Object Index

New blog at marisarmiller.tumblr.com

2009-10-22T18:14:00.000-07:00

I've moved!

2009-10-13T06:28:00.001-07:00

objectindex is now on tumblr.

objectindex.tumblr.com

I love you

For young friends with Superman fetish

2009-08-30T10:15:00.001-07:00

Anatomy-specific chair design for male nudist

2009-08-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

The History of Contraception IUD poster

2009-08-30T10:10:00.000-07:00

2009-08-23T16:08:00.001-07:00

Rapper behind 'Roxanne's Revenge' gets Warner Music to pay for Ph.D

via Robert Pruitt

Sploshing with Ann Margret

2009-08-23T09:38:00.000-07:00

from a fantastic nightmare

2009-08-22T09:34:00.001-07:00

Giuseppe Arcimboldo (Italian, ca. 1527-1593). The Four Seasons, ca. 1590. Oil on poplar.

2009-08-22T09:30:00.000-07:00

Giuseppe Arcimboldo (Italian, ca. 1527-1593). Water, 1566. Oil on limewood.

Aaron Francis on Moby Dick, Chapter 5

2009-07-08T13:34:00.000-07:00

by aaron francis

cannibal-act

2009-07-08T09:50:00.000-07:00

"Royal College of Art graduate Iola Kalliopi Sifakaki designed a dinner service cast from her own body and then invited a dozen of her male friends to feast from the tableware.
"The dinner service, and the dining furniture Sifikaki designed, are based on the Greek myth of Tantalus, in which Tantalus boils his son Pelops and offers him up as food to the gods to appease them."
from dezeen

food dispenser

2009-07-02T17:25:00.000-07:00

ExtraRoom by Gunnar Green (in collaboration with Bernhard Hopfengaertner).

"The image above shows the 'food dispenser". The subject would suck nutrients from it: normal meals would indeed be too rich in stimuli (shape, textures, ordering on the plate, smell, etc.). Besides, their elimination would erase any sense of time. The rest of the room would be totally bland and white, with only a toilet. It is soundproof and features no window. The architecture of the room with its surfaces that are never horizontal nor vertical induces mental unrest.

It has been observed that deprivation rooms increase the receptivity to propaganda. After 36 hours spent in the room, the mind of its inhabitant would be ready to receive desirable messages through speakers. The input would be repeated several times until the appropriate psychological alteration has been reached. The door will then open. The person can now go back to their normal life."

from wemakemoney

narcotic vaporizer and high heel

2009-07-02T17:17:00.001-07:00

Tommaso Lanza, RCA

"3 pairs of custom made Salvatore Ferragamo 6cm high heel shoes size 6. Black patent leather, fine stitching details. High-quality clear leather inner lining. Each left shoe features a retractable electronic key device in the heel. Late entry lot, believed to be part of CFO Sherron Tischler’s personal collection."

"Lot of 30 Careco CC600 narcotic vaporisers featuring biometric identification via an integrated IriScan system. The CC600 was produced sparingly and sold to a very limited number of corporate customers. The double nozzle system is automatically sanitized after each use. The chosen narcotic is easily refilled by removing the front panel which is secured by an electronic lock at the bottom of the casing."

via wemakemoney

dotted line

2009-06-29T19:41:00.000-07:00

from my mother

Props for the Scandinavian version of Tampopo

2009-03-23T13:22:00.001-07:00

Amsterdam designer Aldo Bakker's series of porcelain tableware.
(From dezeen)

If one were to imagine a slicker Scandinavian version of Tampopo, director Juzo Itami's Japanese "Spaghetti western," Aldo Bakker's porcelain vessels could be props for the young man in the white suit and his lover. To date, two scenes from Tampopo still rank as my all-time favorite erotic film moments.
Watch these scenes (the egg yolk and the oyster) below. I'm somehow imagining a fantastical collaboration between Bakker and Itami, but I'm not quite sure how that would manifest in reality...

Danse Serpentine - Loie Fuller

2009-03-11T15:02:00.000-07:00

found at Overduin and Kite

Late 19th century hand-colored film recording a dance performance by pioneer of modern dance, Loie Fuller.

Haim Steinbach on Mike Kelley

2009-03-11T14:55:00.000-07:00

From Exhibition
"Haim Steinbach on Mike Kelley" at Overduin and Kite

In discussing his work, Haim Steinbach writes,

“Points:

1. An object is defined by its relationship to another object(s). Meaning is generated through the play of objects; in how they are placed, acting on one another. The viewer is engaged to complete the story, to solve the riddle.

