Category Archives: Futurism

Presented at the 1986 Paris Motor Show, the Proxima concept was the ultimate vision of '80s futurism, both in terms of its design and engineering. To assert its blue-sky vision, Peugeot named its creation after Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the sun.

The exterior design was directed by Grard Welter, and featured a long wheelbase, mid-mounted engine and very small overhangs, putting the accent on power and performance.

While the front looked like a 405 on steroids, the rear was a very dramatic piece of design. The body was made of stratified Kevlar, and included a rear dorsal fin that sat on top of the engine compartment, between two solar panels. These provided the power to regulate the temperature inside the cabin.

A thin horizontal LED strip stretched over the full width of the truncated tail to create a strong Peugeot signature. The body only covered some vital elements, leaving the fat rear tires and parts of its engine unprotected.

Looking below the car, you could see the two large turbos hanging from its exposed guts. These were coupled with two air-to-liquid intercoolers to bring the power of the 2.8-liter V6 to 600bhp. The engine also made use of ceramic-coated mechanical components to reduce power losses due to friction.

To get in, the passengers had to open the polycarbonate canopy, which is split in half. The front half rotated forward at its base while the rear half slid rearwards.

The bright red cockpit was designed by Paul Bracq, and capable of accommodating up to four passengers. It contrasted traditional handcrafted leather and quilting with high technology. Satellite navigation, an electronic key card, rear-view cameras, anti-collision radar and a visualization system that combined the input from five external cameras into a unique image of the vehicle's surroundings all featured.

The Proxima also included electronic assistance technologies that aimed to provide comfort, speed and safety. The transmission was a non permanent four-wheel drive, which transferred power to the front axle if a skid was detected, while the gearbox and clutch were electronically controlled. The future is now.

First seen Paris Motor Show 1986 Length 4,420mm Width 2,110mm Height 1,150mm Wheelbase 2,750mm Engine 2.8-liter V6, twin-turbocharged, mid mounted Power 441.6kW/600bhp Weight 1,080kg

Your author, Flavien Dachet, is a UK-based, French-born car designer. You may know him as the purveyor ofKarzNshit, a photo blog that if it isn't already in your bookmarks, it certainly should be.

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by Flavien Dachet

FUTURISM. METAL.SUSIE - Fashion Drawing Tutorial
This video tutorial will explain you in easy way how to color your fashion sketch that depicts design made using metal and plastic materials.

By: FSketcher

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FUTURISM. METAL.SUSIE - Fashion Drawing Tutorial - Video

THE ART OF VICTORIAN FUTURISM
ANIBALDI.IT Network.

By: Carlo Anibaldi-bis

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THE ART OF VICTORIAN FUTURISM - Video

Pose for FUTURISM. METAL. SUSIE Tutorial
Hey guys this is a complimentary tutorial to main lesson called FUTURISM.METAL SUSIE. Here I am explaining how to draw pose of a model that is used in the ma...

By: FSketcher

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Pose for FUTURISM. METAL. SUSIE Tutorial - Video

By Tim Misir

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: April 23, 2014 (Issue # 1807)

Greenaway entertains the press at the opening of his exhibition with Dutch director Saskia Boddeke in Moscow last week. Photo: Valeriy Belobeev / British Council Russia

The Soviet Union in early 20th century, a time of social and political upheaval, was also an artistic utopia, and saw the interplay of suprematism, constructivism and futurism separate but connected art movements.

Collectively known as the Russian avant-garde, theater directors like Sergei Eisenstein, poets like Mayakovsky and designers such as Alexander Rodchenko, composers, architects and artists like Kandinsky, Malevich and Lizzitsky were just a few of the many who tried to pushed the boundaries of culture and its possibilities.

A new exhibition in Moscow by Dutch theater director Saskia Boddeke and British filmmaker Peter Greenaway, The Golden Age of the Russian Avant-Garde dramatizes these characters and immerses viewers in the context of that period, exploring the lives and works of its key figures through the language of theater and cinema. Twelve pivotal figures from the period of 1910 to 1930, played by Russian actors, are used to tell the story of this period of cultural experimentation and innovation.

More than 1,000 artworks, sourced from galleries and private collections around the world, are displayed as part of the exhibit, but Greenaway and Boddeke add to that by showing the context in which these masterpieces were created, the exchange of ideas between artists and the debates that surrounded them, pieced together from memoirs, manifestos, newspaper articles, published works and personal artifacts.

The characters are shown on multi-screen projections fused with photos, film reels and film clips. They interact with each other, speaking and arguing across screens, and move from one screen to another. They are not presented in a fixed order, running in 15-minute loops, and one can move randomly from viewing one platform to another.

