With Halloween right around the corner, nothing gets the spirit going like carving a pumpkin. I know Paul is talented in carving a pumpkin, but I have not been granted that gift. However, nothing can beat the carvings by Ray Villafane, an artist for Villafane Studios. Some of his carvings are just amazing.

His work is extremely detailed. He has carved some scary looking pumpkins, as well as some portrait pumpkins such as the Predator, Chucky, and even David Letterman. On Monday, Ray was given the oppurtunity to carve away at 2 gigantic pumpkins, one being the world’s largest pumpkin weighing in at 1818.5 lbs.  So at the New York Botanical Garden, His artwork is on display. It is a carving of zombies bursting out of the pumpkin. What better way to celebrate Halloween.

A collection of off the wall Sculptures and food based art. My personal favorite is the Pepper Skull above. and the Scallion Mantis below. Have you seen any other awesome food art? I myself have been known to dabble in carving, Apples, Pumpkins ect. Its almost time again.

h/t Mas @ IneedCoffee

FOOD + ART | The Hairpin.

We have seen Lego Art, LEGO sculpture, wonderous Constructions and Lego Murals. But up until now the LEGOs themselves were the art, or possibly a video if the lego was part of an animation. The piece itself was also a singular entity, its not like you can take a replica home without a massive amount of effort on your part. Enter a new player in the world of LEGO art.

Lego letterpress. Samuel Cox and Justin LaRosa the team from Physical Fiction have worked together to make a different type of type. Letterpress involves rolling ink onto blocks of wood, object or other shapes to create a work in relief. In this style the objects are LEGO and the result is fantastic. But judge for yourself. These brick’d up pieces of art are beyond awesome in my book. I wonder what the world has next for LEGO?

Lego Letterpress Prints | CMYBacon.

Vincent Kohler‘s Billon: A Tree De-constructed, Different Planes of existence. The life the parts of a tree lead after it’s cut and dried can get pretty varied. I love this exploded view. Somewhere in here there is a bark pun waiting to happen, I just can’t find it.

There is a difference between good minimalistic art and stuff thrown together. This is fantastic and beautiful work.

Vincent Kohler | Monoscope

If movies have taught me anything robots are awesome and in order to make a point in a rap battle you need to have a good and iconic grip on your mic, possibly drop it at the end of a slamming statement.

Imagine my syurprise when both of these unrelated pieces of mental detritus were cobbled together to give us this pieces of heavy metal awesomeness.

In a commisioned piece Three Days Grace leads singer Adam Gontier asked Chris Conte to create for him a mic stand with a robotic arm. The fun thing about this is that the stand you see is actually the second version the first was a right arm and hand, and the singer asked for a left to be created instead…

So the first was canalized and cobbled into the second iteration. The second version was actually created in triplicate to give the band one for the road one for home and i guess one for a rainy day… Silly rock stars, but awesome taste

OhGizmo! »

Art Auctions are common by anyone’s standards. You can’t go more than a few days weeks without reading something about a some piece selling for a price you wouldn’t pay. However this installation / art piece by Caleb Larsen takes the auction and makes THAT the real art.

This little black box is a sophisticated internet enabled device. Its sole purpose in life, other than looking mysterious is to sell itself to the highest bidder. In turn the winner of the auction agrees to a contract which says that the device must be connected to the internet upon reception. The device is staffed with an algorithm which searches Ebay for a listing of itself. If the search turns up negative then the device creates an auction with the previous selling price as the starting bid, and sells itself off.

The current owner gets the proceeds of the sale and must ship the item to its new owner. This is cannibalistic capitalism at its finest. Especially since the contract is apparently written to give the artist a 15% cut each time…

Via Make: Online Caleb Larsen’s A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter.

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Follow along with us as we talk about: Zoos, Art, Social Tagging, History, Robots, Fish, Coffee, beer

Living in Philadelphia you are constantly surrounded by history, some times you have to look for it other times it is celebrated right in front of you. Its been a great Week here at the CaffiNation HQ, where the family visited the Philly Zoo for their 150th Anniversary, I reported on some fun technology being showcased with The Philadelphia  Museum of Art and we have tons of news both old and new to share with you.

We have stories from the Lego Art world, about robots who swim, and Coffee for eternity. As always please pardon any attempts at humor. The mix on tonight’s show is a pleasant blend of old and new with a dash of nutty fun thrown in. So Please Enjoy the show and Stay Caffeinated!

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• Check the Back Channel: All the Cruft, non of the Chaff
  
• Web Presence Index www.paulrjmuller.com

Geek Cruft

• Social Tagging in the Art World
• Behold the Awesome Power of the Sun, a fire caution though
• Once a design concept, Compost under the counter is real, expensive
• Robot fish finds pollution and blends in, wears sunglasses at night too
• New materials for Robots, stronger than before
• Want to build a rail gun, just in case?
• Nintoaser burnin up the internet with links and love
• Killroy was here, and he had a ten-speed
• Lego Mosaics
• Keystroke sniffing with lasers
• Twitter during Surgery, lively discussion afterward
  
• Just for fun Lost in Translation, Garfield

Consumable & Caffeinated Bits

• CaffiNation’s Irish Coffee, Reviews are coming in…
• Caffeine Appreciation Month Continues
• 1 way to stay Optimally Caffeinated
  
• Froth Drinks, but not quite
• DIY Brew Fridge Thermostat
• Beer2-D2, Proprietary tap with a little robot sass. Via Norbert
• Movie becomes Real, Chock Full O’Memories
  

Thanks and Stay Caffeinated People

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Today’s Show: Mario, Legos, Cupcakes, Video Games, Art, and Amps

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Every Fall i get the same problem afflicting my vocal cords. The true problem is that coffee, my lifeline, my love makes the problem worse. So I end up being cranky and undercaffeinated. Tea is all well and good but its missing something for me, perhaps its just not viscus enough?

On to the news! A huge set of data to cull through for today’s show but I think that we came up with the best of the best to share with you today.

• Back Channel Links Tumblr Blog Grinds
• The Everything Feed: Friendfeed
• The RSS Feed for this Podcast

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Today’s Show: Coffee cans, Wine, nerf, legos, art, knives, watches.

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For this special offer, visit www.gotomeeting.com/techpodcasts

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• Our RSS feed had some issues, make sure you have the correct link
• Tumblr for the back channel links has been awesome thus far
• Block Party, oncoming vacation

I think we have fixed the outstanding issues with the last show. The Feed for the podcast is still very picky so make sure you’re using the correct link. Today’s Show deals with the length and breadth of crazy geek culture and caffeine and food related tid bits. Weary but soaked to the bone with awesome content this episode is the start of a new workflow

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It takes a really strange article or news item to make me sit up in my chair and take notice. Now when two of them cross my desk its time to draft a missive to the internet. And thats what your reading.

It seems these days like there is no shortage of art, and artists willing to not only push the envelope but rend it limb from limb. The crazy Steampunk designs have filled my imagination, and frankly provided excellent fodder for the podcast. But from time to time we see tech that goes beyond spiffy, that reaches past neat, to just plain weird. Read the rest of this entry »