Friday Finds 9.18.09

Brendan: Happenings around San Francisco

This weekend is going to be great! Several of my favorite artists and on-going collaborators to Dwell are having shows here in SF. Opening Friday September 18th, Tim Tomkinson gives his spin on his favorite childhood movie, Terminator 2,  as part of the "Now Playing" show at Gallery 1988. Tim has also just launched a redesign of his website, chock full of amazing and inspiring new work.

Across town on Saturday night, Mike Perry, Andrew Holder, Damien Correll, Justin Fines and Scott Berry are featured in a group show at Giant Robot, "A Small # of Things"

Miyoko: The Big Screen in the Big D

Despite the pain and agony that go along with being a die-hard Buffalo Bills fan, my favorite time of the year has just kicked off: football season. Design Observer had a great post this week, which they teased in their promotional tweet: "Who says design and sports don't mix." The article took a look at the much-hyped, brand-new $1.2 billion Dallas Cowboys stadium...and the scoreboard that caused interference during a punt in last Sunday's game. A good design gone bad by poor instillation. Another great related piece is Wired's exploded view of the stadium that dissects its design with the help of architect Mark Williams. And, as always: Let's Go, Buffalo!

Aaron: Voto Demo

I tweeted this one a little while back, but I still really like it. It's a project by Mexican artist Gustavo Artigas where he surveys visitors to the site Voto Demo to see which Los Angeles architectural landmark they want torn down. I love it as an act of architectural aggression, radically populist urban planning and a crowd-sourced picture of architectural beauty. I voted to destroy the Kodak Center. What would you like to see meet the wrecking ball?
 

Jordan: In Bb 2.0

This awesome experiment by Darren Solomon—the main man behind melodic electronica outfit Science for Girls—allows you to make beautiful music with a few simple clicks, playing a series of 20 embedded YouTube videos simultaneously and in any order you choose.  Each clip was submitted based on a loose series of requirements ("Sing or play an instrument, in Bb major. Simple, floating textures work best, with no tempo or groove. Leave lots of silence between phrases.") completely independently of the others, and the result is stunning. Because you can start and stop as many as you like as often as you like, every visit to the site will yield a completely different composition, each a lovely, moody soundtrack.

via NotCot 

Michele: It's a Small World, by Mary Blair

My friend and former colleague Alethea Morrison is the creative director at Storey Publishing in Massachusetts. I was charmed by her blog post this week about the design of one of my biggest childhood delights -- the "It's a Small World" ride at Disneyland -- and the designer behind it, Mary Blair. Blair worked on many Disney animated classics and also illustrated Little Golden Books (another source of childhood glee). 

Image courtesy Wikipedia Commons

Sarah: Information is Beautiful

 Another site to satisfy those with infographic lust, this one is written by London-based writer David McCandless, who is just about the come out with a book that delves deeper into the data visualization research he chronicles on this blog. I frankly can't wait to get my hands on the actual printed thing, which, according to preliminary description, will feature infographics on everything from the "unpleasant effects of food coloring" to "time travel plots in TV and film."