Architecture

Sleeping Around Pop Up Hotel made out of Containers

Makis

Living in a container is certainly an accommodation trend that goes beyond being just futuristic since it serves real needs under a low budget.

Sleeping Around Pop Up Hotel thumb

In this article Hidden Room will cover Sleeping Around which is a pop up hotel made out of 20 feet recycled sea containers. Each of those containers is equipped with a box-spring bed, rain shower, iPod docking station and air conditioning making it a luxurious yet affordable way for someone to spend his/her night. Containers are made in China and are usually leftovers from worldwide transportation companies which after serving their purpose are usually dumped in ports like Antwerp since the cost for

shipping them back is huge. Sleeping Around Pop Up Hotel offers the following services: 4 star hotel room that offer a floating box-spring bed with high quality linen, XXL Hansgrohe Raindance Shower, Rituals amenities, Dyson air conditioning system and more Lounge Container where breakfast is served Sauna container where obviously you can enjoy your sauna Current location for Sleeping Around is at the Rijnkaai (Waagnatie) in Antwerp, while on their official website they entertain other locations requests for relocation. Sleeping Around Container Hotel Gallery

Art

Naomi Okubo, Contemporary Artist and Painter from Japan

Makis

Born in 1985, Naomi Okubo is a contemporary artist from Japan that is interested in the relationship between oneself and others or society and a contradiction that happen among the relationships. From an early age she was not sure how to relate with other people since she was afraid of what others would think about her.

Party Forever by Naomi Okubo Painting 2013

Those feelings were expressed by his series of paintings from 2006 up to 2010 mostly showing his plural self-portraits in an effort to escape from those fears by merging all them people in the world as herself. Since 2010 Naomi wanted to express herself through his own experience and as a result, she changed his art expression by using ready-made images from fashion advertisements or interior

magazines into his paintings, trying to understand painting composition rather than the contents themselves From 2012 and on Naomi obviously feels better about herself, even though she is always interested of other people's opinions, so she returned to his original expression in art, painting the way that she should connect to the societies he is involved with! Below you can enjoy his 2013 series of paintings.

Art

Street Photography Ethics by Tim Kelsall

Makis

Tim Kelsall is a professional social scientist and amateur photographer living in Phnom Penh at Cambodia where he is shooting photos in his spare time.

Street Photography in Phnom Penh, Cambodia by Tim Kelsall thumb

Tim Kelsall is a professional social scientist and amateur photographer living in Phnom Penh at Cambodia where he is shooting photos in his spare time. Even though he calls himself an amateur photographer his work shows that he is more than that. In his latest blog post he is covering the ethics behind Street Photography while "Capturing the order within this chaos [...]of street photography in Phnom Penh" Tim while doing street photography tries not to offend people by taking their pics , for that same reason he believes he won't be

a great street photographer as this genre is defined by great photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Elliott Erwitt, famous for shooting their subjects while being "themselves" invisible and in the danger to upset people just after their pic is taken. Tim Kelsall definition of street photography is more related to a modern laography(somewhat synonym for Folklore) where the photographer seeks to capture and document moments of people's everyday life than shoot only the most awkward and bizarre of those moments. Below you can check out some of his Phnom Penh Street Photography sessions.

Video

Tokyo: Capturing video sequences from inside a speeding train

Makis

Traveling in the Japanese high-speed train Shinkansen from Shinosaka to Tokyo.

Japanese high-speed train Shinkansen travelling from Shin-Osaka to Tokyo was the core idea of Daihei Shibata for creating a great video sequence probably using mirror effect and vertical flip effect combination, the video was shot by OLYMPUS EP-1(PEN). It seems that Daihei Shibata isn't the only japanese that got inspired by Shinkansen, Darwinfish105 shot the Hyper Drive video sequence using a Panasonic DMC-GH3. https://vimeo.com/68546202 Although they seem similar in my opinion the angle of their camera in front of the train for versus the side from Daihei Shibata really makes a difference.

Art

Woman Painting Series by Melanie Norris

Makis

Just recently I was browsing Vimeo for inspiration about my new posts here on Hidden Room. That's when I stumbled to this video which was the part nine of the MakingArt Series by Jesse Brass.

Woman 5 by Melanie Norris thumb

Featuring artist was Melanie Norris, she talked about her passion painting people in a way that she reveals the beauty in them that is usually neglected or ignored. http://vimeo.com/68208871 Melanie Norris describes her passion for painting people "... I have to paint, I dream about them, I think about them all the time when I see them... there is nervous energy... you have to let me paint you...". Even though she grew up reading and using words when she tried to write she understood that words flattened her emotions so she had to try a more physical expression like a painting.

She first started drawing beautiful faces of models from magazines but she quickly understood that their flawless figures had no character that would make them interesting so she changed her style into a looser one trying to capture the emotions of a person. She relates her painting materials to each of her subjects, for example, she likes to paint women with watercolours because they are more gentle than other painting materials fitting to a woman figure. She usually ignores the person clothes or even hair and she concentrates into his/her skin trying to discover and express the emotions that hide underneath.