Ten years ago today Jason Kottke launched his influential blog Kottke.org. The site is a fascinating collection of...whatever Kottke cares to post there.
So prescient was his vision of the future of publishing though that today he's married to the co-founder of Blogger.com and can be counted among the earliest pioneers in the present era of online bricolage - the art of assembling diverse found objects.
Bricolage has become one of the most dominant themes of the new online world. The word may be French and unfamiliar, but you see the concept in action every time you read BoingBoing, for example. There are few blogs more widely read than BoingBoing - but it's in tribute to Kottke's 10 year anniversary that we offer the following collection of some our favorite places to discover marvelous things online. All are curated by the careful eyes and hands of one or a few editors, making these sites a different experience than places like Digg, Del.icio.us Popular, PopURLs or elsewhere.
Not only are these types of sites widely read, they are also inspiring a cultural renaissance of bricolage on sites like Tumblr and FFFFound.
Great Sites to Find Fantastic Things
Note: If you are reading this story by RSS, you may not be able to see the dynamic list of recent popular stories from each source. You can click through to the live site to see them. Speaking of RSS, reader Víctor Hernández created a spliced feed of all the blogs below into one at this URL.
BoingBoing
BoingBoing is the biggest mover and shaker here. It's a group blog with an art and politics slant. It's a great place to discover "wonderful things" in large quantities. You probably already knew that, though, because you probably already read BoingBoing.
| Apr 6 | World's most distracted driver? A 29-year-old woman in Torrance, CA, has been arrested for driving on the 405 freeway while texting on her cellphone, with a kid in the back seat without a seatbelt, another kid in the back seat in an unsecured child seat, and an infant on her lap, .. |
| Apr 6 | Moorhead, MN, police steal $12,000 tip from waitress A Minnesota waitress had to hire a lawyer to force police to return a $12,000 tip she gave to them as lost property. From Reuters : "Knutson, a mother of five, called local police and turned in the cash as lost property. At first, police said the ca.. |
| Apr 6 | Make: Talk 012 - Ayah Bdeir of littleBits.cc Here's the 12th episode of MAKE 's podcast, Make: Talk ! Our maker interview this week is with Ayah Bdeir , the founder and lead engineer of littleBits , an open source library of electronic modules that snap together with magnets, making it fun and.. |
| Apr 6 | Fallout for free Classic computer RPG Fallout is free of charge today . [GoG] |
Waxy Links
Waxy Links is the link blog that rides beside Upcoming.org co-founder Andy Baio's blog Waxy.org. Baio has taken to doing investigative blogging on various topics on his main site, but his link blog is a widely loved river of weird. When your link blog is hot enough to have an ad from the uber-boutique ad network The Deck on it, then you know you're a monster.
| Oct 4 | Ghostery browser add-on auto-blocks sketchy ad trackers, web bugs, and other includes |
| Oct 3 | Experimental one-line algorithmic music try making your own ! this one is lovely [ via ] |
| Sep 27 | MAD's ThunderLOLCats takes on overused Internet memes amused at how furious people are in the comments [ via ] |
| Sep 27 | YouTube founders launch new Del.icio.us some new stuff and tons still broken or missing, so I'm reserving judgment for now |
Neatorama
Neatorama is a lot like BoingBoing, but a lot less high-brow and a little more fun. Regular games of "What Is It?" challenge readers to identify photographs of old and unusual objects. The whole site is almost a clearinghouse of weird and it's a much quicker read than BoingBoing. The long list of authors is lead by Biochemist Alex Santoso, who started the blog as a hobby in 2005.
| Oct 3 | Spot the Photoshop Carme Chacón is the spanish minister of defense. This photo of her, probably part of a magazine spread, is a quiz at Photoshop Disasters. Out of almost 8,000 guesses, 46% of the responses say this is a perfectly normal photograph. What do you think?.. |
| Oct 3 | This Might Be The Saddest Web Comic Ever This wouldn’t be nearly as sad if everyone who ever used YouTube couldn’t attest to the fact that it’s totally true. Link Via Laughing Squid |
| Oct 2 | The Best Derp Face You've Seen All Day Who knew this is the face a pug would make while going down a slide? This must be animal abuse because no self-respecting animal would willingly make that face when there was a camera present. Link Via BuzzFeed |
| Oct 2 | Johnny Cash's To-Do List The Man in Black wanted to keep organized, so he kept a regular to-do list. Very smart. Also, his choices are smart. But is it really necessary to write down #5? Would he have forgotten otherwise? Link -via Ace of Spades HQ | Previously: The Johnny .. |
Laughing Squid
Laughing Squid is a great place to find cool art, projects and photography from San Francisco and elsewhere. It's the work of web-hosting company owner and aficionado of cool Scott Beale.
