Incredibox is a interactive website that allows users to mix their own beatboxes using the skilled sounds of The Incredible Polo. The website is fun and super simple to use. You just drag and drop the types of sounds on the the beatboxer's t-shirt to add to the mix. Click on any of the beatboxers to remove their sound. The end effect is really enjoyable to experience.
As part of his W+K's Platform application, Marcelo Pena Costa started an Analogue Twitter account. He set up a webcam while working on his project and wrote tweets live with a marker on paper, pinned to a bulletin board.
In my opinion, Analogue Tweets is actually a way more interesting idea than the project it was designed to document (I [heart] wires). This idea is so brillant, I'm filing it under Damn-I-wish-I-had-thought-of-that.
Bodies in Urban Spaces is a performance art piece by Austrian artist, Willi Dorner. His crew of dancers and acrobats tour cities, running around as a group, squeezing themselves into whatever gaps or crevasses they pass. Most of the time, the group is wearing dynamically coloured clothes (not in the image above), making themselves into tightly fit, bright, beautiful urban artwork.
Earlier this year, idiot er... design student, James Titterton offered his body up as a canvas. He ran a design contest to offer his skin "as a light sensitive material, upon which I am willing to have appropriate visual content 'developed' as a suntan". The winning design was submitted by Finnish graphic designer, Janine Rewell. James documented the stenciling, tanning and exhibition process on his Tan Man blog. Oh dear.
The always brilliant, Multitouch Barcelona have released a new video project called Hi, A Real Human Interface. It is an amusing reinterpretation of a computer preformed by a guy in a box.
I am once again reminded to say nice things to my computer. (Found through Fubiz)
The BBC currently have a great website up that allows you to play with interactive art in their studios. The BBC Blast Studios connects you to a live stream of the BBC studio (available 12pm-12am) where they have 3 interactive art pieces. Online users can choose an art piece to play with and then follow the instructions to participate.
My favorite is Mark, which gives you three paint gun shots at a large canvas. It is accompanied by a dragable timeline which allows you to see the artwork being created over time.
Fantastic idea. The combination of online visitors with real participatory art exhibits is almost too good to be true. This experiment in creativity will be available until June 9th.
My dad sent me the link to this video a couple weeks ago. The video is an unlikely combination of street musicians from around the world playing Stand By Me. Each musician was recorded individually and then digitally edited together into the final fantastic song.
The video is part of an ongoing project called Playing for Change (great name!), which tries to use music to "break down boundaries and overcome distances between people". Although the Stand By Me video has gotten the most attention on the internet, there are actually seven videos so far, featuring different combination of street performers playing different songs. The other songs include One Love, Don't Worry, and Bring It On Home.
This is such a simple and effective idea. You can't help but love it. (Thanks Dad!)
Synchronous Objects is a super interesting collaboration between choreographer William Forsythe and Ohio State University's Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design. It is a series of projects is to explore the art of dance from a scientific and data visualization perspective.
One of the sub projects, entitled Cued Annotations, visualizes a dance where each of the dancers starts their part upon a specific cue from one of their fellow dancers. You can watch the dancers preform the dance from a front or above stage view, and then re-watch the choreography with all the cues and their effects annotated. The project creators were "interested in the intensity and integrity of the dancers' attention to one another, the rapid exchange of information, and the different qualities of motion in each cue response". I can't wait to see more
I know Tweenbots has been on every blog in the past couple days, but I love the idea too much to not add it to my collection as well. Tweenbots is an art experiment by Kacie Kinzer that looks at how robots and humans interact. Tweenbots are cute little cardboard robots which try to navigate the streets of New York. These robots are unique because they are human defendant. They only have the ability to go in a straight line and rely on human interaction to navigate complicated routes. The website has some great video of a Tweenbot trying to navigate its way through Washington Square Park. It gets stuck under benches, and in potholes... but people consistently come to its rescue. The trek apparently only took 42 minutes and 29 human interventions.
I love this project for so many reasons. Partially, I just enjoy the idea that people would help inanimate objects with a task. Mostly, I like this project because it challenges the typical thinking about robots. Robots are not necessarily going to take over the Earth, we can live peacefully together... they might just need our help. Let the robots contribute what they are good at, and let the people contribute what they are good at. I love crowdsourcing.
The Office of Blame Accountability... because sometimes you just need to get if off your chest.
The Office of Blame Accountability is a street art project by Geoff Cunningham and Carla Repice. It allows users to fill out a blame form or record an audio conversation with someone that they hold accountable for something. Since 2007 they have collected hundreds of accountabilities. They describe themselves as "A collaboration with the American public that follows a growing need for art that sees the viewer as a producer and participant".
