The Desktop Wallpaper Project featuring Mary Kate McDevitt

Seeing as it was ice week here on TFIB I thought it was fitting to have this week’s wallpaper be equally as chilly. So I reached out on Twitter and got a response back from the wonderful Mary Kate McDevitt, who you might remember from the wallpaper she collaborated on with Ten Paces and Draw. I had an idea of having a giant iceberg, and Mary Kate totally pulled through with an amazing design. Here’s how she got to her design:

As I was brushing up on my knowledge of icebergs, I was inspired by their lonesome lifestyle just drifting off to sea and decided icebergs live a bit like hermits. Which made me think of the Bjork song “Unison,” and the lyric “I thrive best hermit style.”

I love the texture and color and type she made, this wallpaper is amazing. A huge thanks to Mary Kate for busting this out so quickly for me and doing such a wonderful job. Check back next Wednesday for a brand new Sights & Sounds series, it should be great.

Bobby

The Spectacular Sculptures at Harbin’s Ice and Snow Festival

These photos from China’s Ice and Snow Festival are pretty crazy. The festival, which opened last week, can be found in the city of Harbin, and it attracts about 800,000 visitors a year. Filled with ice palaces, pagodas and skyscrapers; it’s an incredible sight and every year it attracts an international roster of ice sculptors.

The intricate sculptures and structures are carved from giant blocks of ice taken from the surface of the nearby Soghua river. Sculptors use chisels, ice picks and saws to carve the ice. Many sculptors also use multicolored lights to add the impressive colors you see in the pictures above. The Harbin festival is one of the world’s four largest ice and snow festivals. More ice sculptures can be seen at the likes of Japan’s Sapporo Snow Festival, Canada’s Quebec City Winter Carnival, and Norway’s Ski Festival.

Images via China Daily

Philip

A church made of snow and ice? Now I’ve seen everything

Can you imagine walking 90 minutes in the snow to get to church? Nope, I can’t either. Way back in 1911, a sassy bunch of Germans from Mitterfirmiansreut got tired of walking such a long, snowy distance; their hands and feet were cold and they had a patriotic affinity for engineering. And then there was a snowstorm. So they did what any folks in their position would: they built a church out of snow. A century later, the villagers have built another, updated version of “God’s Igloo” made from packed snow and blocks of ice. The church, designed by Alfons Doeringer, holds 190 faithful villagers. But there’s something compelling beyond the church’s capacity or sloping form… I’m just not exactly sure what it is.

The original church and this updated church seem to have been built for two different reasons. The older church was built as a kind of statement about how the villagers were stranded. The younger church seems more like religious and engineering pageantry. It’s cool, but cool in the way icebars were cool… as in cold.  Are icebars still a thing?

The construction of the updated church was delayed because of unusually warm temperatures.

Alex

The Ice Music of Terje Isungset

Video via Third Channel on Vimeo

I recently discovered the work of the Norwegian musician and composer Terje Isungset and was really impressed by what he does. Isungset is one of Europe’s most accomplished and innovative percussionists, and he is a true innovator in his creation of ice instruments. For ten years, Isungset has been making and playing these incredible creations by carving them from the ice and he has performed in a number of wonderful and strange locations such as behind frozen waterfalls, inside of igloos and on top of giant glaciers.

The video above gives a brief insight into what Isungset does so well. Directed by Santiago Posada and produced by Third Channel; the film was taken during his performance last year at London’s Somerset House. It shows many of Isungset’s unique instruments including an ice horn, an iceophone and his ice percussion. Each instrument creates a unique and haunting sound and they really need to be heard to be believed. The majority of the instruments are carved from ancient glaciers and were transported to an urban igloo right in the heart of central London as part of three day event which ran last January in the city.

Isungset has also recorded a number of albums which you can check out here.

Directed by: Santiago Posada
Produced by Third Channel.
http://vimeo.com/thirdchannel
www.thirdchannel.co.uk

Philip

An iceberg shaped home in the middle of Tokyo, by Sanpei Junichi

I’m sure that Japanese architect Sanpei Junichi didn’t design this beautiful home (which is officially called House Tokyo) to look like an iceberg, but that’s what I see when I look at it. It’s almost as if this icy chunk broke through the earth in this sleepy Tokyo suburb; sleek, white and angular. I think at first glance this seems like one of those crazy Japanese houses that are unlivable to most, but I think I could live here for a few reasons.

Through the use of corrugated window coverings the space is still bright and warm seeming while not sacrificing any privacy either. In fact when you look at the second photo above it looks like half the building is windows. The interior is mostly concrete with bits of white, which I think could work as a home, you just have to throw down a bunch of rugs and put some colorful pieces of art on the walls and the space will warm right up. A blank space is just like a blank canvas, you only need to know how to fill it appropriately.

Found through Minimalissimo

Bobby