Street Art London: With the Summer Olympics mere months away, London is finalizing preparations for an impending influx of athletes, tourists, and press. For summer travelers who seek a diversion outside of the stadiums, the Street Art London app for iPhone offers a comprehensive map of the metropolis’s vibrant outdoor art scene. This virtual guide features more than 280 urban art installations, including works by renowned graffiti artists like Banksy, Obey, Pablo Delgado, and Eine. The app’s Map Mode, which uses GPS functionality to plot and track users’ locations in relation to street art sites, is sure to prove particularly useful among visitors who are unfamiliar with the Tube. 

Arts for Transit: The Arts for Transit (AFT) program was introduced to NYC in the 1980s as a way to bring a bit of culture into the city’s high-traffic mass transit system. Installations for subway and commuter rail stations were curated to showcase both well-known artists and contemporary up-and-comers. Unearthing these underground murals, mosaics, and sculptures is now easier than ever with the Arts for Transit app, which lets rail-riders search the AFT collection by artist or subway line. Detailed directions guide users to their installation of choice, and corresponding podcasts offer detailed background about hundreds of works, helping hectic commutes to better resemble a civilized gallery tour.

Public Art PDX: As the much-spoofed epicenter of 90s nostalgia and rigorous locavorism, Portland is a modern mecca for creative hipster types—and fittingly boasts a flourishing public art program. The Public Art PDX app helps Portlanders navigate the city’s impressive public art collection, which numbers more than 400 works, including murals, sculptures and statues, photos, and architectural integrations. Installations are depicted on a map alongside information about the works and artists. The app has helped to cement Portland’s status as an artists’ haven, as did a recent mock manifesto by Etsy which proposes that the artsy-craftsy company “acquire” the city and install “dozens of LEED-certified, solar-powered arts-and-crafts studios.”

The Color Run: Participants of The Color Run begin their 5k race in plain white attire, but leave resembling a tie-dyed canvas. As runners/walkers pass each kilometer’s “Color Run Zone,” they become immersed in a new chalky paint cloud of highlighter yellow, neon green, Caribbean blue, hot pink and a celebratory “Color Extravaganza” finish line. Less about competition and more a celebration of hues, the national touring event encourages runners of all levels to partake in the festivities. And if a day of exercise and florescent paint doesn’t sound like enough fun on its own, The Color Run ends with a huge dance party of what resembles a troupe of human Jackson Pollock paintings.

FigureRunning: Merging cardio and drawing, FigureRunning is a new (branded) sport that enables joggers to create scrawling designs by digitally recording their paths across a city grid. Working with GPS-enabled smartphones and the FigureRunning iPhone app, runners become human-pencils as their routes are tracked on a neighborhood map. Once their runs conclude, they can share their artwork with friends on Facebook or Twitter. Taking it one step further, Berlin-based typography concept store Letters Are My Friends asked app users to form words or letters for the first ever GPS-based typeface. The resulting alphabet, appropriately named “Sweaty Feet,” consists of kinetic drawings by movement artists from San Francisco to Tokyo.

Nike+ City Runs: Nike+ City Runs tapped interactive design firm YesYesNo to create a visual rendering of a year’s worth of running data to be displayed in Nike stores. Custom software made with openFrameworks mapped 3D animations of the routes taken by thousands of Nike+ runners in New York, London and Tokyo. The information illustrated both the individual and collective energy of all runners in a unique illumination of city streets. For the launch of its Nike Free Run+ 2 City Pack, Nike accessed the same software for a two-day Paint With Your Feet workshop that allowed runners to create keepsake artwork of artistically plotted Nike+ data gathered from their runs, including speed, consistency, and movement style.

BioCurious: “Hackerspaces” are surfacing in considerable numbers, demonstrating that young researchers want lab environments that are as social as their online lives. To that end, a “biohackers” space was created for scientists and entrepreneurs to explore innovations in biology. The 2,500-square-foot BioCurious community lab in the Silicon Valley offers members a welcoming site in which to conduct experiments and/or participate in enrichment classes. To date, 30 paying members have used the space, leading the founders to consider starting an incubator to fund startups, similar to that of Y Combinator or Bing Booster. Suddenly, the idea of meeting a new ‘lab partner’ doesn’t sound too harrowing at all.

ResearchGate: A new era of science has emerged that allows researchers to collaborate on a global scale in ways that were never before possible, as new networking sites provide a platform for scientists to build on each other’s ideas. Currently, ResearchGate is the largest such network on the web with 1.3 million members. The open community allows scientists to put their heads together, even if they’re on opposite sides of the world, to share, respond, debate and pool resources. Opportunities for plugged-in scientists to convene face-to-face are also gaining popularity, but the possibilities for progress within the realm of networked science are particularly strong.

