digitaldeities

little wings -openFrameworks

AMAZING>>>>>>>>> This project is great!  I totally love the animated wings that attach themselves to anyone who walks by.  As he says - 'so you can be an angel for a moment.'

Zach Lieberman (my parsons instructor) and Arturo Castro taught a workshop at iMal brussels, held May 28-30th 2009.  This partial view of the video of the wings is from a full documentation from the OF workshop - full video can be seen HERE ON VIMEO.

The workshop was held at iMal:

imal.org/
imal.org/openFrameworks/

There's some information and source code from participants projects here:
wiki.openframeworks.cc/index.php?title=OfBrussels_/_Imal

artists who have recieved MacArthur Fellows (2006-2009)

As I spend time here at the Watermill Center in long Island, I was inspired tonight to read about artists that have received MacArthur Fellowships.  I was curious to research the last three years of artists who received this honor..  I love and have previously posted about Tara Donovan's work, which is amazing.  I have posted below about a few others - the ones that are starred.  I had heard of Camille Utterback from my Parson's coursework.

2006

**Josiah McElheny, sculptor

Anna Schuleit, commemorative artist

Shahzia Sikander, painter

2007

Joan Snyder, painter

Whitfield Lovell, painter/installation artist

2008

Tara Donovan, artist

Mary Jackson, weaver and sculptor

2009

**Camille Utterback, digital artist

**Mark Bradford, mixed media artist

wikipedia says this, for those not familiar with the award:

The MacArthur Fellows Program or MacArthur Fellowship (nicknamed the Genius Award) is an award given by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation each year to typically 20 to 40 United States citizens or residents, of any age and working in any field, who "show exceptional merit and promise for continued and enhanced creative work."

According to the Foundation's website, "the fellowship is not a reward for past accomplishment, but rather an investment in a person's originality, insight, and potential." The current amount of the award is $500,000, paid as quarterly installments over five years. As of 2007, there have been 756 recipients who have received a total of more than $350 million.^[update]

The Fellowship has no application. People are nominated anonymously by a body of nominators who submit recommendations to a small selection committee of about a dozen people, also anonymous.

Camille Utterback, digital artist

I first heard about her from my second year thesis class with yury gitman - computation08.  we learned processing and heard about camille's work.

Text Rain Camille Utterback & Romy Achituv, 1999

Text Rain is a playful interactive installation that blurs the boundary between the familiar and the magical. Participants in the Text Rain installation use the familiar instrument of their bodies, to do what seems magical - to lift and play with falling letters that do not really exist. In the Text Rain installation participants stand or move in front of a large projection screen. On the screen they see a mirrored video projection of themselves in black and white, combined with a color animation of falling text. Like rain or snow, the text appears to land on participants' heads and arms. The text responds to the participants' motions and can be caught, lifted, and then let fall again. The falling text will land on anything darker than a certain threshold, and "fall" whenever that obstacle is removed. more>

Quicktime Documentation

Abundance Camille Utterback, 2007
Abundance is a temporary public installation commissioned for the City of San Jose, California by ZER01 – the Art and Technology Network. At night, Abundace transforms the city hall plaza into an interactive social space. A video camera mounted on the City Hall captures the movements of people in the plaza below. A dynamic animation generated in response to this movement is projected onto the 3-story cylindrical rotunda. Utterback’s colorful, fluid and delicate imagery creates a subtle subversion of the bold geometry of architect Richard Meier’s building – warming and humanizing its surface. more>	Quicktime Documentation
Alluvial Camille Utterback, 2007
Alluvial is a dual-channel interactive installation commissioned for a private home. Two overhead video cameras track people’s movements in the entryway below while Utterback’s software outputs two dynamic animations to the projection screens. A person’s body adds visual information to one screen, while subtracting from the other, and this interplay of positive and negative, additive and subtractive qualities builds as more and more people enter the space. This process of simultaneous accumulation and disintegration creates a temporary beauty, where the buildup of delicate grains of sand (or points of light), can easily be disturbed by the bolder graphics indicating another person’s presence in the space.
Untitled 6 Camille Utterback, 2005
Untitled 6 is the sixth piece in Utterback’s External Measures Series. The series began with Utterback’s attempts to create interactive paintings, and has evolved as she continues to experiment with the possibilities for hinging digital aesthetic systems to human movement. Utterback’s installations are generated by a set of software rules she writes. These rules react visually to movement in the installation space, and interact with each other to create dynamic live animations. While Utterback’s work is computer generated and detects movement in the space via a video camera, it shares a lineage with analog works like mobiles and kinetic sculptures, where artists create a framework for various possibilities to occur through the physical relationships between parts of the sculpture. more>	Quicktime Documentation

