the downward spiral

he couldn’t believe how easy it was
he put the gun into his face
bang!
(so much blood from such a tiny little hole)

problems have solutions
a lifetime of fucking things up fixed in one determined flash

everything’s blue
in this world
the deepest shade of mushroom blue
all fuzzy
spilling out of my head

(Nine Inch Nails, 1994)

On decay and abandonment: a Russian Missile factory,  a theater in Chicago, the House of the Communist Party in Bulgaria, a power plant in Ultrecht  and a dreamland in Japan  are going down the downward spiral.

Listen to the downward spiral here.

Images via the Idialist.

Rebirth

 

A fragile light sculpture made from real egg shells by Japan-based design firm Nosigne.

via spoon & tamago

22141231

 

Light sculpture/ mirror designed by Japan-based design firm Nosigner, for the Taro Horiuchi fashion shop.
The diffused LED light is created by a special kind of aluminum foil which allows to reflect varying projections, so that you will never see the same light pattern on the wall. 22141231 is the title of this work, that was named after the perfect solar eclipse that will appeare about 200 years later

 

Previously: Olive project by Nosigner

Straw Mammoth

Site-specific straw sculpture by the Musashino Art University on Shodoshima, one of the five islands in Japan participating the Triennial Setouchi Art Festival. The mammoth was made of rice straw donated by local farmers after the harvest and displayed in the same fields, in 2010.

Straw art is one of the most popular parts of  this festival, where artists collaborate with local residents to create large scale sculptures, like this mammoth. Check out the Light of Shodoshima, a giant straw dome by Wang Wen-chih here.

Photos by artist Michelle Kuen Suet FUNG

Previously: Father Memory installation by Chiharu Shiota @ Setouchi Art Festival

Moss House

 

An old wooden house in Tokyo decorated with patterns of dry moss by Japanese architectural firm Nendo (2008).

Previously: thin black racks by Nendo

Mimic bench

 

The Mimic bench designs by Satoshi Itasaka from Japanese studio h220430

DOLK / Osaka

Mural in Osaka, Japan by Norwegian street artist DOLK ( aka Dolk Lundgren)

via street art urban

蛍照 水輪

Keishou 蛍照 + Suirin 水輪, the gorgeous and world’s first translucent (LED) ceramic washbowls, by Japanese product designers Michio Akita (Keishou)  and Masahiro Minami (Suirin). Produced by Souhougama, who originally developed and patented the translucent ceramic technology.

via spoon and tamago

Naoya Matsuo

New and past works of Japanese designer-maker Naoya Matsuo

previously: less machine more hand!

Kago Shintaro

 

Illustrations from master Japanese manga artist Shintaro Kago.

Enjoy Abstraction, a 16-boards, slightly NSFW story, with frequent fourth-wall smashing and surreal deconstruction of the comic’s linearity.

House T

A flexible two-story residence / atelier (75sqm), designed for a young couple by Japanese studio Hiroyuki Shinozaki. The architects created a shifted box where funcions are distributed over the various levels, allowing visual connectivity and communication throughout all storeys of the house.

photos by Hiroyasu Sakaguchi and Tatsumi Terado.

kumiki

A multi-function grid bench called Kumiki, made from local waste cedar, created over a weeklong workshop by Studio_01 (designers Alex Knezo and Akinori Hamada) and students Yumiko Oyama, Kazuma Obayashi, Yuto Nakagawa, Tomoya Hiromori, in the city of Kameyama, Japan.

Kumiki- literally meaning a latticework of wood- was organized in such a way that required only 11 different lengths of cedar. “Prior to construction, each of the different length of woods’ cut surfaces were painted with a different color which aided with the ease of construction, like a visual numbering system, as well as added to the overall design of the bench.”

Hagiwara butcher shop

The Hagiwara Meat Shop in Kamakura, Japan renovated by Design Eight studio.

The shop was a recent recipient of the 2012 JCD Design Awards.

via spoon & tamago

Sannomiya, Kobe

Early evening in Sannomiya, Kobe by Javi Motomachi on Flickr.

via dark silence in suburbia

cooffee

oak and pottery bird cup made by Japanese designer Akira Minagawa, for his label Mina Perhonen.

via spoon & tamago

flowers

Syntheses by the brilliant Japanese floral artist Makoto Azuma (aka AMKK), photos by Shunsuke Shiinoki, for the exhibition 2012 flowers @ FUJIFILM photo salon.

check Makoto’s interview on this project here

+ find Makoto Azuma’s -must have- hand vase there