I really enjoyed the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Particularly because I was so enthralled by the special effects used to make the actors look younger and older. They were amazingly well done. I just watched Ed Ulbrich's TED talk about how Digital Domain created Benjamin's face, and now I'm even more impressed. His head is computer generated for the first hour of the film. The process that they created to make the effects realistic is pretty incredible. They innovated by using "technology stew" - combining little bits of relevant technology gems from gaming and medical imaging. I recommend listening to the explanation. They had me at phosphorescent makeup...
Fifty People One Question is a heartwarming little video project created by Crush + Lovely and Deltree. I say "little" because it is such a serenely simple idea, and so simply executed, that it seems effortless. The project does what it says, asks 50 people, in 1 city, 1 question. The questions are also simple: What do you wish to happen by the end of the day? Where would you like to wake up? ...and the answers are varied and beautiful. Watch them all here. (Found through It's That Nice)
Maria, of Stickers and Donuts, has just published My Year in Outfits - photos of what she wore every day for the past year. Wow... this is making me feel very uncreative about my wardrobe.
One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is the inventive greeting cards that creative agencies come up with. This year one of the most impressive has been the holiday video put out by AKQA. It is a Christmas take on found object music. In this case they play Jingle Bells using microwaves set to different times with different toned alarm bells. This sounds like something Eric Johnson would do.
Oooo, yet another deliciously brilliant idea to add to my To Do List... Jumping in Museums. Allison Reimus has a blog dedicated to her love of jumping in art museums. She says "Sometimes, while visiting art museums and galleries, I am so excited by what I see that I have to jump for joy". Allison encourages readers to send in their own jumping in museum photos with info about who they are, what museum they were in and the painting they chose to jump in front of. She also organizes jumping events. One such event happened this past week at MoMA in NY. I might just have to swing by the local art gallery tomorrow.
Improv Everywhere is a group of New York based undercover improv agents who organize and execute missions to "cause scenes of chaos and joy in public places". Their missions are all pretty funny and involve some sort of over the top kind gestures. Their latest mission called Welcome Back brought a huge smile to my face. The mission involved 20 "agents" to camp out at JFK airport for the day to welcome strangers. They found a driver in the airport carrying a sign with someones name on it. Then they would fill out all of their welcome home signs accordingly. When that person came to meet their driver they were also met by 20 strangers screaming their name, carrying balloons and flowers. Watch a video of the event here. This is such a brilliant idea.
Artists Robin Hewlett and Ben Kinsley have managed to make street art out of Google's Street View in their project Street with a View. They decided to blur fiction and reality to create the most interesting alley in the US. They figured out when Google Street View would be recording the images for a small street in Pittsburgh and then decided to throw an event. All of the scheduled activities were variations on the truth... a parade, a marathon, a heroic rescue, and more. Check out a video the Sampsonia Way activities in progress here.
Artist Sebastian Campion currently has an interesting exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Roskilde, Denmark. Social Souvenir is an interactive exhibit reflective of current online trends. The museum is selling 300 t-shirts for 125 DKK each. The t-shirt is black with white text, forming a phrase inspired by one of the museum's artists. As each shirt is sold, they are removed from the tangible half of the exhibit and transitioned into the virtual half, a large map. The t-shirt owner's address are marked on the map. I like the evolution of the exhibit from offline to online. It's very reflective of our social interactions today.
Sigh... I'm falling in love with Banksy all over again. I know this has been on all the blogs today but it's such a brilliant idea, that I couldn't pass over posting it here as well. Banksy's newest exhibit in New York comes in the form of a pet store. The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill is now the home to a leopard print coat, hot dog hamsters, fish stick fish, chicken McNuggets drinking BBQ sauce, and my favorite, nesting CCTV cameras. All the "pets" are animated and viewable from within the small store, or from the street. Be sure to watch the videos for the full effect.
Banksy's comments on the exhibition were 'New Yorkers don't care about art, they care about pets. So I'm exhibiting them instead'. I'm swooning at the bad attitude. For more info check out Wooster Collective's coverage.
Candy took notice of the fact that in most people's busy, lives one of the few times they have a moment to be alone with their thoughts is while they walk around the city. She points out that 'A routine trip can prompt reflections on everything from future goals to last night’s dinner conversation'. Candy created a project called Sidewalk Psychiatry to help pedestrians along with their deep thoughts. The project encourages self evaluation through sayings painted on city sidewalks. The sayings include 'Then why did you do it?' and 'And whose fault is that?'.
