Catch up with the latest from London with our UK-based editor Justine.

I was intrigued when I got an email about Hendrick’s Most Unusual 13th day of Christmas. The window promised to house “ten sleazy ‘Lords a Leaping’, twelve ‘Wild haggis drumming’ to, three ‘Giant snails’ pretending to be French hens to a lone partridge in a cucumber plant”. So we popped down to Jerboams Belgravia to see what it was all about!

Sure enough, the display was a proper cabinet of curiosities featuring work from a number of artists all curated by Matthew Killick and including plenty of twists on James Halliwell’s 1842 classic Christmas carol. I especially loved the haggis drummers from the Little Theatre of Dolls and what’s not to love about giant African land snails posing as French hens?

You can catch the window at Jerboams for the next two weeks, or catch it in Peckham’s, Edinburgh in December and be sure to see more photos on the next page.

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Tags: art - drinks - holiday - installation - windows

Here’s the latest from our London-based editor Justine

Naturalists and art lovers are in for a treat with the stunning exhibition Ghosts of Gone Birds. Ghosts is the brainchild of filmmaker Ceri Levy and Chris Aldhouse of Goodpilot and an exhibition which captures and celebrates extinct bird species and raises awareness and funds for conservation. The show includes over 300 pieces created by an army of 120 artists, writers and musicians (see the full list here and all proceeds from the show will aid conservation through Bird Life International.

Those who can’t catch the show in London can still purchase some of the gorgeous prints through the online shop, but I would strongly recommend heading down to see this amazing show in person if you can. The exhibition runs until November 23rd at the Rochelle School in Shoreditch, full details here. In the meantime, take a look at the show through our eyes with our photo gallery of personal highlights and Ghost’s facebook page.

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Tags: animals - art - biology - birds - gallery - illustration - installation - nature - paintings - print - prints - sculpture

From our London based editor, Justine…

Some fun highlights from this year’s Experimental Food Society Spectacular exhibition housed in Brick Lane’s Old Truman Brewery! How could we not check out an event that boasted “an awe‐inspiring assemblage of jellymongers, sonic food artists, one‐of‐a‐kind dining conceptualists, cake sculptors, food landscape artists and food magicians”? There were some amazing cakes (including a dodo!), beautiful pieces created from chocolate as well as incredible quail egg cakes (made both from and in the eggs!) and medicinal marshmallows. See more photos of these delicious designs on the next page.

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Tags: baking - exhibition - food - gallery - installation

Our London-based editor Justine catches up with the latest action from the London Design Festival!

Another unexpected discovery of the festival, was the work of Christopher Jarratt. Some of you may remember Christopher Jarratt’s previous slingshots from NOTCOT.org, but to see them in person and what can be done with these elegant pieces is something different altogether. Jarratt’s ‘Take a Shot’ exhibition at the YCN shop and library on Rivington Street is filled with these beautiful, colorful and playful slingshots. The slingshots are both works of art in their own right as well as a means of making art. See the next page for more photos of the slingshots and photos of them in action!

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Tags: art - exhibition - gallery - installation - store

Our London-based editor Justine catches up with the latest action from the London Design Festival!

Beautifully refreshing, I was blown away by the setting of this wonderful showcase of Swedish Design. Hemma, which means ‘home’ in Swedish, is one of two exhibitions of Swedish Design Goes to London and is appropriately hosted in the Swedish Ambassador’s Residence, a beautiful 18th century house.

The beauty and elegance of the house works incredibly well with the clean, contemporary designs showcased in Hemma and the venue is a stunning and welcome addition to this year’s design festival. For example, love the contrast between the chandeliers and the vibrant purples of Sara Reinholtz’s Pixtel Shapes. More photos of this stunning exhibition on the next page.

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Tags: designers - exhibition - home - installation - london - sweden

This year’s coverage of the London Design Festival kicks off with a post from our London-based editor Justine!

It is truly amazing what a perfectly designed, executed and situated lens and mirror can do to transform a space! John Pawson and Swarovski Crystal Palace have created a minimalist masterpiece that really showcases the beauty of the iconic St. Paul’s Cathedral. Undeniably artistic, ‘Perspectives’ piece shows great understanding of the science of the optical experience and makes excellent use of light, space and proportion to capture and reflect the beauty of Sir Christopher Wren’s cathedral, 300 years after its completion.