Beale's posts regularly hit the front page of Digg and his excellent photos are regularly ripped off without attribution by mainstream media outlets.
| Oct 4 | Discovering the True Purpose Behind of Super Mario Bros. Zac Gorman has discovered the true purpose behind the video game Super Mario Bros . |
| Oct 3 | Spooky Abandoned Victorian Houses Made from LEGO Bricks Lego: Victorian on Mud Heap 110k – 130k pieces Black, white, dark and light bluish gray, clear trans and black trans colors used. No foreign materials (wood, glue, paint or otherwise) were used â this is pure Lego. No Lego piece have been alte.. |
| Oct 3 | The New Rules of Work, Posters For The Modern Workplace “New Rules of Work” is a poster series of modern workplace rules that every office worker should know. The series is by Division of Labor , a San Francisco-based branding agency. Posters are available for purchase on their website. via C.. |
| Oct 3 | The Simpsons Opening Couch Gag Animated by John Kricfalusi The “couch gag” in the opening sequence of the October 2nd episode of The Simpsons was animated by John Kricfalusi , who is best known as the creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show . Last October Banksy created storyboards and directed th.. |
JoshSpear.com
JoshSpear.com is run by "one of the youngest brand strategists in the world," Josh Spear, and has a long list of regular contributors. Spear and crew regularly find some of the coolest art, music, craft, design and marketing projects on the web. In addition to speaking and writing around the world, Spear runs SpearCollective, an artist management collective.
| Sep 30 | Polar Ice by Atsuhiro Hayashi Surely I have a need for these in my life. Right? Two silicon cups produce these unique ice cubes that depict a polar bear and 2 penguins standing on a glacier. Once in your drink, they gradually melt away, mimicking a real-life scenario that many a.. |
| Sep 18 | Aegis Menâs Clothing: Shanghai Aegis in Shanghai is definitely one of the most impressive men’s stores I visited while in China. Launched just a little over a year ago, they’re certainly the pioneers in the Chinese fashion retail space. The space is a beautifully done.. |
| Aug 8 | High Fashion in 8-bit Inspired by the retro 8-bit graphic, Fashionary (a company that makes sketchbooks tailor-made for fashion designers) mixed the pixel with the Fashionary templates. The results are fantastic! Check them out… Two of my favorites (Louis Vuitton a.. |
| Jul 18 | Ithaa Undersa Restaurant: The Maldives On my most recent trip to the Dubai I had some extra time for a reprieve from the hustle and bustle of travel life and headed straight south to experience the magic that is the Maldives . I had the distinct pleasure of staying at couple resorts â on.. |
Fresh Creation
FreshCreation is run by Dutch creative Martijn van Osch. The site collects oddly creative works from around the world and almost always includes a video for every post. FreshCreation was the inspiration for our recent post here on the future of interface design.
| Jul 19 | Earth The video above is made by Michael Marantz. A guy who decided to make a decent promo for NASA because he thought they deserved better. The result is amazing. What inspired me even more was the video below, in which Michael shares that he is a ‘.. |
| Jul 19 | Revenge Of The Electric Car â Movie Trailer Yes! I’m definitely sure I will enjoy this documentary a lot more than this one. It’s happening. It’s happening! |
| Jun 8 | 29 ways to stay creative Nog meer mooisThe Creative Gap – becoming better than mostRecreating CreativityWater City |
| May 30 | Seats2Meet Strijp-S â fotoserie Vandaag had ik een afspraak in Eindhoven. Al langer wilde ik het nieuwe Seats2Meet Strijp-S bezoeken. En dus heb ik m’n afspraak daar ook laten plaatsvinden. Twee vliegen in een klap. Relaxte sfeer, leuke mensen, lekkere lunch en mooie ruimtes... |
PicoCool
PicoCool says it "is dedicated to bringing you tiny bytes and obscure content from the world of peer media, social networks and subcultures. Cool content from real people." Lots of great finds from Etsy and other beautiful, small things. The site is run by web designer Emily Chang, whose company did the new design for RWW.
