Report: ITP Winter Show 2006: Tiny People Trapped in Bottles: Animalia Chordata

My favorite piece from the show! (more great projects coming soon in separate posts)

A projector projects onto glass bottles (Gabe said there was just printer paper on the back to catch the projection, nothing fancy) but what's great about this piece is it looks like there are 5 different projections although it's just one.

When you get close to them, the little people inside the bottle start to get agitated and gesture at you to go away, help them, or just start jumping up and down. When you step back, they calm down and go back to relaxing in their bottles.

By: Gabe Barcia-Colombo
"A wide variety of human specimens have been collected in bottles and placed on view for your enjoyment. Watch as they struggle to get out! The characters in bottles each respond to your presence and while some beg you for help, others fear for their lives.

Animalia Chordata is a video installation based upon the idea of collecting bugs as a child. What if you could collect people?
"

Report: 11 Spring Street Graffiti Show

Staggeringly good reportage from Gothamist:
check out the complete report



























Jesse's photos:



Here's the not-fun part you also missed-- THE LINE!!:

My favorite urban graffiti wall is getting turned into condos

Photo by Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

from the NY Times article, Last Hurrah for Street Art, as Convas Goes Condo in the December 14th 2006 Art & Design section

As a goodbye gesture, the developers contacted the Wooster Collective (Marc and Sara Schiller) to stage a last hurrah for the building -- they are showing a ton of worky by graffiti and street artists from all over the world on the inside of the building for just a few days....

The building is at 11 Spring Street, in Manhattan...

Clever Design: Coolest Table EVER!!

watch the quicktime movie and you'll see what I mean

check out more movies on the site: http://www.dbfletcher.com

all are by DB Fletcher Furniture Design. Each piece is custom designed by David Fletcher, by commission it seems. Most of them are on yachts.

thanks to Chad Redmon for the link.

Report: Design Life Now exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt

WOW. The Design Triennial, which opened yesterday, features the best design of the last 3 years, including product design, architecture, animation, industrial design, new media, fashion, print, technology...If you see one exhibit this year, this should be it!

The themes were remixing new and old, getting inspiration from nature and biology, and using technology to revisit old mediums.

Some of the highlights:


One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen...made of double woven fiber optics and monofilament, these graceful hanging panels were such an interesting "remix" of traditional and modern ideas...She also had some wall coverings of woven vinyl velvet (try saying that quickly 20 times in a row) that reflected light in a really interesting way. (click image for larger view)

Suzanne Tick Inc., New York, NY
Crossform light, 2004
Photo: Carter LeBlanc




White wedding kimono from Madama Butterfly was an incredible combination of traditional and modern, and the Red Butterfly Coat and Backless Black Dress along with the White Flower Wrap were simply stunning. I wasn't surprised when my favorite cantaloupe melon bowls were also by Han Feng. The bowls in particular made me drool (and they're on sale at the museum store as well!!)
In this photo:
Han Feng, Costume from Madama Butterfly, 2005
Produced by English National Opera, Lithuanian National Opera, and New York Metropolitan Opera
Photo: Johan Pearsson






At the show they had a GIANT DUNNY made of BLACKBOARD and they had multicolored chalk for everybody to write (and draw!!) whatever they wanted on it. Who doesn't love a Dunny when they see one?

Kidrobot, New York, NY
Big Mouth Dunny, 2005
Designers: Paul Budnitz and Tristan Easton
Paint design: DEPH
Vinyl







This honeycomb-like structure is made from 80% recycled post-consumer content-- they had wall panels and a workbench at the show-- when light is going through it, it manages to look at once organic and futuristic.

Panelite Workstation 2.0, 2003
Principals: Emmanuelle Bourlier and Christian B. Mitman






I couldn't stop looking at these objects. Design genius Lynn designs for Alessi...There were some amazing organic-looking cutlery items too (not pictured) that looked like something Elves would eat with when they went to dinner on the Starship Enterprise. These pieces were not of this world. Ancient and futuristic at the same time.