Mark Bradford The Devil Is Beating His Wife (and detail) 2003 endpapers, billboard remnants and stencils on plywood 335.3 x 609.6 cm
Mark Bradford’s abstractions unite high art and popular culture as unorthodox tableaux of unequivocal beauty. Working in both paint and collage, Bradford incorporates elements from his daily life into his canvases: remnants of found posters and billboards, graffitied stencils and logos, and hairdresser’s permanent endpapers he’s collected from his other profession as a stylist. In The Devil is Beating His Wife, Bradford consolidates all these materials into a pixelised eruption of cultural cross-referencing. Built up on plywood in sensuous layers ranging from silky and skin-like to oily and singed, Bradford offers abstraction with an urban flair that’s explosively contemporary.
Mark Bradford Kryptonite 2006 mixed media collage on paper 249 x 301 cm
Using collage and paint on paper, Mark Bradford’s Kryptonite possesses an organic quality in its grid-like composition. Its convoluted architecture and overlapping details radiate as a megalopolissprawl, a seething microcosm of activity. Often compared to Piet Mondrian, Bradford gives modernism’s vision of an ordered utopia a lethal reality check as hard-edged borders and harmonious planes are exchanged for independent non-defined forms engaging in unruly turf-war. Evolving his surface as a highly textured topography, Bradford uses gesture and mark-making to encapsulate the dissonance and excitement of a metropolitan landscape. Josiah McElheny, sculptor www.andrearosengallery.com An End to Modernity 2005 Nickel plated aluminum, electric lighting, hand-blown glass, steel cable and rigging Approximately 180 x 180 x 150 inches Modernity circa 1952, Mirrored and Reflected Infinitely 2004 Hand blown mirrored glass objects, chrome metal display, glass and mirror 30 1/2 h. x 56 1/2 x 18 1/2 inches ©Josiah McElheny Detail of Modernity circa 1952, Mirrored and Reflected Infinitely 2004 Hand blown mirrored glass objects, chrome metal display, glass and mirror ©Josiah McElheny Extended Landscape Model for Total Reflective Abstraction 2004 Mirrored glass table with hand blown mirrored glass objects 24h. x 108 x 92 inches ©Josiah McElheny Detail of Landscape Model for Total Reflective Abstraction 2004 Mirrored glass table with hand blown mirrored glass objects ©Josiah McElheny The Metal Party: Reconstructing a Party held in Dessau on February 9, 1929 2001 A Project of the Public Art Fund, New York and Yerba Buena Center for the ARts, San Francisco, CA ©Josiah McElheny From an Historical Anecdote about Fashion 2000 Blown glass objects, display case, five framed digital prints case dimensions: 18 h. 25 1/2 inches, each installation view at Donald Young Gallery, Chicago ©Josiah McElheny Island Universe 2008 Chromed aluminum, handblown glass, electric lights. Consisting of five elements arranged in a grid at specific heights Dimensions variable, largest element is approximately 12' in diameter, smallest is approximately 7' in diameter Installation view: White Cube, London "Island Universe" October 14 - November 15, 2008 Island Universe 2008 Detail Chromed aluminum, handblown glass, electric lights. Consisting of five elements arranged in a