Sound Sculptures & Installation Compilation

Zimoun : Sound Sculptures & Installations | Compilation Video V1.2 from [ ] on Vimeo.

Chris O'Shea : Audience

Audience - rAndom International from Chris O'Shea on Vimeo.

Site : ChrisO'Shea

Drift : Fragile Future : Lighting & Dandylions

Check out more @ Drift

Sketch

Sketch for future work. More info coming soon through studio update post.

Bibi Tanga - Talking Nigga Brothaz

Architectural Mountain Ranges : Bjarke Ingels : TED

Studio Update : 09.13.09

It has been a busy few weeks. Most of the recent posts have been holding space while I collect images, rummage through ideas and experiment with some new work in the studio. Last week I was charged with presenting images of past work and describing various interests that float upon the horizon. I did so, but for this blog, seeing as how many images of past work are already plugged into old blogposts as well as covered on my website, I thought it necessary to share only images that I showed that cannot be found elsewhere related to my work.

First off, the above images were gathered from my journals which are covered in sketches and writings. They also occasionally hold the remnants of leaves and small pebbles picked up along the way. But because my work often excludes figurative imagery I found it interesting and necessary to show. The making of marks upon paper, the gesture and the expression that can be found between the pages of my notebooks are in a very subtle way related to certain aspects of my work.

But moving on, I decided to bring together images that I find inspiring and expressive; images that relay imagined, mythic and fictitious projections of the urban environment while suggesting the future of the urban landscape . I have particularly chosen images that emphasize the growing trend of vegetated urbanism and architecture. I should give due credit to Jason King who authors a great blog, two now, from which I have sourced many of my current images. (see. Landscape+Urbanism or Veg.itecture).

From there I moved into some of the images, topographic in nature, that represent a variety of data and methods being employed by various professional practices to visualize such data. This topography is of interest to me particularly because while much of it is shown in 2d still images, some these topographies model, in real time, information that changes rapidly, much more so than a real landscape under the pressure of erosion and natural process. These topographies flux more frequently and dynamically with rapid changes in the information they reflect. Information like cell phone use depicted in a spatial context, pedestrian density over the course of a day, or wireless data sent from one point to another. My interest here is in the use of a contour map, once relegated to static 2d images on paper, into a virtual as well as three dimensional space, over time and in response to dynamic information.


Finally there I showed a collection of images taken from the studio, which are rapidly becoming outdated as the work progresses.

I am currently working in several directions, experimenting and exploring, so this post in itself is somewhat mono-dimensional, focused upon one aspect of the past few weeks of work. I will begin to cover other projects as they move farther along.

Kultnation & Echolab :Solid Form to Air

All that is solid melts into the air. from Sooz on Vimeo.

For More:
Echolab
Kultnation

Small Life in Cologne

Small Life in Cologne from Christoph Schaarschmidt on Vimeo.

Analog glory-hole door

Power of 8 : Experimenting with Imagined Urban Fabrics

Power of 8 is a collaborative project developed by Anab Jain, a designer whose work investigates intersections between digital, biological and sociological fields. Her current efforts investigate design alternatives that impact present development practices and experiment with the collective expression of imaginative urban forms. In this project "8 people from different walks of life work together to build a public conversation about their individual aspirations for a desirable future."

Power of 8 blurs overlapping space between the public and private sphere and carries my interest for a variety of reasons. In part it is open source and participatory in nature, it makes use a variety of cognitive mapping techniques and explores the development and social expression of urban form in relation to fantasy. Beginning with a series of workshops the crew of eight share their ideas and formulate imaginative visions of the future.


The project is of particular interest because it has manifest as a part of the art world. It is funded by the Arts Council England, presented within the gallery environment, and extends traditional roles for artists, designers, and other professionals; emphasizing transdiciplinary approaches to the development of the urban fabric.

The approach taken is one that begins exclusively and unfolds in the public realm. While typical design-build projects dictate urban morphology from the top down this project is inclusive, moving from the ideas of its eight original participants to the public, facilitating in the process of imagining alternatives to the existing urban fabric. While public participation did not occur from the onset, the shift from private to public practice was planned and implemented at an early stage in the life of the project. Preliminary results of the project workshops were presented to the public during a gallery opening and a large abstracted map of Brentford, the area surrounding the gallery, became a central interactive component to the exhibition. The idea was to "engage with the local people by situating some of our imagined scenarios over the map, and inviting them to do the same."

The incubation period, during which the professional crew initiated the process and developed individual and collective visions, could very well have provided a successful way to show that images of the future need not be limited in scope. Ideas that emerged from the workshops appear to have included a wealth of creative proposals and initiated a creative response from the public.

"Over the course of two days we had a steady stream of participants ranging from the radically activist to the playfully naive populated this map of their local area of Brentford with walking houses, snow stimulators, solar powered airships, public free boxes, trees that could talk to one another, new wireless connectivity, new species of underwater organisms and human spinning tops. The table was transformed into a landscape of fantasy and possibility in what appears to be a distant edge suburb of London."



Following the exhibition ideas generated through the Power of 8 project are intended to move freely through the public realm. "After October, the work will discursively enter the public domain, and each collaborator will be able to have equal ownership over the material and disseminate it in a way that suits him/her best." In this way the project will have seeded the landscape with ideas of the future, opening the local community to the creative potential of collectively imagined landscapes and inspiring new visions for the future.

In essence this project exemplifies an optimistic and inclusive approach to the development of our shared habitat. It combines the creative potential of forward thinking professionals with that of everyday citizens, those who share in the lived experience of the city and its infrastructure, to produce a collective expression of the future.


to see more visit: The Power of 8

Surface & Depth : 1

Kuroshio Sea - 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world - (song is Please don't go by Barcelona) from Jon Rawlinson on Vimeo.

