It’s a simple idea: Find some bad art, whether original or a print, for a song at a thrift store, then modify it to make, if not “better art,” then at least something that’s more entertaining to look at. (Is it the same thing? Yeah, that sounds like a productive argument.)
Just this morning Cory Doctorow blogged this snapshot, taken by one “Joel,” of an ancient gear burial ground at a scrapyard near Charlotte, NC. I wonder how many wild-eyed steampunks they’ve had come sniffing around since then. [via Boing Boing]
One interesting historical example of upcycled crafting is bottleneck guitar– or as it is now widely known, slide guitar. The unique resonant sound of slide guitar was originally formed by playing with a glass bottleneck over one finger and running the slide up and down the strings. While the materials for making slides have evolved, […]
No, they don’t call themselves that. “Bamboobender” is my hackish take on “sandbender,” which many of you folks will probably recognize as a term coined by arch-cyberpunk William Gibson in his novel Idoru. Very roughly, a “sandbender” is a craftsperson who makes a living by carefully hand-crafting ornate enclosures for mass-produced electronics. We don’t see a lot of that, at least in the first world (although mass-produced after-market “custom” enclosures and enclosure-decorations are common), probably because our personal electronics are still pretty ephemeral to us: we all know we’re probably going to be sporting a new phone and/or MP3 player next year. This example, however, comes from Cameroon, where, I presume, the device turnover rate is a lot lower. It’s the work of teacher and wordworker Lekuama Ketuafor, whose runs a sole-proprietorship cottage industry called Bamboo Magic. [via AfriGadget]
Last week was the Greener Gadgets conference in NYC. MAKE went and scoped it out, lots of cool ideas being discussed! We saw presentations from product designers, architects, and entrepreneurs. Pictured above is Robert Fabricant talking about biofeedback. Check out video from the event at the Greener Gadgets site. Above photo is by Joe Saavedra.
Bourne Energy‘s “militarized” luggable hydroelectric plant measures 3 feet in length and weights around 25 pounds. It can be transported to a water source by one person, then set up either on the surface of the river or, ninjalike, completely submerged. [I]t is self-contained with its own integrated power, control, cooling and sensor systems. The […]
Lisa Katayama spotted this cool shoulder bag made from an old airplane life jacket. Unfortunately, no, it doesn’t work as a life vest anymore.
