(Credit:
MoMA Store)
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's...a bowl?
No, this beautiful piece of artwork isn't meant to be used as a weapon to threaten your enemies--it's a bowl created for the MoMA Store's Destination: Brazil collection. The collection celebrates designs, culture, and lifestyle elements from Brazil, which explains the centipede design that inspired this bowl.
The bowl is constructed from 44 independently moving pieces that are each made from a composite of coconut fibers, sugar cane, and wood. Since each piece moves separately, you can rearrange the bowl in a huge variety of configurations. A rubber washer and magnetic end serve as the closure for the two ends of the bowl when it's closed.
But a design this unique comes with a heavy price tag: at $275, you can get it from the MoMA Design Store. Or, you could wait until you hit the lottery or add it to a bridal registry and hope one of your guests is feeling generous.
The legendary Museum of Modern Art in midtown Manhattan just got a bit more...modernized.
MoMA announced Monday that it has installed a museum-wide Wi-Fi network so that visitors can access a mobile Web site on handheld devices with HTML browsers, which basically means Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch. They can then load up audio tours and commentary; content is available in eight languages as well as in specialized versions for children, teenagers, and the visually impaired.
It's not clear whether the museum Wi-Fi will also let visitors access the Web as a whole, or just the internal museum site. Requests for clarification were not immediately answered.
Additionally, MoMA has put its library of audio and video programming into podcast format for Apple's iTunes Store's iTunes U education section: current and past audio programs, content from panels and lectures, and video clips from exhibit installations and artist interviews.
Museum visitors who are particularly information-hungry can also now use "interactive kiosks" in the form of a number of Apple's iMac computers stationed around MoMA, featuring detailed museum information, artist biographies, events listings, and e-card services.
(Credit:
LaCie)
LaCie is a tech company that understands design and marketing. Even though it's in the business of computer peripherals and components--products that don't exactly scream glamour on their own--it's never shy to apply its creative notions to items as diverse as speakers and USB hubs. But the company may have truly outdone itself with its latest effort, finding beauty in the most unlikely of subjects: an external hard drive.
The "Golden Disk" could easily be sitting in a modern art display somewhere, a "sleek, liquid-inspired device" in a reflective case created by French designer Ora-Ito. The 500GB drive even includes a small amount of real gold, according to Slippery Brick, so it actually lives up to its billing. Which is a lot more than we can say of other claims out there, not to mention those with decidedly inferior designs.
(Credit:
MoMA)
There have been some decidedly ugly speakers created for portable devices, particularly by phone makers as they continue to evolve their handsets into music devices. But the winning form for speakers in all portable categories may eventually come from within their ranks: the clamshell.
Not unlike the hinged design seen in a pair of LG speakers made for Verizon recently, a version for MP3 players offered by the MoMA Store folds up neatly into what looks remarkably like--big surprise--a clamshell phone. The $28 speakers connect to the media player with a standard 3.5mm stereo plug, according to GeekAlerts, but we imagine that a wireless model of similar ilk can't be too far off, for phones as well as MP3 devices.
For purposes of full disclosure, we should note that our opinion is in no way influenced by the fact that these speakers come in black and orange--the colors of our hometown San Francisco Giants.
(Credit:
MoMA)
The wood look is definitely in. It's one thing to see sylvan casings for computers, TVs, cameras and even iPod cases, but it's officially a trend now that it's worked its way down to the lowly calculator. Like its recently featured wooden laptop tote, MoMA says the calculator is made from "ecologically thinned Japanese cedar," according to Uncrate. And if you environmentalists out there are concerned about felling trees, you can at least take some comfort in the fact that it's powered by solar energy.
The 'Yoyo'
(Credit: ModeLabs)It's only a matter of time before phones join the alternative-energy trend in earnest, and some companies are already trying to get out front with designs before the onslaught begins. ModeLabs, for one, has released three concept designs for mobile phones that use renewable and kinetic energy, according to Electronista: The wearable "YoYo" (kinetic energy from bouncing around the neck); the "U-Turn" (energy from opening and closing the keyboard, and the "Runaway" (to be worn on the wrist and recharge itself like a self-winding watch). We have only one question: Why wait for renewable energy technologies to design such beautiful phones?
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