Category: Art

DP over at the Gizmodo blog waxes lyrical about the Alessi lemon Squeezer designed by Philippe Starck. Yes, it does look very striking, I grant you that, but the key question is, does it work as a lemon squeezer? And the answer apparently is: “not particularly well” – and this from Starck himself.

Er, hello? Is it just me, or is this not serving the goal of design? Unless, of course, to serve the great God of Design means that one has to have Function sacrificed on the bloody altar of Form. And, of course, to stump up ridiculous amounts of cash for the privilege (the Alessi lemon squeezer costs $75).

What we are seeing here, of course, is the logical conclusion of the same forces that makes people buy branded bottled water instead of just drinking tapwater. Well, I say to hell with that.

Let me just pull aside the curtain of the little booth that is off to one side of the Great Oz for a moment. Here’s Rolf Jensen of the Dream Company Ltd., talking at a conference last year:

Society is changing from an information society to a dream society. We are moving from the rational computer society to a society of emotions and values. We are moving from the brain to the heart. The values of quality and price have been replaced by emotional values: Swatch watches are out, Rolexes are in; the simple lemon squeezer has been replaced by the elegant Alessi brand; tap water is out and branded bottled water is in. Products are not bought for rational but for emotional needs.

Well, bugger you, Mr. Jensen – I will continue to buy products that work well for the purpose for which they were designed – and if I don’t happen to end up paying through the nose for a branded piece of lah-de-dah shite, then I consider that to be an intelligent purchase.

I’ve always been fascinated by Trompe l’oeil.  Now, Julian Beever takes it to new pastures with his 3D pavement art.

(hat tip to Mind Hacks)

This is a good, and atmospheric, use of Flash technology.

This is Art as in "I think I’m having a nightmare, please can I wake up now…"

Why do I keep thinking of the art of Pierre et Gilles when I see this?

Everywhere you look in Barcelona there is a piece of public art – either ancient or modern. Here are just a few examples.

Gaudí’s creations for Park Güell are one of the icons of Barcelona (his Sagrada Família being another). The park was originally intended as a residential garden city in the English style, but only one showhouse was ever built, and the venture failed.

Although you can walk to the park from the Lesseps Metro station (and it’s well signposted), the walk is pretty boring, along busy city streets and then slogging uphill through a side street. A better way (in my opinion) is to go to the Vallarca Metro station. After a short walk along a street, you turn into a pedestrian street that climbs steeply up towards the upper reaches of the Park. Thankfully, the municipality has thought to put in escalators to take the effort out of walking uphill. The other advantage of this route is that you don’t have to fight your way into the Park through the crowds that throng the main entrance. 

This school building on the Via Laietana in Barcelona has the most hideously sentimental decoration seen outside of a chocolate box or stomach-churning oil paintings of wide-eyed waifs. It’s so bad, I couldn’t resist taking photos.

Barcelona School VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

In the last entry (on the Animarus Rhinoceros Transport) I spoke of the marriage between Art and Engineering. That put me in mind of this amazing boat lift, which I suppose is more a marriage between Engineering and Art.

I love the marriage of art and engineering – particularly when it results in the feeling that you’ve landed in some strange universe… Check out the video, and then follow the link to the main page to find out more about Theo Jansen and his beasts.

I feel in a Victor Meldrew mood this morning, so I’m not feeling particularly receptive towards the Yellow Arrow(TM) global art project. I suppose, given the colour, you might say that I’m feeling somewhat jaundiced about it… To me, it’s as irritating as the meme for reversed baseball caps.

The basic idea is that if you see something of interest, or something that is meaningful to you, you mark it with a sticker in the shape of a yellow arrow. The sticker has a unique code on it, and using the code, you send an SMS to a central number (in the US) with your message and the code. Then, anyone else who sees the arrow can send an SMS, using the unique code, to retrieve your message from the central number.

Call me a cynic if you like, but who’s making the money out of all these SMSes?