Aaron Koblin probably has one of the coolest jobs ever (if you’re a nerd like me). He works at Google Creative Lab, where it looks like all they do all day is think about wild art projects using all the data that Google has at its fingertips. He’s presented at TED, SIGGRAPH, Coachella, has done a Radiohead video, and his work is permanently on display at the MoMA. Some of his most interesting work can be seen in the video above, or on his website.
Ted talk with Robert Lang about *recent* mathematical advancements in the art of Origami and its applications for various things including space exploration and heart surgery. Click this link or the picture to learn something this Thanksgiving.
After you’ve watched the talk, you can download his program Treemaker and virtually create plans for your own designs. Send pics or it didn’t happen.
It’s getting cold out and it’s about time to pull out the camo and tims. Have you ever thought, “I wonder who came up with the idea of the camouflage thats printed all over my Wu-Wear hoody?”
In 1896 the American artist Abbott H Thayer (1849-1921) published an article entitled “The Law Which Underlies Protective Coloration”, in which he explored how animals protected themselves by the use of graduated colours and tones on their feathers, scales or fur, allowing them to be camouflaged by their surroundings. Using a language that mixed art and optics, he said “the spectator seems to see right through the space really occupied by an opaque animal”. While Thayer was not the first to observe how animals used this defensive colouration, he believed nature was acting as an artist, using colour and light for optical effect, and thought that this study “belongs to the realm of pictorial art and can be only interpreted by painters”.
I drove past The Prism Gallery, designed by Patterns, last night and took a mighty double take, folding bands of alluminium disappearing into sidewalk/awning louring you into a pristine double-height gallery full of stimuli.
The opening on is a Friday, in the heart of the Sunset Strip somewhere between The Standard and The Roxy… maybe check it out on an off day. Gonna be a headache getting over there, ya dig.
Ooga Booga Store is getting a taste of the West Side at Keep Shoes starting this evening. Two ladies who’ve championed one another these past years, are uniting to for the holidays.
Christmas is a comin’ ya’ll, maybe you pickup some kicks and a Calvin Johnson mix tape, I’m a 9 1/2.
Sports titans “captured at the height of their youthfulness and fame” by Andy Warhol on Polaroid.
“…Straightforward portraits shot with the Big Shot camera — gives the tiny images a purity and sincerity that belies the radiance and aura of greatness coming from the sitters”. -NY Times
This small collection commissioned by a collector in the late 70s and 80s will be showing at Danziger Projects.
I’m sure you’ve all seen the banners around town advertising, Collection: MOCA’s First Thirty Years. But maybe you didn’t hear that they’re giving us six free days to soak in the, 500 PIECES!!! I’m pretty excited to see this Ruscha installation and I always wanted to see The Big Wheel in person. I doubt they’ll fire it up but I can picture C. Burden scaring people to death when he first showed this piece, revving that motorcycle like a mad-scientist!
O wait I! I found this video of Mr. Burden making that 3 ton wheel spin, sadly… more of a “scientist” scientist than a “mad” scientist.
The gallery is hosting Deegan-Day Design’s, Blow X Blow is clever usage of a gallery space that in the past has felt forced and fallen under the umbrella of “art for art’s sake,” I’m looking at you Greg Lynn. I won’t go on further because they were kind enough to make the movie above, painful elevator music and all, that does a fantastic job of breaking down the reasoning behind it looks the way it looks. But, I have to mention that structurally the piece is well put together. They used soft plastic bee-hive panels, for lightness and rigidity, and joined them thin clear acrylic fins, after the break a close up photos, lastly the vertical posts that support the projection screens double as supports for the whole structure. Smart problem solving and materials choices all around.
Up the stairs and around the corner from the gallery is where you will find, Drawing as Thoughts the work of Jean-Pierre Hebert. I really wasn’t thrilled with the majority of the pieces in this show. An example being the last image after the jump, but the ones I did like were striking. Hebert, uses algorithms and texts that he considers important and enters them into a computer to create a one off piece of work not knowing for sure what will the outcome will be.
It’s a great idea and sometimes the results are mind-bending but more-over his vibe is just a little too “new-age” for me. Reminded me of walking around Laguna Beach a sunny day, only no Taco Loco. I just gravitate towards simple, stark patterns rather than that flat fuzzy images that over-complicating the formulas would yield. It’s still worth checking out but his website is more interesting to be honest.
