After learning that director David Lynch (previously) designs furniture as a hobby, Milan Design Week curator Antonio Monda invited him to create an installation for Salone del Mobile—delivering A Thinking Room whose patterned floor evokes the Red Room, an extra-dimensional antechamber accessible through Twin Peaks’ Glastonbury Grove. Whilst meant to be meditative, following Lynch’s practise, the space is also a refuge for relaxation and reflection. Anticipating the demand, two identical rooms were built, according to designer’s specifications, in the historic Piccolo Teatro. The branching metal rods radiating from the oversized wooden are not connected to anything, though perhaps metaphysically, and most of the choices in elements are left unexplained. Read more from Dezeen at the link above.
Sunday 21 April 2024
Wednesday 13 December 2023
7x7 (11. 186)
origin story: how Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer began as a department store promotional giveaway
owl001: BBC hacked live on the air in 1983—see also—via Damn Interesting’s Curated Links
marie mathรฉmatique: the adventures of the younger sister of Barbarella, scored by Serge Gainsbourg—see more
ggwp: the E3 gaming conference has been shuttered permanently
the great toy robbery: an animated classic from the National Film Board of Canada
ikea monkey: the happy life of Darwin the macaque after its moment of fame—previously
Tuesday 17 October 2023
6x6 (11. 064)
narnia: the wardrobe portraits of Sarah Ainslie
there’dn’t’ve: an exploration of contractions—both the probable and the practicalghost swing: Louie Zong returns with another spooky symphony—via Waxy
an mj winkler production: the Independent film studio behind the centenary of Disney
compound pejoratives: the affixes of insult and their pattern distribution—see also
murphy tub: a folding bath from the 1930s—via Messy Nessy Chic
Sunday 23 July 2023
9x9 (10. 901)
effective altruism: FTX lobbyist tried to purchase the island nation of Nauru as a doomsday bunker and create a genetically enhanced human species
getting drunk at a disco: 1977 found footage of an evening not necessarily going downhill
this is not a love poem: a round-up of favourites that are not all lovey-dovey—via tmn
rambler: a collection of illustrated exteriors of California ranch homes—see also1975: Kuala Lumpur authorities shut down the Good Vibes festival after headliner Matty Healy criticised Malaysia’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws
point of no return: time is running out on the Climate Clock
stooping: trend adopted by Chinese young people involves decorating with cast-off furniture left by the curb
smokey, this is not ‘nam—this is bowling, there are rules: Big Lebowski (previously) inspired bowling alley via Nag on the Lake’s Sunday Links (lots more to explore there)
typoglycemia: bypassing chatbot’s ethical subroutines using word scrambling and transposed letters
Sunday 18 June 2023
8x8 (10, 816)
picassa: Google is sunsetting Album Archive—which could possibly affect Blogger blogs—but no one seems to know for sure—see more
eames institute of infinite curiosity: exhibit honours design duo’s (previously) relationship with Saul Steinberg
select the photos of clouds that would make me stand out on the lawn and watch for storms—and we definitely need a good storm soon: reCAPTCHAs as written by your father
cronuts: a protest poster with some cannibalistic syncretism and linguistic confusion
boo berry: a look at the history of America monster breakfast cereals—see previously
eesti nukud: a 1982 stop-motion animation about a baker and a chimneysweep switching roles—with some banging flute rock
maximalism: a tour of Barbie’s Dream Home—more on the aesthetic here
bad karma: Reddit communities going dark in protest and forced to reopen—in the funniest possible ways
Wednesday 3 May 2023
populuxe (10. 714)
Via friend of the blog par excellence, Nag on the Lake, we are directed towards the futuristic portfolio of artist and illustrator Charles Schridde (1926 - 2011), who exhibiting real talent from an early age was awarded a scholarship to the Chicago Institute of Art, and returning to a career as a free-lance graphic designer after service in World War II, was commissioned by Motorola (notice the central figure is home media) for a series of advertisements appearing in Life and The Saturday Evening Post and helped define the Mid-Century Modern aesthetic that capitalised on optimism for a brighter future. More at the links above.
