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

The Design Museum, London is celebrating Dutch graphic designer Wim Crouwel with his first UK retrospective. Crouwel is renowned for his bold typographic designs that captured the essence of emerging technologies during the 1960s. The exhibit opened on March 30th and runs until July 3rd. You can find out more about the exhibit at the Design Museum’s site for the exhibit: ‘Wim Crouwel - A graphic odyssey’ and see more images of the exhibit below.

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Tags: designers - exhibition - modernism - museum - typography

On more zoological inspiration… Justine went to explore the newly reopened Grant Museum of Zoology, and here’s what she has to share!

The Grant Museum of Zoology has always been one of my favorites. Tucked away on Gower Street (near Euston Square tube), the Grant Museum is open to the public on weekday afternoons. The eclectic zoological museum is part of University College London’s teaching collections and one of only a handful of university zoology museums.

I’d visited the museum before and was amazed by the hidden gem, packed full of spirit collections and skeletons. When they closed 8 months ago for refurbishment, I have to admit I was worried about what changes it would bring. I have a soft spot for the quirky, cluttered, Wunderkammer style it had embodied. So when I re-entered the newly refurbished museum today, I wasn’t sure what to expect; but as you can see from the photos, they’ve done a fabulous job of creating a great space that plays to the strengths of their weird and wonderful collection. Take a little tour through the fascinating collection and space on the next page!

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Tags: animals - london - museum - nature - travel

Being a food focused kind of day with Tasteologie launch ~ seemed only appropriate to share some fun food related inspiration! And as far as inspiring kitchen design goes, The Museum of Modern Art’s Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen exhibition ~ is incredible! It “examines the kitchen and its continual redesign as a barometer of changing aesthetics, technologies, and ideologies… exploring the twentieth-century transformation of the kitchen and highlights MoMA’s recent acquisition of an unusually complete example of the iconic “Frankfurt Kitchen,” designed in 1926-27 by the architect Grete Schütte-Lihotzky. Featured alongside the Frankfurt Kitchen is a 1968 mobile fold-out unit manufactured by the Italian company Snaidero. These two complete kitchens are complemented by a wide variety of design objects, architectural plans, posters, archival photographs, and selected artworks, all drawn from MoMA’s collection.” They are truly stunning, and the design objects to be found within them can’t be missed! See previews of the exhibition on the next page!

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Tags: exhibition - home - kitchen - museum

While at the GRAMMY Museum for DigitalLA’s Crowd Source to Curation event last week ~ luckily before hopping on the panel, i had a chance to run around the museum ~ and one thing that couldn’t be missed in the lobby is Janis Joplin’s 1965 Porsche 356c painted by her friend, Dave Richards… can’t you believe it was white before the paint job? There was something surreal about seeing it in person ~ see details on the next page!

p.s. Can you believe they DROVE it into the lobby?

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Tags: cars - museum - porsche

Stopped by the opening of Laguna Art Museum’s Art Shack ~ a large group show of artists creating literally “art shacks” for people to explore! Absolute favorite of course was Shag’s (originally made in 2009, but it looks like some newer art pieces displayed) ~ an adorably cool scaled down mid century modern home complete with those kid sized versions of design classics (panton chairs, eames chairs, etc!) ~ that you can actually wander in and out of! And feel very Alice in wonderland in it! It would basically be the coolest backyard “playhouse” ever if we were kids… take a peek at more pics on the next page!

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Tags: art - gallery - laguna beach - museum - opening

Going through the many pics filling up my laptop, i keep coming across so much i want to share with you! So here’s a weekend dose of inspiration courtesy of vintage Mercedes-Benz graphics and products… it was mind blowing to be whisked by so many incredible original posters and advertisements for the early models… and then walls filled with Mercedes-Benz branded products… from powder compacts to mother of pearl handled pocket knives… and fascinating cases of all of the model emblems… really, i could have spent hours just going through the visual language of the branding and extension of Mercedes-Benz in there! Will definitely have to go back and do it slowly one of these days! But for now… take a little peek into a few of the cases and unexpected design inspirations that caught my eye on the next page!

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Tags: cars - germany - luxury - Mercedes-Benz - museum - stuttgart - vintage

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 it seems almost sacrilegious ~ this is in fact, a post all about a sliced up Porsche. Or a few. Or a few in various stages, demonstrating the design process of a Porsche in the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. “How very Damien Hirst!” ~ is the first reaction i got showing the pics to a friend… it’s also one of the most beautiful and concise ways i’ve seen car design summarized! Mixed with videos at each station about the process as well of course too! And fun that they managed to fit in 3 stages of clay refining in one slice even… absolutely mesmerizing to see even the seats and first aid kit all sliced straight through… and even more fascinating to look at the way it made people of all ages stare in wonder… see images of the installation on the next page!

