Industrial beauty.

Bernd and Hilla Becher spent their lives photographing industrial objects such as water towers, silos, gas tanks, mine bunkers, blast furnaces etc.

At the time they started taking photos of these man-made industrial creatures, they didn't even know which one was exactly what. They just felt the urge to somehow save them from the complete oblivion because at some point of time they had witnessed the demolition of many of these objects and they feared that in the future there might not be any remains of the industrial age. So this is how they started their journey.

 Blast Furnaces, 
© Bernd and Hilla Becher

Gas Tanks,
© Bernd and Hilla Becher

Bechers traveled around Germany, England, France, Belgium and USA, documenting different industrial shapes which became their fascination. Objects from the same group, built with the same purpose, seemed so similar, yet when put together in a group, so different.

Their photographs were very carefully planned and made with distinctive precision. For example, objects needed to appear isolated from their environment, there were never any shadows in their photos and the shot was always made from an objective point of view. To achieve this, they sometimes needed to wait for weeks just to get the right amount of light.

Winding Towers,
© Bernd and Hilla Becher

Bernd and Hilla Becher are my heroes. I am completely obsessed with industrial objects. I see hypnotizing beauty in them. Walking through Völklingen Ironworks, a plant located in the German town of Völklingen, Saarland, to me was like walking through Disneyland. 

© dee.dee

© dee.dee

Völklingen Ironworks was built and equipped in the 19th and 20th centuries and has remained intact. It was closed down in 1986. and has been declared a World Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO. 

Völklingen complex is enormous. When you go deep down into the heart of the plant, you can see where raw materials were stored and how they were transported into the blast furnaces. What's completely fascinating is that on each corner you see something interesting: pipes and tubes, hanging chains and wires, oversized machinery, tracks and gears, all this covered with rust and layers of paint peeling off , giving everything around you an admirable range of different colors and textures. 

© dee.dee

© dee.dee

© dee.dee

Visit to the highest platforms is breath taking. Only there you can actually grasp the size of the whole complex and from there you also get an incredible panoramic view of the surrounding area. 

There's also a part of the plant which is turned into an art gallery where different temporary exhibitions take place. This is one of the most wonderful settings for showcasing art that I have ever seen. 

I was at Völklingen Ironworks for four or five hours but I could have easily spent the whole day there.

"we are all dots" experience.

When I was writing about Yayoi Kusama before, I only imagined the feeling of seeing her work in person.

Few weeks ago, as I was passing by the Louis Vuitton shop window, I realized that there she was. Yayoi herself. Actually the wax version of her.

Photo: BFA, Joe Schildhorn

I later read about this year's collaboration between Louis Vuitton and the 83 year old Yayoi Kusama.

I honestly couldn't believe how intense the feeling of looking at some shop window could be. Standing there in front of it, you are practically sucked into Yayoi's mind which becomes quite an unsettling experience but you somehow don't want to leave that place.

Just a few days after this, I went to a museum to see the current exhibition of Jean Prouvé's works and figured that I could see the permanent exhibition as well, which I didn't really know what it consisted of. Cruising around the museum, I saw a big cube which people were entering and decided to check it. As I was stepping into it, I came to realization that it is something that I had read about before. I was entering one of Yayoi Kusama's Infinity rooms.

The magical feeling of infinity is created by hundreds of small LED lights which are reflected by the mirrors around you and water beneath you. As with the shop window, here you have that same feeling of never wanting to leave the place, only much stronger.

" Every thing existing on the physical plane is an exteriorization of thought, which must be balanced through the one who issued the thought, and in accordance with that one’s responsibility, at the conjunction of time, condition, and place." 

~Harold W. Percival

sit back.relax.enjoy the flight.

I've noticed one thing about being at the airport.

In the departure area, I always feel great. I love flying so I'm usually excited about the flight and relaxed at the same time. I also feel like having all the time in the world. On the other hand, at the arrival zone, I tend to hurry, feel nervous and quite disoriented. What helps in developing these negative feelings are those endless corridors, escalators which usually take you downwards and long passport control lines. I think every airport should try to make the arrival area more welcoming for freshly landed travelers. For me, some sort of intriguing art piece would do the trick.

So I started exploring and discovered that many airports have implemented this idea of welcoming their passengers with fascinating art pieces which really have the power of turning your thoughts in another direction. Here are my favorites.

First, Toronto Pearson Airport: "Earthbound-Unbound", installation from 2003. by Ingo Maurer.


Endless number of cubes floating in a giant water tank. This actually reminds me of one of my favorite toys when I was a kid. It was a small water tank with colorful rings floating around and the aim was to put those rings onto two needles with the help of water pressure.

Photo via svele/nebo on Flickr

Earthbound…Unbound from Solomon Wong on Vimeo.

The second favorite, San Hose Airport, the "eCloud" installation from 2010, designed by artists Dan Goods, Nik Hafermaas, and Aaron Koblin.

eCloud consists of hundreds of panels, similar to the computer screen, which fade from opaque to transparent states. The cloud actually "listens" to the real weather conditions from around the world and every few minutes the cloud depicts the weather in a different city and a nearby dynamic display shows the detailed weather data for that city. So at certain times, the cloud can appear as an angry thundercloud and in the next moment it can appear as fog.

