cool new things

Devised as an interactive, large-scale musical instrument, Coca-Cola's pavilion at Olympic Park, dubbed the Beatbox, was designed by architects Asif Khan and Pernilla Ohrstedt and is marked by 200 interlocked red and white polymer panels embedded with audio, lighting, and sensor technology.

Inside the beverage giant's logo-less structure, certain gestures and movements trigger the panels to react, remixing recordings created by DJ Mark Ronson and singer Katy B. for Coca-Cola's global "Move to the Beat" Olympic campaign.

In the center of the Beatbox is the "Aerial Dynamics" light installation by Jason Bruges Studio. Interactive kiosks control 180 mechanical and electronic "bubbles," causing the pieces to glow with red and white LEDs.

The official automotive partner mounted its two-story structure on an elevated area above the Waterworks River in Olympic Park. Designed by British firm Serie with sustainability in mind, the pavilion uses water from the river to cool the space; the water is recycled back into the river via an eye-catching curtain that shrouds the lower level.

The interior of the building is designed as a showcase of BMW's cars as well as an exhibit of the automaker's energy-efficient models. BMW is also providing a fleet of 4,000 vehicles—powered with sustainable technology—to transport athletes and officials.

The 12,900-square-foot complex dubbed Acer's Journey is designed to flaunt the Taiwanese PC powerhouse's newest technology and gadgets. A striking LED screen marks the façade of the three-story pavilion.

Visitors to Acer's Olympic Park pavilion receive smart cards, which they can use to create a personal avatar and collect points from the various stations inside. One area, the "Fast, Faster, Fastest" challenge, has participants using Acer's Iconia A510 tablet to control their player on a projected race track.

Also inside Acer's pavilion is an installation called the Journey's Sphere, where visitors can use tablets to explore the games and videos that appear on a large globe.

The official airline of the games worked with the London 2012 Organizing Committee to create an area within Olympic Park's 250 acres for as many as 10,000 people to picnic and watch the action on a giant, double-sided screen. The 164,000-square-foot natural amphitheater, known as Park Live, is the fifth-largest venue in Olympic Park and has British Airways staffers on hand to guide visitors.

To flaunt its partnership with the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic Broadcasting Services to make the London Olympics the first games shown live in 3-D, the Japanese electronics company built a theater on the grounds of Olympic Park.

Inside its 4,300-square-foot pavilion, Panasonic is broadcasting live, three-dimensional footage of the competitions, including swimming and gymnastics.

As part of its extensive launch for the Galaxy S III smartphone, the Korean electronics company rolled out pop-up shops around London and in Olympic Park. The mobile stores are housed within two-way-mirrored walls and host hands-on demos as well as experiences designed to showcase the features of the handset.

Billed as its biggest restaurant, the fast food chain's main presence in Olympic Park is a 1,500-person eatery with a 70-seat balcony on the second floor that has views of Olympic Stadium.

When the games finish, McDonald's will reuse 75 percent of the items in the flagship restaurant, with furniture and equipment distributed to existing and future locations in the United Kingdom.

British Telecom, known as BT, is a key partner of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, a multiyear series of events to celebrate this year's games. As part of its efforts, the company is hosting BT London Live, open-air hubs in Hyde Park, Victoria Park, and Trafalgar Square that offer live viewings of the competitions.

The Hyde Park version of BT London Live includes BT House, a section with a stage for daily live musical performances, a lounge with access to BT's broadband service, and meet-and-greets with athletes.

British Telecom is also using the London Live promotion to show off its various services, including its digital TV offering known as BT Vision.

The English chocolate maker is the official treat provider of the games and the biggest activation was the experiential Cadbury House set up in Hyde Park as part of BT London Live. The temporary exhibit of its products is housed under three inflatable domes in Cadbury's signature purple hue.

Inside Cadbury House are several activity areas, including a photo booth, games for kids, and areas to sample confections. Visitors use R.F.I.D. passes that can be linked to an email or Facebook account to upload or send images and "like" a certain part of the activation.

Cadbury also has a section where visitors can pen messages to Olympic athletes on the walls.

Moms are at the center of Procter and Gamble's Olympics campaign, and, with this in mind, the company recreated the P&G Family Home that was introduced at the 2010 Vancouver games. The 65,000-square-foot space is designed as a "home away from home" for mothers of the competing athletes and provides free meals, viewing lounges, and Internet access.

Procter & Gamble's effort is also a platform for the consumer goods company to show off its portfolio of brands. For instance, there is complimentary laundry service to market Tide and Downy.

To promote baby-care brand Pampers, the P&G Family Home includes a playground and childcare center.

The Gillette Lounge within the P&G Family Home is modeled as a men's club, with foosball tables and other forms of entertainment as well as grooming services from Gillette, Old Spice, and Head & Shoulders. A separate salon for women has eight stations with services using P&G beauty brands like Pantene, CoverGirl, Olay, and Clairol.

As the official sportswear partner of the games, the apparel giant is hosting a space overlooking Olympic Park and the Olympic and Paralympic Village from the roof of the Westfield Stratford Shopping Mall. The space from Adidas plays hosts to daily events and has touch-screen displays that let visitors check out virtual footwear.

In May, the Steppenwolf Gala at the Blackhawk on Halstead in Chicago had modern decor that
incorporated pages of script into decorative elements such as round chandeliers with scrunched up pages of text.

