Sure, you've heard of CAD but now we have RAD(Robot Aided Drawing). Jen Hui Liao has designed and built the Self Portrait Machine to assist the sitter with drawing themselves. The machine "takes a picture of the sitter and draws it but with the model's help. The wrists of the individual are tied to the machine and it is his or her hands that are guided to draw the lines that will eventually form the portrait." Ok, so you may be asking, "So, what's the point?!" This may help explain:
The project aims to explore the cooperation process of human & machine. The designer explains: I found some the relationship between human and machine are amazing and could be horrible (like this one that shows how we human invent machines then put human inside to it to manufacture goods), The final object - A machine is a miniature of what I understand through the process of research, and the aim of the machine is to let people have a chance to feel the condensed process of how we generate our self identity from external point of view as from the society, which is a big machine we all in.
I'm sure many of us have thought about the possibility of adding to our body's natural architecture. Well Australian artist known as Stelarc (Stelios Arcadious) actually does! Seen here is one of my personal favorites called simply Ear On Arm. The artist went through a series of surgeries to have a prosthetic ear implanted into his arm with a microphone that would send audio to the web. Yeah, really intense and just in the name of art. Think about the possibilities. Here's a brief explanation in the artists' own words.
I have always been intrigued about engineering a soft prosthesis using my own skin, as a permanent modification of the body architecture. The assumption being that if the body was altered it might mean adjusting its awareness. Engineering an alternate anatomical architecture, one that also performs telematically. Certainly what becomes important now is not merely the body's identity, but its connectivity- not its mobility or location, but its interface. In these projects and performances, a prosthesis is not seen as a sign of lack but rather as a symptom of excess. As technology proliferates and microminiaturizes it becomes biocompatible in both scale and substance and is incorporated as a component of the body. These prosthetic attachments and implants are not simply replacements for a part of the body that has been traumatized or has been amputated. These are prosthetic objects that augment the body's architecture, engineering extended operational systems of bodies and bits of bodies, spatially separated but electronically connected.
Definitely go to his site and learn about his other crazy projects such as 1/4 Scale Ear and Ping Body. Click > HERE <
No, not the animals from Madagascar (and other places). I'm talking about this new music interface. Lemur is like a combination of Tenori-On, Monome and iPhone. Ok, maybe that's a bad description. But the retro-future interface is definitely inspired by Tron and Star Trek. From what I could see in a few short videos, this interface could add to the changing face of music for the better. It can basically do about 5zillion things. (but no more than that) Just go to JazzMutant's website to learn more. And watch the video below..and watch more of the ones on YouTube, you'll be sold on it instantly. You'll see that you can customize it to your liking, add more screens, control EQs, adjust sensitivity, make music on the fly, etcetera...It's DOPE and I want one...
Thank you science! Finally I can have a pet just long enough to love it and be sad when it dies in just 1-3yrs time. Scientists have cloned sheep, grown teeth in petri dishes and teleported metal. So, some of these mad scientists got together and thought this would be a great idea. You get the best of both worlds: you get a pet programmed to your needs AND you get to question humans' involvement in nature, life and death. This reminds me of that lesson that's taught to kids...you know, the one where the parents buy the kid a pet chicken, let the kid start to love it, then chop it up and eat it for dinner. Wait...you weren't taught that lesson?! Well, it was a good lesson and a delicious meal. This has me thinking..what do GenPets taste like?
Some people may think this video is really out there and weird. Me, well...I think monkeys are quite normal and I relate to them. But what is weird is that this song is not sung in American. I mean, c'mon dude..everyone knows that there's only one language for sangin' in. Either way, it sounds cool. I may not understand French but this is clearly a song speaking out against household chores and promoting equal rights for monkeys that want to play in bands. (I know what you're thinking..Chimpanzees are not monkeys. Stop discriminating! They can wear diapers, ride motorcycles and throw feces just like monkeys and my cousins. )
This is a piece I first learned about a few months ago from an issue of Tokion I was reading. I'm a sucker for real heady art & sound installations and experiments. But I'm especially intrigued by projects that cross into understanding and interaction from the general public. Recently two prize winners of Absolute Vodka's "Absolut Visionaries" initiative built a remarkable instrument. The first part of Absolut Visionaries is Absolut Machines with a multi-layered question "In an Absolut world, would machines be creative?"
Dan Paluska & Jeff Lieberman have built an instrument called Absolut Quartet that receives data that you input from your computer from any where in the world via internet, then teaches itself a new composition no matter how seemingly random your keystrokes seem to be. This part of the project is amazing in itself and would be impressive if it were just generating computer based music but these guys are nuts and took it much further. They liked the sound of a marimba but just having mallets strike the keys was too simple for them. No, they have balls that are launched and strike the notes at just the right time then bounce off. There is also an organ and drum sounds but they are really just in the background.
This is an amazing feat of engineering, design and programming. Figuring out the delay needed must have been a challenge, but then to program each motor to propel the ball at different arcs and speeds with regards to the size & weight of the balls is an entirely different challenge. And, of course, the balls can only hit one note or else it will mess up the sound. Oh yeah, and part of this quartet is wine glasses w/ water or oil in them that turn underneath some apparatus that makes them produce sound. In case, you're wondering, yes, each part of the 'quartet' plays their own part the same as people would. This is like the Telematic Drum Circle on drugs although, that is an interesting piece as well. (you can find that on youtube as well) I'm pretty upset that I didn't get a chance to make a composition on it. Oh well.. Hopefully, I will get chances to work on future projects such as this one.
