whizdumb

Always Be Knolling

 

Lani gave me a subtle prod to write more here. I've been more of a listener than a contributor lately. But it's nice to hear that someone's reading so I'll try to write more. Thanks for the nudge, Lani.

Browsing through The Selby this morning I came across the photo essay of Tom Sachs' space... space as in his studio and living area. Space as in his interest in NASA and space travel. What a place.

Then I read a bit more about him and Knolling. It all clicks together. Angles, materials, arrangements. It is a holy mess yet fastidious and calming all at once. Quite nice.

Playing the building

I'm a long time fan of David Byrne's art and music so I was thrilled to go see his new art installation called Playing the Building.

He hooked an old organ up to the beams, pipes and columns of the Battery Maritime Building which lets you literally play the building.  The keyboard is divided up into three sections which correspond to the types of triggers: solenoids which are basically hammers that strike metal; flutes which blow air past holes drilled in pipes; and motors which vibrate beams. 

The building has had several lives. It used to be the place people waited to board the ferry to Brooklyn before the ferry was discontinued in 1938.  You can see its restored Beaux-Arts grandeur on the outside and if you really look carefully on the inside there are cues to its better days.  And there is evidence of more recent uses such as the faded basketball court lines on the floor.

I didn't record any sound but you can hear some in the videos on David Byrne's site.

I put some some photos from my visit in a flickr set.  Enjoy.

The exhibit lasts until August 24, 2008.

An assassination undone

Yesterday morning on my way to work I passed by a storefront near the corner of 40th and 8th Avenue.  It had been vacant for some time but this morning there was brewing buzz of activity around it.  Sometime earlier in the morning an artist had put nicely stenciled letters on the storefront window that read, "THE ASSASSINATION OF HILLARY CLINTON; THE ASSASSINATION OF BARACK OBAMA".
The exhibit turned out to be a short lived statement which is getting much more attention online than in real life, where it was up for only a few hours.  When I passed by I thought about taking a picture but balked.  When I returned a couple hours later the window was covered by construction paper and the artist was at the police station being interrogated by the cops and the secret service.

Later interviewed, the artist said the piece was a reference to character assassination in the media. Seems like a pretty harmless thing to me and it's a shame this guy and his message were so swiftly swept away.  The storefront is directly opposite the New York Times building so at least he caught the attention of his intended audience. 

Read the NY Times' blog post about the whole thing here.

Design and the Elastic Mind

If you haven't heard of or seen this exhibit, I'd call it a must if you find yourself in New York sometime between now and May 12 when it closes.  Loads of inspiration and mind fodder for anyone interested in the role of design in an information and technological society.

Among the many wonders on display are instant furniture, nano inventions, and a new piece by Jonathan Harris.

If you can't make it in person, the MoMA's exhibit website is a meaty proxy for it.

Art meets science at Le Laboratoire

I heard a story recently on NPR's Weekend Edition called New Space Promotes Intersection of Art, Science.  It's about Le Laboratoire, a place in Paris that is part science lab, part art exhibit.

It was founded by a Harvard professor of bio-medical technology named David Edwards who moonlights writing fiction. 

He started talking to his colleagues across disciplines and found they shared a similar story - the scientists had a hidden interest in art and the artists had a hidden interest in science.  He was struck by their covert passions and wondered what would happen if he brought the seemingly opposite disciplines together in a public space.

Le Laboratoire was born, and it was driven by a central question: What lies behind innovative intelligence?

He wrote two books related to the founding of the lab.  One is called Artscience: Creativity in the Post-Google Generation. I haven't read it.  In the meantime I recommend giving the story a listen.

Le Laboratoire has since closed the exhibit featured in the story but it looks like they have ambitious plans for the future. 

They segment their types of innovation into four kinds:

CULTURAL Through collaboration with a scientist, an artist creates a new form of ?????

INDUSTRIAL Through collaboration with a designer, a scientist invents a new scientific process.

HUMANITARIAN  Artists and scientists engage in dialogues to bring solutions to humanitarian problems.

