Last September, I got the honor to perform and get to know the wonderful ten members of the Theremidi Orchestra. I created my own theremin instrument below, and got to perform at Eyebeam with it. We all got to choose an object to use as an antenna, so I chose a big sheet of wire mesh in order to be able to play with my entire body. It was a very fun experience, highlighting electronic sound art and gestural interactions.
Digital Revolution / Tekniska Museet, Stockholm
I was very glad to spend the day at Tekniska Museet, where they hosted the vast exhibition "Digital Revolution", featuring great representations of milestones within interactive art and how open source hardware platforms as well as code has enabled a whole new aesthetic. I saw works from my former teachers and alumni at the New School, and was familiar with most pieces, but regardless had a great time and appreciated seeing many of the pieces that I had read about in real life.
They had many cool historical electronic appliances and telecommunication tools, such as "Fröken Ur", a device that allowed Swedish citizens to call the telegraph company to get the exact time read out to them in 1916. I also saw an old DYI electronics kit from Philips, reminding me how Arduino has sparked the whole maker movement and how that is nothing new but enabled by the internet and the sharing of ideas.
"The Year's Midnight" (2011), Raphael Lorenzo Hemmer
"The Treachery of Sanctuary" (2012), Chris Milk
"Umweld III" (2007), Rob Seward
"BrainWriter" (2014), Not Impossible
Moderna Museet, Stockholm
I was very pleased to see such well curated pieces at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. I was especially inspired and happy to see the biggest solo exhibition by Konstantin Grcic so far - a walk through three future scenarios discussing public and private space in a technological context. His thoughts on the interconnected home was especially relevant to my thesis, and I find his aesthetic very appealing for the modern home. Below, you can see a chair inspired by exercise equipment, something that sparked an idea for a prototype.
I was also very inspired by Nina Canell's exhibition, Mid-Sentence. She is known for exploring material properties that are usually used for a specific purpose, like electricity, air, water and chewing gum. I found it very inspiring to see how she leveraged the materiality of common things used for physical computing or scientific practices to start a dialog between it and time. Her sculptures are less static in the sense that she highlights how a certain movement can become inseparable from the object.
Coding the Body - An Exhibition Organized by Leah Buechley
This is a very small exhibition at apexart aiming to communicate the notion of integrating the body with technology, organized by Leah Buechley, the founder of Lilypad Arduino (a small circuit board made especially for wearable technologies). Upon entering, you will first see a wall with data visualizations extracted from the Nike Fuel band followed by a piece by Ben Fry called "Chromosome 21" (2002). The piece displays a part of the genetic code of the chromosome 21, nicely illustrating the way biotechnologies and genetic engineering serve as a vital building block towards this new era ahead of us. For true integration of technology with the body, nanotechnologies are essential, as this is the only way in which technology will be able to truly morph with the body. Next, you will see a piece that nicely leads into the aesthetic and expressionistic part of the exhibition, made by Nervous Systems - an apparel company that works with algorithmic designs inspired by organic systems.
The piece is a great example of how 3D printing is enabling novel aesthetic forms, giving fashion new interdisciplinary aspects. The exhibition also showcases an object made with FreeD, a software that translates physical sculpting into digital.
The aim of the exhibition according to the brochure seems to be creating a discourse between the digital and physical and the merging of these, questioning our comfort as these technologies get pushed towards posthumanism. As Leah Buechley states: "The cyborg is a popular imagining of the relationship between code and the body, of how people can and should relate to computers. Alluring and unsettling, this vision promises that we can be better than human:
smarter, stronger, faster; but it leaves us suspicious that we will lose ourselves in the process—as parts of our bodies are gradually “augmented” or simply replaced by machines and software."
Personally, I don't think that the exhibition succeeded in communicating this notion, as the pieces where not framed in this context. The materiality, processes and use of the pieces should have been amplified though storytelling - and since there was a lack of this the exhibition fell short. In my opinion, reading about the pieces online gives you much more insight into this upcoming era, and I would not recommend going if you already are familiar with 3D modeling.
The Jean Paul Gaultier Exhibition
Jean Paul Gaulter, the man of corsettes, power, diversity and freedom of expression had his first international solo exhibition at the Brooklyn museum a few weeks ago, and I was amazed. The interactive elements on the mannequin's that everyone talked about where amazing, but this exhibition had a lot more to offer. It truly had a good balance between showing the history of his work and personal character. I've never been a big fan of his clothing, and even though I thought Madonna's cone bra was innovative, the playfulness of the serious topics he tackles was not evident to me until now. All the outfits where very conceptual and the mannequins highlighted how much weight he puts on personal expression.
The most astounding thing to me was his notion of the female form expressed though his corset designs. As stated "Raised by strong women, Gaultier rejects the myth of the weaker sex. With derisive humor, he aims to reinterpret what he sees as signs of the imprisoned female body." This sentence inspired my personal project, where I am creating a corset that closes and opens according to one's feelings of being trapped.
