One Hundred and Eight is an interactive wall-mounted Installation mainly made out of ordinary garbage bags. Controlled by a microcontroller each of them is selectively inflated and deflated in turn by two cooling fans.

Although each plastic bag is mounted stationary the sequences of inflation and deflation create the impression of lively and moving creatures which waft slowly around like a shoal. But as soon a viewer comes close it instantly reacts by drawing back and tentatively following the movements of the observer. As long as he remains in a certain area in front of the installation it dynamically reacts to the viewers motion. As soon it does no longer detect someone close it reorganizes itself after a while and gently restarts wobbling around.

www.nilsvoelker.com

2.40 x 1.80 m

fans, plastic bags, MDF, relays,

a camera, a computer, a microcontroller

and countless screws

summer/autumn 2010

This is so cool. reminds me a bit of an installation I saw in MMX in Berlin by Elke Graalfs (check it out on artcation).

This is a 4 minute excerpt of what will be a ten minute long time lapse video. These four minutes span the months of August through January, the ten minute final version will span exactly one year, May 2009 through May 2010. Motion sensor cameras capture this miniature house deteriorating, seasons coming and going, curious animals passing through, and plants growing and dying. The stills captured during the year have been selectively edited into the final video, titled “Let the Outside In”.

4 Minute Excerpt from Caitlin Parker on Vimeo.

I just love that beaver.
via http://myloveforyou.typepad.com

Clouds are important elements of our atmosphere, framing outdoor space and filtering sunlight. They are the visible part of the terrestrial water cycle, carrying water— the source of life—from the oceans to the land. Clouds find balance within stable equilibria and naturally sustain themselves, embodying and releasing solar energy. The ability to touch, feel, and walk through the clouds is a notion drawn from many of our fantasies. Gazing out of airplane windows, high above the earth, we often daydream of what it might be like to live in this ethereal world of fluffy vapor.

TRANSSOLAR & Tetsuo Kondo Architects create Cloudscapes where visitors can experience a real cloud from below, within, and above floating in the center of the Arsenale. Visitors find a path that is akin the normal experience of walking through a garden. The path winds through Cloudscapes appearing and disappearing. Sometimes people only see the other people across the cloud while the path is obscured. The structure consists of a 4.3 meter high ramp that allows visitors to sit above the cloud. Simply, the structure leans on the existing Arsenale columns. The cloud is always changing so the experience of the path is also dynamic.

The cloud is based on the physical phenomenon of saturated air, condensation droplets floating in the space and condensation seeds. The atmospheres above and below the cloud have different qualities of light, temperature, and humidity, separating the spaces by a filter effect. The cloud can be touched, and it can be felt as different microclimatic conditions coincide. The scene is set underneath an artificial sky where the cloud can be touched and felt as different micro-climatic conditions coincide and where people are changing the cloud and meeting each other.

via Tetsuo Kondo Architects

Tame Impala – Half Full Glass of Wine from Special Problems on Vimeo.

One part that I just adore is the pointillism heart beating to the baseline:

found via The Strange Attractor

Materials are: “Acrylic, cedar, cigarette butts, eurocast, fertilizer, foam, found plastic, garbage from Denver parks, insulation, lichen, moss, organic material from Denver, sponge, steel 55 gallon drum, wood lumber.”

On his website it says:

“Gregory Euclide has placed a set of sculptures inspired by the Rocky Mountain vistas over a floor-drawn map of Denver.The vistas’ positioning relates to the geographical site they have been extracted from, literally and figuratively. The sculpture are part of a series of captures Euclide has made by pouring paint or liquid adherent over a natural setting. Once dried, the materials capture dirt, plants, and pieces of the ground, which become canvases for sculptural landscape painting and miniaturized terrain–turning the natural land into an idealized scene. By hanging the captures over their original location, Euclide creates a multidimensional topography that makes both actual and idealized projections of the Rocky Mountain landscape.

Floating in isolation, Euclide’s sculptures reflect the growing divide between the human dimension and the natural world as an increasing number of people choose to live in urban areas. Because There’s a There, Here’s Just Fine considers how relationships with our surroundings are shaped, and invites us to reevaluate our experiences with nature by presenting a landscape where the notions of the fake and authentic collide.”

I just love this work from Berlin based Judith Sang. I saw this series “Trift” a while back and forwarded it to a friend. It has now hit the radar again and I just can’t not post it up this time. The clean edges and slick finish of the tops of the wood blocks are so professionally finished. The fade into the wood grain just makes me melt… not to mention the colors! I would love to touch and see these in person. (and then take a few back with me to my loft)

Check it out on Judith’s Website

read on the Daily Tonic
and found via Norsk Stil

I’m also really into her wax series Ecdysis.

Fast Company explains the color coding as:

Black is walking (less than 7mph), Red is bicycling or equivalent speed (less than 19mph), Blue is motor vehicles on normal roads (less than 43mph); Green is freeways or rapid transit.

Here is San Francisco:

New York:

London:

Eric also made a set based upon weather you are a tourist or a local. Here is what he had to say about it on his Flickr:

Blue points on the map are pictures taken by locals (people who have taken pictures in this city dated over a range of a month or more).

Red points are pictures taken by tourists (people who seem to be a local of a different city and who took pictures in this city for less than a month).

Here is New York Based upon Tourists or Locals:

And San Francisco based upon Tourist or Local: (I love how Alcatraz and the Golden Gate, and the Pier are clearly defined as tourist)

Check out the Fast Company article, Eric’s Fischer’s Local’s and Tourist’s Flickr Set,  and his Geotaggers’ Word Atlas Flickr Set.