Because this is the internet and the internet is full of unholy abominations, nail artist Tahvya of Nailedbytav created this realistic eyeball toenail art. I don’t know about you, but that’s probably the last thing I’d want to see when taking my wife’s socks off. Although, knowing her, she’ll probably get them anyways just to scare me. And that will be the last time I ever take off her socks when she asks.
Tav painted each nail by hand and says the whole ten-toeball pedicure took about three hours. I only hope a telemarketer called during that time, and Tav told them she can’t talk now; she’s painting eyeballs on toenails. Because in my mind, that happened, and it was glorious.
So was this part of an elaborate Halloween costume or what? I hope so, but it looks like Tav posted the toe eyeballs in May, so I don’t think that’s the case. And I don’t know about you, but the thought of somebody walking around in sandals with toeballs in May instead of October gives me the heebie-jeebies.
Created to bridge the gap between artists and patrons, a Korean smartphone app named ArtzMe is trying to disrupt the art world by giving artists as well as consumers the tools they need to create, experience, and enjoy art across the globe, right in the metaverse!
Available for both iOS and Android, ArtzMe wants to democratize art by breaking the barriers to entry for young, budding artists, allowing their work to be appreciated by a larger group of people without the standard roadblocks of professional reach, gallery red-tape, and broker fees. The way ArtzMe does this is by relying on three core features that make art accessible to everyone.
The ArtzMe App can be separated into its three features, all accessible right through the home screen. The first feature, dubbed the Artz Filter, brings artistic filters to the real world through the power of mixed reality. The different filters are accessible right within the app, giving users the ability to superimpose artistic sculptures and elements in their videos and photos, quite like the AR tools seen on social media apps, but with a bigger artistic focus.
The second feature, codenamed Artz Frame, lets you bring art into your own space. While the filters helped superimpose art in regular videos, Artz Frame lets you decorate the walls of your house with art that pleases you. The app scans your surroundings, letting you add AR art to walls that you can go back and look at whenever you want. This feature helps reduce an artist’s dependence on galleries for getting their work showcased and viewed by patrons. Instead, patrons can browse the ArtzMe app and directly approach the artists they like to buy their art. Unlike brokers who take large commissions (as much as 50%) from artists for sales, this feature doesn’t exploit artists. Instead, it lets them freely share their work with a global audience.
The third feature is ArtzMe’s most ambitious yet. Named Artz Scan, the filter helps turn art into a more immersive experience by allowing it to transcend just the flat 2D plane it’s on. Art can sometimes get lost in translation. You really don’t know what an artist was trying to convey simply by staring at their work. A lot of it is conjecture, and projecting your own feelings onto the artwork… but what if the art could speak to you?? With the Artz Scan feature, the artwork can be brought to life simply by holding up the camera and scanning the 2D artpiece to reveal the 3D immersive multisensorial experience associated with it. Artists can use this feature to add layers of experiences to their art, either through animations, text, audio interpretations, or holograms where the artist talks to the observer. This experience empowers both the artist as well as the viewer, helping the former produce art and the latter consume art in a way that traditional galleries have never been able to replicate!
The ArtzMe app is currently available on Android and iOS devices and is free to install. The app is in Korean for now, but ArtzMe hopes to unroll English, Japanese, Chinese, French, and Spanish languages in the second half of 2023.
Created using hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of hand-rolled paper seeds/quills, Ilhwa Kim’s art-pieces are grand yet detailed. Each hand-rolled paper seed acts as a pixel, playing a small role in the grander scheme of things. Millions of these ‘pixels’ come together to create some staggeringly beautiful pieces of art, which are now on display at The House Of Fine Art (HOFA) in London.
Titled Real Life Architecture, Kim’s latest exhibition “will feature more than 20 large panel artworks. Pieces that explore a liminal space between human perception of existence and the true state of reality, a body of abstract artworks representing true life without the limitations of senses”, HOFA said.
Designer: Ilhwa Kim
Kim’s abstract works are impactful artworks composed of thousands of ‘Hanji’ paper seeds whose inherent dynamism creates works of art that shift between painting and sculpture, delivering art as a new experience of discovery, dynamism, and intrigue.
