Archive: Arts
May 9, 2008
Tetris theme on bottles
This trio performs the Tetris theme on bottles of various sizes and water levels. They give you some clues to how they made it, one being the clicking metronome in the background and sped up effect; they must have performed it much slower then sped it up. My lips hurt just looking at it, though. Via Geekologie.
Posted by Becky Stern |
May 9, 2008 12:00 PM
Arts, Music, Retro |
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Waste Paper Furniture

Designer Jens Praet makes furniture from shredded paper. He compressed it with resin into a mold, and out comes a new piece of furniture. I'm not sure how eco-friendly that resin is, or how much paper it uses (I'm guessing a lot, which keeps it out of a landfill), but the material technique sure is neat, and strong! Via Core77.
Posted by Becky Stern |
May 9, 2008 11:00 AM
Arts, Furniture, Green, Photography |
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David Bowen: Growth Rendering Device
This is an amazing robot created by David Bowen. Here is how he explains his Growth Rendering Device:
This system provides light and food in the form of hydroponic solution for the plant. The plant reacts to the device by growing. The device in-turn reacts to the plant by producing a rasterized inkjet drawing of the plant every twenty-four hours. After a new drawing is produced the system scrolls the roll of paper approximately four inches so a new drawing can be produced during the next cycle. This system is allowed two run indefinitely and the final outcome is not predetermined.
Read more about the Growth rendering device - via ComputerLove
Posted by Marc de Vinck |
May 9, 2008 03:00 AM
Arts, Robotics |
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Guy Marsden: Electronic Artwork
Guy worked on these pieces from 1986 - 2006. Over the course of 20 years he has moved from finding his parts at local shops, to scouring the Internet for interesting pieces. These are some of the most amazing electronic sculptures I have ever seen.
In each piece I attempt to design circuitry that creates nonsensical or random number patterns that move, blink, gyrate and mystify. Reactions of viewers range from giggles to attempts to deduce the function to suggestions that they are to be used to select lottery numbers.
Read more about Guy Marsden
Posted by Marc de Vinck |
May 9, 2008 02:00 AM
Arts, Electronics |
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May 8, 2008
Thomas Doyle's miniature art





Artist Thomas Doyle makes fascinating art, tells compelling stories, with model train miniatures and scenery. I've always been strangely attracted to these miniature components and wondered why more people don't make art, jewelry, dioramas, etc. with them.
Art by Thomas Doyle [Thanks, Patti!]
Posted by Gareth Branwyn |
May 8, 2008 03:00 PM
Arts, Crafts |
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Microfiche musical interface
Andrew Turley turned a microfiche viewer into a musical/MIDI interface simply by pointing a photodiode at the screen and feeding the light values into an MCU and out to a Casio keyboard. As you scroll through the microfiche content, the changing light values of the data make music.
Maker Faire Highlights: Making Music the Hard Way
Related:
Posted by Gareth Branwyn |
May 8, 2008 12:10 PM
Arts, Maker Faire, Music |
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SWARM @ Maker Faire
Hack-a-day posted up one of my favorite projects @ Maker Faire, SWARM!
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
May 8, 2008 12:00 PM
Arts, DIY Projects, Maker Faire |
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The Cans Festival, stencil art fest


Great article and gallery @ NOTCOT from the Cans Festival featuring BANKSY and 600 other artists...
The space itself opened with powder blue billboard with “GENTRIFY THIS” painted aggressively in black, which a mother explained to her young daughter behind me in line was “delightfully ironic”, a phrase that applied just as well to the work within and its interaction with the crowd. The audience was incredibly diverse and indeed, I think it was the crowd that I found the most interesting. We had the entire age range, there more than a few grandmothers admiring the walls and strollers and children marveling. And of course there were more than our fair share of hipster types. The range of cameras was equally impressive. I lost count of the number of cellphone cameras (and yes, iphones were disproportionately represented), but there were lots of semi and professional photographers on the scene, and even a good number of videocams and tripods. And an equally diverse range of camera styles, flybys, the sit and wait type, etc. The need to document and capture the art seemed as pressing as the need to get in to see it! And of course, there were stencils of photographers that needed photographing…
More:
- Stencil art fest, The Cans Festival.
- Scanned program.
- Additional gallery @ NOTCOT.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
May 8, 2008 08:00 AM
Arts, Culture jamming, Events |
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Weird sound generator will make you ask for more
The wood version of the "Weird Sound Generator" (pictured above), is one of a series of home built synths by Sascha Neudek. Really nice construction on all of the synths and he even sells them from his site which is pretty cool since they have a one-of-a-kind type look and feel.
Posted by Jonah Brucker-Cohen |
May 8, 2008 06:00 AM
Arts, Music |
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Turn your old CDs and DVDs into LPs
This project by Aleks Kolkowski creates records by using a vintage record cutter to carve grooves into old CDs and DVDs. In his recent showing of the project at the Futuresonic Festival in the UK, visitors came by with sound files which he would carve into the discs and then give copies back as a playable record. Really nice remake of two technologies that are slowly dying out to MP3s.
[via], Aleks Kolkowski
CD-Recycled 45rpm
Posted by Jonah Brucker-Cohen |
May 8, 2008 04:00 AM
Arts, Music |
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May 7, 2008
Paper Wars exhibition

