Saturday, December 04, 2004
Interactive art may become bored with viewer [by Wafaa Bilal and Shawn Lawson]
Art can inspire us, entertain us, educate us and inform us; but is it meant to insult us by yawning at us, rolling its eyes and then just walking away?
A somewhat astonishing version of Eduard Manet’s A Bar at the Folies Bergère is showing now at the Arizona State University Computing Commons art gallery. Those who don’t want to see the French barmaid, who is front and center in the work, express her boredom and contempt for them should stay home.
[snip]
She looks back at the viewer and may express a certain distaste by rolling her eyes, or she may become obviously bored by the person and yawn, or if two people are watching her she may assume an expression of displeasure, turn and walk right out of the picture.
Or if nobody is standing in front of the painting, she may pat her hair into place or adjust her dress.
The Next Runaway Industry
Scott Ross’ company has produced some of the most distinctive visual effects in recent Hollywood history, from the vast inhospitable sea of “Titanic” to the hurtling meteors of “Armageddon” — effects that linger in the memory long after the images of those films’ actors fade.
“So why,” Ross asked me not long ago in his Venice office, “aren’t visual effects companies being paid like movie stars?”
The question wasn’t entirely rhetorical. As chairman and chief executive of Digital Domain, one of the leading visual effects houses in the industry, and as a former executive at Lucasfilm Ltd.’s Industrial Light & Magic, the Bronx-born Ross, 53, has been grappling with the economics of special effects for 20 years.
More precisely, he has been grappling with the irony that as digital effects have grown into a dominant factor in the success of major studio blockbusters, the independent companies that produce those effects have been getting squeezed.
“You’d think we’d be rolling in dough,” he says, “but this is an industry with zero margins.” The result, he warns, is that effects firms looking for ways to save money will start shipping more of their work overseas, following the information technology industry to places like India, China and South Korea.
“What happened to IT will happen to us,” he says.
Online artworks go up for grabs
A contemporary artist has set up a virtual gallery where art lovers can buy a piece of digital art that comes with its own unique web address.
Stephen Rumney’s “online art installations” form part of his Domain Art exhibition.
As well as the online image, the buyer becomes the legal owner of its integrated website address and an art gallery installation of the image.
Tate Britain [Interactive] Christmas Tree by Richard Wentworth
Photo by Ian Waldie/Getty Images.
Each year Tate Britain invites an artist to create a Christmas Tree. This year sculptor Richard Wentworth has dressed a traditional Norwegian Spruce tree with broken halves of plates and strings of dimmed domestic light bulbs. Text panels on the base describe the histories of the tree’s four elements: the lightbulb, the plate, the Christmas tree and the plinth.
Visitors are invited to interact with the tree by leaving digital presents (photos, movies, texts etc) via the Christmas tree’s bluetooth antenna. If your phone has bluetooth you can send a file to the tree, choose the send via bluetooth option on your phone and choose Christmas tree from the available devices. If you cannot connect to the tree you can send your file via email to . The digital presents will be unwrapped at http://www.untitledfolder.org/christmastree on Christmas day.
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Researchers compost old mobile phones & transform them into flowers
Researchers at the University of Warwick’s Warwick Manufacturing Group, in conjunction with PVAXX Research & Development Ltd, have devised a novel way to recycle discarded mobile telephones - bury them and watch them transform into the flower of your choice.
Jan and Tim Edler | realities:united
Jan and Tim Edler work in the contact area between art, communication, architecture and information technologies. In 2000 the brothers found the architecture and design studio realities:united which varies in size, typically between 5 and 9 people.
Depending on the project context the studio develops comprehensive communication- and development strategies, concrete planning or specialized technologies.
realities:united is specialized to reveal or reformulate the fundamental project objectives and develops methods, to translate and thereby strengthen these “core objectives” effectively across the boundaries of design disciplines, technologies and habits.