Super/Collider: As seemingly disparate left- and right-brained disciplines continue to intertwine, the worlds of science and art are colliding. Super/Collider, the latest project from cultural journalist Chris Hatherill (Vice, Dazed and Confused), is a website for creative types who lack formal training to apply their creative skills to their love of science. After noticing that so-called hipsters were particularly interested in science, Hatherill decided they deserved a hub outside of the academic sphere in which to house their ideas. London’s answer to Brooklyn’s popular Secret Science Club, Super/Collider’s Science Fair enrichment program also invites artists and astronomers alike to mix aesthetics and experiments over cocktails.

Opera on Tap: The difference between a self-taught folk singer and a classically trained opera singer may not be as dramatic as most believe. Opera on Tap is a national non-profit whose mission is to remove the socio-economic barrier between opera and its prospective fans by organizing performances in casual watering holes. A recent staging in LA saw a Rossini aria bring down the house at the Room 5 Lounge, a venue that typically hosts singer-songwriters and comedians. The open mike-style format yielded a variety show feel in which audience members could hit the bar at will rather than having to wait for an intermission like at the Met.

OperaUpClose: Like Opera on Tap, London’s OperaUpClose started in a beer soaked venue. The fringe theatre company’s first production was a bawdy staging of La Bohème in a pub called The Cock Tavern two years ago. This ‘thespian experiment’ resulted in a sold out six-month run, ultimately landing the show at the Soho Theatre, for which it won a prestigious Olivier award. Its most recent production, a modern adaptation of Don Giovanni set in pre-recession London, sees the title role recast as “Johnny Sterling,” a hedonistic Gordon Gekko type so topical that one wonders if the satire will soon hit the streets as part of Occupy London.

Stop the Virgens: The fact that the star of this new show launched her career with unrestrained on-stage antics that included spewing beer onto her audience demonstrates how high opera’s velvet ropes are lifting these days. Karen O, of indie rock band the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, is assuming a new kind of lead singer status with her role in Stop the Virgens, an experimental psychedelic opera about the mythological evolution of a group of virgins. The show, a nine-song cycle seven years in the making and opening tonight at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, is backed by the Creators Project, an arts patronage partnership between Vice Media and Intel. Next stop, Coachella?

Boggsville Boatel : The Rockaways have been attracting hip New Yorkers all summer and, now, urban tourists can stay there overnight—at sea. Artist Constance Hockaday has created a hotel of five abandoned vessels found at the local marina. Each boasts a distinct personality: The Americano is referred to as “the Guido boat”; the Crumb offers a retired couple vibe; New York, NY claims the Euro touch; Queen Zenobia is small and cozy; and Ms. Nancy Boggs is touted as the love nest. Rates are just $50-$100 per night, but the place is sold out for the summer. Nonetheless, visitors are encouraged to come for evening festivities, which include picnicking, grilling and water-themed entertainment.

On the Water : While living on a houseboat can be alluring to freethinking city dwellers, a place on land is still preferred by most for their permanent residence. However, those seeking just a taste of the nautical housing experience can stay at On The Water, a 5-star luxury hotel boat that’s docked on London’s Regent’s Canal. After accessing the boat via a secret pathway in Regent’s Park, guests can steer the narrow boat through the canal system or simply stay moored up for the night. This inner city respite should be welcomed by staycationing Londoners as well as tourists yearning to experience the quieter side of the city.

Ivan Filipovic’s “Botel”:   Serbian architect Ivan Filipovic’s new concept hotel is something of a hybrid between a houseboat and a cruise ship. The proposed “botel,” designed to evoke the Adriatic Sea’s thousands of islands, bays and coves, is a floating architectural structure that includes a bar, restaurant, outdoor deck and swimming pool. While it’s intended to be anchored, its 22 rooms are also detachable private boats that can be used for exploring the surrounding waters. Each cabin has its own electric motor, photovoltaic solar panels, GPS, and the ability to be controlled remotely, so that the mothership can steer it should it get (temporarily) lost at sea.

Back to Basics: Conceived and constructed by French graphic design duo Zim and Zou, this in-progress art project features meticulously detailed paper replicas of iconic ’80s and ’90s electronics products. Cut exclusively from PEFC-certified papers in bright neon pinks, purples, oranges and blues, each full-scale sculpture evokes the flashy aesthetic that defined those decades, poking fun in a way that’s less disparaging than it is warmly nostalgic. Among the most charming reproductions are a Maxwell cassette and Sony Walkman, a Polaroid Lightmixer, and an absurdly clunky Motorola cell phone. Those interested in the painstaking methods behind paper craft can get a glimpse at the process in this time-lapse video of the designers at work. 

