July 9, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

The Pool: Jen Lewin

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Colorado-based artist/architect Jenn Lewin creates large, immersive, interactive art pieces for the public. From interactive sound and light sculptures that inspire people into play, to woven fiber video curtains that reflect movement, or giant, robotic, ethereal moths that dance based on human touch. In her interactive light installation titled The Pool, Lewin put together 106 interactive circular platforms in giant concentric circles that communicate wirelessly. Each pad is independent and simultaneously interacts and listens to its environment based on user feedback. Together, the 106 pads create complex, surprising, and unpredictable color arrays with their user participants. Each pad in The Pool senses a person’s movements. User inputs such as foot location, foot pressure, and speed are sensed by the pad surface. As a person moves, light ripples out to the surrounding pads. For example, by leaning left, a ripple of varying intensity starts in that direction. A stronger more deliberate lean could cause a ripple to jump rings and fill the entire Pool. Each person’s ripple is unique. The more people that participate the more of a cacophony is created.

The Pool can be as small as 35ft x 35ft or, if spread out, as large as 70ft x 70ft. It’s powered via a normal household outlet and can be placed indoors or out.

Here it is in action:

via bbc

July 8, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Twinkind: 3D-Printed Photo Figurines

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Well, this is both fun and a little creepy. Hamburg-based company Twinkind creates 3D-printed photo figurines of you, your family, friends… or even your pet. These little photorealistic sculptures can range from 6 to 14 inches tall, are made of polymer plaster powder, and have optional bases in either oval or rectangular shape. What sets Twinkind apart from other 3D printing companies offering similar services is that they do the scanning in a fraction of the time. In fact, within seconds, allowing for re-dos or for the most impatient and fidgety people to stand still long enough for their own figurine. Starting at 225 euros for the smallest figurine, it’s not cheap, but if you’re ready layout the big bucks, just stop by Twinkind’s pop-up shop and they’ll guide you through the process. Looks like photo frames will soon be a thing of the past.

via the cool hunter

July 3, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Near Unison: Dan Dodds

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UK-based architectural designer and artist, Dan Dodds, has proposed an installation for Burning Man 2013 titled Near Unison that visualizes the harmonic relationship between two people using a pair of pendulum swings. A prototype of Near Unison, sans the elegant and striking exterior structure, was exhibited at this year’s Kinetic Art Fair. The installation specifically explores the harmonograph — a machine that became popular as a 19th century capable of producing beautiful drawings by mapping the relationship between two swinging pendulums. The oscillation frequency of the pendulums can be changed by modifying their lengths. Near Unison acts as a large-scale interactive harmonograph, allowing people to take the place of the pendulum weights, swinging back and forth, creating patterns in the sand that are ‘near unison’ a 1:1 ratio when the people occupying the swings are of similar weight. You can see the prototype in action below and keep your eyes peeled for the even larger version at the next Burning Man Festival in Black Rock Desert this August. Should be fun.

July 2, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Sebastien Wierinck WorkShop: J1

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It’s been a while since I’ve checked in to see what French designer Sebastien Wierinck (previously here) has been up to, and not only has he been busy at work with his tubular installations and benches, but the Sebastien Wierinck WorkShop also has a nice new website. One of the newer projects is a white tube installation in the recently renovated J1 Hangar, a 6,000 sq. meter seafront space in Marseille, France, made available to the European Capital of Culture as an exhibition space. Wierinck’s long and winding recycled polyethylene plastic tubes occupy the large space beautifully, creating seating space and lighting in addition to just looking cool.

Here’s a timelapse video of the installation process:

The J1 Hangar and tubular installation will reopen in October and be open to the public through January 2014.

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

Peace Pavilion: Atelier Zündel Cristea (AZC)

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Parisian architects Irina Cristea and Grégoire Zündel of Atelier Zündel Cristea (AZC) are all about peace, love, and happiness. Last fall the architects conceived an inflatable trampoline bridge over the Seine which I loved, but unlikely to become a reality. Their latest structure the Peace Pavilion, temporarily exhibited last month in the Bethnal Green Museum Gardens, uses a similar concept and materials creating a realized sculptural work that can be entered or climbed. The beauty of the shape of this inflatable sculpture lies in its perfect symmetry and fluidity. The geometry of the pavilion blurs the notion of inside and outside. The project is a self-supporting structure with 4m in height and 20m² in area, designed entirely with lightweight materials – 77.96m² of PVC membrane and 20m3 of air.

Photos: Sergio Grazia

via designboom

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 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 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

UBC Buchanan Courtyard: Public Design

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The University of British Columbia (UBC) invited Vancouver-based architecture and design firm Public together with landscape architects Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg to revitalize the courtyards between the existing Buchanan buildings, home to the Faculty of the Arts. Their solution: two dynamic spaces; one for contemplation and relaxation and the other for gathering and performances. At its center is a striking and twisty concrete pavilion, a sculpture in itself, which rests in a reflecting pool that contains typeset quotations in radiating rings mimicking the logo for The Arts whose identity was also designed by Public. In addition to being a visually pleasing place to spend time, by including the new reflecting pool the designers solved a chronic storm water management problem that plagued the space.