Kim’s works are larger than life, but start with small, humble pieces of paper. Each segment or seed in these pieces starts as a strip of paper that’s rolled into its flat ‘clump’, and then stuck on a massive canvas. What Kim eventually creates is a dizzying mosaic of thousands of such paper seeds. The South Korean artist’s current collection, titled “Real Life Architecture” explores the ‘chasm’ between what we see and the tactile reality of our visions. The artworks look like Post-Impressionist paintings, with each seed acting as a defined stroke, almost like the works of Van Gogh, Gauguin, or Cézanne.
“My seed works contain the dialogue between our senses and the tactile world surfaces, dreaming to be the monument of our sensory architecture.” – Ilhwa Kim
“Cezanne was right in saying that our senses do not represent the outer world as it is. However, this does not mean we cannot or do not have to represent things as they are. Without knowing the surface of the apple, for instance, we cannot learn how to cut the apple or how to make juice out of it”, Kim said.
You can view Ilhwa Kim’s artwork on the HOFA website, or visit the gallery between October 6th and 20th, 2022.
NFT art has taken on physical artwork in a way unanticipated five years ago. NFTs are now not just for the crypto maniacs; art collectors, artists and audiences are swimming the waters with equal intent. This is giving rise to “digital art renaissance”, Danvas, the creators of the first ‘luxury digital display’ for the innovative NFT art, notes.
NFT art is an impending cultural movement but this art form is not as convenient to display as the physical artwork that you can show off in a frame placed above the fireplace. Despite the unfathomable expansion of the domain, artist and collectors are struggling to warp their heads around delightful ways to show off the NFT art collections. The simplest way, for now, is printing still artwork and displaying it like usual art. The only difference here is that some artists/collectors would attach a QR code to the art so it can be easily scanned and verified online. On the other hand, NFT digital display frames are just catching up as an inventive way to show off NFTs in videos or GIF formats.
Danvas in collaboration with Ammunition Group has taken a new approach to this idea of displaying NFTs within their compelling digital frame which invites audiences, artists, and collectors to interact with the digital artwork. The objective of this luxury digital display dubbed Series G is to “convert” individuals into “lifelong collectors”. Such collectors can have their own private gallery of digital artwork at home, watching their collectible NFTs rolling away in turns on this digital canvas.
The Series G display frame is like any traditional one, however, it embraces the ability to emit audio and also deliver subtle interactive lighting to convey the authenticity of the artwork. For this, the 48 x 48-inch display syncs with an NFT wallet and allows onlookers to behold an interactive gallery with bewildering information about the collection on exhibit.
The Series G display integrated with software to gather, organize, share and display NFT art comes in matte black, crisp white, or North American maple options to choose from. It is custom-made in the US but gives artists and collectors worldwide a digital canvas to display NFT art in their homes every day.
Science is all around us, whether we see it or not, from the simple chemistry that turns carbon dioxide into oxygen to the invisible forces that push and pull to keep everything from falling apart. We can only imagine these forces at work, or at best, visualize them in diagrams and 3D models, but they will always remain alien to us and, to some extent, unimportant. Just like natural elements and phenomena can inspire magnificent works of art and designs, these invisible forces, too, can become wellsprings of inspiration in their own right. This chandelier, for example, offers a stunning representation of one of the most powerful forces in the universe that keeps planets and stars from flying away and bumping into each other.
Unlike other forces like magnetism that can sometimes be visualized through magnetic fields, gravity isn’t easily represented other than through arrows and lines. Most of us probably think of graving as something like a string that pulls heavenly bodies toward another, depending on their mass. It’s an oversimplification of Newtonian gravity, of course, but it isn’t the only way to think about gravity.
The genius that was Albert Einstein describes gravity as a sort of distortion instead, specifically a warping not just of space but also of time. This “gravity well” moves along with a mass, and if it’s a large mass, it pulls smaller masses along the curves or distortions it creates, causing that same gravitational effect described earlier. This more dynamic representation of gravity is what this chandelier tries to make real, freezing the pull of planets in time and turning it into a lighting fixture that is easily a sculptural piece of art as well.
Three handblown glass spheres of different sizes represent planets and other heavenly bodies that cause the deformation of time-space. Made from borosilicate glass, the spheres are made to be resistant to thermal shock, a fitting analogy to the weathered planets they represent. And just like different planets have different compositions, these spheres can be any combination of clear or frosted glass, complementing each other with their contrasting transparencies.
