Thursday 3 June 2010

Mechanical Iris - first try

the first prototype actually works!

It's almost 20cm in diameter and I am looking for the right materials now to build a really big one that will also be motorized!










Sunday 30 May 2010

Mechanical Iris

1:30 am
I'm lying in bed, designing a mechanical iris door in my head.
2:00 am
sneaking out of bed to draw everything on my computer.
3:00 am
success. back to bed. will build a real model soon.

Tuesday 17 July 2007

pencil

today i sent out an email and only after it was in my "sent items" folder, i realized that it might have been a little bit weird...


Dear G. ,

Unfortunately, T. 's flight got delayed and he will be in the air when the conference call was supposed to happen, running to his rescue mission in shanghai as soon as the plane lands.

If you're willing, I'd be glad to go over the pictures (from the two emails, there hasn't been a third one) with you, listening to your concerns, ideas and input so that those can be noted over here. Of course, knowing that I don't have any contacts with the K. people and that I am the only guy in this office building who doesn't speak one word of chinese, the alternative would be an email from you, where you can write a few notes regarding the pictures, like this making sure that no ideas of yours get lost in the process of being modulated, digitzed, sent through phone lines, modulated back, sent through a loudspeaker, captured by my ear, turned into synaptic signals, processed by my brain and then put down on paper using a simple pencil.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

#
Vahid Saberin

Monday 25 June 2007

mercy fork

this evening i was sitting in a chinese restaurant, eating chinese noodles.

when i had finished my plate, i noticed that something was different. something had changed.

that is when i remembered that during my first weeks here, somewhere around six to seven minutes into the vahid-trying-to-eat-with-chopsticks adventure, a nice waitress was always offering me a mercy fork.

i can officially eat with chopsticks now.

china, i’m ready.

Monday 23 April 2007

vahid dans la cité interdite

sunday!
beautiful sunny day.

so at around noon-ish i decide to crawl out of bed, get cleaned up a bit (!) and leave the building for a nice walk around beijing.

i start walking due south until after 15 minutes i reach silk street market and start my sunday with a nice fast food chain hamburger... now that i had brunch, i decide to walk along the main road to the west. i know that somewhere that way, like 90 minutes walk farther, i'd get to the forbidden city.

after almost exactly 90 minutes, as i am walking by an audi dealership, i see something behind the glass that isn't supposed to be there... if it had been in a movie that i don't want to name here, it could have been a "glitch in the matrix"... anyways... i stop, pinch myself and it's really standing there. in just a split-second a thousand childhood memories are made to resurface by what i'm looking at.

i walk a few steps back towards where i was coming from, find the entrance and go in. it really is the avus! shining in all its polished aluminium splendour. the technological mother of all modern sports car. the shape of things to come.... you get the picture :-)

for all those out there who actually have a life... the avus is a concept car prototype built by audi in 1991 to proudly present to the world what they're able to develop and build.. but mostly to make little 11 year old boys drool and dream :-)

as this is my walk-day, i walk to the guy standing behind the reception desk in the back and ask him how come the avus is standing there. he looks at me with a very serious face and says:

"it came through the door"

he seems very content with his answer... so i reformulate my question to:

"why is the avus here?"

he seems to understand me now...

"oh you know the name. you are german?"

so... i'm actually standing inside audi china headquarters and the museum of so-and-so has graciously lent them the avus for six months.

i spend some time walking around the avus... take some pictures... walk back home. happy.

i never made it to the forbidden city









Monday 2 April 2007

oh! THIS is where i am!



today it's windy here in beijing, really windy, lean-against-the-wind-michael-jackson-smooth-criminal-windy.


when it's really windy, the fog gets blown away, which means that i can see farther than just 20 meters or so.


amongst many interesting things i noticed two things:




1) i can see where i work from my bedroom window:





2) i can see rem koolhaas' CCTV tower from the office:


... those stubs are the most massive facade steel structure i have ever seen... google what the finished building will look like and you will understand why :-)

need to hunt for food now.

Saturday 17 March 2007

borrowed logos... part two


they have starfleet in china. how cool is that?