Saturday, July 31, 2010
Source of inspiration 172 (click on this title!): Double bass
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg5SJyllxr4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYKahj7RGys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYKahj7RGys
Can a wash basin be turned into an instrument?
First, when I saw this source of inspiration, I thought "Oh, this is really cool" and I opened all the links… But they opened all at the same time and I got the impression that all the different songs and sounds together made one big show...
I really like the photo above and the ambiance of the Jug Bands. Jug bands are a mix of traditional and home-made instruments. When I listen to jug band songs I really get the feeling of being in the USA.
The instrument on this photo is a washtub bass, the home-made version of the double bass. The double bass is really a strange box-like instrument because it is not very beautiful, and it is so very BIG! When I was a bit younger, I saw a very little skinny man playing double bass and it struck me as very peculiar, really.
I think a washtub bass is more fun than a double bass and just as important, because it gives the bass line and the rhythm.
“The Double Bass” by Patrick Süskind is the story of a double bass player who describes the history of his instrument, his role in the orchestra, and the relationship between a player and his instrument. Later on, we understand that he is going a bit crazy because he doesn't understand why the other players don't look at him, and why the girl who he has fallen in love with doesn't look at him. He has a cynical look on everything and everybody around him…
Julien Le Provost did a good interpretation in the play version (see the link above).
I think it is a good book/play, because it gives us an insight into what ordinary members of an orchestra might think and feel. In fact, if you think about it, most people in life feel like the double bass player sometime in their lives: a bit excluded or unimportant…
Article by Anne-Sophie Belbezet
Source of inspiration 170 (click on this title!): Barbecue
What is a barbecue? For a lot of people, sharing a barbecue meal is a convivial moment, often on a Sunday, with friends, family, or neighbours. But, for some, it is much more than that: it's almost a religion! They live to barbecue, making it an art, a science, a crazy competition with other aficianados!
In the United States, the "BBQ" is an institution. In Australia, the "barbie" is a way of life!
There is something "tribal" about sharing a meal outdoors... You eat with your hands, standing about, laughing, listening to the chief cook's bawdy jokes. He is the man of the house, it is he who hands out the hunks of meat from the "sacred fire pit" (that's the original meaning of the word "barbecue")...
By Alissa Viguier
Source of inspiration 169 (click on this title!): Tissue box
This triangular box, decorated with a juicy orange slice (there are other designs in watermelon or lemon) was the winner of the Pentawards. This is an annual packaging design competition (it's world-wide). Packagings are given marks according to the creativity of their design. From the average scores of the 13 members of the jury, 5 prizes are attributed every year : the Diamond, Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze Pentawards.
More than 150 packaging designs have been rewarded by Pentaward; they are exposed in the Designpack Gallery.
Pentawards' mission is to promote design packaging to companies, the press, and the general public, all around the world.
Nothing is more ordinary (boring even), hygiene-friendly and practical, than a paper tissues box... The design of Kleenex boxes entitled " Slices of summer " by Hiroko Sanders is "very attractive, and full of joy" according to Lars Wallentin, one of the members of the Pentawards jury.
Personally, these boxes remind me of the freshness of summer; I want to buy them. We could eat them almost!
Article by Alissa Viguier
Source of inspiration 165 (click on this title!): Coffee machines
Each person takes his coffee differently. Some like it with sugar. I personally love coffee with sugar and milk. What is certain is that people who drink coffee find it indispensable. In the morning the first thing a person does is to press the button of the coffee machine!
The coffee bean was first imported by our friends the Vinicians in the 1600s. The coffee tree probably originated in Ethiopia, in the province of Kaffa, but the question is not absolutely settled. The most common legend has it that a shepherd from Abyssinia (Ethiopia), Kaldi, noticed the tonic effect of this shrub on his goats...
The café is a real institution with a long history. In Britain and the USA it was originally the Italians that ran these coffee houses, which became the centres of community life (see the "Happy Days" link above). Their coffee machines are truely beautiful magic boxes, full of hissing and gargling, with the promise of dark, steamy, frothy cappuccino or machiatto... Humm, that smell!
Article by Laura Caumel
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Source of inspiration 162 (click on this title!): Box fruit
When I first saw this photo, I thought these strange fruit were in fact decorative boxes. I discovered with surprise that they are real fruit.
For years consumers struggled to fit the large round watermelon in their refrigerators. But twenty years ago a forward-thinking Japanese farmer solved the problem: he came up with the idea of making a cube-shaped watermelon which could easily be packed and stored.
