Peering through a hole in the hovering white skin of an unusual installation at the 22nd International International Garden Festival of Chaumont Sur Loire, France, seems to transport the viewer into a different place altogether. What could not be more than a few square meters, judging by the outside dimensions, becomes a vast forest that seemingly continues without end. Outside-In is a ‘visual paradox’ that intends to show us how relying on our senses can limit our imagination.
Designed by Meir Lobaton Corona and Ulli Heckmann architects, the installation is a white canvas box punctured with circular windows, rendering a small planted area inaccessible. But mirrors mounted inside that box reflect the few trees that are actually contained within it. The effect is enhanced in warm seasons, when the leaves are at their lushest.
“We think that all perception is locked within our body: The sense of seeing from the eyes, the sense of hearing from the ears, the sense of smelling from the nose, the sense of tasting from the mouth, and the sense of touch primarily from the hands,” say the creators. “Our garden, entitled ‘outside-in’, is conceived as a visual paradox, as device that enhances such conditions in order to make the audience realize how by relying only on sight we rely on imagination, that is to say, on interpretation.”
“‘Outside-in’ is a garden within a garden, a contemplative space, a small universe where landscape and architecture are fused to create an experience capable of raising questions rather than answering them, a live mechanism whose aim is to make us reflect on the contrast between what we know and what we see, demanding us to constantly negotiate the gap between physical reality and visual perception. It is a meditation on space, light, and the possibility of infinity as seen through the limitless reflections of a trapped narrative meticulously fitted inside a world of two-way mirrors.”
The Sydney Opera House might have been little more than a squat concrete building resembling a factory, and a visit to the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial could have required scaling a massive stepped pyramid. Ranging from close second-place finishes in design competitions to proposals that were little more than pipe dreams, these alternative designs for 12 major iconic landmarks around the world represent radical departures from the monuments we’re accustomed to.
The Sydney Opera House is one of the most recognizable buildings in the world, with a dramatic series of vaults rising from the ground along Sydney Harbour. But Danish architect Jørn Utzon’s now-iconic design was controversial when it was first proposed in 1957, and the design that came in second place may have been more palatable to the public. American architect Joseph Marzella’s design was rather industrial in its appearance, but didn’t seem quite so out there. It’s hard to imagine the magnificent performing arts venue looking so squat and dull.
Triumphal Elephant in Place of Paris’ Arc de Triomphe
In place of one of Paris’ most famous monuments, the Arc de Triomphe, could have been a three-story elephant monument with a spiral staircase in the underbelly leading to the pinnacle. 18th century architect Charles Ribart offered this monument for the Champs Élysées, complete with a cross-sectional drawing showing the intricate rooms within, but was turned down by the French government.
This isn’t even the only massive, ridiculous elephant statue envisioned for Paris. Originally conceived by Napoleon, the imposing Elephant of the Bastille (third photo) was meant to be cast of bronze and placed in Paris’ Place de la Bastille on the site of the old Bastille prison, which was the birthplace of the French Revolution. A stairway set into the legs would give access to the top, and the base would be surrounded by a fountain. However, only a plaster model was built, as memorialized by Victor Hugo in the novel Les Miserables, and eventually the July Column took its place.
Now 76 years old, the Golden Gate Bridge is an iconic symbol of San Francisco, coated in literally millions of gallons of orange paint. The Art Deco-style bridge is one of the longest suspension bridges in the world, beating many experts’ predictions that it wouldn’t last against gale-force winds in the straight where the San Francisco Bay opens to the Pacific Ocean. But this wasn’t engineer Joseph Strauss’ first design. The original proposal is markedly different, with a heavier look combining cantilevered and suspension designs. It was rejected by the planning committee.
Highlighted at Unbuilt Washington, an exhibition at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C., John Russell Pope’s Lincoln Memorial Proposal replaces the columned rectangular building honoring the 16th president with a pyramid. Anyone who wanted to get up close to Abraham Lincoln’s statue would have had to climb that entire thing to reach it. Some historians believe that this proposal was ridiculous on purpose; Pope wasn’t a fan of the swampy location chosen for the memorial, and may have created this and other absurd designs in an effort to encourage the committee to seek a new setting. Pope went on to successfully design the Jefferson Memorial.
