The Siemens SuperStar, which will stay spinning outside Munich through January 6th, was conceived as a project to celebrate sustainable energy and green innovation.

The SuperStar's 9000 OSRAM LEDs emit the equivalent of 22,000 candles, shining in a variety of colors and an array of spectacular patterns. Long exposure photography was used to capture the SuperStar as a vibrant spinning disk as seen above, not altogether unlike the one recently created by aliens over Norway. The video below details the process of constructing the SuperStar and shows some shots of the wheel in action.

Munich's Mayor, Christian Ude, has been an enthusiastic proponent of the energy-efficient spectacle from the start and hopes his city will be the first of its size to meet all energy requirements from renewable sources. [Siemens via Inhabitat]

Dynamic Ground is a kinetic floor developed by Adam Lassy and Adi Marom for NYU's ITP Winter Show. Each interconnected hexagon is operated by a central motor connected to a light censor. When someone walks on the platform and covers the sensor, the design underneath either expands or contracts, depending on its resting state. It's not walking on sunshine so much as stepping on snowflakes. [ITP Winter Show]

Just head on over to the live stream and use the virtual keyboard to play a song, something resembling a song or a random and hideous mashup of notes that ruins the holidays for everyone. The installation will be on display at the Brick Lane Studio in London through January. [Theopane via Switched via TechEBlog]

Perhaps what makes these illustrations work is that they trust their young audience with difficult questions: Are our brains simply computers? Are our bodies mere machines? What is work, without agency? What is pleasure, without feeling? These are not things I was thinking about in 1989.

Or, you know, it could be the fact that they're utterly stunning, and look like something you'd find in an art gallery, not a rotting children's book. More at [AJourneyAroundMySkull via BoingBoing]

Human Wind Chime is a light and sound sculpture by Mindy Tchieu, Patricia Adler and Saul Kessler that comprises 25 four-inch polypropylene balls, each of which is outfitted with an LED and arranged in a descending spiral. When touched, each ball lights up and emits a sound, with each ball's pitch corresponding to its height. The result, as you can see in the video above, is an ethereal blend of art, instrument, and toy. Now if only someone could figure out how to play "Chopsticks" on it. [ITP Winter Show]

Stunning, isn't it? Apparently every single of the itty-bitty windows in the model can be lit up and there are effects to simulate day and night time. I guess that it's not surprising that the electricity costs alone are making mini-Moscow enough of an expense to get pushed onto the auction block.

Oh, if only I had the space and money to spare. I could be a Russian Godzilla. [Atlas Obscura]

It is safe to assume that as the speed of the game goes up, you're required to switch your listening from rock ballad to punk. [Like it Cool]

"Standard Time" is the work of artist Mark Formanek, who filmed the whole thing as a documentary. I'm sure there's some deeper point about the indefatigable march of time and mankind's role in a digital age, but I mostly like it for the time-lapse footage.

[Standard Time via Infosthetics]

The dinghy was made by Michael Johansson for an exhibition in Malmö, Sweden. Unfortunately, it's not a real plastic model: "Everything is painted in a unifying plastic layer to resemble the surface of a model kit. The real boat is transformed into a model of itself, and its original purpose has given way to something else."

Oh, Michael, you trickster. You totally got me there. Still, I want one for xmas. [Michael Johansson via Neatorama]

[Infinitecontinues via Etsi via Kotaku]

The paper walker is inspired by Theo Jansen's "Strandbeest" series, which comprises several giant wind-powered sculptures. It's given a helping hand in this video, but apparently can also walk without an actuator. But not too far or too fast or in a threatening manner, or it's headed straight for the shredder. [MAKE via BoingBoing]

Measuring 8 x 8 foot, three words are always lit up on the board, symbolizing the hour, minute and second. I've still got no idea how it works exactly, but it's like a big, arty version of a Tokyo Flash watch, isn't it. [Miss Moun via Moco Loco]

The Philco PC is pretty much a reimagined Philco Predicta—a short-lived but ridiculously iconic television. Then there are other fantastic touches as well, like a typewriter keyboard and a mouse that looks like some sort of repurposed handheld sander from an era when men in gray flannel suits didn't shave, but straight-up ground stubble into submission.

