Living better
In 2013, Ikea developed a prototype for refugee shelters that could be easily produced, shipped, and actually provide a pleasant, habitable experience. As Gizmodo reports, this week at the Dubai International Humanitarian Aid & Development Conference & Exhibition, the UN Refugee Agency ordered 10,000 Better Shelter units to be sent to Iraq, where over 2.5 million people have been displaced.
This program is just some of the work that the Ikea Foundation has developed as part of their initiatives devoted to social issues in developing countries.
Started from the bottom now Sotheby’s
Drake is our latest renaissance man. Adding to his prestigious repertoire of cred (street, sports, etc.), is his latest accomplishment: art. On April 28, S|2, Sotheby’s gallery extension, will present an art show curated by the Canadian rapper, Page Six reports. The show, which runs through June, will feature an exhibition exploring the dialogue between music and art through the work of black American contemporary creatives. “The exhibition aims to examine this relationship in pairing works by celebrated artists with songs selected by Drake.” So an art show with headphones? Okay!
Live in the now
You know that real-life sensation that you experience on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland? You feel the cool breeze of the night (when it’s actually hot AF outside); you feel a tremble when the pirates fire the cannons. There’s now a new at-home viewing system that will give you the real-life thrills you’ve previously only experienced on an amusement park ride, or in an IMAX theater. Ceekars 4D Headphones enable “users to feel the atmosphere of the virtual reality they are experiencing through personalized soundscapes and haptic feedback,” PSFK reports. Ceekars 4D Headphones start at $179, and are currently raising funds on Indiegogo.
Men in tights
I’m all for creative methods of advertising but Zang, a chocolate company based in Cape Town, is taking it a little bit too far. I’m talking pervy levels too far. In honor of their new “pick-me-up” caffeinated chocolate bar, Zang is giving the public free piggybacks. Get it, pick-me-up? PSFK has the pictures to prove it. Oof! If getting a free ride from a stranger wasn’t creepy enough, the people providing the service are buff men in luchador gear. Mask, tights, the works. If I wanted a lift from a weird transportation service, I would’ve called Uber.
Off with his head?
So there’s been some backlash over the Bjork exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, which we recently covered here. It’s mostly coming from a handful of male art critics who deem Bjork’s body of work unworthy of consideration as modern art. Now one of these critics is calling for the MoMA’s curator to be ousted. Christian Viveros-Fauné writes that Klaus Biesenbach should be fired for putting on this show. “Despite the crowds lined up outside the museum to see Biesenbach’s newest addition to MoMA’s recent string of curatorial turkeys, discontent within the famously tight-lipped institution appears to have turned against the German curator.” Despite people flocking to an art institution? Despite bringing art to the masses? How dare he?!
Massive idea
PeeWee Herman, my personal design guru, wrote about a revolutionary tool created by Lance Abernethy, a maintenance engineer living in New Zealand. If you can’t tell by this gif, it’s an itsy bitsy drill that runs on a hearing aid battery. “I have always liked small things and have created small items since I was a little kid,” Abernethy said. “I was with my work colleagues and was talking about mythical stories about one country making a twist drill and sending it to another. The other country returned it with a hole through the middle. Things like this easily challenge me, and my idea was born.”
