I really like this radio piece about a literal spy's experience listening to static audio in North Korea.
the
PRX description...
"
This work examines what it means to monitor airwaves on patrol, listening in from the perspective of a westerner trained in the nuances of a foreign language, navigating the borders of translation.
The piece has been created from a series of extensive interviews with a military linguist. His experiences as a spy and translator forever altered his listening skills and informed his desire to become an actor.
The piece combines the forms of radio documentary and sound collage, and seeks insight into the psychological, moral, and ethical implications of this listening activity."
"The history of Ortner & Ortner dates back to 1970. At that time Laurids Ortner, Manfred Ortner and Günther Zamp Kelp worked together in Düsseldorf as Haus-Rucker-Co. The projects they worked on over the following 15 years shifted programmatically between the areas of free art and architecture. Many of them anticipated later developments and had a sustained influence on tendencies and directions. Major themes, such as 'second nature' – the fusion of the naturally grown and the artificially created – or 'deconstruction' – the taking apart and new composition of buildings – were raised in an illustrative manner in projects and exhibitions." Here are a few of their fantastic projects
"...Other devices included a collection of bizarre helmets with colored visors, flashing lights and stereo headphones. These plastic headpieces, with the names 'Flyhead', 'Viewatomizer', 'Drizzler' and 'Environment Transformer' (all 1968), were said to isolate the wearer from the outside world. The helmets placed a buffer between the real world and the senses of the person inside."
Yellow Heart
Mind Expandervia
World Of Kane
The Hokusai wave with a mustache
Over and over again I keep seeing the "
Hokusai Wave" reappearing in different forms. I am starting to think it could be considered something of a 21st century "Mona Lisa" especially her mustache. If I were
Momus or
Neomarxisme, maybe I could semiotically break down the Japanese/Western forces at play here...
This has been around the net for a while, but it really is an inspiring story. Ben Wilson paints atop squashed pieces of chewing gum clinging to London Streets.
Wooster recently posted
this video about him.
"Electroplankton is an interactive music video game developed by the famous Japanese multimedia artist Toshio Iwai and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS portable gaming system. This unique software allows one to interact with animated "plankton" and create music through one of ten different "plankton themed" interfaces. This title is commonly not regarded as a video game in the fullest sense, but rather a "toy" because there is no objective, timer, or top score. Everything that the game has to offer is available from the beginning." -
Wikipedia entry
As soon as I heard the title... I thought "Yes! A videogame where you get to play as ocean plankton!" As great as that sounds, I was pleasantly dissapointed.
I haven't gotten a chance to play this game as much as I would love too, but the
videos are pretty impressive. It seems like a worthy successor to
REZ. I wish there was a lot of this kind of high quality content available for PCs, since it appeals to atypical videogame consumers.
I am not sure if others have noticed this, but ElectroPlankton seems to be a bit like a hybrid of "
Well Of Lights" and "
Music Insects" two installations by ElectroPlankton's sole designer,
Toshio Iwai.
Also defenitly check out his projects "
Tenori-On" light and sound instrument, and the "
Sound Lens" a walkman which converts surrounding lights into sound.
"...
One of our non-Vestal housemates worked at the Stanford library, and his job included the task of throwing away old books, which apparently the other librarians couldn't bear to do. We decided to rescue these books from that awful fate - and what better use for them than a bar from which to entertain our frequent guests?..."Via
Craftster
"Ochre, rust, oxblood, jade, sage, sienna. At a lower elevation now, the air in the plane begins to heat, and we strain against our confines. We can almost give in to the languor of the engine’s drone; the motor-drive of the camera winds more slowly, the focal shutter closing its blackness on the scene like a heavy lid. The camera blinks, the lake blinks back, and we are gone." -David Maisel, "The Lake Report"
"In 2003, photographer David Maisel "began to make aerial photographs around the perimeter of the Great Salt Lake in Utah, as part of a project that will ultimately cover much of the Great Basin. The Great Salt Lake is considered a 'terminal' lake, in that it has no naturally occurring outlets. Around its edges are industries of varying types, including evaporation ponds that cover some 40,000 acres along the eastern and southern shores of the lake."
Via
BLDGBLOG
Brilliant and harmless, as always, internet revolutionary Rob Cockerham of
Cockeyed.com[if you are not familiar, Cockeyed is one of funniest most impressive sites I have ever seen.] has designed these fantastic "Lifelike Oversized Trapped Mouse Stickers." In line with his
Instant Outlet and
Fake Clock.
See also
Richard Shed's screw tape for another innovative sticker idea
"
BIOGLYPHS is an art and science collaboration initiated in 2002 by members of the Center for Biofilm Engineering and the Montana State University School of Art.
Two BIOGLYPHS exhibitions of living bioluminescent paintings were created by teams of student and staff artists, scientists and engineers in 2002."
Basically, those are petri dishes with bacteria painted into them. I think this would make for interesting sidewalk guides, or movie theater pathway lighting.
I can't stop thinking about this table. It isn't perfect, but it's just so playful...
It features a writable white globe for use with whiteboard pen.
via
mocoloco
"Ozawa [Tsuyoshi]'s Vegetable Weapon series began in 2001 and since then has been held throughout the world. Ozawa takes a photo of a young woman holding a "weapon" assembled from the vegetables and other ingredients needed to make a "hot-pot" dish popular in the area where she is from. He then makes the hot-pot and shares a meal with the woman and others."
brilliant?
From The "
Gardenlab" who "
...seeks to fundamentally shift the current self-reflexive culture of art and design, where formal novelty, hermetic discourse and the latest software dominate. The Gardenlab provides a balance to these forces by provoking thought on the inter-dependant relationships that define our communities and environment..."
.................................................................
"
Edible Estates is an attack on the American front lawn and everything it has come to represent. It is an ongoing series of projects to replace the front lawn with edible garden landscapes responsive to local culture, climate and landscape."
“
Edible Estates proposes the replacement of the American lawn with a highly productive domestic edible landscape. Food grown in our front yards will connect us to the seasons, the organic cycles of the earth and our neighbors. The banal lifeless space of uniform grass in front of the house will be replaced with the chaotic abundance of bio-diversity. In becoming gardeners we will reconsider our connection to the land, what we take from it and what we put in it. Each yard will be a unique expression of its location and of the inhabitant and their desires. Valuable land will be put to work.”
A bit much to ask... but a noble goal. I think this says a lot more about time and labor in the suburbs. There are bigger fish to fry.
Via
Pruned (my new favorite website, whose post on the subject includes beautiful photos of the theory in practice)
Is it possible to be in love with a map?
Here is the
largest version available.
Via
infosthetics >
Pruned (a fantastic landscape architecture blog
