MACARONI EXHBITION OF ARCHITECTS

In 1997 a number of architects were invited to participate in the production of macaroni. The exhibition showcased their macaroni models--fifty times larger than ordinary macaroni--along with their production intent and original recipe for cooking macaroni, as well as the participants' profiles and master works. As macaroni is made of ground grain, it can basically take any shape. However, macaroni is an architecture that guarantees conditions much harder to fulfill than is first imagined. Working conditions include "a shape that can be evenly heated", "an ample area that can be coated with sauce", "a shape easily mass-produced" and "appealing to the sense of taste". The operation exerted in this project can be expressed as "architecture for food". The participating architects thus competed with each other in the architectural design of food. As a result, the philosophy of each one is revealed practically as "macaroni". Thus, the creative ideas of architects, which often seem too heavy for the general public to understand, have now manifested themselves as plain, practical media. Production by Kenya Hara.

[+ Kenya Hara]

AIR RAY :: FESTO BIONIC LEARNING

The Bionic Learning Network is part of the company’s commitment to vocational and further training. Cooperating with colleges and research companies, Festo promotes ideas and initiatives that go beyond the core business of automation and didactics, and may well give rise to promising areas of application in the future.

Air_ray, modelled on the manta ray, is a remote-controlled hybrid construction consisting of a helium-filled ballonet and a beating wing drive. Its light design makes it possible for it to “swim” in the sea of air, boosted by helium, in a similar way to the manta ray in water.

Propulsion is achieved by a beating wing drive. The servo drive-controlled wing, which can move up and down, utilises the Fin Ray Effect® and is based on alternate pulling and pushing flanks connected via frames. When pressure is exerted on one flank, the geometrical structure curves automatically against the direction of the influencing force. A servo drive pulls the two flanks alternately in the longitudinal direction, thus moving the wing up and down.

[+ website]

ECO-COOK :: KECHENYI CAMILLE

Eco-cook is an object that helps to save water, energy and time. Everyday, everyone, has to cook pasta, rice or various vegetable. Therefore different pots are needed. In a unique pot, the eco-cook enables to divide 2 or 3 space and to boil different food at the same time. Thereby, water and gas or electricity is saved. Moreover when food is taken out the eco-cook, it will automatically drain out, allowing to win precious time.

via designboom

HYRDOPHOBIC SAND

Magic sand, also available under other names, e.g. Mars Sand or Space Sand, is a special type of hydrophobic sand. It can be blue, green, or red in color. Magic Sand was originally developed to trap ocean oil spills near the shore. This would be done by sprinkling Magic Sand on floating petroleum, which would then mix with the oil and make it heavy enough to sink. However, due to the expense of production, it is not being used for this purpose. It has also been tested by utility companies in the Arctic areas as a foundation for junction boxes, as it never freezes. It can be also used as an aerating medium for potted plants.


Due to its water repellence, grains of the sand will adhere to each other in the presence of water. When sprinkling grains onto the surface of water, they will at first form a "sand raft," until the weight of the agglomerate is large enough to break the surface tension. The mass will then sink to the bottom as a single object. When immersed, the sand forms columns in order to reduce the surface area in contact with water. As soon as the sand is taken out of water, it is completely dry and flows freely.

Though blue, green, or red in color, immersed columns of magic sand appear silvery because of a layer of air that forms around the sand.

These remarkable properties are achieved by covering ordinary beach sand with tiny particles of pure silica and exposing them to vapors of trimethylsilanol (CH3)3SiOH, an organosilicon compound. Upon exposure, the trimethylsilane compound bonds to the silica particles while forming water. The exteriors of the sand grains are thus coated with hydrophobic groups.

[+ wiki]

SPECTROGRAPHIC PAPER CUT :: JEN STARK

Employing a spectrographic range of colour, self-similar shapes and contours in her pieces, Jen Stark’s works might at first appear as if they were computer rendered. Instead she cuts through sheets of layered paper, revealing the colours below and shaping the cut paper into complex sculptures with mathematical precision.

[+ website]

FROM WHENCE IT CAME - LASER ETCHED LUNCH MEAT

Mleak : "These are my testers for a project I'm working on using processed lunch meats etched with a laser cutter. Ultimately, I would like to show the entire process from animal to ambiguous pink slice of meat over the course of a package of lunch meat, beginning here with bologna. This neat packaged disc of food has always seemed so far removed from its source."

[+ flickr]