INSIDE THE FOLD

Marcie Miller Gross will fold approximately 4,000 towels before the opening of her first one-woman show at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in St. Louis. A former interior designer, Miller Gross builds tight modular units—piles of folded textiles, including such unexpected types as used surgical towels. Her current installation at Kemper, foldoverfold, is designed as a response to the modern architectural design of the museum (by Gunnar Birkerts) and the variety of interesting vertical rises within her designated gallery space. She stitches and pleats the piles of towels together before mounting them against the walls of rising ceiling. Foldoverfold is part of the museum’s “Decelerate” series of exhibitions which explores the cultural trend of “slowing down” and returning to a “somewhat simpler or more attuned state.” Inhale—the series runs from Dec. 16 to Feb. 19, 2006. And exhale.

TWEEN TRICKS

Out of the 12 million skateboarders in the U.S., 80 percent hover between the ages of 10 and 14, which happens to be the target demographic of Prime Entertainment’s popular Digital Blue product line. Their latest gadget to hit retail shelves, in time for the holiday season, is the Tony Hawk Helmet- Cam. It’s totally gnarly: a lightweight (7 oz.) digital camcorder that can attach to any helmet and record live video and audio (32MB memory card included) at the touch of a button. Kendal Miller, a former Intel “smart toys” developer, designed the wireless device with all young extreme sports enthusiasts in mind— inline skaters, BMX cyclists, snowboarders. Now America’s “tween” market of daredevils will be able to shoot their own footage of tricks and stunts à la MTV’s Jackass, and with movie editing software, add in special effects and music, and incorporate stock footage of Hawk. The software is similar to Digital Blue’s top-selling American Idol Camcorder, which was released in April, but the helmet can store 30 minutes of talent vs. the Idol’s 10 minutes of fame.

THE STATE OF DESIGN

Hold on to your Eames chair, the state of design is under review. Well, sort of. Chances are the conventional Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum will predictably reveal the names of 80 already recognized designers and well-publicized studios this January, to be included in its third National Design Triennial—an exhibition scheduled for winter 2006. (Bruce Mau, Frank Gehry, Julie Taymor, and even “style guru” Martha Stewart made it into the 2003 show.) The museum’s moniker triennial suggests a hoped-for comparison to the legendary Whitney Biennial. But the Cooper-Hewitt’s curatorial committee is so far failing to rouse interest in the general public to submit nominations online. (As of this writing, 76 votes were posted over 11 months, most for a photographer named Matt Swaggart of Tulsa, Okla., including one from his wife Joanna.) One might expect the committee will employ its own sedentary devices to select the so-called “up-to-theminute trends in American design.” The museum’s curatorial director, Barbara Bloemink, is leading the search but was unavailable to respond to media inquiries prior to this publication.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH

The swelling of the nation’s real estate bubble has served the advertising and design community well. Upscale property management companies like Pronghorn, a private golf resort sitting on both Jack Nicklaus and Tom Fazio courses in Bend, Colo., are spending a pretty penny to produce limited-edition marketing materials to help close deals. Denver advertising agency Cultivator designed and produced 1,000 “vision boxes”—elegant keepsakes that house charming albums of landscapes taken by local photographer Allen Kennedy. Extra frame corners are included for potential buyers to affix pictures of their lot and architectural plans on one of the blank pages in the back. A brag book of sorts to show family and friends at home, and to dream on, vision boxes are sent to buyers who have already signed contracts but still have time to back out. Although many recent homebuyers fear the bubble may suddenly burst, the select few who can afford a second home at Pronghorn don’t seem as concerned. Less than 40 vision boxes are left.