Greg Lynn FORM, Venice, CA
Grill prototype for Alessi, 2005




Processing, Cambridge, MA, and Los Angeles, CA
Articulate digital drawing generated in Processing, 2005
Designer: Casey Reas
see more Processign projects at processing.org







I thought it was interesting that they had this product as part of the show. The last time i was at Cooper Hewitt was for a show of appliances and furniture from the 50's and it was interesting to see a modern object that made people rethink something like the vacuum cleaner just as back then something like the automatic dishwasher was considered revolutionary. We probably have a long way to go still...
iRobot, Burlington, MA
iRobot Roomba® Scheduler Vacuuming Robot, 2002





Everybody loves to Make!
Make: Premiere Issue, 2005
check out their site














Pixar, Emeryville, CA
Edna Mode (aka "E"), The Incredibles, 2004
Designer: Teddy Newton
Collage
Photo: Pixar







Does anyone know what this is for? Well, it's pretty, anyway.

Moorhead & Moorhead, New York, NY
Tape Wound Borne, 2004





Famous prescription bottle system, where this SVA student really thougth about how people like her grandmother used medicine bottles -- and decided the small type, hard-to open, all-looking-the-same aspects of them were so familiar that no one had thought of doing something about it before.


Deborah Adler, Minneapolis, MN
Target ClearRxSM prescription system, 2004




Enchanting, from up close or afar.

Alison Berger, West Hollywood, CA
Glass Slide Chandelier, 2005
Bronze frame, 96 glass slides






I have to say I was transfixed with this tapestry...like nothing I've ever seen before. You have to see it up close, because in this small photo it looks unremarkable -- and it's not about the photo, it's more about how it's something that was never visually nor technically possible until now.
Lia Cook, Berkeley, CA
Binary Traces: Kay, 2005
Woven cotton







In the time I worked for Nike, i had 2 favorite products: Nike FREE shoes and the Presto watch...The shoe is by Hatfield, the watch is by Scott Wilson/ Studio Mod/OOBA
Nike FREE 5.0, 2004
Designer: Tobie Hatfield







Amazing video of images transforming into themselves. The fact that they're vector graphics gives them that nice plasticky smoothness that you don't get with most computer-generated line drawings somehow.
Joshua Davis, Mineola, NY
022 - Coast of Kanagawa, 2005
Program-generated vector graphic











I wasn't surprised that Natalie Jeremijenko was represented at this show; however, I sometimes feel like i love the concept of her work but not so much the implementation. I loved the NPR show she featured in last year-- And this project is definitely fun -- feral robotic dogs!!
here's a link to more about it
Photo: Emily Nathan






CAO | Perrot Studio
Nantucket Rose Wedding installation was a gorgeous piece they showed in a video that was a walkway woven with roses, with roses planed all along it and rose petals all over the groud, that they must have done for someone's wedding -- it was magical to see and I loved how they wove the flowers into the existing canopy so that you couldn't tell what was natural and what was not.

They've also made some green bubble tiles made of fused industrial marbles-- when they showed a whole wall of the tiles, it looked like a wall of transparent seaweed.

They use recycled medicine bottles as a material and try, in their own words, to "use familiar and overlooked materials"


I am amazed at the breadth of Chip Kidd's work -- designing book covers is not easy. What a master he is to keep things feeling so fresh and unique, after 20 years of doing it!
Chip Kidd, New York, NY
Dry book cover, 2003
Author: Augusten Burroughs
Publisher: Picador
Photo: Geoff Spear









Another amazing textile piece that really underlines the new and evolving visual language that comes out of ever-improving technology (best seen up close)
Hitoshi Ujiie Design, Philadelphia, PA
Branch, 2006
Digital inkjet printing with acid dye ink on silk


Not pictured but should be:
Ralph Rucci's extraordinary "Black Duchesse Satin Suspension Infanta With Olive Embroidered Insets" not only won the "longest title in the show" award but was the only piece of clothing in the show that I was dying to wear. The "DO NOT TOUCH" sign was torture-- this piece was crying out for me to grab it, put it on, and of course, star in the next Matthew Barney video like I know I'm meant to (no one reads my blog anyway so i can say stuff like that, right?).