grid at specific heights Dimensions variable, largest element is approximately 12' in diameter, smallest is approximately 7' in diameter ARG# MJ2008-004 © Josiah McElheny Model for a Film Set (The Light Spa at the Bottom of a Mine) 2008 Colored glass modules, cement, wood 37 x 37 1/2 x 68 inches (94 x 95.3 x 172.7 cm) ARG# MJ2008-001 © Josiah McElheny Endless Repeating Twentieth Century Modernism 2007 Hand-blown mirrored glass, low-iron and transparent mirror, metal, wood, electric lighting 94 1/2 x 92 3/4 x 92 3/4 in (240 x 235.6 x 235.6 cm) ARG# MJ2007-004 © Josiah McElheny Twentieth Century Modernism, Mirrored and Reflected Infinitely 2006 Hand blown mirrored glass, display structure, transparent mirror and electric lighting 31 1/4 x 188 x 18 3/4 inches (79.4 x 477.5 x 47.6 cm) ARG# MJ2006-002 © Josiah McElheny Twentieth Century Modernism, Mirrored and Reflected Infinitely 2006 Detail Hand blown mirrored glass, display structure, transparent mirror and electric lighting 31 1/4 x 188 x 18 3/4 inches (79.4 x 477.5 x 47.6 cm) ARG# MJ2006-002 © Josiah McElheny Scale Model for a Totally Reflective Landscape (Expo) 2007 Hand blown mirrored glass, industrial mirror and wood 14 7/8 x 43 1/8 x 20 1/8 inches ARG# MJ2007-002 © Josiah McElheny Scale Model for a Totally Reflective Landscape (Expo) 2007 Detail Hand blown mirrored glass, industrial mirror and wood 14 7/8 x 43 1/8 x 20 1/8 inches ARG# MJ2007-002 © Josiah McElheny An End to Modernity 2005 Nickel plated aluminum, electric lighting, hand-blown glass, steel cable and rigging Approximately 180 x 180 x 150 inches ARG#MJ2006-001 Modernity circa 1952, Mirrored and Reflected Infinitely 2004 Hand blown mirrored glass objects, chrome metal display, glass and mirror 30 1/2 h. x 56 1/2 x 18 1/2 inches ©Josiah McElheny Detail of Modernity circa 1952, Mirrored and Reflected Infinitely 2004 Hand blown mirrored glass objects, chrome metal display, glass and mirror ©Josiah McElheny Extended Landscape Model for Total Reflective Abstraction 2004 Mirrored glass table with hand blown mirrored glass objects 24h. x 108 x 92 inches ©Josiah McElheny Detail of Landscape Model for Total Reflective Abstraction 2004 Mirrored glass table with hand blown mirrored glass objects ©Josiah McElheny The Metal Party: Reconstructing a Party held in Dessau on February 9, 1929 2001 A Project of the Public Art Fund, New York and Yerba Buena Center for the ARts, San Francisco, CA ©Josiah McElheny From an Historical Anecdote about Fashion 2000 Blown glass objects, display case, five framed digital prints case dimensions: 18 h. 25 1/2 inches, each installation view at Donald Young Gallery, Chicago ©Josiah McElheny Twentieth Century Modernism, Mirrored and Reflected Infinitely 2006 Detail Hand blown mirrored glass, display structure, transparent mirror and electric lighting 31 1/4 x 188 x 18 3/4 inches (79.4 x 477.5 x 47.6 cm) Scale Model for a Totally Reflective Landscape (Expo) 2007 Hand blown mirrored glass, industrial mirror and wood 14 7/8 x 43 1/8 x 20 1/8 inches ARG# MJ2007-002 © Josiah McElheny Scale Model for a Totally Reflective Landscape (Expo) 2007 Detail Hand blown mirrored glass, industrial mirror and wood 14 7/8 x 43 1/8 x 20 1/8 inches ARG# MJ2007-002 © Josiah McElheny An