while the star has been praising the refined, understated, and contemporary “toronto style” that has developed recently, kramer design associates has been working hard on reshaping the city in its own brand of brash, gaudy, and over-the-top pomposity.
toronto’s own version of times square is almost complete, with its flashy billboards, storey-high ads, video screens, and moving stock tickers. the whole reconstruction of the yonge-dundas neighbourhood has been pretty impressive for its fast pace. despite its detractors, this square provides much-needed open space right in the heart of a busy commercial district. this is better than times square or tokyo’s ginza district because people can actually take a break from their shopping in a free, pedestrian-friendly public square.
Dundas Square panorama at night
Dundas Square christmas tree
Times Square by night, Trey Ratcliff
The main glass facade of Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) is taking shape. In these photos I took today, you can see the magnificent Douglas fir beams supporting the moulded glass that will make up the bulk of the Dundas Street face.
we’re back to the era of making a spectacle of torture. a selection of our police forces’ finest moments. patriot act indeed.
1. “don’t tase me, bro” university of florida student tasered at john kerry forum
2. polish immigrant is tased to death by the RCMP in the vancouver international airport. the video shows the RCMP tasered the man 25 seconds after arriving. video taken by a shocked bystander.
Eight massive steel structures by Richard Serra in the Guggenheim Bilbao, Vincent West/Reuters
Anselm Kiefer’s “Sonnenschiff (Sun Ship)”, Vincent Nguyen/AFP
It has been a gradual evolution, from anselm kiefer’s paintings and installations to richard serra’s cor-ten sculptures, but this new fusion between architecture and art was most certainly spurred on by the need to fill the cavernous spaces in the starchitect-designed museum (frank gehry’s guggenheim bilbao and herzog + de meuron’s tate turbine hall). Contemporary art has become more ambitious in recent years, with sculpture and painting approaching mammoth scales, with artists teaming up with architects for commissions, and with the definition between the two professions consistently blurred.
Tate Modern Turbine Hall, Wikimedia Commons
Recent installations follow.
Johnny Lee from the Human-Computer Interaction Institute has an amazing site with inventions ranging from foldable digital screens to virtual reality sensors and minority report-like finger tracking systems made from nintendo wii parts!
Foldable digital computer screens
VR display made from nintendo wii parts
All you kimchi-philes now have a hi-tech gadget to ferment and store mass quantities of your favourite food. At the Korean Galleria supermarket in Toronto) today I discovered how Korean families keep their kimchi fresh: with fridges that have the ability to store, cool, and ferment vegetables.
It seems that these dishwasher-sized fridges have been popular for quite some time now in Korea, and are just making their way to Canada. In 2001 sales of kimchi fridges in South Korea exceeded sales of traditional fridges for the first time, and their popularity shows no sign of waning.
Arthur Ganson’s kinetic machines remind us of how much is embodied in a natural movement such as walking. His machines take these simple actions and compound them into complex machines with gears, pulleys, and spinwheels.
the snow that fell today in montreal had a muffling effect on the city. things weren’t as fast-paced and frantic as they normally are, there were barely any cars or people on the street. the sounds of the city were muted and you couldn’t hear the tires of cars as they drove past. there was the occasional snowplow driving around, as well as a tow-truck carrying away a bus that got stuck in the snow.
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