To make it happen, farmers grow the melons in glass boxes and the fruit then take on the cube shape as they get bigger. They are hand-picked and shipped all over Japan. But they are three times more expensive than ordinary watermelon.
Although the idea is interesting, I think it is bad to change the real shape of fruit. We should respect the natural growth of things. It is not surprising that Japan came up with the idea; they invented the bonsai, did they not?!
Article by Alissa Viguier
Source of inspiration 158 (click on this title!): Tea caddy
British tea tins are known as caddies. They are used to store tea leaves. They are air-tight to keep the tea away from damp. They are sometimes rather artistic boxes, made from wood, metal or porcelain, and some have become collectors’ items. They can be highly ornate and precious (reflecting the fact that tea was a precious commodity at first) or plain and mass-produced.
The first English tea caddies date from the mid-18th century when tea replaced coffee as the favourite beverage of the English.
Tea caddies are quintessentially British.
Artistic idea: recycle an ordinary box into a fabulous tea caddy!
Article by Camille Moins
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Source of inspiration 157 (click on this title!): Clock
The 1985 film "Out of Africa", based on the novel by Karen Blixen, tells the story of a young Danish aristocrat who goes to Kenya when this country was still a British colony. She gets married but falls in love with another man.
Africa is, for her, a marvellous continent, which she both adores and fears. The natives who live on her farm are intrigued by her cuckoo clock (it looks a bit like the one above). We see this clock several times throughout the film and it takes on symbolic value. I think it's an image of time running out for the period of colonization, but also of the change and progress for which the local people were not perhaps yet ready.
Article by Camille Moins
Friday, July 23, 2010
Source of inspiration 155 (click on this title!): Oven
I suppose this old lady, like most grandmothers, uses her oven nearly every day. She prepares good meals for her family or her friends. The stove is an essential "box" in her home. It is no ordinary kitchen appliance though; the hearth is often seen as a home's central feature.
The first ovens date back to 3000 BC. Their use is a mark of progress: larger quantities of cooked meat and bread could be consumed because of them; whole civilizations evolved because of the invention of the oven!
Ovens are useful, and associated with good things (cakes made by grandmothers), but also, they can be a bit scary: "careful, the oven's hot!" Think of poor Hansel being threatened by the terrible witch of being thrown into the oven. Or think about more terrifying uses of ovens still...
Article by Marie Serre
Source of inspiration 154 (click on this title!): Washing machine
Louis Rodier patented the washing machine in 1857. In 1937, the Bendix Company introduced the automatic machine. In the 50s appeared the first machines which used centrifugal force.
This magic “box” revolutionized the household chores for women. Before, they needed to go to the wash-house and scrub with soap!
This box has saved time for women and thus contributed to their emancipation.
Laundrettes are still a feature of big cities; people who often cannot afford their own machine go to these fabulous places. They are warm, too busy or too empty, lined with monstrous-sized humming, clanking, spinning, portholed boxes. I love the smell of soap powder and stale clothes and detergent and cheap fabric softner... Laundrettes can be friendly places to philosophise or slumber in (cf. link above to the 1985 film "My Beautiful Laundrette")...
Article by Melissa Ben Allal
Source of inspiration 150 (click on this title!): Cajon
The cajon is an instrument which was first built by african slaves. Today, it is more sophisticated, with the capacity to change tones. It is a resonance/percussion box. The musician strikes one side of the box.
The cajon is played sitting on the instrument or standing up, the cajon held between the legs, depending on the style of music.
The original cajon players, though they were slaves, were free musically; playing this instrument was a way for them to maintain their culture.
IDEA: Why not make your own cajon?! It's cheap and easy to fabricate, and you can then have hours of fun with your friends!
Article by Florent Bourgain
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Source of inspiration 143 (click on this title!): Monolith
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSE2K71R2Ps&feature=relatedhttp://
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who%27s_Next
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who%27s_Next
This box-like thing is actually more of a monolith. The boys we see are members of the Rock group The Who. This photo (it's an album cover) mocks the film 2001, A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick (at the start of the film a big black monolith lands on earth and becomes the cause of Man's evolution...).
The group had asked Kubrick to make the cover of their album, but he was not interested; as The Who were a little peeved about it, they made their own cover, which shows them urinating on a monolith. I find this picture humorous, especially when you know the story of its making!
Article by Marie Serre
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)