‘Perspectives’ allows all visitors to look both up at the staggering beauty of the Geometric staircase as well as down from the top (a view accessible only to a privileged few). Pawson has accomplished this through a crystal meniscus of Swarovski crystal, situated on a reflective hemisphere. The view from above is then reflected downward from a spherical convex mirror hanging above in the tower’s cupola some 23m above. The project is a beautiful celebration of St. Paul’s and brings Swarovski’s role as a lens maker to the fore. The minimalist design of this impressive 14kg lens puts Wren’s architecture at the fore and provides a beautiful, unique perspective of this London landmark. London Design Festival is off to a great start! Check out more images of ‘Perspectives’, as well as photos of the champagne breakfast overlooking St. Paul’s on the next page!

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Tags: architecture - art - installation - swarovski

Today i had a little adventure into the world of Levi’s. Wandering out into hollywood, i found myself immersed in Levi’s! Fascinating to see everything from the history of the 501 (from the original to the various evolutions of the years…) to the Curve ID jeans for women under a fantastic installation of bright yellow folding yard sticks ~ to the latest Commuter 511 collection (perfect for commuter cyclists with reflective seams when you fold the cuff up)… and even a peek at the edible garden installation by Silverlake Farms that was previously at MOCA! The adventures culminate in the dressing room, where after getting a feel for the collections, i slipped in to their Curve ID: Demis to find myself to be a perfect 27… take a peek at it all on the next page…

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Tags: bikes - fashion - gardens - gifts - installation - shopping

After quite the day running around lusting after a time when cars were so so so much more than just cars… and before getting to the most incredible dinner at Cassanova in Carmel ~ when parking on Ocean Ave, we ended up right next to these windows! And as hungry as i was, simply had to stop and take pics! Adorable window display celebrating “Concours on the Avenue” in Carmel with kids’ outfits made of maps! Very well done, and quite the contrast to what you’d find actually IN the store… and of the all the windows we wandered past, it was certainly the most interesting. Others simply added ferrari posters to their jewelry displays and such, whereas these guys went all out! Take a look at the details on the next page ~ the pockets, the shoes, so cute ~ and so much attention to the details!

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Tags: fashion - installation - kids - maps - windows

High Arctic is a stunning new installation in the National Maritime Museum’s brand new Sammy Ofer Wing which will opens to the public today, July 14th.

The installation is an eerie futuristic work is a collaboration between the National Maritime Museum, UVA (UnitedVisualArtists) and Cape Farewell. The exhibition is designed to capture the scale, beauty and fragility of our arctic environment. The installation was created as a response to the arctic journey of Matt Clark of UVA, who traveled with the arts and climate science foundation Cape Farewell to the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard in September 2010 aboard the 100-year old Dutch schooner, the Noorderlicht.

A highly interactive space, the exhibition turns visitors into explorers armed with handheld blacklights to discover the dark and everchanging environment while listening to snippets of narration from Arctic explorers (a soundscape created by Max Eastley and Henrik Ekeus from the voices of Arctic explorers and poetry of Nick Drake). The beautiful projections respond dynamically to the approach and movements of visitors and the blacklights reveal glimmers in the exhibition floor and to discover the thousands of columns which represent the real glaciers of Svalbard.

Find out more at the exhibition’s page on the UVA website and its page on the National Maritime Museum site. More photos and videos of the installation after the jump!

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Tags: art - installation - museum

This post is part of a NOTCOT series on inspiring, independent design thinking, brought to you by Saab. At Saab, we believe in independent thinking. It’s in everything we do. Learn more here.

Doesn’t that picture just scream: HAPPY? I bet you’re smiling right now. (If not, what’s wrong with you?) As you may have noticed, we’ve got a soft spot for swings. So imagine our delight at discovering the crazy swing installations from Jeff Waldman and the Awesome Foundation’s LA chapter. For Waldman swings are a way of “finding pure joy were from our childhood” and he picked some pretty incredible locations for his swings. Waldman’s been tracking the awesome swingification across the globe in his facebook gallery. And for a peek into some of our favorites ~ as well as videos ~ take a peek on the next page!

p.s. Can’t wait to get back to LA to go hunt a few of his down, add more of our skateboard swings around, and swing to our heart’s delight!

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Tags: installation - kids - outdoors

Just in from the UK ~ Justine just checked out Clerkenwell Design Week!

Nostalgia just hit ~ remember those pin art toys from the… 80s? Just lost a little time ending up on searching for the old ones! Found info on it on Wikipedia - random fun fact? “The pinscreen was popularized in the 1985 music video for the Midge Ure song “If I Was”, which included a giant body-sized version.” They are even still available on Amazon!

