We’ve all had days when we feel like punching our computers, but until now no one has done anything to make that compulsion useful. Fashion and design studio Bless created the N°41 Workout Computer as part of their larger Retroperspective Home project.

The computer consists of a monitor and a range of punching bags that function as the keyboard. Typing becomes a full-body sport as you kick, punch, and step to form every word.

The designers considered it an outdated concept that we have separate periods of the day for work and play. They wanted to experiment with the idea that work and fitness can be combined.

By combining the functions of work and play, the Workout Computer can keep the brain stimulated and the body strong. If we had to hunt and peck for every letter and then throw a punch to enter it, the emails we send would be a whole lot more succinct.

The post Workout Keyboard: Exercises the Body, Writes Punchy Lines first appeared on Gajitz.

It seems that artist Dan Corson wants the citizenry of Seattle to feel like they’re in Wonderland. Just take a look at his latest exhibit, the appropriately titled ‘Sonic Bloom,’ for proof.

Collaborating with the Pacific Science Center, Corson has designed a collection of psychedelic flowers. If that seems boring to you, consider the fact that they’re 40-foot-tall street lamps and have built-in motion sensors that trigger music. When all of the flowers are triggered, they sing in trippy harmony.

In true Seattle form, the LED lights are completely solar powered. These massive illuminated flowers should be a popular sight in a state that has recently passed certain laws which might enhance such a display.

The post Musical Art Display Gives Seattle Streets a Trippy Edge first appeared on Gajitz.

Creating music is easier than ever now thanks to the availability of digital music tools. Most of those tools, however, require at least some training or specialized knowledge before you can start making music. Not so with the Dyskograf, an art installation that creates music with nothing more than the markings from a felt tip pen.

Invented by art collective Avoka, the Dyskograf is primarily a graphical disk drive that translates drawings into music. Using a camera mounted on an arm, the graphical disk drive translates markings on a paper “record” into rudimentary music sounds. The more marks the user adds, the more layers of sound are piled onto the new song.

The interface allows for a unique physical connection with music, something that is in short supply in the era of digitized, hands-off music.

This unusual method of composing music allows for mistakes, coincidences and surprises. In this way, it is quite different from the traditional paper-and-pencil method yet also far removed from the digital composing and editing used by many modern musicians. It is at once a throwback to a more physical time, an homage to the digital world, and a brand new musical creation medium unto itself.

The post Interactive Turntable Makes Beats + Songs From Drawings first appeared on Gajitz.

Paris is rightfully known as one of the fine art capitals of the world, and a new streetside exhibit is adding a slightly kooky angle to that reputation. Renault provided four of their itty-bitty Twingo cars to celebrity designers and gave them free reign to make them over as they saw fit. The goal was to show off the versatility and personality of the tiny cars – and that they did smashingly.

The cars were given to a German interior designer, a French fashion designer, a British pop star and an Italian chef. They were instructed to add their own unique spin to the low-cost cars and let the world know just how versatile Twingos can be. The result was four tiny art galleries on wheels.

Although the Twingo has been around since 1993, the most recent generation was criticized for being too plain-Jane and just like every other tiny French car. Renault wanted the world to know that even their “anonymous” cars could be imbued with the unique qualities of their drivers. The art cars definitely reflect the personalities of the designers who renovated them. The pop star created a dressing room in the front of her car and a recording studio in the back. The chef covered his car in dry pasta and a mobile pantry.

The French fashion designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac replaced the Renault’s seats with fancy royal furniture, and German designer Nils Holger Moormann went all-out, building a miniature library complete with a fireplace and wooden floors. The four-car exhibit, entitled “Cabinet of Curiosities,” will be on display along the Champs-Elysées until January 21, 2012.

The post Art to Go? Tiny French Cars Turned Into Mini Art Galleries first appeared on Gajitz.