Speakers Made of Old Newspapers and Dryer Lint

Normally, this is what I think of when I think of speakers.

Old Speakers

While these are made of wood and other materials typical of loudspeakers, I don’t notice them except when they stop working. No one bothers to say anything about them aesthetically. They are a sad, but necessary part of my home sound system. Fortunately, there is a whole world of speaker design out there that will surprise you.

My intention for writing this blog post is to show you the amazing speakers that an old friend of my husband’s, Ian Schneller, created. Not only are these speakers beautiful to look at, but they have been written about and praised by audiophiles the world over.

Big Horn Speakers by Ian Schneller

When I met Ian in the early nineties, he was in the legendary Chicago band Shrimp Boat with a few of our other friends. While still a band member, Ian started Specimen Products on Archer Avenue where he made his own guitars and audio equipment. He loved using found materials and incorporated the D.I.Y. (do-it-yourself) aesthetic in ways that made everything he did wonderfully odd. Even the horn speakers seen here are made from old newsprint and dryer lint — very Ian. Andrew Bird, the musician, was one of his clients and later they became collaborators in the project Sonic Arboretum. After so many years of working in relative obscurity, it is great to see Ian’s work and genius recognized at last.

Sonic Arboretum at MCA in Chicago

Sonic Arboretum is a collaboration between composer / violinist Andrew Bird and sculptor / inventor Ian Schneller. It is a sonic installation consisting of a “forest” of plant-shaped audio horn speakers powered by custom-made tube amplifiers. These speakers and amps serve as a compositional garden for Bird who creates new site-specific compositions that play continuously as visitors meander and follow the music’s lead.Sonic Arboretum debuted at the Guggenheim Museum in 2010 and was exhibited at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago in December of 2011.

Andrew Bird and Ian Schneller’s Sonic Arboretum from MCA Chicago on Vimeo.

Audiophilia Anyone?

To get into the mind of an audiophile, I suggest the podcast Unbelievablesounds.com. It not only makes the listener understand why this podcaster geeks out about recorded musical sound, but the reviewer also illustrates his words with a collection of music that spans many decades and genres. You will leave your earphones feeling smarter and ready to download old songs you had forgotten and new songs you can’t wait to hear again.

Heart Your Fruits and Veggies – Don’t Refrigerate!

The Korean artist Jihyun Ryou has done something simple, beautiful and smart in the world of food technology. You don’t have to plug anything in nor do you have to buy any preserving  or de-ripening chemicals.

Jihyun Ryou's food storage design

In her blog SaveFoodFromTheFridge, Ryou shows you that knowing a little something about the hydrocarbon ethylene, the hormone that is produced by certain fruits and vegetables that make them ripen and age, can work with other fruits and vegetables to slow the aging process. She also explains “chilling injury”, a result of what can happen to certain vegetables in the refrigerator. By creating Ryou’s simple designs in your own home, foods last longer and are safe from some of the negative effects of keeping plant foods in the refrigerator.

Keep Your carrots and leeks upright

“Bring your food in front of your eyes”.

Ryou’s art project is a celebration of the visual and practical. With these simple boxes she has created both an artistic work that is visually beautiful and provides a real function for the home and the environment. Accompanying her art/design project is a beautiful book that explains her process and is complete with charming sketches of her designs.

The Youtube video below is an interview with the artist. Watch this while I go and buy some wood and plexiglass to make some of these boxes myself.

A Yen for Zen: Japanese Soaking Tubs

I was in Munich about ten years ago and the bath store across the street from the hotel had a Japanese soaking tub in the window. My husband lived in Japan for a short time in the 80s and remarked that these deep wooden tubs were so fantastic he was surprised that they were not being sold in the states. The one pictured here is produced by Rapsel, an italian bath manufacture. It is modeled after a Japanese-style soaking tub, but because it is made in Italy, it is not a true Japanese, or Ofuro-style, tub.

Japanese Ofuro soaking tub

 

According the history of Japanese soaking tubs, they were not actually used to wash oneself, but to benefit from the rejuvenating experience of being immersed up to your chin in hot water. The aromatic woods that these tubs are made from provide a soothing bathing experience.

