Friday Finds 9.09.11

Aaron: Wonderful Mt. Mansfield

I spent my Labor Day Weekend out in the wilds of Northern California, swimming and hiking in the canyons of Placer County where I grew up. The perfect swimming holes of the Yuba River and smooth skins of the manzanita trees just outside Auburn always work wonders in giving me that great "God, this land is spectacular!" feeling. Should the American outdoors give you just the same sensation, you might dig these ebullient topographical maps from Best Made Company. Maybe not the best for wayfinding, but as a bit of wall art, they fill the bill. The three on their website celebrate spots in Oregon, Texas, and Vermont. As soon as they add the foothills of the Sierras I'll buy ten!

Diana: Betonbabe

I came across this blog by Viviane Hülsmeier that features lost architecture, urbanism projects, design and occasionally music and film—"lost" meaning works that have not existed on the internet before. It's an interesting way to think about how we manage information—that if something isn't readily accessible on the internet, it might become lost to future generations.

"I always come across so many great projects or inspiring images in books but I can't always use them for current projects or papers," Hülsmeier said in an email exchange. "Therefore I started digitalizing things that I found interesting or inspiring which I might use at a later time. It's kind of a personal digital bookmarking / archival tool for analogue things, i.e. old projects, photographs, drawings, etc. that I find in books and which cannot be found on the internet."

Kelly: Conductive Glove Pins

iPods clearly weren’t designed for the cold-handed. So often do we have to remove our gloves to adjust the volume of that odd Moby song that came up on shuffle. That’s why Quirky has unleashed a panacea for the age-old dilemma—Digits. These mini-conductive pins attach to any pair gloves, creating a makeshift grip for the finger tips. Finally, cold-handed music lovers can effortlessly scroll down their playlist without exposing their pointers to the winter bite! Do we smell a clever Christmas gift?

Miyoko: Cycle China

SWA Group landscape designer Amirah Shahid is biking (solo) from Beijing to Shanghai, an 800-mile journey she's making over the course of three weeks. (Right now she's just over a week into it.) We're featuring a five-part miniseries about her trip, including interviews and slideshows of photos she's taking just for dwell.com readers. (Check out the first installment and click back soon for part two.) Shahid is also regularly updating her own blog, cycle-china.com, with pictures and tales from the road. It's definitely a fun follow.

Julia: From Me to You

NYC fashion photographer Jamie Beck created these awesome animated photographs along with animator Kevin Burg. Starting in-camera, the artist takes a traditional photograph and combines a living moment into the image through the isolated animation of multiple frames. They have named the final outcome a "Cinemagraph," which I think is mesmerizing!