For the development of the BIX communicative display skin at the Kunsthaus Graz (http://www.bix.at) the brothers received the “golden nail” - at the Art Director Club awards in Germany (2004), the Hans Schaeders Award by the German Architects Association Berlin (2004) and a Design distinction at the New York ID Annual Design Review (2004). Furthermore - as one out of five projects - the BIX facade is nominated for the 50.000 Euro Inspire Award in Germany (In order to win the Edler brothers need your online vote till 1st of Feburary 2005 – please check http://www.bix.at/index-vote-e.html ).
Jan and Tim Edler presented their work at numerous international lectures in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, Italy, the USA, Malaysia, Singapore,
Their projects have been shown at several international exhibitions including Schusev State Museum of Architecture , Moscow (2004), the Cube Gallery, Manchaster, UK (2003), the Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein & Berlin, Germany (2003), the Aedes Gallery, Berlin (2003), La Biennale Die Venezia, Venice, Italy (2002), Gallery Buero Friedrich, Berlin, Germany (2002), Transmediale Media Arts Exhibition, Berlin, Germany (2002), the New Art Association, Aachen, Germany (2000), the Centre de Cultura Contemporania, Barcelona, Spain (2000), Gallery Eigen+Art, Berlin, Germany (1999), Deichtor Exhibition Centre, Hamburg, Germany (1999), the Suerrmondt Ludwig Museum, Aachen, Germany (1998), and Kunst und Technik laboratory, Berlin, Germany (1998).
Recent university teaching positions were held at the Pasadena Art Center Los Angeles (2003) the Bauhaus Foundation Dessau (2001/02) the Berlin Technical University (2000/01) and the Academy of Fine Arts Bremen (2004/05).
The Edlers published articles in diverse magazines and books, recently including “Umbauhaus – Updating Modernism” (2004, Jovis Publishers, edited by Matthias Hollwich and Rainer Weisbach), “A Friendly Alien” (2004, Hatje Cantz Publishers, edited by Dieter Bogner) and “Design Berlin – projects in a changing city” (2003, Vitra Design Museum).
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Jan Edler (*1970)
studied architecture at the Technical University Aachen and at the Bartlett School of Architecture London. He graduated in 1997 as a diploma architect.
Tim Edler (*1965)
studied computer science and architecture at the Technical University of Berlin. He graduated in 1994 as a diploma architect. From 1994 to 1997 he worked for different architect’s offices.
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Sachiko Kodama: ‘Breathing Chaos’
Breathing Chaos is a new installation work by media artist Sachiko Kodama. A small, black mountain at the center of the gallery grows organically in the glow of many small candles. The heat of the surrounding candles let the mountain move as if it were a living thing, as if it were breathing, shining there in the light. This strange pointed mountain is however, made up of competely inorganic matter; it is a fluid formed by ferro magnetic micro-powder dissolved in a solvent; and it is designed to transform, creating a very sensitive chaos.
Sachiko Kodama is a media artist and theorist from Japan. Recently she has been making interactive art works using digital media or new materials such as magnetic fluid to explore the theoretical and practical study of media arts. Kodama is an assistant professor at University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo. Kodama’s work has been exhibited at Ars Electronica Center / Linz, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography and Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus.
‘Breathing Chaos’ is exhibited in conjunction with ‘Time/Space, Gravity and Light’ on view at the Skirball Cultural Center and organized by the Getty Research Insititute, November 17, 2004 through February 27, 2005.
Preview: December 4, 2004.
Opening: December 11, 2004
Telic
975 Chung King Road
Los Angeles, CA 90012
http://www.telic.info
Thursday, November 25, 2004
The Dream Factory
A view by Bruce Sterling on the future of fabrication:
When it comes to coining terms of art, few can beat Neil Gershenfeld of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms. In the wake of such influential concepts as wearable computing, things that think, and Internet Zero, Gershenfeld and his intrepid grad students are cobbling together mobile manufacturing systems they call fabrication laboratories, or fab labs.
