Selleck Waterfall Sandwich
Just what it says. Visit the Selleck Waterfall Sandwich website for more, including animated sandwiches and a random high-speed car. Be sure you scroll down far enough to hear the theme song…and be warned, it will stick in your head.
(Thanks to Nick for the submission!)
Double nut illusion
Awkward family holiday card photos
Some of my favorites from the Awkward Family Photos website (click a thumbnail to see the full photo in all its glory, then use your “Back” button to return to this page):
Liu Bolin, Invisible Man
Here’s a guy you never want to play hide-and-seek with.
Artist Liu Bolin, from Shandong, China, camouflages himself into his surroundings with paint and painstaking effort. The effect is truly amazing. Click on a thumbnail to see it larger, then use your Back button to return to this page. (My favorite is the last one…it took me a while to find him.)
(Thanks to Rory for the submission!)
Mysterious Letters on Kickstarter
I recently ran across Kickstarter.com, a website that provides “a funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, explorers…”. Propose a project, and if you’re lucky enough to make it onto the site you can promote your project and bring in pledges from site visitors. Bit by bit, dollar by dollar, projects are successfully funded every day. A pretty cool concept.
A lot of the projects are what you’d expect: books to be published, movies to be made, bands who want to “come play in your town”. But here’s a wacky one that caught my eye: Mysterious Letters, a project by two artists in Ireland who want to send a hand-written letter to everyone on the planet. So far they’ve covered one town in Ireland (see the video on the website) and raised $1,518 towards their $2,000 goal. But my favorite part is what you get for your pledge. In particular:
Pledge $5 or more: You will have your name written in calligraphy on a list that will be read in a reverential tone of voice into the letterbox as we post all of the letters. (Specific accents requestable.)
…
Pledge $24 or more: You will receive a unique hand-written postcard composed whilst we were sober, clear-headed and utterly focused on the task.
Pledge $25 or more: You will receive a unique hand-scrawled postcard written while we were drunk, which we’ll regret horribly by the time it arrives.
Not surprisingly, the highest number of pledges are in the $25-or-more category.
This project not your cup of tea? No worries, there are plenty of others to choose from. Your pledge could definitely improve someone’s day!
Psychiatric hotline typography animation
Typography animation is a cool computer arts technique that creates animated video art using primarily typographic characters.
OK, not sure that really made sense, so let me show you. Here’s a fave:
(Thanks to Betty for the submission!)
Toothpick cities
Artist Stan Munro (although he prefers “architectural historian”) builds entire cities out of toothpicks and a whole lotta glue. According to the Telegraph article:
He has built structures out of toothpicks since his school days when he was asked to build a 6-inch tall structure that could hold an egg.
His was so strong it could hold his desk.
Here are some of my favorites, or check out the entire gallery:
LEGO mania
Seriously super cool, especially if you’re a 1980’s-LEGO-loving geek like I was…OK…am:
(Thanks to Steve for the submission!)
Theo Jansen’s walking sculptures
From the always-inspiring, unfailingly day-improving TED website:
Dutch artist Theo Jansen has been working for 16 years to create sculptures that move on their own in eerily lifelike ways. Each generation of his “Strandbeests” is subject to the forces of evolution, with successful forms moving forward into new designs. Jansen’s vision and long-term commitment to his wooden menagerie is as fascinating to observe as the beasts themselves.
His newest creatures walk without assistance on the beaches of Holland, powered by wind, captured by gossamer wings that flap and pump air into old lemonade bottles that in turn power the creatures’ many plastic spindly legs. The walking sculptures look alive as they move, each leg articulating in such a way that the body is steady and level. They even incorporate primitive logic gates that are used to reverse the machine’s direction if it senses dangerous water or loose sand where it might get stuck.
If only we could all store energy in recycled lemonade bottles–how cool would that be? Browse around the video below to see what they’re talking about:
(Thanks to Betty for leading me to TED!)
Amazing shadow art
Paul and I are big fans of shadow art, and here are some great examples.
First, a compilation of works by different artists, including the Pilobolus dance company, artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster (they create art from their own garbage), and Shigeo Fukuda (made from 848 forks, knives, and spoons):
Second, a car commercial for the VW Phaeton–a far cry from my one-handed little hopping bunny:
