Hasta La Ideas

“I want to be a pilot so I can fly everywhere.” (Dhana, Jordan)

In a new project in partnership with the UN, Brandon Stanton, the photographer behind the phenomenally successful blog Humans of New York, is going on a tour of ten countries around the world, to photograph those living there and record their stories. His first port of call was Iraq…

We live in a connected world, with the ability to receive news from every country at the click of the mouse or a sweep of a smartphone. Yet stories from individuals around the globe can be harder to locate, especially those in countries caught up in conflict or poverty. It can be difficult to see behind the headlines and discover the real daily experiences of civilians. This though, is what the Humans of New York UN World Tour is offering.

“I’m a student. My parents didn’t want me sitting around the house all summer, so they made me be a shepherd.” (Kalak, Iraq)

“We live in a very conservative culture, but I want my children to be open minded. I try to bring them to as many places as possible: big malls, art galleries, concerts. We want them to see as many types of people as possible, and as many types of ideas as possible.” (Erbil, Iraq)

Teaming up with Stanton is an astute move by the UN. Via the HONY blog and Facebook page, which currently has over 9 million followers, he has shared the portraits of thousands of New Yorkers, alongside short quotes from those pictured. This sounds like a simple undertaking, but Stanton’s skill lies both in his choice of who to photograph – he shows the true diversity of the people of New York in his images – and his ability to get strangers to reveal intimate details about their lives (in a conversation that may only take a matter of minutes), and then use this information with delicacy and respect. His project is a truly ‘human’ one, revealing the vast commonalities in all our lives, and in our hopes and dreams, no matter how different our day-to-day circumstances may be.

His world tour will take in ten countries, the first one being Iraq. That his arrival there has coincided with a point of crisis and conflict in the country, which is headline news around the world, is coincidental – the trip was apparently long planned – but this has made Stanton’s images seem more relevant and important than ever. In the portraits taken so far, we have heard the stories of people from different aspects of Iraqi society, though nearly all have been affected by war. A number of the Iraq images are shown here, alongside the text that appears with them on the HONY site, plus one image taken in Jordan, shown top, where Stanton has recently arrived on the second stage of the tour.

“I was going to one of my first exams, and suddenly there was a bombing. In downtown Damascus! I couldn’t believe it! I didn’t think this was possible. Windows were broken everywhere, and there were people on the ground, and the sounds of ambulances. Then over the next few weeks, everything changed. The taxis in the streets were replaced by tanks. You no longer knew who was your friend and who was your enemy. Suddenly you could be killed, and nobody would ask why. Before war, you have rights. People will ask why you were killed. When war comes, nobody asks why you were killed anymore.” (Erbil, Iraq)

“My happiest moments are whenever I see my mother happy.” “What’s the happiest you’ve ever seen her?” “When I was a child, some German doctors told us that I could have a surgery in Italy, and my legs would work again. She was so happy she started crying. But I never had the money to go.” (Erbil, Iraq)

This is not the first time that Stanton has ventured outside New York with his portraiture project: in 2011, he visited Iran to photograph the citizens there. Looking at this early project on his blog, however, it is possible to see how Stanton has honed the format of his work since then. Whereas the quotes accompanying his images from Iran are mainly observational or, if they come directly from the subjects, very minimal, he has developed this aspect of his work considerably in the years since, so the portraits have become more personal, and more revealing. In the film below, recorded at a lecture he gave to University College Dublin, he talks through the process he now uses to get the people he approaches to open up.

“I’m living a good life. I’m a business owner. A lot of hotels say, ‘Come shine shoes for us. We will pay you better.’ I tell them: ‘Why would I do that? I am free.’” (Shaqlawa, Iraq)

As the images have become more intimate, the reactions from the public have in turn increased. Each new story posted onto the HONY Facebook page garners thousands of likes and comments, and while Stanton has wrestled with how to handle negative remarks to his images, eventually settling to remove comments that are personally obnoxious towards those featured, it is clear that his work strikes a deep chord with his followers.

After Jordan, Stanton will travel to Africa, where he will visit Uganda, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo, with other countries planned on the trip including India and Vietnam. According to the HONY blog, the purpose of the tour is in part to raise awareness of the UN’s Millennium Goals, a series of eight objectives including the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, the reduction of child mortality and the combating of HIV, Malaria and other diseases, which the UN member states aim to achieve by 2015. But more than that it is to tell the stories of individuals – not, according to Stanton, to “say” anything about the world, “but rather to visit some faraway places and to listen to as many people as possible”.

“We just want to be together and not be afraid.” (Erbil, Iraq)

Follow Stanton’s trip via the HONY website, at humansofnewyork.com, or on Facebook here.

It all begins with Luis Buñuel. The Spanish filmmaker’s 1977 masterpiece not only lends its name to a new group exhibition opening at NYC’s Luxembourg & Dayan gallery, but also…

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This plastic prosthesis by French designer Sascha Nordmeyer distorts the wearer’s mouth into a tooth-baring grimace (+ slideshow).

Sascha Nordmeyer‘s HyperLip stretches the mouth apart to reveal the majority of the wearer’s teeth and large portions of gum.

