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.
If there's one thing that REALLY annoys me it's wires! Yeah, it seems silly since we think that we need them. In my mind, even as a kid, I thought there must be a way to transmit electricity with out wires or at least figure out a better way to power our appliances and gadgets. Well, as luck/fate would have it, Marin Soljacic at MIT has finally got the technology at a point where it will be widely available in the next few years!! I first heard about this a couple years ago on MIT's Technology Review website (it's one of my favorite sites! yeah, so what I'm a nerd.) but at the time it was big and impractical. In addition to just making sense and being more convenient, this could have major impact from an environmental perspective. Of course, companies will not stop putting wires on products anytime soon but in the future we will hopefully see a dramatic decrease in the use of PVC & copper for wires. Wires actually account for a major percentage of PVC consumption. There's also the environmental perspective of just how an area looks. whether in your house or on the street, wires are an unsightly eyesore. Think about how much better Tokyo will look without the wires everywhere!
I could go on and on about this but read about it more on his company's website- WiTricity
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.
If you're slightly crazy like me, you've thought about the possibility of flat, flexible speakers and if you're even partially out there you've considered paper speakers. Well, our dreams our becoming a reality. Scientists in Taiwan have developed a flexible paper speaker by sandwiching paper and CNTs together.
”Aside from use in family, stereo, or automobile hi-fi equipment, it can also be used in earphones or for industrial antinoise purposes,” says Johnsee Lee, president of Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), where the technology has been under development since 2006.
The device, named fleXpeaker, is basically a sandwich of paper and metal filled with an electroactive polymer that contracts and expands with an audio signal’s electric field.
”It’s soft [and can] easily fit in different curves,” says Ming-Daw Chen, division director of ITRI’s Electronics and Optoelectronics Research Laboratories. ”Therefore, the product customization can be done in diverse fields, such as art for public facilities, interior design,...costume accessories, and others.”
I doubt these will ever fully replace traditional cone speakers but for many applications these will hopefully become the standard. Read more about it >HERE<
Crazy new video from Kanye West...say what you will but the man's got talent, vision and balls...yeah, he makes mistakes too, just like a normal human being...plus, the dude vomits and bleeds rose petals!!
UPDATED- sorry...didn't realize the Vimeo link was broken..Kanye posted it on his own site so you'd think it was legit..anyway here it is..
I need to apologize to you for not posting any of this guy's work sooner! I swore that I did but when I was looking for the back links I realized I did not :( Yuri Suzuki has done some of my favorite installation works that I've seen maybe ever. He is a very multi-disciplined creator but what I'm most interested in is his "sound art" pieces. He really pushes the limits of new uses for vinyl records and turntables in art and finds new and interesting ways to reinterpret how we interact with sound and the connection between music and the tangible medium. In addition to being a great artist, he's also an electronic music producer and an industrial designer. Go to his website and do some searches for him to learn more.
His most recent exhibit is going on now in Luxembourg and is part of a show titled "Coalition Of Amateurs". For this show, Yuri set up a full music production system which recorded music from 3 bands direct to master disk and then they pressed their own vinyl all in the same day!! I haven't been able to find out details yet on how exactly he did it but it appears that he made is own CNC cutter to make the masters on a standard Technics 1200 turntable.
Of all of Yuri's work I've seen thus far, the pieces created for his well-noted "The Physical Value Of Sound" exhibit last year at Clear Gallery in Tokyo. This show included a turntable with 5 tonearms, jewelry with sound etched onto it to be played on a turntable, a piece called "Sound Chaser" that used pieces of records as train tracks for a miniature train engine with a cartridge and speaker in it and a piece simply called "Digital and Analog" which is just a regular CD on one side and the top has grooves etched in to play sound (I REALLY love that one). Some others I really love are his "Jellyfish Theramin","Finger Player" and his "Graffiti Radio" project.
WOW! This is essentially an interface that requires only a computer, a webcam, a printer and a lot of ideas. The D-Touch sequencer and drum machine are available for FREE (both Mac and PC versions). Just watch the video and definately go to their site. Simply amazing.
This year's pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery is one of the best pieces of architecture constructed this year. Designed by the team SANAA, this structure is meant to reflect on the natural environment of the park both figuratively and literally. The amoeba-like form seems to naturally flow as if it were water or a cloud. It's a shame this will only be here for a short time. Since the Serpentine started it's annual pavilions in 2000 it has hosted some of the most important contemporary architects today including: Zaha Hadid, Daniel Liebeskind, Frank Gehry and Toyo Ito. Click on those links to learn more or do a search on Google or Bing.