You may be surprised by this exhibition. It is very subjective, Greenaway said at a news conference prior to its opening on Apr. 15, adding that he hoped presenting the works this way would allow them to be viewed in a new light, and that other, previously hidden dimensions of well-known pieces, would be discovered.

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Greenaway Immerses Viewers in Art

Harakiri: a ritual Japanese suicide of disembowelment reserved only for samurai. Seems horrifying, but witnesses insist it was a profoundly impressive sight to behold.

Its an apt title for Milwaukee producer Sd Laikas long-awaited debut album then, as aural demonstrations of ultra violence are carved into something texturally exquisite.

Meshes (below) splits the seas: an Afro-futurism night terror that forces tribal rhythms into industrial hip-hop contortions. Throughout the album, he takes a dark, fast-paced and aggressive grime framework and expropriates it for his own brand of bastard brain-dance. Case in point: I Dont has those choppy, pitch-bending grime synths but batters them with pneumatic percussion thats as brilliant as it is brutal.

Sometimes these obscure noise releases with their morbid artwork and darkened press shots can mask their complete lack of listenability behind a protective black veil of excessive complexity, and the desperation of its listener to feel exclusive. Sd Laika defeats this. His music marries complexity with club-ready thump, resulting in a dystopian dancehall of morbid booty shaking.

8/10

Words: Joe Zadeh

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Sd Laika - That's Harakiri

Fuller Terrace Lecture Series - Kate Walchuk on Futurism 2011

By: Kate Walchuk

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Fuller Terrace Lecture Series - Kate Walchuk on Futurism 2011 - Video

When Morgan Spurlock shot to fame, he was gorging himself on McDonald's three times a day to see what happens if he lived off only that -- and he ate the largest size that workers pushed -- in "Super Size Me."

In "Futurism," airing Sunday, April 20, Spurlock focuses on those striving for immortality. Since shooting that episode, Spurlock has lost 25 pounds.

He attends a party in California where people try various ways to extend their lives. Some take hundreds of supplements daily; others are on the paleo diet.

It would be a stronger show if Spurlock asked more questions such as: Why eat like a caveman? Why take so many vitamins? Spurlock has an incredibly thorough physical exam, and the doctor tells him to shed 18 pounds, take supplements and exercise.

Spurlock's goal is "to delve into issues that affect all of us, maybe in ways we don't even realize," he says. "A lot of times we see headlines and think they don't affect us. What the show does a great job of doing is showing how they do affect us."

Last week's Season 2 premiere was devoted to celebrity. Spurlock tried to be a paparazzo. Unless you're Angelina, Jen or a successful actor who dares to take the children to the playground, it's hard to see how paparazzi affect most people.

"What a lot of people don't realize is every time you buy a People, an Us, a Star, it does touch you," Spurlock says. "As you turn on the TV and watch 'TMZ' or 'Access Hollywood,' people are complicitly involved without recognizing their involvement."

Additional episodes look at religion, UFOs and paying student athletes.

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'Morgan Spurlock Inside Man': No bread, no pasta, no sugar, but wine is OK

Release Date: April 22, 2014 Label: Ninja Tune

Kelis has done a lot of (delightfully) strange things with soul music over the course of her career, from aggro-screaming "I hate you so much right now" over sugary Neptunes beats to examining motherhood from the perspective of a dance-pop cyborg. But Food may be her strangest move yet: it's an album of vintage funk and old-school soul cooked up by the queen of unconventional, sometimes otherworldly R&B.

"This is the real thing. This is the real thing," Kelis croons in that inimitable husky purr of hers on "Breakfast," a warm affirmation of earthly blessings and fervent horns that comes off like a sun salutation performed by a Motown girl group. It's a centered, grounded celebration of the small, day-to-day moments that nourish us, hosted by the one-time purveyor of "22nd Century" virtual realities and sugary "Milkshakes," with a guest appearance by Kelis' son, who invites us to come on over for some of his mom's home cooking. How can we resist?

Food is teeming with warm brass and chunky riffs, with heaping hunks of vintage soul and salty slabs of funk. "Hooch," for instance, walks a strutting, syncopated bass line ornamented with sighing backup vocals and punctuated with Afrobeat-esque horn bursts. The swaggering guitars, Spaghetti Western shimmer and call-and-response banter of "Friday Fish Fry" falls somewhere between rockabilly and blues rock. And lead single "Jerk Ribs" rolls through a funk-scape of belching baritone sax, jangling tambourines, swelling synths and a chugging triple meter that falls somewhere between Off the Wall and thiopiques. It's a new sound for Kelis, and it suits her, offering up new textures for her sometimes hard-to-place voice to spice up, like a collision of regional cuisines.