May I suggest that when you watch the above video, you view it in full screen and relax for a moment from whatever it is that you are supposed to be doing. I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

This post is the short version of an extensive network of thoughts oriented around the development of surface technologies emerging in the urban fabric. I am thinking of surfaces that have been transformed from rigid physical boundaries into large scale widows through advancements in digital LED screens. But what is above is not one of these surfaces. This is a view of a very real environment. The aquatic life seen here is not artificial and aside from the fact that we currently experience it from a computer screen, these are not merely images. My concern here is with the very real environment captured in this video and artificial images presented on emerging multimedia surfaces (like the one below).

555 KUBIK | facade projection | from urbanscreen on Vimeo.

I have an array of thoughts related to this topic. How is the urban fabric going to change as more and more surfaces become augmented through technology? How will these changes affect human behavior and psychology? What images will we experience? Surely not all of these screens will run artistic projects like the one above. What will happen if and when these surfaces become interactive, like the producers of the next video imagine? And what will it be like when we can interact with the same surfaces that for centuries have functioned as physical and psychological boundaries? Needless to say these are only a few of the questions I have related to this type of change in rigid urban surfaces.

Map/Territory from timo on Vimeo.

Seeing as how this is supposed to be the short version of my thoughts I will move on to why I chose to emphasis the first video in this post. For one, I was moved by this video. I am attracted to aquatic life like many other people in the world and have great memories of time spent off the coast of Belize studying reef ecology. But, returning from such a digression, the video of the aquarium is a real (although designed by human) environment. After seeing all of these videos and others like them I am drawn to question the differences between seeing a high definition image on a screen the size of a building, capable of mimicking real environments and the experience of real environments. One cannot physically move through the images presented on the screen nor can one move through the glass that contains the artificial sea of the aquarium. So to the viewer what is the difference? Perhaps in my case the difference appears in my memory. The memory of seeing creatures like these in their real habitat. The memory of the weightlessness and the feeling of being surrounded by water, literally immersed in a new world, one I am able to explore through all of my senses, in a very human way. A way that I believe is common to all of us and one that, in the world of surfaces, boundaries and images, decays without the depth added by memory and real experience.

My intention here is not to relegate technology to some benign status. It is to applaud the experience of being human, and the ability to explore the world around us. It is also to realize that technology, paired with the wonder of very real environments, real experiences and the imagination of creative men and women, can give depth to everyday surfaces, making them extraordinary.

Nonbeing : Michel Mazza

NONBEING from MICHEL MAZZA on Vimeo.

Studio Update : Tyler 1 : 07.28.09

I am finally settling into the new studio at Tyler. In short this means that I am finally able to begin new work and in turn give the first studio update since moving to Philadelphia. I have much to say related to this work but will hold most of the content back for future posts. Much of what I present here is in preparation for an increase in scale and developing complexities of form and content. My thoughts float around the idea of cognitive landscapes, strata, contours and topography. That however is about as far as will go in describing sources of my thought processes related to this work. What I am willing to share are images of the first rudimentary drawings, scans, and maquettes. All products of incubation and results of the ongoing investigation that lends itself to the development of new work. Below are images gathered from the two walls of my studio that I use for reflecting upon the work.


With such a small amount of information related to the work I hope that I will retain some sense of curiosity in the viewer. While I enjoy revealing work in progress I often question the effect of releasing such information. But at this stage in the process, such an early point, I think it is safe to share a slice of my studio practice.

Future posts will be tagged as studio updates and cognitive landscapes lest the work takes a major turn.

Tiago & Gabriel Primo : Climbing & Living as an Intallation

Climbing brothers Tiago and Gabriel Primo have been living on display since May of this year. Their vision for the exterior wall of a local gallery in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil has literally taken on the life of these two artists/climbers.

Apparently images of big wall climbing and the bivy ledges that climbers use to camp out on these, often multi-day vertical expeditions have creeped into the art scene of Brazil. But this time there is no big wall, just an urban niche now filled with the amenities that you would usually find in the comfort of your own home.

This is not the first time the art scene has taken a page from the journals of the climbing community. Artist Matthew Barney, in one of his 'Creamaster' films put his rigging and construction man T.J. Davey to work as a stand in, climbing the proscenium of an opera house in Budapest. There is also the moving structural mass of 2000 bamboo supports "Big Bamboo" by the Starn brothers making its way through the old Tallix foundry in Beacon, NY.

Perhaps these two have brought a new edge to the use of climbing equipment and techniques in art, by publicising their life 14 hours a day for nearly four months. Apparently Taigo and Gabriel spend the majority of their time interacting with the public. Which renders some questions related to my current interests. Through the publicity of their lifestyle, that which is typically private, are these brothers blurring the distinction between the private and public spheres? And could this be called public art? Perhaps not, but I am inclined to wonder, if they began dialogues related to housing issues, which they have been asked "How much is the rent?" by a passerby, and if they then opened a public dialogue related to such a topic in the streets of Rio, would it then become public art? While this may not be the purpose of their work, and it seems as though activism is the last thing on the minds of these two, their actions do generate questions and blur the divisions of public/private domains. What can be seen, and is probably more important than the questions I am posing, is simply how much fun it would be if there were more vertical access and exposure in the Urban landscape. Sure it presents liability issues and would probably incur serious legal ramifications if not authorized by the art world, but perhaps that is one of the best things about the art world. It's diverse, experimental, and has enough authority to provide spaces and legitimacy for the otherwise irrational but all to human forms of expression and acts of freedom.

Brothers Taigo and Gabrial plan to continue this exhibition and lifestyle through mid August. After which the home on a rope will come down and another, perhaps more grounded exhibition will take place.


Brothers Taigo and Gabriel Primo as their installation.
image via: associated press