Hoaxtel

The hotelicopter a flying cruise like experience with queen size beds a jacuzzi, sauna and the SkySpa all rapped up in the largist helicopter ever made, the Soviet Mil V-12. Dave Demerjian over at Wired gave the full run down of the hoax. If it was supposed to be an April fools gag, nothing like getting a head of your self, notice the time stamp on the wired storyMarch 30, 2009 | 3:46:34 PM.

The only surviving Mil V-12 is the top photo and the modified V-12 for the Hotelicopter. That is almost double the the size of the original.
www.hotelicopter.com

As an idea I think its a great one a nice comfortable way to travel that goes back to to the zeppelins of the pre-WWII and the Hindenburg. The folks over at Lockheed Martin have developed an airship, that reminds me of the USS Los Angeles, developed for the us army's project Walrus, the P-791 zeppelin that can hull between 500-1000 tons with a range of 12,000 nautical miles. It could be redesigned to be a cruise ship in the sky.

A small test prototype is set to be tested some time in the near future about the cargo space of a C-130, about a quarter scale test. Once again I have to tip my hat to those that work in the coolest place that I will never get to visit the Skunk Works.

The Hotelicopter - The World's First Flying Hotel! from Alvin Farley on Vimeo.
After watching that clip how could you believe that that was a test flight.

Evasion Urbaine (Urban Escape)

"With the advent of the mobile telephone, telephone booths lie unused. We rediscover this glass cage transformed into an aquarium, full of exotically coloured fish; an invitation to escape and travel."

The Artist Benedetto Bufalino designed this work for the Lyon Light Festival with help from lighting designer Benoit Deseille.




I think this one of the best public artworks I have seen in a long time. Although I might not use the word exotic to describe goldfish even if it is used to describe the color. It is a great example of using an existing object and transforming it into something different without changing it from it from its original context.

Mark Your Calendar

Make Day @ the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Make TV is hosting an event at the science museum here in St. Paul. The line up looks good check it out here or here.

New Work

I have come across many variations a shopping cart chair. Those works do not move me. I have seen many images thought out time of people riding in, sitting in and steeling shopping carts. It seems to me that a shopping cart chair is old hat.

When re-purposing something and changing it's function, I find that it is most effective when the re-purposed object is taken out of its original context. Changing it in to something that makes you stop and look at it.

The grill was on the back porch when I moved in, it only had two legs and where the third was supposed to be it was propped up on a wicker chair. Already having my own grill that was in much better shape I left it out there, knowing that I would find a use for it later, Then one night I thought a chair. Now that is something that you don't see every day a grill used as a chair.

I have not decided what to call it,
either "The Hot Seat" or "The GrillMaster."

Words to Live By.

"(Well believe me, Mike,)
I calculated the odds of this succeeding versus the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid...
and I went ahead anyway."
-Crow T. Robot
MST3K the Movie

Theo Jansen

I'm not sure what else I have to add.
I do like watching them move.
See what Wired said here and Theo's site.

It's like Sea Lab... kinda

The Sea Orbiter was designed by Jacques Rougerie, a French architect, to be a floating laboratory to help gain a better understanding of the oceans. The almost 3/4 of the planet is water/ the ocean and we have very little understanding of that vast chunk of this blue ball.



"True mobile oceanographical base, this vertical vessel drifts in the currents hosting 18 oceanautes who will observe the life of the oceans on a permanent basis.
Marine life will naturally agregates under its hull."- Jacques Rougerie


It stands about 170 ft tall with about 2/3 under the water line. It is designed to house a crew of 18 and has acesses to the ocean under the water line and is power solely by the ocean currents.

The design was tested in Norway by Marintek and the design was sound and will stay up right even in bad weather. (See the video on the site.) It reminds me of a bobber sitting on a lake when I go fishing.


The Sea Orbiter is a great example of form meeting function.
Check out the project web site.

Jacques Rougerie's designs have a great retro futurism feel, the Sea Orbiter intended to be put to use by 2010.
Check out his work here.