Invisible Hieroglyphics...Turning Our Digital Swipes Into Art (video)

Invisible Hieroglyphics is collaboration between Andre Woolery and Victor AbiJaoudi II.  This is a fascinating project that transforms our modern ways of communication and turns it into a cultural print, a work of art that preserves the digital lives we currently live.

ABOUT

Art is everywhere. 
As the world becomes more digital, we pull further away from an analog, handcrafted world. However, the one remaining human component of the digital experience is touch. Our hands have become the communication conduit through devices with a series of taps, swipes, and pushes. Left behind are the oil-stained remains of finger smudges on a screen. We have extracted these marks and transformed them into vibrant, acrylic prints.

WHY THE TITLE?

Hieroglyphics is a system of writing that serves as a form of communication. They represent an imprint of the world as it was told in the past for the future to decipher and understand. These writings are a window into another world. Today, the touchscreen interface is our window into another world and the writings are smudged onto the screen instead of carved into stone. Its subtle, but if you strip away the hardware and software, what’s left is a finger painting that illustrates the story of how we communicate.

Facebook App Art

Fruit Ninja App Art

Paper Toss App Art

To see more, please visit Andre Woolery Art and Invisible Hieroglyphics.

2-in-1 Smartphone and Tablet

I knew this was coming soon...Smartphone's are getting bigger, tablets are getting smaller. Android users look like they are talking into the iPad Mini. Docomo, from Japan, has finally created a smartphone/tablet hybrid called Medius. This is definitely the next tech in order...as a loyal Apple fan, I'll be waiting for the iPhoneblet.

NTT Docomo is releasing a new double-screened smart phone MEDIAS W N-05E manufactured by NEC CASIO Mobile Communications.

This is a really interesting two-in-one gadget. It is like a smartphone that can be converted into a mini-tablet. It has dual screen that can be used when closed or when opened. It acts and feels like a normal phone when closed, but when open, it looks and feels like a mini tablet.

Specifications:

4.3″ QHD (540×960)
Android 4.1
MSM8960 1.5 GHz Dual Core
LTE (Xi LTE service)
Wi-Fi With Wi-Fi tethering
Rear facing 8.1Mpix BSI CMOS

(Japan Today)

Dreambox: 3D Printer Vending Machine (video)

3D printing is innovating before our eyes! Every week there seems to be some new 3D printer or doodler. Now you don't even have to own one, you can just use the Dreambox. 

They claim that it's easy to use, same day pickup, capable of satisfying unlimited number of end-users, you can print in ABS (engineering plastic), PLA (bioplastic), nylon, wood, metals, and more and that the cost is low. 

Hopefully this is coming to a location near us! I have a very long list of things I would print, from functional to fun to wacky and outright crazy. 

Super Mega Mega Toaster (video)

Awesomely delicious! 

Super Mega Mega Toaster from Scott van Haastrecht on Vimeo.

Glitch Art: Machine Knit Glitch Blankets

We have become so HD these days that "glitch art" is becoming it's own genre of modern art. "Glitch Art" is the pattern created when you get a "glitch" in digital and analog products. Remember when the TV would schitz out and you'd get the weird lines? Or when your computer used to "glitch out" and go bonkers on you with all those static lines? Or remember when you had a beta or vhs tape that got scratched and you'd get a lot of funky noise and patterns? Well, that's "Glitch art". The thing that used to freak you out most has a home in art now. 

And now, Brooklyn based artist, Phillip Stearns,  is turning this glitch into blankets. 

"These blankets are layered with irony: a digital photographic image, made with an intentionally broken (rewired) camera, is mechanically woven or knit into a photoblanket. In this project, a keepsake for cherishing one’s memories becomes a platform for fashioning corrupted memory, the cold logic of digital systems into soft, warm blankets.

Designed by Phillip Stearns. DCP Series designs are sourced from intentionally short circuited digital cameras. DA series designs are created using the process of down-sampling and color-quantization applied to gradients. YOTG Series designs are sourced from Year of the Glitch, a yearlong glitch-a-day project by Phillip Stearns."

They all come in limited editions of 5 and are machine washable and made of 100% cotton. They are 40"X 60" and cost $300.

For more glitch patterns available, check out Machine Knit Glitch Blankets.

Marty McFly, Are You Ready For A Talking Shoe? (video)

This is what you get when Google and Adidas partner up. The design is very Back To The Future, the voice and personality is very Alfred Pennyworth. Together, it's a little scary that your shoe will speak to you with oh, just a pinch of attitude, post updates on your social media and throw you a few motivational comments. But it is so right up the "geeky-tech" trend of wearable products that are being launched. This is still in concept development, but I'm sure it won't be long before we see it at retail. Check it out here.  

What do you think? Effervescent or Flat?

World's Smallest Smartphone

Here we go...back to the land of Goldilocks and the 3 techs. Flat screen tv's seem to competing with who can be the biggest and thinnest, tablets can't make up their mind if they want to be a smaller version of a lapton or a bigger version of a smartphone, and smartphones are competing for screen size. Well, the newest smartphone from Japanese company , WILLCOMM,  measures only 32 x 70 x 10.7 mm and weighs a mere 32 grams. Yeah, about the size of a Barbie phone. The company says it has full phone and email functions, 2 hours of talk time and 300 hours of standby.

The most asked question in my house is "where's my phone?". I think we might have a problem finding this one. And I wonder how you would talk into that tiny thing or write an email? I'm starting to feel like a giant!

(PSFK & WILLCOMM) 

3D Printed Gummy You!

I know there's been a bit of a 3D printing craze and I don't see it stopping any time soon. As 3D printers and software become more readily available and affordable, every home and office will have one soon. But this right here tops my current list of most awesome 3D printed goodies. 

And yes, only in Tokyo Japan can you get this done. At Fab Cafe, they offered a limited edition weekend workshop in partnership with KS Design Lab where you could learn about 3D printing while getting your entire body scanned and printed out in gummy form. Serious!!! 

All from this scan:

Check out the other 3D printed pieces we have covered: PezHead, 3D PhotoBooth.