While the Philco PC may just be a concept, some faceless PC manufacturer should really hire designer Dave Schultze and acquire this design alongside him. Tame it a bit for the masses if you insist, but add the typewriter keyboard to some limited edition release. And if you don't make any money, you can return this free idea, no questions asked. [Yanko via Ubergizmo]

The artist explains that "humans were supposedly made from dust, so it is interesting to create other things with it," and he certainly takes to that task well. Or, if nothing, he must have some superpower that allows him to keep from sneezing long enough to make these statues:

Ashes to ashes, funk to funky. Am I the only one who somehow started thinking of Bowie after looking at Hazelton's art? [Saatchi Gallery via Metro]

The Artform No. 1 figurine was built by Mark Ho out of over 500 parts and the 17-inch, 16-pound fellow is fully articulated, which means that he can be posed in any of the shapes the human form can take and then some:

Only 25 of these sculptures have been made and, while their prices aren't listed, I can't help but want one to lounge on my desk, giving me those sultry bedroom eyes as I write silly posts. [Zoho Artforms via Automata/Autamaton via Make]

These pieces by Miguel Rivera, a systems administrator, require weekends of man hours and a massive amounts of old gear to complete (each layer of each wheel you see requires cracking the case on another hard drive, and the sculptures lack plastic or any "gluing [of] things together"). [Wired]

Massa-Bidal sells some of his designs on his online store, but these terrific book covers aren't available just yet. Perhaps if we all pester him enough he'll put them up? The Tumblr, Twitter and Flickr ones would look great on my wall. [Retrofuturs via Flickr via SuperPunch via Gearfuse]

Moronnoz works with materials ranging from laser-cut steel ("Interferences") to modular Y-shaped timber ("Y"). His designs are just exhibits for now, but hopefully they'll inspire us to abandon our staid park benches and bus stops. It's not like those are any more comfortable anyway.

[Core77]

We interviewed creature designers Wayne Barlowe and Neville Page, plus concept artists James Clyne, Ryan Church and Daphne Yap, about creating a whole new universe from scratch. Plus we've got some stunning concept art, from the new book The Art Of Avatar. In a year that's seen some amazing books of movie concept art, The Art Of Avatar features 106 pages of lush full-color paintings, interspersed with the industry's greatest design minds geeking out about every little aspect of Avatar's creation.

So here are a few things you didn't know about the design of James Cameron's Avatar:

Avatar Started As A Four-Month, Late-Night Jam Session At James Cameron's House

"[We'd be] working late at Jim's house, and having him come back after a three week spell of being down at the freaking Titanic, and having him tell us a story [about being on the ocean floor]." Read the rest of the story.

Pandora's creatures were partly based on cars

Early on in the process, James Cameron "mentioned the core idea" of having Pandora's creatures be "superslick and aerodynamic, and be like a race car with racing stripes," says creature designer Neville Page. Read the rest of the story.

Those crazy color schemes are from the ocean floor — and Art Nouveau

"In the real world, we didn't invent these colors. They exist on animals today. We didn't invent a whole new palette. I think the problem is — the challenge is — you don't often see large creatures with this much color on them." Read the rest of the story.

The human hardware, including those crazy battlesuits, is all based on real stuff

"One thing I worked on big interior for the mech suits, and the whole interior had to have a reason and function for why the suits were lined up the way they were, and how they could work on them like a pit-stop at an F1 race. It had to have that functionality." Read the rest of the story.

Avatar concept art from The Art Of Avatar (Abrams 2009)

Wait, what is Jesus doing there? And where the hell is Rick James, bitch?

They are made by Pittsburgh-based tattoo artist Cliff Maynard, who puts together bits from the roach ends to create the mosaics. Each can take over 200 hours to complete, costing from $2,000 to $10,000 depending on the size.[Dangerous Minds via The Jailbreak]

Over the years, Hallis has been making this picture in sections, and in some of these selections you can sorta see parts where those sections appear to have been combined (though it could be just a fold in the paper):

You can find the whole picture on Hallis' site, complete with a key to who's who and what's what, but I warn you: Odds are that you'll be like me and have your mind blown by the sheer size of this "work in progress." [The Picture of Everything]

[thisblogrules via Core77]

This has all come about because of the latest Clone Wars episode, titled 'Brain Invaders,' which sees several key characters becoming zombies.

