Hasta La Ideas

The design world flocks to Milan next month and designer Craig Alun Smith plans to splatter the city with bird poo in every colour of the rainbow by planting dyed bird feeders around the Piazza del Duomo.

The LuvOwls are made of seeds, suet and food colouring, moulded into the shape of owls because statues of the birds of prey are often used to scare off smaller foul. They come in come in red, green and blue, and the British/Canadian designer hopes birds will eat from more than one of the feeders to mix the colours in their stomachs.

He’ll travel from his home in Montreal next week to trial the system in Milan and find suitable perches for the feeders.

If you like this, check out a system for making packaging from coloured snail excrement here. We also featured Alun Smith’s pair of chairs called Wank back in 2008.

Here are some more details:

Craig Alun Smith’s LuvOwl project to debut this April in Milan at Piazza del Duomo during Milano Salone.

The concept of LuvOwl is simple, birds eat the Owl, and then bright colours “appear” around the city – true public art! LuvOwl is produced by moulding seed, suet and food colour into the form of an owl commonly but ineffectively used as a bird deterrent. The Owls are based on the RGB colour model so in theory seeds from different coloured owls combined in the birds’ gizzards should produce a broad array of colours. Craig will be in Milan next week (14th-16th March) testing the project and scouting appropriate perches for the LuvOwls.

Craig Alun Smith is a British/Canadian designer living and working in Montreal Canada. Known for his dialectic approach to design, his work typically plays with opposing forces or ideas, often with humour and emotion at its core.