This here is Custos Cavum (“The Guardian of the Hole”), a fantastically weird robotic sculpture by artist U-Ram Choe on display at New York City’s Asia Society until December 31, 2011. The piece was inspired by the 10th-century Indian sculpture, Shiva as Lord of Dance. From Choe’s synopsis of the project:

Once upon a time, there were two worlds. They were connected to each other through a number of small holes, as if the worlds were breathing through these holes. However, the holes had a tendency to close up, so there were guardians next to each one to keep them open. The guardians were called “Custos Cavum.”

They took the form of seals and had large front teeth, which they used to gnaw the holes to prevent them from closing up.

Whenever a Custos Cavum felt the generation of a new hole somewhere, it fell into a deep sleep. From the body of the quietly sleeping Custos Cavum grew winged spores called “Unicuses.” These spores took flight and each flew to a new hole, where it gave rise to a new Custos Cavum.

As time went on, the people of each world gradually forgot about the other. The guardians lost their power and died, one after another. When the last Custos Cavum died, the last hole closed, separating the two worlds completely. The existence of the other world was entirely erased from people’s memories.

Last night, I saw Unicuses start to grow from the last bone of a Custos Cavum in my small garden. According to an old story, Unicuses will grow whenever the holes to the other world are open again.

Hat tip to Dan!

[Via The Asia Society]

You’ve probably never heard of K3loid, a new short movie about humans hunting for a rogue artificial intelligence — but the list of people involved with this project is pretty amazing. Including mecha suits designed by Aaron Beck and Weta’s Greg Broadmore. And music remixed by Amon Tobin. The actual storyline looks pretty creepy, judging from this brief trailer — there’s a taunting, sinister A.I., and some weird-looking mannequins. And chasing the A.I. is a group of people in power suits bots, who have awesome powers — and you just know this is not going to turn out well for the power-suited cannon fodder.

Thanks to Vitaly2 for pointing out that these guys are actually Aaron Beck’s Bots, as detailed on his blog. [K3loid, thanks Stuart!]

In this curious video reel by graphic designers Sense Titol, a number of disrobed models pose against an all-white background. We’re not going to spoil what happens, but it feels very David Cronenberg…and one of them has the face only a foot fetishist would love.

[Via Reddit]

Alexander Graham Bell, father of the telephone, was also a huge fan of tetrahedrals—building everything from boats to planes out of the pyramid-shaped structures. This massive kite—built by the Queen and Crawford design house—brings Bell’s tetrahedral ideals into the 21st Century.

The experimental design was developed specifically by Sash Reading with Ivan Morison from the University of Westminster. It consists of 1700 3D-printed connectors linking carbon fiber rods that support cubenfiber aerospace fabric sheets. And as you can see from the video, the structure—dubbed Three Cubes Colliding—can actually be launched and brought airborne. That’s more than Bell could say of his three tetrahedral planes. [Wired]