July 3, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Vanessa Vanselow: Originality vs Authenticity

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Recent graduate, Melbourne-based graphic designer Vanessa Vanselow created a installation to visualize her thesis on Originality vs Authenticity. It’s probably best to quote Vanessa directly on her thesis statement and explanation:

Redefining the term ‘originality’ into the more relevant term ‘authenticity’ is essential in the growth and development of the design community. Authenticity entails taking ideas and using them in a way that is unique and different. It is more about the way you are influenced by what is around you, and the way you apply your ideas to your work. It relates to how you are inspired, what elements affect you personally and how you translate this into a solution.

In creating a visual outcome, I have focused on the concept of an authentic experience that is ever changing by creating an imprint made by each viewer onto a structure, whilst projecting images and colours onto it that relate to them on a personal level. This therefore becomes a genuine and authentic experience, influenced solely by the viewer that evolves and changes through time. The ever-changing nature captures an ephemeral imprint of each user, tailoring the experience to become authentic and personal to each individual.

Here’s the stop motion animation that documents the installation in use and illustrates Vanselow’s thesis quite well.

via IdN

July 2, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Key Frames by Groupe LAPS at GLOW

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French art studio Groupe LAPS (previously here) have taken their Key Frames to a higher level, literally. Last November, as part of the GLOW 2012 Festival in Eindhoven in the Netherlands, the flashing/dancing/climbing LED light tube stick figures took over a building and all its balconies, giving the illusion of people creeping around from rooftop to individual rooms when the sun went down and the light show began. Take a look at what I’m talking about in the short video below:

Photos courtesy of Groupe LAPS.

July 1, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Pulse Index

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Mexican-born artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (previously here) is an electronic artist who develops interactive installations that are at the intersection of architecture and performance art. His main interest is in creating platforms for public participation using technologies such as robotics, computerized surveillance and telematic networks. In his installation Pulse Index Lozano-Hemmer invites participants to place their finger into a custom-made sensor equipped with a 220x digital microscope and a heart rate sensor. The piece displays data for the last 765 and over participants in a stepped display that creates a horizon line of skin. The fingerprint immediately appears on the largest cell of the display, pulsating to the person’s heart beat. As more people try the piece one’s own recording travels upwards until it disappears altogether.

Reading Lozano-Hemmer’s website I learned that he has a mysterious public art piece scheduled for NYC next month (August) so we’ll have to keep an eye out for that.

Photos: Anti-modular Research and Kate Russel

June 28, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Cognitive Polygraph: Alexi K.

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Alexi K, a painter/illustrator in Birmingham, UK, creates everything from this series of minimalist black and white line drawings titled Cognitive Polygraph, to boldly colorful and elaborate street murals. I love how so much form and movement is delivered in these pen drawings with just the use of horizontal rules. Impressive.

via thecorner

June 27, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Front 404: Happy Birthday George Orwell

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Dutch duo Front404 create interactive installations with humor that aim to surprise and offer a different perspective on the world. On June 25th, in honor of George Orwell’s 110th birthday, the two, Thomas voor ‘t Hekke and Bas van Oerle, placed party hats on surveillance cameras throughout the city of Utrecht. Not just a celebratory gesture, but a great way of drawing attention to the inconspicuous cameras that observe our every move and we so readily ignore. Every day, just that much closer to an Orwellian surveillance state.

via junkculture

June 27, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Stairway Cinema: Oh.No.Sumo

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The experimental design collective Oh.No.Sumo started as a creative outlet for four friends graduating from the architecture school at the University of Auckland and soon transformed into a design collective exploring many avenues of design, pushing the boundaries and allowing for uninhibited design freedoms through creative thinking and active participation. Their third and most recent major installation is Stairway Cinema at a corner in Auckland where there’s not much community interaction. By creating a mini movie theater in the stairway of a building, Oh.No.Sumo have in effect countered this issue, creating a communal and social environment that engages passers-by.

The structure was created with a timber truss covered in fabric with a waterproof exterior. Matching red cushions were added to the steps for softer seating while video content is projected onto the cantilevered end of the canopy. Very fun.

via designtaxi

June 26, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Chu Doma: Colorful Multilayer Sculpture

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Argentinean street artist Chu Doma (previously here) — aka Julian Pablo Manizelli — has taken his very appealing 2-dimensional drawing style and transformed it into wonderful 3-D multilayer sculptures that are beautifully crafted. They almost look like puzzles (maybe they are?). I love everything about them: the playfulness, the bright-yet-muted color palettes; and even though I haven’t seen them in person, I’m pretty sure I’d enjoy their feel.