End to Modernity 2005 Nickel plated aluminum, electric lighting, hand-blown glass, steel cable and rigging Approximately 180 x 180 x 150 inches ARG#MJ2006-001 Modernity circa 1952, Mirrored and Reflected Infinitely 2004 Hand blown mirrored glass objects, chrome metal display, glass and mirror 30 1/2 h. x 56 1/2 x 18 1/2 inches ©Josiah McElheny Detail of Modernity circa 1952, Mirrored and Reflected Infinitely 2004 Hand blown mirrored glass objects, chrome metal display, glass and mirror ©Josiah McElheny Extended Landscape Model for Total Reflective Abstraction 2004 Mirrored glass table with hand blown mirrored glass objects 24h. x 108 x 92 inches ©Josiah McElheny Detail of Landscape Model for Total Reflective Abstraction 2004 Mirrored glass table with hand blown mirrored glass objects ©Josiah McElheny The Metal Party: Reconstructing a Party held in Dessau on February 9, 1929 2001 A Project of the Public Art Fund, New York and Yerba Buena Center for the ARts, San Francisco, CA ©Josiah McElheny From an Historical Anecdote about Fashion 2000 Blown glass objects, display case, five framed digital prints case dimensions: 18 h. 25 1/2 inches, each installation view at Donald Young Gallery, Chicago ©Josiah McElheny Twentieth Century Modernism, Mirrored and Reflected Infinitely 2006 Hand blown mirrored glass, display structure, transparent mirror and electric lighting 31 1/4 x 188 x 18 3/4 inches Twentieth Century Modernism, Mirrored and Reflected Infinitely 2006 Detail Hand blown mirrored glass, display structure, transparent mirror and electric lighting 31 1/4 x 188 x 18 3/4 inches (79.4 x 477.5 x 47.6 cm) ARG# MJ2006-002 © Josiah McElheny Scale Model for a Totally Reflective Landscape (Expo) 2007 Hand blown mirrored glass, industrial mirror and wood 14 7/8 x 43 1/8 x 20 1/8 inches ARG# MJ2007-002 © Josiah McElheny Scale Model for a Totally Reflective Landscape (Expo) 2007 Detail Hand blown mirrored glass, industrial mirror and wood 14 7/8 x 43 1/8 x 20 1/8 inches ARG# MJ2007-002 © Josiah McElheny An End to Modernity 2005 Nickel plated aluminum, electric lighting, hand-blown glass, steel cable and rigging Approximately 180 x 180 x 150 inches ARG#MJ2006-001 Modernity circa 1952, Mirrored and Reflected Infinitely 2004 Hand blown mirrored glass objects, chrome metal display, glass and mirror 30 1/2 h. x 56 1/2 x 18 1/2 inches ©Josiah McElheny Detail of Modernity circa 1952, Mirrored and Reflected Infinitely 2004 Hand blown mirrored glass objects, chrome metal display, glass and mirror ©Josiah McElheny Extended Landscape Model for Total Reflective Abstraction 2004 Mirrored glass table with hand blown mirrored glass objects 24h. x 108 x 92 inches ©Josiah McElheny Detail of Landscape Model for Total Reflective Abstraction 2004 Mirrored glass table with hand blown mirrored glass objects ©Josiah McElheny The Metal Party: Reconstructing a Party held in Dessau on February 9, 1929 2001 A Project of the Public Art Fund, New York and Yerba Buena Center for the ARts, San Francisco, CA ©Josiah McElheny From an Historical Anecdote about Fashion 2000 Blown glass objects, display case, five framed digital prints case dimensions: 18 h. 25 1/2 inches, each installation view at Donald Young Gallery, Chicago ©Josiah McElheny