A frosted acrylic disc serves as the sphere’s resting place, with grooves to hold the glass balls in place. This makes it look like the disc is being deformed by the mass of these objects, creating a visual representation of Einstein’s gravitational well. A single light source, which works with any standard E26-compatible bulb, can be placed anywhere above. Depending on its position, the chandelier can reflect, refract, or diffuse the light, creating an almost eerie yet mystical glow, also like the gentle lights of celestial bodies in the night sky.
The Gravity Well Chandelier offers a stunning visualization of abstract scientific theories that can accentuate any space. It’s a conversation starter for anyone, whether they’re immersed in modern physics, art, or anything in between. It’s almost like a science lesson wrapped in a beautiful lighting fixture, standing as a statement to the beauty of science and the natural world that remain untapped even today.
Whether you believe in global warming or not, it’s hard to deny that the past days have been setting records when it comes to abnormally hot temperatures. Some countries that normally don’t experience such hot and humid weather were caught unprepared, while others cranked up the air conditioning, which meant higher expenses and more carbon emissions. Though we now experience greater amounts of heat, the problem isn’t unique to our history. There was a time when humans didn’t even have electric fans to help them keep cool, and they used more natural and environment-friendly methods instead. There is some wisdom to those ancient ways, and one particular idea uses these methods to help cool the surrounding air while also looking like sculptural art at the same time.
Evaporative cooling has been around since the time of ancient Egyptians and Romans, who used water and clay to cool the air inside their houses. When water evaporates, it carries with it some of the surrounding heat, effectively reducing the temperature in the area. Egyptians fanned porous jars of water while Romans coursed water through walls. We can easily create similar cooling solutions these days, too, especially with a little help from modern technology.
There are two major components to this kind of cooling system. First is clay, which has hygroscopic properties that let it attract water more easily. Water is the other element, and it flows around clay cylinders in order to create an evaporating cooling cycle. That water doesn’t go to waste and is recycled and pumped to the top of the structure again. Given the qualities of terracotta material, this system is almost 100% sustainable, except for the electronics and fuel used to recycle and pump the water.
ant.studio also puts an artful twist to these evaporative coolers. Beehive binds the terracotta cones and cylinders into a circular form, creating the semblance of a section of a beehive. CoolAnt Coral, on the other hand, piles these pieces into a pillar akin to underwater corals or tall beehives. Though it could give some people shivers, the functional art installations have a distinct character to them, especially after you find out what they can do.
Sparkle 100%
Admittedly, evaporative cooling won’t work everywhere, and it comes with its own drawbacks. Evaporating water, for example, increases the humidity in the same area, which may not be ideal for some situations and for some people. There’s also a fair amount of electricity involved, so it’s not a complete win-win situation.
That said, both Beehive and CoolAnt Coral help provoke the mind to look for more sustainable solutions and fast. This heatwave might not be a simple fluke and could just be the start of something worse, and typical cooling solutions only contribute to the long-term problem while providing short-term comfort. These designs also prove that our ancestors might have been on to something with their clay pots and in-house aqueducts, and it’s up to us with our modern technologies to design something better.
More often than not, designers will inject a bit of themselves into their creations, sometimes unconsciously, at other times intentionally. One’s history, culture, and learning influence what we do and make, after all, but sometimes there is a stronger desire to pay homage to the past in new and sometimes indirect ways. On their own, these pendant and standing lamps are already interesting and attractive, their play on shape, colors, and light making them stand out as fun art pieces. Beneath that specular surface, however, lies many ties to various parts of Hungary’s art, cultural, and socio-political history, making the Roly-poly more than just a toy-like fixture but also an expression of the country’s best creative minds as well.
The name “roly-poly” itself already conveys something less serious, almost whimsical. In some parts of the world, particularly in Eastern Europe, it actually refers to a doll with a round bottom that would wobble on a surface but would eventually return to an upright position thanks to a weight hidden inside. Although these lamps aren’t meant to wobble and tumble in the same way, they still have that playful characteristic of their namesake, bringing a bit of fun to a room thanks to their shape and their color combinations.