You can see much more of Chu Doma’s sculptures, toys, and, of course, street art on his flickr.

via graffitimundo

June 25, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Adam Parker Smith: Fun with Art

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I have run across Adam Parker Smith’s work repeatedly over the past couple of years, though due to its varied nature, it was only recently that I realized all these works were his. Whether at a No Longer Empty installation up in the Bronx, or at art fairs such as Pulse here in Manhattan, Adam Parker Smith’s work is very much in the public eye. And it should be. It’s full of humor mixed with cultural critique, verging on the conceptual while employing techniques that include painting, sculpture, collage, video and more. Parker Smith’s work is the equivalent to that person who’s the life of the party. Fun and engaging, with sharp wit, sometimes ironic, sometimes a little crass, but always clever and surprising. Who wouldn’t want that in their show?

Photos courtesy of the artist and (top two) collabcubed.

June 25, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Phoebe Washburn: Sculpture in the Rotunda

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The National Academy here on NYC’s Fifth Avenue, initiated their Sculpture in the Rotunda series in 2011 in which a large-scale site-specific sculpture/installation is placed in the building’s beaux-arts Rotunda. Currently, and through September of this year, the installation Nudes, Housed Within Their Own Clothes and Aware of Their Individual Thirst, Descending a Staircase is by New York-based artist Phoebe Washburn constructed a 15ft high and 11 feet in diameter cylindrical tower perforated with colorful “wormholes” through which visitors can peer in as they walk up and down the spiral staircase. Washburn’s artwork is often made with scrap wood and repurposed materials that she finds around NYC and this installation is no exception speaking issues of recycling, environmentalism, consumable products and the waste created by the current consumer-driven society.

You can see other installations by Phoebe Washburn here, or visit Nudes, Housed Within Their Own Clothes and Aware of Their Individual Thirst, Descending a Staircase at the National Gallery through September 2013.

Photos courtesy of Zach Feuer Gallery

June 21, 2013 by collabcubed - 2 Comments

James Turrell: Aten Reign in the Guggenheim Rotunda

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The very much anticipated James Turrell exhibit at the Guggenheim opened this evening and we were fortunate enough to attend the exciting event. The impressive skyspace installation that occupies the seemingly reduced-in-size rotunda does not disappoint. Aten Reign, as the massive installation is titled, cycles through a spectrum of colors—with varying hues of each—in approximately an hour. From white light to deep shades of reds and purples and eventually to almost complete darkness, the central atrium of the museum glows in a mystical yet soothing array of colors, changing people’s skin tones and even playing with one’s eyes and perception of color in the exterior halls lit in their natural white light that seem to take on a pink glow when the rotunda glows green, and green when pink. The rest of the museum is virtually empty except for about 5 rooms containing older works by Turrell all in white light. The trickery in these works is amazing, causing one to doubt their depth perception on a consistent basis. That which seems flat, is actually an open space, and that which seems open is actually a flat wall with projected light. Same goes for a cube of light that is so convincingly 3-dimensional, when in fact it is completely 2-dimensional. But, back to Aten Reign the exhibit’s pièce de resistance: the multi-tiered scrim creates elliptical circle within elliptical circle, working its way up from the most intense shade to five shades lighter towards to skylight. The rest of the museum looks oddly cropped and bare sans art, but it makes you appreciate the James Turrell installation-filled rooms, all the more.

James Turrell will be on exhibit at the Guggenheim through September 25, 2013.

Photos: collabcubed

June 20, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Street Stone: Léo Caillard & Alexi Persani

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I’ve seen modern-day people dress up as classical statues both on Las Ramblas in Barcelona and, occasionally, here in NYC, but I’ve never seen classical statues dress up as modern-day people. French photographer Léo Caillard came up with the humorous concept. He didn’t actually dress these stone sculptures but instead had retoucher Alexis Persani masterly ‘enrobe’ them using photoshop, converting them into the most unassuming hipsters…well, maybe a little stiffer. How no one has come up with this concept before (talk about perfect models!) for a clothing company catalog (I can just see Victoria’s Secret’s Fall catalog now…) is a mystery to me. Very clever, Léo.

You can see the “making of” in the video below. Those are some mad skills (cue daughters’ eyerolls and cringing here.)

via radiolab

June 19, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Richard Woods: A Maze for Yorkshire

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I’ve come across artist Richard Woods’ work over the years, but I don’t think I ever quite put it all together until now. The London-based Woods likes to substitute colorful faux cartoon-y textures for the real ones. Beginning about a dozen years ago replacing wooden floor slats in a house with their colorful cartoon counterparts, Woods has since made aluminum siding homes look like tudors, revamped brick homes with larger cartoon-like faux brick exteriors, and now, at the Orangery in Wakefield, Yorkshire, he’s created a maze titled A Maze for Yorkshire in shades of pinks and reds in what he describes as a ‘cartoon Yorkshire dry stone wall.’ The temporary labyrinth measures 10 meters square with an intimate performance space at its center. The maze has an accompanying soundscape as well.

