The most fascinating thing to me by far is when someone developes something, whether functioning or static, that gracefully walks the line between art and science.

The SolarSinger, a fascinating piece of engineering by Markus Kayser, falls into this category. But what makes it art? Is it the machine, the product, the questionable usefullness or perhaps Markus’ clothes?

One of the details I find particulary interesting is that he’s harnessing the energy from the sun using glass to make glass. We all did those experiments when we were kids but I can’t say it ever occured to me to use those powers to create rather than to destroy. Check out the video below documenting the process of this cool and fairly simple concept of using the hot sun in the vast open desert for the purpose to create.

Markus Kayser – Solar Sinter Project from Markus Kayser on Vimeo.

People are continuously pondering whether plants have audible communication abilities or if they scream when they are hurt or chopped down. Even Mythbusters did a show that put the latter to the test which was ultimately busted but had moments of possibility. So what do you think, can plants talk?

Artist Luke Jerram thinks they can and set out to make an art piece centered around the audible abilities. However what he captured is not so much communication as it is a concerto of noise that lead to his aptly title installation, Plant Orchestra.

Jerram’s artistic interests parallel my own so I can’t help but enjoy his work that pulls from his own fascination with the natural wonders of the world. This piece in particular explores an entirely acoustic experience that seeks to put the viewer in the world of the plant whether it feels comforting, overwhelming or even downright scary due to the unfamiliarity of this strange place.

In the artist’s words:

Although imperceptible to the human ear, plants create sound. Using specialist microphones water can be heard as it flows slowly up the stem of a plant. If trees are suffering from drought, scientists can measure acoustic emissions that occur caused by cavitation and embolism within the plant. The sounds created during the day are different to those at night and they alter with the seasons of the year.

Amplifying the acoustic emissions of plants using dozens of special microphones the Plant Orchestra reveals this new and hidden acoustic world. Through amplifyication, each plant is transformed into a musical instrument and becomes part of The Plant Orchestra.

The video below captures the experience of the Plant Orchestra at Night Jar at the Cambridge Botanical Garden which was the very first installation of the piece. “Hundreds of sound samples were recorded from dozens of plants within the glasshouses for the arts project. The best recordings were then played from their prospective plants as part of a light and sound installation.”

images via Luke Jerram

Figure drawing, both in motion and static pose, has been an artform for years. However, while a static pose is easy to translate into three dimensional form like someone sitting, standing or sort of frozen in time, capturing the actual form that movement takes is not.

Raphael Perret, a scientific assistant at the IAD program at ZHdK focused on interface theory, hardware interaction and real-time video processing sought to overcome the disadvantage that the three dimensional form has in capturing the actual act of motion as well as to find a way in which the viewer can physically experience this space. The latter is intriguing to me – to get inside the space of movement. Movement AS space.

What emerged is what Perret calls Project Bodycloud and he explains what fueled the desire for this project:

About ten years ago, I visited Brazil with my Capoeira club. The way, how incredibly elegant Mestre Corisco moved through space impressed me deeply. Since that moment, I was dreaming of doing a sculpture from movement.

The goal is to produce the sculpture in lifesize as a positive and negative. The latter meaning a solid block with the movement carved into the material. So the visitor can crawl into the space and explore it with the body.

Below are some videos of the process. First, motion sequences were captured then translated in the computer. From there, a continuous volume was rendered and then 3-dimensionally printed as a mini sculpture, like shown at the top of this post.

Milton #10.2.1 from Raphael Perret on Vimeo.

Milton #10.2 (Actor) from Raphael Perret on Vimeo.

Below are several rendering studies of the movement from different sequences as well as more information about the purpose of this project:

Human movement space is defined as the space a person appropriates by means of his or her movement, a space that is constantly expanded as the person moves. I am interested in movement spaces because it reflects the personal usage of space. Despite its habitual and daily character, this process can be cultivated and developed according to a person’s talent and physical ability. Along these lines, the personal appropriation and design of space starts with one’s body. In order to visualize this constitution, I choose the process of materialization into a sculpture. Thereby, I will try to the render this essentially ephemeral movement space tangible.

images via Raphael Perret

I’ve had pictures of Arne Quinze‘s piece, “The Sequence” just sort of bumping around in various spots I throw photographs for inspiration. I keep coming back to this one and I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to make a post about it. It’s simplicity continually pulls me back – just straight pieces of wood moving through space in a nebulous cloud of orange anchored in only a few spots. It feels both light and heavy at the same time and naturally glowing yet the piece does not incorporate a single piece of lighting.

