Installations

I Like Scary Movies Is a Horror Fan’s Instagram Dream

The website for the event titled I Like Scary Movies describes it as “an interactive art installation.” But what does that mean exactly? Since it’s filled with displays paying tribute to films like The Shining, Beetlejuice, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Lost Boys, and It: Chapter One, I simply had to find out. I Like Scary Movies,…

Being Stuck Inside This Laser-Filled Room Would Be a Great Place to Lose Your Mind

This immersive laser beam installation seems like the perfect place to pop a pill, stare at some lights, cleanse yourself from sin, and, like, maybe even just leave your soul behind. The room is so huge and the lasers come from everywhere that it must be a hell of a trip. Like, you’re trapped inside…

5 Unsettling Works of Encryption Art

Encryption is the process of encoding a message, and today we have incredibly sophisticated software and algorithms that make our encrypted messages almost impossible to decode. But how does it work? These art projects answer that question by exploring how encryption has become part of daily lives. Once the domain of spies and engineers, encryption…

This Abandoned Warehouse Is Full of Live Jellyfish

If you find yourself wandering around Liverpool in the middle of the night, you might be surprised to happen upon a warehouse with a glowing blue door. Inside, you’ll see countless live jellyfish floating peacefully in the unlikely setting. It’s not a hallucination. It’s art. Artist duo Walter Hugo and Zoniel quietly openedthe installation a…

You’ll Want to Play Forever In This Swirling Sea of Packing Peanuts

You might think it a nuisance when a few packing peanuts spill from a box out onto your living room floor. But when an entire hallway is filled with millions of the white nuggets and blown around in a cyclone of styrofoam, you’ll probably react a bit differently. It’s all part of an installation by…

Most Beautiful Items: April 11 – 18, 2014

Tiny homes, classic cars, and mesmerizing cityscapes—those, among other wonders, are the treasures we’re working with in this round of the most beautiful items of the week. Check out what we discovered for you below: Driving the Past, For the Future of Car Design This week the Ford Mustang, perhaps America’s most culturally influential car,…

The Story Behind That Giant Astronaut Floating Around Coachella

Last year, Coachella’s main event art installation was a giant snail. But this year, the mobile art installation at the popular music festival is a three-story-tall astronaut, formally known as “Escape Velocity.” And it’s totally awesome. Built by Tyler Hanson of Poetic Kinetics—the kinetic art studio that also built the Coachella Snail—the astronaut is 36…

Most Beautiful Items: March 21 – 28, 2014

From churches-turned-libraries, to new uses for old CDs, we have plenty of lovely and awe-inspiring things for you to peep this time around. Check them out in this edition of the most beautiful items of the week. This time lapse of fireflies is art in motion If you’ve been stressing out or if you’re getting…

Most Beautiful Items: March 14 – 21, 2014

Guys, you guys! It’s finally spring! Or at least it is, technically speaking. You might still be sitting under a massive crap clump of snow, but there’s plenty to ease your mind. A walking city that looks like it came out of the movie Up? Sure. Massive mist cannons in the bowels of NYC keeping…

These Womb-Like Cathedrals of Color Are Made From Giant Balloons

Would you believe this room was created with nothing more than plastic sheeting, natural light, and an air compressor? It’s called a luminarium, and its inventors, Architects of AIR, have just released a book that chronicles two decades of their creations. A luminarium is a human-scaled pneumatic sculpture which uses inflated sheets of PVC to…

Most Beautiful Items: February 21 – 28, 2014

Perhaps you came here looking for the story of the guy who lived off pizza for an entire year. Or maybe you were more interested in the harrowing tale of the teen who banged a Hot Pocket. If so, you’re in the wrong place. You will, however, find some beautiful wonders from the worlds of…

Most Beautiful Items: February 14 – 21, 2014

If I have to look at one more half-melted slushy snowdrift, I’m going to junkpunch the nearest passerby. Luckily, there are things like amazing honeycomb sculptures and insane light installations to bring everyone off the ledge that winter has put them on. Enjoy a little reprieve in the form of the most beautiful items we…

Most Beautiful Items: January 31 – Feb 7, 2014

Starting about two days ago and lasting until about two weeks from now, it’s all Olympics all the time. That’s all fine and well, but if you’re looking for a reprieve, you’ve come to the right place. From fungus towers to slinky-like sculptures, here are the most beautiful things we showed you this week. Human…

Most Beautiful Items: January 24 – 31, 2014

The Statue of Liberty’s arm, building laws that were meant to be broken, and oh hey is there a Super Bowl tie-in in here somewhere? Imagine that. But that’s not all we have to feed your eyeballs this week. Check out the most beautiful items of the week or remain in suspense forever. 12 Photorealistic…

Most Beautiful Items: January 17 – 24, 2014

All you see from your window might be ice, but from this screen you’re eyes will catch nothing but beautiful things. From the worlds of art, architecture, and design, here are the most lovely things we found this week. Don’t you dare go outside; it’s way too dangerous. A frozen Niagara Falls light show looks…

Oculus Rift Lets You See What It Would Be Like To Swap Genders (NSFW)

Oculus Rift is amazing in that it lets you experience other worlds beautifully and immersively. And, in this project by BeAnotherLabs, it’s letting users experience a few minutes as the opposite gender. (Warning: some nudity ahead). https://gizmodo.com/i-wore-the-new-oculus-rift-and-i-never-want-to-look-at-1496569598 The group calls it the “Machine To Be Another.” Kind of weird and kind of cool, and to…

Street Artist Takes Over Derelict Gas Station with Brilliant Results

If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to live in cartoon, consider visiting Limerick, Ireland—where a street artist recently turned a broken down gas station into a full-fledged color party. Maser, a globally known Irish graffiti artist, calls the finished work “No.27: A Nod to Ed Ruscha.” That nod, of course, is in…

Most Beautiful Items: December 13 – 20, 2013

It’s nearly Christmas so everything is beautiful, from the lights decking every inch of your neighborhood to the fact that you’re about to get a little vacation. But we also had plenty of things to show you this week, from our favorite Instagram accounts to a tunnel to the sky in a Manhattan train station,…

This 360-Degree Art Installation Starts Over If Your Phone Rings

It’s always distracting if your phone so much as vibrates when you’re trying to focus on something. Knowing that, artistic collective Tundra created the Void, a 360-degree audiovisual installation that’ll straight up stop if your phone rings. Void is an immersive video project that is supposed to abstractly simulate the Big Bang. You enter an…

It’s hard not to marvel at French artist Benedetto Bufalino’s recent work “La caravane dans le ciel”—literally, “the caravan in the sky.” A small camper sits on top of a hydraulic lift, providing enough room for a person to live in the clouds. It’s kind of like The Jetsons, only trashier. [designboom]