ecopolis

Along with Beuys Everybody is an Artist maxim was born the performance pieces. Embodied art, which contributed to create a sort of semi-mythological persona bound between showman and shaman, audacity and megalomania. Embodied reality: in 1979 he was one of the five hundred signatories who founded the German Green Party.

Beuys’s project 7000 Eichen – Stadtverwaldung statt Stadtverwaltung, was begun in 1982 at Documenta 7, the greatest art exhibition in Kassel, Germany.

His plan called for the planting of seven thousand trees, each paired with a columnar basalt stone approximately four feet high above ground, throughout the greater city of Kassel.

Beuys actions’ were central to his use of sculpture as an evolutionary process. Also the use of evocative materials to recall forth multiple associations. As much for Eva and Franco Mattes and their Synthetic Performance in Second Life.

All their actions are performed through their avatars, which were constructed from their bodies and faces. People can attend and interact with the live performances connecting to the video-game from all over the world. The series started in January 2007.

The couple are reenacting historical performances such as Beuys’ work “7000 Oaks” in the synthetic world of Second Life. An action which encourage the synthetic viewers to contemplate possibilities for new meaning of Art embodiment.

The first virtual tree and stone were planted on March the 16th 2007, exactly 25 years after the original oak was planted.

The 7000 basalt stones have been stacked on an island in Second Life: Odyssey. The diminishing pile of virtual stones will indicate the progress of the project, which will go on until all 7000 oaks and stones will be placed.

Second Life inhabitants will have the chance to take part to the performance, placing stones and trees in their lands.

But what kind of performance is that? Self-awareness, probably.

Imagine ergo sum. With the minimal effort, thou.

Franklin Perry, a 51-year-old, who had a stroke about three weeks ago, is enjoying the interactive possibilities of the wii Nintendo game platform, while regaining his strength after the stroke.

Robbie Winget, an occupational therapist at Ohio State University Medical Center’s Dodd Hall Rehabilitation Hospital in Columbus, believed in the Wii as therapy after playing a game to a friend’s house, and recognized that it could help patients build balance, coordination, endurance and upper and lower body strength.

The hospital has been using the Wii for about four months to help people recovering from strokes and spinal cord or traumatic brain injuries, according to Winget.

But Winget said the Wii will not replace conventional therapy. “It’s one more way to meet specific goals associated with therapy,” he explained.

Meanwhile the Wii is conquering the U.S.A’s hospitals, the Sony Corp’s PlayStation 3 outsold Nintendo Co Ltd’s Wii game console in Japan in November for the first time.

Sony, which launched the consoles a year ago, sold 183,217 PS3 in Japan in the four weeks to November 25, while Wii consoles reached 159,193 .

via Reuters

Researching the Future: aspects of Art and Technoetics 2007
Prato, Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci
December 7-8-9, 2007

Topics-Themes:
Media Art, Syncreticism, Technoetic, Moist Media, Phenomenology, Media Studies, Psycotechnologies, Transmodalities, Interactive Media Design, Virtual Reality, Enhanced Reality, Freud and Dream Science, Radical Thought, Semilife, Cultural Studies, Cognitive Architectures and Consciousness, Enteogenesis …

Now more than ever artists work through cultural interfaces, the ways and means, turning to evocations of both science and mythology, technology and tradition.

The legacy of postmodernism has transformed itself in this “technoetic” variation. Today man is molded by hyperlinks, processors and networks and by bio and wet methodologies. Our senses are redefined, or rather, re-oriented from a collision with emerging realities, generated by new models of our world and of our subjectivity.

New art is linked to means that introduce it to a new praxis of production that is instantly pragmatic and philosophical. It (What? Art or the praxis?) generates interactivity and the transformation of common sense, both socially and aesthetically, while reflecting on the changing nature of perception, of connectivity and of conscience.

The man is not more into the center of the realm.

