Free Art - Download A Cloned Artist

When artist and furniture designer Bert Simons had a midlife crisis, he decided to tackle it head on . His solution was to clone himself. Not with complex biological methods using DNA and sheep, but with good old fashioned paper and glue. The results are striking. The three dimensional paper bust sculpture is fascinating in the way that it's computer generated form betrays a of high tech aesthetic while being something that is realised with such low tech materials. In this era of online avatars and virtual worlds, it is as if the artists alter-ego has stepped from the digital realm into reality.

The artist encourages people to help him in his quest, to mass produce himself, in true contemporary social media style, inviting people to download the online kit which gives you everything you need to recreate the artwork. People that make the sculptures have their masterpieces featured within the artist site. Is this art 2.0?

Bert has mastered the art of paper sculpting and has created many more in his series of photo realistic three dimensional portraits and sculptures. Visit Bert Simons site for more information and to check out his other works which range from furniture, interior, paintings and even rocket design.

Not only are the sculptures very unique, but he has also managed to craft an interesting story around it, and also by explaining and demonstrating his process.

BMW kinetic Sculpture

The new BMW Museum in Munich, home to the company’s 90-year history, opened last month and has carefully combined architecture and exhibition design, focusing particularly on new media.

ART+COM media installations set the museum’s architecture in motion, creating a unique dynamic for exhibits and content. Along with atelier brückner, Stuttgart (architecture and exhibition design) and Intégral Ruedi Baur, Zurich (graphic design and visual identity), ART+COM has created a contemporary take on Schwanzer’s original exhibition concept of “the road in converted space”. Media installations literally set the museum’s seven themed buildings, 25 exhibition rooms and 125 exhibits in motion.

One kinetic sculpture uses 714 metal balls that move vertically along barely visible thread to reveal forms and planes. Seemingly weightless sculpture moves through a cycle of free abstractions and typical BMW vehicle forms to create a beautiful and magical effect. See the videos below.


The BWM Museum is open to the public from 21 June 2008.

Interactive Window In Diesel Milan Store

I just got back from Milan where together with Nanika we have completed the installation of an interactive window. The first phase of the installation is currently running, and comprises of two interactive sequences. Passers by can see their images ripple out infront of them across the two large screens that fill the window. The screens show the past second or so of time as series of frames captured by a hidden camera. The result is hypnotic. By approaching the camera and moving about in front of it you can create wonderful rippling patterns that oscolate down the screen. The window echoes the life of the facing square as it is affected by the herding tourists and locals. We will be updating the installation with new interactive experiences over the coming month. Check out the video below.

Osram Interactive Art Installation

This is a recently launched interactive art installation in Munich, created by artist Markus Lerner for Osram, Germany. The interactive panels react to the flow of the passing traffic. It is interesting to see how the artist has used the passing traffic as an influencing input of the artwork, but the feedback appears to be very subtle. I am not sure who will really notice this relation ship. See video of installation in action, below.

FFFFound! - Social Image Bookmarking

Drop Clock

Kaze To Desktop

I was reading recently in Creative Review about one of the internets most inspiring artist and designers, Yugo Nakamura who other than his own personal visual creations also founded one of the most interesting 'social media' sites, FFFFound. The site allows registered users to bookmark images they find around the internet and share them with the rest of the community. This is one of those painful sites that is so full of amazing content that you can't leave.

The only down side is that it is currently invite only, and I don't have an invite. If anyone has a spare FFFFound invite, please would you be so good as to invite me (rich(dot)holley(at)gmail(dot)com).

Some of Yugo's other latest works come in the form of screensavers. One, 'Kaze To Desktop' which blows your windows and open documents across your screen, and another, 'DropClock" which acts as a clock, where slow motion footage of numerals drop into water.

Visit FFFFound for visual inspiration, and SCR for more digital art projects.

3D Graffiti

It is a shame that you have to wear 3D goggles to view this 3D graffiti light sculpture, as it looks amazing.

3D Desktop

This guys 'home' experiment using a Wii remote to create a 3D 'desktop' interface has to be seen. By fixing the receiver to his head and using the Wii remote as a motion sensor his computer program is able to locate the position and angle of vision of the user, and then dynamically adust the content on the screen. As the user changes their angle of vision, objects on the screen move accordingly. This is something we will no doubt see very soon in games, and maybe interface design. The effect is so amazing, yet so easy to achieve. See more amazing projects from Johnny Chung Lee at his website.

Light Grafitti

This is really amazing. Watch this video of Light Grafitti. Purportedly a new phenomenon (and I can imagine that there is a creative challenge to go out and make your own version of this video), it involves drawing with light and capturing the image with a long exposure on a digital SLR camera. A popular thing to do, especially as a kid using sparklers was to write your name in the dark, and this basically takes that concept and runs with it. The thing that interests me, is that the post that I found this on (from Trendhunter) refers to Maglite, and I wonder if they actually helped create this. If that is the case, I give Maglite huge credit, as it is surely going to get a lot of YouTube views, and spark a whole raft of remakes!

