For the exotic, displaced, and eclectic. For those who are unique but can seemingly be from anywhere. For those who cannot accurately discribe themselves by checking “all that apply.” And for anyone who has ever been asked:
What are you?
Ha/f Culuture is a collection of articles and artifacts that celebrate the eccentric and multicolored; what is niether here nor there.
Everyone knows that the worst part about a party is cleaning up. Waking up to a household that’s littered with PBR and Bud Light cans is enough to give anyone a headache. Thankfully, a recent renaissance is taking place in Italian breweries resulting in the same attention to quality and design that is found in the country’s more identifiable products such as wine and fast cars so you can at least wake up to a post-party mess that looks good.
The brewers at 32 Via dei Birrai are a case in point. Each of their beers is crafted with the utmost attention to taste. Their NECTAR ale, for instance, is brewed with strong aromatic chestnut honey while the darker ATRA is a winter beer that provides a light licorice, fruity, warm sensation.
However, what we enjoy most about 32 Via dei Birrai is the simple, smart packaging. Each 75cL bottle boasts a clean, industrial shape while adorning a synthetic colored cork that matches each bold subway like label. An assorted six pack of 32 is also a cause for appreciation as the bottles are packaged in a light cardboard box with arched windows, revealing each bottle’s dot label while alluding to classic Italian architecture.
Halloween is a frothy foreign import in Japan, an excuse to have a party and eat sweets. Monsters, though, are a more serious matter.
Watch this video made by Blaine Harden for the Washington Post for a list of otherworldly monsters, or “Yokai,” which make Halloween in Japan an extra creepy occasion. Happy haunting!
Simple, sufficient and understated, the Muji message is not so much a marketing campaign to push products, but more of an intellegent expression for how we should treat the future. Words that are just poignant as Muji design are accompanied by elegant images of Bolivian and Mongolian landscapes, urging us consumers to invest in modest beauty rather than pricey objects.
Diacritic, founded by RMIT Vietnam’s Richard Streitmatter-Tran, is a site dedicated to examining the relationship between contemporary art and its place in design, media, and language among other realms of communication from a Southeast Asian perspective. While the site is still in the developmental stages, you can still track some pretty cool happenings that are taking place in Southeast Asia through the Diacritic weblog. I for one can’t wait for this fresh view on art from the other side of the globe. Stay tuned.
I was born in 1985 in Thailand and raised in Sydney, Australia on a super-diet of cartoons, comic books, and sci-fi movies.
Now I make giant candy coloured screenprints/posters you can look at and adore but cannot eat. I have always dreamt of joining the X-men, or becoming Ultraman, or Dracula, or a Lucha Libre pro wrestler. These ambitions reflect themselves in my work.
I worry about alternate realities, the poor Hikikomoris, and cosplay supplies. One day I want to publish a book about my research into parallel universes but until then I will stick to drawing pictures.
Okay, maybe this has nothing to do with culture, but the Nike Hindsight glasses concept is just really effing cool. In a nutshell, Nike Hindsight are specially designed biking glasses created by Billy May with specifically tuned Fresnel lenses for keeping an eye on approaching taxis/cars/baby strollers by increasing your field of view beyond the human limit. Typically the human eye can only detect peripheral motion within a range of 180º, but when wearing the Hindsight, high power, diverging Fresnel zones aligned vertically distort into view an extra 25º of view on either side. While the detection of moving vehicles is an obvious benefit to the glasses, a more subtle advantage is reducing the necessary head rotation to check completely behind oneself.
It sounds a bit technical, but the Nike Hindsight is, at its core, a pair of sunglasses that simply cleverly employs a century old technology. So while the product is only a concept, there is a very good chance that we could see these in stores the near future. But in the meantime, stay safe on the roads because you can’t perpetuate the hapa race if your genes are splayed all over the windshield of a metro bus.
Let’s face it, the economy is in shambles and you are not Bear Gryls. Here are three readily available small structures that will keep you shielded from the elements lest you end up on the street or are chased into the wilderness by angry mobs.
Micro-Compact Home (pictured above)
Inspired by the intimate scale of a Japanese tea house and the compact efficiency of a smart-car, students working on a joint project between the Technical University of Munich and the Tokyo Institute of Technology have come up with a tiny, transportable dwelling called the Micro-Compact Home (m-ch). The lightweight structure is only 2.65 m cubed (roughly 77 sq ft), but incorporates everything a person needs in a home in its super compact design.
Pilo
Believe it or not, this translucent membrane is actually a tent. Created by Markus Michalski, the Pilo tent is designed to provide a secret retreat while expressing a sense of belonging and sensuality. Who ever said survival can’t be sexy?
Tepee
The classic tepee is perfect for outdoorsmen of all ages who want to have minimal impact on the surrounding environment. This particular tepee was crafted for Design Within Reach Tools for Living by Dave Ellis, who spent 10 years in the canvas business before developing his own line of tepees. His knowledge of materials is apparent in his tepee’s superior, simple construction that provides proper ventilation, flame resistance and reinforced stress points. The floor of the tepee is not waterproof, however this was an intentional design choice by Ellis since fabric that breathes won’t kill the grass underneath.
