Palazzo Strozzi Presents UFO’s Replicas of Urban Ephemerals From 60s

As part of Florence‘s radical utopias exhibition, the Florence Institute of style international (FIDI) is exhibiting Lapo Binazzi’s string of super-sized inflatable items covered with paradoxical political communications.

Titled the Urboeffimeri, or ‘urban ephemeral objects,’ the originals were first designed by Italian radical group UFO in 1968, featuring phrases that represented themes of anti-war, anti-consumerism, and socialist politics. The bits were constructed using a lightweight polyethylene tubing material and then inflated using modified motors of the vacuum cleaner. Upon them, political comment expressing the youth’s voice for social change was written using duct tape.

Today, first architect and member Binazzi redefines the colors of the images, materials, and measurements remembered from his youth, to create the full size reconstructions despite the fact that the 1960s artifacts have been lost over time. Using black and white 35mm film from the protest, the political communications, form, and kind have recreated by image research aided by the design institute, FIDI.

As the title states, the inflatable inventions were created to provoke a reaction, lasting only for a short while during expositions or for road protests. ‘They had been inflated, served their function, and were immediately deflated,’ clarifies Binazzi.

To mark the 50-year anniversary of the revolutionary movement, the ‘radical utopias’ exposition in Florence has put on screen new variations of their missile-shaped balloons ‘Urboeffimero no. 5’ and ‘Urboeffimero no. 6’.

The exposition remembers a critical interval turning Florence to the focus of a revolution in thinking that had a profound impact on the progression of art in the worldwide level. For the first time in a single venue work from figures and groups like Archizoom, Remo Buti, 9999, Gianni Pettena, Superstudio, Zziggurat, and UFO have been exhibited in hopes to create a dialogue between objects of design, videos, installations, performances and narratives illustrating another possible universe.

‘It cannot be claimed that the objects weren’t a success,’ proceeds binazzi. ‘since the protest that comprised the no. 6 ‘super s’ ended with the ‘s’ shape opening up into twenty-five meters long and two-meter tall tube that blocked the authorities from the escaping students.’

Gallery Strozzina hosts ‘radical utopias’ until 21 January 2018 and is curated by Pino Brugellis, Gianni Pettena, and Alberto Salvadori.

The setup includes a brushed eleven meters long and two-meter tall tube, eventually developing a six-meter high setup. Titled the urboeffimeri, or ‘urban ephemeral objects,’ were featuring phrases which represented the themes of anti-war, anti-consumerism, and socialist politics. The inflatable object, in the courtyard of Palazzo Strozziare, is a replica of 1960 original.

Daniel Mullen’s Sequencing Synesthesia Illustrations

Illustrations by Amsterdam based abstract architectural painter Daniel Mullen in cooperation with  artist and filmmaker Lucy Engelman researching her Synesthesia, a state in which numbers, letters, words or even hearing somebody’s name invokes a sensory perception like a certain color, smell or flavor. In Engelman’s situation, she encounters different colors before her mind’s eye. Furthermore, time is spatial and color-related–the times of the week, weeks, decades all have colored locations in distance and shifting orientations. Mostly, she has an ever-changing complex and luminous filter to view the abstract theories of our planet. Mullen unknowingly developed a means of painting which sensory perception, which according to Engelman is your nearest visualization she’s ever seen of her experience seeing colored letters, numbers and time.

See more of Daniel Mullen’s job on Behance or at his website.

The Qoobo Interactive Cushion with a Tail That Could Replace Your Pet

Yukai engineering has successfully met its Kickstarter goal for the design of Qoobo, a robotic cushion with a tail meant to present a feeling of comfort to customers. When caressed, the plushy cushion waves gently. When rubbed, it swings playfully. The cushion also wags to say hello to its owners.

The interactive pillow was made to provide comforting communication that warms your heart how animals do. The robotic cushion makes users feel like they are interacting with live animals and provides them with a sense of relaxation, or ‘tail treatment.’ Through the Kickstarter campaign, Yukai engineering applied its experience and expertise in robotic engineering to help all people — such as people who have pet allergies or flat dwellers who can’t own pets. The engineers hope to develop the technology further, by continuing their study on the animal’s tail movements to offer even more realistic adventures.

‘We picked different materials for a variety of parts of the robot to boost the moves and also the tail’s look. We also made it durable to allow to be used in a variety of environments’, explains the design team. With over 400 backers, Qoobo attained its Kickstarter goal of more than 5 million yen or roughly 44,000 US dollars. A variety of styles and colors can be selected, which makes the pillow customizable for future ‘Qoobo’ owners. The very first batch of cushions is scheduled to be delivered by August 2018.

These Cosy Clay Sculptures Will Make You Feel Warm

This beautiful collection of clay sculptures is your handiwork of Israeli-based illustrator, personality and game programmer, Lena Guberman.

Presently working as an artist to get a games company, Lena’s artistic gifts cross lots of mediums — from book illustration to background and character design for movies.

Most recently, the artist has experimented with clay — a moderate now enjoying a fierce resurgence in the art world — crafting delicate sculptures of little girls living in a fanciful world.

A number of the cute characters enjoy creating snow angels and hanging out with gingerbread teddy bears, and others are sleeping. Discover more at lenag.carbonmade.com.