Out of hand: materializing the post digital
I went to the Museum of Arts and Design to visit Lauren Slowik (my CC Lab teacher) who was there with a full body scanner, and me and Sean got our bodies scanned. It felt very science fiction, quite weird. We stood on a podium, still, and they had this stand where a camera was manually pulled up and down a slide, while we where slowly spinning around. We had to spin around about ten times.
I got some inspiration for my final, as I saw this object made by Michael Rees and Robert Gero called "Intervening Phenomena". It was great to see a history of 3D printing, especially how some of the vases where displayed as artifacts was quite jarring.
I was also impressed by Lucas Maasen's "Brain Wave Sofa", where he collected information on what people thought of when they heard the word "comfortable" and designed the sofa thereafter.
The Maker Fair
I'd heard a lot about the Maker Faire, and was excited to go, but unfortunately very disappointed in the lack of concept of the projects. Most of them where pure show off of the technology. It was great to see one of our students exhibit, and the light room was fun, but the most fun I had was probably exploring the projects Nasa has sponsored - almost defeating the purpose of a maker community.
Imagine Science Film Festival
I saw on twitter that the Imagine Science Film Festival, sponsored by Tribeca film festival was having their last showing at the New School, and got really excited since I'm interested in the intersection between art and science. Nature to me is where I get much of my inspiration, and I think we have a lot to learn from natural structures in design.
I got in touch with Jennifer Wightman after her fascinating comments with the panel, and was hoping to use her expertise for future projects. She was the biologist and artist behind a film that we unfortunately missed, but got some insight into during the panel discussion. The project interests me a lot, find a description below.
"“Gowanus Timelapse”. 2012. 15”x15”x2”.
Mud and water from the Gowanus Canal, endogenous bacteria, eggs, chalk, newspaper, silicone, glass, steel.
For the LMCC residency I fabricated steel and glass frames to hold mud and water from polluted waterways around NYC. This frame includes samples taken from the Gowanus Canal and photographed overtime as the endogenous bacteria photosynthesize pigments. These colonizing bacteria create a transforming colorfield as defined by the physical and chemical conditions of the water:mud composite. The living organisms manufacturing the pigments are simultaneously the subject and substance of the ‘painterly’ objectification – both object and medium, both a work of art itself and a working of autopoiesis. The landscape is literal. Construction and deconstruction of molecular building blocks produce an ongoing dis/integration of form. Therefore there is not one colorfield, but a series of real time/space negotiations performed by bacteria within a frame of finite natural resources. Color acts as indicator of the industry of microfauna cleaning our city.
This steel and glass frame includes mud and water samples taken from the Gowanus Canal and photographed from August to December 2012. Endogenous bacteria photosynthesize pigments to create a transforming colorfield as defined by the physical and chemical conditions of the water:mud composite. The living organisms manufacturing the pigments are simultaneously the subject and substance of the ‘painterly’ objectification – both object and medium, both a work of art itself and a working of autopoiesis. The landscape is literal. Construction and deconstruction of molecular building blocks produce an ongoing dis/integration of form. Therefore there is not one colorfield, but a series of real time/space negotiations performed by bacteria within a frame of finite natural resources. Color acts as indicator of the industry of microfauna cleaning our city. This piece was fabricated for a residency hosted by LMCC on Governor's Island. Five frames were built for each of the following polluted waterways: Hudson (PCBs), East River (sewage outflows), Newtown Creek (oil spill), Dead Horse Bay (exposed landfill) and Gowanus Canal (everything?)."
- Jenifer Wightman
My favorite piece when it comes to art direction was "663114" a film created about a cicada after the tsunami in Japan.
However, the most inspiring piece was "We Will Live Again", a short film documentary about a cryonics institute. Below is the teaser.
Experiencing Banksy
Yes, this is one of the coolest things about New York. Just passing by Union Square, I saw both his "MacDonald's" and "Sirens of the Lambs" interventions. I actually didn't know this was him at first, and was not chocked at all since it was very political and extremely touching.
The piece is one of the best I've seen in my entire life. The actors where fascinating - the "slave" meticulously polishing MacDonald's ever so shiny shoe, his face was truly empty. The farmer looked so untouched by the big crowd surrounding him.
I was standing there for a good 10 minutes, soaking in all the emotions and detail he put into it. The sound of the stuffed animals was haunting with a slight touch of humor, the face of MacDonald was painted sad ... it was very intriguing.
Casey Reas Ultraconcentrated
I went to this exhibition at the Bitforms gallery, and this was the first time I had seen any of his work. It was a small, but dynamic exhibition. I fell in love, and strongly felt that this is the type of work I would like to do in the future. I liked the critical aspect he had on media as well as how he portrayed a feeling of us being overwhelmed by technology contrasted with the adoration of it.
I especially liked the two pixelated projections, one depicting crime-based entertainment television, the other advertising.
The Scrapyard Challenge
This was a great experience, showing how much creativity can thrive off of tight deadlines (this was a 5 hour hack) and limited resources. Materials where all broken or no longer used hardware, except for the batteries and tinfoil.