Infused in the Victorian preoccupation with melancholy and inspired by the Egyptian spoils of traveler and tomb-raider Giovanni Battista Belzoni, London architect Thomas Wilson proposed a massive, 15-acre pyramid-shaped necropolis for the city’s Primrose Hill. The granite pyramid would have towered into the air with 94 tiers of tombs in honeycomb shapes and a base measuring 18 acres, casting a gargantuan shadow over the hill many Londoners use for picnics and looking out over the city. Churchyards were so crowded at the time, that graves were bursting out of the ground – but concerns about what to do with London’s dead weren’t enough to convince the public that a necropolis was a good idea.
While he’s not nearly as forgettable as his grandfather, ninth United States President William Henry Harrison – who died after just 32 days in office – many Americans will struggle to recall any of twenty-third President Benjamin Harrison’s achievements during his tenure in the White House. However, Harrison could have made quite a mark. The first President to reside in the White House after it was wired for electricity, Harrison and his First Lady, Caroline Harrison, proposed significant changes to the complex that were never carried out. However, ten years later, Theodore Roosevelt made plenty of changes of his own, including the addition of the West Wing.
Have you ever wondered how 19th century artists were able to produce such incredibly realistic drawings? It isn’t just because they were unusually talented, though it’s hard to argue that they were. Many of them benefitted from the use of a ‘camera lucida’, an optical device that reflects real-life images onto a drawing surface so they can be traced. A new version of the tool, called the ‘NeoLucida,’ aims to bring this drawing aid back, with a few modern updates.
Essentially a prism on a stick, the camera lucida was once a very popular drawing tool, making it easy to create realistic drawings. A portable version hasn’t been manufactured in nearly a century. Antique versions sell for hundreds of dollars, but Pablo Garcia and Golan Levin, the makers of the NeoLucida, aim to sell theirs for just $40.
“We want to make this remarkable device widely available to students, artists, architects, and anyone who loves to draw from life,” say the pair on their Kickstarter page, which has already raised nearly half a million dollars – far over the original goal of $15,000. “But to be clear: our NeoLucida is not just a product, but a provocation. In manufacturing a camera lucida for the 21st century, our aim is to stimulate interest in media archaeology—the tightly interconnected history of visual culture and imaging technologies.
The NeoLucida is made from a combination of mass-manufactured and custom-machined parts. It has a clamp to fit onto the edge of desks and tables, and a goose neck for adjustability. It’s lightweight, non-electric, and compact enough to fit in a handbag. Get more details at the project’s Kickstarter (via notcot.org.)
Have you ever wondered how 19th century artists were able to produce such incredibly realistic drawings? It isn’t just because they were unusually talented, though it’s hard to argue that they were. Many of them benefitted from the use of a ‘camera lucida’, an optical device that reflects real-life images onto a drawing surface so they can be traced. A new version of the tool, called the ‘NeoLucida,’ aims to bring this drawing aid back, with a few modern updates.
Essentially a prism on a stick, the camera lucida was once a very popular drawing tool, making it easy to create realistic drawings. A portable version hasn’t been manufactured in nearly a century. Antique versions sell for hundreds of dollars, but Pablo Garcia and Golan Levin, the makers of the NeoLucida, aim to sell theirs for just $40.
“We want to make this remarkable device widely available to students, artists, architects, and anyone who loves to draw from life,” say the pair on their Kickstarter page, which has already raised nearly half a million dollars – far over the original goal of $15,000. “But to be clear: our NeoLucida is not just a product, but a provocation. In manufacturing a camera lucida for the 21st century, our aim is to stimulate interest in media archaeology—the tightly interconnected history of visual culture and imaging technologies.
