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 GINA - Morphing Car With Flexible Fabric Skin

Yesterday I posted a video of the BMW interactive kinetic sculpture, an installation that forms part of the companies recently launched museum. While browsing their Web TV site I saw a video of another exhibit from the museum. Called GINA, the exhibit is a prototype car with a flexible fabric skin instead of a traditional rigid metal or fibreglass body. The car is engineered to be able to morph, changing its shape. The changes can only be made within fairly limited physical parameters. It is a framework under the flexible skin that is able to move, but with such precision engineering in car design, even the most subtle of changes in a plane or line can have radical aesthetic or aerodynamic affect.

The concept of using a flexible fabric skin is in itself very radical and interesting, especially combined with the ability to change the cars shape, and I am sure that there will be great desire and expectation to see something so innovative find its way into production. However the thing that I find even more interesting is to see how the car itself has been so influential on the visual language of the current series of BMW production cars. The car itself looks very much a BMW. The shapes and lines that the car cuts, are distinctly BMW, yet it does not appear that a visual language has been mapped onto the car, rather the technology of a simple frame pushing through the flexible fabric skin creating its own unique language. From what I have garnered from other posts online, the car is at least six years old. It would appear that the team imagined up a car that not only explored the idea of a flexible skin, but also became a tool for exploring new forms and shapes, and became a tool in evolving BMW's avant guarde visual design language. This is an example where, at least in part the technology has been used to express the visual language. The shapes do not come from a computer, or from traditional crafts and design, rather from new materials and technology.

A truly inspirational project. From many angles!

See more images and video of the car below, and the teaser that preceeded it. Not only an interesting story, but also an example of successful online marketing, with the video notching up over two million views in several weeks.

I read about this first on Geekology blog

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.

Hot Air Plastic Balloon

With the objective of raising awareness about Global Warming and the hazards of the use of plastics, Tomas Saraceno has conceived and instigated a very interesting project called Museo Aero Solar. Building a hot air balloon from plastic bags, the balloon flies from town to town, city to city, and grows larger as more bags are added in each location it lands. More images can be found on the projects blog.

Read on Swiss Miss

3D Graffiti

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

Giant Crack Appears In Tate Gallery

As visitors to the Tate Modern gallery in London enter the galleries giant turbine hall, they are confronted with the disturbing sight of a giant crack. Starting as a small fissure, the 167 metre fracture grows wider and deeper as it snakes the entire length of the hall.

Created by Columbian artist Doris Salcedo, the piece is titled "Shibboleth," after a Biblical massacre in which members of a defeated tribe were identified for slaughter based on the way they spoke. The artist describes the sculpture as laden with meaning as deep as the crack itself. It represents the divide and gap between Europeans and the rest of mankind.

Personally I enjoy the concept of creating a scultpure that is more about the space it does not fill, rather than the space it actually occupies. It is in effect a hole. An empty space, that due to it's dynamic and powerful nature created a piece that is thought provoking and demands time and contemplation to get the most out of it. In this respect it is very different from some of the previous commissions to the yearly installation, that have been more immediately involving of the viewer, such as the giant slides by Carsten Höller.

The crack, cast in concrete and lowered into a hole dug along the length of the hall will be filled in next year, leaving a permenant and giant scar.

Interactive Wall

This flexible surface is computer controlled, so that it is in effect a 3D screen, capable of projecting three dimensional effects along it's length.

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.

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.

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.

Ping Pong Ball Canvas

A crazy monitor/canvas made from ping pong balls. Connected to a computer the ping pong canvas updates the image line by line, a process that can take several hours. Not a replacement for your plasma tv, but a fun method of displaying images.

Interactive Art Installations

Interactive art created for a Sony Gadget store in Japan.

Char Davis - Osmosis Interactive Art

Char Davis created Osmosis in 1996. An interactive 3D VR experience that the user interacted with depending on the pace of their respiration. A stunning piece of art and ground breaking interface design that has stuck in my mind since I saw a documentary about it soon after its creation. People actually cried having experienced Osmosis.

Unusual Statues

Some very strange and fun statues from around the world.
Some are very creative, especially in the way that they concider the environment into which they have been placed.



http://haha.nu/funny/strange-statues-around-the-world