Great documentary about gaming addicts. It's presented and put together in such a way that it teeters on the edge of fiction which is fitting given the subject matter but is very real, bizzare and beautiful at the same time. I thought I'd fall asleep watching it at 3am but ended up watching the whole thing. Second Skin is the best documentary I've seen this month so far..highly recommended! It may be coming to a theater near you soon. Check the comments for more info.
These images are from the virtual aerial tour done for New York by Australian based firm PixelCase. They specialize in this kind of work and I have to say that I'm super impressed. It's quite amazing really. The distortion features are cool but for some views can be a distraction. Anyway, imagine what the future of this will be!
This is one of the best things I've seen in the past year. At first glance it just seems like some cool graphics and sound...fair enough. What's fascinating though is that every piece in this series was made using the Processing programming language. The project is curated by the design studio Universal Everything (which does some really nice stuff) and musician Freeform. This is only 2 short clips from the series. Here's an excerpt from the Advanced Beauty website:
"The films embrace unusual video making processes, the visual programming language Processing, high-end audio analysis and fluid dynamic simulations alongside intuitive responses in traditional cell animation. Each artist was given the same set of parameters to work within; to start, finish and exist within a white space, creating a seamless coherence, all sculptures sharing the same white environment."
WHOA!!! GET THIS ALBUM! The new Sa-Ra album coming out June 9th is crazy....definitely one of the best albums that will come out this year. What is it with Ubiquity records and constantly putting out quality music!? Keep it up! And if you haven't got it already, pick up that Abundance album while you're at it (listen here).
Not much to say here. Just a really nice bike that uses wood instead of metal for some of the tubing. The joints are metal though. This was made by Arndt Menke.
I am familiar with the bamboo bike by BME and the new Bamboo bike Ross Lovegrove designed for Biomega...and the wooden bike at the Camper store in SoHo...and several other wooden (even cardboard) bikes. None of those look this good though.
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.
This is amazing! It takes the idea of the DJ being the maestro to a whole new level. I don't know why there are no turntables though.? These pictures are of the Baby Grand Master. Yes, they this company also makes a Grand Master model! This will be my upgrade from the DJ desk I'm getting from Metro Farm (view post)
Get more info and view more pics at Gardner Post's website >HERE<
In case you didn't know, today is a very important holiday that is often forgotten- Pi Day. Yes, as in the mathematical constant, π. To learn More go to the official site of Pi Day
Yeah, I know I'm late to post this. For those of you that haven't seen this you'll be shocked and for those of you that have seen it you'll still want to watch it again because it's DOPE!! Israeli producer Kutiman used only YouTube videos to create a new album! Kutiman is known for doing some nice remixes and some original material. Even though this project is technically a 'remix' since it's sample based, I would say it's original work because of the rearrangement and the thought process behind this. Sure, this is a great project but you should go buy his album and 7"s.
Big up to Wajeed, Bling 47, Platinum Pied Pipers, etc... for making some of the best music so far in the 21st century. The first release back in '05 was without a doubt one of the top 5 albums that year. Now, after much anticipation, the new album by Platium Pied Pipers (Wajeed, Saadiq and guests) dropped their Abundance album on January 20th. A couple of the songs are on this free download mixtape. Also, some DOPE remixes of older stuff. YOU NEED THIS! Go buy the album too!
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...
Over the last few weeks I've added a MASSIVE amount of new music to my fairly large digital collection (over 10gb to the existing 35k songs) As I have time I'll be sharing some of these new gems with you and continue to share a little of my existing collection. I just imported some deep funk/soul stuff and one of the first songs I clicked on was this monster disco gem taken from Keb Darge's Legendary Deep Funk volume 2. It's funny because I've actually had the 7Samurai edit of this for about 6 months and only played it a few times and forgot about it until now. The original is where it's at though:
This next tune is a new song that addresses the similar issues but after we've been 'modernized' for more than 30 years since the release of the previous song. This whole album by Beck is definitely worth the money. Maybe one of the best albums of 2008?
"Yoshimoto discovered this cube when he was searching for a way to divide a cube equally in three-dimensional space. The result is a peculiar polyhedral dyad consisting of eight interconnected cubes that can be opened in multiple ways. The cube can be divided into two cubes and then transformed into two rhombuses, one silver the other gold with twelve faces each. With its endless transformations, this cube makes a great toy for children as well as an intriguing desktop puzzle. Made of polypropylene."
