prosthetic knowledge

Artist Rob Sherwood

Rob Sherwood’s work is about finding a depth of perception, literally and metaphorically, in a flat-screened world. He considers himself a painter but his practice has always allowed some time for conducting experiments with various lens based media.

Attracted by the way digital technology blurs boundaries between physical and virtual space, his paintings can be seen as taking the grid for a visual metaphor of human cognition. Whether each square is interpreted as a pixel, cell, bit or atom is consequential to it being first and foremost just a painted mark.

Recently he has begun translating his aesthetic sensibilities and theoretical interests into objects. As with his grid paintings, these works tamper with an apparently rigid system and find creative space in a subjective interference. The suggestion is that models which appear strict or sterile can combine meaningfully with subjective fields of feeling, whether in the algorithms of the internet or those of a painted pattern.

[text taken from Frederica Schiavo Gallery]

The artist also has a Tumblr blog here

DUO

A low cost open-Source DIY 3D motion sensor to become another alternative to the Kinect:

The DUO is the world’s first and only DIY 3D sensing solution. 

The DUO comes in many forms: with open hardware plans, molded cases, kits and fully assembled devices. All paired with an open source Driver, SDK and examples. Resulting in a professional grade solution for 3D sensing using stereo vision.

The best part is it’s extremely easy to use, just plug it in, download the software and you can start playing within minutes. If you can wave in the air you can use a DUO.

More Here

Datamoshing the Land of Ooo: A Conversation with David OReilly

Interview with the great animator David O’Reilly about his Adventure Time episode:

DR: Were there any restrictions and/or stipulations on what you could do with the show?

DO: Creatively, Pen really wanted me to do my own thing. The writers on the show are really good, and I would have been happy to animate one of their storyboards—but he really wanted me to do all that stuff myself. I can’t think of a precedent for that. It may be the only animated show in history to let a total outsider write and direct an episode. As far as restrictions, there were a few because ultimately it’s for children’s TV. A few jokes were cut or toned down, which was frustrating at the time, but I’m proud of what made it to air. 

Worth reading, which can be seen here

Digital Merzbau

Chinese project combines art, 3D printing, geometry and recursion:

Merzbau is a project by a German artist Kurt Schwitters began in 1923 in Hanover for a series of room transformation of his house. With art of collage, restructuring process, he re-used the discarded building materials from which made into furniture, walls to ceiling, creating a form of decorative and structural integration, basically following a certain design rules. Today, in the computational context, we tried to create a series of our own logic from the prototype “Merzbau”.

More Here

for(){}; - projection mapped video game on canvas

Playable art by Brent Watanabe features acrylic hand-painted canvases mounted on wall, with sprites projected on surface - video embedded below:

In for( ){ };, there is no beginning or end to the game, just collecting and wandering, birthing and consuming, an arbitrary point system rising until your inevitable death and the birth of another generation. It is a game mechanism without the game. An addictive but essentially aimless experience.
The piece is a triptych of playable acrylic paintings, controlled by the viewer using a NES controller.

Link

NOTE: It has come to my attention that the paintings were put together by Seattle-based artist Cable Griffith, and was shown in his solo exhibition at Kittredge Gallery in Tacoma, called, “Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start.”

You can check out more of Cable’s work here

Atlantics Vol. 3 

Free eclectic electronic music compilation with something for everyone:

One year ago from today on April 20th, 2012, we released Atlantics Vol. 2 - a sprawling collection of tracks by talented friends and artists from around the world. This year, we asked a completely different group of fresh faces to contribute, and the result is something special. Not nearly as ambitious in scope as the previous installment (although pretty damn close) Volume 3 is a more concise and understated compilation, but no less engaging by any means. Spanning genres as disparate as hi-fi footwork and grainy new wave, it is another diverse and soulful collection of tunes that is sure to have something for everyone. Hopefully in addition to recognizing familiar names, you are also able to discover new talent, as showcasing the underground is something we continually strive to accomplish.

Listen to all 32 tracks in the embed above, or for more info, you can go to the Bandcamp page here

bit.code

Mechanical installation from 2009 is a physical 1-bit glitch display - video embedded below:

BIT.CODE plays with the re-encoding of information and the recognizability of signs. It works with the infinite possibilities for combination of a finite number of bits, the smallest units of information.
The bits appear as black and white elements on the individual segments of the string. Each string is coded with the same bit pattern, which is reminiscent of Morse code. If the strings are moved in parallel, words seemingly appear (for a certain period of time) from ‘out of nowhere’ and disappear again. The perceived information causes a short opportunity for pause, a moment of serenity, of clarity – before the incessant flow of constellations, motions and changes starts anew.

Link

Rhizome: Prosthetic Knowledge Picks: Arrays and Matrices

A collection of examples from the Prosthetic Knowledge Tumblr archive on installation artworks which can be characterized by geometric or networked arrangement.

You can read more at Rhizome here

Manfred Mohr’s Youtube Channel

A collection of videos featuring works by pioneering computer artist Manfred Mohr, many dating back to the early 70’s. Also includes interviews and lectures:

Manfred Mohr is considered a pioneer of digital art. After discovering Prof. Max Bense’s information aesthetics in the early 1960’s, Mohr’s artistic thinking was radically changed. Within a few years, his art transformed from abstract expressionism to computer generated algorithmic geometry. Encouraged by the computer music composer Pierre Barbaud whom he met in 1967, Mohr programmed his first computer drawings in 1969.

You can go to the Youtube channel here

BionicOpter 

Remote-controlled drone that flies and is in the form of a dragonfly - video embedded below:

With the BionicOpter, Festo has technically mastered the highly complex flight characteristics of the dragonfly. Just like its model in nature, this ultralight flying object can fly in all directions, hover in mid-air and glide without beating its wings.

More Here

Angles Mirror by Daniel Rozin

Interactive installation using a triangular method of representation with a motorized array:

The “Angles Mirror” rejects the idea of building a picture based on relative lightness and darkness. Instead, it explores a system of linear rotation that indicates the direction of an object’s contour. A wall-mounted sculpture, the “Angles Mirror” is a sharp triangular block of steel, dotted with yellow indicator arms that pivot. Based on the isometric grid, its structure favors the patterns and angles found in an equilateral triangle. The arms, which do not have the ability to change brightness or luminosity, use input from a camera and reconstruct the view with areas of varying angles. The negative space surrounding a viewer is translated into horizontal lines on the picture plane. Rather than creating a photorealistic image, the three-dimensional movement of a figure is represented, visualizing optical flow as viewer’s proximity to the sculpture changes. A nuanced contour results, as the viewer shifts back and forth, altering how the structure of space is perceived. Similar to “Fan Mirror”, in the “Angles Mirror”, the sequence of movement across the picture plane is directed in part by its audience. When the viewer walks away from the work, or chooses to view the sculpture from a distance, a series of predefined images and transitions cover the object’s surface.

There are more examples of Daniel’s interactive and alternative ‘mirrors’ at the Bitform Gallery’s Vimeo page here