3d illusion arts: Oddity Central

Oddity Central

Bathing in Fermented Sawdust – The Latest Bizarre Beauty Treatment from Japan
The Creepy Life-Like Giants of Ron Mueck
China’s MMO Video Game-Inspired Restaurants

Bathing in Fermented Sawdust – The Latest Bizarre Beauty Treatment from Japan

Posted: 06 Mar 2013 04:55 AM PST

Forget about greasy creams, mud wraps and even Botox shots. All you need to keep your skin looking healthy and beautiful is a good old fashioned fermented sawdust bath. It’s all the rage right now in Japan, and everyone seem to love it.

Women will do all sorts of weird things to their bodies in order to keep themselves looking younger for just a little longer. That includes extreme plastic surgery, having their breasts slapped, and even their teeth chiseled, but the Japanese seem to have discovered a much less intrusive magic way of rolling back the clock and keeping old-age disorders at bay – bathing in fermented sawdust. It’s really not as disgusting as it sounds, and many beauty experts from the Land of the Rising Sun swear by it. Apparently, just 15 to 20 minutes of being covered in sawdust from cedar and cypress trees improves circulation, cleans skin and helps with muscle pain, among other health claims. Enzymes from vegetation and fruit ferment within the sawdust to warm the body, bringing the temperature up to 40 degrees Celsius and making you sweat like you’ve just finished a 2-hour marathon. The process is said to activate your internal organs, thus optimizing metabolism, raising immunity and improving circulation. It also stimulates sweating without clogging the pores and washes away sebum and dirt from your skin.

Photo: Ion House

The popularity of fermented sawdust baths at beauty salons around Japans has soared in recent years, but the treatment itself was invented over 70 years ago, in Hokkaido. Today, it’s considered a miracle cure for a variety of conditions, including acne, anemia, hypertension, arthritis and even obesity, which makes women gladly fork out as much as ¥6,300 ($70) to get buried up to their necks in sawdust, for 15 minutes. The dry sawdust from Yoshino Cypress trees grown in the Nara Prefecture is finely ground and undergoes a unique fermentation process. Enzymes from fruit and flowers are added to the wooden byproduct, making it each temperatures of 70-80 degrees Celsius, without any artificial heating.

Photo: Japan Trends

So there you have it ladies, the magical beauty treatment you’ve been waiting for. Unfortunately, you probably won’t find it available in many places outside of Japan just yet. So the next time you plan a trip to Nippon, make sure to visit one of the many fermented sawdust beauty salons, and see what all the fuss is about.

The Creepy Life-Like Giants of Ron Mueck

Posted: 06 Mar 2013 03:51 AM PST

Things are not as they seem, when it comes to the mind-blowing artworks of London-based sculptor Ron Mueck. Seeing his larger-than-life sculptures of the human body for the first time, you’d be tempted to think you are looking at real-life giants.

Australian-born Ron Mueck is the so of two toy makers, so it’s really not very surprising that he opted for a somewhat similar career, making his very own toys, only on an infinitely more detailed level. He worked as a model-maker and puppeteer on children's television shows for 15 years, and went on to create special effects makeup for movies like the 1996 fantasy “Labyrinth”, featuring David Bowie. In the 1990s, he started his own company, making models to be photographed for advertisements. Back then, most of his works were only partially completed, as they were meant to be photographed from just one angle, leaving a lot of loose material lurking around the areas captured by the camera lens. Ultimately, he decided photography destroys the physical presence of the original object, so he turned his attention to fine art and sculpture. A wise decision, as his hyper-realistic works of art have now won him international acclaim.

Ron Mueck has never made life-size sculptures, because it never seemed interesting. “We meet life-size people every day,” he says. Instead, he opted to play with scale creating towering giants while making sure they look as human-like as possible. From the color of their skin, to the tiniest wrinkles on their faces, every detail is accounted for, making his sculptures look eerily realistic. In the early sculpture-making days, the artist used latex as his main medium, and even though it worked for him, he was looking for something harder, more precise. Then, one day, he saw a pink little architectural decor on the wall of a boutique, and asked about the nature of the material. He learned it was fiberglass resin, and ever since then it’s remained his favorite art medium.

