iVictrola?

How genius is this? Green, artsy, unplugged, and unexpected, the iVictrola isn't a new product, but I missed it the first time around (in 2009). With no electronics, this is a simple block of wood with a vintage Victrola horn attached. The amplification is old-school. This year, there seems to be a new iPad version-- coming to DWR in the fall.

So the iPhone one is long sold out, and the iPad one isn't available yet. You'll just have to admire them over the interweb, or make your own (if you have a spare Victrola horn lying around). 

Images from Uncrate and Made-Craft. Via NOTCOT.

Playbutton = huh?

This product keeps showing up on green fashion and design blogs, but I’ll admit, I don’t know what is considered “green” about a limited-content MP3 player. The design is cute, and it’s a charming throwback to the mix tape, but how is this greener than downloading MP3s to the player you already have or even buying a CD (plastic, but no electronics)?

Am I missing something? If you’ve got a different take on this, please leave a comment!

Via ecouterre

Vintage suitcases rock the house

How retrosexy are these? The BoomCase is a boom box made from vintage suitcases. Just plug your tiny MP3 player into these and boom-boom-boom...
More pretty pictures (and buy your own) on their website.
Images from BoomCase. Via TreeHugger.

This weekend!

So much going on in Oakland this weekend. Here are some things your lab mates are up to:

1. Sat-Sun, 10-4: Katie will be selling her glass dishes, platters, and more at the Crucible's Open House and Gifty Sale. If you haven't been to this before, it's a fantastic place to get unusual holiday gifts. If you're there on Saturday, stop by the glass area and say "hi." There will be over 70 different artists there, plus a full open house with glass blowing, metal casting, and blacksmithing demos. Santa arrives at 1pm (in past years, he's come in on a fire truck).

2. Saturday night: Oliver will be performing with Mobius Operandi at Johansson Project.

So head on over to Oaktown, finish up your holiday shopping @ the Crucible, then head downtown to see Oliver. Hope to see you there!

Image from Katie Broughton.

Mobius Operandi @ Johansson Projects 12/12/09

Our own Oliver diCicco invites us all to Oaktown for Saturday's Mobius Operandi performance: "In this busy holiday season, here's one more event to add to the list. We're dusting off the instruments for our only performance this year, hope you can make it."

Details below:

Following in the footsteps of musical cowboy Harry Partch, sound engineer Oliver diCicco started building his own instruments in the early 1970's. With an emphasis on sculptural ingenuity and the desire to put new sounds into the world, diCicco created instruments that marry the formal curiosity of the visual arts with the audio experimentation of the avant-garde. Despite his full schedule of being both owner and chief engineer of Mobius Music, the highly renowned recording studio based in San Francisco, by the late 1980's diCicco completed several instruments that were only waiting for more hands to be played together. So diCicco invited Pamela Winfrey, senior artist and curator of SF's Exploratorium, fellow instrument builder Peter Whitehead and a few other musical frontiersmen and women to come to his studio and jam. Soon enough a steady group of composers and musicians formed and evolved into Mobius Operandi. "I'm really into collaboration," states diCicco, "and I really liked the idea of inviting people down and seeing what would happen. The band formed itself." Since its inception Mobius Operandi has accompanied theater productions and has released several albums. Continuously experimenting with the possibility of sonic creativity, Mobius Operandi now incorporates both acoustic and electric sounds into its repertoire of pushing visual and audio expectations.

The setting for the players is the Earth Engines exhibition where the agency of the organic takes shape in staged photographs and sound sculptures in which technology channels the earth's electric complexity. Oliver diCicco 's indefinable organisms don't simply emulate the humming of nature's underbelly but directly access the mechanics of sound. His Sirens reckon the sea's psyche in its physical unrest and mythical meanderings. Barry Underwood's surreal staged photographs, intermingling issues of contemporary painting, cinema and land art, surveil landscapes of the impossible. Just as earth and electricity are the elementary particles from which energy takes shape, Underwood fuses authenticity and artifice to nurture nature into flashpoints of wonderment.

What: Art Exhibition, Musical Performance & Holiday Party
Featuring: Mobius Operandi performing live at the Earth Engines Exhibition
There will be simultaneous events on the block: Both Jewish holiday festivities at Hatch Gallery and the grand opening of the new video and photography gallery: Krowswork

When:
Performance by Mobius Operandi on Saturday, Dec. 12th, 6pm
The Earth Engines Exhibition Runs Nov. 21st through Jan. 9th, 2010

Where:
Johansson Projects
2300 Telegraph Ave. Oakland, CA
Hours: 12 - 6, Thurs – Fri and Sat 11-5

Information:
510.444.9140
kimberly@johanssonprojects.com

www.johanssonprojects.com