Let’s explore a classic high school cafeteria scenario. Upon entering you notice there seems to be a hierarchy with a table for the “geeks” and an even more exclusive table allotted to the “popular kids.” However, London’s Whitechapel Gallery, turns these stereotypes on their head.
One of the many fascinating creations from the “Geeks and Artists” collaboration. Displayed above is the “Twitter Data Necklace,” photo from The Creators Project.
50 “geeks” and 50 artists were locked inside a room for 48 hours straight to collaborate and create magnificent pieces of wearable art. Finally after four years of high school hell, the geeks reign supreme. The purpose of the partnership was to merge two very different worlds, art and technology, to create something productive and out of the box.
The results were mind boggling and extraordinary. One creation has been dubbed “The Twitter Data Necklace.” The “geeky” creator is Stef Lewandowski. From afar, the necklace can be described as an abstract spiky yellow necklace that daring fashionistas would call “tasteful.” Yet, when one looks closer at each of the spikes, they discover individuals’ personal Twitterfeeds.
The yellow “Twitter Data Necklace,” photo from Startupwife.
An individual modeling the chic yellow “Twitter Data Necklace,” photo from Stef.
If yellow is not your color, the acrylic “Data Necklace” comes in an array of colors and designs like red, purple, and green.
A purple version of the “Twitter Data Necklace,” photo from Stef.
Michael Hobson, one of the event organizer of 3 Beards, an organization who operates “London’s tech start-up community,” says, “A lot of the guys (geeks and artists) who took data on these projects took data as something as abstract and hard to understand and turned it to something beautiful and easy to get.”
If the internet doesn’t fully satisfy your craving for tweeting mania, you can now literally trot around in full view of the public, brandishing your tweets as the new latest art, fashion accessory.
Dublin, the capital of Ireland has become a home for app developers. In the 80’s when public art first emerged in Dublin, the South Dublin County Council and a group of artists roll up their sleeves to create Art Trax.
An interactive tour, Art Trax guides visitors to public art with a built-in map that shows locations where you can find public exhibitions in Dublin.
Art Trax Public Art South Dublin County By AppKickr
Another popular app in Dublin, Dublin Street Art, guides art enthusiasts to must-see street art. There are a plethora of street artists in Dublin, and while the quantity may not match NYC, the work is equally creative.
With Dublin Street Art, even if laziness has set in, you can sit comfortably from your sofa and scroll over a gallery of pictures of street arts throughout Dublin.
Street Art Application, Dublin
The most recent app in Dublin is an audio guide of specific public art projects. To date audio information is available for 17 of Dublin’s 70 public works. The app can also be used at the Columbus Museum of Art, The Wexner Center of Arts, and a famous 12 ft. sculpture of the Wyandot chief Leatherlips.
The application works by entering a phone number or scanning a QR code. An audio or video recording then starts playing. The narrator is the artist them-self, explaining detailed information about his/her work.
Finally, an app that launched on Tuesday, maps the city’s 10 Riverboxes and 3D works of Dublin’s outdoor arts. Riverboxes are trails along the river that one follows to find hidden treasuries, 3D works, graffiti, or paintings on the floor that look amazingly real!
Now you finally have a great excuse to visit Dublin and install all those cool apps on your new IPhone 5!
iSpySculpture Dublin’s Public Art By Shanagarry Technologies
In July we shared high-speed painting with you and now we’ll explore more quickly-made artwork. Check out this video from thespeed painting article:
While you can’t witness today’s artist Alberto Seveso in high-speed action, the result of his speedy photography process is captivating. He only uses two colors to create these fast masterpieces.
Due Colori series by Alberto Seveso, photographed ink in water
Seveso who hails from Milan, Italy began fostering his passion for the arts from the early age of 15. CD covers and skate decks offered inspiration for the young artist. He realized that he could use his computer not only to play games, but also to create art. While he has no formal art training, the artist has seen much success.
In an interview for Abduzeedo, a design blog, Seveso says, “I think this job doesn’t require a degree, even if design schools are very important.”
The artist’s Due Colori body of work captures two colors of ink mixing with water. The high-speed effect is achieved through a combination of high-speed photography that he then combines digitally. His process illustrates the relationship between water and ink.
Due Colori series by Alberto Seveso, photographed ink in water
For me, the work is simple and at the same time beautifully complex. The two colors used in the work mix to create a multitude of color combinations. The artist also focuses on the shapes created when mixing the colors, each of them unique.
Due Colori series by Alberto Seveso, photographed ink in water
For those that have not yet adopted the smartphone bug, Quick Response (QR) codes may not be a part of your everyday habits.
However, they could still overwhelm your everyday lives, spreading across surfaces like magazine ads, bracelets, subway walls, and books.
These black, check-patterned square symbols serve as scannable portals to more information (as if we don’t have enough).
And don’t think you’ll find refuge from these universal black-lined boxes at the museums, because, yes, they have even infiltrated those marbled halls.
The Museum of Modern Art has been particularly savvy with the QR codes, using them in place of traditional art labels and blurbs, specifically at its recently closed Cindy Sherman exhibition.
After a quick scan of the designated QR code, you will receive an instantaneous in-depth description of the work and the artist who created it.
Last year, the MoMa also showcased the “Talk to Me” exhibit, which featured a photograph of a QR code covering the side of a Tokyo museum, paying homage to the first time it used QR codes to label every object in an exhibition.
N Building façade - Photo Credit: Yuki Omori
Take that, written description!
QR codes, which actually date back to the 1990s, are the “new” way to connect the physical and digital world. Instead of sharing your life with the internet, you share the internet with your life.
And now, QR codes also being incorporated within artwork itself!
Illustrative artist Yiying Lu recently created a series of paintings entitled, “Beautiful Traps” in which Lu actually paints working QR codes into her art.
By scanning Lu’s handmade code, any user can watch a personal video of the artist painting that specific piece.
Rafflesia Arnoldii by Yiying Lu
With the endless array of information made available through the scan of a QR code, there’s no wonder to why it’s popping up everywhere we turn.
Someone close to me actively uses LinkedIn, the social media website for business. (Okay, it was my mom.) Anyway, she found out about a one-time introductory online Pinterest webinar that filled so fast, the server overloaded on the day of its debut! Now, the company offering the webinar has several more scheduled, for EVERY day this week.
What is it with this Pinterest?!
To put it simply – bulletin boards, push pins, and pictures.
But instead of using cork, sharp tacks, and flimsy paper, Pinterest digitizes this everyday image-focused organizer through an accessible social network, coining the term “Pin It” and spreading it throughout the web.
Millions of Pinterest users can share their own electronic bulletin boards, allowing users to re-pin, like, and comment on the images they love most.
A member of the nAscent team shares her pinboard with The Bare Square!
With Twitter posts limited to only 140 characters, Pinterest offers the proverbial picture worth a thousand words.
What does this mean for fine art though?
Already, Flickr, Tumblr, and Facebook serve as interactive spaces for sharing fine art in social media.
Is there then room for Picasso on Pinterest?
¡Claro que sí!
Because of Pinterest’s captivating content of purely pictures, pinboards are optimized for displaying any form of visual art for all the world to see.
Even a handful of museums and galleries have created Pinterest accounts to showcase virtual versions of exhibitions and collections.
Ready to start pinning yourself? nAscent Art New York will launch their new Pinterest account next week!
We hope you “follow” the nAcent pinboard, and re-pin nAscent artists you enjoy.