The choice of a spherical body and a conical lamp wasn’t just for the sake of resembling the toy, though. The forms and choice of dual colors are marks of the Bauhaus movement that left a strong impression in Hungarian art and design circles. That movement would also influence an architectural style in the 70s that the roly-poly lamps also embody literally.
Although it looks like fragile glass, the rotund bodies of these lamps are actually made from a sheet of metal. To bring out its unique luster, the lamps are fire enameled, a style that became popular in Hungary’s Architectural Enameled Art Camp decades ago. It might be an old method today, but it is also a more sustainable process compared to plastic-based powder coating. The enameled steel surface looks almost glass-like thanks to the indirect light cast by the funnel-shaped head.
Two versions of the Roly-poly lamp exist. The standing lamp is a single piece that resembles the toy the closest, slightly wobbling while also giving the owner complete freedom to position the lamp any which way they like. The pendant lamps bring the modular aspect of lighting, offering the possibility of stringing multiple lamps in a vertical fashion. Such an arrangement can even reach the floor, making the Roly-poly look like a statue from that Enamel Art movement rather than a set of hanging lamps.
Roly-poly is part of the designer’s Burnt Collection, designed to put a spotlight on Hungary’s rich art and design heritage, particularly those influenced by the Bauhaus movement. These toy-like lighting pieces are like hidden history books, pointing to important parts of the country’s cultural and economic past. Even without that backdrop, however, the lamps bring a sense of fun and delight thanks to their playful use of shapes and colors, exactly like a roly-poly toy.
Although clocks are purely functional by nature, there was a time when they became elegant and elaborate art pieces worthy of becoming heirlooms. While mechanical logs still retain that mystifying character, modern analog clocks have seemingly devolved back to their purely functional purpose. Of course, their simpler mechanisms also offer the perfect opportunity to turn them into something more than just time-keeping appliances. Wall clocks that also function as wall decor have been on the rise recently, adding some flourish to a wall that goes beyond telling the time. Some tend to be minimalist in line with current design trends, but once in a while, we come across an elaborate piece of art masquerading as a wall clock, such as Nomon’s Ciclo.
A clock’s main purpose is to tell the time, but you won’t always be interested in that all the time. That means that a clock, whether on the wall or on your desk, spends most of the day unused and pretty much unappreciated. It’s hard not to appreciate the Ciclo, though, which looks like a wooden ribbon stuck to your wall. There’s almost a metaphor here about time and the present being a gift. Regardless of whether that was intentional or not, it’s hard to argue that it would definitely be a great gift to others or for yourself.
Many designer wall clocks these days tend to eschew the traditional circle that encompasses a clock’s face, or at least makes them subtle or invisible. The only circles you’ll find on the Ciclo are the round pips that mark the hours. These can be the same wooden material as the rest of the clock or made from metals like brass. Whatever the material, they still stand out, sometimes ever so slightly, to make it easy to actually tell the time.
The centerpiece of the clock is, of course, the wooden strips that make up its body. These thin sheets of wood are bent at their center and then arranged in a floral pattern to create the semblance of a round face. The wedge-shaped gaps between each strip not only create interesting whitespace to break the monotony of the wood but also provides color contrast, especially if the clock is affixed to a wall with a light hue.
Each Ciclo is made by hand, and the wood is sustainably sourced forested wood. That almost makes the wall clock completely sustainable if not for the electronics it needs to actually fulfill its function. It’s still better than many of the plastic-based wall clocks that litter not just markets but even some designer shelves.
The Ciclo is definitely a work of art and a handcrafting masterpiece, one that can easily breathe life into a barren wall. Admittedly, telling time becomes secondary with this design, but it combines function and art in a way that will continue to serve a useful purpose, even long after the clock’s batteries or electronics have died out.
Rollable TVs try to get out of your way when you don’t need them, but this TV really wants to make its presence felt no matter what.
TVs are undergoing a shift, one that’s possibly much more significant than curved screens. Once simply seen as entertainment hardware, TVs are turning into decorative pieces or, in some cases, becoming invisible. The rollable TVs that LG is pushing are designed to be out of sight in their dormant state, but some manufacturers, including LG and Samsung, are turning them into furniture that could also be used as decor to liven up a room. This has opened a new avenue for TV manufacturers to explore and differentiate, and one, in particular, seems to be taking that potential to the extreme with a huge television set that folds down into some semblance of an art piece designed to call everyone’s attention.