Will Wright's Spore. It's not out yet, but they showed the Sims instead-- Spore is so much more intriguing visually that it was really missed in this show.

Rapidly Deployable Structure by Hoberman Associates: Part of a device was shown that unfolds mechanically to create a large tent -- good for emergency situations and harsh weather conditions.

When you go upstairs in the exhibit, a light sculpture that lines the entire wall sort of follows you up the stairs and plays discreet sounds-- does anybody know who it's by?

Oh, and don't forget to go see the show!!
Design Life Now: National Design Triennial 2006 @ the Cooper Hewitt Museum

if you missed the Blip Festival....

Their website is pretty awesome and has info about a ton of the performers.

In their own words: "...artists exploring the untapped potential of low-bit videogame consoles and home computers used as creative tools. Familiar devices are pushed in new directions with startling results...Small sounds at large scales pushed to the limit at high volumes "

Here are a few highlights:

VOLTAGE CONTROLLED

Paris Treantafeles uses his background in mathematics, physics and analog synthesis to create geometric, algorithmic and audio-triggered visuals using only open source tools such as Pure Data (with Gem, PDP, PiDiP) and Gephex. In spring 2006 he completed a residency at the Experimental Television Center and has applied the knowledge of this experience to emulating early video synthesizers in Pure Data. He recently gave a talk on this subject at Piksel 2006 in Norway. Collaborations include experimental analog video, music videos for William Duckworth's iPod Opera 2.0 and regular performances in the NYC area with chiptune musicians.

http://www.parisgraphics.com/




BUBBLYFISH

Haeyoung Kim relocated to the US from Korea in 1992. With a background in classical piano, she has been focusing on experimental electronic music. Currently, under the name Bubblyfish, she creates "lo-fi," 8 bit sound works and experimental compositions. Based in NYC, Haeyoung has worked as a composer, sound designer, and audio engineer. Haeyoung's work has been presented in various art venues, clubs, festivals, and galleries including Centre Pompidou, The American Museum of the Moving Image, Eyebeam, The New Museum, Roulette, and Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater.
http://www.bubblyfish.com/




CORY ARCANGEL

Cory Arcangel is a computer artist, performer, and curator who lives and works in Brooklyn. His work centers on his love of personal computers and the Internet. He is currently a senior fellow at Eyebeam Atelier in Manhattan. He is a member of the artist groups, BEIGE, + R.S.G. His work has shown recently in the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Guggenheim Museum, New York, the MoMA, New York, Space1026, Philly, the Migros Museum, Zurich, Team Gallery, New York, and Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery, Paris. Aside from gallery installations, most of his projects can be downloaded with source code from his Internet web log ---> http://www.beigerecords.com/cory/.



PORTALENZ

http://www.usk.cc/

















GLOWMAG

http://www.glomag.com/

Flexilight by Jos Kranen (Design Tide) @ Tokyo Design Week

Via PingMag:
MOST ELEGANT LIGHT SOLUTION

No more ugly dangling cords in your house. Flexilight is the elegant light system designed by Jos Kranen.

"In the imaginary SF country everything is made of electrifying metal and neon. Flexilight by Dutch Jos Kranen looks like it fell out of this land to educate us in the art of electronic frailty: This extendable light system meanders along the wall like electrodes on a chip board. Along the road they split in several lines to find their endings in light bulbs. “I designed Flexilight out of sheer frustration”, Jos admits on his website. He didn’t like the ugly extension cords he had to use for his lamps after he had moved to a new place, so he just designed something more convenient to avoid dangling cords ever again. He used low-voltaged LED and connected parts that can be expanded all over the house. How sophisticated!"

check out Jos Kranen's site

check out PingMag's report on Tokyo Design Week