In a recent Design Observer post, Rick Poynor visits Istanbul’s Museum of Innocence, founded in April of this year by Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, and flatteringly describes it as “a fabulously extended example of Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn’s ‘Significant … Continue reading
2012 Krug champagne ad…
Rob Walker’s Unconsumption tumblr recently mentioned PASS THE BATON, a Japanese on- and offline retail concept that updates the thrift store experience by adding — yes, you guessed it! — meaningful narrative to castoff items. *** For more evidence of the … Continue reading
I feel like the New York Times Magazine invented this feature — the annotated photograph of someone’s den, telling stories about their significant objects — but here’s an example of the genre from Seed Magazine that I came across the … Continue reading
When I was at SXSW, earlier this year, I met Raina Lee, author of Hit Me With Your Best Shot: The Ultimate Guide To Karaoke Domination. She told me about this blog she was starting, the Infinite Garage Project. The … Continue reading
Emily Spivack writes to let us know about Worn Stories, a website where she’s publishing stories about clothing and memory. She explains: “Every item of clothing we wear has a story behind it — perhaps it was passed on to … Continue reading
Michael Zelehoski’s solo exhibition, Objecthood, at the Christina Ray gallery, “brings actual, quotidian objects into the realm of art. Zelehoski works almost exclusively with everyday objects, but by giving them autonomy and internal coherence, he is able to reveal their … Continue reading
From the AP, 11 hours ago: NEW YORK — A University of Delaware graduate student who made a bold bet has become the biggest one-day winner in the history of the game show “Jeopardy!” Roger Craig earned $77,000 on Tuesday’s … Continue reading
At WIRED SCIENCE, earlier this month, science journalist Jonah Lehrer explained “something important about how the human mind calculates value.” There’s now suggestive evidence that our faith in the authentic — especially when the authenticity is supported by effective marketing … Continue reading
*** Seventeenth in an occasional series.
Regency TR1 First Pocket Radio by Mark Richards ARTIST STATEMENT: Moore’s law runs the computer industry and has begun to determine the pace of human life as well. As the pace quickens, we rush to embrace the future as much … Continue reading
Ton Zwerver’s “Everyday Sculptures” only exist for a moment “as they are photographed and changed again and again. Everyday one or more sculptures are made out found objects that come across his path.” Fifteenth in an occasional series.
The crafty blog Tigerlily Tinkering explains how to make a chuppah — the canopy under which a Jewish bride and groom stand (or, as in the photo above, sit) during their wedding ceremony — that displays significant objects between sheets … Continue reading
“The Curious World of Patent Models” is a traveling show organized by the Rothschild Patent Model Museum. On display at the Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena through Aug. 15, 2010. Via Core … Continue reading
Andrea Magnani and Giovanni Delvecchio of the Italian design collective Resign claim theirs is a methodology “for all the designers who believe in magic and symbolic value of things.” Via Cool Hunting Twelfth in an occasional series.
The Index — a storefront gallery in Brooklyn — is a collection of materials and objects whose purposes, characters, and origins are fascinating to curator Jonathan Roquemaure. As Cool Hunting recently explained: While each object’s uncommon looks are compelling enough on … Continue reading
Here’s an everyday, apparently unexceptional object with a meaningful story; this advertisement was found in the current issue of Real Simple. Speaking of memes, the curators of Significant Objects are both at ROFLCon today.
In today’s New York Times Sunday Book Review, the psychiatrist Peter D. Kramer reviews Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things (Houghton Mifflin), by Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee. His conclusion: To those who need to understand hoarders, … Continue reading
