What major city holds sway over your little town? This algorithm has seen all the data and it’s just itching to share its opinion. Disagree? Don’t leave an angry comment here, take it up with the algorithm: I’m sure it will be happy to tell you what you can do with your weakly human, data-ignorant opinion.
– via Web Urbanist
Right, because you need to know more than “waves that like mountains” before you’ll click. OK: this genius idea is courtesy of photographer Lloyd Meudell. Thank you sir!
– via booooooom
Is it just me or does it seem like Sissel Tolaas, who recreates cities by mixing scents, would be a wonderful person to meet at a party? Or read about in a Pynchon novel. Either way, cool stuff!
– via Atlas Obscura
These illustrated pieces of sheet music by People Too are just amazing. All the images and scenes of music you half-imagine: here they are, beautifully rendered.
– via Colossal
In an effort to prove science-fiction writers to be unimaginative (and learn stuff about the world), scientists have done all kinds of crazy things. Here’s a good one: virtual reality swimming induced in the brains of paralyzed fish.
– via the consistently mind-warping BLDGBLOG
Cultural cross-pollination is always fascinating, particularly between significantly disparate cultures, and even more so when it captures a critical moment in cultural development. The Japanese embrace of art deco featured here mirrors Europe’s own embrace of Japanese aesthetics, and marks a moment when Japan was beginning to form a strong, nationalist, identity.
– via Hyperallergic
Just a reminder that witnessing is a powerful act, and that recording what one witnesses can influence who’s voices are represented in history. This is why journalists are so important: they are our witnesses. In America, journalists are protected by the Constitution, which means at least they have a shot at fighting charges in court, but in Egypt, they walk a dangerous line between recording reality and being forced to pay for the fear that this reality engenders in the government. Mahmoud Abu Zeid, or “Shawkan,” is a journalist, a witness to Egyptian history, and for that, he is in jail.
– via Huck Magazine
I can’t get enough of these folded metal wall sconces that, when illuminated, complete their simple, cryptic shapes with the light they cast up on the wall behind them. How wonderful!
– via Colossal
I’m telling ya’ll: Mexicans know how to celebrate. After five months in the country, I’ve been struck by how visceral a Mexican commemoration of anything can be, and this seems to be about a visceral as it gets. My only regret is that I did not get to watch the town of San Juan de la Vega celebrate with exploding sledgehammers first hand.
– via booooooom
It’s easy to think that modern houses have to be completely new and rethink everything for the modern age, but nothing could be further from the truth. These newly built houses in Ho Chi Minh City all incorporate modern materials and aesthetics into a very traditional form: the Vietnamese courtyard house.
– via Architizer