Sol LeWitt: Mass MoCA Retrospective

Sol LeWitt Mass MoCAOn my to-do list for a while now, is a trip up to MASS MoCA (in North Adams, Massachusetts) to see the Sol LeWitt wall drawing retrospective. Granted there’s time, it will be up until 2033, but the thought of being enveloped by so many LeWitt-patterned walls is worth rushing for.

“Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective comprises 105 of LeWitt’s large-scale wall drawings, spanning the artist’s career from 1969 to 2007. These occupy nearly an acre of specially built interior walls that have been installed—per LeWitt’s own specifications—over three stories of a historic mill building situated at the heart of MASS MoCA’s campus…”

Sifteo

Sifteo Interactive CubesTwo years ago I watched a TED Talk given by MIT Media Lab grad student David Merrill about  a project he was working on called Siftables. These were tiny computer blocks that interacted with each other to make networks, play games, and music. It blew me away. Today I came across a lovely package design, by New Deal Design, for the product Sifteo which sounded remarkably similar and turns out is the company that Merrill has since founded with his partner, and co-creator, Jeevan Kalanithi. This demo explains it better than I can:


via Lovely Package

Geeky by Nature

Hellicar & Lewis_Geeky by NatureWe attended the first part of Geeky by Nature yesterday here in NYC, a conference “exploring the best in art, code & design.” The day was filled with great presentations, the highlights for us being Joshua Hirsch from Big Spaceship, Hillman Curtis and his upcoming Stefan Sagmeister film, and Joshua Davis including his interactive graphics for IBM’s Watson. But, our absolute favorite talk was given by Hellicar & Lewis. Apart from being incredibly smart and talented, this team of UK interaction designers (Pete Hellicar and Joel Gethin Lewis) is witty, appealing, and immensely inspiring. The images above are stills from work on their site. I highly recommend that you look at some of their videos to get a taste of what they do. Brilliant!

Dig: Installation and Performance

Dig_Snarkitecture at Storefront for Art and ArchitectureDig is an installation and performance by Daniel Arsham/Snarkitecture
at Storefront for Art and Architecture and made possible by OHWOW that explores the architecture of excavation.

Installation. The gallery will be filled almost in its totality with EPS architectural foam, then excavated with simple tools to transform the material into an unexpected cavern. (March 29 – April 4)

Performance. In the final stage, Arsham/Snarkitecture will both create and inhabit Dig for the duration of the installation (April 23). There will be excursions by invitation only, but people will be able to view the performance from the street. More details here.  via Creative Everyone

Plastic Bag Installation

Plastic Bag Installation by Robert JansonThis beautiful installation was part of a workshop at the Lund School of Architecture in Sweden taught by Theodore Sarantoglou Lalis, Dora Sweijd and David Erkan. The mission was “to build a geometry with a component.” The participating students, (Emilia Thurin Melin . Karin Backlund . Kim Öhrström . Alexander Carlén . David Ottosson . Emanuel Kjellberg . Filip Mayer . Johan Svartnäs . Petter Nilsson . Robert Janson), constructed the installation using plastic bags and colored lights. Very dramatic. More at Robert Janson’s site.  via notcot

The Blue Trees

Konstantin Dimopoulos_Blue Forests_Vancouver BiennaleAustralian artist Konstantin Dimopoulos’ Blue Trees installations are part of the Vancouver Biennale. The blue forests will be created in the City of Richmond, Port Moody, as well as West Vancouver, and the artist hopes that his work will be part of a larger international discussion with blue forests in cities worldwide. “Each year an area at least the size of Belgium of native forests is cleared from around the planet. So much a part of our daily lives, they are the lungs of the planet and attention must be paid.”

Apparently, the color used on the trees is biologically safe pigmented water. As an ephemeral artwork, the color will naturally degrade and the trees gradually revert to their natural state. More information here.  via Poppytalk