Photo via Dan Goods

eCLOUD San Jose Airport from jamie barlow on Vimeo.

And finally,  Singapore Changi Airport, "Kinetic Rain" from 2012, designed by ART+COM.

Kinetic Rain is composed of 1.216 perfectly sculpted,bronze droplets hanging from the steel ropes whose hypnotic moves are powered by a computer-controlled motor hidden in the ceiling.

Photos via ART+COM

"Kinetic Rain" Changi Airport Singapore from ART+COM on Vimeo.

This is claimed to be the world's largest kinetic sculpture at the moment. Not really sure if that is the truth but it doesn't really matter. I definitely wouldn't mind being stuck at Singapore Airport and watching this for hours.

feminine vs. masculine

I have some x-rays lying around my apartment and I was wondering what to do with them. I don't want to throw them away as I feel that somehow they are a part of me. I also recently talked to a friend of mine about this and it turns out she also has some x-rays which she would like to turn into some sort of art.

This has inspired me to start wondering around, to see what people do with their x-rays, and the discovery which completely blew my mind was Matthew Cox's art.

Feet,  image © Matthew Cox

Blowing Hair,  image © Matthew Cox

Orchid With Crucifix,  image © Matthew Cox

In Matthew's art , the embroidery and medical x-rays collide.

Two completely diverse materials: cloth and plastic. On one hand, there's the embroidery as a traditional, decorative craft which requires intensive manual work and on the other, modern x-ray shot which is created without any aesthetic intentions in just a few seconds.

Embroidery seems so gentle and feminine and the x-rays appear so emotionless and masculine. Combined together they are hauntingly beautiful.

Pigtails, image © Matthew Cox

Wadding Knees, image © Matthew Cox

Music video for Brazilian pop band Pato Fu wraps this up nicely.

Anormal from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

My brain is bigger than yours.

This time my Internet digging has led me to the first robot celebrity of the 1930s. Meet Elektro :

photos via Retronaut

I actually got interested in a song by Meat Beat Manifesto called Original Control,Version 2 ( don't ask why ) and I wanted to find out where those "I am Elektro" and "My brain is bigger than yours" samples come from. This led me to the story about Elektro.

So, Elektro was a robot built by Westinghouse Electric Corporation which was a manufacturer of clothing irons and ovens. What fascinates me is the fact that this company had such a marvelous strategy for promoting itself. They've financed Elektro's production and then showed him off at the New York World's Fair in 1939. where the robot would amuse the crowd with its skills during a 20 minute show every hour. And he was a huge hit ! The crowd loved him.

  

Elektro's skills included walking, moving his arms and fingers, recognizing colors, making lame jokes, blowing balloons and also smoking cigars. He was made to be a "cool" party robot.
During the 50s he went on a tour, becoming one of the icons of popular culture at that time. And then , in the late 60s he was completely forgotten. He ended up in one of engineer's basement. Years and years later, the engineer's son discovered the robot , resembled and cleaned it so Elektro is now safe in Mansfield Memorial Museum. 

But what hit me today while reading all this was the fact that four years ago, when I was visiting The Atomium in Brussels, I wasn't even aware of the fact that I shook hands with a celebrity.

Yes, there he is, Elektro himself ( well actually his replica but that's irrelevant for this story ! ). And there I am, holding his hand, at that time completely unaware of the story about this robot. He was a part of a huge display in The Atomium which celebrated the history of World's Fairs. To me, in that moment, he was a cool vintage robot which I had to touch but now that I know the story behind Elektro, I can fully appreciate the captured moment. 

Weather obsession.

Remember that part in The Truman Show when Truman tries to escape his fake reality and the producer of the show unleashes "The Weather Programme" as the ultimate weapon? Is the weather control really the ultimate weapon? And doesn't it seem strange that in today's world of genetic manipulation, satellite communications, space research and all the other available technologies, people are still not capable of controlling the weather?

Conspiracy theorists of course claim that the scientists from HAARP (ionospheric research program in the US) have mastered the weather control long time ago and are responsible for series of natural disasters. I know for sure that the artist who has mastered the weather control is Olafur Eliasson.

Olafur Eliasson's work is based entirely on elements of the weather - water, light, temperature, pressure.

by Bill

This is the "Weather Project" at Tate Modern from 2003. People would enter the building and instantly be confronted with the gigantic illuminated orange disc whose light is perfectly diffused in the space so that it gives the feeling of a setting sun. There is also a giant mirror on the ceiling which creates the illusion of uneven edges of the upper half of the disc and the mist in the space is created with sugar and water air pumps.
Eliasson's work is so simple, yet so powerful and apocalyptic.

Another artist who is able to "control the weather" is Berndnaut Smilde. He has specialized in creating clouds.

via Berndnaut Smilde

He creates these using a smoke machine, indoor moisture and dramatic lighting. Each cloud only exists for a few moments before dissipating. I love the idea of an empty gallery space filled with clouds that appear and vanish after a few moments.