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Tags: cars - germany - luxury - museum - porsche - stuttgart - technology

The Mercedes-Benz Museum ~ you’ve seen the elevators and tornado and while the cars and exhibitions are amazing, there are so many parts of the architecture that were surreal and beautiful! From the way they play with the constant combination of sun and artificial lighting, to the way the building is constantly leading you to swirl downwards from past to present, to the engraved concrete markings to denote what section you’re in, to the horse ~ the first… pre-automobile? It’s much like a car museum meets history museum meets sweeping art gallery filled with surprising textural juxtapositions at every turn… so take a peek at the next page for a full gallery of images ~ it’s less about the cars and more about the amazing images the space creates for you.

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Tags: architecture - cars - luxury - Mercedes-Benz - museum - photography - stuttgart - travel

The Mercedes-Benz Museum houses an incredible amount of automotive history, unexpected surprises, and is in and of itself an absolutely mind blowing architectural space. That being said there are a million and one different posts i could write about it, and none would do it justice fully. So, let’s do this my way and start with my favorite detail… the ELEVATORS are amazing! When you enter the space, you can see straight up to the roof (and a peek at the sunlight coming in) as floors spiral all the way… you could even say the ceiling has a Mercedes-Benz star inspired shape… and then you notice what look three like vertical tracks going up… and these awesome metal pod (with abstract ghost like eyes/shape) moving up and down… it’s surreal. A bit overly concrete feeling (gave me a similar vibe to Oakley HQ’s entrance)… there was something very sterile/scifi feeling about the entrance space. I could have stood there and stared up at the mesmerizing symmetry of it all for ages. So see more close ups of it in action on the next page!

p.s. Also amazing are those giant panels… the ones that look like concrete? they arent. That’s how they move cars into the various floors.

p.p.s. Additionally, when it comes to ventilating the space and quickly dealing with a fire/etc… this building is the official world-record holder for the World’s Largest Artificial Tornado! It’s over 100ft, generated from the center of the roof… i’ve just updated the post with a few videos on the next page…

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Tags: architecture - elevator - luxury - Mercedes-Benz - museum - stuttgart - technology

Inspiration comes in so many forms, and can feel so good in your hand... like these solid graphite pencils from the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. The weight is SO nice! And then combine it with great colors from your usual graphite options to gold, silver, and purple!!! And on top of that, add great quotes from some fun and inspiring artists... does it get more NOTCOT than this Warhol quote? "I never read, i just look at the pictures." ~ Well that just about sums up how i feel about why i needed NOTCOT.org in my life, sometimes we just need pictures to float through us to interpret as we wish...

Others are:
Max Ernst: All good ideas arrive by chance
Marc Chagall: Great art picks up where nature ends.
Robert Rauschenberg: "Now" is my competition.
Robert Rauschenberg: A canvas is never empty.
Pablo Picasso: Everything you can imagine is real.
Diane Arbus: Nothing is ever the same as they said it was..
Salvador Dali: I don't do drugs. I am drugs.
Salvador Dalí: Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.

Luckily the Moderna Museet has a webshop too! See more pics on the next page as usual...

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Tags: gifts - museum - pens - quotes - shopping - stockholm - sweden

Brio Network Collection ~ first time seeing it in person, i just noticed it in a tiny kids play cubby hole in Magasin 3 in Stockholm! Between the lovely space and works i totally got sucked into photographing these very well played with and possibly chewed on little woody guys reenacting how computers work... from emails to viruses and search and more! If you recall, i've written about Series 1 here and here in the past... but this is the first look at them up close, now i'm so tempted to try to track down the full set!

p.s.
for americans, i found a few at Amazon: Brio Network Toys!

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Tags: gifts - kids - museum - shopping - stockholm - technology - toys

So now you've seen the creatures of the California Academy of Sciences ~ ready to see what the scene was like for NightLife (their Thurs late night party/events ~ with drinks, food, djs, and more)... basically imagine going to an incredibly awesome museum/science center... but no kids! and the scene is like a 25-55 singles/date night! and as the evening progresses, the drunkeness runs a bit rampant... definitely have to feel for the poor museum folks who had to chase a few inebriated folks through the rather steep planetarium... and those starfish in the tidepools where it's one hand in the tank and the other holding your beer with your arm around your girl... Interesting scene. And BEAUTIFUL space! Definitely worth doing the VIP tour if you've never been, since you get some behind the scenes sneak peeks, checking out the roof in a tiny group of about 15, skipping the rainforest queue, a look in the Vault, reserved passes for the planetarium show (and they let you in first!)... oh, and open bar too. Anyhow, take a peek at the experience!

