camminando | Easter Moon in Las Vegas

The Moon is real!

My axis mundi coordinates have relocated to 36°10′30″N 115°08′11″W, which host the greatest playground in the planet in the Mojave Desert surrounded by the mountain, namely Las Vegas "The Meadows". One of the grandest urban extravaganza not only conceived but actually built —out of money generated by of the most potentially dangerous, yet legal, human addictions: gambling.
In Las Vegas nothing is authentic but everything is real. You can find cultures across the globe and spanning thousand years in Las Vegas Boulevard, better know as Las Vegas Strip, although is located not in the city of Las Vegas but in the municipality of Paradise. The time travel spans thousand years from the ancient Egypt and Rome, to the Italian Renaissance. Venice, Rome, Paris, New York are less than a mile apart.

I am chasing Easter moon in the Strip: our poor satellite although at its full glamour is yet overshadowed by the neon lights. Isn't there perhaps a space Moon theme hotel and casino nearby?

Las Vegas infrastructure and Stratosphere Tower

Ancient Rome at the Cesar Palace

Water plays at music score in front of the Bellagio

Several floors high chandeliers at the Cosmopolitan

 

Easter Moon chasing in Las Vegas Strip

Performances | The Medium is the Message...and the Prop is the Content

Fuerza Bruta is a collection of seemingly detached stunts, where the performers on a movable platform interact with the moving audience. Strobe and UV lighting, water, mist, fogs ladders, hooks and ropes holding the suspended actors, and many other theatrical tricks create a psychedelic environment of colors, movement and purposeless actions.
    Yet the show is mesmerizing, and definitely engaging, in a sensory feast of colors, lights, movement and sounds.

Below a collection of visual memories, in chronological order. The walking/running man is the thread connecting the collection of actions and visual effects.

The walking begins, in the middle of the theater, emptied of seats. The cheering audience is instructed to move to different locations throughout the show.

"Flying" performers on a shimmering curtain

 Performers move on a plastic water filled ceiling right above the audience heads

 Finale: the "running man" going through a paper wall

A lot of clean-up after the show

Camminando | Bright Lights Big City

As the darkest day of the year approaches, artificial lighting in the urban environments compensate the seasonal darkness of nature.
I have to admit that it is a pure feast for the eyes of even somebody who does not indulge in shopping like myself.

Nature darkness: my walk started in a poorly lit Central Park

Windows at Bergdorf Goodman

Louis Vuitton geometric display

Media façade: video projections on Fifth Avenue

More traditional media façades

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

Nature lighting: almost full moon

Total walk length: 10.3km

Design Fairs | NYC, ICFF at the Convention Center

Spring is in full bloom, so is ICFF, the 22nd annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City.

I have always enjoyed the fresh and innovative ideas, research on new materials often presented by the ICFF exhibitors, especially when compared to the usual stiffness and staleness of the recent current architectural projects in NYC.

The usual presence of established manufacturers --- such as Bernarhdt Design, Herman Miller, Kohler, Wilsonart --- is accompanied by a multitude of designers and schools, including Parson, the New School for Design, Pratt Institute, Yale School of Architecture. Particularly interesting among the design school is Art Future Design School from Russia, presenting furniture created from common Russian iconic objects, as matryoska.

"Green" and nature are the again the buzzwords in materials and design, often just used as cliché and quite questionable. Where is the sustainability of reclaimed wood imported from Asia ---what about transportation? And what is natural and sustainable in the recreation of trees, branches and flowers in steel and plastic?

Quite interesting ---although not new--- is the Canadian Molo line of products realized in non-woven polyethylene material, trade name Tyvek©. From modular walls to LED lighting this extremely lightweight material offers a very interesting vocabulary of forms.

Finally I found particularly of interest ---probably as related to my upcoming book on architectural geometry (to be published by Bentley Institute Press)--- the MGX by Materialise: functional and sculptural object realized in 3d-printing.

One missing element from the green + sustainability shebang: the human body.

Well, enough words; below a few images .

Tyvek© Walls and Lighting by Molo

3d Printing in Lighting Fixture by MGX by Materialise

LG Seating

LED Lightinh by QisDesign