These are the droids I am looking for: Build Your Droid at the Droid Factory

I have a special place in my heart for examples of mass customization in the marketplace (hello Muppet Whatnot Workshop). Disney announced a Build Your Droid at the Droid Factory at the Hollywood Studios Tatooine Traders opening this year:

“We began discussing the Droid Factory in 2009,” explained Cody. “We know that personalization is an important aspect of the popular build-your-own light saber experience. We felt the same thing could be done with action figures but on a much larger scale.”

Large scale indeed – the Droid Factory has 71 different pieces to create the 3 ¾-inch figures! To get started, guests chose a dome, a body and legs offered in a variety of colors and styles (Cody said that availability of various parts and colors may change). There are optional third legs and novelty hats that can be added.

Noisy Jelly

Make your own jelly instruments by Raphaël Pluvinage and Marianne Cauvard:

Noisy jelly is a game where the player has to cook and shape his own musical material, based on coloured jelly.

With this noisy chemistry lab, the gamer will create his own jelly with water and a few grams of agar agar powder. After added different color, the mix is then pour in the molds. 10 min later, the jelly shape can then be placed on the game board,and by touching the shape, the gamer will activate different sounds.
Technically, the game board is a capacitive sensor, and the variations of the shape and their salt concentration, the distance and the strength of the finger contact are detected and transform into an audio signal.

This object aims to demonstrate that electronic can have a new aesthetic, and be envisaged as a malleable material, which has to be manipulated and experimented.

Olympics Brand Exclusion Zone

In urban design, exclusion zones are becoming commonplace in relation to sponsorship of sporting events. The Brand Exclusion Zone is the newest form of urban demarcation, and can be used not only to affect signage and advertising, but also restrict personal freedom of choice. Within this context, the London 2012 Olympics represents one of the most radical restructuring of the rights of the city in London. The ‘canvas’ of London will belong exclusively to the Olympic marquee brands.

In essence, London has abdicated all rights and responsibilities to the International Olympic Committee, and implemented legislation which creates radical new spatial demarcations not only within the Olympic Park, but because of the distributed nature of the Olympic venues, across the whole of central London. London has surrendered the traditional rights to the city to the demands of the Olympic ‘family’ and their corporate paymasters. What the IOC want, London will give. London will be on brand lockdown.

via Kosmograd: Olympics Brand Exclusion Zone.

This is horrible: there really isn’t more to say about the continual erosion of the public sphere to private commerce. The Olympics has, and continue to be an excuse to market products with a thin veneer of athletic competition as an afterthought.

Also note the O2 Arena, shown above, will be called the North Greenwich Arena. Something I’m sure O2 is thrilled about.

British Design Classics stamps by Royal Mail

How did I miss this? In 2009 the UK Royal Mail issued a set of eight British Design Classics stamps featuring excellent photography by Jason Tozer. I wouldn’t mind having these set of stampe, or really all ten of these items in my possession.

On New York Subway Map’s Compounding Travesty

Pedestrians on Broadway in this area can stumble upon an Ivy League university or gaze through the windows of Tom’s Restaurant, of “Seinfeld” fame. They can find a copy of “Pride and Prejudice” for $2 at a stand on West 112th Street, and, four blocks south, a taco for 50 cents more. They can even sip mojitos at Havana Central at the West End, near West 114th Street.

But they will never find West End Avenue between Broadway and Riverside Drive.

Mr. Tauranac, who has for years assailed Mr. Vignelli for such inaccuracies as having Bowling Green north of Rector Street, said the revelations had forced him to re-evaluate his harsh judgments of Mr. Vignelli, 81. “It really has dulled my attack, that’s for sure,” Mr. Tauranac said.

Moments later, he retrieved from his office the May 2008 copy of Men’s Vogue, featuring an updated Vignelli map “every bit as terrible a map as he designed in 1972,” to Mr. Tauranac’s eye.

“I’m happy to see that he’s mellowing,” Mr. Vignelli said.

via On New York Subway Map, a Wayward Broadway and Phantom Blocks – NYTimes.com.

The current map is an abomination of design, the revelation of more mistakes just compounds the existing travesty. Not that Vignell’s 1972 map is any better with oversimplification, a precious use of color and lines rendering it more art piece than functional map or diagram.

It seems every designer is trying to reinvent Harry Beck’s amazing diagram for both the Paris Metro and the London Underground:

The problem being that Beck’s Underground Map is uniquely suited to London’s system, not New York City subway’s combination of express/local lines, geography and history of being composed of three different subway companies.

Motorway Logo

Updates on previous entries for 07 May 2012*

On Mussolini’s Fascist Rome

*Q: Excuse me? A: These previously published entries have been updated with new information recently. You can find past updates here.

James Mollison – Typological Photographer

The Haunted Mansion’s “Impossible architectural space”

Call it the Parallel World paradigm.

Certain advantages come with PW. For one thing, the architectural inconsistencies between the house we see on the outside and the one we see on the inside are all explained at a single stroke. When the lightning flashes in the garrett of the stretching room, we see the site of the Ghost Host’s suicide, but what we see doesn’t match the outside cupola very well. That’s because it’s a glimpse of the old house. But other than this one early glimpse, you’re still in the house you saw from the outside until you get to the limbo area, where we board our buggies (we are, as usual, following the Disneyland model). There, a transition takes place, which explains, I suppose, why we need something like a limbo area. From that point forward we see the original house, the house as the ghosts see it.

via Long-Forgotten: The Ghostland Around Us, Beneath Us.

RIP Adam Yauch, MCA

Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys, also known as MCA and his doppelganger Nathaniel Hornblower passed away yesterday. I remember so many late nights listening to Hello Nasty, Ill Communication, and Pauls Boutique making the hours of studio work pass by – arguing about the fact that “White Castle fries only come in one size” isn’t right anymore (they sell small and large now).

Rest in peace, MCA.

Videos.