weird + clever (digital) faces

Such simple yet engaging use of materials + technology + artistry = very refreshing photos.  I found these images in the gallery section of one of my FAVORITE WEBSITES OF ALL TIME - SPACECOLLECTIVE.ORG - such an awesome awesome collection of digitally stimulating substance.

From his website: Levi van Veluw 

The images that I make consist of often unlogical combination of materials, patterns, colors, forms, with my head as the only constant factor. Each element is consciously chosen so as to affect a pre-determined transformation. By playing with the value of the each material and by using them for a purpose that was not originally intended for them, I construct within the image, in a very small way, a different perspective on the world.

In most cases it is my head that is the carrier of these transformations and combination. The expressionless, and almost universal face, allows the viewer to project himself onto the work. Because the works have really existed and have not been digitally manipulated, each image contains a short history of a performance.

Repetition is a theme I find very interesting as you can use it for different ends. By for example using the same head and facial expression, the person slowly becomes of secondary importance to the form. The elements that remain constant lose their value and the elements that change, become the subject of the work. In this way I create a shift in the hierarchy of values.

The commonplace notion of the ‘aesthetic’ image is that which is free of unsatisfactory characteristics and general human imperfections. This in my opinion is the most superficial form of beauty. In my work I attempt to create a different form of aesthetic.

The unusual and unimpressive materials, traces of glue and other imperfections that exist in the production of the work are what form the aesthetic value in my image. This revaluation of these normally insignificant elements only occurs because they now exist in a new context that distances them from their original circumstances and associations.

Gordon Magnin

cassette tape skull

brian dettmer: cassette tape skull

Atlanta based artist Brian Dettmer creates intricate sculptural skeletons using altered, heated cassette tapes. Dettmer began creating the pieces in 2005 as he was thinking about the demise of analog media in the increasingly digital world. As well as the animal skulls, he has a series of 12 human skulls made from tapes--each with a different theme like heavy metal or hard rock. The most complex sculpture thus far is a complete human skeleton that he constructed made from over 180 cassettes. reblog from: Design Boom

mine-sniffing plant (inspiration)

I would like to sketch and make some graphics about this idea of BioSensor plants that change color when they grow over buried land mines.

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Aresa – changing the strategic focus to investments in and development of mine-affected land - still with a humanitarian scope - read the press release

Aresa has been working within plant biotechnology. The company was founded in 2001 by Carsten Meier, who is presently the Chief Scientific Officer. Aresa has its scientific outset from the Institute of Molecular Biology and Physiology, Copenhagen University, that has supported the company since its foundation with consulting, facilities and scientific staff.

By February 2006, Aresa was listed on the First North listing of the Copenhagen Stock Exchange (currently Nasdaq/OMX-group).

Aresa A/S is situated in Symbion Science Park in Copenhagen. This Science Park houses approx. 100 small companies primarily within Biotechnology and IT.

As of January 2008, Aresa has 11 employees.

Aresa has been working on the BioSensor patent protected technology
Since its establishment Aresa has developed plant based technology platforms, and in 2002 we filed two international patent applications. 

The use of the the Company’s BioSensor technology, in the shape of the product candidates RedDetect, RedDetect UXO and RedScreen have been selected to be among the most innovative ideas in the World in 2004, by the New York Times. In 2005, the Company’s Chief Scientific Officer, Carsten Meier was awarded the Annual Innovation Price of the Carl Bro Group (Danish Consultancy Firm) for the efforts in developing the Company’s technology.
For a description af the Mine Action Plant and the technology behind it, please see the Landmine Plant section.

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the first article about this subject found here

XM Satellite Radio: 4/30/06
The Osgood File (CBS Radio Network)

Scientists are engineering plants to change color when they grow over buried land mines.

Left-behind landmines kill or injure about 10,000 people per year world wide, according to U.S. State Department estimates. Landmines also keep people from using large expanses of arable land. The United Nations estimates that nations spend $200 - $300 million each year on de-mining efforts. Getting rid of the mines is dangerous work; some crews probe the ground with sticks or rely on metal detectors or dogs to find the buried mines. A Danish biotech company may have a better solution: a plant that changes color when it grows over buried mines.

