Friday 29 June 2018

Crumbling Concrete Structures Transformed Into Designer Purses by Street Artist Thrashbird

Los Angeles-based artist Thrashbird is known primarily for stencils and paintings that blend socio-political commentary and humor, which are often done in highly visible areas like on city walls or billboards. For a recent project called “Valley Of Secret Values,” the artist ventured off the beaten path to an abandoned industrial site. Thrashbird transformed crumbling structures into replicas of high-end designer bags using paint for designs and nearby found objects like tires and wood for the handles, straps, and hardware.

While on an expedition through Lime, Oregon, the artist happened upon what used to be a power plant. “To see [the stones] crumbling with the passage of time, returning to the earth as a dust, well the metaphor was too strong to disregard,” Thrashbird told Ignant. He chose to paint the structures as handbags as “part beautification project, part cautionary tale,” drawing parallels to the destructive nature of society’s obsession with consumerism while confronting his own demons.

“We grapple for status and purpose in society, and [consume] possessions to showcase how successful we are and to fill us with purpose, with complete disregard for the people and the planet affected by our careless overconsumption,” Thrashbird said. “Our measure of success has been skewed. We’ve come to a place in society where things and social status have become more important than our connection to each other.”

You can see more of the street artist’s roving installations on Instagram. Thrashbird also offers prints and small editions of original artwork in his online store. (via Ignant)

Painted Street Carpets Connect Modern Cities to Ancient Ornamentation by Arthur-Louis Ignoré

Arthur-Louis Ignoré, also known as Ali, paints white patterned carpets on public sidewalks and passageways in cities across the world, including recent installations throughout France and Finland. The works are inspired by both geometric and botanical patterns found in ancient ornamentation from a wide range of cultural contexts. By combining the patterns into public works, he showcases the diversity found in our modern cities while providing a domestic aesthetic that contrasts the often brutalist feel of urban environments.

Currently the artist lives in Rennes, France, where a few years ago he painted his largest installation to date. The 10,000-square-foot mandala was painted on the roof of the Social Welfare Family Allowance building, and visually created links between works Ali produced in both Montreal and New York City. You can see more of his painted carpet installations on Instagram and Behance.

Vibrant Watercolor Paintings Filled With Quirky Characters and Mysterious Monochrome Worlds

Illustrator Marija Tiurina (previously) creates fantastical worlds packed with original characters. The complex watercolor paintings force the viewer to stare deeply into tangled masses to extract specific elements, which often appear to be creations of a centralized figure’s consciousness. In the illustration above a man can be seen exiting a chaotic cool-toned realm while stepping into an equally layered red and purple-hued dimension. Is the viewer peeking into a fictionalized universe, or are we looking into the character’s own mind?

Although Tiurina often sketches a draft of her works before adding watercolor, several of the pieces presented here were freehanded directly onto the paper with paint. This spontaneity is seen in many of her new, larger works which you can browse on Behance. More illustrations can also be seen on her website and Instagram.

Thursday 28 June 2018

Quirky Portraits by Bill Mayer Imagine Flora and Fauna as High Society Humans

Des Fleurs Qui Mordent

Fusing charming portraits of wildlife with the severe trappings of historical costume, Bill Mayer creates darkly fantastical worlds in his detailed gouache paintings. A frog poses in royal dress, a pearl-draped mouse looks ready for a ball amongst massive wedges of cheese, and a rhinoceros stands ready to defend his territory in a suit of armor. The accomplished illustrator lives in Decatur, Georgia and has had a long career as a commercial artist. In an interview with WOW X WOW, Mayer reflected on his concept development:

For me, the most important element of the painting is the concept. The medium you use is just a way of furthering that original concept or finding some elements that add an intelligence to the work. Most of the time I start with small thumbnails which help me sort out the basic visual, a starting place. It probably comes from years of commercial work where you have to show your ideas before you start on a piece… Sometimes I will pull a piece of acetate over a painting and try to figure out what was bothering me and try a few things. Sometimes I will scan them in and use Photoshop, try some things, then go back and paint that way.

