Hasta La Ideas

pimg alt=”0nmsv.jpg” src=”http://www.core77.com/blog/images/0nmsv.jpg” width=”468″ height=”588″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //p

pAn important concept some companies are grasping is that if we’re going to be advertised to, or advertised Iat/I, we’d prefer to see something unusual or entertaining. (Educational would be great too, but I realize that’s too much to ask for.)/p

pSo I got a kick out of seeing the A HREF=”http://createdigitalmusic.com/2010/04/16/bendable-musical-shoes-for-nike-and-how-they-were-made/” Nike Music Shoe video/A, which combines “bleeding-edge sound artist and alternative interface guru” A HREF=”http://www.daito.ws/#5″ Daito Manabe/A, several pairs of Nike Free sneakers tricked out with flex sensors and accelerometers, and Ableton’s Max For Live software. Check out the cool results below. (SFW caveat: If you work in a conservative office environment, have your finger hovering over the volume button of your computer as you may get a little more boom-bap through your speakers than you anticipated.)/p

pobject width=”468″ height=”282″param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/uS1exujG3cYcolor1=0xb1b1b1color2=0xcfcfcfhl=en_USfeature=player_embeddedfs=1″/paramparam name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”/paramparam name=”allowScriptAccess” value=”always”/paramembed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/uS1exujG3cYcolor1=0xb1b1b1color2=0xcfcfcfhl=en_USfeature=player_embeddedfs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” allowScriptAccess=”always” width=”468″ height=”282″/embed/object/p

pSo how’d he do it? The short version is that Manabe did the software and sound programming while the hardware programming was done by A HREF=”http://www.harshush.com/” Tomoaki Yanagisawa/A, and the full technical explanation is A HREF=”http://createdigitalmusic.com/2010/04/16/bendable-musical-shoes-for-nike-and-how-they-were-made/” written up here by Peter Kirn/A./p

pIthanks tony!/Ibr /
/pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/nike_music_shoes_clap_your_sneakers_make_some_noise_16454.asp”(more…)/a
pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/0dO0f1TqQ2kCMdVz06NYc_IW6h8/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/0dO0f1TqQ2kCMdVz06NYc_IW6h8/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/
a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/0dO0f1TqQ2kCMdVz06NYc_IW6h8/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/0dO0f1TqQ2kCMdVz06NYc_IW6h8/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/p

Tenetevi pronti per il 15 maggio quando verrà rilasciata questa cuffia Bluetooth prodotta da Bluetribe per il 30th anniversario di Stussy.
[Via]

div style=”align: right;”img src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/2010/04/0flexitisi01.jpg” width=”468″ height=”448″ alt=”0flexitisi01.jpg”//div

pThat’s your standard plastic water pitcher used in restaurants worldwide, and as a former waiter I can say its design sucks. Waiters often carry three of them in one hand by putting the handles together, but though this is an established practice, the handles were not designed for such and don’t align neatly; when fully laden, any unexpected starts and stops–such as when moving through a crowded restaurant–may cause one of the pitchers to slip and jostle, splashing its contents on you or worse, a short-tempered diner./p

pMore importantly it’s not good at the very thing it was designed for: Pouring. You can always tell which of your friends has worked in a restaurant by the way they handle one of these pitchers–if loaded up with a beverage containing ice, they will always pour out of the Iside/I of the pitcher, not the poorly-designed spout, because ice gets jammed in the spout like cars going in the Holland Tunnel and eventually causes a spill. And even if you pour ice-free liquid from the spout, if you do it too quickly the liquid will overwhelm the spout and come spilling out around it. I spent eight years working in restaurants and had problems with this pitcher design up until my last month./p

pI’ve found a lot of kitchen implements have not changed much since their very invention. If you dug up an artifact from a thousand years ago that someone used to boil water, it would be recognizable as a pot. The metal may have changed, and the materials of pitchers may have evolved from ceramics to glass to plastic, but the overall shapes and functionality remain much the same./p

pBut now we’re seeing something different in A HREF=”http://www.isinorthamerica.com/basics/basics/en/” iSi’s new Flex-It line/A of mixing, measuring and pouring products. /p

div style=”align: right;”img src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/2010/04/0flexitisi02.jpg” width=”468″ height=”434″ alt=”0flexitisi02.jpg”//div

pWhile the shapes are the same, the key difference is the material: Made from silicone, the Flex-It vessels can change their shape and allow you to make your own spout./p

