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Long Walk to Nowhere



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2.12.2010

posted by the Record Player @ 1:20 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Birds play guitar better than most people

For an upcoming show at the Barbican Art Gallery, French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot has set up an environment for finches to be musicians. By setting up electric guitars to be the only perches for the birds to stand and play on, they are left with little choice but to make music. What's astonishing is that the little birds seem to enjoy it and try to enhance the sound more by using sticks. This is a fascinating exploration into the relationship of music to all living things in the world. I would love to see this but unfortunately I don't think I will be in London anytime in the near future.



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1.28.2010

posted by the Record Player @ 3:33 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Sound of Light

I wish the rhythm could be more controlled but still a great concept and executed well.

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1.03.2010

posted by the Record Player @ 3:22 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Paul Henry Ramirez


The first time I saw a picture of something by Paul Henry Ramirez I really didn't pay attention to it and just glanced over it as if it were just some other contemporary graphic design that I've seen thousands of times before. I think the piece was "Chunk 5". The second time, however, his work immediately caught my eye. Sometimes we just need to be in a certain frame of mind to really appreciate something. When I did a little investigating to see more of his work I was hooked!

The thing is, his work is so simple it could be easily glanced over. When you take more than a second to really see the life in his pieces. The bold colors, simple forms, balance and contrast all work in harmony to create depth and movement. In many of his works, shapes seem to assume the role of machinery and the composition is presented as one frame, frozen in time, of the workings of a larger machine and you wonder, "how this machine is working and why?" In his installations, Paul Henry Ramirez gets to show us how his canvases work with a larger machine and each piece works with the others to create a cohesive stystem that seems to be part of the architectural space.

I highly recommend visiting his website



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9.01.2009

posted by the Record Player @ 12:00 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

The Listening Room


WOW! Remember the cardboard sound cube I posted a while back? (here) Well this is a similar idea just waaaay better! This piece was an installation for 100% Design Tokyo and co-designed by two amazing firms from Amsterdam, Elastik Architecture and Mat Studio. Together these firms transformed a standard shipping container into a very unique and personal aural experience that is meant to be a blissful retreat in contrast to the turmoil of this high profile event in Tokyo.

go to SoundCatch.net for more information and pictures.

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4.11.2009

posted by the Record Player @ 2:35 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

More virtual graffiti

Thanks to tdw for letting me know about this digital graffiti wall by YRWall. I love it when graffiti can transcend the streets and reach more people. This type of installation has HUGE potential and I'm sure we'll be seeing more of this in the future.

Go to YR Wall's site >HERE<



YrWall 2008 Showreel - Interactive Digital Graffiti Wall from Lumacoustics on Vimeo.

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posted by the Record Player @ 1:48 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Growing Wall

I just stumbled upon this while researching for something totally unrelated. Just thought I'd share. Enjoy!


Transplant: Cycle of Mutation/Growing Wall from Transplant on Vimeo.

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3.05.2009

posted by the Record Player @ 12:01 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Because We Can ad Campaign



This campaign was done by The Glue Society. They do some pretty cool/arty stuff...check out more work at their site.

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1.22.2009

posted by the Record Player @ 9:01 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Simplicity isn't always simple..

John Maeda is one of the great designers and visionaries of our time. He's also known to be an entertaining speaker. I've seen a few of his talks on line and saw him in-person last year. Anyway, this dude is amazing. He's one of the most accomplished artists of our time and somehow manages to have a healthy family life with five daughters, is the recent president of RISD, has degrees in computer science, design and business and is just an all-around interesting character. Imagine if him and Neri Oxman got together on a project!? Maybe they'd make a fabric that behaves like a banana peel?! who knows... 

Check out his company- MaedaStudio
and his blog (yeah, he keeps a blog & twitter that he updates a lot!)

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1.07.2009

posted by the Record Player @ 2:13 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

I LOVE this..


This is one of the best concepts I've seen this year. I had some ideas a couple years ago for visualizing sound and sound waves but this isn't one of them so it's cool to see something done like this. I DO have a line of items coming out next year that will incorporate sound waves but nothing like this. This was designed & prototyped by Sounds Butter. Their other projects are also worth checking out.

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12.25.2008

posted by the Record Player @ 2:52 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

A great bad idea


I love this kinds of installations that are funtional, fun and question human behavior and consciousness. One such project opens tomorrow in Dale, Norway. People from anywhere in the world will be able to call a phone number and broadcast their message over the fjord for the people in Dale to be annoyed with. Telemegaphone is the pre-project for something larger (and probably more annoying) called Parafunctional Payphones by Unsworn Industries. My guess is that they are going to hate the artist for erecting such a thing. I'm going to get extra drunk just to talk to myself and broadcast it to the people there to let them know I AM their messiah! muwahhahhahahahahahaha...
Or maybe I'll just say a bunch of jibberish in a Swedish Chef accent. Yeah, I know they're not in Sweden but does anyone know what a Nordic accent sounds like?! Ya?

Read more about this project here

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8.01.2008

posted by the Record Player @ 1:53 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

'Rollercoaster' for bicycles looks fun, dangerous

Here's another one of those, "damn! someone beat me to it!" ideas that's on display in Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is by a Stockholm based artist by the name of Anders Jakobsen (also known as Lagombra) and was made with scraps from scaffoldings and such. It looks really fun to ride but it's really just a track and not a rollercoaster.

via- IconEye

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7.16.2008

posted by the Record Player @ 10:40 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Change of heart...

It's no secret that I don't really care for large corporations that don't do much good for the world. However, I really want to work with BMW. Very few companies are sincere about change and innovation and BMW clearly puts their money where their mouths are. From their new facility by Zaha Hadid, to the Gina concept car and multiple installations such as this. All kidding aside, I do want to work with companies that promote thought and conversation that influences the progression of human intellect. Oh yeah, they are the main sponsor that's making it possible for the world to see the Ted talks. (I'll post more about those soon!)

In the meantime, this installation is beautiful yet so simple and poetic...just balls in space. (yeah, it is a fact that SpaceBalls is one of the best films ever made!)


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7.09.2008

posted by the Record Player @ 1:28 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Grass photographs

Heather Ackroyd & Dan Harvey have been doing some amazing art with grass since the late '90s. The most notable being their explorations in photographic photosynthesis. After realizing that the color of grass can vary greatly depending on the amount of light it gets they developed a process to make negatives to allow for this process. Read more about them and their process here

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7.06.2008

posted by the Record Player @ 2:47 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Wire Frame Car

I'm attempting to go back and find some of my favorite things I've seen online over the past couple years. This isn't something I actively spend time on but some things show up again or I see something new that makes me go back and look at other work. Case in point: these sculptures by Benedict Radcliffe. His other works are nice too but he is most known for his wire framed cars. The one in the picture is called 'Modern Japanese Classic' and is now owned by collector David Roberts. There are other pictures of this piece all over the web since this would get 'parked' on the street for everybody to admire.

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6.18.2008

posted by the Record Player @ 9:10 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Absolute Machine(s)...absolutely amazing

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.

Read more about this and other Absolut Machines

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6.13.2008

posted by the Record Player @ 11:21 AM 0 Comments Links to this post