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

Folding laundry can be a rather boring task – or perhaps it can be inspirational? Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto found inspiration in fabric like lycra netting that could become dripping forms that contain a myriad of smells for those who came in contact them. The freshly ground spices of pepper, cumin, cloves, ginger and curcuma emit a mix of aromas when brushed against by a user passing through and interacting with the hanging forms. The artist hopes to conjure up images of the familiar or the forgotten. I not only find the forms to be quite lovely but the apparatus that they hang from in his site-specific piece, “While Nothing Happens” to be exquisite and so fragile yet strong at the same time. This piece, which seems to invite touch, hung from the the glass ceiling from May 2008 – February 2009 at the Museo D’arte Contemporanea Roma (MACRO).

About the piece, from Macro:

The artist’s aim is to break down the distances between the visitor and the work of art, creating a sort of mystical experience through the discovery of the almost living breathing of these huge creatures with their transparent and harmonious shapes.

Neto’s works form shapes that also break down the barriers between art and life. As he himself states, he creates “an art that unites, helping us interact with others, showing us the limits, not as barriers but as a place of sensations and of exchange and continuity.”

images via MACRO

Tara Donovan, installation artist out of Brooklyn, New York, creates pieces made out of everyday ordinary objects like drinking straws, cups, fishing wire and paper. These simple objects when are then transformed into amazing textural and topographical works of art. The individual object then is almost no longer recognizable in it’s original form but has taken on a new life form. The installation in the image above feels like some sort of life form bubbling out of the ceiling, reflecting light in different ways throughout the form. But the piece is made simply with a sea of styrofoam cups and hot glue. A detail shot is below.

Below are images of an untitled piece from 2003 that uses paper plates held together by hot glue to form highly texture spheres the look almost soft and fuzzy from a distance.

“Haze” was made in 2005 from stacking an amazing amount of clear drinking straw to create a sensual wall that bubbles up in places that gives it an almost liquid look.

The following piece uses ripped up tarpaper that has been stacked into an undulating landform titled “Transplanted”. It was firt exhibited outdoors in the IBM Exhibition Space on 57th and Madison Ave. in New York City in the fall of 2003. Following it’s time in the outdoors, it was moved into the Ace Gallery indoor exhibition space.

images via Ace Gallery

There’s heaps of information out there about roots and their functionality but what I’ve always been drawn to are the amazing forms and patterns roots can make….sprawling, weaving, splitting, curling. They can take on both a sense of strength and delicacy at the same time.

I’ve always thought it would be most interesting to have the ability to essentially exercise a type of x-ray vision and view living roots under the soil so when I came across this flower pot concept called “Flowerpot EYE” by industrial designer Olga Kalugina, I immediately wanted one. This is indeed quite cool. Also looks helpful for people like me who have the worst time remembering to water house plants.

Description from designer: “EYE is a flowerpot which allows seeing root system of plant. EYE itself defines humidity of soil, light level, soil conditions and an ambient temperature, and then deduces them on the display. It is possible to see all development of a plant and to estimate influence on it of various factors. EYE will teach us to understand a plant better. In EYE for reception of energy uses chemical reaction, between the substances, which roots allocate in soil and the reagents containing in the case of a pot.”

Or, a non-technical way of going about it would be to place some plants in clear glass containers so that you could clearly see the actual root structure of the plant. Artistic yet simple.

images via martin labar, troposphere, squamish, olga kalugina, michele aka zimza

In April of this year, a new bird observatory was constructed in the River Ebro Park in northeast Spain, an extremely popular place due for birding to the high number of breeding and migratory species within the delta. Designed by architect Manuel Fonseca Gallego, the structure is made completely of wood to blend with the natural landscape, amidst large existing trees.

A dramatic cantilever over the bank allows for minimal disturbance and creates a sense of being able to walk right out into the trees tops. The simple yet elegant design and placement of the wooden beams and planks enhances this feeling by allowing only filtered light to enter the interior like sun passing through leaves. The play of light and shadows within the interior is very nice.

images via Plataforma Arquitectura

There’s no doubt about it, the human body is an infinite source of design inspiration and the spine is often at the core. By tipping, twisting and bending the spinal form, the designer can achieve interesting forms that can range from buildings to furnishings.

In the annual skyscraper design competition from eVolo, one submission found inspiration from the human body in a twisting spinal skyscraper with floors splaying outward from the core like platelettes.

image via eVolo

In the Casa Milá in Barcelona, Antoni Gaudí may have used a curving spine and ribs, like the photo I took above, to come up with his amazing series of differing archways that curve around through the attic.

image via Lisa Town

A wooden staircase designed by Patrick Jouin uses the spine to create a sleek spiral staircase with the steps flowing out from the spinal core. It uses a modular design that is then used to create a flowing, cantilevered sequence followed by curving rails that seem to float around the staircase.

images via doornob

Designers Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues from Ball-Nogues Studio out of Los Angeles designed this amazing installation for the Rice University Art Gallery for Houston’s Museum of Find Arts exhibition, The Modern West: American Landscape 1890-1950.