Works produced, both concretely and mentally, are made of a stratum of conscious associations, of unconscious sensitivity, of historic scientific data, of multiform unity and gripping discourse, fully interwoven in new telematic environments. These environments can be digital or natural and biological, furnishing us with new experiences and original creative visions.

Full program here.

Is it blasfemy or not? For sure the english church seems to be quite open to suggestive interactive architecture project like Evoke. This project was realized by Haque Design + Research especially for Illuminating York, a event from the 26th of October till the 3th of November. During Illuminating York residents and visitors can experience cutting-edge light-based artwork, exhibitions, site-specific performances and tours in some of the ancient city’s many special places.

Evoke is a site pecific installation made of a massive 80,000-lumen projection of an animation onto the York Minster Cathedral and a system to let the audience interact with images.
The patterns of the animation are ‘generated in realtime by the words, sounds, music, and noises produced collectively by the public, determined by their particular voice characteristics.’

People with voices of different frequencies, rhythms or cadences will be able to evoke quite different magical patterns upon the surface of the building – a staccato chirping will result in a completely different set of visual effects to a long howl for example, blending old and new to continue animating the facade of the Minster.

Interactive Corian in Zaha Hadid’s Z Island kitchen

The Z Island is the first project to use a new interactive technology developed for DuPont Corian that allows interactive touch sensitive areas and information display on the surface of the Corian material. It features a touch pad and a large display area from where many functions of the kitchen can be controlled via menus.

It includes two separate island units: “Fire” (the cooking area) and “Water” (the washing area). In addition, a modular cabinet-wall system (the storage unit) also made of Corian, complements the two islands.

The menus read:

MAC, LIGHTS, AROMA, HEATER

The MAC menu controls the Mac Mini that is integrated in the far end of the kitchen. It allows full control of the Front Row software to access music, video, fotos and DVDs. The Corian touch panel is the ideal interface for multimedia in the kitchen: you can touch it with dirty fingers and wipe it clean later!

The LIGHTS menu controls the full-colour LED lighting system and the white spot light above the Mac display. There is full dimming for red, green, blue to mix your own colours and automatic modes for colour cycling.

The AROMA function controls an aroma dispenser for aroma therapy.

The HEATER function controls a novel Corian heating panel that heats your plates up to 80C.

The display showing the music function of Front Row. The Mac mini is integrated just below the screen. The image shows the DVD slot below the screen. To the right of the DVD slot there is a USB jack and a dock for an iPod nano. There is a wireless keyboard and mouse for full control of the Mac. Just in case you were wondering: The Intel Mac mini came out too late for this project; the Front Row software had to be installed manually but works flawlessly on the PowerPC Mac mini.

Press event with Zaha Hadid.

Collaboration work of Kenichi Okada & Chris Woebken and MBA students from the Oxford Saïd Business-school, Animal Superpowers is an experimental series of toys as sensory enhancements for kids to experience animal superpowers rather than just an traditional play-object.
5 wearable devices allowing kids to feel how like an animal or experience special extra qualities how they perceive the environment.

Bird – sense of direction with a head mounted solenoid compass
Ant – feeling like an ant seeing 50x through microscope antennas on your hands
Giraffe – a child to adult concerter changing your voice & perspective
Elephant – shoes picking up transmitting vibrations from fellows
Electric Eel – enhanced spatial vision through head mounted Theremin

Rather than creating a series of toys and super-heros with weapons, those devices could possibly create empathy with animals, experiencing what they experience. Like tools for play with more layered interactivity and therefore providing an interface to communicate with other species.

chris(at)woebken.net I london +447726439435 I hamburg +491721555699 I skype: chriswoebken

With Tokyo once again in the grips of Autumn, it is time for the third Design Tide Exhibition, which this year has its main site in the auditorium next to the National Stadium. This historic complex was constructed for the 1964 Olympics and now 40 years on it will play host to a jamboree of design. The exhibition will show work from the fields of interior, products, graphics, fashion and art.

The basic theme for this year’s DesignTide is going to be “PLAY.” Like for Dainippon Type Organization experimental typography performers who disarticulate or combine Japanese characters and alphabets into unique new typography.

