Must-See Sound Installation Space

I saw (or rather, heard) a performance a few nights ago in San Francisco that was really great. AUDIUM is the only theatre anywhere constructed specifically for sound movement, utilizing the entire environment as a compositional tool. There are 167 speakers hanging from the ceiling, attached to the walls, and coming out of the floors-- the effect is total "surround-sound" in its truest sense.

AUDIUM's creators, composer Stan Shaff and equipment designer Doug McEachern, were both professional musicians before getting this space and building it with the help of several grants, including NEA grants. They started doing this in the 50's!! The performance is done in complete darkness, and lasts about an hour-- it's a combination of recognizable sounds (kids playing on a beach) and synthesizer noise. Very modern--and long enough to get you completely in a trance...

Stan was there himself doing the performance he composed, as he has been doing every weekend for years and years. He stuck around to talk to the audience afterwards (and dare I say charm the ladies), it was great.

check out the site at http://www.audium.org/

Museum of Lost Interaction-- I love it!

This is a poetic and beautiful project of the Interactive Media Design Program at University of Dundee.

Check it out here >

It's a museum and a website that showcases recreated "lost" technology and interactions. It's really technologically interesting, because they've recreated all these inventions that no longer exist, or in fact, never actually existed because they never made it past the diagramming stage, and yet that (sometimes) mimic modern things in a strange way.

In their words:
"Welcome to the museum of lost interaction; a timeline of innovation. Nine exhibits ranging from 1900 to 1979, comprising audio recording machines, wireless morse communicators, portable video to the precurser behind iTunes. The museum holds an inspirational array of invention, guaranteed never to have been found, documented or exhibited ever before."

Here's an example: The Richophone.



"In 1900, the Richophone was a multi-player based game found in prestigious hotels and cafe's in and around London. The game was played from special Richophone booths, where players connected to the game through a system of telephones. The prizes to be won were very generous.
"

there is a post about them on we make money not art.

Report: Design Life Now exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt

WOW. The Design Triennial, which opened yesterday, features the best design of the last 3 years, including product design, architecture, animation, industrial design, new media, fashion, print, technology...If you see one exhibit this year, this should be it!

The themes were remixing new and old, getting inspiration from nature and biology, and using technology to revisit old mediums.

Some of the highlights:


One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen...made of double woven fiber optics and monofilament, these graceful hanging panels were such an interesting "remix" of traditional and modern ideas...She also had some wall coverings of woven vinyl velvet (try saying that quickly 20 times in a row) that reflected light in a really interesting way. (click image for larger view)

Suzanne Tick Inc., New York, NY
Crossform light, 2004
Photo: Carter LeBlanc




White wedding kimono from Madama Butterfly was an incredible combination of traditional and modern, and the Red Butterfly Coat and Backless Black Dress along with the White Flower Wrap were simply stunning. I wasn't surprised when my favorite cantaloupe melon bowls were also by Han Feng. The bowls in particular made me drool (and they're on sale at the museum store as well!!)
In this photo:
Han Feng, Costume from Madama Butterfly, 2005
Produced by English National Opera, Lithuanian National Opera, and New York Metropolitan Opera
Photo: Johan Pearsson






At the show they had a GIANT DUNNY made of BLACKBOARD and they had multicolored chalk for everybody to write (and draw!!) whatever they wanted on it. Who doesn't love a Dunny when they see one?

Kidrobot, New York, NY
Big Mouth Dunny, 2005
Designers: Paul Budnitz and Tristan Easton
Paint design: DEPH
Vinyl







This honeycomb-like structure is made from 80% recycled post-consumer content-- they had wall panels and a workbench at the show-- when light is going through it, it manages to look at once organic and futuristic.

Panelite Workstation 2.0, 2003
Principals: Emmanuelle Bourlier and Christian B. Mitman






I couldn't stop looking at these objects. Design genius Lynn designs for Alessi...There were some amazing organic-looking cutlery items too (not pictured) that looked like something Elves would eat with when they went to dinner on the Starship Enterprise. These pieces were not of this world. Ancient and futuristic at the same time.

