Another Place

I stumbled upon these older but eerily fascinating works by artist Antony Gormley.  The addition of the figures somehow make the landscape more desolate.  Perhaps it's the initial feeling of accompaniment, then an onset of greater emotional isolation when the stark motionless and lifelessness of the bodies is realized.  It also reminds me a bit of Frank Gaylord's statues at the Korean War Veteran's Memorial. 

From the original proposal for the Wattenmeer, Cuxhaven. 

To install a hundred solid cast iron bodyforms along the coast to the west and south of theKugelbake. The work will occupy an area of 1.75 square kilometers, with the pieces placed between 50 and 250 meters apart along the tideline and one kilometer out towards the horizon, to which they will all be facing. Depending on the fall of the land, the state of the tide, the weather conditions and the time of day the work will be more or less visible. The sculptures will be installed on a level plane attached to two-meter vertical steel piles. The ones closest to the horizon will stand on the sand, those nearer the shore being progressively buried. At high water, the sculptures that are completely visible when the tide is out will be standing up to their necks in water.

The sculptures are made from seventeen body-casts taken from my body (protected by a thin layer of wrapping plastic) between the 19th of May and the 10th of July. The sculptures are all standing in a similar way, with the lungs more or less inflated and their postures carrying different degrees of tension or relaxation.

The idea was to test time and tide, stillness and movement, and somehow engage with the daily life of the beach. This was no exercise in romantic escapism. The estuary of the Elbe can take up to 500 ships a day and the horizon was often busy with large container ships.

In the end, the piece stretched 2.5 km down the coast and 1 km out to sea, with an average distance between the pieces of 500 metres. They were all on a level and those closest to the shore were buried as far as their knees.

{Image Sources: 1: 2}

Urban Biorhythmicity

If we can take the fractal geometries of nature and break them down to find formations of rhythmic order, then perhaps the same can hold true for sound.  Scientists have gained insight into the temperament of fragile ecosystems by recording and measuring biodiversity in soundscapes.  We once asked whether the same might be done for the health of cities.  Breakdown cityscape sounds and find at their essence a harmony of unified rhythms, the orchestrated pulse of the city that otherwise goes undetected.

Information Aesthetics pointed us to Sensing city [levenmustercollective.com], a live concert by an eleven-piece-ensemble which was occasionally influenced by urban rhythms, here the movement of cars outside the concert venue. As the passing cars triggered the rhythms that were being played, the city became audible through the musicians, even when the urban dwellers not knowingly were part of the composition.

While only an influence of urban rhythms, the concert hints at a possible new genre of city beat inspired classical music, or even hip hop.  Mixing the language and pulse of the city which without lyrics reveals, if done effectively, an audible picture of the state of urbanism in way that graphs and charts could never show.  Or, a new profession, "Urban Biorhythmicists", whose practitioners, monitor, study, and re-design the sounds of city sections to better sync with the overall composition.

In the meantime you can begin your training as a Urban Biorhythmicist with the iphone app RjDj.

Sensing City Preview from LevenMusterCollective on Vimeo.

Googlescapes

 

Already giving us Google Earth, Google Sky, and Google Sea, what other sectors will Google infiltrate as they steam roll to world domination?  We already rely on it's search engine as a quasi portable memory hard drive, which the remembrance of insignificant facts can leave way for more important and additional cranial storage space.  Will future pastoral vistas be owned and sponsored by the almighty, Google? If idyllic landscapes become a rare enough commodity will simply casting a view upon them cost awe strucken gazers?

The image above is from the work of Italian conceptual artist Filippo Minelli, who imagines a world dominated buy Google.  You can see other similar images at his ongoing project here.

+Spotted on Treehugger

Pneumatic Objects

I've been exploring/finding/reading/learning more about interactive landscapes as of late.  Whether it be from user influenced light art or charging space through dynamic social play, their are untapped realms of experiencing the landscape.  An exhibit by Topotek 1 displays a whimsical approach to a design that enables multiple interpretations by the traveler.  It was chosen for the CCA's 99 Actions: What Can You Do With The City project.  The CCA's description:

An exploration of how everyday human actions can animate and influence the perception and experience of contemporary cities.  Seemingly common activities such as gardening, recycling, playing, and walking are push beyond their usual definition by the international architects, artists, and collectives featured in the exhibition.  Their experimental interactions with the urban environment show the potential of a new level of participation by city residents.

Within the framework of the exhibition "Actions: What Can You Do With The City" curated by Mikro Zardini and Giovanna Borasi, the Canadian Centre For Architecture (CCA) incorporates one of Topotek 1's for the Landesgartenschau Wolfsburg 2004 designed inflatable objects into its permanent collection.  Shown in the exhibition are additional pneumatic objects belonging to the office as well as models contributed to the 2007 conducted competition "Art and Architecture in Alt-Kopenick." 

 

{Photos by Hanns Joosten courtesy of Topotek 1} 

Related: Mediascapes I: Forever, 99 Actions: What Can You Do With The City, New Light, Urban Bliss Dissemination

Design in the Sky I

The concept behind this ephemeral artwork is the creation of young british artist Stuart Semple. the clouds were displayed in london near the tate modern. Semple explained his motivation, 'I just wanted to make a piece of work that would cheer people up a bit.' he continued saying, I know at times like this it's easy to make creativity a low priority but i want to show that on a very human level an artistic idea might be able to do something important even for a fleeting moment.' the piece was created using helium, soap and vegetable dye. semple release one pink-tinged cloud every 7 seconds, with each lasting only 30 minutes. 2057 completely biodegradable clouds were released in total. 

Images © Ellis Scott, 2009 Stuart Semple Industries

+Via DesignBoom