4.10.2009

FIELD Art Installation by Richard Box is Crazy


So this field below high-voltage power lines somewhere in England is now covered by these flourescent bulbs which are powered by ambient electricity. Let me clarify: they are not plugged in, they are simply being powered by the electrical field that surrounds these power lines. Slightly less hocus-pocus description of the process below via io9:

A fluorescent tube glows when an electrical voltage is set up across it. The electric field set up inside the tube excites atoms of mercury gas, making them emit ultraviolet light. This invisible light strikes the phosphor coating on the glass tube, making it glow. Because powerlines are typically 400,000 volts, and Earth is at an electrical potential voltage of zero volts, pylons create electric fields between the cables they carry and the ground.

Box denies that he aimed to draw attention to the potential dangers of powerlines, ‘For me, it was just the amazement of taking something that's invisible and making it visible,' he says. ‘When it worked, I thought: ‘This is amazing.''

Yeah amazing is a pretty apt description. It would be quite a spectacle to witness. In a good way though, not like when Britney Spears shaved her head or when Sarah Palin talked about foreign policy. See more of Box's work at his website.


via io9

The Razor Residence by Wallace E. Cunningham


Located above Torrey Pines State Park in La Jolla, California, the Razor is enough to make any supervillain salivate. Lex Luthor pondering Superman's demise while taking in endless views of the Pacific seems like an ideal fit. Or perhaps Jackie Treehorn's La Jolla escape...

Anyway, this thing is just disgustingly sexy, and is probably singlehandedly responsible for the financial collapse of the western world. I don't know what that means either, but whatever the house is crazy. All floor-to-ceiling glass and polished concrete.





via contemporist

4.08.2009

POSTS ARE COMING I SWEAR TO YOU

This week, by hook or by crook, I shall provide you with Newrosis' guides to Summer '09 board shorts and sunglasses. I am making a commitment. A promise. A promise that, if broken, will cause me to get really, really choked up. Seriously, I'll be sad. I may also briefly feel inadequate, but I assure that feeling will pass like flatulence on the wind.


Cheers, happy hump day.