A fab lab is a miniature factory for the digital age. The latest version consists of three Linux PCs, a laser cutter, a combination 3-D scanner and drill, a numerically controlled X-Acto knife, and a handful of RISC chips. Set it up, turn it on, and you can crank out not only solid objects like eyeglass frames and action figures but, thanks to Gershenfeld’s research, electronic devices like radios and computers, too. The professor recently installed one at a technical institute in southwestern Ghana, where it has proven hugely popular. His success suggests that manufacturing - like publishing, coding, music and film distribution, and communications before it - is about to bust out of its industrial confines.
Monday, November 22, 2004
The Journey to Wild Divine
The Journey to Wild Divine is the first “inner-active” computer adventure that combines ancient breathing and meditation with modern biofeedback technology for total mind-body wellness.
Wearing three finger sensors that track your body’s heart rate variability and skin conductance, you move through enchanting and mystical landscapes using the power of your thoughts, feelings, breath and awareness.
Wise mentors guide you throughout the realm, empowering you with yoga, breathing and meditation skills needed to complete over 40 biofeedback ‘energy’ events.
Build stairways with your breath, open doors with meditation, juggle balls with your laughter, and so much more. The Journey makes biofeedback, a popular method of alternative healthcare, easily accessible and empowers you to take mind-body wellness, literally, into your own hands.
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Marshall
For the artist, the act of creation is always a peek into the future. Whether the work is traditional, abstract or whatever, the artist sees something that does not yet exist and then proceeds to bring that vision into the present with his craft.
For me, this connection with the future has always been conscious. I like to create that which seems to be missing in our collective present. The future is created by the beliefs, visions and ideals of the present, but what seems to be lacking today is a clear, collective vision of the future. In the case of this new line of work, I am presenting a vision of a future that is humorously reflective of the vacuous promises of the past, yet has an excitement and hopefulness for a tomorrow that is truly beyond our wildest dreams.
Monday, November 15, 2004
MP3s Go Thump With Oakley Shades
...It has no cords or wires. The music player is built into the temples of the glasses, as are the “sonic expansion speakers"--those would be the earpieces--which are on adjustable booms that slide in and out, and can swing away from your ears if you need to hear what is going on around you.
...Oakley (nyse: OO - news - people ) says it created a new product category: digital music eyewear. The intended market is not international cricketers, but “Active Young Professionals,” “Athletic Adults” and “Tech Fashionable” buyers. Fitting that description fantastically, I shed my flannels and took an engineering sample of the Oakley Thump for a spin along the streets of New York.
IBM’s Tour de Force For MOMA
Big Blue’s John Tolva and Stan Litow explain the thinking behind the renovated museum’s new “cinematic” guide technology
Thursday, November 11, 2004
CALL: Cover Art on the Theme of Medicine and Art (Archives of Internal Medicine)
http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/164/20/2279
Arch Intern Med. 2004;164:2279.
Submissions are invited for the front cover of the Archives of Internal Medicine. We seek to portray art work created by clinician-readers of the ARCHIVES. Submissions must be of your own work, and art that has to do with the theme of medicine is of particular interest. Creativity is appreciated.
Themes may be wide ranging. For instance, some may render the therapeutic encounter, others may depict emotions of physical or mental illness. Some may be interested in artistic renderings of anatomy, physiology, microbiology, medical equipment, historical medical documents, or medicinal herbs. Others may be interested in social or environmental roots of illness or social/spiritual rituals used in response to illness. Some may depict pieces from other art forms such as drama, music, or dance that have a medical theme.
Sculpture, paintings, drawings, photography, fabric art, graphic art, metalwork, crafts, computer art, depictions of medical specimens—perhaps historical artifacts—and other forms of art are all acceptable so long as they can be captured in a photographic submission. A series of related pieces can also be submitted, although publication of a complete set cannot be guaranteed. The picture may be black and white or color and at least 3.5 x 5 inches but no larger than 8 x 10 inches. If you wish to submit a digital photograph, please see the digital art submission guidelines on our Web site at http://www.archinternmed.com. The picture must be oriented horizontally. No recognizable people should appear in the picture.