The plant in question is a small weed called Arabidopsis thaliana or thale cress. One of the most-studied plants on Earth, it is a member of the mustard family and grows wild everywhere in the world except the poles. It's an annual plant and a thale cress seed can sprout and grow into a mature plant in just six weeks. In some regions, there can be two or three generations in a single summer. In nature the green leaves turn red in autumn, or when the plant is subjected to stress such as cold or drought.

Danish biologists Carsten Meier and Simon Østergaard, co-founders of Aresa Biodetection in Copenhagen, are re-engineering thale cress to turn red when exposed to the presence of a land-mine in the soil. Researchers chose natural mutants of the plant that do not turn red in response to these natural stimuli and then re-engineered the mutant's genetic make-up so that it turns red only when the roots come in contact with NO2 (nitrous oxide)—a compound that leaks out of buried land mines.

So far, the team reports they have produced a plant that changes color in greenhouse lab experiments where NO2 is applied to the soil in solution. Aresa says this may be too general a signal (NO2 is often naturally present in the soil), which means there might be the risk of false positives, so they are working to make it more selective in its responses. The next step will be more realistic field trials with actual land mines (mines that lack detonators, however). In actual de-mining applications, researchers anticipate that seeds could be sown over a suspected minefield from an airplane, or spread with a handheld seed sprayer as workers walk along in de-mined corridors

Sean Burke, Program Manager at the U.S. Humanitarian Demining Research and Development Program, says the challenge is how high the stakes are. You have to have a hundred percent detection with the lowest possible false alarms. He says if you miss one mine that could be somebody's life.

Some scientists are also concerned that bioengineered plants could "escape" into the wild and confer undesirable traits on wild plants. In response Aresa has taken these concerns into consideration and has manipulated their plants so they can't sprout unless a growth factor has been applied to the seeds. In addition, they have created plants can’t set seeds unless supplied with another growth hormone. In addition, this plant naturally is a self-pollinator, so it doesn't cross-pollinate with plants growing wild nearby.

emotional garbage needed for digital landfill

I like this project!

http://www.soulrecoverysystems.com

Soul Recovery Systems is an interactive, creative and free “emotional garbage” service providing people with an opportunity to rid themselves of objects that hinder their lives. SRS accepts objects in any form as long as there are sincere emotional connections attached to them. That said, all objects given to SRS must include an object release form: http://www.soulrecoverysystems.com where the releaser must enter their reason for desired disposal. Once objects and reasons for disposal have been received, they are put under intense observation for SRS to determine the best possible method of release.

In the end, a photograph of each object, reasons for release, and videos of each object release are uploaded to the digital landfill where the less burdened can view their once hindering objects in digital form.

Here is the link to the SRS website: www.soulrecoverysystems.com/

And make sure to check out the digital landfill:

http://www.soulrecoverysystems.com/landfill (more release videos and objects will be uploaded daily).

scoreLight - daito manabe + colleagues

"scoreLight" is a prototype musical instrument capable of generating sound in real time from the lines of doodles as well as from the contours of three-dimensional objects nearby (hands, dancer's silhouette, architectural details, etc). There is no camera nor projector: a laser spot explores the shape as a pick-up head would search for sound over the surface of a vinyl record - with the significant difference that the groove is generated by the contours of the drawing itself. The light beam follows these countours in the very same way a blind person uses a white cane to stick to a guidance route on the street. Details of this tracking technique can be found here.

Sound is produced and modulated according to the curvature of the lines being followed, their angle with respect to the vertical as well as their color and contrast. This means that "scoreLight" implements gesture, shape and color-to-sound artificial synesthesia [4]; abrupt changes in the direction of the lines produce trigger discrete sounds (percussion, glitches), thus creating a rhythmic base (the length of a closed path determines the overall tempo).

Credit details:

• Alvaro Cassinelli: concept (smart laser scanner, sticky light and scoreLight) / custom hardware and software (C++, early MAX/MSP demo)
• Kuribara Yusaku: latest software developement - contour tracking & improved dynamics (C++) / interface (C#)
• Daito Manabe: sound concept and sound programming (MAX/MSP,Super Collider) - in progress.