The artist continues on to explain that he doesn’t draw much distinction between being an illustrator or a fine artist, and he has only recently begun to show his work in gallery settings. You can see more of Mayer’s vast portfolio, including commercial work and digital illustrations, on his website. (via Supersonic)

The Pathogen

Queen of the Flies

Tulip Head

Cheeseball  

Tortoise and Hare

Land of Plenty (left), The Warrior No. 2 (right)

The Black Sun

Winter’s Muse

Researchers in Tokyo Invent a Robot to Autonomously Shift its Shape in Flight

The JSK Lab at the University of Tokyo has designed a modular flying robot that propels itself through the air with several small fans. The entire device is built to autonomously alter its shape during flight, allowing the robot to maneuver its way through obstacles that might obscure its path. The robot is named DRAGON, which is a simplified way of saying “Dual-rotor embedded multilink Robot with the Ability of multi-deGree-of-freedom aerial transformatiON.

The project’s researchers imagine the robot to eventually act as a flying arm, moving its way through the air as it picks up and moves objects with a two-fingered grip. The linked modules that compose DRAGON’s body are connected via hinged joints and the entire structure is driven by an Intel Euclid which allows for a 3 minute run time. The above video shows the robot shape-shifting from a circular configuration to a snake-like object in order to pass through a small hole in the grid that lies above.

DRAGON was presented as a part of the paper “Design, Modeling and Control of Aerial Robot DRAGON: Dual-Rotor Embedded Multilink Robot with the Ability of Multi-Degree-of-Freedom Aerial Transformation,” by researchers Moju Zhao, Tomoki Anzai, Fan Shi, Xiangyu Chen, Kei Okada, and Masayuki Inaba at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation 2018 in Brisbane, Australia in May. (via The Kid Should See This)

Wednesday 27 June 2018

Take a Tour of ‘Inflatable’ at San Francisco’s Exploratorium

Guardian of the Disphotic by Shih Chieh Huang (2018)

The Exploratorium summer show, curated by Colossal, has filled the museum and exploration space to the roof—literally!—with eye-catching, mind-boggling, and joy-inducing interactive inflatable art. Take a peek at the exhibit, which includes artwork by Shih Chieh Huang, Jason Hackenwerth, Amanda Parer, Jimmy Kuehnle, and Pneuhaus. ‘Inflatable’ is on view through September 3, 2018 in San Francisco. Find out more on the Exploratorium website.

Cauldron Veil by Jason Hackenwerth (2018)

Cauldron Veil by Jason Hackenwerth (2018)

Fantastic Planet by Amanda Parer (2016)

Fantastic Planet by Amanda Parer (2016)

Bau(ncy) Haus by Jimmy Kuehnle (2018)

Bau(ncy) Haus by Jimmy Kuehnle (2018)

Compound Camera by Pneuhaus (2017)

Compound Camera by Pneuhaus (2017)

Gnarled Eyes and Knotted Ears Emerge from Sculptural Portraits Made With Found Wood

Artist Bennett Ewing travels the world collecting pieces of wood from mountains, deserts, beaches, and forests to form expressive sculptural portraits. Using the natural shapes and tones of his found wooden materials, Ewing, who goes by the artist name Eyevan Tumbleweed, builds evocative facial features and wild hairstyles. The artist states, “the sylvan entities and their expressions of thought and emotion portray a glimpse of an otherworldly realm that is not altogether unfamiliar.” You can see more of Ewing’s artwork on his website and Instagram. (via Supersonic Art)

A 38-Foot-Tall Whale Made From 10,000 Pounds of Plastic Waste Surfaces in Bruges

In response to the Bruges Triennial's 2018 theme “Liquid City,” Brooklyn-based architecture and design firm STUDIOKCA designed a 38-foot-tall sculptural whale composed of over five tons of plastic pulled from the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The studio, led by Jason Klimoski and Lesley Chang, wanted to address how cities from across the globe are contributing to the waste that has piled up in our oceans—the discarded plastic that is washing up on our shores and endangering and killing marine life.

Skyscraper contains nearly 4,000-square-feet of plastic waste, which is just a dent in the 150 million tons of plastic that currently circulates in our seas. STUDIOKCA worked with the Hawaii Wildlife Fund to coordinate several beach clean-ups, which is how the team found most of the plastic for the 10,000-pound whale.

