Nemo Observatorium by Lawrence Malstaf

In this 2002 piece, Lawrence Malstaf creates a large cylindrical structure that functions as a typhoon simulator.  The viewer sits in the “eye of the storm” as thousands of tiny styrofoam balls swirl chaotically around them.  The Nemo observatorium is a great example of sensory installation and allows its viewers to experience a phenomenon that could obviously only be experienced with great peril in reality.  One really interesting aspect of the work is the materiality, and the way that Malstaf takes a very specific natural event and so successfully replicates it with completely inorganic items.  Styrofoam balls and reinforced glass hardly come with connotations of nature, but I think sitting in the chamber would make contemplation of nature’s incredible force and power difficult to avoid.  This work was shown in the Woodstreet Galleries downtown-I would have loved to seen and entered the installation!

E-Static Shadows by Dr. Zane Berzina and Jackson Tan

This experimental installation visually communicates the interplay of static electricity in our daily movements and actions.    In this video, viewers interact with the prototype of the final project, which is still in the making.  The installation  analyzes the emission of electrostatic energy in people, light, and sound then light bulbs are lit in “dynamic audio-visual patterns” according to this information.  The project is both an elegant representation of static energy and an opportunity for the creators to conduct research that will “contribute to the knowledge and understanding in the fields of electrostatic, smart textiles, soft technologies and interactive environments in particular as well as interactive art and design in genera l.”  The results of the research generated by the project will  hopefully be utilized in the development of new static electronic technologies that will improve our quality of life in a renewable and sustainable manner.  This project excites me because of its refreshing approach to to research-I think it makes the science of electrostatic energy more accessible and engaging for people such as myself who are unfamiliar with it.

sources: http://www.zaneberzina.com/e-staticshadows.htm and the above vimeo link

The Artist Is Present Game by Pippin Barr

Continuing on the unintentional post theme of virtual/visual representations of reality is a game by Pippin Barr that humerously and thoughtfully simulates the experience of  an averge museum patron’s attempt to see Marina Abromovic at MoMA during her wildly successful retrospective.  The game has all of these quirky, nice touches such as incredibly long (and realistic) wait times, an inablity to play the game when the MoMA is actually closed, and getting pushed out of the line if you leave your browser unattended for too long.  The game also prompted renewed discussion on whether video games can be considered an artistic medium.   I think its funny how people insist on ridgly defining what art can be and only bestowing the term on works that fit their often narrow  rules (it’s art because it’s created on a traditional medium, it can’t be art because it isn’t conceptual, artists must physically create the work etc, etc).  At the same time, I understand the desire to separate art from from popular culture (an attempt to keep art critical? a need to re-establish the arts as venerable and lofty? ) and the human impulse to categorize, but I think that action risks limiting art’s reach and ends up making the art world seem either elitist and sensational or mired in tradition and unwilling to change.   Marina Abromovic’s work was scoffed at and scorned by art critics and the general public as “non-art” for a very long time until people abandoned their old perceptions of what is and isn’t art.  Basically, I think that art doesn’t have to be exclusive for it to be important.

Here is a link to play the game:

http://www.pippinbarr.com/games/theartistispresent/TheArtistIsPresent.html

and here is an interview with the creator:

http://hyperallergic.com/35808/pippin-barr-interview/

Enjoy!