The NeoLucida is made from a combination of mass-manufactured and custom-machined parts. It has a clamp to fit onto the edge of desks and tables, and a goose neck for adjustability. It’s lightweight, non-electric, and compact enough to fit in a handbag. Get more details at the project’s Kickstarter (via notcot.org.)
Put on a futuristic-looking, geometric white mask and you’ll suddenly have superhuman senses, hearing targeted sounds from long distances or applying effects to images in real-time. The ‘Eidos’ masks were developed by a group of students from the Royal College of Art in London, fitting over the mouth or ears to enhance sensory perception.
The mask that fits over the mouth and ears features a directional microphone to capture audio, which is processed by software to eliminate background noise. The sound is transmitted directly to the inner ear through bone vibrations to make it seem as if someone else’s speech is coming from inside your own head.
The second mask, which fits over the eyes, adds visual effects to the wearer’s range of vision, and can also analyze visual data. That data is sent to a computer, where software processes it and picks out patterns and movements that are invisible to the naked eye.
“Eidos has broad application in areas where live audio and video analysis is valuable. For example, sportspeople can visualise and improve technique in real time. Eidos also has healthcare benefits where it can be used to boost or refine sensory signals weakened by ageing or disability. In the arts, Eidos can augment live performance such as ballet, fashion or music concerts. It allows us to highlight previously invisible or inaudible details, opening up new and customisable experiences.”
Within five years or less, we could be chatting with the three-dimensional holograms of faraway friends, controlling our computers with mental commands, charging our phones with energy harvested from wasted ambient energy and logging into our bank accounts with facial recognition scans. These are among the technology innovations that computer giant IBM has predicted within the last few years of its annual technology forecast. Here are seven of the most intriguing prospects.
3D Hologram Chat
(image via: Star Wars 20th Century Fox screen capture)
A 3D holographic chat system called “TeleHuman” is the first example of what will likely be a flood of virtual hologram technology that lets us see faraway contacts in three dimensions. TeleHuman creates a life-sized rendering of its subject using six XBox Kinect sensors, a 3D projector and a cylindrical display; the creators say it will be available for $5,000 within five years. A similar project called the RGB+D Toolkit is making waves in the indie filmmaking community.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t have to type at all? You could simply think a command, an email, or anything else you want to do and it appears on your screen. Maybe we’re not quite there yet, but progress is encouraging. Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology is appearing in all kinds of experimental gadgets, from headphones that play music based on your mood to a headband that measures brain activity in real time and displays it on your smartphone or tablet. BCI devices are also being used to allow quadriplegic patients to complete previously impossible tasks.
Of course, there are drawbacks to this inevitably invasive technology. A 2012 study found that connecting minds to machines can allow sensitive private information to ‘leak out’ along with the users’ mental commands. The information revealed included the location of their homes, faces they recognized and even their credit card PINs.
Energy-Scavenging Gadgets That Don’t Need Batteries
Power lines, data centers, televisions and even your coffee maker output waves of ambient energy that typically just dissipate in the air, going to waste. That energy could be used to power all kinds of things, including crucial wireless sensors running on batteries, which keep track of factory machinery or measure environmental pollution. MIT has developed an energy-harvesting microelectromechanical system (MEMs) that translates even tiny vibrations, light and ambient energy into a surprising amount of power, eliminating the need for batteries.
Designer Dennis Siegel shows off some of the possibilities on the consumer side of the spectrum with ‘Energy Parasite,‘ a gadget that gathers energy from home appliances and power plants, stores it in a conventional battery and allows you to use it later for cell phones, mp3 players and other devices.
Multi-Factor Biometrics Eliminate Need for Passwords
We’re not far from an era in which passwords are a thing of the past. Fingerprint scanners have been available for a range of devices for quite a while now, but they’re not ideal – burns, cuts, oil and other irregularities can interfere with scanning. In the future, a range of biometrics including voice, retina and face scanners could be used to verify our identities so we can access devices, personal accounts and private data.
Researchers are developing systems that ensure biometric data is secure, like taking a sample of a user’s voice, dividing it into similar samples, and then cryptographically protecting them before performing a comparison on the voice trying to gain access.