Greg Lynn FORM, Venice, CA
Grill prototype for Alessi, 2005




Processing, Cambridge, MA, and Los Angeles, CA
Articulate digital drawing generated in Processing, 2005
Designer: Casey Reas
see more Processign projects at processing.org







I thought it was interesting that they had this product as part of the show. The last time i was at Cooper Hewitt was for a show of appliances and furniture from the 50's and it was interesting to see a modern object that made people rethink something like the vacuum cleaner just as back then something like the automatic dishwasher was considered revolutionary. We probably have a long way to go still...
iRobot, Burlington, MA
iRobot Roomba® Scheduler Vacuuming Robot, 2002





Everybody loves to Make!
Make: Premiere Issue, 2005
check out their site














Pixar, Emeryville, CA
Edna Mode (aka "E"), The Incredibles, 2004
Designer: Teddy Newton
Collage
Photo: Pixar







Does anyone know what this is for? Well, it's pretty, anyway.

Moorhead & Moorhead, New York, NY
Tape Wound Borne, 2004





Famous prescription bottle system, where this SVA student really thougth about how people like her grandmother used medicine bottles -- and decided the small type, hard-to open, all-looking-the-same aspects of them were so familiar that no one had thought of doing something about it before.


Deborah Adler, Minneapolis, MN
Target ClearRxSM prescription system, 2004




Enchanting, from up close or afar.

Alison Berger, West Hollywood, CA
Glass Slide Chandelier, 2005
Bronze frame, 96 glass slides






I have to say I was transfixed with this tapestry...like nothing I've ever seen before. You have to see it up close, because in this small photo it looks unremarkable -- and it's not about the photo, it's more about how it's something that was never visually nor technically possible until now.
Lia Cook, Berkeley, CA
Binary Traces: Kay, 2005
Woven cotton







In the time I worked for Nike, i had 2 favorite products: Nike FREE shoes and the Presto watch...The shoe is by Hatfield, the watch is by Scott Wilson/ Studio Mod/OOBA
Nike FREE 5.0, 2004
Designer: Tobie Hatfield







Amazing video of images transforming into themselves. The fact that they're vector graphics gives them that nice plasticky smoothness that you don't get with most computer-generated line drawings somehow.
Joshua Davis, Mineola, NY
022 - Coast of Kanagawa, 2005
Program-generated vector graphic











I wasn't surprised that Natalie Jeremijenko was represented at this show; however, I sometimes feel like i love the concept of her work but not so much the implementation. I loved the NPR show she featured in last year-- And this project is definitely fun -- feral robotic dogs!!
here's a link to more about it
Photo: Emily Nathan






CAO | Perrot Studio
Nantucket Rose Wedding installation was a gorgeous piece they showed in a video that was a walkway woven with roses, with roses planed all along it and rose petals all over the groud, that they must have done for someone's wedding -- it was magical to see and I loved how they wove the flowers into the existing canopy so that you couldn't tell what was natural and what was not.

They've also made some green bubble tiles made of fused industrial marbles-- when they showed a whole wall of the tiles, it looked like a wall of transparent seaweed.

They use recycled medicine bottles as a material and try, in their own words, to "use familiar and overlooked materials"


I am amazed at the breadth of Chip Kidd's work -- designing book covers is not easy. What a master he is to keep things feeling so fresh and unique, after 20 years of doing it!
Chip Kidd, New York, NY
Dry book cover, 2003
Author: Augusten Burroughs
Publisher: Picador
Photo: Geoff Spear









Another amazing textile piece that really underlines the new and evolving visual language that comes out of ever-improving technology (best seen up close)
Hitoshi Ujiie Design, Philadelphia, PA
Branch, 2006
Digital inkjet printing with acid dye ink on silk


Not pictured but should be:
Ralph Rucci's extraordinary "Black Duchesse Satin Suspension Infanta With Olive Embroidered Insets" not only won the "longest title in the show" award but was the only piece of clothing in the show that I was dying to wear. The "DO NOT TOUCH" sign was torture-- this piece was crying out for me to grab it, put it on, and of course, star in the next Matthew Barney video like I know I'm meant to (no one reads my blog anyway so i can say stuff like that, right?).

Will Wright's Spore. It's not out yet, but they showed the Sims instead-- Spore is so much more intriguing visually that it was really missed in this show.

Rapidly Deployable Structure by Hoberman Associates: Part of a device was shown that unfolds mechanically to create a large tent -- good for emergency situations and harsh weather conditions.

When you go upstairs in the exhibit, a light sculpture that lines the entire wall sort of follows you up the stairs and plays discreet sounds-- does anybody know who it's by?

Oh, and don't forget to go see the show!!
Design Life Now: National Design Triennial 2006 @ the Cooper Hewitt Museum