pThe flexible mixing bowls, measuring cups and random containers come in handy in all sorts of ways, as you’ll want to pour something with the viscosity of pancake batter at a different rate than you’d pour straight liquid, olive oil or dry grains of rice. /p

div style=”align: right;”img src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/2010/04/0flexitisi03.jpg” width=”468″ height=”846″ alt=”0flexitisi03.jpg”//div

pIt’s wonderfully intuitive to squeeze the container to make your exit point, instead of using the flawed one-size-fits-all notion of a fixed spout. I’ve even been using them to dole out dollops of the thick Greek yogurt that I use to supplement my dogs’ diet, and with practice, you get good at squirting out just the right amount of the goopy stuff./p

pLastly, the stuff cleans up easily, and though I’ve not had cause to use them in this way, the silicone material makes it heat-resistant up to 475 degrees. Once you use these things, you’ll never want to go back to using fixed-shape mixing bowls, prep bowls and measuring cups./pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/materials/kitchen_goods_evolve_with_isis_silicone_flex-it_line_16452.asp”(more…)/a
pa href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Mg4ROegj32O6Y5jI7PwseS7oBwI/0/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Mg4ROegj32O6Y5jI7PwseS7oBwI/0/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/abr/
a href=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Mg4ROegj32O6Y5jI7PwseS7oBwI/1/da”img src=”http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/Mg4ROegj32O6Y5jI7PwseS7oBwI/1/di” border=”0″ ismap=”true”/img/a/p

We’re not entirely sure how we feel about this editorial, but it’s worth reading, so we’ll let you decide. (think of it as a little “free will” break from us telling you what to think). In part responding to the current battle going on at the Whitney, expansion vs. moving, the Atlantic‘s Kyle Chayka has penned the piece “Are Fine Art Museums the Next Starbucks?” The quick synopsis of his argument is that expansion and constant focus on real estate land grabs (see: the Guggenheim, the MoMA‘s new tower, etc.) can run museums dangerously close to becoming nothing more than a watered down brand, or worse: glorified gift shops that just happen to have a couple of pieces of art hanging on the walls. On one hand, we certainly see his point. On the other, it might go a bit far, given that outgrowing a space and moving isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and even the most expansion-friendly, the Guggenheim, still only has less than 10 locations. But again, it’s well worth the read.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Now showing at the Vienna Furniture Museum, The Ikea Phenomenon takes a look at the international lifestyle brand’s design evolution from the 1950s to the present. The show, considered through the lens of design history (and reinforcing Ikea‘s knack for mirroring current styles), includes approximately 100 examples of the brand’s furniture displayed alongside 30 examples of Scandinavian and international designers that have inspired Ikea over the years. At various stations, mini-exhibits illustrate core concepts like Scandinavian Modern, flat-pack, modular furniture and sustainability.

In addition to the expansive furniture display, the Ikea Phenomenon includes a section dedicated to “Ikea Pimps and Hacks,” creative lighting transformations inspired by and/or incorporating existing Ikea elements. Also on exhibit, a pair of rooms exemplify Ikea’s ongoing modernity—one a mockup of an “average” Austrian living room, markedly shabby and boring; the other composed of the most popular selling Ikea wares, channeling Dwell-like style.

The exhibit itself, designed by the always-fun Austrian design firm Walking Chair, features a weaving, amorphous-looking yellow display structure, upon which many of the furniture pieces sit, reinforcing Ikea’s playful but functional identity.

And while design is clearly the focus, the show also pays homage to Ikea’s development from a one-man shop to its present international success. Founded in 1943 by a then 17-year-old Ingvar Kamprad, the Ikea name is an acronym combining his initials, the first letter of his father’s farm (Elmtaryd) and his Swedish hometown, Agunnaryd. Originally selling stationary, stockings and other everyday items, only adding furniture to the lineup in 1948, Ikea’s major business expansion began in the 1970s.

The point Phenomenon drives home throughout is Ikea’s longstanding dedication to quality design for all. From Scandinavia to the U.S. and Saudi Arabia to Vienna, the company’;s influence on lifestyle across the globe through mass-produced, well-designed and affordable pieces—the kind we don’t feel guilty about replacing every few years—is (quite unlike its furniture) one-of-a-kind.

The Ikea Phenomenon runs through 11 July 2010.