Computers That Can Smell, Taste & Replicate Touch Sensations
IBM predicted that within five years, computers will be able to output and recognize smells and flavors, and even replicate textures, so we can ‘feel’ fabrics before purchasing, for example. Texture data fed into a computer’s drivers can re-create vibrations and temperature on a touch screen, similar to the way some computer game controllers shake to indicate on-screen action. Digitized taste buds breaking down flavors to their molecular components can help compare them, so users can find something that tastes like a favorite food, but is healthier, or get a sense of a recipe before trying it out. Chemical sensors that enable computers to ‘smell’ could guess health problems from changes in your breath or detect environmental toxins.
Changes in the way computers ‘hear’ sound could also lead to some major breakthroughs. Hearing the ‘whole picture’ rather than isolated voices or music could allow computers to learn more about the situations in which the sounds are produced. For example, a computer could analyze the sounds of a baby crying and identify based on past experience whether the cause is need for a diaper change or food, or more serious problem. Japanese researchers are currently integrating smell technology into humanoid robots, as well.
The End of Junk Mail
(image via: Minority Report 20th Century Fox Screen Capture)
Advances in creepily targeted advertising could mean that junk mail is no longer junk. When the ads that appear in your inbox and physical mailbox are tailored specifically to your tastes and interests, you’re going to be more likely to click on them, which is exactly what marketers want. Information assembled online, through customer loyalty cards and by other means tell advertisers more than ever about your purchasing habits, your household and your income. Of course, we’re trading the annoyance of junk mail for what could be considered a serious invasion of privacy. Many consumers have no idea how much can be learned about their lives from their surfing habits.
Finely tuned junk mail filters will also help combat the constant flood of invitations to buy black market Viagra, enlarge certain body parts and claim inheritances from long-lost relatives in Nigeria.
Just like all that ambient energy, kinetic energy from movement of all sorts is a potentially rich source of power that currently goes to waste. The movement generated by trains, cars, and our own hands and feet could provide electricity to the venues in which it’s harvested. This technology is already in place at a number of human-powered gyms, dance clubs and subway stations. Treadmills, stationary bikes, roller coasters, sidewalks and handrails absorb the energy from movements and convert it into power for lights and other electrical equipment.
Can you guess where in the world this unidentified Google Maps location is by landscape, road signs, architecture and cars? Test your geography skills with GeoGuessr, a site that drops you into a random Street View and challenges you to answer correctly five times in a row. Brilliantly simple, this virtual travel guessing game will stump you with featureless fields, and city scenes that seem to belong on entirely different continents.
Once placed in a location, you can move up and down the streets and use the arrows to view it in 360 degrees, just like on Google Maps and Google Earth. Sometimes, you might get lucky, and see some kind of identifying signs. Sometimes, there’s nothing but farmland and trees.
When you think you’ve determined the location, drop a pin on the world map on the right side of the screen and make your guess. You might be surprised how many times you’re about as off as you can possibly be. Some streets in Northern Canada look an awful lot like those in Argentina. Try it for yourself at GeoGuessr.com (via Laughing Squid).
Nuclear missile silos, former quarries, natural caves and man-made hills camouflage homes ranging from rustic and understated to modern and luxurious. Seeming ideally suited to shield unsavory dealings from view, these subterranean lairs are perfect for villains – or just ordinary people who want to live in a really cool place.
Secret Subterranean Passage Connects Barn to Home
Looking out over the land, all you’ll see here is a very unassuming stone-and-wood barn. But go inside that barn and you’ll discover a concealed entry to an underground passage that leads to a hidden home. Villa Vals emerges from the hillside to look out onto a beautiful view. Located in Switzerland, this subterranean residence is also a part-time rental.