“Right now there is 150 million tons of plastic swimming in the ocean, our oceans, the oceans we share,” says Klimoski in a video created about the project. “Pound for pound that is more plastic waste swimming in the ocean than there is whales. So an opportunity like this to show the type of plastic and the amount of plastic that ends up in our oceans is really important.”

You can learn more about the team’s process behind the large-scale whale on their website and in the video below. The Bruges Triennial continues through September 16, 2018. (via Colossal Submissions)

Triënnale 2018; STUDIOKCA – ‘Skyscraper (the Bruges Whale)’

Triënnale 2018; STUDIOKCA – ‘Skyscraper (the Bruges Whale)’

Triënnale 2018; STUDIOKCA – ‘Skyscraper (the Bruges Whale)’

Tuesday 26 June 2018

New Black and White Laser-Cut Animations by Matthias Brown Imitate 19th-Century Optical Illusions

Graphic designer Matthias Brown (previously here and here) creates hand drawn animations and cut paper GIFs which he posts to his Tumblr, Traceloops. Previously he’s experimented with rotoscoping techniques for his looping works, which requires each element of the animation to be scanned or traced, frame-by-frame. His subject matter is typically figural, working with dancing bodies, disembodied hands, or melting faces.

Recently, Brown has revisited paper-based animation with a centuries old method called a phenakistoscope. His handmade sculptures are laser-cut from one piece of paper, and imitate the mid-19th-century device by animating as they spin. Brown’s animation above was created from one of these devices, with a full version of the work on Vimeo. You can view a larger range of his recent GIFs on Traceloops.

   

7 Cheap Ways to Travel Across Europe

Train station in Europe
Updated: 6/26/18 | June 26th, 2018

Traveling around Europe can be fairly expensive. Airline tickets, high-speed trains, overnight trains, ferries – they can all eat into your limited and precious travel budget. I mean you came to spend money on delicious food and wine, not transportation!

However, there are a few recent trends that have helped travelers get around Europe cheaper: weaker currency exchange rates, the rise of the sharing economy, new bus options, and lots of new budget airlines.

The 7 Best Ways To Travel Europe Cheap

Travelling Europe by Megabus

 One of the cheapest ways to get around Europe is Megabus
Megabus is a cheap way to get around the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales) as well as to Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam. Tickets can cost as little as 1 GBP if you book at least a month in advance on popular routes to get these fares. However, even if you don’t scoop up these amazingly cheap deals, you can still travel for a more reasonable price than on the national bus system, as fares rarely top 20 GBP. I recently took a 5 GBP bus from London to Bristol. (The train? 45 GBP!) That ticket was only bought the day before too! Additionally, Megabus also operates trains to some destinations around the UK, starting at 10 GBP. Megabus is definitely the cheapest way to get around the UK and now is also the cheapest way to get to Paris, Brussels, or Amsterdam.

Travelling Europe by Busabout

 Hop on and Off With Busabout, A Cheap Way To Travel Europe
Busabout is a hop-on/hop-off bus service primarily used by backpackers, similar to the Oz or Kiwi Experience in Australia and New Zealand, respectively. You can get on and off whenever you want along one of their set routes. You can buy tickets that let you travel their whole network with a set number of stops. For example, a nine-day flex-pass, which gives you nine stops from your starting city. The only downside to Busabout is that if you want to visit a city not on their route, you have to make your own way there at an added cost. A lot of backpackers use this method of travel to get around as well as meet other travelers. The pass also comes with a guide and sometimes include group activities. A two-week pass is $299 USD. If you figure you can visit about 6 cities in two weeks, that’s $50 a trip. When you consider the soft benefits of a guide, included trips, and meeting people, Busabout becomes price comparable to trains and flights, though still more expensive than a regular public bus! Their unlimited passes for $1,499 for 6 months of travel is the best long-term transportation deal.

Travelling Europe by Flixbus

Flixbus in Europe
Over the last few years, a new company has come on the market that has totally changed the bus system in Europe! German based Flixbus has routes in 20 European countries and thousands of cities with prices starting as low 5 EUR. Their buses include WiFi, electrical outlets, up to three 3 free bags, and comfy seats. It’s essentially Megabus, but less sucky and for the whole of continental Europe. Flixbus quickly became my favorite non-train way to get across Europe cheaper after it came out. It’s the best and cheapest way to get around continental Europe!