Monday 6 March 2023
9x9 (10. 596)
destination berlin: a Royal Military Police guide to the divided city from 1988—see also
geodomesticeerde: one Dutch rancher spearheading the protest against livestock reductions
gado gado: the Indonesia version of the cult Cobb salad that may be the best in the world—via Digg
fret and fingerbรธard: a guitar nearly exclusively sourced from IKEA furnishing elements—via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest paratethys sea: the ancient lake that stretched from the Alps to the Arals was the world’s largest lakeflorilegium: botanical collages by an eighteenth-century septuagenarian—via Kottke
mar yousef’s: the “pizza church” of Jordan imparting Iraqi Christian refugees with marketable skills—via Miss Cellania
heritage graziers: regenerative agriculture, no farmstead required
orange alternative: how a diminutive graffito helped bring down the Soviet Union
Monday 30 January 2023
7x7 (10. 510)
loft apartment: a unique flat inside St Louis’ City Museum up for rent—via Miss Cellania
relaxed minimalism: a happy medium combining clarity and comfort
namensverbreitungskarte: an interactive maps illustrating the distribution of surnames in Germanynocebo: even when the patient is aware of taking an inert pill, a substance designed with no therapeutic value can lessen feelings of guilt and loathing—via the new shelton wet/dry
synodic and sidereal: the question of lunar standard time is a challenge—particularly with multiple missions operating at once—via jwz
kurashi: tidying guru Marie Kondo have accepted messiness after the arrival of her third child
arragon mooar: the purportedly the most complicated home ever built—by inventor John C Taylor—on the market—via Things Magazine
Tuesday 10 January 2023
6x6 (10. 403)
camera obscura: the fantastic, “historical” photography apparatuses of Mathieu Stern
all maps at once: interesting and interactive cartographical overlays with the open-source viewing standard
murphy desk: the flow wall workspace designed by Robert van Embricqs
this is the sound of a gavel: a litany of concessions in exchange for the House Speakership
Sunday 18 September 2022
boardwalks, beaches and boulevards (10. 146)
Prominent and influential street photographer and educator, Harold Feinstein (1931 - 2015) had an enduring attraction to New York at the community of Coney Island where he was born. Thanks to a Redditor, we are introduced to Feinstein’s extensive portfolio through one composition that frames those perched above Brighton Beach as musical notation. Feinstein’s work also enjoyed commercial ubiquity, IKEA’s White Rose poster (see also) being one of the most widely distributed homeware artistic photos. Much more to explore at the links above.
Wednesday 19 January 2022
7x7
tomm¥ €a$h: rapper presents a sofa in the shape of bread
banana republic: an exhibit that takes a critical look at the fruit trade—see alsofield manual: the predecessor agency to the US CIA issued a guide to simple sabotage which speaks to America’s present state
bio-rovers: Marimo moss balls (previously) could become ambulatory—see also here and here
spinthatiscope: an actual 1940s toy harnessing radioactive decay fragments of life: a suite of animated emoji from Andreas Samuelsson
middle c: a space-saving piano designed to fit in a corner—see also
Monday 20 December 2021
6x6
you sure have a way with people—well, they’re my species: Harold and Maude at fifty, with soundtrack by Yusuf (Cat) Stevens
lake toilet-brush: the toponymic curse of IKEA product names
๐: a round-up of the Resurrections premier
build back better: US president Joe Biden’s legislative agenda derailed
die hard’s a christmas movie: Eyes Wide Shut (1999) re-evaluated
Saturday 3 July 2021
*batteries not included
Though the US government’s recently frank but frustratingly inconclusive report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon leaves a lot of unanswered questions and room for scepticism, IKEA, as evinced by their new assembly instruction manual redesigns, are embracing this expanded market opportunity and expressing their belief in aliens. More at Print Magazine at the link above.
