Leslie Horn

These Giant Meditating Faces Were Made From Bike Chains

Young-Deok Seo is a Korean artist who works almost exclusively with different kinds of reclaimed chains. His latest project—Meditation—is a series of impressively large faces, deep in thought. Per his statement on a recent show in Istanbul, Seo works in reclaimed metal materials in order to “reveal the amount of suffering it places on the…

Could Boarding an Airplane Be More Efficient With This Sliding Seat?

Molon Labe Designs created this concept for airplane seating where the aisle seat can slide in. It’s supposed to cut down on boarding times. But are we really that fat? In theory, more aisle space would put more passengers onboard faster, because people could walk two by two. With more room, getting on a plane…

This Accordion-Shaped House Doesn’t Quite Fit In

This meandering house was planned around a central narrow corridor, resulting in its accordion-like shape. Designed by FujiwaraMuro Architects, it’s a bit out of place in a Japanese residential neighborhood filled with traditional homes. Its shape looks like a snake drawn in a cubist style. The main hallway shrinks and curves and expands in two…

Most Beautiful Items: March 23-29, 2013

Between unbelievable balloon art, a scaly aluminum aquarium, and a Google Image Search art project, we have beaucoup beautiful things to show you this week. Take a second to gander at the gorgeous things we found in art, architecture, and design this week. Of Course This Stunning Building Is an Aquarium https://gizmodo.com/of-course-this-stunning-building-is-an-aquarium-5992422 Blue Planet Aquarium…

Pro-ject’s Colorful Turntables Please Your Eyes and Your Ears

So you’ve decided to hop on the vinyl trend. You need a turntable. Pro-ject’s candy hued Debut Carbon tables will appeal to both your eyes and your ears. Starting at $400, they come in seven different color options. They come with a fully installed carbon fiber tonearm, but other than that they’re super pared down…

A Sculpture Made of 10,000 Balloons Redefines Balloon Art

Jason Hackensworth is a balloon artist, but not the kind that wears oversized shoes and has been the villain in a 1990 horror movie. He’s known for his balloon sculptures of biological forms and creatures, like this anemone-like sculpture, currently on display in the Grand Gallery of the National Museum of Scotland as part of…

16 Peep Creations That Put Your Easter Basket to Shame

It’s almost Easter, a day of ham, nice outfits, obligatory church trips, and borderline abuse of baby rabbits. But most importantly, it’s the time of year when there are Peeps on the shelves of your local drugstore. Sure, you could eat the little marshmallow chicks. But wouldn’t you rather use them to make beautiful pastel…

If All Embassies Looked Like This There Wouldn’t Be Any Wars

Believe it or not, this is the Dutch Embassy in Ethiopia. It doesn’t look like your average bureaucratic building, but perhaps more government agencies should take cues from not just its unusual aesthetic, but how the architects—Dick van Gameren and Bjarne Mastenbroek—drew influence from two different cultures. For example, the rough texture of the walls…

Boston Cops Hilariously Pose Online As Punk Rockers

A recent city noise control ordinance in Boston has cops cracking down on roving rock shows that don’t take place in formal venues. So they’re posing as punk rockers online to sniff out concert locations so they shut them down more easily. Only problem is their police work reads like an out of touch parent…

The Rio Bonito House Fully Lives Up To Its Name

The The Rio Bonito House is set in a lush mountainous area in eastern Rio De Janeiro. It looks the the perfectly pleasant weekend getaway, but more than that, the design is notable because of the balance of both delicate and strong materials. Two thick stone walls punctured by four steel beams buoy the floating…

Play With This Modular Furniture Set Like K’Nex

The 3+ modular furniture collection harkens back to your childhood days of tinkering with K’Nex sets. Made of white, black, or grey, powder-coated or galvanized plates of steel, you can configure pieces in any way you’d like. The Oscar Zieta-created set will be shown later this month at a showcase in Milan, so we don’t…

This Modular Wine Wall Is Good Even When the Booze Is Bad

Maybe you don’t know the first thing about wine except that you like it. Hell, maybe you make your oenological choices based on how cool the label is. Even if the wine is crap, you can still nail the presentation with STACT, a slick modular wine rack. Units start at $130 and come in six…

This Sculpture Makes a Highly Magnetic Material Move to Your Music

Ferrofluids are liquids that become super magnetized when they’re in contact with a magnetic field. Ferrocious is a ferrofluid sculpture that uses the hyper-magnetic material respond to sound, like a high-tech musical lava lamp. Noises like your voice or the beat of a song will cause the copper colored electromagnet at the top of the…

Less Is More for Spotify’s New and Improved Logo

Spotify has a new logo. It’s been pared down, lost its cutesy aesthetic, and thanks to a little simplicity looks better overall. The old, over-stylized branding bounced at you like a candy pop music beat. On the other hand, the new 2D look is spelled out in Proxima Nova(Proxima Nova is the font used on…

A New French Skyscraper That Stretches to the Sky

When you gaze at architecture firm Zaha Hadid‘s new tower, you imagine two jazz hands raising up to the sky as high as they stretch. Located in Marseille, the skyscraper is the headquarters of French shipping and container company CMA CGM. It’s nearly 500 feet tall, and although the upward reaching form is the most…

This Swiss Apartment Complex Doubles as a Secret Snow Fortress

You might be a little confused because this looks strikingly similar to the snow fortress in Inception. But no need to watch out for skiing dream assassins—it’s an apartment complex in Lausanne, Switzerland. (As far as we know). The sharp corners at either end are not design features meant to intimidate intruders. In fact they’re…

This Funnel Parm Grater Lets You Cut the Cheese Any Which Way

This parmesan grater is delicious. It has a single, perforated blade that lets you grate your cheese in any direction. Best of all, there’s funnel on the end of this $25 grater with a removable cover so you can direct just the right amount of cheese onto your plate of fettuccine or salad. But we…

The Weather Channel iPhone app has been updated to tell you when it will start or stop raining.

Gmail App Update Lets You Swipe Through Messages

There are a couple of new features in today’s update for the Gmail iOS app. First off, you can now swipe right or left between messages. And second, when you select a message, it goes into edit mode, from which you can tap to file an email into a different folder. Not a huge update,…

Vertical Louvers Let the Light Dance In This Modern Home

Louvers are shutter-like fins that can permit or prevent light and air from entering a space. In this Japanese home, the giant white pieces let shadows dance differently around the house, depending on the time of day. The big white facade curves along the shape of the road running beside it, and between each louver…