IGNITE NYC (this Friday Oct 9, 2009)

I will be speaking at this event tomorrow evening - about my agave armor, haute couture sculpture series!

Ignite NYC this Friday, October 9th. 

We are hosting the event as part of the Yahoo!'s Open Hack festivities!

Ignite will take place at the historic Hudson Theater (145 West 44th Street) from 8 PM - 9:30 PM. 

RSVP on Eventbrite or Facebook to reserve your seat!

Speakers:

Jay Rosen (NYU School of Journalism), 

Michael Malice (Overheard in New York), 

Bre Pettis (Makerbot Industries), 

Dan Patterson (ABC News), 

Fred Benenson (Creative Commons),

Spaceman From Outer Space (Space),

Evan Sandhaus (The New York Times), 

Tania Dudina (Surprise Industries),

Micah Laaker (Yahoo!), 

Ben Woosley (OurMTA.org), 

Jared Klett (Blip.TV), 

Carrie Mae Kreyche (Parsons), 

Ben Moskowitz (Open Video Alliance), 

Kunal Kandekar (Concert Technology), 

Jonah Brucker-Cohen (ITP, Scrapyard Challenge), 

Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo (ITP, Parsons).

Buddha Pears!

I am in love with these little buddha pears! this concept is really inspiring and makes me want to try it out myself! i am reposting this from the cakehead loves evil blog, check out the full post here.

Solar Powered Tree SCUPLTURE .with electroluminescent fibers.

SonUmbra Solar Powered Tree Lights up the Night

reBLOG from inhabitat.com

As advancements in lighting technology unveil fresh materials, we’re thrilled to see designers exploring new ways to light up the night. SonUmbra is a solar-powered tree composed of strands of light-emitting fabric woven into a lucent web of branches. The installation’s canopy of photovoltaic panels captures light during the day, and once the sun sets the tree blooms in an interactive flourish of light and sound.

We were thrilled to catch a glimpse of SonUmbra at this year’s London Design Festival, where its beautiful glow signaled a bright future for energy-efficient lighting. Designed by Loop.pH, the “sonic shade of light” is intended to be “planted” in remote areas, where it offers shelter from the sun by day and serves as a gathering place for the local community at night.

The installation is constructed from a light emitting fabric that is crafted into a lattice of electroluminescent fibers. As passerby move around the solar tree, the installation strikes up an interplay of light and sound that encourages interaction. According to loop.PH, “This latticed pattern is animated in concert with the generated surround sound and visually illustrates the visitors’ position within the constellation. Wandering unaware or actively gravitating towards Sonumbra each person plays a part and becomes a note in a unique composition of light, sound and space.”

Make Out by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

I love this man's work.  I just read about this one below from his website.

Description
"Make Out" is the eight piece in the Shadow Box series of interactive displays with a built-in computerized tracking system. This piece shows thousands of internet videos of couples looking at each other: as soon as someone stands in front of the display his or her silhouette is shown and all the couples within it begin to kiss. The massive array of make-out sessions continues for as long as someone is in front of the work, --as he or she moves away all the kissing ends.

The collector can choose what proportion of the videos are man-woman, woman-woman or man-man. The default state is the statistically faithful proportion of the videos that are online: 50 per cent woman-woman, 30 per cent man-man and 20 per cent man-woman.

Year of creation
2009
Technique
High resolution interactive display with built-in computerized surveillance system.
Dimensions
104.5 x 80 x 12 cm

http://www.lozano-hemmer.com/english/projects/makeout.htm

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I am also again struck by the genius of Pulse Park.

	Pulse Park Relational Architecture 14	"Pulse Park" is comprised of a matrix of light beams that graze the central oval field of Madison Square Park. Their intensity is entirely modulated by a sensor that measures the heart rate of participants and the resulting effect is the visualization of vital signs, arguably our most symbolic biometric, in an urban scale.

