Elbphilharmonie Interior Design

La somptueuse philharmonie d’Hambourg par Herzog et De Meuron a récemment ouvert ses portes après quinze ans de travaux. Malgré les coûts exorbitants des travaux, ayant dépassé de dix fois le budget initial, le théâtre est un exemple prodigieux d’architecture contemporaine. L’auditorium central est un véritable bijou architectural recouvert de 10.000 panneaux acoustiques uniques. L’effet final rappelle une barrière de corail avec sa forme presqu’organique. Le dessin a été obtenu par le biais d’un processus inédit, utilisant des algorithmes pour développer les formes d’objets.






Diamond-Room Installation by XEX

Le studio XEX, basé à Hong Kong, a conçu l’installation « Prismverse », située à Shanghai. Le thème de cette oeuvre est la pierre précieuse, avec une attention particulière portée aux diamants. L’effet obtenu est bouleversant pour le spectateur, plongé dans un univers de formes parfaites et de lumières sublimes. Véritable ode à mère nature, le projet reproduit une ambiance spatiale, en emmenant métaphoriquement le spectateur sur une autre galaxie. L’idée était aussi de rendre hommage aux pierres et à leurs effets bénéfiques sur le corps humain. Le tout est accompagné d’une expérience sonore soignée par Sonihouse, dans laquelle la musique est diffusée de manière parfaitement égalitaire à chaque point de la pièce.






Francesco Ciccolella Illustrations about the Perception of Reality and Facts

À l’occasion de sa première exposition « Alternate Realities », se déroulant pendant la Vienna Design Week 2017, l’illustrateur Francesco Ciccolella présente un travail autour du thème de la relativité des choses. La série d’illustrations ci-dessous est une réflexion sur le fait de vivre dans un monde de mensonges, de « fake news », d’informations trafiquées, en somme, sur l’idée de vivre dans un monde post-internet.
« Je suis intéressé par la manière dont notre réalité commune tombe quand la frontière entre mensonge et réalité devient plus souple et les émotions prennent le pas sur la raison dans le discours public. À l’époque de la distorsion du réel, cette exposition raconte la vie quotidienne dans un monde post-factuel »










Retro-Futurist Pictures by Rita Maria

Rita Maria est une jeune photographe s’intéressant à des paysages urbains rendus surréalistes par le temps. Désormais vestiges d’une époque où l’on sacralisait un futur n’ayant jamais vu le jour, ces bâtiments nous apparaissent comme des ovnis venus d’ailleurs. Les personnages et les paysages Américains dans certains autres de ses clichés, mettent en exergue une atmosphère féérique et envoûtante.









Mysterious and Hazy Photographs by Theo Tagholm

Theo Tagholm est un photographe et directeur artistique basé à Londres. On retrouve dans ses photos une atmosphère à la fois mystérieuse et brumeuse créant une notion à la limite de l’abstrait.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 









Reader Submitted: A Series of Playful Objects Designed to Optimize the Modern Workspace

The 9 to 5 work schedule is changing. In modern life, there are people who work night shifts, and people who need to study all night. Emergency room workers can be called on at all hours. People with new businesses may have to stay up at night, too. Some just prefer to work at night.

The New Normal is a lighthearted project which aims to make the working environment more playful. No matter where people work, they are often in a confined and isolated space that can feel stressful. This project provides soothing and energizing elements to make any work space more comfortable.

The objects of The New Normal include a removable backrest that also functions as a blanket, a moveable recorder pillow, and a foot ramp to allow leg movement.

View the full project here

Ex-Army Catering Specialist Developing Edible Drone for Disaster Relief

Engineer Nigel Gifford, who has completed over 1,000 parachute jumps, had a job you’ve probably never heard of: As a Captain in the British Army Catering Corps, his job was to feed soldiers in hostile environments.

Given his specialty, after retirement he was approached by the British military and asked to help develop a drone that could deliver food. “They were looking at conventional UAVs (unmanned air vehicles),” Gifford told Business Insider, “and I said, ‘Well, why would you bring it back? Why don’t you leave it there, and why don’t you make it all out of food?'”

“I keep getting trouble with my wife at home – when we go shopping in the delicatessen, I’m the one that’s flexing the salamis to see what their tensile strength is because they’d make good spars [part of the wing structure]!”

