MIT Museum's Kinetic Art exhibition The MIT Museum in Cambridge has a new exhibit featuring kinetic art called "5000 Moving Parts." It features large-scale works of sculptures and machinery by contemporary artists such as Arthur Ganson, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Anne Lilly, and John Douglas Powers. The art will be on display until November 2014. In the following cinemagraphs of selected pieces, artists and the show's curator, explain their thought process behind creating each one and provide insight into kinetic art. Electro-Magnetic I, No. 13 “[Takis] has persistently been interested in the idea of invisible forces, and this sculpture is an example of that kind of force.” - Laura Knott, guest curator Haliades “[It’s] capturing that notion of the sirens, that there’s something beautiful and seductive, but perhaps a little bit menacing at the same time.” - John Douglas Powers, artist Breathe “I’ve always been interested in movement and gesture. To Conjugate Ialu
#sxaesthetic Report from Austin, Texas, on the New Aesthetic panel at SXSW. At SXSW this year, I asked four people to comment on the New Aesthetic, which if you don’t know is an investigation / project / tumblr looking at technologically-enabled novelty in the world. (Previously: the original blog post, the main tumblr, my talk at Web Directions South.) I opened the panel by talking about the origins of NA, in a frustration at retro-ness (the belief that authenticity can only be located in the past)—best encapsulated by Russell’s post here: Every hep shop seems to be full of tweeds and leather and carefully authentic bits of restrained artisinal fashion. I think most of Shoreditch would be wondering around in a leather apron if it could. —as well as a real sense that there were new and extraordinary things and experiences in the world, like the ability to see through satellites, which we should wonder at and explore, but instead reduce to the mundane, like GPS driving directions… And Tom said:
Archinect | Connecting Architects Since 1997 Light sculptor| PAUL FRIEDLANDER Brilliant is this man who is a physicist and light sculptor. And his name is Paul Friedlander. Not only does the man have degrees in physics and maths, Friedlander is a professor at Cambridge (at the same department as Stephen Hawking!!), he’s also an cosmologist and interstellar prolusion expert (Google it). Professor Friedlander’s kinetic light-art isn’t something new. What we like most about Paul is not necessarily his amazing kinetic light sculptures, but also his views on how the art-world can be so backwards. Read more on Professor Friedlander in this interesting piece by Things Worth Describing.
An Essay on the New Aesthetic | Beyond The Beyond An Essay on the New Aesthetic Bruce Sterling I witnessed the New Aesthetic panel at South by Southwest 2012. If you know nothing of the “New Aesthetic,” or if you have no idea what “SXSW” is, you should repair your ignorance right away. Now, I know full well that many people never returned from that link I placed up there. You people are either exceedingly determined blog-readers, or else you already know something about the New Aesthetic. You people already know who you are. Joanne McNeil of Rhizome was right when she said at SXSW that things like the New Aesthetic often happen. The New Aesthetic is image-processing for British media designers. This is one of those moments when the art world sidles over toward a visual technology and tries to get all metaphysical. The New Aesthetic concerns itself with “an eruption of the digital into the physical.” What’s more, I rather like the trend-line there. I admired the way that panel behaved. So.
Q4 2016 Consumer Confidence Report Amid great political and economic change around the world, global consumer confidence moved modestly in 2016, rising three points between the first and fourth quarter to 101. Confidence scores in every region except Africa/Middle East finished the year more strongly than they began. And while quarter-on-quarter swings occurred in most markets, fourth-quarter confidence scores increased from the first quarter of 2016 in 44 of the 63 markets measured in the online survey, including eight of the world’s top 10 economies. North America saw the greatest change in 2016, with the index rising 12 points between the first and the fourth quarters to a score of 120. The Nielsen Consumer Confidence Index measures perceptions of local job prospects, personal finances and immediate-spending intentions.
A Basket That's a Wiggling Work of Kinetic Art [Video] The incredible thing about Bidum is that it's a basket, and it swings, shimmies, and shakes like some sort of cross between a Slinky and a giant Koosh Ball. The more incredible thing is that it's a basket, and we're actually excited about it. Once you see the videos, though, you'll get what all the fuss is about. Industrial designer Laetitia Florin produced Bidum for her graduate thesis at the École Cantonale d'Art de Lausanne, in Switzerland. What you actually do with the basket is up to you. Well, that's good. [Images courtesy of Laetitia Florin]
Do Not Touch Biotech trends The Sun Altered Cube: A solar powered kinetic installation by Michael Jantzen The painted steel Sun Altered Cube is a large solar powered kinetic art installation designed by Michael Jantzen to be placed into a public park. An array of solar cells is mounted on the top of the cube. These solar cells power two electric motors that are connected to two corners of the cube. The corners have been separated from the rest of the cube so they can be slowly rotated in and out of phase, by the solar powered electric motors. The speed of the rotating corners varies in relationship to the intensity of the sun. The cube has been painted with a strong black and white graphic in order to emphasize the ways in which it continually changes. The Sun Altered Cube is part of a series of structures designed by Michael, which explore ways in which the built environment can interact in unexpected ways, with the natural environment.
corpsenimmersion.overblog.com Photovoltaic film May 2015 Here is a segment on the Morris Museum that was broadcast by WMBC-TV in the New York City & northern New Jersey area last weekend. The first two-thirds of the video is on the mechanical music instruments, and the rest is about the automata. Not only do we get to see and hear some of these wonderful machines, but we also get some valuable commentary from the both the Conservator and Curators of the collection. Here is where you can learn more about the Morris Museum in Morristown, New Jersey Labels: antiques, autoamta, collections, France, interview, mechanical music, monkey, Morris Museum, Murtogh D.