I had a very full and fun day today making a diorama at the Machine Project space in Echo Park (coincidentally next to the Fretted Frog where I take ukulele lessons). There's nothing like having people around working on their stuff and a clock ticking to stir ideas you never knew you might have. I came in with only a vague idea of doing something inspired by Murakami's Wind Up Bird Chronicle and walked out with a complete diorama, I'm amazed. Normally I would have probably dragged it over a few days. Artist Amy Jo Diaz and architect Casey Hughes were super helpful both with inspiring suggestions and hands on assistance. Thanks!

Not far from where I used to live in Venice is an eclectic antique store and gallery named Obsolete. What a great name for an antique store. But don't go looking for old pictures of sailboats or a fifties dish set, your grandmother would probably not recognized anything on display here. Seemingly from an undetermined era, the carefully curated collection of unique objects, art, and furnishings on display are so cool and offbeat I would say they lean more towards trendsetting than obsolete! The store also doubles as a gallery and regularly features equally unusual artists. Each new artist is always a pleasant discovery but the one showing this month really hit home for me, since I love miniature installations. The artist reception for Tom Haney's mechanical sculptures, Undaunted, was Saturday November 13. I went the next morning and had the chance to take several pictures while the store was quiet and the sculptures were resting after an undoubtedly busy opening night.

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Here's another ahem, not-so-weekly mini: a project I made last summer which I'm only now getting around to sharing, but speaking of crazy little characters made with wire, it felt to me like the perfect time to slip it in. These guys are not drinking coffee like the running man in my last post, but mixing their own drinks from self-serving pods, which I imagined would be the way to go if you were in a bar functioning like the internet.

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RGTV Tiny Inventions Trailer by Red Giant Software Last month I saw posted on motiongrapher a cool short feature animation called Something Left, Something Taken. Twelve minutes of creative bliss. The story is original and so is the animation process developed by the duo Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter from Tiny Inventions. The characters and the sets are all made by hand with found materials, then photographed and taken into the computer for compositing and animation. As if the film itself was not enough, the authors are very open to sharing their unique process and techniques. Above is a trailer for the making of video produced by Red Giant Software. See the full video just released on their website and vimeo. I think I said before how much I love making of's...

RGTV Tiny Inventions Trailer by Red Giant Software

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This is Where We Live by 4th Estate on Vimeo This short film is so beautiful I couldn't resist posting it here, even though it's been out for a while already. The other reason is that it resonates nicely with my current state of mind: enjoying the leisure activities of summer (at the expense of my blog). The music, warm tones, and fun little characters all contribute to the summery feeling of this unique miniature world made of books. To me it's a wink to those many summers of my childhood spent devouring as many stories as I could. A clever idea produced by Apt Studio and Asylum Films to celebrate the 4th Estate publishers' 25th anniversary. Check also the film's site for production stills and time-lapse videos.

This is Where We Live by 4th Estate on Vimeo

 

A conversation with friends around Sunday brunch inspired this week's weekly-mini. We were talking about the biggest story in the news right now, the disastrous BP oil spill. When I got home I decided to take a closer look at the personal reaction of marine life coming face to face with the spill.

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The Small House exhibit by Czech architects A1Architects, 1:1 installation for one concept Isn't there a maxim that says "the best things come in small packages ?" I think it's true most of the time. Small things are more manageable, we can manipulate them, we can observe every sides and corners, it brings out the kid inside. Imagine if the mini cooper was the size of an SUV, would it be this much fun, huh? Since mini things are so great, I've decided to make a weekly post about something mini. This week, I want to share a cool article I saw in this month's issue of dwell, big ideas for... small spaces, about an exhibit called The Small House by Czech architects A1Architects.

Exhibit The Small House by A1Architects, installation 1:1 for one of the  concepts

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I made a few of these miniature bars inside emptied out TVs and radio. I like how creative you can be with this type of decor, especially at this small scale. The shell is a starting point for my design and I use all sorts of found materials to get further inspiration.

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I found this site, pencil rebel, through newwebpick.com. There is a quite a blend of styles on that showcase, but I was immediately drawn to click on this intriguing clay character. Wow, what an amazing site. It's animated with Flash, that's the digital part, but all the backgrounds, objects, characters are made by hand with cardboard and various other materials, very analogue.

Bert grabs the rope. (stop motion animation) on Flickr by Model No.:1

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When the first TV I ever owned gave its last breath I could not bring myself to just throw it out. How could I put such a big piece of trash on the street, how long would it sit in the landfill? So I decided to give it a second life. I had seen an installation in the window of a café that had TVs turned into aquariums, which I thought was a pretty cool idea. But I didn’t really want to deal with the water, so I had to think of something else.

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