Every Passing Moment

This public art interactive by Maria Stukoff blurs the lines between art and technology on the streets of Clayton Square in Liverpool, UK. The large screen displays a field which, upon the detection of a Bluetooth-enabled device in the immediate area, reveals a new flower which grows as the device gets closer. This was interesting…

Jason Moran

Two weeks I took a visit to the Whitney Museum in New York and saw an exhibit on the work of jazz performer Jason Moran. The exhibit features different aspects of his artistic endeavors, from his collaborative performance works with other artists and his own drawings/sculptures. I found the part of the exhibit on New…

They Poach the Rhino, Chop Off His Horn and Make This Drink

This combination of performance and sculpture art by Singaporean artist Tang Da Wu brings light to the adverse effects of manufacturing and mass consumption on nature, focusing specifically on the use of rhino horns in a popular Southeast Asian drink. Wu originally performed the work at the National Museum Art Gallery in 1989, and today…

Information is Beautiful

Information is a website by David McCandless dedicated to distilling information into useful graphic images. The website features various data-driven visualizations based on everything from environmental impact statistics to cocktail ingredient breakdowns. Additionally, they have resources available to learn more about data visualization and make all of their datasets available to the public, making the…

Running the Numbers: An American Self – Portrait

This ongoing project from artist Chris Jordan explores modern American life using data on everything from paper use to annual bird deaths. Each piece in the project generally consists of a mosaic containing thousands of smaller images pulled from and representative of the statistic in question. I enjoyed this project as a way to explore…

The Weather Score Project

This ongoing project by artist Nathalie Miebach consists primarily of musical scores that are translated from time and location data gathered during significant weather events (hurricanes, storms, etc.) Miebach works with composers and musicians to organize performances of these scores, which are supplemented by sculptures created by Miebach using the translated musical scores. http://nathaliemiebach.com/weatherscores.html http://nathaliemiebach.com/musical.html

Aaron Koblin’s Flight Patterns

This project from data visualization artist Aaaron Koblin visualizes flight paths over a map of North America. Koblin used Processing to plot the initial dataset from the FAA, and then composited each frame using a combination of After Effects and Maya. I found this project interesting in the way it is able to tell a…

Sebastian Martorana’s “Impressions”

This marble sculpture done by Baltimore-based artist Sebastian Martorana depicts a pillow with an indentation created by the head of his late father-in-law on his deathbed. I found this sculpture interesting not just because of how it mimics the curves and movement of fabric in a more static, restrictive medium, but also because of the…

Yoshimura Origami Kevlar Shield

This project from the Compliant Mechanisms Research Lab at BYU draws from origami design and technique to create an improved bulletproof shield design for use in local law enforcement. The Kevlar-layered shield uses a Yoshimura folding pattern to transform from a flattened, more portable carrying form to a curved, protective shape able to cover two…

Reimagining the Shopping Cart

This project from IDEO was intended to reinvent the existing shopping cart design as part of a special for ABC’s Nightline in 1999. Watching the video, I thought it provided good insight on IDEO’s workflow and the different steps within the design process, especially applied to a product most people are familiar with. The video…