In May, Sheraton Social Hour—a wine program developed by Sheraton and Wine Spectator magazine—dressed up the entry hall of Rockefeller Center's 620 Loft & Garden with a large lighting structure, comprised of 125 Riedel champagne flutes. To give the illusion of bubbling champagne, New York-based design studio We Came in Peace filled each glass with tinted resin that held the light bulb in place, and topped it off with a layer of micro glass beads for a foam-like effect.

At the Adidas-hosted private event during the N.B.A.'s All-Star Weekend, Night Vision Entertainment incorporated the footwear brand's white-on-white Adidas Superstar shoes into a spiral-like chandelier. To hang the footwear, producers attached suspension cords to laces that were tied around the bottom of the shoes.

At the third annual Marfa Film Festival in Texas in 2010, the Café Bustelo filling station—designed by We Came in Peace—was marked by the coffee brand's traditional yellow, aluminum cans and signature heart logo. For lighting, the designers crafted flower-shaped pieces from cans that hung from the ceiling.

For Bloomberg's White House Correspondents Association dinner after-party in 2007, Los Angeles designer Thomas Ford constructed a 20- by 20-foot lighting fixture. The piece, which was made up of more than 9,000 strands of knotted cellophane, reflected the pink and blue light from above.

As you can see, the Watermill Center gala exhibits are not for the meek. Yes, that is a giant butt plug (a 60-foot inflatable piece by Paul McCarthy), and yes, that is a giant red phallus the body-painted-but otherwise-largely-unclothed women performers of the “Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black.” Eventually the phallus was mounted (ahem!) on a stage, some guitars slung over shoulders, and the ladies gave a spirited, if confusing, show. The work was authored by Kembra Pfahler.

Here she is, the undisputed queen of performance art, Marina Abramovic, cubed as it were. It was beautiful and hypnotizing and not a little bit scary.

Normally I can’t abide leaf blowers, particularly not at cocktail hour, but this piece, Heeran Lee’s “Blow It,” performed in the pouring rain, was hysterical. An artist would blow the giant balloon, sometimes menacingly, into the crowd, who would dutifully keep the ball in play.

Hanna Reidmar presented an interactive piece called "Slingshot." The performer would hang back with his elastic wiffle-ball head and gesture for guests to come closer, then rush in as if to catch you in the web. I wondered if you were supposed to touch him. (I didn’t, for the record.)

LongHouse is a 16-acre campus in East Hampton founded by Jack Lenor Larsen, who also founded the eponymous decorative fabric company that is still a leader today. His preserve and museum have quietly become a major player in the arts and celebrity benefit scene, and Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Kim Cattrall, and Edward Albee were all on hand to prove the point. The event featured dancers in gold and hooped dervish dresses and had other performance pieces to honor Robert Wilson, the founder of Watermill Center. This floating balloon was projected with a lunar image, concocted by Matt Murphy Event Lighting.

The invitation’s suggested dress code was “Compose Yourself in White, Black, and a Touch of Voguish Yellow” and Pennington Flowers decked out the lap pool to match.

Count me among the people who had sworn off the polo matches. The last time I went I saw a cast of thousands pawing at the bar and a number of ladies who looked suspiciously for hire. But then I heard that Polo model and player Nacho Figueras had taken over the event with a partner and was determined to make the events exclusive once again—signing up Town & Country as a sponsor was a good step. But better still was the installation of the Pointy Snout caviar bar, featuring oodles of the white sturgeon black gold and cocktails mixed by Chase White of the Experimental Cocktail Club on the Lower East Side. Yummy all the way around, right?

The centerpieces at Southampton Hospital’s summer gala, were light and airy, and really tall which made sense given the cavernous tent. But they were cross-table conversation friendly at the same time.

I admired the printed cotton tablecloths—the designer responsible for the decor was Steven Stolman who said the tablecloths were made from a Scalamandre fabric especially for the party called "Jour de Juin," or Day in June). They are being sold for $75 with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the Southampton Hospital Foundation by calling 631.726.8700 ext. 3

The scene outside the tent of Southampton Hospital is where the ladies who lunch show what they wear to an expensive dinner, which for this crowd means long. But this year, the usuals were somewhat upstaged by Formula 1 race cars and models sporting Graff diamonds and emeralds and dresses by Alberta Ferretti. Graff C.E.O. Henri Barguirdjian, a great fellow, was on hand, but he wouldn’t tell me what anything cost. Spoil sport!

Finally, some peace and quiet could be found in the Meltzer’s backyard, where a pour was held to get the committee steamed up for Princess Yasmin Aga Khan’s annual event in honor of her famous and talented mother. This magnificent bar arrangement was done by Ron Wendt Design (my former neighbors, hi guys!).

This is the behemoth of all Hamptons fashion events, a discount sale and day-long eating and drinking picnic with hundreds of tables inside for V.I.P. shoppers and notably, a kids section that boasts rides and games like Super Mario—Nintendo had its own tent where I wanted to spend the whole day. Love Super Mario. Here, Kelly Ripa, who comes to Super Saturday every year (I’m impressed by celebs who come year after year, aren’t you?) gamboled onto the Ferris wheel for a spin. In Style is the main sponsor every year.

The hugeness of Super Saturday was mitigated by the low-tech remembrance wall, where people pinned notes and messages to loved and lost ones who fell victim to ovarian cancer. There was Liz Tilberis, whose North Woods home was the site of the first event, and who I really cared for, plus a few other women I knew, and, well even we jaded party people occasionally cop to being touched.

At the Zing vodka launch, the press wall took the form of a hedge with 2,000 roses spelling out the brand's name.