety events including workshops, until 27th October 2013.

Take a look at a video about the project below.

Pulsate from STRIPE on Vimeo.