STREET VIEW COMES TO ABANDONED JAPANESE TOWN, NAMIE

While a great deal of time on Google Street view seems to be spent, by the vast majority of us, doing little more than visually retracing everywhere we’ve ever been and laughing at ignoble images of people caught unawares by the Street View cars (StreetViewFun.com, we’ve all been there…), the application can, on occasion, be used for something altogether more worthy.

When the tsunami and earthquake hit Namie, Japan in 2011, residents had to abandon the town which was home to a nuclear power plant as it became a radiation exclusion zone. Two years on, and after requests from the displaced residents to see the current state of their hometown, the town’s mayor has invited the Street View cars in to document worldwide the effect of this nuclear incident.

The results, images of abandoned and even disintegrated buildings in what is now a ghost town can be seen on Google Street View or at a dedicated site, Memories for the Future. A moving project indeed…

POSTED BY admin: 2nd April 2013
CATEGORIES: Applications, Architecture, Environment, Photography

THE 10,000 YEAR CLOCK

What do Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos and Brian Eno have in common? They’re both members of The Long Now Foundation, an organisation around the idea of long-term thinking and responsibility, who have begun design and production on the ultimate icon to represent their group’s raison d’etre – a monumental, 10,000-year clock.

The clock has been a project of its principal designer Danny Hillis since an idea had in 1989, and attracting help in the form of dedicated engineers and backing from interested owners of mega corporations, is now becoming a reality.

The clock will be a monumental 200ft construction inside a Texan mountain that can only be reached after a day’s hike. Made of stainless steel, titanium and ceramic and powered by solar energy, the clock will tick for 10,000 years, periodically emitting a never-repeated chime sequence, from a generator composed by Brian Eno.

Why 10,000 years? Because that’s approximately how long our human civilization has existed, making the clock a symbolic measurement of “a future of civilization equal to its past.”

Will humans still exist to outlive the clock in 10,000 years? Will the clock itself survive the 10,000 years it’s built for? Er, we’ll never know…

The clock has no deadline to be completed (it’s the Long Term Foundation, remember, they like to spend time over their projects) but you can follow its progress and learn more at The Long Now Foundation’s site.

Amazon’s Jeff Besos owns the land in Texas under which the clock will be built, and is funding a large part of the project. He has a dedicated site here.

POSTED BY admin: 4th March 2013
CATEGORIES: Architecture, Environment

COMING INTO LAND

Via Visuelle and their post about the recent New York Times Magazine rebrand, found an interesting little article about the renovation of the TWA Terminal that closed down in 2001 at John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York. Amazing original architecture from 1962. Photography by David Leventi.

POSTED BY PAUL: 13th April 2011
CATEGORIES: Architecture, Design, Photography, Travel

WHAT THE FAC

Most of today’s generation will only ever hear stories of the infamous Manchester Hacienda night club. That is now a lovely set of apartments. Since none of us have ever been (bar one lad I know) here is an animated walkthrough of the famous Manchester club.

If you happen to have £600 pounds spare you can pick up a 10-inch record sandwiched between a piece of the bar and a piece of the dance floor. “Rescued from the club by Hookey himself” – make’s you think he dived in as it was being torn down just to give you the once in a lifetime chance of being the proud owner of such an artifact. It does look quite impressive though have a peep at it here. Rumour in Birmingham’s clubland has it that a man who owns a large record store located in Birmingham purchased a slice of the dance floor as well. But we don’t want this blog to turn into a rumour mill now do we.

More pictures of the (ex)nightspot here.

POSTED BY JONNY: 25th October 2010
CATEGORIES: Architecture, Art, Miscellaneous, Music

NEW DAZE

Dazed and Confused’s digital arm – Dazed digital has had a little redesign. It’s looking fresh with functional information driven layout, & on first glance looks easy to navigate and easy to find the stories you want. Worth a read Hannah Hollands batty bass, worth a listen Fever Ray Exclusive mixtape.

POSTED BY JONNY: 9th September 2010
CATEGORIES: Advertising, Architecture, Design, Documentary, Exhibition, Miscellaneous, Technology

STRAIGHT LOVE

I just love people who photograph / Scan and meticulously catalogue design work from a time gone by and add it up to the world wide web. I don’t know where these people find the time to undertake such projects, but my life and research folders would be a little emptier if it was not for committed obsessive compulsive visual hoarders. Here are my top three this month.

One – Hard format Shining the spot light on the musical physical format. Two – Book-Worship. Celebrating the brilliance of books they certainly don’t make them like the used to. And Last but not least Sleevage.

Go get a look see on. Here are the links Hardformat ,Bookworship & Sleevage.

POSTED BY JONNY: 24th June 2010
CATEGORIES: Advertising, Architecture, Art, Books, Design, Illustration, Magazines, Miscellaneous, Music