No, this isn’t a foldable TV in the sense of a foldable phone like a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3. While the display does collapse and expand like an accordion, the C SEED N1 is actually made up of five distinct panels that together form a single picture. Whether you’ll be able to make out the seams while watching TV will probably depend on your proximity to the screen, but the cutting-edge 4K MicroLED display promises to offer enough distractions for you to even notice those lines. The TV comes in size options of 103, 137, and 165 inches, ensuring that the C SEED N1 is really the center of attraction when it’s in use.
It remains a visual focal point, however, even when it isn’t in active use and folded down. After the screen collapses on itself, the TV slowly lowers itself down, pivoting on its stand to form a long metallic structure reminiscent of a bench. You wouldn’t want to sit on it, of course, even though it’s made from aerospace-grade aluminum.
Some might take issue with how the TV manufacturer describes the TV’s folded form as having sculptural quality, but there’s no argument that it definitely looks stylish in that state. That said, the C SEED N1 isn’t just a form of art in its passive form but also has an element of kinetic art whenever it switches from art piece to entertainment system. The TV’s slow yet smooth movement almost seems to defy the laws of physics, given the weight and stiffness of its body.
The C SEED N1 does take up a lot of space, whether it’s folded down or standing up, thanks to that metal base. It can rotate 180 degrees left or right, though, so there’s some flexibility available when it comes to setting it up in a room. The biggest dealbreaker will, of course, be the price. For something as avant-garde as this, you can’t really expect this to be anything but expensive, and the $190,000 starting price is a testament to that.
Minimalism remains the dominant design philosophy in many of today’s products, both physical and virtual, but it’s hardly the only way to make products. In the past years, there has been a rise in the desire for more expressive forms and displays, with artists and designers finding inspiration in maximalist schools of thought. Of course, maximalism isn’t about excess for excess’ sake, nor does it simply mean throwing anything and everything into the pot. Every line, every curve, and every detail still has a rhyme and reason, even if it isn’t immediately evident at first glance. Take, for example, this chair, whose spindly wires might evoke uncomfortable emotions but is actually inspired by a butterfly resting on a flower floating on a gently flowing river.
Designer: Yejoong Choi
To some extent, it’s almost more difficult to embrace maximalism because every element still needs a reason to be there. Knickknacks nudge memories or bring delight, while clashing colors create interest without causing nausea. Flowers littering the surface of a chair are more than just whimsical embellishments, and metal wires sprouting in every direction have a message to convey. In this case, the “Kkoch-Galam” chair is not only named after a river with flowers but is designed to call to mind that pleasant, rural scenery, albeit with an almost eccentric, artistic twist.
The wide square base that serves as the seat and the tapered backrest are both filled with floral patterns, with each chair in the collection corresponding to the four seasons. When viewed from the front, the chair looks like a river flowing towards you and then pooling in a small pond where the flowers and leaves are all gathered in an almost kaleidoscopic display of nature’s colors. That’s mostly thanks to the use of mother-of-pearl inlays that make up the petals in this elegant composition.
The most distinctive part of the chair, however, is not the chair itself but the metal wires that curve and loop around it. Seemingly chaotic at first, the designer intended to represent the silhouette of a gentle butterfly calmly sitting on a flower on that very same river. Of course, it might not be hard to see that given this artistic expression, but such is the case with designs that don’t have to conform to realistic forms.
Admittedly, the chair won’t be the most comfortable thing to sit on, but it isn’t meant to be a functional piece of minimalist furniture in the first place. It is, instead, meant to evoke emotions and thoughts, particularly in how products are designed these days. Mass production has forced many products to put functionality on a pedestal, something that is easier to come by with minimalist designs. While not exactly a bad thing, it has also caused a sharp decline in the appreciation and use of traditional crafts and designs, and the Kkoch-Galam chair is designed to go against that flow.
From using traditional Korean materials like lacquer and shell inlays to the elaborate details that espouse maximalism, this eccentric yet captivating chair tries to stop people in their tracks to stop and think. There is more than one way to design products, including chairs, and there is definitely room for both traditional crafts in contemporary design. And it’s that combination of old and new, chaotic and gentle, that this chair effectively represents.