But i digress… this installation from Clerkenwell Design Week is “Be a Pin Up!” from Lulu Guinness, there she is with it above (pics from her blog). The giant frame of pins is situated in front of the iconic London landmark, St John’s Gate and lets the public create full body sized portraits using the 6,000 chromed capped aluminum pins. Here are a few pics of the images created by passerbys. Check out the pics on the next page!

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Tags: art - installation - kids - toys

Thanks, Veuve Clicquot, our Milano Design Week sponsor! We adore their new origami inspired ice bucket, Clicq’up.

Spotted in Milan, the mesmerizing Flylight, by Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta (Studio DRIFT) in collaboration with engineers Klaas van der Molen and Luuk van Laake. It is a beautiful light installation composed of 160 glass tubes. The tubes light up and respond to the viewer and was inspired by the movements of a flock of birds. Each light is programmed with digital DNA and responds individually to the presence of viewers. Ultrasonic sensors detect the distance between viewers and installation, causing the ‘flock’ to react differently as visitors come closer or approach the installation in different configurations. To make sense of it fully you have to check out the video and pics on the next page!

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Tags: art - birds - installation - lighting - milan - salone - technology

Photo credit: Tom Swain

On more awesome London window discoveries, Justine has been working on this post all week ~ but we got a bit distracted while running around in Paris!

“The craftsman’s heart rate will be monitored while he works and transferred to a computer, which will in turn convert the data into commands for a sewing machine.” Interactive installation art from Fendi over at Harrods! I spotted these gorgeous windows at Harrods and was intrigued by the intricate leatherwork and prominently featured machinery. While many of Harrods’ other windows are under construction, window number five features the work of British artist-designer Rowan Mersh and artisan Cyril Letellier. The collaborative performance and is a part of Fendi’s global project, ‘Fatto A Mano’, which translates to hand made. From leather to heart rate to machine to more machines… the out put is a fascinating sculptural form of sorts… see it all in action on the next page!

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Tags: art - harrods - installation - london - technology - windows

Armed with her camera, Justine checked out the Kinetica Art Fair for us, and found some inspiring and fun art pieces i’m loving! Here’s what she had to say about it…

Jun Ga Young’s ‘Whistling Sea’ is another incredible piece at the 2011 Kinetica Art Fair which consisted of hanji paper, creating a sea of colours and hues, which change sometimes calmly and at other times rapidly along with the music. There’s something magical watching it in action, so take a peek at the videos on the next page!

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Tags: art - events - installation - lighting

Such a fun way to spend the day before hopping on the LAX-CDG flight ~ TBWA\Chiat\LA 5353 Music Art Fest ~ an evolution of what was once a company wide picnic, this year TBWA\Chiat\Day threw a party in their parking lot celebrating their team, art, and music accompanied by food trucks (Kogi and Greasy Weiner) and an Ice Cream Sandwich Bar! The music was quite the line up with performances by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Fool’s Gold, Fitz and the Tantrums, and Local Natives. Then there was the art ~ nice idea to have an art show featuring non work pieces by TBWA\Chiat\Day employees, many of which don’t necessarily even work in the creative side! The beer was flowing, the dunk tank was splashing, the music was blasting, and everyone seemed to be having a great time as they popped in and out of the building ~ i guess the only downside (or upside?) to having this year’s event in the parking lot versus offsite, you can hang out AND still work at the same time! Huge thanks to the folks at TBWA\Chiat\Day for inviting me in, honored to have made the “friends of…” list! Check out the fun scene from the top of the parking garage, the giant chicken sculpture that farts bubbles, the pixelated bike, the burnt golf balls and more on the next page!

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Tags: advertising - art - events - installation - los angeles - music - sculpture

Amazing Bigfoot solo show, Ominous Compositions from the Magic Mountains at Hurley’s )( Space in Costa Mesa opened tonight. Wow. The mural, the smoking heads that greet you, the garage door mouth of a huge bigfoot… such amazing installations! And the wood pieces, where he manages to bring bigfoots out of the wood grain ~ mesmerizing! So many beautiful pieces by BIGFOOT who has been all over the skate, art, toy world the last decade ~ really fun to see it all up close and larger than life! As StrangeCo says, “his work depicts the conflict between respect for nature (held by the Bigfoot race) and the destructive agenda of humans.” Fun detail to look for? Jason Maloney, Hurley’s resident artist and friend of Bigfoot, even has a little snake snuck into the mural! See LOTS of pics of the show on the next page… and the gorgeous sunset too!