Interactive Table

This is a pretty cool table from 'Because We Can'.



Found on Trend Hunter.

Digital Shadow Puppets

Really nice project by Phillip Worthington, where the shadows generated by the user are 'read' by the computer and then additional elements are projected onto the shadows.

Diesel's Liquid Space Holographic Fashion Show

Just got back from Florence where I was a part of the team that put on this show. It was great fun! Enjoy!

Normal Design - Not!

Japan based American designer Ross McBride originally started out as a graphic designer, which comes across strongly in his painfully simple graphic and conceptual approach to product designs. I love the ironic concepts for his watches, which are part of a series of twelve (naturally). The clever irony of Time and Money being the hour and minute hands, or the simple practical functionality of the multiple hour hands that deliver the time in multiple time zones but on one face, as opposed to the usual multi faced displays.

Check out his watches and other products, including some very nice digital clocks and stools made in the form of keyboard keys at NormalDesign.net.

SMS Artist - Paul Notzold

Paul Notzold's artworks allow an audience to SMS and interact with large speech bubbles projected onto a flat surface, like the facade of a building. The bubbles are positioned near windows and doors to encourage an audience to create the conversations happening inside. The public audience receives a flyer with a cell number and simple instructions. A participant sends a text message to the provided phone number and it is then displayed inside the speech bubble. Multiple bubbles may be used and the audience can direct their input to a specific bubble.

Not always an urban and outdoor experience, the concept has translated into the more traditional enviroment of the gallery with 'One Of You Will Betray Me', an image of the last supper that allows the audience to create the dialogue of the famous scene.

More

As read on Include Digital Digest

Search By Sketching

This is a fun new experimental service which lets you search and explore a selection of Flickr images by drawing a rough sketch.

It will not recognise what you are drawing - say a corporate logo or a face for example, which would be a very interesting way of searching (although if you are searching for a chair, whiy not just type in the word chair) - but rather examines the colours and composition, delivering you results that are similar to your sketch. Draw a big red circle and you will get cherries and strawberries. Draw a yellow rectangle under a blue one, and you'll get images of the sea.

This is a great way of searching for images that you want to match certain colour ways or moods. Possibly one day it could be a way of searching for that elusive image in your collection that was not tagged in a searchable way.

What ever it's practical applications, it is a fun tool to play with. Have a play here.

Thanks to Peter for the link.

UPDATE:
This is another nice search tool for Flckr - where you can search by predominant colour of the image. View Here.

Jeep's Water Display

Jeep's stands at car shows incorporate an interesting innovation in screen display. Logos and animated patterns are displayed on a screen made of water. Much like a giant ink jet printer, droplets of water are controlled by computer to create the eyecatching effect. Thanks to Peter for this link.

Digital Clay - Haptic Input Devices Used In Toy Design

SensAble Technologies have a line of haptic devices (image 1) that make it possible for users to touch and manipulate virtual objects.

The term "haptic" comes from the Greek word ''haptikos,'' meaning ''able to touch or grasp," and haptic devices provide tactile information to their users in the form of force-feedback.

They are popular devices in surgery simulation. Inhibative costs have meant that more commercial examples of this type of interface tool are not so prevelant, but they are starting to arise in gaming technologies such as stearing wheels with realistic feedback.

Wired recently wrote an article about how these devices are popular among toy designers where the device is used to create a digital clay for virtual sculpting (image 2 -Digital rendering created by Brett Klisch and Michael Luk using Phantom Omni and FreeForm: Courtesy of Xomer Studios).

Read more here.

Hudson-Powell Interactive Installation

Not a new idea, but really well done and very fun and beautiful. Created for a Hello Kitty exhibition in Hong Kong, this installation tracks user movements in front of a projected screen and renders an alternative cartoon head onto the head of the person being filmed in real time. The installation was created using ARToolKit Augmented Reality software.
See the video on their site.

Hudson-Powell Animation

A very fresh looking abstract video made by Hudson-Powell for Carat media planning agency.
See some stills here, but see the video on their site.

Cover Pop Music Visualiser

A beautiful flash animation that generates music and visuals based on variants of simple mathematical algorithms.

View here.

Scott Snibble - Digital Artist

Scott Snibbe is best known for creating interactive artwork that reveals people's interdependence. Most of his works do not function unless the viewer actively engages with them—by touching, breathing, moving, etc. The works present systems in which the viewer is an essential component. Although his works involve significant technological infrastructure, visitors’ experiences predominantly involve human-to-human interaction. The pieces provoke communication among the viewers, which, more than a mere reaction to the work, becomes its very essence.

Snibbe's largest electromechanical sculpture to date was commissioned for a solo show at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco in 2005. Blow Up, records, amplifies, and projects human breath into a room-sized field of wind.