Hasta La Ideas

Leave it to Scotland to discover that whiskey lowers not only inhibitions, but also carbon emissions.

Edinburgh Napier University has developed a biofuel based on whiskey byproducts, the BBC reports. Researchers used the byproducts to create biobutanol, a fuel that provides 30 percent more output than ethanol.

If they successfully bid for it to be available at the pump, it could be a financial windfall for the Scots, who count whiskey as a major industry. Plus, since the fuel only needs the byproducts from the whisky production process, that would mean more (and cheaper) booze. Sounds like a win all around.

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/08/18/scots-develop-car-fueled-by-whiskey/#ixzz0wxoeuPyA

Video director Carl Burgess’ work takes on mass media

“Art in advertising? Why would anyone do that after Warhol?” The joke may come from the most recent episode of Mad Men, but the punchline is just as clear in Carl Burgess’ video for “Drugs“—Ratatat’s latest single off their album LP4. Composed solely of stock footage typically reserved for the likes of corny law firm or pharmaceutical commercials, Burgess points to the absurdity of these kinds of images. Editing strategically distorting them at moments (with effects familiar to anyone who’s ever used Apple’s Photobooth) suggest how quickly the mundane turns sinister—well, at least in the eyes of the drugged.

Directed by Carl Burgess, the video is a continuation of his media scrutiny, demonstrating how people are more addicted to the melodramatic characters in the commercials than to drugs (a point SNL recently made with their Sally Fields skit). His slippery-slope outlook also extends to the media’s obsession with beauty. For example, his video “A Turn For The Worse” chronicles a muscle man’s fall from perfection, suggesting the perilous journey in seeking ultimate allure.

In his series of portraits excerpted from commercials, called “Trapped In Infinite Politeness,” Burgess states that when “Isolated from the bad ads in which they appear, the forced cheer of actors becomes an eerily compelling study of falseness.” Showing how these characters mock real emotions is his silent video “Talk Show,” which portrays how the media could easily utilize a less-attractive set of frames for the stock footage in their commercials.

Finally in “Advanced Beauty,” Burgess removes people all together for a clear statement on the definition of beauty. The abstract animation symbolizes how beauty is an evading concept, and that perfectly-proportioned bodies or drug-induced happiness will not lead to ultimate pleasure.

This house in Hiroshima by Japanese architects Suppose Design Office is surrounded by an offset concrete shell to create a series of triangular terraces between the inner and outer walls.

On the first and second storeys the spaces between the wall and house have been filled with perforated steel, creating terraces that allow light into the courtyards below.

Rooms sit at an angle to the surrounding wall, giving the terraces and courtyards their triangular shape.

The external wall is made of reinforced concrete while the house is a steel frame construction.

The house was designed for a couple with two children, and has a garage, master bedroom and entrance hall on the ground floor.

The first floor is a kitchen and living space, while the second houses the children’s bedrooms.

All photographs are by Takumi Ota.

Here’s some more from the architects:

House in Minamimachi 3

House in Minaminachi 3 is a residence for a couple with 2 children.

It is standing at a place where an old shopping street and houses are still kept.

The site area of the dwelling is only 55 sqm, and it has a square form.

Also, houses at the area are sitting closely next each other, so the condition is quite difficult to make the residence open to outside keeping its private.

The unique design of the house is a relationship between the building and its exterior elements.

There are extra walls along the site, and they fully covered the dwelling that has only 29 sqm as building area.

The house is standing with angle, not parallel to the exterior walls and site.

Through the gap between the walls and the inside construction, sunlight is coming down well reflecting between the two structures.

The walls create well lighting condition, and also more open environment to the outside in protecting its privacy.

Moreover, the exterior structure succeed embody the gap area as a part of the residential space.

Click above for larger image

Because of re-designing exterior elements that usually stay as separated materials from a house, the dwelling could create more rich life environment with well engaged outside elements.

House in Minamimachi3
Location : Hiroshima city,Japan
Principal use :parsonal house
Site area: 54.56sqm
Building area :28.92sqm
Total floor area :79.23sqm ( 1F:26.41sqm 2-1F:26.41sqm 2-2F :26.41sqm )
Completion : April. 2010
Design period: March.2008-May.2009
Donstruction period: June.2009-April. 2010
Structure: Steel structure, external wall: Reinforced concrete
Client: a couple and two children
Project architect: Makoto Tanijiri [suppose design office]+ Kenji Nawa [Nawakenji-m] Project team: Makoto Tanijiri [suppose design office]+ Kenji Nawa [Nawakenji-m],
In-charge;Hiroshi Yamagami
Lighting: GLO-BALL S1[FLOS] Chair: None
Products:Original table
Flooring:oak flooring
Internal Wall:Vinyl crossing
Ceiling:Vinyl crossing

See also:

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House in Hiro by Suppose Design Office	House in Kodaira by Suppose Design Office	More about Suppose Design Office on Dezeen

Readers will (we hope) remember Craig Ward‘s cover for our Annual this year in which type was grown using pollen cells. For his next trick, Ward has created the number 30 using highly magnetic ferrofluid

Ward was asked by Discover magazine to produce something for its 30th anniversary issue. As with our Annual cover (shown above), he decided to work on it with University of Denver immunologist Frank Conrad. “We offered the magazine two routes; one involving lasers, the other a kind of magnetic ink called ferrofluid which I had only seen a few times,” Ward says. “Frank was confident that we could either buy some or make our own.”

Ferrofluids feature tiny suspended particles that will react to magnets, as illustrated in this beautiful video from Sachiko Kodama and Yasushi Miyajima:

To create his 30, Ward set the figure in Trade Gothic Condensed which was then routed out of various thicknesses of wood and plastic. (Pics: Sam Ley)

The idea, Ward says, “was that we would place the routed out 30 between a magnet and a tray of ferrofluid so only the areas of fluid exposed to the magnetic field would react – creating a kind of fluid stencil. The way the ink reacts to the magnet depends on the polarity, one way attracts it, the other repels, pushing it upward in spikes.”

Here’s the final image with details (shot by Nicholas Eveleigh):

“Whilst this may look like an expensive CGI render from one of the Terminator films, all of this was captured in camera with a clever use of lights and reflective surfaces making the best use of the reflective nature of the liquid,” Ward says. “The oily nature of our mix is what has given the numbers their rainbow-like halo.”

When we posted about Ward’s Annual cover, some commenters questioned whether it wouldn’t have been better to have done the whole thing in 3D software. Apart from ruling out the kind of happy accidents that can occur when you are experimenting with physical substances, what such an approach also rules out is the possibility of extending the ‘story’ of the work via making-of imagery such as is shown here. Certainly, as far as CR is concerned, this is always a factor when we are thinking about commissioning covers for the magazine. We want a great cover, but having a great story behind the making of the cover is even better.

The looping seat.