Geishas with Soaking tub

The traditional soaking tubs that are manufactured in Japan are aromatic cedar and hinoki woods of the finest quality and taken from vertical grained heartwood that is properly dried and free of defects. Cedar and hinoki woods have a citrus aroma similar to lemon.

Hinoki wood tub

There are many types of deep soaking tubs and ofuro-style tubs. Japanese tubs are made in Japan, ie. Chinese tubs are made in China and American tubs are made in the United Stares. If they are made of wood, they should be made only of coniferous wood (not teak, mahogany etc.). These tubs should be handmade, using techniques of wood joinery derived from traditional ship building. Only traditional methods that have been developed over the centuries guarantee performance, durability and authenticity.

Outdoor Ofuro-style soaking tub

Bartok designs is the leading manufacturer of Japanese soaking tubs world-wide. A basic tub can run about 250,000 yen or $3300. It is expensive, but oh-so-lovely.

Bartok design tub

Bury Me In An Airstream Trailer

Airstream Mobile Home

For years I have lusted after that brushed aluminum form of the Airstream trailer that was designed by Wally Byam in 1929. It has the old-world futuristic look that was determined in the nineteen twenties and thirties by inventors like Buckminster Fuller. In an effort to create the home and cars of the future, Fuller became famous for his eccentric and innovative housing designs such as the  Dymaxion Dwelling Machine and, his most known architectural feat, the Geodesic Dome. I can’t say for sure, but judging from the look of the original Airstream trailer — which was designed at the same time Fuller was concocting his streamlined buildings — I can see that Wally Byam’s structures were influenced by the innovations of his time.

Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Dwelling Machine

Epcot Center - Geodesic Dome

The Airstream trailer has been a mainstay of American design for decades. While it was designed in 1929, Byam’s trailer did not make it into production until 1932.  The Airstream, Inc. website gives a short history of the birth of the Airstream trailer:

In 1929, Wally Byam purchased a Model T Ford chassis,built a platform on it, towed it with his car to a campsite, and painstakingly erected a tent on it. The effort was tiresome and unpleasant, especially when it rained. Spurred on by his first wife Marion, Wally built a tear-drop-shaped permanent shelter on the platform that enclosed a small ice chest and

kerosene stove. He then published an article that ran under the headline, “How to Build a Trailer for One Hundred Dollars.” Readers wrote Wally for more detailed instruction plans, which he sold at a cost of one dollar each. The response was extraordinary, earning him more than $15,000. After building several trailers for friends in his backyard, “the neighbors started complaining that I was making too much noise,” Wally observed,

“so I went out and rented a building.” Airstream Trailer Company went into full production in 1932, when fewer than 48 trailer manufacturers were registered for business. Five years later, nearly 400 companies squared off against each other. Today, of those 400, only Airstream remains.

Now, over seven decades later, the Airstream trailer has become one of the most coveted Americana designs internationally. A vintage Airstream trailer can cost up to $70,000 depending on its condition.

The Airstream trailer was especially loved by designer Christopher Deam who gutted an Airstream for Wilsonart, a San Francisco-based laminate manufacturer, and remade the interior using their products. The project was so successful that it caught the attention of Airstream who asked Deam to upgrade and redesign the interiors of the company’s newest models. Below is a Ted Talks video of Christopher Deam’s design journey in an Airstream trailer.

 

While I don’t have an Airstream myself (sniff), I did see the most wonderful creative reuse of an Airstream trailer in Fayetteville, Arkansas last year. Grey Dog Vintage, owned and operated by Molly Clark, is a traveling vintage clothing boutique with its home base in Fayetteville.

Grey Dog Vintage Boutique

“I’ve always wanted to have a vintage boutique, but when we started looking for a location, I couldn’t find a space that I loved,” Clark told the Fayetteville Flyer. “So we decided to gut the Airstream, and turn it into a boutique. I’m really glad we did.”

Check out Grey Dog Vintage flickr page.