gravitymax in transition

by jean poole, dan mackinlay, james nichols, and sarah harvie.

Pattern Machine was a fourway collaboration that grew over a weeklong residency on Cockatoo Island, Sydney, during the 2011 Underbelly Arts Festival. At the end of the week, we performed 3 x 45 minute audiovisual sets at night, and had a generative surround installation running with the inflatable sculpture during the day.

rAndom’s ‘Study of Time # 1′ is based on the studio’s recent scenography for the contemporary dance piece FAR by Wayne McGregor | Random Dance.
To be premiered at Design Miami Basel 2011, the installation takes light, it’s presence and it’s absence, as a medium for the representation of time. A vividly illuminated autonomous algorithm magically reveals the time of the day, re-imagining the principle of telling time from falling shadows as a contemporary light installation.

An installation of casual movements of living creatures are captured to create live concerts that speak to the beauty of life, nature and the advancement of art. A quiet Ensemble combines art, technology and nature to create music. Intermission is over. Sit down and enjoy.

Quintetto won third prize at the “International Contemporary Art Prize – Celesteprize” in Berlin. Quiet Ensemble was founded by Fabio Di Salvo and Bernardo Vercelli in 2009.

Humans hide themselves with the intellect as simulations to have power in society; these could be fake images and signs of vanity and emptiness. They simulate the truth and even deny the chance to unfold their inner truth to the world. In this sense, covering appearances of themselves could be compared to animals’ “camouflage” that is effected by using color, pattern and melting into the environment in order to protect themselves from predators or danger. However, animals have just one fundamental reason, survival rather than other reasons such as earning profits or fame. They have no deceptive consciousness, simulated appearance, or sense of preservation of their vanity. Only the human uses camouflaging as a way of deception.

Why do human beings deceive and camouflage themselves and what makes them hide? The primary purpose of camouflage is to hide the defects that cause one to be caught by one’s enemies. For humans, camouflage prevents them from being disturbed as a person in society. Camouflage is usually for animals that are vulnerable to predators. However, humans use it with diverse layers to cover appearances and create the simulated, metaphysical, and meaningless world as society or architectures. They take refuge inside of the fake dorm without any attempt to find out the clues of truth. Humans camouflage themselves with disguising and hiding their defects, characteristics.

Throughout these concepts of camouflage and media art, I focused on the “camouflage” as the context of my personal art project by using the metaphor of natural camouflage, “pupa.” This was inspired by people’s disguising appearance and behaviors as I discussed above. However, I’m not presenting the negative way of camouflage. I’d like to allow people to be aware of that it’s all of humans’ way of surviving lives. For me, the way of decorating the surface of one’s vanity was truly impressive and interested in terms of the approach to cover it, therefore I decided a pupa as the metaphor among all of the natural creatures.

My project is specifically an art installation work with a form of pupa and projection images. The pupa is made with fabrics, and it leads participants to remind of a white cocoon. If one enters inside of the object, the color of projection is slightly changed through sensors attached on the object, and the color will be altered. One person inside of the pupa feels comfortable and safe because of the warm and fitting shape, and people outside of it might confuse and cannot discriminate whether or not someone is inside of the pupa figure. As the change of environment and the existence of oneself, interaction and communication are formulated and changed.

camouflage yourself is an installation by UCLA MFA student yoon chung han.

sound artist christoph de boecks has created staalhemel, an installation that is literally a reflection of the viewer’s mind. as viewers walk through the space, signals from their head-mount EEG scanner are sent to produce rhythmic percussions on a grid of steel plates on the ceiling. it is an experience that is at once introspective and alien.

The Ocean of Light project explores the creative and immersive possibilities of light-based visualisation in physical space. It uses bespoke hardware to create dynamic, interactive and three-dimensional sculptures from light.

Surface is the first artwork to be exhibited using the Ocean of Light hardware. It uses minimal visuals and sound to evoke the essence of character and movement. Autonomous entities engage in a playful dance, negotiating the material properties of a fluid surface.

The Ocean of Light project is a collaborative research venture, led by Squidsoup and supported by the Technology Strategy Board (UK). Partners include Excled Ltd and De Montfort University. Additional support and resources have been provided by Oslo School of Architecture and Design (Norway), Massey University, Wellington (New Zealand) and Centre for Electronic Media Art, Monash University (Aus).

Primal Source by Usman Haque was an all-night performance/installation brought to life through the active participation of festival-goers at Glow 08. Making use of a large-scale outdoor waterscreen/mist projection system, the mirage-like installation glowed with colours and ebullient patterns created in response to the competing and collaborative voices, music and screams of people nearby.

audiocloud is a beautiful sound piece by artist piotr adamski and rotterdam based mode:lina, using corrugated pipes as amplifiers.

Audioarchitektura (Sonicarchitecture) is a utopian vision of a city that cannot be heard. An innovative system of sound emission, which isolates people from the unbearable audiosphere of crowded streets, traffic and all the noise that unnaturally has become an inseparable part of our life.

a great sound installation set in hanging mirror/speakers and light-projected poetry of james merril.

The vocals of Genesis P-Orridge were subjected to a process of manipulation which involved extending the voice through various methods of extrapolation and time-stretching. The resulting sound was edited together with various samples and engineered to seamlessly continue and repeat over multiple channels, moving ‘through’ each of the sculpture’s ‘audio-spotlights’ in an ongoing sequential process. The polished circular mirrors present the viewer with a moving reflection of figure and ground that disconcertingly alternates with the shifting sound, evoking superimposition, polophony, layers and interstitial spaces.

a=p=p=a=r=i=t=i=o=n is currently on view until september 27, at tramway 2 in glasgow, scotland.

a 3-part series from the flog, documenting many pieces from this year’s prague biennale. beautiful work. beautiful setting. part 1, part 2, part 3.

Set inside the Karlin Hall, a massive and grandiosely decayed former industrial space, the Biennale is in its fourth rendition and was a completely heartening surprise. The self titled “no-budget” Biennale originally started by Flash Art founder Giancarlo Politi and looks clearly held together by the fierce will of the artists, curators and gallerists who participated.

At first glance, one could have easily confused the display for another MFA show and would have left baffled and frustrated. But it was such a refreshing and compelling staging that I wandered, virtually alone in the alleys almost the whole day. I loved that the works were only lit up by natural light, offering a precious and quite unique way to look at Art; no orange spots nailing a painting nor buzzing fluorescent lights disrupting the moment. Paintings were largely present and often rather satisfying – yes, I saw you Romanian school of gorgeous darkness – but a few strong video pieces were thankfully disrupting the comfortable painterly presence.

Mostly, I appreciated the lack of condescension and the chance to see that much work coming from such unrepresented places.