“Conceived for people who are just looking for a bit of fun, the prosthesis is a rigid food-safe apparatus that forces a facial expression onto its wearer,” said a statement from Los Angeles brand Artecnica, which has just put the HyperLip into production.

Similar to how a gum shield covers teeth, the prosthesis fits around the lips and pushes them outward – holding them in place to distort the lower part of the face.

The bright red-coloured plastic creates an exaggerated lip that completely surrounds the mouth.

Slightly narrower on one side than the other, the asymmetric shape can be worn either way around.

“HyperLip will enhance your communication skills, make you look smart in any circumstance, be a great conversation piece at a party, raise a few eyebrows and it will certainly gets you tons of attention,” said Artecnica.

The HyperLip is set to feature as part of a travelling exhibition called Photography Playground, where visitors will be able to take part in photography sessions wearing the product.

Starting in Cologne from 11 September and running until 5 October to coincide with the Photokina imagery festival, the exhibition is also set to visit Amsterdam and Tokyo.

A prototype was also displayed in the Talk to Me exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 2011.

Other designs that modify the face include a set of prosthetic lips that can be inflated with a hand pump and a stylus that straps over the nose for using touch-screen phones in the bath.

The post HyperLip by Sascha Nordmeyer
creates grimacing facial expressions appeared first on Dezeen.

Japanese studio K2YT has slotted courtyard gardens around the staircases and between the rooms of this four-storey house in Tokyo (+ slideshow).

Named House-K, the rectilinear residence was designed to accommodate two households. The rooms of each are interwoven amongst five secluded gardens, some of which take the form of open-air terraces, while others look more like sealed glass chambers.

According to Takuichiro Yamamoto, one of K2YT‘s two principals, the addition of these enclosed courtyards was a response to the site’s location: on a corner plot with two street-facing elevations and also next to a railway that causes unwelcome noise and vibrations.

“For people seeking a detached house, it has always been a temptation to have a private garden to come with it,” said the architect.

“Many attempts have been made to allow for a small piece of garden while extending the building coverage to the limit, but as a result, many have also ended up with curtains that are drawn all day long to shield the eyes from streets, which become too close to the windows,” he explained.

“Thus, rows of unsociable houses become the standard city scene in the area.”

To avoid this, K2YT positioned the various courtyards behind windows on different sides of the house, then created views across each one from at least two different rooms.

As the two street-facing elevations are oriented south and east, it wasn’t difficult to allow enough natural light to permeate each of the four storeys.

“By incorporating the courtyard spaces into the house in the same manner as rooms, sufficient depths are provided from the streets, successfully shielding off views without use of curtains, even for the largest fenestration,” said Yamamoto.

“The noise from the railway is also mitigated to the level that it is still audible but much less annoying,” he added.

In plan, the house is organised around a simple grid of six rectangles that dictates the size of most of the rooms. This is complicated by a series of split levels, intended to suit “the required character” of each space.

The house was constructed from concrete, which has largely been left exposed throughout the interior. This is complemented by a selection of white walls, as well as wooden floors and ceilings.

Staircases are made from folded steel and are cantilevered from the walls, creating the illusion of weightlessness.

The houses’ entrance is located on the southern elevation, alongside the entrance to a sunken parking garage. The external walls are rendered grey and dotted with square windows in three different sizes.

A four-storey-high stairwell forms the centre of the building and offers glimpses of the courtyards looming above.

A traditional Japanese-style room is located on this level, while kitchens can be found on the first and second floors. There are bedrooms on all three upper levels, with bathrooms on the first and third storeys.

Photography is by Satoshi Asakawa.

The post Gardens are interspersed with rooms
inside House-K by K2YT appeared first on Dezeen.

David Yamnitsky and Isabella Tromba are grad students at MIT, with degrees and degrees-to-be in the unchallenging, trifling fields of Cryptography, Math, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Computer Security–or as we ID’ers refer to these fields collectively, Meh.

The duo were seeking to purchase standing desks for themselves, but balked at the going rates. They then disrespectfully decided to design their own, despite being too lazy to apply to a four-year design program. With access to a CNC router, and under the assumption that their math and computer skills would enable them to calculate a balance between light weight and structural support, the pair produced what they’re calling the Press Fit Standing Desk, which sells for less than $200.

In an effort to poison our foreign relations, the duo opted not to use formaldehyde-based plywood from overseas, but instead located a local supplier of 100%-formaldehyde-free maple plywood. Their cynical choice to design something fastener-free is an obvious attempt to undermine the hardware industry. And in what amounts to an attack on the printing and paper industries, Yamnitsky and Tromba opted not to include assembly instructions with their design, leaving befuddled consumers that don’t have degrees in Rocket Science to try to puzzle out how this thing could possibly come together.

Placed on Kickstarter, the Press Fit Standing Desk hit its $10,000 funding target in a matter of days, probably because confused consumers were trying to fund a different project and don’t understand how the website works. Anyways, at press time, the Press Fit hadn’t even quadrupled it, with $37,000 in funding and 13 days left to pledge, indicating that the confusion is growing.

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