Gifford designed what he calls the Pouncer, a fixed-wing drone that is not only loaded with food, but will be made of food. While he’s still working out which edible material will make the best wing structure, he’s decided that other structural elements can be made from wood, which can be burned as fuel by the party that receives it, and the skin will be made from an unspecified material that can be integrated into a shelter.

It sounds far-fetched, but Gifford’s company, Windhorse Aerospace, claims that a single Pouncer will deliver a day’s worth of rations for 50 people, cost £500 (USD $672) apiece, and deliver with an accuracy of 7 meters. The drone is meant to be dropped from a C-130 transport plane; it’s not at all clear how the thing will steer itself to the target.

As with the military hoverbike we just looked it, it is a shame that the Pouncer is not yet a reality, as it would be perfect for a disaster relief scenario such as the one currently being faced in Puerto Rico.

What's the Likelihood That Your Job Will Be Automated in the Future?

Early last year, we came across a video that broke down generally which types of jobs would be in danger with the adoption of automation in the workforce, and it primarily told us that all repetitive blue collar jobs were at risk. Yesterday, the Telegraph released a comprehensive list of jobs that were most likely to be computerised with percentage probabilities, and to be frank, it’s a bit more shocking to look at the job titles at risk on an individual level. Here’s a list within the article of the 12 jobs with a whopping 99% chance of being automated in the future: 

– Data Entry Keyers
– Library Technicians
– New Accounts Clerks
– Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators
– Tax Preparers
– Cargo and Freight Agents
– Watch Repairers
– Insurance Underwriters
– Mathematical Technicians
– Sewers, Hand
– Title Examiners, Abstractors, and Searchers
– Telemarketers

The jobs least likely to be automated were as follows:

– Recreational Therapists
– First-Line Supervisors of Mechanics, Installers, and Repairers
– Emergency Management Directors
– Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers
– Audiologists
– Occupational Therapists
– Orthotists and Prosthetists
– Healthcare Social Workers

A full, searchable list of over 700 jobs at risk of automation is available within the Telegraph article, which I recommend checking out. Interestingly, jobs like modelmaking or milling & planing setters both have a 96-98% chance of automation replacement, graphic designers an 8.2% chance, while industrial designers are still incredibly low at 3.7% (so designers, you’re still safe for now). 

Another interesting aspect of this article is how it described low-skill workers jobs evolving in the future, a group most at risk in the automation switchover. The solution, the original study concludes, has to do with these workers acquiring creative skills:

“Our model predicts a truncation in the current trend towards labour market polarisation, with computerisation being principally confined to low-skill and low-wage occupations.

Our findings thus imply that as technology races ahead, low-skill workers will reallocate to tasks that are non-susceptible to computerisation – i.e., tasks requiring creative and social intelligence. For workers to win the race, however, they will have to acquire creative and social skills.”

In this scenario, the possibility for these low-skill workers to acquire the skills to thrive in a largely automated economy seems to lie in better vocational training programs in and outside the workplace around the world with a focus on critical thinking and problem solving.

Hand Tool School #47: Reviewing Barron Dovetail Guides

I’m not a fan of sawing guides or plane fences. Basically anything that gets in the way of the freedom of motion of the tool. But sawing guides like these Barron guides can be a major head start to someone new to hand cut dovetails or someone struggling with their sawing. Here is my review of the Barron Dovetail Guides using both a Japanese saw and some Western Dovetail saws.

I have to say that I did enjoy using these guides and I’m definitely going to add a 45 degree guide to my collection. I don’t know that I will be using them to cut dovetails in the future, but it is good to know they are there when I’m having a bad day and can’t saw straight at all. Thanks to David Barron for the opportunity to try out his guides and be sure to visit his site for more information/videos/etc on these and other cool products he makes.

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This “Hand Tool School” series is provided courtesy of Shannon Rogers, a/k/a The Renaissance Woodworker. Rogers is founder of The Hand Tool School, which provides members with an online apprenticeship that teaches them how to use hand tools and to build furniture with traditional methods.

Steven M. Johnson's Bizarre Invention #122: The Slipper, a Hybrid Car-Within-a-Car