February 11, 2009
While on the topic of Afghanistan, here are some examples of Afghani war rugs. Production of these pictorial rugs began in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion and persisted throughout the civil war and into the US invasion.
The so-called “afghan blanket” seems to go to Value Village to die. It’s hard to know which is more disturbing: the synthetic nature of the object itself, or the fact that it is still, amazingly, given everything that has happened over the last fifteen or more years, called an “afghan.” A search online to discover the origins of this craft object immediately turned up “The All American Denim Stripes Afghan.” No lie!
February 10, 2009
Sometimes after seeing too many chichi, precious, and citified houses, too much shiny, overproduced design, and everything just starts to look too estranged from the materials it was made from, as an antidote I go look at pictures of handbuilt houses.
February 9, 2009
February 8, 2009
Martin Margiela is never entirely serious nor entirely flippant, which is part of what makes him an interesting artist. For example his site. This waistcoat how-to was produced by Maison Margiela and is courtesy The Guardian, where you can find many other odd DIY tutorials, like Jade Jagger’s punk bracelet.
February 7, 2009
Terunobu Fujimori has been called the world’s only “surreal architect.” Obviously this is false, but there is a fantastical quality about his work that isn’t typical among architects, even when they’re trying for the new, strange or sci-fi.
This fantastic new pendant lamp or chandelier is by my friends Propellor, an award winning collaboration of three Vancouver designers whose ridiculously beautiful studio is a few blocks from mine.
February 6, 2009
The beautiful Sleeping Cottage on Lake Huron, Canada, by Mos, 2003-4. Many people may already have seen Mos’ Floating House on Lake Huron. Mos is an architectural firm that in their own words is “a collective of designers, architects, thinkers, and state-of-the-art weirdoes.
February 5, 2009
From the National Museum: of Ethnography in Japan: “At the end of the Edo period, when the exhibited house was constructed, villagers of Akiyama mainly grew beans and such millet grains as cockspur, foxtail millet, and buckwheat.
February 4, 2009
Textile looms and computers share a common history; Babbage used punch cards in his Difference Engine after seeing a Jacquard loom at work. This carpet by Richard Hutten is called “Playing With Tradition” and it plays on the historical relationship of looms and computers by looking exactly like a digital image that has been pixel-stretched.