2. Objects function in our lives as forms of communication. An object is a story in itself and at the same time it is a vessel ready to receive any projection brought upon it by the subject/viewer.

3. Objects are employed as figures of speech. For example, the “Kong” rubber dog chew may be read as a marker of time, like a point at the end of a sentence, a comma, a semicolon, or an exclamation mark.

4. The choice of objects and their grouping reflects their typological affinities and metonymic relationships.

5. Some approaches of choice in the selection and arrangement of objects are:

(a)The object(s) that have been in the possession of the artist for some time may be put together with a newly found or bought object. With experience, personal, historical, social, intellectual etc. a connection may be made with an object already internalized and a newly arrived object at a moment of recognition. (For instance “Mr. Peanut”)

(b) An object or objects in the possession of another individual are put into a new play by the artist.

(c) A complete arrangement in the possession of an individual is lifted in its original order and re-framed in another format of presentation.

6. Found statements have already been objectified in the formation of their content, typeset and the spacing between letters, words and sentences. In this respect they too are objects and are taken as such. ”

Artists who put things on shelves

2009-03-11T14:47:00.001-07:00

Above: Haim Steinbach "Matter grey"

Above: Haim Steinbach "Bricks and rats"

Above: William Pope L (?)

Fruit Condom

2009-03-03T16:32:00.000-08:00

from Dezeen

Love Design, Milan presents the Fruit Condom, by Quentin Simonin & Morgane Pluchon.
It's very pretty.
If I understand correctly, it's re-usable (it ought to be, since a small tear would not put the user at risk of disease or impregnation).
Not yet on the market.

Scatology by Mark Cecula

2008-12-24T12:20:00.001-08:00

SCATOLOGY SERIES; SET I, 1993 porcelain, stainless steel

SCATOLOGY SERIES; SET V, 1993 porcelain, stainless steel

Series of sculptures by polish artist/designer Mark Cecula.
via http://new-art.blogspot.com

Monkey Rocker

2008-12-23T15:20:00.000-08:00

(custom version)

I have a keen interest in the non-electrical, homegrown, finely crafted side of the "interactive body toy" design field.
Here is one particular piece of furniture, called the Monkey Rocker, which has piqued my curiosity.

Initially created as a one-off home project by Dan Siechart for his wife, this completely mechanical contraption hit the market and seems to be a favorite with porn models, gynecologists, and regular joes (see reviews).

It's safe for either vaginal or anal play. Here is how it functions:

thanks to the Museum of Sex and the Sex Machines book.

Structure for Birds

2008-12-23T14:53:00.001-08:00

Photography series, Structure for Birds, by artist Axel Antas, exhibited at the LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial in Gijon, Spain.

from we-make-money-not-art:

Axel Antas' Structure for Birds were photographed in the Catalan Pyrenees. In this interventions within the landscape, the artist built delicate structures for birds on top of cliffs reaching into the sky. They look poetically absurd and fragile, lost in a landscape that seem endless and about to swallow them.

Feminism and BDSM article

2008-12-21T18:49:00.000-08:00

I am curious about the intersection of feminist thought and female submission in BDSM. A couple years ago I had an illuminating email correspondence with an L.A. couple (via alt.com, they went by this pseudonym "trisexuality" and disappeared after a little while, I'm still trying to track them down) regarding the presence of a parasitical dominant-leaning mentality pervasive within capitalist culture which scorns the pleasure of the submissive as something of a lowly/invalid nature.

Here's part of what they wrote:

'[Within a capitalist framework], every person is driven to compete, to earn wealth, and to climb up the leadership hierarchy as far as they are able. In our American society, this is even more directly manifest in the system of corporatized capitalism - where the hierarchy is explicit in the form of the corporate management pyramid...

'One of the intrinsic assumptions of the capitalistic framework is that everyone is a dominant - or rather, that everyone wants to be a dominant, and that submissives result from those who attempt to be doms, but fail...

'The modern American system has at its heart the idea that competition is eternal. Until recently (approximately the 1980's), the model was one of individual families competing against one another. Daddy works at the office... Mommy runs the household and attempts to augment Daddy's role as the primary competitor by making sure his shirts were better starched than those of his competitors, and that he arrived at work energized by a better breakfast and better behaved happier children being taken off to a better school. This system put women in an eternally subordinate role, and men dominant relative to them because of the external capital framework - which is to say, that because the women did not control capital, they were marginalized. In effect, Daddy was the lowest level of the management hierarchy, and Mommy was the working class.
In our modern world even this has disappeared, and Mommy and Daddy compete even with each other as independent elements of the capital system.'