Subterra Castle Converted Nuclear Missile Silo
When Ed Peden first laid eyes upon what would later become his home, it was little more than a dark, dark, unmaintained hole in the ground. This underground nuclear missile silo wasn’t exactly welcoming, but Peden bought it for the relatively low cost of $48,000 and transformed it into a comfortable family residence. The home is topped by a modest-looking wooden structure, and nothing would look amiss at all if it weren’t for the escape hatches that have been altered to look like castle towers. The home takes up just a third of the nearly 20,000 available square feet of space underground.
Cave House, Festus, Missouri
A 17,000-square-foot artificial cavern left by a 1930s sandstone mine in Festus, Missouri is now a beautiful modern family home. Located 45 feet below a forest (and a neighboring home), Cave House was temporarily a roller rink and concert venue hosting the likes of Tina Turner and Bob Seger, and the back chamber still has the stage they performed upon. The middle chamber measures 80 by 80 feet, used by the family as a ‘party room’, and the front chamber holds most of the home. The property is 2.8 partially wooded acres with three freshwater springs and fourteen waterfalls.
Atlas F Missile Base House, Abilene, Texas
Inspired by Ed Peden’s Subterra, a man named Bruce Townsley purchased an Atlas F missile base near Abilne, Texas for $99,000. Townsley transformed just 1,000 square feet of the sprawling base into his living space. Notable features like the massive blast doors have been preserved, while much of the home now has a coat of bright white paint that makes it feel surprisingly welcoming.
Malator, Wales
Commonly known by neighbors in Wales as the ‘Teletubby House’, Malator is mostly hidden within a hill, with no more than a clear glass facade and a steel chimney to give it away. Built in the town of Druidstone in 1998, the small underground dwelling has a turf roof and working porthole windows.
Underground House in a Former Quarry
An old quarry in the Eden Valley of Cumbria, UK hosts a two-story house with a massive glass facade to bring in daylight and warmth. The earth-sheltered, eco-friendly home was designed by architect John Bodger for Phil and Helen Reddy.
Unlike most street art, INSA‘s murals weren’t made to be seen in person – they’re best viewed online. That’s because the UK-based artist painstakingly paints, photographs and re-paints each of his works several times over in order to create these amazing animated GIF images.
Each piece is created with movement in mind, with the artist envisioning the final animated result as he paints each step. What looks like a relatively ordinary mural when passed on the street becomes mesmerizingly kinetic when seen as a final work of art.
These made-for-the-internet works of physical street art defy the conventional wisdom that art is best appreciated in person, though it would still be nice to check out all of the details up close. The internet brings what was once hyper-local to the masses.
In an interview with Adobe, INSA says “I realized I was viewing more paintings online than in real life, the majority of art I was accessing was on the internet. Whether that was street art from around the world, or exhibition openings on blogs, and it disheartened me a little, because although it was great to be able to see so much work, I realized this was never the way the artist would have intended for their work to be seen. So I thought an interesting way to play with this idea was to create art specifically to be viewed online: to the point that you could not actually see it in reality. So, in fact, the internet becomes the best viewing platform for the work.”
The chewed gum, fingernail clippings and cigarette butts you leave behind in public places could say a lot more about you than you’d like to imagine. Artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg makes this abundantly clear with her series, ‘Stranger Visions’, which reproduces people’s faces using DNA extracted from such forensic evidence collected in New York City and Brooklyn.
Dewey-Hagborg is a PhD student studying electronic arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. After extracting the DNA from her samples, she focuses on specific genomic regions, sequences them and then enters the data into a computer program, which produces a model of the face of the person who tossed that item onto the ground.
From those models, Dewey-Hagborg produces sculptures of the faces using a 3D printer. These life-sized portraits, which look similar to death masks, hang on gallery walls, often beside wooden boxes holding the original samples and showing photographs of where they were found.
The artist learned about DNA extraction from a course in molecular biology at Genspace, a do-it-yourself biology lab in Brooklyn where she does some of her work. She uses standard DNA extraction kits ordered online to analyze the DNA. The results are shockingly detailed; a mask of her own face made using the same technique shows just how accurate the results can be. However, there’s no way to tell age from DNA, so the computer produces a 25-year-old version of the person. Learn more about the process at Smithsonian.
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