As a sort of combined follow-up to our "Robotic Art" series (see parts 1, 2 & 3) and recently popular "New ways to play with an old hardware", we gathered more examples of creative recycling and artistic experimentation with mixed media and "everyday" objects. Maybe it'll inspire you to go tinker in your own kitchen and yard - hoping that your wife would understand and maybe even share the excitement.
Frog Enhancement Sculptures - Frogs just want to have fun.
Mila Kalnitskaya & Micha Maslennikov decided that Mother Nature cheated frogs out of the ability to fly, so they need some outside help for that. Of course, "no animal was hurt during the art process, etc."
What, you still have your old computer hanging around and not playing part in your home improvement? Here is some ideas for its recycling: (most of the following creations are by Alex Andromeda)
Ann Smith from BurrowBurrow knows exactly what to do with old electronic parts. Instead of gathering dust, her little creations brighten up the office and don't require any reason for existence other than "just because":
"Still life" photography master Maurice Scheltens has some gool ideas how to use mundane objects:
A walkie-talkie "diva":
Finding new use for the old turntable? If it still rotates, why not put stuff on it and make groovy motion-blurred photographs? Here is one with a garbage bag, and the other one with some kind of an orange crate:
Create some kind of an extinct creature's skeleton with a bunch of cloth hangers:
Kosmotroniks - a new breed of robotic art, which moves, dances, jumps and flies around
These restless guys can really move around, looking rather like vintage toys. They are built by the Dutch musician and artist Harry Arling (thanks Martijn Reneman for the tip)
Eric Claverie not only creates whimsical robot structures, but he also has interesting ideas in furniture and interior design. Check out his endearing "robotic" lamps:
Look one of these cute robots in the eye, and you can be almost certain that it's smiling:
So far most of the examples of "mixed media" art were quite charming. But not all of them are cute and adorable. Prepare yourself for the....
Post-Apocalyptic Beetles!
Kosma Zrebiec dreamed up these giant beetles made from the discarded machine parts - battling each other somewhere in the middle of Polish countryside:
That Easter Island head is an advertisement at the airport in Berlin. It's interesting to get off the plane and see it going around on the baggage claim, but finding out that it's really just an ad for a travel company is dissapointing.
I agree the P1800 is perfect as well, especially considering you can get a restored one for around 15000. The tipo 33 is gorgeous but completely unobtainable.
I wouldn't say that the Alfa is beholden to the E Type Jaguar. Its style is really evolutionary from the late 40's early 50's Disco series http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfa_Romeo_Disco_Volante, and you can even see some of these styling hints in the touring cars from the 30s like the great 2900 8c coupes. I would say if anything Jaguar was behind the times when you compare say the XJ120 to a Disco Volante, though I love the Jaguar for any other dozens of reasons.
Joe, here is a link to a lot of historical Alfa Romeo cars that were either concept cars or especially reflective of a design from specific models. http://www.conceptcarz.com/view/model/6/Alfa%20Romeo/model.aspx
One great thing about Alfa is that they used a lot of different designers and were not afraid of taking chances. Not a great business model, but a treasure for us car buffs.
About the similarities in the design. To my knowledge the space shuttle design itself was never classified. I remember hearing an interview with a NASA engineer who stated that if the Russians had asked for the schematics they probably would have been given them.
All similarities end after external appearances. The main point of difference is that Space Shuttle is TWO-stage rocket -- first stage are solid boosters, while second stage is an orbiter itself. Buran-Energia is a three-stage rocket, Energia being a complete independent heavy-lift booster in the same class as Saturn V. Orbiter is just a payload (or a third stage at most), and could be lifted to LEO without ever engaging its engines, which are much smaller and less powerful that Shuttle's ones. It had much more sophisticated avionics compared to early shuttles, as it could land automatically, and it was also equipped with ejection seats for all of crewmembers -- something that Challenger crew would sertainly wish they had.
khathi is essentially correct. The Buran was a principally different vehicle, similar in appearance only. It is significantly smaller the the Shuttle as well. To call the Energia a launch vehicle in the same class as the Saturn V is technically correct but deceptive. The Saturn V had a design capacity of 200 tons to LEO (It actually lifted 156 tons to LEO with Apollo 17.). I think the Energia could manage just over 100 tons. Still, I don't mean to belittle the Energia. It is an impressive launch vehicle. But it is unlikely the Saturn V will be topped any time in the near future.
Well, Saturn V COULD've been topped -- if the whole Energia-Buran project wasn't scrapped, that is. You see, Energia was a highly scalable design, and you could've easily bolt up to a four additional fist stage boosters (IIRC, some of the pics even show this config, sadly, it was never really flown) effectively doubling its capacity -- up to 175 tonnes. But you are right, LEO capacity for standard config was just 100 tonnes, 20 tonnes less than for Saturn V (which could lift just 120 tonnes to LEO, not 200).
Another point -- the orbiter that was destroyed in 2002 was OK-1K1, the very same that was flown in 1988. Another one, OK-1K2, one that should've fly manned mission, was never completed and is still mothballed in Baikonur, IIRC.
Objection! Crew capsule remained intact after orbiter disintegration, and remained intact (and crew alive, albeit with at least several crewmembers inconscious) until the final strike into the water. Had it been equipped with ejection seats, crew could safely eject during "drop" phase.
I am sorry to disappoint you, but the Baikal story is a well done 1st April joke, by Vadim Lukashevich, the webmaster of buran.ru - the most comprehensive website on Buran project.
There were advanced plans to improve the Saturn V as well. One was to stretch the tanks and add a sixth main engine for a total of 9 million pounds of lift-off thrust. Another was to add solid, strap-on boosters. Yet another of the more ambitious proposals was to separate the main engines from the tanks and parachute them down for re-use. I actually knew one of the engineers who helped develop the F-1. He said that the only reason the engines were not re-useable was because they were at the bottom of the Atlantic. The engines were actually designed to be able to be used five to seven times. But, alas, so many good ideas never to be tried. Sigh.
"khathi: ejection seats would not have helped the challenger crew - they (still) would have been incinerated at the speed they were traveling."
According to: http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/investigations/q0122.shtml
The Challenger was at 46,000 ft travelling at 1.9 Mach when the disaster struck.
According to: http://space.newscientist.com/article/mg14920124.300-please-keep-your-seat.html
The Zvezda K-36 ejection seat of the Buran allows cosmonauts to eject at 30Km (98,000 feet) and 4 Mach.
Columbia disaster... that's another story.
Thank you for the pics. I've been fascinated by space ships since I was a child and this is the first time I see Buran from inside. So I'm very grateful :)
''Pre-launch moving of "Buran" and "Energia" on rails'' The last two photos are of Proton, not Buran or Energia.
Proton is a much smaller rocket (A medium one). You can also see the 6 outer tanks and 6 engines attached to them, no central engines, very different from Energia's 4 boosters and 3 core engines.
I'm surprised nobody noticed yet. Proton is a sixties design, still flying today, commercially, although they just had one launch failure with the second stage just after staging.
"QUANTUM SHOT" #320
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