Collect Sounds Like Fireflies in the ‘Re: Sound Bottle,’ a Device that Creates Your Own Personal Soundtrack

Collect Sounds Like Fireflies in the ‘Re: Sound Bottle,’ a Device that Creates Your Own Personal Soundtrack:




The Re: Sound Bottle is the audio equivalent of running around in a field in the summer collecting fireflies in a jar. Designed by Jun Fujiwara from Tama Art University, the bottle is simple in its usage but absurdly complex in its design which relies heavily on software to handle the recording, storing, and playback of audio tracks. To use it you simply uncork the device and if sound is present it immediately snaps into recording mode. As you record more individual sounds, an audio database is formed and tracks are automatically selected to create rhythmic tracks, essentially like a miniature robot DJ in a jar. To listen, you again uncork the top and wait for your personal soundtrack to play. Jun says he hopes the Re: Sound Bottle (still just a concept) will help people interact more directly with music by recording the audio from their daily life. The bottle won a special judge’s prize at the 2012 Mitsubishi Chemical Junior Designer Awards earlier this year. (via jason sondhi)

zansky02.jpg 500×500 pixels

zansky02.jpg 500×500 pixels:

via http://thestrangeattractor.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/zansky02.jpg

catherinechi1.jpg 447×600 pixels

catherinechi1.jpg 447×600 pixels:

via http://1200posters.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/catherinechi1.jpg

Voyage: A Fleet of 300 Illuminated Boats in Canary Wharf by Aether & Hemera

Voyage: A Fleet of 300 Illuminated Boats in Canary Wharf by Aether & Hemera:







Media architect Claudio Benghi and light artist Gloria Ronchi joined together in 2006 to form Aether & Hemera, an interdisciplinary collaboration that seeks “to research the aesthetic challenges of light and its power to trigger emotions and response, creating a sense of identity or setting a mood.” Their latest installation in London’s Canary Wharf is this beautiful fleet of 300 illuminated boats called Voyage. Each floating light is reminiscent of a paper-folded origami boat that is illuminated from within, and I’m told there is a wireless network in the vicinity that allows you to join with your mobile device and somehow alter the color of the entire installation.
Voyage will be up through February 15th, 2013, and while the lights are on during the day, the viewing is probably best at night. I want to thank photographers Sean Batten and Ian Docwra for providing the images for this post.

Dozens of Cement People Dangling from Umbrellas in a Prague Office Building

Dozens of Cement People Dangling from Umbrellas in a Prague Office Building:




These cement figures dangling from umbrellas within a narrow space inside the EBC office center in Prague are part of a installation titled Slight Uncertainty by Czech artist Michal Trpák. Check out much more of his sculptural work on his website.

New Trampled Snow Art from Simon Beck

New Trampled Snow Art from Simon Beck:











Since 2004 England-based Simon Beck has strapped on a pair of snowshoes and lumbered out into the the freshly fallen snow at the Les Arcs ski resort in France to trample out his distinctly geometric patterns, footprint by footprint. Each work takes the 54-year-old artist anywhere between 6 hours and two days to complete, an impressive physical feat aided from years of competitive orienteering. The orienteering also helps him in the precise mapping process which often begins on a computer before he’s able to mark landmarks in the snow that guide his precise walking patterns. All of the works above (with the exception of the portrait) are from the last few weeks, you can see several years worth of work over on Facebook.

Time-lapse Images of Nude Dancers Created with 10,000 Individual Photographs

Time-lapse Images of Nude Dancers Created with 10,000 Individual Photographs:









NY-based photographer Shinichi Maruyama created these lovely photographs using nearly 10,000 individual photographs of a nude dancer in motion. The abstract images remind me of Japanese ink wash painting, as if the figures were cread by the stroke of a thick brush, which is not unsuprising considering Maruyama’s previous work with water sculptures. Of the photos Shin says:

I tried to capture the beauty of both the human body’s figure and its motion. The figure in the image, which is formed into something similar to a sculpture, is created by combining 10,000 individual photographs of a dancer. By putting together uninterrupted individual moments, the resulting image as a whole will appear to be something different from what actually exists. With regard to these two viewpoints, a connection can be made to a human being’s perception of presence in life.