Paper Punk: Grace Hawthorne, cofounder of recently shuttered DIY mag ReadyMade, has made a fast comeback with Paper Punk, an original paper craft kit for which she has raised more than $20K via Kickstarter. Each kit contains colorful pop-out paper shapes that come together, without scissors or glue, into geometric sculptures. Touted as a mash-up of origami and LEGOs, Paper Punk is designed to foster hands-on, 3D thinking—a skill Hawthorne fears is fading as kids increasingly learn on 2D screens. Paper Punk kits sell online for $18.95; currently, only three versions are available, but a range of new designs should emerge soon given the recent fundraising success.

Dry the River 3D Horses: To promote the latest single from up-and-coming UK band Dry the River, creative directors Phil Clandillon and Steve Milbourne set out to design a poster that would grab attention on the cluttered streets of London. The resulting “posters” are actually paper sculptures, featuring 3D horses that project from building facades as if in mid-gallop. Opting not to make use of uber-trendy 3D printing technology, the designers instead utilized 3D modeling platform Google SketchUp to draft their plans, ultimately assembling each sculpture by hand. An artfully made video captures intern Xavier Barrade at work, pedestrians’ responses to the finished product, and “No Rest,” the single for which the promotional sculptures were created.

Levi’s Commuter Series: Levi’s aims to clothe the urban workforce with this new collection designed for those who shuttle to and from the workplace on bikes. The Commuter Series consists of two garments: 511 Commuter Skinny Jeans and the Commuter Trucker Jacket. On the former, a high waistband prevents rear end exposure and special belt loops are designed for U-lock storage. The latter has a slight tail as well as functional touring pockets in the back. Both items are coated in NanoSphere, a new fabric treatment that repels water and dirt, and odor protector Sanitized, which combine to keep wearers clean, dry, and smelling good.

H2 Soho: London’s latest private club is not a place to rub elbows, but rather a place to rub with soap. Like a cyclist-targeted version of Tokyo’s Adidas Runbase, H2 gives athletic commuters an oasis at which to shower and freshen up after a sweaty ride. Though runners are welcome, the club is ideal for cyclists, as it offers secure bike storage, a rarity in highly congested Soho, along with an onsite bike repair shop at which maintenance can be completed while one is at work. There’s also a spin room and an extensive selection of cardio machines…not to mention an in-house masseuse for working out the kinks before hitting the road again.

Fietsenpakhuis: Regardless of the soaring popularity of bike commuting, advancement in bike parking systems has been slow to keep up. Thus, it’s no surprise that the Dutch, always a leader in bike trends, are the first to establish a dedicated bike parking lot. Fietsenpakhuis is a warehouse in Zaanstadt that has been converted into a bike ‘parkplace.’ The garage, located in the city center and intended to relieve congestion, is a two-story architectural wonder that houses up to 700 bicycles, public toilets, bike repair facilities, bike rentals, and lockers. Though some of the amenities do come at a cost, a parking space at Fietsenpakhuis is, remarkably, free of charge.

Berlin Currywurst: This husband-and-wife-owned enterprise opened in LA in February to such a strong showing that a second location is rumored to be in the works—and a competitor has already emerged. The snack-stand-inspired space boasts a minimalist design and a simple mix-and-match menu: customers choose one of eight sausage varieties, and can opt to flavor their curry sauce with additional spices, including chipotle, garlic, and ginger-orange. Brave curry-lovers also have the option to amp up the heat, choosing levels of intensity that range from 1 (Berlin Calling) to 4 (Break the Wall). Levels 3 and 4 are deemed dangerously spicy, so eat at your own risk.

Currywurst Bros.: This much-anticipated Bleecker Street storefront opened its doors in May to instant crowds and fast acclaim. Though not the first currywurst shop to open in NYC—Wechsler’s launched in 2009 and brought forth a similar flurry of Germanic enthusiasm—fans of Currywurst Bros. are particularly excited about the shop’s selection of curry powders. The powders, which are sprinkled on top of the bratwurst and curry sauce, vary in heat from “exotic & fresh” to “fiery but not danger” to “extremely hot…endure the fire.” As at LA’s Berlin Currywurst, personalization is a draw for diners who wish to customize their preferred ‘wurst with just the right amount of spice.

Herman ze German: A multicultural street food movement is booming in London, and the UK already has more than its share of Anglo-fusion cuisine. Still, the city isn’t above letting a good thing be. West London storefront Herman ze German serves up traditional currywurst for Germanophiles and drunk pub crawlers alike. Reviews across the web tout the 4-pound-50-pence special as “classic,” “authentic,” and “the best ‘wurst in town” (a sentiment that Herman echoes in its official slogan). All told, fans seem to like this German specialty shop as much as its owners must like Herman Rarebell, the former Scorpions drummer for whom the shop was presumably named.