Remember the post from the summer with those beautiful paintings using naked ladies? (click here for reminder) Well, here's some newer work by Korean artist Kim Joon. He's made these great wall papers on naked people and incorporates logos from Big international brands. I'm not sure if they're commissioned works or a statement about corporations branding our identities as humans. His work is mainly digital prints using his original body paintings as the source. Really good stuff. Check out more of his work at KimJoon.co.kr
I first stumbled upon this man's work a little over a year ago and got more into him while researching for a project. His compositions are usually just very simple geometric patterns. What's fascinating about his work is the execution scale of some of his projects. I was surprised not to see his name mentioned in a New York Times Magazine article last year about another artist that does similar work...shame on you NYTM editor! haha..Varini is not a big name in America though and the majority of his work is in Europe. You can see more of his work at Varini.org
Here's one of several videos of his work on YouTube>>>
Since 1962 Wal Mart has spread like a plague across America to a staggering 3,176 stores. This doesn't even include their locations in other countries! You can watch the growth at FlowingData.com
This one is actually a 'real' woman and not android although she may as well be. She is extremely brilliant and beautiful. Her name is Neri Oxman and if you're geek or just into material science, architecture, design or art you already know the name or at least her work. I forget name pretty easily unless I'm reminded again. In this case, when I was reminded it was one of those, "Duh! Of course I know her work!" kind of things. Amazingly, she's still working on a pHD in Design & Computation from MIT. Her body of work is very extensive and her list of awards and achievements is probably as long as she is tall. She's studied all over the world, been showcased in Seed Magazine and featured in nearly any architecture or design magazine around the world, been in shows at museums around the world, spoke at several lectures and somehow stays very grounded. Perhaps it's her medical background and growing up in Israel? In any event, she is destined to become one of the major players in architecture, design and material science in the 21st century. So what does she do?
" M A T E R I A L E C O L O G Y was formed in 2006 by Neri Oxman as an interdisciplinary research initiative that undertakes design research in the intersection between architecture, engineering, computation, biology and ecology. As such, this initiative is concerned with material organization and performance across all scales of design thought and practice. Material is interpreted merely as any physical entity which corresponds and reacts with its environment. As such, it seeks to promote and define a design research agenda which is ecological in nature, in ideology and in material practice; it aims at embracing the evolving elements of change in both (and indeed related) social constructs and environmental descriptions of the ever changing built environment."
For a proper explanation of what she does, just go to her site- MaterialEcology
To see her most current award or project go to her Blog
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.
yes, you're right...I really don't have a consistent 'video of the week' section but if I did this would surely be the video of the week. just watch! This is by a group called Zeitguised and the do some really dope motion graphics for fun and also for big clients. Check out more of their work here
I don't know why I didn't post this sooner but it came to mind since my trip to Japan. (don't worry...you'll see some of the pics soon) It's a video showing the artist, Stephen Wiltshire, drawing a 360º panoramic view of Tokyo..from memory! This is amongst the most impressive things I've ever seen done with a pen or brush. Yes, even more impressive than elephants painting or seeing HeavyWeight artists painting or that video by Blu.If you've seen aerial pictures of Tokyo or have seen how insane this challenge is you can start to realize how amazing this is...if not, just watch and you'll see what I'm talking about. Hint: most of the best artists in the world could not do this if the could see what they were drawing. Oh, and keep in mind this is with ink (no erasing).
Some of you have probably seen this already on the interweb but for those that haven't, it's called Golden Shellback and it is amazing!!! It was developed for the marine industry but somebody there had an epiphany- we all have electronics and get near water. Except for me, I avoid water unless it's mixed with fermented hops & barley. I haven't showered in years either...that's what deodorant is for.
I just saw this and had to post. Some guy in San Francisco has A LOT of free time. So much free time that he built a sculpture entirely out of toothpicks...over 100,000 of them! Just click the link and let him explain why he does what he does.
So, I'm waaaay out of the loop because this guy's got millions of views on YouTube (my new favorite hang out) and I never heard of this dude until earlier today. If you're anything like me, the word 'pianist' still makes you chuckle but this guy is seriously good. And I'm serious too about the word 'pianist' making me laugh. Doctors say I have the brain of an 8 year old but how many 8 year olds can really write their name in pee after drinking a 12pack? So, I'm probably more like a 10 year old and I'm a 'peein'ist'! (poo poo platter never gets old either) People who play piano should be called 'pianoers'?
One of my students showed me this earlier. It makes my back hurt just watching it. We just figured she's replaced all her natural joints with robotic ones. I guess that makes her an android.
There's always good stuff going on in NY but here's a couple that will be going on for a while so those of us not cool enough to live in NY can still make time to see. I was really upset that I couldn't make it to MoMA for "Design and the Elastic Mind" and I wish I could attend some of the Buckminster Fuller Institute's events but here's a couple that I'm looking forward to not missing. If any of you plan on going, let me know.
If you didn't already know it, David Byrne is a genius. Although I know that many of us may have had this idea, he's the first I've seen to something like this on this level.