EDUCATIONAL Artists and scientists create with or alongside a student in the arts or sciences to produce passionate experiential learning.

Sometimes I feel like the common themes of left brain vs. right brain; art vs. science; rational vs. emotional have become the tired dualities of pre-concept conversation.  We talk about how such-and-such concept hits on a balance of emotional and rational.  We debate the role of each extreme, often for the purpose of explaining why a concept, an approach, an execution, works.

I like what Le Laboratoire is doing because they use art and science as creative inputs.  They crash them head-on and exhibit the result.   It just seems like a good approach for true creative alchemy.

Sprinkle Brigade finds inspiration in unlikely places

These guys call themselves the Sprinkle Brigade.  They search the streets of New York City and create their own brand of found art. 

"Our mission is to be a solution to the problem, to put a smile on your face, and to meets [sic] some ladies in the process. So if you're out with your pooch and you don't have anything to pick up its chud baby, just leave it ... we got it."

Talk about finding art in unusual places.  They've even created some rather nice videos of their installations.

It's a clear reminder that inspiration is everywhere.  You just have to sniff it out. 

If you find yourself in New York starting 11/29/07 their work will be on exhibit at Riviera.

Thanks to Andy for the link.   

Ssllooww ddaanncciinngg

Here's a brutally simple idea.  Take something that is usually fast and frenetic. Then slow it way down to reveal its every detail.

Artist David Michalek has a traveling installation that does just that.  He takes hyper slow motion HD videos of the world's best dancers then projects them larger than life. Here's a sample, though the real videos are much slower.  They take an original 5 seconds of live action and extend it to 10 minutes.

Apple profiled the artist and gets into the technical end of the production.  More to learn is at the official Slow Dancing Films website.

Yellow Arrow points to new connections

A new art/media/tech project has emerged which combines a handful of some very diverse elements.  Part street art, part real-world websurfing, part tagging.  Yellow Arrow brings online features to the real world. 

Basically how it works is when you see an arrow out in the world (you can order the stickers on their website) you text the code with your mobile, or go online, and you will get a response that provides a description of what the arrow is pointing at.  It's difficult to describe but a very cool merging of mobile, street, and human communication.  The video is a bit over the top but it explains all. 

This harkens back to Space Invaders, which dabbled in the participatory nature of street art.  But it opens it up and allows others to comment on the same arrow.  I guess in that way it's a little like geochaching. 

At any rate, I'm curious to try it out.  Have you?

Walking the High Line

Awhile ago I read an article called Walking the High Line, in a Japanese travel magazine called Paper Sky.  Paper Sky is a wonderful magazine written in Japanese and English, published from Tokyo by a California transplant.  (It's really  hard to find and their site and their blog require translating to English).

Anyway, the article was the first time I'd heard of the High Line, and I hadn't heard much else, or seen it first hand.

The High Line is a vestigial elevated rail line that snakes through Manhattan for 1.45 miles.  No trains have run on it since 1980 and it's been overtaken by weeds, animals and, more recently, humans in search of a way to save it and turn it into a public space.  What an amazing artifact, right in the middle of the city.   More on the High Line, including a video from Friends of the High Line here.

Recently I was excited to hear about the High Line Festival, featuring artists and acts curated by David Bowie.   What a fantastic idea. From their site:

The H&M High Line Festival is a new multi-discipline arts festival that will be curated each year by a different artist. The inaugural edition, curated by David Bowie, will run May 9 to 19, 2007.

The ten-day mash-up of music, film, comedy, visual art and performance will highlight all of David's favorite artists. The best of the best.

The festival will take place in venues near the High Line, an elevated rail structure soon to open as a public open space which runs through the Meatpacking District, West Chelsea and Clinton/Hells Kitchen. A portion of ticket sales will go to benefit Friends of the High Line, the 501(c)3 organization currently working with the City of New York to transform the 1930's rail structure into a park, set to open in 2008.

Geostationary Banana Over Texas

Not sure how much I can add to this.  Giant fruit floating in space over Texas for a month.  For god's sake let's give these Canadian artists a million bucks and get this thing off the ground!