The "soul food" angle extends beyond the musical and the metaphorical for Kelis, however. There are those foodie titles, of course: "Biscuits n' Gravy," "Jerk Ribs," "Friday Fish Fry." They made for a pretty brilliant marketing campaign: Kelis literally sold food out of a truck at SXSW to promote the album (side note: is there anything more SXSW than a Kelis-helmed food truck?). But the literal culinary references are also rooted in the singer's own life and quest for soul-nourishment: Her mom was a chef, and Kelis actually went to culinary school in her downtime between albums. She also launched a line of jerk sauce and is getting her own cooking show: she's serious about this cooking business. Food is Kelis' attempt to address basic human needs, to nourish the gut in every sense with an album that emphasizes the organic and the authentic.

It feels initially like a far cry from the robo-worldof Flesh Tone, the kaleidoscopic futurism of her early work, even the candy-colored pop dream worlds of Kelis Was Here and Tasty. And in a sense, this album does seem like an effort to distance herself from her past work: an emphasis on grown and sexy music as a demonstration of how much she's matured and gotten back in touch with real life. But lest we think one of R&B's strangest sirens has gone completely terrestrial, Kelis took a fairly unorthodox route to her new organic sound: Food is released on her new label Ninja Tune, a British outfit known for putting out adventurous indie and experimental electronic music by the likes of Amon Tobin and Bonobo. And the album was helmed by Dave Sitek, go-to producer of envelope-dismantling sounds for artists like Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Santigold, and member of TV on the Radio, a group that knows from weird, disruptive soul. These are neither typical methods of cultivating a classic soul sound nor conventional choices for someone whose previous work includes beats by the Neptunes and a big hit like "Bossy."

On much of the Food, then, the vintage soul is couched in a kind surrealist haze. Tracks like the gauzy, lost-in-thought "Runnin'" and the paisley-hued "Cobbler" float away above the solid, dusty funk that anchors the rest of the album. Then there's "Change," a stylistically complex (Hare Krishna chant meets Moroccan Berber folk song meets Afro-futurism?) and structurally ear-boggling track anchored by the repeating line, "You can't escape the grips of desire" that's delivered like a curse. Kelis' strange, inimitable voice -- at once earthbound and alien -- winds its way into every wrinkle and crevice of these new sonic textures. Food is indeed "the real thing," a satisfying album grounded by familiar funk, rooted in classic soul sounds and focused on the everyday rituals of life: eating, playing with the kids, fighting -- and making up -- with the significant other. But it's still Kelis' vision of real life: a hearty take on soul foodthat still manages to shock your tastebuds.

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Kelis Serves a Soul Buffet From Space on Surreal, Tasty 'Food'

S

The Nissan Frontier is well-ripe for a redesign and the company says it's finally coming next year. I wouldn't expect Murano levels of futurism, but Nissan planning to prioritize styling while staying close to the current truck's dimensions. Since the Xterra sits on the same F-Platform, it's logical to assume the SUV will be reshaped soon as well.

Nissan's global marketing guy Andy Palmer told Australia's Drive; "one-ton pickups are fairly generic in terms of their overall dimensions. I think it's about what you deliver on fuel consumption, what you deliver on styling these are the key differentiators for that kind of pickup market."

So the next Frontier will stay small, look slick, and get good fuel economy. Sounds like they're on the right track.

With all the diesel teasers and spy shots we've seen at this point I think we're all getting pretty antsy about Nissan's future in trucks. The offerings from Ford, Ram, and GM are all stronger than ever and while Toyota is quietly crapping out the same Tundras, Tacomas, and 4Runners on the assumption that their badge will sell itself Nissan has been jumping up and down waving a Cummins flag for what feels like forever.

They've done a pretty good job delivering on their promises of wild styling with their SUVs, so I'll stay faithful for now. According to the Aussies, Nissan is going to tell us more about their small truck "in a few weeks," so stay tuned.

Whether the new Frontier's SUV accompaniment would be the next Xterra or another vehicle altogether remains to be seen. I suppose there's also the possibility that Nissan might castrate the Xterra into a monocoque as they did with the Pathfinder. But that would destroy the last truly off-road oriented SUV you can buy in America with a manual transmission that's not a Wrangler, and such an idea is just too much for my heart to bear.

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New Nissan Frontier Promised For 2015, May Arrive With An SUV Sibling