Category: Design

The Hague: 1 City/2 Days/20 Venues/200+ Artists – TodaysArt 2008 (2) The Opening


I attended the opening. First, as a Happy Father, I would like to introduce DanceGirl, my daughter number 2 with her TimberBoy, lead singer of the band “New Vera” (unfortunately not featured at the venue). DanceGirl was responsible for the dance part of 2008 Todays Art. I’m sure she doesn’t like to be featured. But may I be a bit proud?


The opening was at The Hague Central Station. First there were drinks with the unavoidable (?) mess after drinks.

Then after some speaches, pictures of which I will add at a later stage, the The Hague Alderman for Culture, Jette Klijnsma, gave the opening signal.

BB (Be Back) L8ter.

And this is the impression of the openings concert.

Street Art (8): The Kos Bush Cars


First i didn’t notice it,

but when looking twice I spotted a car,

a vintage French Citroen

a Citroen Deux Cheveaux (or 2CV)

The second a vintage British

Pinin Farina designed Triumph Herald.

They are on the opposite sides of the street a 50 meters apart.

Recently I was touring the Greek Isle of Kos on a scooter and came by two shops in a little city outside the city Kos. I lost the name of the place, but am sure it will come back to me.
.
A wonderful combination of sustainably preserving vintage cabrio cars and guerrilla marketing.

This post is especially devoted to us, my wife and me, because a Ciroen 2CV (or Ugly Duck) was my first own car and the one we got married in and traveled in for our honeymoon and also devoted to a fellow TrendHunter who is “Unamused by the complexities of coaxing a 40 year old car through it’s MOT” while her car ( a Triumph Herald) is in far better state than this one, LOL.

The Hague: 1 City/2 Days/20 Venues/200+ Artists – TodaysArt 2008


The 2008 (4th) edition of TodaysArt, the international festival for adventurous creativity in The Hague, The Netherlands, will take place on 26 – 27 September 2008.

You have to come to The Hague if you’re interested in:

Come and see!

About:

Every year, for one weekend, the TodaysArt Festival transforms the city centre of The Hague into an inspiring stronghold of creativity and audiovisual experiences. This year, over 200 artists will contribute to the festival, where many different art disciplines are represented, such as film, modern dance, visual art, photography and music. The fourth edition of the TodaysArt Festival will take place on the 26th and 27th of September, at 20 in- and outdoor locations. The title of the festival is Blue Light District, referring to the trademark blue artwork of the festival.

For the first time in TodaysArt-history, the Dr. Anton Philipszaal will be a part of the festival terrain next to annual venuas such as the Paard van Troje, De Nieuwe Kerk, Theater ah Spui and the Atrium (city hall). 1.890 Chairs will be removed to make this impressive concert hall fit for a large amount of festival visitors.

The Blue Light District, is the name of the festival area, in which a variety of art projects and installations are presented in interaction or confrontation with the urban infrastructure and architectural spaces. Consequently, there is the opening concert Station to Station from Staalplaat Soundsystem, Erik Hobijn en Mike Rijnierse, including trains as musical instruments and using the environmental sounds to create a sound composition. Even the thousands of bicycles in front of the station will be integrated in this sound piece. In addition there are several project anchored around the spectrum of artificial light producing stunning visual effects at various locations around the festival terrain. Many of the festivals activities take place in the public space where we created an infrastructure of large transparent greenhouses sheltering temporary galleries, project spaces, bars and restaurants.

Another highlight is the presence of State of Sabotage, an internationally recognized micronation in the city hall of The Hague. 1,000 official passports will be printed for visitors who bring a photograph. Also LAb[au], the meta designers from Brussels that transformed the Dexia tower in Brussels into an interactive canvas, will be presenting several special projects, including EOD02. An installation containing fishes that communicate with electrical signals, which are collected and transmitted into sound.

Sherwood Forlee – Just Another Wine Glass?

Via Yanko Design I came across this new design idea for wineglasses from Sherwood Forlee.

I have been staring at these photos and

wondering whether I would like to have some.

Then it hit me: If the stem is heavy enough and the rubber band strong enough to hold the filled cups it will prevent a lot of wine spillage on your precious table linen. In addition less broken glasses.

So, the one in the know, the guy who has to look after cleanliness of our table linen and of our wine glasses (ie me) has spoken:-)

About Sherwood Forlee:

He is a designer with no design or art education. Instead, he studied fluid dynamics and partial differential equations, and then barely managed to graduate. But graduate he did, and with a high-falutin’ sounding title to boot: “Mechanical and Aerospace Engineer”. Despite this, Sherwood calls himself a designer because it sounds hip and no one likes hanging around a nerd at a party.

Following graduation, Sherwood went to work as a product design engineer. After cutting his teeth at a few firms, Sherwood decided to see more of the world and set out on adventures that would lead him to Tokyo (where he was accosted by the yakuza for trying to sell homemade T-shirts on their territory), the Azores (where inclement weather stranded him for a few days without food in the wild), Zurich (where he was forced to climb a perilous mountain with two massive rental bikes atop his shoulders), and many other places. Today, Sherwood enjoys a more peaceful life in New York City working once again as a product designer.

Still reading? Well then, a little more on Sherwood. He was born in Hong Kong and lived there for about a year. Afterwards, he moved with the rest of his family to Zimbabwe, Africa. It was here in Africa with his wildlife artist father (who, by the way, escaped from Communist China to Hong Kong by means of swimming the shark-infested waters that separate the two) that Sherwood cultivated his passion for adventure, the arts, and travel. Fond memories include throwing stones at bull elephants to make them charge so that his father could get a few good photos to work with before speeding off on a dilapidated motorbike. Nowadays, Sherwood has a bit more regard for his well-being and prefers doing back flips onto hard concrete over being chased by scary animals.

The World’s Coolest Hotel Rooms by The Cool Hunter has been published: Better Late Than Never! (Dutch Design 29)

The World's Coolest Hotel Rooms by The Cool Hunter

The Final Announcement:
Thecoolhunter.net – The Cool Hunter Book Publishing Series (our first book)

The World’s Coolest Hotel Rooms – the first in a series of the cool hunter-branded books has been published by Harper Collins Publishers (US). Next in the line will be The World’s Coolest Houses, The World’s Most Creative Work Environments, The World’s Most Innovate Retail Stores and The World’s Most Creative Guerilla Campaigns in 2009. (2008-08-06T15:49:39+00:00)

This book was announced already in 2007.

Haagsche Suites was considered, but alas didn’t make the cut.

Times Online picked it up: Among the 10 Coolest mentioned by Bill Tikos, Cool Hunter’s editor, in The Times are:

Puerto America Madrid
The Puerto America in Madrid. Flickr Photo by Photografeuse
Vigilius Mountain Resort
Vigilius Mountain Resort in Italy, Flickr Photo by Christian

I like Vigilius’ adobe walls.

Do und Co Vienna
Do und Co in Vienna. This photo thanks to FG Stijl.

Amsterdam based FG Stijl (the F comes from Finegan and the G from Glintmeijer) did the Do und Co interior. Congratulations for them making the cut.