A Maze for Yorkshire will be up at The Orangery through September 29, 2013.

Photos of maze by Jonty Wilde. Other photos courtesy of the artist.

via wallpaper

June 18, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

One Thousand Speculations: Michel de Broin

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Canadian artist Michel de Broin adopts a critical and playful attitude towards common objects and ideas. For the Luminato Festival, going on currently in Toronto, Broin created his installation One Thousand Speculations, a 7.9 metre in diameter ball made up of 1000 mirrors that will be lifted 80-feet above the ground of David Pecaut Square each night of the Festival. The largest disco ball in the world will spin, twinkle, and reflect against the buildings around the square for the duration of the festival. Fun!

Photos courtesy Luminato Festival and Damn Cool Pictures.

June 18, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Grimanesa Amoros: The Mirror Connection

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Peruvian-born, NYC-based artist Grimanesa Amoros uses sculpture, video, and light to create works that “illuminate our notions of personal identity and community.” Light is one of her primary materials because it creates “presence without physicality.” Earlier this month Amoros unveiled her latest site-specific commission at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum in Beijing. The work, titled The Mirror Connection, consists of a huge waterfall-like scribble of LEDs that pulsate in their white and yellow colors giving a sense of liquid flowing through tubes. The lights bounce off the walls and reflect off the metal domes they emanate from as well as intermittently casting shadows around the space. The sheer scale of the piece at a height of 33 feet—evident by the minute size of the people wandering the museum gallery in the photos—must be breathtaking. You can see the piece in action on the top left corner on this page.

Photos courtesy of the artist and news.cn

via global times

June 17, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Fragile Invasion: Hidemi Nishida Studio

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This past March, during an ordinary week, a giant wooden cube seemingly crashed through the roof of Galleri Fisk in Bergen Hordaland, Norway, with the largest part of the cube occupying the building’s interior, and approximately one quarter of it sticking out from the rooftop. Then, after three days, it suddenly disappeared. There was no actual crash but, instead, environmental artist Hidemi Nishida’s installation Fragile Invasion took over the gallery. Nishida creates temporary shelters to make people aware of their surrounding environment, often organizing happenings in these shelters. In the case of Fragile Invasion, the happening seems to have been the installation itself.

via jeroenapers

June 12, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Sylvie Fleury: Scratch

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Last month at the Frieze Art Fair, I came across Swiss artist Sylvie Fleury’s piece Scratch, a small sculpture made with rollers and hairpins (or curlers and bobby pins) and the simplicity, as well as the fun choice of objects, made me smile. Fleury, based in Geneva, typically uses fashion and luxury products in her work. Her art, at first glance, may seem like an affirmation of our consumerist society but, if you look closer, it’s quite the opposite. Her series of Scratch sculptures is no exception, playfully using objects, in this case hair rollers, that focus on superficial beauty.

Photos courtesy of the artist and Frieze.

June 12, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Sonos Playground Deconstructed

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Sonos Playground Deconstructed, an immersive and interactive installation by Red Paper Heart (previously here) — currently at the Museum of Moving Image here in NYC in conjunction with Spectacle: The Music Video exhibition — brings minimalist art to life using five detached walls suspended above a reflective floor. Each of the walls has been painted with 27 1-inch wide white lines and 26 2-inch wide black lines. By mapping the white lines set between black lines the studio was able to create a more immersive and surreal environment. Visitors are able to select any song from an iPad and watch a visualization of the music projected onto the surrounding walls. Through motion-capture technology, they can interact with and manipulate the animation through movement.

Take a look at it in motion in the video below:

Sonos Playground Deconstructed (deconstructed because it was originally installed in a 250 sq. ft shed at the Sonos Studio at the 2013 SXSW festival) is on view at the Museum of Moving Image until June 16, 2013.

Photos courtesy of Red Paper Heart and MoMI

June 11, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Ctrl-Alt-Del: Yossi Wallner

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What if the keyboards that we use incessantly all day would work in reality? If you could escape something by a push of a button? Delete anything by a flick of a finger? Or format your surroundings to your liking? These are the questions that Israeli designer Yossi Wallner is posing with his recent street art project around Tel Aviv. He has placed these function keys in random locations surely piquing the curiosity of those who come across them. I’ve never seen a ‘Sleep’ or ‘Wake’ key (must be a pc thing) but those make for interesting messages too. You can see more images of the project on his flickr page.