Sugar for my honey

Beautiful lamp design by Polish designer Justyna Poplawska. I found it while looking for different material options for our latest uni project. The sugary appearance, a combination of recycled glass and bio-resin, glows like a treasure.

You can see more of her work here. I also really like Double Cup and Okto.

ella ella ay ay

A new way to (fix and) use all of those discarded umbrella carcasses - construct beautiful floating sculptures. Like this example by SLO Architecture.

Light Show

Having spent the Easter holiday in the frosty UK, I was lucky enough during our one day rushing around London to spend an hour at the Hayward Gallery Light Show. Located on London's south bank, the gallery features a number of light installations by some new and other well-known names in the industry. If you haven't yet been, it's a must see!

The show has just been extended until May 6th and it's recommended to book tickets in advance. You can read more about it here or watch a short video snippet that's sure to tickle your interest...

I really enjoyed Jim Campbells clever use of tiny LED bulbs to create various shadow imagery and Doug Wheelers dreamy approach to definitions of space. The exhibition features both small, clever concepts, such as the light bulb and mirror by Bill Culbert, as well as larger, colour infused illusionary environments as made by James Turrell.

 

Francois Morellet creates very poetic pieces. His work is featured in one of the first halls, but perhaps he should have had his own space to showcase this beautiful piece:

One criticism I might add is that due to its popularity, there are too many people in the exhibition space at one time. This definitely detracts from experiencing the various spaces as one should. Perhaps having extended the exhibition end-date will fix this!

beneath the surface

I had it in mind to post about 3D printing this week - and it will come - but I just had to mention something I'm working on right now at university. The course is about exploring the 'poetry of space' and the project due for tomorrow morning is creating a 'happy place' in 1:1 scale. As broad as the brief is, one sure thing came to my mind from my younger days growing up along the coast of South Africa... the promise of the sea and feeling of sand underfoot.

I ended up combining this with a favourite memory from when I lived in Lisbon a while ago - the fluorescent jellyfish in the Oceanarium (Europe's largest indoor aquarium!).

I've been working on incorporating the feeling of bare feet in soft sand, the visual (jellyfish dancing in the dark), the blue-black ocean surrounds and then a sound bite... I originally had the idea to use waves (that we hear from outside) and underwater (that 'they' hear beneath the surface), but then I thought about the dance - and I woke up to the sound of Strauss' 'The Blue Danube' in my head. It was perfect - especially since the jellyfish keep in time ;)

It's quite an abstract space and rather dark in there for my basic camera to do it justice, but here is a pic and you can view the vid below.