The illusion of limitless perspective

Vanishing pools, the illusion of a limitless perspective from positioning your pool against the horizon line, whereas this design plays with the perspective extending deep into the background.

An infinity edge pool (also named negative edge, zero edge, disappearing edge or vanishing edge pool) is a swimming or reflecting pool which produces a visual effect of water extending to the horizon, vanishing, or extending to “infinity

Source: Wiki

Braun

In the physical world design affordances vary from the implict to explicit. In the virtual it’s all has to be implied with references to known cues.

Record. Speed. On/Off. Button. Twist. Turn. Click.

Think about how ‘pull to refresh, pinch or swipe’ are now mapped onto our lexicon of usage. The most common virtual affordances thankfully maintain physical references. Think of it as the compass for our perceptual understanding.

Eugenio Recuenco

Click on the image to see the whole widescreen image open. It’s stunning and well worth it.


Dark tones; tracking this very cool photographer Eugenio Recuenco

Recuenco is now one of the most important Spanish photographers on the international scene. Endowed with a brilliant sensibility for “chiaroscuro”, this photographer is considered as a true heir of the grand masters of Spanish classical painting like Goya, El Greco and above all Zurbarán.

Greenpeace Global Voices

Greenpeace Global Voices features stunning and beautiful visual storytelling–chock full of charismatic energy. Sobering trend and fearful as-ever about our collective future.

This is a beautifully shot PSA filled with some wonderful documentary moments of people, children and the dramatic landscape of Delhi. One person’s view of living with global warming. Color correcting the footage helped give it a nice, rich and balanced look to this spot. Philip Bloom on a Canon 5D II.

Flex

Amazing flexibility and resilience. Surfers know they’ll be spending a few minutes underwater and it’s not uncommon to be held down with big waves pounding you like a falling steam train.

Flat Earth Society

The people of the Flat Earth Society believe that this place is one of the four corners of the world; the very edge of the earth. Fancy that.

Nowhere in the world looks like Newfoundland and Labrador the most easterly point of North America, perched on the edge of a continent. This chapter evokes the strange and terrible beauty of our landscape and seascape, in stark contrast to the typical images found in most glossy tourism advertising.

Director Alar Kivilo.

Restrepo

The war photographer Tim Hetherington, right, spent 14 months with a platoon of United States soldiers in the Korangal Valley of Afghanistan. He, along with Sebastian Junger, left, made a documentary about the experience called “Restrepo.”

It avoids the conventions of documentary film: there is no back story, no drive-by’s with experts for context, no underlying ideology or obvious message. The viewer is dropped into war, with a hard jolt, and resides, along with 15 soldiers from Second Platoon of Battle Company of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, in a remote and raw outpost called Restrepo, so named after one member of the platoon who is killed early in their rotation. In practical terms the soldiers of Second Platoon hump up a mountain with lots of bullets and some shovels and dig in.

I’m in complete awe of these soldiers, it’s an extraordinary achievement and it shows tremendous bravery and commitment.

It’s clear watching the film that Mr. Junger and Mr. Hetherington achieved extraordinary intimacy with their subjects over time. There are noncombat moments in the film that are very much part of the military life: the men wrestle one another and in one particularly vivid scene they crank the song “Touch Me” and gang pile on one another as the lyrics “I want to feel your body” pour out of the speakers. It’s less homoerotic than a clear antidote to the physical isolation of their posting, according to the filmmakers.

Greg Lynn

Conceptual work teaming together filmmakers, architects and designers. Greg’s commentary is rather fascinating, averting the concepts away from preconceived notions of “the world = a globe”. Ross Lovegrove first mentioned Greg’s name during his TED conference.

Greg Lynn: New CitySeed Magazine Feature
Is a sphere the optimal shape for our world? If physical laws were no longer a concern, how would we mold the Earth to better suit our global economy? The 21st century city planner tackles these questions and more as he redesigns our planet for the web.

Striking palette

striking-ipad-design

Striking iPad design and palette for this new Katachi iPad app (featuring Chinese textile industry in this screen)

Katachi Magazine covers design culture in its widest sense, creative individuals and social projects. Watch the video to see how it works (or download a free issue for the iPad).

It’s created using the company’s own publishing system, Origami Engine. The company hasn’t said so far whether it’s going to licence it to other firms, but from the explicit detail that it’s provided about the Origami Engine, it seems likely.

Ethiopian Marathon Training

Okay fanatical puritans, it’s time to read about the world’s leading runners, many of them the eminent top of the class from Ethiopia and Kenya.

My favourite piece of advice from Gudisa is ‘When you run the race, just remember that you will not die. So you have to run really very hard!’ Mersha is getting more and more obsessed with me recovering between training.

He wants me to stop working for the last two weeks of my trip and to spend all of my time between training sessions asleep. He keeps repeating the mantra ‘no recovery, no improvement.’ He’s right, of course, but there are limits to how much rest you can deal with.

High altitude training: What could be more enjoyable than sapping the living daylights out of you day after day?

You really can’t run anywhere from his house without encountering lung sapping, imperceptibly steep hills, so most of the running we did was fairly slow. We managed to cover a fair few miles though, fuelled by the near constant eating that comes with Easter celebrations here.

HT @mikerunsawayfromhome

Defender

Nothing says summer time more than a #LandRover #Defender fully loaded with canoes, mountain bikes, and loaded to the gills with camping equipment!  Let the summer fun begin.

HT @MadetoDefend