Hasta La Ideas

Movie: burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese morphs into a stiletto shoe every fifteen minutes in a holographic performance that was created by London company Musion for the Design Museum‘s exhibition on iconic shoe designer Christian Louboutin.

This film shows the making of the hologram, projected onto a stage in the main exhibition room that’s shaped like an upside-down shoe.

Inspired by fairgrounds and cabaret shows, the exhibition was designed by Hackney studio Household.

It includes a shadow theatre, fetish room with photographs by David Lynch and a recreation of Louboutin’s Paris studio.

The exhibition continues until 9 July.

Photographs are by Luke Hayes.

Here’s some more information from Musion:

Christian Louboutin’s sensational retrospective comes alive with a Musion holographic performance from Dita Von Teese

On the 30th April, Musion will help mark the beginning of a ten week, spectacular exhibition from designer Christian Louboutin and The Design Museum. Dedicated to design and architecture, the world leading museum will commemorate over two decades of Louboutin’s career in the first UK exhibition dedicated to the iconic shoe designer. With the event drawing on his creative concepts and inspirations, in a thematic rather than chronological format, it will offer visitors a truly unique experience.

The Design Museum has enlisted the help of holographic leader Musion, to create the museum’s first ever holographic installation. To illustrate one of his early design inspirations, the showgirl, the ‘queen of burlesque’ Dita Von Teese, will be turned into a three dimensional holographic performance.

Taking centre stage, the breathtaking vision involves Ms Von Teese’s unmistakeable silhouette morphing from an oversized Christian Louboutin shoe before proceeding to dance around the stage. The performance concludes with Dita Von Teese transforming back into the elegant stiletto.

Ian O’Connell, Director of Musion, said, “The Design Museum is a perfect organisation to work with. Its support for creativity and innovation matches the same philosophies we believe in at Musion. Our technology has been used to its full artistic potential for Christian Louboutin’s awe-inspiring showcase and we are thrilled to be part of this celebration.”

Musion EyelinerTM technology is a unique high definition holographic projection system which delivers remarkably life-like, full-scale images within a live stage environment. Its holographic effect is created through an adaptation of the 19th Century Pepper’s Ghost technique. Musion recorded and filmed Dita Von Teese for the Musion EyelinerTM display with post-production partner Square Zero providing special effects and animation. A video explaining how the holographic projection was created will be shown alongside the installation at the exhibition.

Christian Louboutin
1 May – 9 July

The Design Museum presents the first UK retrospective of iconic French shoe designer Christian Louboutin, celebrating a career which has pushed the boundaries of high fashion shoe design. This exhibition celebrates Louboutin’s career to date and showcases twenty years of designs and inspiration, revealing the artistry and theatricality of his shoe design from stilettos to lace-up boots, studded sneakers and bejewelled pumps. Louboutin’s shoes are the epitome of style, glamour, power, femininity and elegance.

Milan 2012: Elle Decoration UK editor Michelle Ogundehin tipped collaborations with Japanese designers and manufacturers as the most exciting development in Milan this year when she paid a visit to Dezeen Studio. In this first instalment of our interview with her, she discusses the calming effect this has had on the design industry and how quality design has become more accessible to high street brands.

One of the collaborations Ogundehin mentions is between Japanese furniture brand Karimoku New Standard and a selection of designers – see those projects here.

We published an abridged version of this interview in our Friday TV show (below).

Dezeen was filming and editing all week from Dezeen Studio powered by Jambox at MOST. See all the TV shows here.

Milan 2012: in this interview filmed at Dezeen Studio, Guardian critic Justin McGuirk gives us his take on the future of design criticism, as fast reactions on platforms like Twitter and Facebook are balanced by long-form analysis in e-books and online journals.

He goes on to discuss how the fetishisation of traditional crafts by mass-producers is pushing design in a new direction and agrees with previous guest journalist Joseph Grima that the arrival of hacking culture and open-source production is the big story in Milan this year, describing it as the antithesis to the luxury design industry that the city normally centres around.

We published an abridged version of this interview in our Thursday TV show (below).

Dezeen was filming and editing all week from Dezeen Studio powered by Jambox at MOST. See all our TV shows here.

Milan 2012: end-user collaboration and open-source production were hot topics in Milan this year. In this movie filmed at Dezeen Studio powered by Jambox at MOST, editor-in-chief of Domus magazine Joseph Grima discuses their influence on the design industry and how these themes played out in the Future in the Making exhibition that the magazine hosted in an eighteenth century Italian palazzo.

We published an abridged version of this interview in our Saturday TV show (below).

Dezeen was filming and editing all week from Dezeen Studio powered by Jambox at MOST. See all the TV shows here.

Movie: Rem Koolhaas was at the ICA in London this morning to launch OMA’s design for the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow. He gave Dezeen a quick introduction to the new gallery, which will be built in Gorky Park in the Russian capital for gallerist Dasha Zukhova.

See our earlier story about Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture here.