This post argues that our propensity to compete and dominate others is strongly influenced by ingrained cultural capitalist ideals. I think there is a lot of truth in this. Many people feel shame associated with the discovery of their own basic human desire to relinquish power.

Lately I've become interested in this concept of bliss-in-complete-surrender as something which transcends gender. But it would be good to spell out, entirely- with historical context and psychological baggage issues explained- why certain feminists feel that the practice of BDSM runs counter to the ideals of woman's equality.

Below I have begun to post any relevant snippets that I find on the subject. If anyone can find related articles (sans hyperbole or appeal to pathos) with tight writing and maybe some good citation, please send them my way:

from: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/sister/BDSM.html
The final attack leveled at me by other feminists has been, "All hierarchical relationships are in opposition to the principles of feminism. Dominance and submission are necessarily hierarchical."

This argument reeks of the kind of bureaucratic, simplistic intolerance which is born from an unconscious fear of having an ill-intended lover or parent siphon your power. I'll elaborate on this later...

Orca

2008-12-20T14:57:00.000-08:00

Zeta Creations markets a number of beautiful penetration toys which bring up complex issues relating to the morality of indulging in bestiality imagery, and promoting sexual scenes with hyper-real animal-genital substitutions.

from zetacreations (at http://www.zoofur.com):

"It is as the title suguests, a toy modeled after that of an Orca whale, it is over 15" without the base. It tapers from 1" near the tip to almost 4" near the base with a gradual increase as you go down the shaft. It has a nice tapered shape and could be used to some extent by practically everyone, it also has veins added in from those we observed and studied from an Orca penis, to give it much more realstic feel and texture. We hope you will enjoy this 1. Just dont blame us if you get carried away and dont walk right for a week ;) "

Vacuum Screamer

2008-12-20T14:45:00.000-08:00

from ananova.com:

A US mother-of-three has invented a sex toy that connects to a vacuum cleaner to give an orgasm in just ten seconds.
The gadget, called Vortex Vibrations, works by concentrating the air flow to create a rapid and gentle vibration, reports the Sun.
Inventor Joanne Drysdale claims it can give multiple, back-to-back orgasms lasting up to a minute a time - and it does not even touch the skin.
The 49-year-old former toolmaker was cleaning her carpets when she came up with the idea for Vortex.
She saw how a piece of rubber that had got caught in the nozzle was gently resonating in the air flow. She also felt a soft stimulation to her fingertips as she tried to remove the rubber.

'At the time Joanne, from Utah, had not had sex for 15 years following her divorce.

'She said: "In my attempts to alleviate frustration, I began to think what I could do. I noticed how the rubber moved in the top of the vacuum. After several hours, I came up with the prototype. The first time I tried it I reached an orgasm within 10 seconds. That was when I knew I was on to something that could potentially bring pleasure to all women." '

Watch information video at vortexvibrations.com

Studio Gum Helmets

2008-12-20T14:43:00.001-08:00

Products by Studio Gum, a German rubber company.

Urolagnia Helmet

Sensory deprivation mask, how-to flash image

Facial Flex Video

2008-12-20T14:37:00.001-08:00

"The Cone" How-To Diagrams

2008-12-20T14:13:00.000-08:00

The Cone, a vibrating multi-purpose sex toy, has a clever well-designed ad campaign (nodding to iPod ads) with crisp, silhouetted images of different humans interacting with the product in a multitude of positions during different types of activities. A real treat that the creator figured out how to communicate the strength of the product (its versatility) with such succinct clever imagery. Print diagrams come included with the packaged product, and can also be viewed as flash imagery here.

8ème Ciel by Matali Crasset

2008-12-19T19:19:00.000-08:00

One of the most innovative and unique toys on the market. Non-penetration-based stimulation toy by French designer Matali Crasset for Exquise design.
Watch the exquise information video for more information on the function and concept.

Unisex by Ben Durrell

2008-12-19T19:03:00.000-08:00

Concept male-female sex toy created by Boston-based designer Ben Durrell as part of release 1.

Auger–Loizeau Isophone

2008-12-19T18:55:00.000-08:00