Of course, now we're all crying out for zombified parodies of the original films to be uploaded to YouTube. Can we somehow convince Simon Pegg to take part, maybe decapitate a few with some vinyl? [CorePlanets via Geekologie]

The world captured by Google appears to be more truthful and more transparent because of the weight accorded to external reality, the perception of a neutral, unbiased recording, and even the vastness of the project.

Jon, you are either a conceptual genius or one lazy ass. Either way, I like it. [Google Street Views]

As a refresher, Office 2010 will come in Starter, Home and Student, Home and Business, Standard, Professional and Professional Plus flavors. This means that we don't have all the box images just yet and that there's maybe hope for a different color scheme.

[Centrum XP via Neowin]

The project represents how video would be transmitted if serial data had never been invented. Each pixel in the 50x50 grid arrives on its own channel, hence the lovely mess of wiring.


I wouldn't want to string all that copper, but I sure don't mind looking at it. [Hack a Day via CruchGear]

Wait, wait, wait. WAIT. Is that girl actually doing her thing on the pooper? [Fashioncopious via BoingBoing]

The more you learn about this snowman, the less whimsical he becomes. He doesn't actually, glow blue; that's a lab-created effect. It's not actually snowing around him; that would appear to be a Photoshop trick. His facial features weren't lovingly assigned by breathless children; they were carved from metal with a focused ion beam. His nose is not a carrot or a coal, but a microscopic bead of platinum. Yet he is, undeniably, a snowman.

Just like that, except in the National Physics Laboratory in England, with a lone bacterium. Magical! [DailyMail via Dvice]

This nausea-inducing iPod can be seen at Art Basel Miami Beach, which runs December 3rd to December 6th and shows a selection from more than 250 worldwide galleries. I'm not sure who's responsible for this great riff on the iPod, but I'll be sure to thank them when the room stops spinning. [Thanks, Buster!]

Designing a fake dashboard for an imagined supercomputer or a hovering control panel for a worldwide surveillance system is a different process than creating a genuinely usable UI. Your goal is to imply things: that a machine is powerful; that a villain is formidable; that the software is intuitive, but that the breadth of its powers borders on unknowable. At no point does real-world usability factor in, and nor should it—this is pure fantasy, for an audience raised on Start Buttons, desktop icons and tree menus. Here's a gallery of some of the most famous interfaces; see how many you recognize.

Coleran's UIs are a mix of proudly retro and boldly new, mingling compact pixel art, wireframes and the solid, militaristic reds, blues and blacks of software from the 80s with touch-free gesture systems and overelaborate visualizations. It's the kind of stuff you take for granted in action and sci-fi films, but rounded up in one place, it's a strangely impressive, almost cohesive view of the future of software, as designed by someone with no constraints. [Mark Coleran via Metafilter]

UPDATE: Mark Coleran weighs in. His main point is a good one: These interfaces are the result of the work of many people, not just one man.

Strictly speaking, this should be called typewriter art, since the ASCII acronym didn't come into use until 1963, and this piece, but a young gentleman named Bob, apparently, wasn't created until the mid-thirties. And unlike the thousands of lovingly pecked-out Simpsons characters and ironic meme conversions you're used to seeing in rendered in type, "The Dream Ship" sails with purpose. It's part of an apology, to a fair young maiden!:

Dearest Hazel,
I wanted to apologize for the way I treated you yesterday. I really am ashamed of myself. I don't know what is the matter with me but I guess I just don't know how to treat a lady.

There's a carefully lineated ship up there that begs to differ, Bob. Full letter at [SquareAmerica via BoingBoing]

I rest my case. I want Ziggy in my keyboard now. [Chris DeLorenzo via Notcot via Albotas via Ohgizmo]

Kosta-Théfaine, armed only with patience and a lighter, burns intricate patterns into ceilings for his art.

So next time you light up a cigarette, think about all of the nobler aims you could pursue with that BIC. And next time you light up a Marilyn Monroe cigarette, revisit this post and contemplate how totally righteous this dude is. [Oliver Kosta-Théfaine via MAKE]

Designed by artist Zeger Reyers, the kitchen was put in motion last week at the opening of Eating the Universe at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf in Germany. Apparently, it will continue to rotate slowly for the duration. [trendbeheer via today and tomorrow via Likecool]