See much more on his website. All images courtesy the artist. (via kottke, petapixel)

Sum Times: Clever Mathematical Street Art from Aakash Nihalani

Sum Times: Clever Mathematical Street Art from Aakash Nihalani:





I’m loving this series of simple, non-destructive interventions by artist Aakash Nihalani (previously) who is widely known for his observational street art involving neon-colored tape in various geometric forms. Nihalani opens a solo show starting January 12th, 2013 at Jonathan LeVine. (via arrested motion)

Timeline of the far future

Timeline of the far future:
The timeline of the far future artice is far from the longest page on Wikipedia, but it might take you several hours to get through because it contains so many enticing detours. What's Pangaea Ultima? Oooh, Roche limit! The Degenerate Era, Poincaré recurrence time, the Big Rip scenario, the cosmic light horizon, the list goes on and on. And the article itself is a trove of fascinating facts and eye-popping phrases. Here are a few of my favorites. (Keep in mind that the universe is only 13.75 billion years old. Unless we're living in a computer simulation.)

50,000 years: "Niagara Falls erodes away the remaining 32 km to Lake Erie and ceases to exist."

1 million years: "Highest estimated time until the red supergiant star Betelgeuse explodes in a supernova. The explosion is expected to be easily visible in daylight."

1.4 million years: "The star Gliese 710 passes as close as 1.1 light years to the Sun before moving away. This may gravitationally perturb members of the Oort cloud; a halo of icy bodies orbiting at the edge of the Solar System. As a consequence, the likelihood of a cometary impact in the inner Solar System will increase."

230 million years: "Beyond this time, the orbits of the planets become impossible to predict."



800 million years: "Carbon dioxide levels fall to the point at which C4 photosynthesis is no longer possible. Multicellular life dies out."

4 billion years: "Median point by which the Andromeda Galaxy will have collided with the Milky Way, which will thereafter merge to form a galaxy dubbed 'Milkomeda'."

7.9 billion years: "The Sun reaches the tip of the red giant branch, achieving its maximum radius of 256 times the present day value. In the process, Mercury, Venus and possibly Earth are destroyed. During these times, it is possible that Saturn's moon Titan could achieve surface temperatures necessary to support life."

100 billion years: "The Universe's expansion causes all galaxies beyond the Milky Way's Local Group to disappear beyond the cosmic light horizon, removing them from the observable universe."

1 trillion years: "The universe's expansion, assuming a constant dark energy density, multiplies the wavelength of the cosmic microwave background by 10^29, exceeding the scale of the cosmic light horizon and rendering its evidence of the Big Bang undetectable."

1 quadrillion years: "Estimated time until stellar close encounters detach all planets in the Solar System from their orbits. By this point, the Sun will have cooled to five degrees above absolute zero."

10^65 years: "Assuming that protons do not decay, estimated time for rigid objects like rocks to rearrange their atoms and molecules via quantum tunneling. On this timescale all matter is liquid."

10^10^56 years: "Estimated time for random quantum fluctuations to generate a new Big Bang, according to Caroll and Chen."

Read the whole thing, it's worth the effort. (via @daveg)

Note: Illustration by Chris Piascik...prints & more are available.
Tags: physics   science   space   timelines   Wikipedia

Converting MP3s into 3D printed records

Converting MP3s into 3D printed records: incredibly muddy, but still awesome [via]

“Hobbes and Bacon” is a “Calvin and Hobbes” tribute that takes...

“Hobbes and Bacon” is a “Calvin and Hobbes” tribute that takes...:

“Hobbes and Bacon” is a “Calvin and Hobbes” tribute that takes place 26 years later. I had nothing to with creating these cartoons – I am merely posting them here so that you can see them. There are four – and only four – but that’s enough to get the message across. You can see larger versions of the images by clicking twice on each image.

(via “Hobbes and Bacon” is a “Calvin and Hobbes” tribute that takes place 26 years later)