ART AND ELECTRONIC MEDIA

NEWEST ADDITION TO MY BOOKLIST:

Art and Electronic Media. London: Phaidon Press, 2009. 304 pages. ISBN 9780714847825

reBLOG from artelectronicmedia.wordpress.com

Art and Electronic Media by Edward Shanken is the freshest title in the Themes and Movements series published by Phaidon Press. This highly anticipated book demonstrates the formidable history of artistic uses of electronic media, a history that parallels the growing pervasiveness of technology in all facets of life. Over 200 artists and institutions from more than 30 countries are represented. The centrality of artists as theorists and critics is reflected in the focus on artists’ writings. The goal is to enable the rich genealogy of art and electronic media to be understood and seen – literally and figuratively – as central to the histories of art and visual culture.

Like other volumes in the Themes and Movements series, the book is divided into three main sections: Survey, Works, and Documents. The richly illustrated Survey provides an overview of the field beginning in the early 20th century and focusing on the period from the 1950s to the present. The Works section includes nearly 200 additional color plates with extensive, descriptive captions. The Documents section consists of theoretical writings, primarily by artists, that played an important role in defining various electronic art practices.

If you think it’s pretty on the outside, this Special Preview lets you see more of the juicy ideas, images, and graphic design inside the book.

In order to foreground continuities across periods, genres and media, author Edward Shanken has organized the book around 7 thematic streams that run through the Survey, Documents, and Works sections:

• Motion, Duration, Illumination
• Coded Form and Electronic Production
• Charged Environments
• Networks, Surveillance, Culture Jamming
• Bodies, Surrogates, Emergent Systems
• Simulations and Simulacra
• Exhibitions, Institutions, Communities, Collaborations

The volume also includes a section of biographies of the artists and authors whose work is included in the Works and Documents sections, a bibliography, and a comprehensive index.

clever business card ideas

re-blog from Web Urbanist:

Brilliant Business Card Designs

USB Business Cards

(image via: New Launches)

This paper business card doesn’t look like anything special, until you turn it over. On the back is a laminated memory card, which actually works when you insert the card into a USB adapter. That allows the business owner to fit a whole lot more information onto that little card – entire portfolios or catalogs, even.

Building Block Architecture Business Cards

(image via: Ads of the World)

La Cambre Architecture School in Belgium has a business card that defines what the school does: it’s a Lego brick printed with the school’s information.

Yuka Suzuki Hair Pins Business Cards

(image via: daily poetics)

There’s no question what services Yuka Suzuki offers when you see these brilliant business cards. Hair pins are attached to the card in a way that makes them look like the hair of a woman. Once you use up the pins, the card is easy to slip into your wallet. Since it’s providing a useful function, you’ll be more likely to keep it around for a bit longer than most.

Razor Blade Business Cards

(image via: BusinessCards24)

If you know what’s good for you, you won’t put this unusual business card in your wallet. It’s an actual razor blade, imprinted with the information of a graphic design firm called ‘Cutting Edge’. Memorable and clever.

Debt Recovery X-Ray Business Cards

(image via: Ads of the World)

“If you don’t give me the money, I’m gonna break your finger.” That’s the message that this effective business card by a debt recovery agent sends with its x-ray image of a broken thumb tip. Of course, that doesn’t mean that Mr. Rahesh Ranjan, who commissioned the card, is really going to break your finger – but it might make you a little more likely to pay up quickly.

more scissor mandalas in SolidWorks

20 - 30 foot in diameter drawings of proposed installation with thousands of scissor recycled from airport excess

bigger better SolidWorks scissor sketches

My very last presentation at Parsons will be Petcha Kucha style this Sunday afternoon 11-3 with some excellent critiques to get final feedback.  I decided to put in the extra effort and do a few more digital sketches for helping myself promote a BIG mandala made with confiscated scissors for an airport someday.  THERE IS A COMMISSION COMING MY WAY!

Scale is 20 feet across with the scissor each being 8 inches or 5 inches in size.