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Tags: architecture - museum - nature - san francisco - science - travel

So many pictures i didn't even know where to start ~ while in SF, i finally got to check out the California Academy of Sciences ~ did the Nightlife VIP tour (really, if you can, its perfect! You actually get to have the fun of Nightlife, but without the lines, so you can see everything in the few hours ~ including reserved spots for the planetarium ~ and an open bar)... The space is beautiful! So first, CREATURES! A look at some of the critters encountered... and in the next post you can check out the space... check out the pics on the next page! Everything from (what look like) hummingbird lollipops, frogs galore, living walls, albino gators, dino poop and more...

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Tags: animals - museum - nature - san francisco - science

Just RFID mini-golfed behind the scenes of MOCA... and ate donuts. Rumor has it that for every ball that went into a hole a donut hole was made... and when your RFID foamy golf ball went into a hole you also got a call on your cell with audio rambling and randomness... quickly got the feeling that far more people showed up than anticipated, or this was a project that wasn't set up to scale well, although there were a LOT of security throughout... and mix crazy mini golf course + alcohol + quite a few pushy/competitive hipsters + a sneak peek at a side of MOCA you never see + not nearly enough space for all these people to be wandering through, let alone trying to golf through... and yea. Wow. It was pretty crazy... It's hard to explain with words really, but i took a bunch of pics for you to take a peek at the world behind MOCA! (And unfortunately there's one pic plain clothes security made me delete... it was a fun look at all the security screens of the museum though!)

This was part of First Thursdays at MOCA ~ "KNIFEANDFORK, founded by Brian House and Sue Huang, presents three new works for ENGAGEMENT PARTY, MOCA's series of interventions by local artist collectives" ~ and this was the first! Emptiness is Form (Golf and Donuts) - Voice interventions by Nathan Phillips, Donuts by Deanna Moody of Dee's Bakery and Donuts, DJ set by Wendy Yao, Blogging by Guthrie Lonergan...

See the pics on the next page for the full effect!

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Tags: art - golf - los angeles - museum - technology - travel

Wow. There is something so magical about having the Natural History Museum as the backdrop for a friday night filled with science, food/wine, live music and exploration... especially when in between all of that you add some wild lighting and simple glowing modern furniture... As part of the Los Angeles Natural History Museums First Fridays, tonight we got to see The Bird and The Bee with a bison diorama as the backdrop! Listened to DJs spin in front of elephants... learned about "Evolution: What the fossils say and why it matters" from Dr. Don Prothero in front of some moose. Got wine from in front of some apes... Saw projections on and around the skeletons of a t-rex and triceratops... All in all it was a hell of a night, and a fascinating multisensoral experience. Check out images of some of the very surreal situations encountered on the next page!

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Tags: animals - events - los angeles - museum - nature - science

Spy schwag!!! Ok, well not quite schwag, and i've been holding off on this post until these gifts are opened by the birthday boy... (wouldn't want the post to ruin the fun!)

So one of the highly recommended (via Twitter and Facebook) must sees in DC was the International Spy Museum ~ and it was so fun! Unfortunately no pictures allowed, and while the beginning was questionable (pretending to make you memorize things and move from room to room on their schedule) ~ it opens up quickly and had some great displays and interactive stations throughout! SO much imagery wish i could have taken pictures of to share! But what i CAN share is some of the fun goodies i found in their impressively stocked store! (You can shop online too, but not nearly as much stuff) My favorites that i couldn't resist... their DENY EVERYTHING one way mirror like shot glass and the magnetic bottle opener logo guy ~ so stealthy, so classic! Also, how nice is the graphic design of their tickets? See more closeups on the next page... and their James Bond Credit Card Lock Picks i just found in their store too!!!

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Tags: drinks - gifts - liqurious - museum - shopping - spy

NOTCOT Note: SO, jealous that linhchi (shade elaine) had a chance to get into the California Academy of Sciences! But luckily she took some gorgeous pics to share her experience with us!

I'd been waiting for the new California Academy of Sciences to open in Golden Gate Park for over a year, and when opening weekend finally rolled around late in September, I wasn't willing to combat the crowds. Luckily the company I work for was invited to a party there (hosted by AOL) this past Monday evening, and though we didn't get to check out the entire place, it was awesome being able to wander around the rain forest dome (I missed the planetarium show!) and get a glimpse of the other parts without enormous amounts of people, and to get a unique view of the place at night! My favorite pic (you'll see it after the jump) is from inside the rain forest dome looking up at the ceiling & lights. I'll definitely have to go back and check out the entire place for real. See a lot more pics after the jump!

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Tags: events - museum - nature - science - travel

The Serif just featured these great posters for the Museum of Childhood at the V&A. Not much to say here, more just for your staring pleasure... and reminiscing.