So,  did YOU talk about the weather today? 

forever bicycles.

Ai Weiwei's installation "Forever Bicycles"

Orange bike for lunch, via ffffound

Eyecycle by Brent Couchman

Chicago Children's Museum Chair by Bike Furniture

Henri Cartier-Bresson, taken in Hyeres, France, 1932

Victorian Bike Knob by SweetPeasKnobs

The ultimate roller coaster.

Should people have the right to end their lives?

Terry Pratchett, man with wacky sense of humor and wild imagination, was one of my favorite childhood's writers. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease few years ago. In 2011. he made a controversial documentary covering the topic of assisted dying - Terry Pratchett: Choosing to die. I deeply recommend watching this film.
A lot of dispute has been made and can be made about euthanasia, but today I would like to introduce to you someone brave enough to choose a witty approach to this sensitive subject.

Julijonas Urbonas is an artist who designed the "Euthanasia Coaster" aka the ultimate roller coaster which would kill people.

Does it really exist? No. It's just a hypothetical euthanasia machine in the form of a roller coaster which would take away person's life "humanely and with elegance", as the designer claims. 

The inspiration for this project comes from the fact that Julijonas Urbonas has the work experience with managing an amusement park in Lithuania so later on, during his studies at Royal College of Art, he decided to explore the limits of a human body and the altered relationship with gravity in the specific conditions such as amusement parks. 

 

His ultimate killing machine would have 7544 meters long track, the ultimate ride would last for 3 minutes and 20 seconds and would include "joyful" experiences such as thrill and euphoria, tunnel vision, loss of coulour vision, loss of consciousness and eventually death caused by the lack of oxygen supply to the brain.

You need to read Julijonas's detailed descriptions of what a rider would feel throughout the various phases of the ride as the descriptions help you imagine the experience vividly and are spiced up with some great black humor.  I'll give you just a little tease:

"If you are still conscious, you are more resistant to the high g-forces than the majority of people, but don’t worry: the loop is engineered in such a way that the force will remain constant despite the changes in speed, thus ensuring that the painful level of acceleration is not reached. And be assured, the second loop will definitely do its job."

Maneki Neko

Two days ago I had an honor of listening to one great man - a science fiction author, Bruce Sterling. He talked about the future, how his generation imagined the future 30 years ago, how it turned out and how we imagine the future today. This made me go through his work again and as a result of my digging, I came across his story which I haven't read before and which inspired this post.

The story is called "Maneki Neko" . You can read it here.

Maneki Neko is a Japanese figurine, very famous in Asian countries, but also in Western pop culture, which is believed  to bring luck and happiness to its owner. Maneki Neko is actually a cat made usually out of ceramics or plastic,  whose one paw is lifted in the air ( it looks like it's waving but it's actually beckoning) and in the other paw the cat holds a golden coin. The sculpture can often be seen at the entrances of shops, restaurants and other businesses. To me, it is quite interesting that Maneki Neko and what it stands for, associates luck and happiness to money, wealth and prosperity.

Boris Petrovsky, a German media artist, has already wandered off in the direction of my thoughts and produced a genius installation which includes 520 Maneki Neko's. His artwork is called "The global pursuit for happiness" or "The army of luck".

All images © Boris Petrovsky

Petrovsky's Lucky Cats are pre-programmed for different ways of saluting and signalizing gestures but can also interact with the audience by being given a word or sentence by a visitor which is then displayed through moving paws. All this is accompanied by sound samples of  mass or group events such as: political speeches, tv shows, demonstrations, sports events etc.

"The lined up, gold-reflecting mass of the Lucky Cats in the matrix appears almost as an insubstantially copy-paste-animation. The Lucky Cats in the matrix as an industrial made product become an »ornament of the masses« for repetetive-stererotype and globalized-industrialized ideals. Do we need more and more Lucky Cats to generate more and more prosperity for more and more people?" , Boris Petrovsky

 

And do we need more and more Lucky Cats to generate happiness? 

 

Oh, and one fun fact for the end of the post: Will Wright, the famous game designer, the creator of The Sims, is currently developing a game based on Bruce Sterling's story Maneki Neko.

 

Enter the noise.

photo by Xavier Voirol

This is Cycloïd-E.

A fascinating sound sculpture comes from the Cod.Act duo. It consists of five motor-driven horizontal tubes which swing like pendulums where each of the tubes is equipped with sound sources and measuring instruments which make them resonate according to their rotations. Cycloïd-E performs a truly hypnotic dance accompanied by equally hypnotic sound. Its overwhelming effect makes you transcend beyond this universe.

Cycloïd-E puts me in a mood for browsing through Kim Høltermand's photographs.

Kim Høltermand

Høltermand is a Danish photographer whose work is simply breathtaking. Very minimalistic approach, very little color, stunning angles and perspectives. One can feel the silence in his photos or a hypnotic noise just like the one that Cycloïd-E produces.