Photos courtesy of Public. Second photo by Stephan Pasche for Fast+Epp

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 13, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Recycled Paper Theater: Studio Andrew Todd

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Imagine a theater made almost exclusively made of recycled paper and other recycled materials. That’s what Paris-based architecture and scenography practice Studio Andrew Todd did. Their design has been selected for exhibition at the 2013 World Stage Design event in Cardiff, opening in early September. The exterior scaffolding structure is used to erect and brace a massive wall of paper bales. The center oculus gets pulled up via cables and bamboo purlins are fixed at the top. A double layer of recycled circus tent roofing is then placed on top of the bamboo and the interior is finished with bamboo and cardboard with natural light streaming through the roof’s center. Should be very cool, not to mention sustainable.

All images ©Studio Andrew Todd.

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 6, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Liu Bolin: Hiding in New York

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In preparation for his 5th solo exhibit at New York’s Eli Klein Gallery titled Mask, Liu Bolin (previously here and here) had a live performance where visitors could witness the creation of a new photograph in his Hiding in New York series. Emma and Daniela went over to check it out with some friends and took a few photos of the process. The performance started with Bolin wearing a pre-painted suit with matching images of the rifles and peg holes on the wall behind him. With assistants all around him busy at work for the whole two-hour period, Bolin’s suit was touched up and perfectly positioned to blend in with his backdrop before they moved on to his vaseline-covered (or so it appeared) face where they painted each detail for the final disappearance.

The show Mask opens today at the Eli Klein Gallery in Soho and runs through July 21, 2013. We assume the in-progress rifle photo will be included in the show along with many more of his Hiding in the City series and the JR collaboration that took place last year.

Photos of Liu Bolin by Ana Slade. All other photos courtesy of the artist and Eli Klein Fine Art.

June 5, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Penn Station: Diller Scofidio + Renfro

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Since visiting the ICA in Boston; the redesign of Lincoln Center in NYC; and all parts of the High Line both past and future, it’s hard for me not to be excited about any project that Diller Scofidio + Renfro are involved with. So, it’s no surprise that when four architecture firms – Diller Scofidio & Renfro, SHoP Architects, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture — were asked by the Municipal Arts Society to reimagine an ideal Penn Station and Madison Square Garden, though appreciating all four proposals, the one that really won me over was theirs.

The design envisions the new Penn Station as a city within a city, a porous and light-filled civic structure filled with things to do. Apart from being downright spectacular in that multi-layered way that incorporates dramatic angles and lots of glass, the design transforms waiting into a fun event with spas, restaurants and other venues, making it more of a destination than simply a gateway to New York. In this plan, MSG will be located to the west end of the Farley building on Ninth Avenue, with access to Eighth Avenue.

Really, all four proposals are quite interesting and beautiful and definitely worth a look here, but Diller Scofidio & Renfro have my vote.

Images courtesy Diller Scofidio + Renfro

via NYTimes

June 3, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Even in Fear: Zhou Xiaohu

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As part of their current exhibit Smash Palace—a group show surveying the reactions of some of China’s best contemporary artists to the shock of the new century—White Rabbit Gallery in Sydney, Australia, included Zhou Xiaohu’s ominous Even in Fear. Consisting of a weather balloon that swells like the pressure of modern life, then collapses only to swell again, slowly increasing in size over weeks until it is wedged between floor and ceiling until the point of bursting, creating a building sense of anxiety that goes hand-in-hand with a possible thrill. According to the gallery, the balloon did finally burst yesterday, much to the relief of some of the gallery attendants.

This is not the first time Xiaohu’s Even in Fear has been exhibited—I believe the first time was in Shanghai in 2008—but definitely the latest. If you’re in Sydney and were apprehensive about visiting the show due to the imminent explosion, it’s safe to go back in. Smash Palace, runs through August 4th.

Photos courtesy of White Rabbit Gallery; Blouin ArtInfo; and SpaceStation.

May 30, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Zimoun: Sound Installation in a Toluene Tank

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This must be pretty incredible to see in person. And noisy. And possibly smelly if they haven’t gotten all the paint thinner smell out of the tank. Swiss artist Zimoun has been creating “architecturally-minded platforms of sound” for several years. I saw one of his cardboard box installations over a year ago at the Bring to Light Festival here in NYC. His latest work is a permanent installation utilizing 329 prepared dc-motors, wires, cotton balls, lights and a circular bench all inside of a former toluene tank in Dottikon, Switzerland. The contrast between the loud sounds of the interior and the quiet of the snowy exterior are emphasized in the video below. There’s a chaotic order to the installation. It’s exciting to see this next dimension to Zimoun’s work and the interesting repurposing of an abandoned tank. (Here’s another repurposed tank in Spain.)

You can see many more of Zimoun’s installations on his website and this one in action in the video below: