Here’s the latest from Shawn Sims, Director of NOTlabs and resident car aficionado.

Back in October 2012 in Toronto’s Royal Bank Plaza, a shipping container sized structure popped up alongside a new Audi Quattro A4. In the glowing glass container, you’d find quite the slot car track, essentially a tiny Audi wonderland, which you could race through via iPads. Audi Canada and Slot Mods USA took the traditional slot car track to a new level, as this one included 3D printed 1:32 scale Audi A4s that you drive with an iPad and custom cameras. Bummed you missed it? Me too. Lucky for you and I they released a great making-of video about the process of creating the interactive installation.

The short film, Painting Coconuts - The Audi Quattro Experience, is filled with inspiring craft and passion. It follows David Beattie, owner of Slot Mods USA, and his team as they produce the one of a kind interactive artwork. Every detail is painstakingly hand crafted. The trees are made from dried Japanese Sedum flowers, custom circuits were built for the POV cameras, and when sourcing a 1:32 scale model of the current A4 proved difficult, they 3D scanned a real one and used the digital file to 3D print the slot cars. Check out the making- of video and lots of close ups on the next page…

TO PAGE 2 of "Making of the Audi Quattro slot cars "! ----->

Tags: audi - cars - toys - video

Remember Audi’s 2011 CES booth of overlit white glowiness? Well this year Audi actually took it even further and created an equally stark white super bright booth that not only pulled everyone into the light… but trapped them in their infinite kaleidoscopic florescent tube grid of dizzying madness. Then again to be fair i had just walked the show floor all day and could barely feel my feet anyways. Regardless ~ it makes for awesome pictures ~ and some insane reflections on the many reflective surfaces in the booth…

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Tags: art - audi - cars - CES - lighting - technology

This CES content is sponsored by BestBuyOn.com. Thanks, Best Buy!!!

Ok, firstly. OMG. CES is absolute madness as always. Vegas is, well, Vegas. And as you’ve seen in previous years, CES coverage NOTCOT style is a smattering of eye catching design in real life! So first things that tend to grab me (we see the products so early often!) is booth design! First one to just literally suck me in and leave me in awe not wanting to leave… Audi. Wow. In a sea of show floor visual chaos, tucked behind the digital health (i.e. fitness ipad apps and adjustable beds), there is this looming large box of a space, that literally glows… and you just HAVE to walk in… and once in, there’s something almost magical (yet so surreal like you stepped into a scifi in between space) that is SO glowingly white from all sides, geometric facets all around, from the floor and ceiling and walls to the furniture and installations. Showing off their new electric and hyper linked systems, the display was filled with grown men and women with that 5 year old look of wonder. While their keynote promised a dreamy future of technology in automotive… from AR HUDs and e-tron spyder concepts, to autonomously driven Audi TTS… while still stressing that while they want more technology to assist the driver, they don’t want to take away driving from the driver. I can’t deny there is a definite draw to the clean glowing simplicity of their “booth”! See it on the next page!

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Tags: audi - cars - CES - exhibition - technology

Spotted this stunner of a new ad from Audi at the always awesome Stash ~ “Imagination Meets Engineering” advert for the new Audi A7 Sportback. It’s like an xray kaleidoscope of nature meets engineering madness that is absolutely mesmerizingly set to Basement Jaxx’s ‘Dracula’. I just watched it a few times over! See the video on the next page, as well as screenshots of some of my favorite moments.

TO PAGE 2 of ""Imagination Meets Engineering" - Audi A7 Ad"! ----->

Tags: advertising - audi - cars - video