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titledescript
A lifelong friendship with fellow chess enthusiast Marcel Duchamp inspired Man Ray to create his unique chess set in 1920. In his set, Man Ray offers a personal interpretation of each character on the chess board: an Egyptian pyramid for the King, a medieval headdress for the Queen, a flask for the Bishop and the carved scroll of a violin for the Knight. Made of solid Beech wood, each character......read more
In a story that encapsulates all of the difficult issues involved in the global shift toward sustainability, the last remaining General Electric plant in the US that produces incandescent lights will be closed this month. A 2007 law essentially outlawed the old-fashioned bulbs that were made ubiquitous by Thomas Edison. In a perfect world, the 200 jobs lost at the Virginia factory would be......read more
German designer Markus Kayser's Solar Sinter is a solar-powered 3D printer that is a revolutionary take on the manufacturing process. The Solar Sinter uses a "sintering" technique, whereby sand is heated to its melting point, then cooled and solidified into three-dimensional glass objects. Kayser explains: In this experiment sunlight and sand are used as raw energy and material to produce......read more
It's no secret that, as a whole, the U.S. manufacturing industry is in a bad state. And when it comes to garments, the scene is particularly grim. Since its peak just after World War II, apparel manufacturing in America has experienced a long, steady decline. In 1980, one in ten American manufacturing jobs were held in the clothing industry. By 2007, 95 percent of apparel bought in this country......read more
This short video tells an inspiring story of a cross-border, cooperative triumph over exclusionary geo-politics. It starts in Los Angeles, where Apolis is based. The design/advocacy brand hires third-generation shoemaker Shlomy Azolay to craft its Co-Op Leather Sandals in Tel Aviv, Israel. Azolay, for his part, partners with West Bank-based footwear producer Mohammad “Hijazi”......read more
Trained as an architect, Christopher Payne today practices as a photographer specializing in forgotten buildings and relics of industry. From mental hospitals and power substations to obsolete factories, Payne works the neglected corners of the American landscape. His Textiles series examines--you guessed it--the northeastern textile industry, which since the late 20th century has been decimated......read more
Vimeo user and photographer Josh Owens (aka Mindrelic) recently spent a month "hotel hopping" in Manhattan (sounds expensive!) shooting a bunch of time-lapse footage. Then he whipped up this video from an hour's worth of footage. Pretty outstanding. Here's an earlier Mindrelic NYC time-lapse, and another shot in the "sacred lands" of eastern California. ...read more
When Hurricane Sandy brought work at Sebastian Errazuriz's studio to an abrupt halt, the Brooklyn-based designer and sculptor decided to do something to help victims of the storm. Taking white tees with two of NYC's most iconic graphics — Milton Glaser's "I Love New York" and the MTA subway map — Errazuriz dipped the bottom halves in blue ink. With the......read more
In New York City, where land for parks is scarce, the biggest new green space is the High Line, a mile-long stretch of elevated railroad repurposed as park. Now, a group of innovative urbanists is proposing a subterranean version. As reported in this week’s issue of New York Magazine, the Delancey Underground (affectionately dubbed "The Low Line") would convert the......read more
Hallelujah! A baptist church in a neglected Manhattan neighbourhood has entered the urban farming game, with a 1,000 square foot rooftop garden that's producing abundant fruit and veg for the church's busy food pantry. Located in Hell's Kitchen between the Port Authority Bus Terminal and the Lincoln Tunnel, the Metro Baptist Church is as far removed from rural farm life as it gets. But with......read more