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Tags: museum - prints

Murakami Gala Opening at MOCA ~ although they wont let you take pictures at the exhibit, you sure can see a lot of whats going on and what people were getting through flickr and eBay. Even the LA Times ran an article on how the plexiglass "placemats" from the dinner are being auctioned for $999 - keep in mind it cost $1000 to attend the opening gala. An apaprently everyone from Mr. Murakami himself (and his family!), Marc Jacobs, Kanye West, Owen Wilson, Christina Ricci, Cindy Crawford, Toby McGuire, Pharell to Eric Nakamura of Giant Robot was there. Luckily for us Eric documented it all nicely via blog and flickr! You can check out his post on the gala, his flickr of the exhibit during the press preview with accompanying post here. Another great flickr resource - Brandon Shigeta - who says "you can take pics of the mona lisa, but they say no here. whatever, set the camera to interval shooting and away we go..." Haha. Also there are the many pictures you can see searching Murakami MOCA on flickr.

Now for the wealth of goodies showing up on ebay ~ and what Eric got from going to the gala, see below!

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Tags: art - museum

Happy Halloween! I had the pleasure of meeting up Joshua Targownik this afternoon (remember he shot those reform school pics?) and it turns out he was actually the official photographer for LACMA's (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) Halloween Party! And having just read about it on LAist and seeing how incredible it looked, i couldn't help but beg him to share some pics with us... (the costumes are quite inspiring - see some of my favorites from his portraits after the jump)

Here's what Joshua had to say about the dress up soiree:
Muse, LACMA's membership group for young artists and art enthusiasts, hosted their 4th annual Halloween Costume Ball on October 27th. Drawing 1,000 costumed attendees, the event was held in LACMA's Los Angeles Times Central Courtyard, and the LACMA West Penthouse. Food, drinks (including the one-of-a-kind Dalí-tini), four DJs from Dublab Sound System, a costume contest, and late night access to two exhibits: Dalí: Painting & Film and The Arts in Latin America made for the best party of the night. Beetle Juice took top honors in the costume contest with stiff competition from Mirror Ball Girl, Poseidon, and a Samurai Warrior wearing a full suit of armor hand made "Make" style using a Dremel and several garbage cans worth of plastic. As Muse's official photographer for the night, I had full access, two cameras, and five portable lights, but still was unable to capture everything there was to see. I can't wait to try again next year.

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Tags: art - museum

"Doris Salcedo’s Shibboleth is the first work to intervene directly in the fabric of the Turbine Hall. Rather than fill this iconic space with a conventional sculpture or installation, Salcedo has created a subterranean chasm that stretches the length of the Turbine Hall. The concrete walls of the crevice are ruptured by a steel mesh fence, creating a tension between these elements that resist yet depend on one another." Love the images of this latest exhibit at the Tate Modern. Found this over at DesignBoom.

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Tags: art - museum

Oh Murakami, how you never cease to amaze me. The latest news on Murakami, Louis Vuitton, MOCA, and pop up stores.... apparently along with the new Murakami exhibit running at MOCA (10.29.07 - 02.11.08 at the Geffen Contemporary), with a LV pop up "boutique offering limited-edition handbags and small leather goods featuring Murakami designs. The estimated prices of the bags, ranging from $875 to $920, represent about a $300 markup over the $575 to $665 that consumers would pay for the same line without the Murakami designs at the Vuitton store on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills."

Most interesting thing to note? As Murakami continues to blend high/low art - and commercialism of every scale... The store seems in and of itself to be a part of the art... "Unlike the traditional gift shop or museum store outside the exhibition area, or a shop set up for a traveling exhibition such as the 2005 King Tut show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Vuitton shop will be situated approximately in the middle of MOCA's Geffen Contemporary space. It will be among about 20 rooms featuring paintings, sculpture and animation." Read more about it at the LATimes.

Tags: art - museum

Exactly what it sounds like. You get clay - and you quick sculpt Queen Vic! Spotted this over at 30gms, and couldn't stop laughing - wish i could have participated! “The worshipful craftspeople of Fibre Design offer the opportunity for all loyal and devoted subjects to once again fashion a likeness of her royalness Queen Victoria. Your great and sacred mission is to assemble the instrument of the plasticine in the divine image of the sovereign in the allotted time applying the immutable laws of beauty and symmetry. The artist of the noblest resemblance will be awarded a hamper of the finest craft equipment.” Here is 30gms' coverage of the finished products. "Judging takes place this week and a Flickr set to follow shortly after. But whoever wins the coveted creative hamper everyone graduated with honours." Can't wait to see who takes home the prize!

Tags: art - museum