KASTRUP SEA BATH - DENMARK
Architect: Fredrik Pettersson
White arkitekter AB
Image credits: Ole Haupt
A sculpture to walk on. And dive from. The architect responsible, Fredrik Pettersson, created the platform which stands on discreet legs one metre above the surface of the sea, a hundred metres out from the shore.
The visitor crosses a long bridge to reach a circular installation that gradually rises up out of the sea. It is topped off with a trampoline at a height of five metres – which the inventor has yet to try… “My idea was to achieve a sculptural, dynamic form that can be seen from the land, from the sea and from the air,” says Pettersson. “The silhouette changes as the spectator moves around it.” The aim was to use the shape to build in functions such as changing, sunbathing and bathing areas in a simple design that compares favourably with the wide expanse of the sea.
The circular construction offers shelter whatever the wind direction, and all the platform’s 870 square metres of wooden deck are at the disposal of the visitors. Azobe timber was chosen due to the material’s durability and strength in salt water. It is not attacked by shipworms and has the same lifetime as steel. The lighting has been added to emphasize the sculptural design. There are both LED spotlights along the bridge out to the ‘shell’, as well as upward-facing floodlights that illuminate the inside of the structure, producing a spectacular and beautiful effect at dusk and in the dark. Even at times when only winter bathers dare to enter the water.
Making Waves
THE END to war
Gretchen Elsner is an innovative entrepreneur in more ways than art and design. She initiates performance art for 2 people (or more) to resolve petty / pernicious disputes and general bull-headedness. “$60 bucks buys you three delicious home made tofu cream pies - two for fighting, one for eating, or three for fighting - towels, water, first aid if necessary, a professional fine arts free-lance photographer to document the fight, and a dog to clean up the mess.
http://www.egretion.com/creampiesrus.php?p=regaliaperformanceexh
Egression
Drummers at the Vancouver Folk Festival faded from hearing as I strolled near the strand into the scent / sight rich bazaar atmosphere: Katmandu-ish dust, incense and coconut lotion mixed with the inimitable ocean air, where mostly ethnic clothes were strewn under tents in dizzily paisley, floral and geometric arrays. Apart, under a tree, one rack of clothing caught my eye. Clothing not merely clothes. Unique revelations that were pleated, draped, wrapped, circuit wired, recycled, hole-y / holy.
Gretchen Elsner is an American conceptual / performance artist and designer. She specializes in the engineering of electronically active components made from conductive textiles to create soft hard ware, or soft-ware. Her work also incorporates illustrations, embroidery, secret pockets, multi-directional reversible clothing, innovative closures and unconventional materials, combined with whimsy and superb craftsmanship.
About EGRET DESIGNS Elsner says, “Our clothing is an intimate language, and the clothing work is meant to engender enjoyment of the perfection of the nakedness of the body inside. We need one another, our bodies and our minds do, but there is also a part of ourselves that needs solitude, and our arts in many cases allow us to interact with our sensual, ephemeral selves so personally as to show us the way into such alone-ness as we cannot find when we are isolated. Through nakedness the perfect human body is visible evidence of the being's potential grandeur, of the Ideal Self, pure spirit clothed like shadows in this realm of the seen and seemingly imperfect.”
Images of Gretchen Elsner's Experimental Prototypes 8 & 9 by ELISA GONZALEZ
The Girl Effect
The Girl Effect is a campaign designed to create awareness and act on social change in developing countries. Best described on their website, the campaign is about girls. And boys. And moms. And dads. And villages. And towns. And countries. It's a concept about building a better future for humanity. To best explain it, just imagine this scenario. Here's the thing: Girls living in poverty are uniquely capable of creating a better future. But when a girl reaches adolescence, she comes to a crossroads. Things can go one of two ways for her and for everyone around her. One: She gets a chance, gets educated, stays healthy and HIV-negative, marries when she chooses, raises a healthy family, and has the opportunity to raise the standard of living for herself, her brothers, her family, her community, and her country. One: None of these things happen. She is illiterate, married off, isolated, pregnant, and vulnerable for HIV. She and her family are stuck in a cycle of poverty. The Girl Effect is not just an idea. It's the most important thing you can do. Do something. Say something. Watch the video...
62-year-old bikini design ages beautifully
Ursula Andress in Dr. No Sixty-two years ago, on
By 1962 the
Throughout the 1960s millions of adolescent males would be exposed to Ursula Andress in the pages of Playboy, thereby imprinting her as a bikini original.
The Bikini Atoll will be radioactive another few hundred years, about as long as Hugh Hefner and the bikini will be around.
Where are you dancing today?
Matt Harding had a nervous tic that worked its way into an infectious jig, causing him to travel around the world putting smiles on the faces of people who joined him in his dance. He has literally danced his way into the hearts of four million YouTube watchers around the globe. Now he has another four billion people to go.
Starting with the universe
Incomplete Manifesto for Growth
IDEA = Escape