Asked about his relationship to the life-like giants he creates, whether he considers them almost human or just large mannequins, Ron Mueck said: “I don't think of them as mannequins. On one hand, I try to create a believable presence; and, on the other hand, they have to work as objects. They aren't living persons, although it's nice to stand in front of them and be unsure whether they are or not. But ultimately, they're fiberglass objects that you can pick up and carry. If they succeed as fun things to have in the room, I'm happy. At the same time, I wouldn't be satisfied if they didn't have some kind of presence that made you think they're more than just objects.”

Sources: Sculpture.org, Designboom

China’s MMO Video Game-Inspired Restaurants

Posted: 06 Mar 2013 02:14 AM PST

Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) video games are very popular in China. Combine that with the country’s culture of fakes and copycats and you get lots of unofficial merchandise and even venues inspired by popular virtual reality universes. One such place was the World of Warcraft-themed restaurant on Chaoyang Road, in Beijing.

Opened in 2008, by a businessman who just happened to also be a huge fan of Blizzard’s fantasy universe, the unique World of Warcraft restaurant was designed entirely around the MMO and its original opening cinematic. Created as a ”comfortable gathering place for fellow gamers”, this place had Warcraft-inspired decorations, dishes named after locations in the game and plasma screens showing live footage from the MMO world. The large banner above the entrance featured the game’s logo, an Alliance mage and a Horde warrior, as well as the crests of the two playable races. This would have probably been enough to attract the millions of Chinese fans who live and breathe World of Warcraft, but the entrepreneur really went all out trying to make the restaurant itself appeal to die-hard gamers.

There were armored Alliance warriors guarding the main dining area called ”The Hall of Snow Storms”, the walls were decorated with colorful artworks depicting scenes from the World of Warcraft universe, and there was even a fake towering tree right in the middle of the restaurant, symbolizing the presence of Night Elves. Scenes from the popular online game were played on plasma screens placed strategically around the eatery, the cutlery came wrapped in napkins shaped like weapons from the game , and the menu included WoW-inspired dishes like Ogrimmar Pork Chops, Dun Morogh braised prawns or Darnassus shark fin. The restaurant also issued membership cards to its loyal diners, who could enjoy discounts if they gathered enough prestige points.

This World of Warcraft restaurant really does sound like the dream eatery of any avid gamer, doesn’t it? So why did it fail? Yes, unfortunately Beijing’s famous WOW-themed restaurant is no more. According to some reports, owners were forced to close down the place in early 2011, because of the harsh economic climate, and the decorations were either sold to fans or leased to businesses who wanted to use them. Apart from the reasons invoked by management, my own little research revealed many World of Warcraft fans were actually displeased with the overall service of the restaurant, which ultimately affected its profits.

But there’s no point in crying over split milk, especially since there’s a new MMO-themed restaurant in China, this time centered around the free-to-play League of Legends. Called Demacia, it opened last month, in the bustling city of Chongqing and features tons of elements from the video-game, including life-size statues and staff dressed as popular characters like Ezreal or Twisted Fate. The menus feature beautiful artworks inspired by the League of Legends universe, and bizarre dishes like “Deep Fried Skarners,” which are really scorpions, ”Braised Cassiopeia”, made of snake meat, or ”Water Cooked Fizz”, containing delicious frog.

At the bar, gamers can order signature cocktails based on health and mana potions from the game. There are also gaming stations, where patrons can play League of Legends for the chance to win discounts as well as other cool prizes. According to media reports, owners have invested around $160,000 into the unique restaurant. Just like in the case of the old World of Warcraft restaurant, no one really knows if this place is actually licensed to use all copyrighted elements. Let’s just hope it doesn’t share the same fate…