The piece, however, is more than just simple sticks moving through space in an elegant way and it acts also as a linkage between the Flemish Parliament and the House of Flemish Representatives. The piece performs both a physical and metaphorical connection.

From the artist, “THE SEQUENCE bridges the communication gap between people and generates movement in the city. I want to reconnect people and let them interact with each other like they did in the past on squares. At least people talked to each other then.”

This piece by the Belgian artist was installed on November 13, 2008 and will stay in place for at least 5 years. When the piece is taken down, all of the wood will be reused for another purpose.

images via Arne Quinze and

Sculptural work that often impresses me the most are those that use everyday, average materials that are not inherently beautiful. A good example is plain old scotch tape which is not typically seen as a sculptural material on it’s own however the character of the tape being clear, reflective and moldable lends well to building interesting shapes.

This video of a temporary installion is stunning – the music, the way the sculpture goes together, the lighting and shadows. Well done. Like a web in a forgotten corner of the city.

Une Toile from Nemo Tral on Vimeo.

This next video is interesting because, unlike the pure beauty of the one above (although still beautiful, especially with the light), you get a better feel for how the sculpture is created in a more structural sense.

Toile-Expérience from Nemo Tral on Vimeo.

At the end of August, some of the best graffiti artists in the world descended on Nelson Street in Bristol as part of an ambitious urban street art project called See No Evil. Over the course of three days, these artists transformed previously bleak and grey spaces and their looming concrete walls into gigantic works of art.

US artists included world-renowned a href=”http://elmac.net/”>El Mac out of Los Angeles and New York based Tats Cru, Inkie and UK’s Zeus and Nick Walker.

images via antidote bristol

So often I am captivated by art purely by process and Judith Braun‘s latest technique is especially fascinating. With fingers dipped in charcoal, she draws patterns directly on the exhibition walls that have a very unique feel – full of personality in such simple strokes of gradation that move like sound or water.

Braun’s latest installation in Vienna at Galerie Andreas Huber:

images via Judith Braun

From the studio of Pablo Reinoso comes a new piece of useable art. I first blogged about one of his pieces back in 2009 on his lovely Spaghetti Bench made of sensuous wood curves, like the lines of a typical park bench trying to escape.

Now Pablo has created another work of art that has taken doodling to a whole new level. I can easily see the fluid marks of a big fat pen in a sketchbook that must’ve been the inspiration for the Huge Sudeley Bench. The beauty of his work isn’t simply the fluidity of the curves but that he uses material like wood and metal that isn’t typically thought of as being used in this manner. These often heavy, rigid materials become light and playful.

And speaking of playful, the edges speak to my childhood days and I can’t help but think of how cool it would be to let a hotwheels car go flying around those loops!

I recently came acros an old article from Environmental Graffiti about the glow worm, a sophisticated cave-dwelling predator that creates an elegant, glowing landscape that lures in its prey. This reminded me of a a rather old project out of Athens, Greece that I thought to be quite lovely. The temporary, interactive urban installation was called White Noise White Light and was installed as one of nine installations during the 2004 Olympics and was sited at the base of the Acropolis which provided quite a stunning backdrop.

I don’t think the designers at Howeler + Yoon Architecture actually used the glow worm as their muse but nevertheless, there is a fascinating connection in form and somewhat in function as well. People are drawn in by points of light light like a moth to a flame but instead of being snared, the light brightens and moves as they pass through the sea of fiber-optic stalks. The movement produces a visual flow of light and at the same time activates a tiny hidden speaker.

From the designers, “Comprised of a 50′x50′ grid of fiber optics and speakers, ‘White Noise / White Light’ is an interactive sound and light field that responds to the movement of people as they walk through it. What appears at first to be a static, neutral and transparent grid of vertical markers dissolves into a luminous sound-scape by night. As pedestrians enter into the fiber optic field their presence and movement are traced by each stalk unit, transmitting white light from LED’s and white noise from speakers below. Just as white light is made of the full spectrum of color, white noise contains every frequency within the range of hearing in equal amounts. If motion is detected, the white LED illumination grows brighter while the white noise increases in volum. Once motion is no longer detected, the light and sound fade into dimness and silence.”

A movie of the installation is below:

images via Howeler + Yoon Architecture and Environmental Graffiti