p.s. you can also check out a video with him interviewed by Maloney for Hurley here

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Tags: art - events - gallery - installation - opening

We’re down to Spain vs Netherlands already in the World Cup finals! And before it’s all over ~ you have to check out Nike’s installation in the atrium of the Carlton Centre in Johannesburg. Meet Ball Man! A giant 21 meter high footballer made from 5,500 suspended skills balls and weighing more than 4.5 tons. Developed using a 3-D image of an athlete and then aligning each of the balls individually, which are strung together by over 10 kilometers of wire from the ceiling. Additionally, it incorporates some of Nike’s latest products (National Team Kits and Nike Elite Series). While we’ve been seeing a trend in individually suspended weights, etc. to create incredible 3d sculptures that become far more than a sum of their parts from afar… this installation certainly takes the scale to a whole new level!

Nike definitely gets bonus points for thinking beyond the installation ~ each of the 5,500 balls will be given to local community programs after the tournament! Such a nice gesture, i wonder if they recipients will be able to tell which one of Ball Man’s balls they receive? Pics and video on the next page!

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Tags: advertising - art - football - installation - soccer

Crossroads by Garvin Nolte “The video installation “crossroads (what to do)” deals with the influence of others onto one’s own path of life in an abstract way.” Ever feel like everyone is pulling you in so many different directions? or telling you where to go and what to do? Is your technology dictating your life… literally? Lovely video/installation piece! See the video on the next page!

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Tags: art - gps - installation - video

Another incredible installation at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart (first i showed you the sliced up porsches)… I stood and watched this wall a few times over. Mesmerized. It’s a wall with the outlines of 7 models of 911s overlayed. And that is QUITE the jumble, but then the projection fills in one outline at a time, and you can watch the evolution between the models overlaid. It’s amazing… to see how things tweaked, expanded, shifted, and more over time… See the video as well as pics on the next page…

… as well as a peek at the spinning platforms of 911s and this absolutely stunning 356 on the next page!

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Tags: cars - installation - museum - porsche - projection - stuttgart - technology

While at 10 Corso Como ~ i really wish i had a pack of color pencils to take to the walls of Maison Martin Margiela’s pop up shoppable installation space that is covered in black and white color by number surfaces! All non-fashion lines of the Maison are displayed: home objects (line 13), fragrances (line 3), sunglasses (line 8) and jewellery pieces (line 12). Also memorable ~ the jewelry are all in safes behind paintings… which are all open! And of course, the creepy dolls eyes behind each pair of sunglasses… see lots of pics of the single room on the next page!

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Tags: events - installation - milan - salone

Post apocalyptic techno camps with an 80’s florescent pyramid teepee flair - filled with pillows and and imacs and kids hanging out… this was the scene at Nike’s new art space, Nike Stadium ~ current set up designed by the collective, Super (Thomas Ruff, Richard Previdi, and Massimiliano Buvoli)! I love the way the sections of the pyramids are single florescent bulb lengths… The three pyramids are Green, Yellow, and Red ~ the colors of the subway lines ~ and the graphics are of San Siro Stadium. Additionally the event for the space had live painting ~ and a look at the making of the Mercurial Vapor Superfly II ~ including looks at Ronaldo’s foot molds… I’m excited to see what else will pop up in some of the beautiful gallery/event spaces in the Nike building, it promises to involve more engaging community focused arts and events! Take a peek at pics of the installation on the next page!

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Tags: art - installation - milan - nike - salone - tent

I think i fell in love with the video installations of Jennifer West at the Calvin Klein Collection + LAND art event tonight… or perhaps, it’s the way people interacted with it. a large open space, multiple spastic video projections pulling you in ~ colorful, intriguing, and apparently the perfect thing to make stunning shadows as people passed in front of them. While i can’t seem to find a website for her, i did find this fun interview on Flash Art Online about these pieces! Turns out she’s a topangan! And the way she works with and physically manipulates real film fascinates me in this digital age… her love of and experimentation with abstraction and representation is beautiful! Beautiful and fun enough it certainly needed a post of its own! So take a peek at some of my favorite pics involving her projections from the night ~ as well as a video! That really gives you a good feel for the experience… i suggest playing it full screen in HD mode!

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Tags: art - calvin klein - events - installation - los angeles - projection - video