| Sep 23 | Contemporary Wood Art Jewelry by Gustav Reyes Wooden jewelry is chosen by creative people with wide circle of interests, by those who are of inquisitive bent. Such jewelry possesses special kind of energy and sophistication which can be felt by people with perfect taste. Gustav Reyes presented .. |
| Sep 23 | Portrait Made from Bottle Caps A huge self portrait mosaic made of thousands of plastic bottle caps by Mary Ellen Croteau and a look at nine other artists who create portraits out of unusual items. 2 Vote(s) |
| Sep 23 | House Industries for Herman Miller Type foundry House Industries has created a special limited collection of Eames LTR tables for Herman Miller Asia Pacific. 2 Vote(s) |
| Sep 23 | Ralph Lauren & Pashley Cycles | Ltd Edition Bike Ralph Lauren has teamed up with England´s longest established bicycle manufacturer Pashley Cycles for this custom designed and hand-built 50 limited-edition bicycles to commemorate the Rugby Ralph Lauren Tweed Run. You can purchase one of the bikes .. |
Swiss Miss
SwissMiss is a widely read design blog written by Swiss transplant to NY Tina Roth Eisenberg. Lots of physical objects here but not exclusively. Eisenberg's discoveries are regularly reblogged by other cool-hunting blogs.
| Oct 4 | Peculiar Snapshots Thanks to my studiomate Raul I discovered this Collection of Peculiar Vintage Snapshots over on Flickr. Made my day! |
| Oct 3 | Stripes Make Everything Better I agree. Stripes make everything better . |
| Oct 3 | inbook Charging Stations I couldn’t help but smile at the sight of this inbook Charging Station over on BLTD . Why not disguise your iphone docking station with old-school looking books? I like it. Available over on Etsy . I just bought the white one pictured above. Y.. |
| Oct 1 | William Ury: The walk from ânoâ to âyesâ As I mentioned in my previous post, I am currently at a intimate summit in Colorado, surrounded by incredibly humbling minds. One of them is William Ury . He is one of the authors of the well-known book called Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement W.. |
NotCot
NotCot is a beautiful site that collects image-based links to projects around the web. The site was founded by UX designer Jean Aw and Web 2.0 loving Cognitive Scientist Danial Frysinger. The site's organization is remarkable as well. Entries are navigable by time, popularity or by random selection.
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We Make Money Not Art
we make money not art is a phenomenon that simply must be seen to be believed. Run by an international trio of curators, the site's aesthetic is oddly fascinating. When the word "bricolage" comes up, we make money not art is the first blog that many people think of.
| Sep 24 | Oramics to Electronica: Revealing Histories of Electronic Music The Oramics Machine is a revolutionary music synthesiser that was created in the 1960s by Daphne Oram. Daphne had a strong passion for sound and electronics, and she created a visionary machine that could transform drawings into sound. Long thought .. |
| Aug 28 | World Press Photo 11, the most spectacular works of photo journalism f.. Erupting volcanoes, drug wars, famine in Niger, aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, children suffering from Agent Orange disabilities, abortions performed by untrained practitioners in Kenya but also lucha libre for women, traveling cinema in India a.. |
| Aug 8 | Que le cheval vive en moi (May the horse live in me) In a bold self-experiment aimed at blurring the boundaries between species, Marion Laval-Jeantet was injected with horse blood plasma. Over the course of several months, the artist prepared her body by gradually introducing into her bloodstream hors.. |
| Aug 1 | Ciudad Nazca, the robot tracing a city in the desert Artist Rodrigo Derteano's autonomous robot plows the desert ground to uncover its underlying, darker color, using a technique similar to the one of the Nazca lines, the ancient geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. Guided by its se.. |
Those are some of our favorites. What are yours?
We'd love to know.