Thursday 27 May 2021
hรถnkhalt
Spotted on Super Punch, a wildlife rescue sanctuary in Somerset in southwest England is using IKEA shopping bags to gently restrain swans for transportation and to keep staff safe, prompting a range of new names for the FRAKTA sacks such as the above, BYRDKONTAIN, ODETTEHOLDUR, SVANESร NG, Pร SFร GEL—the penultimate suggestion being actual Swedish for Swan Song and “Bag Bird” a near homonym for pรฅfรฅgel, peafowl—and others.
Tuesday 6 October 2020
9x9
dry dock: a drone surveys a cruise ship graveyard
one of these things is not like the other: match memes described as having the same energy—via Waxy
anti-trust, anti-social: leaked documents show how viciously Facebook (previously) plans to fight regulations and its forced break-up
verticalisation: photographer Manuel Alvarez Diestro has Chongqing in frame a decade after his first visit
rephotography: vis-ร -vis, the above, staging the same photos decades later—via Things Magazine
we bid a hasty retreat from his lair: School House Rock’s Unpack Your Adjectives
begagnade varor: IKEA to open a second-hand outlet in Sweden—via Kottke
space ghost coast-to-coast: a retrospective of comics illustrator Alex Toth
even keel: a tiny, personal boat to navigate Amsterdam’s canals
Monday 5 October 2020
รคlmhult almanac
catagories: ๐ธ๐ช, ๐, ๐️, libraries and museums
Friday 14 August 2020
8x8
really simple syndication: Tedium explores early electronic news and digital services (see previously here, here and here)
let’s go out to the lobby: a 1979 drive-in cinema sci-fi concession advertisement
heracleum sosnovsky: creative interventions to control the toxic, invasive import known as “Stalin’s Revenge”
iss: a digital coffee table book documenting life aboard the International Space Station
dead pilots society: a treasury of unproduced television shows—via Miss Cellania’s Links (see also)
eftertrรคda: IKEA reveals its branded line of apparel with a new collection
the audience is listening: the origins of Netflix’s ta-dum sound—via Things Magazine with a special edition on start-up noises
Saturday 18 January 2020
7x7
economies of ale: after a decade of steep declines, UK pub numbers are seeing a slight uptick charted
parkverbotszone: plans for the future IKEA am Westbahnhof in Vienna is being designed for a post-auto world
women hold up half the sky: Liang Jun, the tractor driving figure, iconically featured on the one yuan bill, has passed away, aged ninety
best in show: winners and honourable-mentions of the Ocean Art Photography competition
the id, the super-ego, and the psyche: the strange, singular encounter between Salvador Dalรญ and Sigmund Freud
triangle man, triangle man: celebrating thirty years of They Might Be Giants’ (a reference to Don Quixote’s tilting at windmills) seminal album Flood
there and back again: a remembrance of Christopher Tolkien (*1925 – †2020), executor of his father’s literary estate and map-maker of Middle Earth
Tuesday 26 November 2019
terraformering
The Martian Desert Research Station in remote, arid Utah—the experimental living area affectionately referred to as the Hab—has been cleverly and economically (both in regards to cost and space) is being furnished by Swedish homeware and lifestyle giant IKEA. The heuristic exercise is a valuable object lesson on scarcity of materials, durability, sustainability and repurposing and has garnered some important insights and anticipated various challenges.
Monday 21 October 2019
ten of dowels
Via the always excellent Nag on the Lake, we are introduced to the handiwork of a creative called Hundred-Armed Sweater (that would be for the Hecatonkherires on your gift-list) through her IKEA-inspired tarot deck, recognising that the store and experience represents “a place of transition, a journey, a source of light and comfort but also strife.” The deck includes the major and four full suites of minor arcana.
catagories: ๐, ๐️, lifestyle, myth and monsters