Monday, June 30, 2008

Simply Amazing

As part of my daily blog crawl I came across the work of Moritz Waldemeyer.

LED Jackets


I'd seen some of his work before, namely the LED Jackets he did for OK Go, but I really had not seen the rest of his portfolio, which I've got to say is a lot more impressive.

A few pieces I'm really digging:

TWILIGHT

Twilight


By Royal Appointment

By Royal Appointment


And Step by Step, which photos just don't do justice for.

I also really like his collaborative projects, especially his ones with Chalayan like One Hundred and One. Simply amazing.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Another Cool Artist

Just came across Yuri Suzuki. Yuri does some really cool sound informed work. Really neat stuff.

As an artist it's good, if not vital, to be aware of what other people are doing. What I find tough is to see the cool work other people are doing and not feel stifled by it. Really, I just need to get past my initial "why didn't I think of that first moment" (see Yuri Suzuki's Lemon Light) but sometimes that's really hard.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Julius von Bismarck - The Image Fulgurator

The Image Fulgurator

"The Image Fulgurator is a device for physically manipulating photographs. It intervenes when a photo is being taken, without the photographer being able to detect anything. The manipulation is only visible on the photo afterwards."

This thing is brilliant, especially when his stated purpose is taken into consideration "People’s great trust in their photographic reproductions of reality was what motivated me to develop the *Image Fulgurator*. A camera can be used as a personal memory tool, since people do not doubt the veracity of their own photographs. ... In this context the Fulgurator represents a manipulation of visual reality and so targets the very fabric of media memory."

That said, I've still got slightly mixed feelings about this, because it does in fact "vandalize" other people's photos. There are worse things in life, but it does seem a tad mean.

So I guess, all in all: conceptually I love it. Artistically and technically it's really clever. Ethically though, it's a little wobbly.

[Found via Make]

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Synestisized Literature

Here's a piece I've been working on the past two days that so far remains untitled: http://www.andrewparnell.com/misc/colorwords.php

What it does is takes literature from Project Gutenberg and, converting the text to the corresponding ASCII hex values, turns it into a mosaic of color squares. Through it, I address issues of the ambiguation and limitation of ideas prevalent in language.

Thoughts?

Monday, June 16, 2008

The typewriter's inspiration

I'm not sure whether or not you're aware of the project that preempted the semaphore-bot (and then got shelved due to part restraints...it's coming back as soon as I get some parts.)

Whether you are or not, you should certainly be aware of this awesome piece that inspired it all:
Second Life calculator
[More Here]

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Semaphore-bot

So, one project I've been working on lately is a text-to-semaphore robot that translates junk emails into semaphore.

I don't really intend to tell the viewer that the text he's translating is junk email but rather just present them with a scratch pad a key as to what position is what letter/number. If they take the time to translate some of his message (he delivers sixty characters per minute) they are rewarded with gems such as (and I'm digging these straight out of my inbox) "The Most Reliable Pharmacy Online Free 4 or 12 ViagraPills with any purchase its 100 percent FREE, no gimmick. Use the free pills to satisfy your woman " leaving them to wonder if it was worth the effort.

Here are some videos documenting the alpha, 1.0 and 2.0 tests and iterations.



It's worth noting that after reviewing my semaphore, his right arm is miscalibrated by 1 position.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Homeless Robots or Robos if you will

I'm seeing a lot of these sorts of projects pop up lately, and I must say they're fascinating. Robots encroaching upon what has traditionally been the homeless's turf. These bots have no where else to go, carry their entire lives in around with them, and have to beg just to get by. In a society that is more uneasy around the homeless than they are sympathetic, maybe it makes sense to automate the whole process.

See:
Carlos The Homeless Robot Pushes A Cart, Lacks A Body Above His Legs, And Is On Fire
http://directdaily.blogspot.com/2008/01/caritas-homeless-robot_27.html
Begging robot creates sound, asks for money
Robot begs you to build it