If I had a Cease and Desist order from Louis Vuitton, I’d probably be a little scared– but not the folks at The Hotel Des Arts in San Francisco. Remember that hotel? Packed full of customized rooms from floor to ceiling by some of the worlds most promising young artists. One of the painted rooms (pictured here) was done by Tim Gaskin–a mural juxtaposing a celebrity icon, Madonna, with a logo from Louis Vuitton. The work is a critique of consumer culture–and personally I think it’s great. Louis Vuitton’s “Anti-counterfeiting Director Of The Americas”, what a mouth full, ordered a cease and desist, stating the hotel needs to ““remove all infringing depictions of the LV trademark from your walls”. So what did the Hotel des Arts decide to do? They went ahead and exercised their first amendment rights and decided to have a special showing of the room, from May 2nd-May 6th. Way to go guys!

This is Adriean Koleric’s fresh take on a new mailbox design. This product was originally developed as an entry for the 2005 Frost furniture prototype exhibit in Edmonton. The designer’s intention was to come up with a fresh take on an old standard and to challenge himself to stay away from stalwarts such as chairs, tables, and shelves. I totally applaud the creative approach on this one. The design almost makes the box appear like it’s growing out of the ground itself. The frosted plexi-glass ‘MAIL’ text is meant to be back lit from within the box’s cavity. A light sensitive transformer is used to automatically light the sign once the sun sets. It’s not exactly clear, but I imagine it’s mounted directly into the ground, and mail is picked up from a small door in the back.

1301 fluorescent tubes powered by the electric fields generated by overhead powerlines. This is what happens when physics meets art, clearly a success and very fascinating. Richard Box, an artist-in-residence at Bristol University’s physics department had the idea for this installation project after a conversation with a friend who told him how he used to play with a fluorescent tube under the power lines by his house–and He said “it lit up like a light sabre.” Box paid a local farmer for the space, and planted 1301 tubes he collected from hospitals across 3,600 square meteres of land– and this is the result. Check out the site for a nice interactive panorama.