Category Archives: Art
Hold it Together
design office takebayashi scroggin: zip tie massimal
the supporting framework and skin is constructed with 20,000 zip ties producing an ephemeral glowing
volume when illuminated. discretely stabilized with a cable suspension system anchored to the ceiling,
the creation attracts visitors and serves as a centerpiece in the atmosphere.
If it's not a Scottish Incredible Garden of Cosmic Speculation, it's Crap
Scotland’s Incredible Garden of Cosmic Speculation
[I]t is based on mathematics and science mixed with nature and man-made lakes. Built in 1989, it has been called by some the most important garden in the 21st century. It is a private garden built by Charles Jencks and his late wife Maggie in Portrack House, Dumfries, Scotland.
OK, some of the “science” is, um, on the thin side. But there are still some pretty neat things.
It's not Five Joe Biden Sound Bites
That would be a pentagaffe
Meet Your Sponsor: Metro Diverse Service’s Panterragaffe: A Pedal-Powered Walking Machine
Panterragaffe is a pedal powered two person walking machine, a walking bicycle. The name has a few elements to it. It’s a play on pantograph, which is a mechanism for copying drawings, since it’s similar to the leg mechanism. Also; Pan – all or spanning. Terra – earth. Gaffe – an unintentional act causing embarrassment to it’s originator or just goofy-ness. A bit of goofy-ness for everybody. To most people the name doesn’t mean anything, therefore its meaning is flexible.
That's a Cold Shot, Baby
Brian Goggin, S.F. Artist, is Hauling a Colossal Block of Ice From Greenland to Manhattan
In a bid to remind the public of the effects of global warming, Goggin has decided to travel to Greenland, extract an “enormous monolith” of 100,000 year-old rare blue basal ice, and transport it back to Manhattan.
This being art, things then get weird. Well, weirder. The method of extraction is unusual. Then there’s this.
Once it arrives in New York, the ice block will be placed in a custom-designed high-tech reliquary filled with sub-zero glycol solution to keep the ice chilled, weighing in at 4000 pounds altogether. The installation will include a circle of laser beams around the reliquary that serve no practical purpose, but are intended to convey “a sense of rarity and significant value.”
I have to note that I am often encircled by lasers, but they do not seem to convey a sense of rarity and significant value. That I’ve noticed, anyway.
Ultimately, after touring museums across the nation, Goggin will install the monolith in a permanent home, where he hopes to preserve the ice for exactly 488 years. Goggin picked this number because 488 years ago, Manhattan was discovered by Captain Giovanni da Verrazzano of the French ship La Dauphine.
I hope the refrigeration unit will be run by a renewable energy source if this is to bring awareness of global warming and not be a big carbon source.
Snake-Oil Science: The Romance of Empty Symbolism
Quantum Entanglement: A New Way to Be Married
In other words, when two or more particles are entangled, they behave as if they were one and the same, and any change to one instantaneously and identically changes those entangled with it even if they’re a universe apart. “Just try doing that in a marriage contract,” Mr. Keats says.
That’s quoted text but there’s no link to the source, which led me to Google and find a press release which says something similar
According to quantum mechanics, when two or more particles are entangled, they behave as if they were one and the same. Any change to one instantaneously and identically changes those entangled with it even if they’re a universe apart.
Unfortunately, Mr. Keats is wrong. This is the oft-reperated canard of the pop-sci version of quantum entanglement. Any measurement of one will tell you the state of the other, but that breaks the entanglement, and it means you cannot know the state of the particle beforehand. So this gesture means having to forget who you are. As soon as you remember, or someone recognizes you, that’s gone.
What the quote should really say is
According to people who don’t understand quantum mechanics, when two or more particles are entangled, they behave as if they were one and the same. Any change to one instantaneously and identically changes those entangled with it even if they’re a universe apart. In real quantum physics, this isn’t the case.
You can still turn this into a romantic gesture, but please, don’t mangle the science to do so.
From the Forges of the Ice Queen Lair
Extruding Ice from Steel Fences and Pipes with Diurnal Freeze/Thaw (Relative of the ice cube spike you might have seen in your freezer)
After extruding many rods and ribbons of ice from steel pipes I think I know how the ice was extruded from the steel fence in British Columbia. While I produced my ice in one night, the processes leading to the extrusion of ice from the steel fence took place over a couple of days. It is a product of the diurnal freeze/thaw process, consistent with this series of pages.
Somehow water gets into the pipes of that steel fence. On the first night the water in the fence freezes, but it does not freeze solid. Then the next day some of the ice melts. The ice that remains in the fence floats to the top of the water. Then that night the temperature falls and ice forms again. This time the expanding water forces some of that ice that did not melt the day before to be pushed out of any holes where the two pipes are welded together. The results are the ribbons of ice captured by Sheryl.
Lego Letterpress
[T]hese two graphic designers have put Lego to yet another wonderfully off-label use by constructing a working letterpress printer out of the bricks. By clicking smooth Lego tiles into place on plastic baseboards and inking the plates, they create handmade prints with an 8-bit aesthetic.
Rectangular Like Me
It’s a World of Black Rectangles
“How is it that so many different things made in so many different ways end being black rectangles?” Mr. Grcic asked. “They can be extremely elegant and sophisticated, or very basic, but they are such strong and powerful parts of our lives that it is impossible to imagine a world without them.
Speaking of black rectangles,
“They remind me of the black monolith that the ape-men discover outside their cave in Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey.”’ It stands for knowledge and faith that they don’t understand, but recognize and respect.”
Oh, you mean this one?
Those Wheels are Hot
Commentary from Gizmodo
What you’re watching is a piece by artist Chris Burden called Metropolis II, in which every hour 100,000 cars pass through the city of wood block, tiles, Legos and Lincoln Logs. It’s a follow up to Burden’s Metropolis I, which was built on a similar concept but employed only 80 cars. Metropolis II is currently being constructed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.