Furthermore serious play is not a paradox when it comes to design. “PLAY”is what gives birth to transformations that transcend the imagination, and heartful encounters with new acquaintances. DesignTide will be there, with a field of design that makes spectators want to come out and be “PLAY”ers.

Date : 31th October (wed) -4th November (sun), 2007
Area : Aoyama,Harajuku,Shibuya,Roppongi ,Marunouchi , Tokyo

Main Site: 10-2, Kasumigaoka-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo. Within Kokuritsu-Kyogijyo [National Staduim], closest entry is Yoyogi Gate.
OPEN 10:00 CLOSE 20:00 (11.04- CLOSE 17:00)
Entrance fee: 1,000 yen (one ticket for all 5 days).

Moritz Waldemeyer Pong Table is a dining table design that celebrates the early innovators in the field of personal computers and computer games. The table is made of corian and it has thousands of LEDs integrated in the table surface. Activated by two track pads it recreates the classic “Pong” game. When the game is not in use, none of the technology is visible just leaving the clean minimalist lines of the dining table.

Tide Think MOVIE公開中!!今年スタートするオフィシャルムービープロジェクト”Tide Think MOVIE”は映像コミュニケーション作品として出展されます。
今年は「PLAY」をテーマに自由な発想で、注目される気鋭の映像クリエイターたちがDesignTideの15秒のオフィシャルショートムービーを競作!!
このムービー作品はオフィシャル映像作品として、メイン会場で発表上映されると同時に原宿と渋谷にある街頭ヴィジョンやWEB、ケータイサイト等でオンエアされ、会場エリアやオンライン上から世界に向けて、鮮烈なヴィジュアルメッセージをパワフルに送り出してくれることでしょう!!

http://www.designtide.jp

BIELEFELD, Germany. Honda Research Institute Europe (HRI-EU) and the newly founded Institute for Cognition and Robotics (CoR-Lab) at Bielefeld University, signed a landmark cooperative agreement. Bielefeld University is one of Europe’s leading establishments in the field of cognition

As part of the collaboration, Honda has provided two ASIMOs to the CoR-Lab, equipped with “whole body movement” software developed at HRI-EU. Using an interdisciplinary approach which integrates the natural, engineering and social sciences, researchers will apply an understanding of how the brain works, its underlying architecture and mechanisms, to develop intelligent systems with similar capabilities. As part of the agreement, Honda is contributing support for the CoR-Lab’s graduate school to educate up to 15 PhD. students and young scientists in joint research projects. It is the first time that a European university will have access to ASIMO as a research platform.

ASIMO is the culmination of more than two decades of humanoid robotics research and development by Honda engineers which aimed to successfully replicate human movement, such as walking and climbing stairs. This was achieved in the 1990s; the latest generation of ASIMO goes even further with advanced mobility. Honda’s ultimate ambition however, remains to develop a robot so advanced that it can genuinely help people, such as those who lack full mobility, or by working in environments too dangerous for humans.

The Humanoid

An Italian production (though some unofficial sources suggest the movie as being an Italian/Tukish co-production).
Year of production was 1979. The movie was passed by the Italian ratings board on March 21st of that year, followed by a theatrical release in Italy on April 11. Italian company Merope Film was credited with the film’s production. It was their fourth and, to date, last cinematic entry ( copyright holder: Merope Film S.r.l MCMLXXIX ).
Other companies involved in the production included Studio 4 and Studio Verzini, who handled the optical effects, Cinesicurta (insurance), D’Angelo (Draperies), Minotaur Photoplay (dialogue recording), Fono Roma (Sound re-recording), GP 11 Safas Cantina (costumes) and Pompei (shoes). Rancati provided the arms, and Rocchetti e Carboni the wigs.
Roma’s Press Photo handled the stills photography. Ennio Morricone’s masterful score was recorded and published on the RCA S.p.a label.

http://www.golobthehumanoid.com/filmmenu.html