Forget 3G. It's all about 3D!

So today comes the news that technology giant Sharp are to release a 3D smartphone by the end of the year. And guess what? You won't need to wear the paper glasses! Although this will not be the first 3D mobile to grace Japanese shores (Hitachi released one there just last year), Sharp plans to take the new technology global.

It's not surprising that Sharp would be the first company to tread into smartphone 3D territory. As well as releasing a 3D Camcorder, they are the core supplier of the screens that will adorn the hugely anticipated Nintendo 3DS. Both the 3DS and 3D smartphone will also include a 3D camera, leading the way into a world of 3D photography.

The interesting part will be to see who will be supplying the 3D phone's software. Could we see Android 3D? That would surely put the pressure on Apple's iOS system after recent reports that Google's smartphone software is steadily, but surely, catching up the Cupertino company's crown jewel. Imagine those SMS messages popping out of the screen. Cool concept, eh?

Polly Morgan: 21st Century Taxidermist

Polly Morgan has emerged in the last few years to become one of the most exciting and original contemporary artists in the UK.

An English literature graduate, Polly fell into taxidermy after attending a one day course – taken on a whim when she couldn’t find any stuffed animals she liked on eBay – she explains; “It wasn’t a conscious thing where I thought, ‘I want to be the weirdo’… My nature has always been to go in the other direction to where I think everyone else is going. I think underneath it all I’m quite competitive and I don’t want to stand in a big crowd.”

Five years ago it was difficult to see taxidermy as anything other than a dying art (excuse the pun) with stuffed animals belonging to questionable 1970’s interior design, yet Morgan has revived the medium by using the animals as part of a larger scene – so we get a bird gazing at his reflection in an ornate mirror as a skinned white mouse lays below.

Her work has garnered support from mainstream contemporary artists such as Dinos Chapman and Damien Hirst, landing slots at high profile exhibitions. |With an ever rising profile her prices are anything between £300 – a quail head on a wire – to £85,000 – the price of her large scale ‘Flying Machine’, as bought by a German Collector last year.

Along with a growing fan base and praise from fellow artists, A-list celebrities such as Kate Moss and Courtney Love have picked up her her taxidermy masterpieces. When questioned about her ascent to Taxidermist to the Stars, Polly responded, “I don’t suppose I sell to any more celebrities than anyone else. I’d actually be a bit worried if I did. It suggests you’re a bit of a fad. If Paris Hilton bought one, I’d get scared.”

Her newer work has moved away from her earlier use of animals as sculpture, evolving into an exploration of animal carcasses as ‘raw material’. As the unassuming artist puts it; “Maybe [taxidermy] will become more of a conventional medium, like using clay or oil paint. I don’t know of many artists who use taxidermy pretty much exclusively as I do, and I just haven’t exhausted it yet.”

Modern Vintage: Hand Court Bike Polo

Tug-of-war and motor-boating were just some of the unusual sporting events held at the 1908 London Olympics. But one event that has seen a recent surge in popularity is the game of bike polo.

Using bikes, its follows the rules of standard Polo, but unlike the traditional prestige and privilege that Polo represents, this variant of the sport has gone rogue. Hugely popular across Western Europe and North America, bike polo (or its streetwise name, hand court bike polo) has become the latest and fastest growing underground past-time and is quickly emerging as a fully-fledged international sport. With international competitions like the Greif Masters in Germany and the World Championships being held in Berlin next week, it is evident that the sport is gaining momentum.

When asked about the future of Bike Polo Jonny Hunter and Kevin Walsh of the League of Bike Polo responded,

“Well, there are definitely some barriers. One is, the equipment needs are very individual and specific. The mechanic at your local bike shop isn’t going to know how to work on a polo bike. There have been a couple of bikes manufactured specifically for bike polo—the Fleet Velo Joust and Milwaukee Bike’s Bruiser—but the sales, so far, are low. So I don’t see it becoming commercialized.

On the other hand, we have a major sponsor involved in this tournament [the upcoming North American championship], Trek, and that has been fantastic. We have an organizing body now, and I think that within the community we have enough organizing talent and potential to steer the sport in the direction we, as players and fans, want it to go.”

Although the sport is not as generously funded as other major sports, its growth in popularity is expanding extremely rapidly. Clubs are being formed in almost every continent. Speaking on the expeditious spread of the sport globally, Hunter and Walsh comment,

Walsh: Three or four new local clubs register every week. We just had Moscow register—and I just looked at their club logo, and it is amazing.

Hunter: We had 48 teams playing in the Midwest Championships, 48 teams playing in the Eastern Championships. Internationally, you’re starting to see teams in Latin America—Santiago has a club, Buenos Aires has a club, there’s bike polo in Colombia now. That’s really exciting, because it means you can go anywhere and play. And, obviously, it’s exciting for the future of the competitive game.

Back here in the UK, the London Bike Polo League was setup in 2008. In the 09/10 season twelve teams managed to play 33 games over the winter months, with BAD Polo winning the league with 47 points. Although the league is small and independently funded, with a rise in the sports’ international profile, it may not be long until this ‘unusual’ event could be gracing the Olympic World stage once again.

To read the full interview with Jonny Hunter and Kevin Walsh of the League of Bike Polo, click here.

80's Icon: BTTF2 Hover Board

After a weekend of watching the Back To The Future trilogy, it served to remind me of the impending 'future' of 2015. In a world where flying cars and self tying Nike's were all the rage, the accessory we're all really waiting for is Marty McFly's uber cool Hover Board.



How convenient then that I should come across Nils Guadagnin, a very talented French artist who has gone and actually created the iconic device of board sport future. Here's some info on the project...

“The Hoverboard is a project born in 2008 for an exhibition named “Back To the future”. This work is a copy of the hoverboard from the movie Back to the Future II. Integrated into the board and the plinth is an electromagnetic system which levitates the board. A laser system stabilises the object in the air. In the making of this work, I was thinking about different ways of presenting sculpture. In fact it’s a reflexion on the multiple possibilities of how to give a sculpture full spatial autonomy”


Although I have my doubts on whether this could hold the weight of a human, let alone save a a damson in distress a la Doc style (BTTF3), I still think it's probably the coolest piece of Back to the Future gadgetry I've seen so far.

Louis le Coin is born.

Louis Le Coin [Le Quan]

Digesting events, style, music, film, technology and all the things that make the modern world spin.