Another option is to take Eurolines. Every country in Europe has its own national bus service but for international long distance bus routes, they sort of combine into the umbrella company, Eurolines. While they serve more destinations than Flixbus, I prefer the comfort and prices of Flxibus if I have a choice between the two. Eurolines prices usually start at around 20 Euros for a 5-6 hour journey.

Travelling Europe by Budget Airline

 Budget Airlines Like Ryanair are The Cheapest Options For Getting Around Europe
By far one of the cheapest ways to travel long distance in Europe is by budget airline. These airlines are hugely prolific on the continent and competition leads to incredibly cheap fares. You can often find fares as cheap as 1 Euro. When I need to go somewhere and I don’t want to take a long bus or train journey, I fly budget airlines. My favorite budget airlines are:

I use Skyscanner and Momondo to search for the best deals. They do all the legwork for ya!

It’s important to remember that these budget airlines make most of their money through fees, and the second you mess up, they whack you with a fee. They are very strict about baggage limits or forgetting to print out your boarding pass. Be sure to follow their rules to the letter. Sometimes these budget airlines cost more money because of all their fees so if you’re traveling with a lot of bags, it may be cheaper to fly with one of the larger airlines (which have also lowered their fares in the face of tough competition).

For more information, here is a complete guide to finding cheap flights around Europe.

Travelling Europe With A Eurail Pass

 Travel Vast Distances Using The European Rail System
Getting a rail pass is a good option if you are going to be traveling across vast distances and don’t want to fly. The European rail system is one of the best and most extensive in the world. I love traveling by train. Sitting in a big seat, relaxing with a book, and watching the stunning landscape go by. It’s more comfortable than a bus and much less stressful than air travel.

If you’re going to travel by train, it’s hard to beat them on price and convenience for short city to city travel. For longer journeys (overnight journeys, between countries, or rides that require a high-speed line like Paris to Bordeaux or Berlin to Munich), trains tend to be very expensive. If you plan to travel around Europe in a grand tour, a rail pass is your best money saving travel option. Your cost per trip will be a lot lower than if you were to buy these tickets separately.

For more information, here is a complete breakdown of Eurail passes and when they should be used to save money.

Travelling Europe Using BlaBlaCar

 Save Money by Ride Sharing Throughout Europe.
The rise of the sharing economy has allowed people to hop a ride with locals going their way, and BlaBlaCar is the reigning king of this service. Hugely popular and widespread in Europe, I’ve used this service many times. This website lets you rideshare with people who have extra space in their car. You find a ride, they agree to take you, and off you go. You can find rides for as little as 5 Euros. It is the best, BEST paid way to get around Europe. You get to meet a local, have a friendly conversation, save tons of money over bus and train travel, and get off the highways and more the countryside.

Alternatively, there are websites where you can ask for rides so long as you pitch in for gas. Gumtree is the most popular among backpackers.

The Cheapest Way To Travel Europe: Hitchhiking

 The Cheapest Way to Travel Europe is Hitchhiking
The best way to travel Europe cheap is to not pay for it. Hitching is quite common in Europe, and I’ve met a number of travelers who have done it. I myself traveled this way in Bulgaria. It’s important to use your head when hitchhiking.

***

There are a lot of ways to get around Europe on a budget. But what’s the best way for your trip? MIX AND MATCH YOUR TRANSPORTATION. The key to traveling around Europe on the cheap is to know when to use each one of the listed transportation methods. For short trips, I like trains and BlaBlaCar. For medium length trips (half a day), I’ll take a bus, BlaBlaBla car, or train. For long distances, I fly, take a high-speed train, or overnight buses. If you have no preference on how you travel – you just want the cheapest – use a website like Rome2Rio. All you have to do is enter where you are going and they will find all the ways to get there and list the prices for each method.

When you are looking for cheap ways to travel Europe, use the transportation options above that suit your needs and you’ll always get the best deal!

Next step: keep planning your trip to Europe with these articles:

Photo Credits: 2, 4

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