In London? Check out the Paper Wars show, opening May 15 at the Craze Gallery. It's themed around the papercraft AK-47 and features many pieces based off that kit, as well as other sculptures like the one above. Via Core77.
Related:
Papercraft AK-47 on CRAFT
Posted by Becky Stern |
May 7, 2008 09:00 PM
Arts, Crafts, Paper Crafts |
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Seamless ice spheres

Hipstomp at the Core77 blog writes:
In some of Manhattan's better Japanese-staffed bars, like Tribeca's underground B-Flat, ice cubes are noticeably absent; ordering your scotch on the rocks gets you a large ice sphere. With less surface area than the same amount of ice rendered in cubes, a globe of ice will melt more slowly, keeping your drink cold without making it watery.
As an industrial designer, your correspondent couldn't help but notice the parting line on B-Flat's ice spheres; after all, it has to come out of a mold. But now a company called Taisin has come up with a clever device for making a perfect ice sphere with no parting line.
How does it work? You sandwich a large chunk of ice in between the two metal pieces pictured above. As the ice slowly melts, gravity brings the top half to close over the bottom half, enclosing what ice remains in its spherical cavity. Because the ice is in the process of melting into its new shape as the top closes, there's no parting line. Clever!
Posted by Becky Stern |
May 7, 2008 07:00 PM
Arts, How it's made |
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HOW TO - Make a kicking mule articulated wooden toy


Dug writes in with the making of a kicking automata mule. The mule consists of four components: head, ears, front legs joined to the main body, and hindquarters. Pieces of brass rod hold the various parts together, and lengths of string keep them articulated - via Automaton blog.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
May 7, 2008 09:00 AM
Arts, Retro |
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Dipping duck orchestra lays down the beats
In this "Dipping Duck Orchestra", music is randomly generated by 8 dipping ducks or drinking birds where the circuit is completed when the duck's bill hits the water. The project resembles a keyboard of sorts, where each duck plays a different note when triggered. Check out the video above for the full effect.
Posted by Jonah Brucker-Cohen |
May 7, 2008 05:00 AM
Arts, Music |
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Bookshelf scans your network
In the project "Bookshelf", by artist Mindaugas Gapsevicius, 15 computer monitors are set up on a bookshelf where each screen visualizes network traffic in the space. Placed strategically next to real books, the installation contrasts printed matter and virtual matter occupying the same space and fighting for dominance in an increasingly technological world.
[via], Triple-Double-U- / Book Shelf
Posted by Jonah Brucker-Cohen |
May 7, 2008 04:00 AM
Arts |
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May 6, 2008
Phone cord sheep sculptures

Look at this herd of phone sheep sculptures! They're made from phones, cords, and handsets, and I wonder if those wires running from the wall means that they ring. Next challange: making a ringer that goes "baaaah." (Thanks, Frank!)
Posted by Becky Stern |
May 6, 2008 09:00 PM
Arts |
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The birth clock
Alexandra Von Feldmann created this really interesting clock, which allows the viewer/owner to determine its fate.
The "Birth Clock" is a fragile glass object containing a digital clock that is not working; it is designed to help you to come to a decision when you're stuck at a specific point in life. Smash the glass, and the clock will start to work, leaving you with the broken object as a reminder of your dramatic decision. Leave the object as it is, and you remain out of time, having the beautiful object as a reminder of your resistance to change. What would you do?
Read more about the Birth Clock - via PixelSumo
Posted by Marc de Vinck |
May 6, 2008 03:00 AM
Arts, Culture jamming, Electronics |
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May 5, 2008
Fractal Laptop Etch

This weekend at Maker Faire Instructables brought their laser cutter and was laser etching laptops, phones, and other things for free. My favorite is Alex Schlegel's fractal-etched Vaio (source image included). If you had your gear etched, add a picture to the MAKE Flickr pool!
Posted by Becky Stern |
May 5, 2008 07:00 PM
Arts, Computers, Imaging, Instructables, Maker Faire, Science |
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Radio shows what your friends are listening to
This prototype digital radio, called "Olinda" uses modular hardware that is customizable for each user. The interesting aspect of the project is that it has social networking built in, showing exactly what your friends are listening to, similar to the way that iChat on the Mac lets you put your current iTunes song into your status line.
Posted by Jonah Brucker-Cohen |
May 5, 2008 06:00 AM
Arts, Portable Audio and Video |
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| Comments (1)
Paper Portraits by Bert Simon
Bert Simon has taken papercraft to a whole new level. His website has several other portraits and a lot of great photography. You can even download a 12 page PDF and make a paper clone of the artist.
Red more about Paper Portraits by Bert Simon - via designverb
Posted by Marc de Vinck |
May 5, 2008 02:00 AM
Arts, Computers |
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