Submissions may be accompanied by a paragraph of less than 250 words written by the artist about the art piece. Submissions should identify the clinician-artist’s specialty and year of graduation from medical or other graduate school.
Monday, November 08, 2004
Dr. Hugo Museums of the Mind
In our minds we have private virtual museums, silent places for our memories, imagination and dreams
Belgian painter, multimedia artist and a theorist of new media. Born in Antwerp, where he lives and works. From his earliest work, Dr. Hugo explored the experience of synesthetic perception, bridging real and virtual space. His art practice includes painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, video, film and digital media. In his online project Museums of the Mind he continues his research, theory and experiments on the telematic future of art, the senses & synesthesia.
Originally, Dr. Hugo opted for a musical education, but transferred to the visual arts. He graduated from the Royal Academy and became a laureate of the National Higher Institute for Fine Arts in Antwerp. In addition, he studied nuclear physics during one year at the State Higher Institute for Nuclear Energy in Mol. He received a doctoral degree, PhD in art sciences, magna cum laude, from the Universidad de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife with a thesis on ‘Art & Computers: an exploratory investigation on the digital transformation of art’. In 1995 he coined the terms ‘tele-synaesthesia’ and ‘post-ego’. Since 1993 he is a working member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts, Brussels. Since 2000, representative of the Belgian Synaesthesia Association. He is currently professor at the Royal Academy for Fine Arts, Antwerp.
During the sixties, Dr. Hugo profiled himself as an avant-garde artist with ‘happenings’ film- and video experiments. In 1970-73 he made a ‘Continental Video & Film Tour’ with his Mobile Museum of Modern Media through Belgium, Germany, France and the Netherlands. For his ‘Street-life’ paintings, he was elected laureate of the ‘Jeune Peinture Belge’ (1974) at the Palais des Beaux-arts, Brussels. In monumental series on ‘Water’, ‘Light’, ‘Time’, ‘A Vision is Finer than a View’ and ‘New Models of Reality’, Dr. Hugo paints the existentially tension between between ideas and images; an appeal to several senses at once — “I bring the visual and the conceptual, synesthetically closer together”. For Dr. Hugo ideas are tools; his personal approach to surface, texture and colour contributes to the possibilities of painting, and the adventure of the visual arts.
Online since 1995, Dr. Hugo became one of the pioneers in Net.art. He participated in 1988 at the ‘First International Symposium on Electronic Art’ (FISEA) in Utrecht. In the Fuzzy Dreamz series, a work in progress since 1996, he transforms his painting experiences into digital media and vice versa. He took part in various Net.art projects, including the online exhibitions, Digital Studies: Being In Cyberspace ‘ALT-X-site’ (1997) New York and ‘Revelation’ ISEA 2000, Paris. His works have been presented in major international exhibitions ranging from Antwerp, Brussels, Basel, Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona and Chicago to the Biennale of Venice.
http://www.doctorhugo.org/index.html
Sunday, November 07, 2004
Futuristic visions quickly come to fruitation
Over five millennia ago, the first areas of the world began the slow transition from the Stone Age into the Bronze Age. Quality of life increased dramatically with the new technology made available and the rise of complex urban civilizations and cultural centers. Around this time, the first written languages appeared. It was not until the 1450s that this process was automated with the invention of the movable type printing press by Johann Gutenberg, and information was truly available to the masses. Two hundred and fifty years ago, steam power was revolutionizing the world, bringing the major powers into the Industrial Age with mechanical innovations. Fifty years ago, the Space Age was still only a dream and the modern world was still relying on industry to keep the world running, with vacuum tubes only seen in a few applications. All of that changed within a decade.