From the website: “Rip Curl Canyon was a kind of mythical location in the American West where land and water collide, far from Houston’s flat drained swamps. From its highest point at the rear of the gallery, its steep, crevice-like formations sloped down and gained momentum before breaking apart to form ribbons of curling waves.”

“The fabrication processes used to make the natural brown surfaces are in the lineage of those Gehry employed in his legendary “Easy Edges” line of furniture in the 1970′s. Expanding on this knowledge enabled us to create architecturally scaled cardboard structures and introduce double curvature. We used the properties and limitations of the material – determined through building full scaled mock-ups during development combined with a parametric digital interface – to shape the cardboard – ribbons.” The project required laminating over 20,000 strips (weighing approximately eight tons) of curved, industrially die-cut corrugated cardboard in twelve days. Incredibly strong and capable of supporting the weight of several people, the cardboard laminates operate as semi-monocoques with an intermediary plywood armature.”

“The armature was made of standard wood materials – 2 x 4s and plywood – individually cut and CNC routered offsite to conform to the varying dimensions and curvature of the undulating cardboard shells. We digitally developed a language of slotting connections so that these non-standard parts came together like a giant puzzle in four days, required very little structural decision making in the field and gave us the freedom to make improvised choices when installing the cardboard.”

“Like rip currents – narrow, fast moving belts of water – the segments twisted and surged toward the front glass entry wall. The view through the glass provided only glimpses of the unfolding topography beyond and invited the visitor to probe deeper.”

The great thing about the piece is that it was built not just for viewing but with the thought of active viewer participation in that people could and would climb all over the structure. Through the human exploration, the each footstep would become a part of the piece, compressed into the cardboard. The accumulation of steps would wear into subtle pathways treading across this fictitious rolling landscape.

People were also encouraged to explore the recesses below the surface of the cardboard land formations. There were even areas purposely built for sitting so that people could take in this unique perspective of enjoy land formations from below.

images via Ball-Nogues Studio

…Is what I would say to the girl in red who looks a little suspicious of the black tubing hanging over her. This particular piece is part of a temporary installation in Berlin, Germany in the Info Art & Furniture Gallery by Sebastien Wierinick, Belgian designer who creates furniture out of interesting materials and sculptural forms for interior spaces and public seating as well as temporary artistic installations.

OnSite Studio “characterises itself materially by the use of industrial flexible tubes, formally by its fluid and organic forms and conceptually by a variable design and production process. Using the principles of ‘programmation’, the system offers a huge range of applications in term of typology, function and scale. The studio can thus respond to most demands, by an appropriate and individual proposition.” via their website.

The images above and below are of a bench in the restaurant Tokyo Eat of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, France. I love the way the flexible tubing wraps up and around to form some nice tush-sized spaces and arm and back rests. It seems very well molded to the human body.

Next is an interesting integrated bench and reception desk in Lyon, France. The long fleixible tubing creates one long form that is molded and warped in opposite and complimentary directions.

This temporary installation in Brussels, Belgium features red variation on the black bench. Somehow it seems less threatening and alien-like in red. It takes on a wave-like pattern that flows up and down and side to side to form benches that face in both directions and different molded shapes. I love the different spaces the bench creates for different sized groups.

imagse via contemporist

Recently I was thinking about this style of drawing and wondered what it might be like translated into reality. One design. One line. Ok, so that kind of sounds like some sort of reality tv show title but nevertheless, I think it could be an interesting experiment.

I was over at the Atelier A&D blog recently and saw some images of a restaurant by Demetrio Tsigos that starts to look like this kind of idea brought to reality. I like how the lines don’t just continue but sometimes split to form things like stairs (love this!) or that really interesting light fixture type thing hanging from the ceiling. Although I have to agree, it does look a bit like spilled white paint on dark marble, especially in the images that are a little angled. I can just image spilling a bucket of white paint, tilting the room and have it flow downward. Very fun.

I like this book as well, especially this sketch of the elevation of the Land Bridge concept. The idea of having green pass overtop a bridge or a freeway is a good one and should definitely be explored more often but that isn’t what caught my attention. My eyes immediately go to the columns that are like great trees holding up the green like a canopy running together.

image via: Landscape+-Urbanism

This would be quite dramatic driving through or viewed from any angle from the ground. It would perhaps be like the feeling of awe I felt when passing under the great tree-like columns of La Sagrada Familia. (please let this project be completed in my lifetime!)

Barcelona and Berlin images via: Lisa Town

I found another example while exploring the Jewish Museum in Berlin. I was in search of a certain art piece that I was particularly interested in seeing when I stumbled upon this covered courtyard.  The space is pretty massive.  

The best part is that not only are these supporting column structures reminiscent of giant trees but the style fits with the building itself, mimicking the style of the window perforations.