Back to Basics: from paper to paper

Back to Basics: from paper to paper:re-block from Polkadot

Welcome back Eigthies!

Thanks to the creative duo of Zim&Zou (Lucie Thomas + Thibault Zimmermann, both 25 y.o.), a French studio based in Nancy, 80′s style is now alive and fluo in form of paper sculptures. This series, ’80s pieces of design and tech, is one of their best ones in terms of incredible “paper-living” art and color blocking. No words enough to describe the incredible richness of details and the ability in the art of crafting. Don’t miss their whole portfolio: they can easily explore different fields including paper sculpture, installation, graphic design and illustration.

Oscar Lhermitte: Experiments

Oscar Lhermitte: Experiments:

Check out Oscar Lhermitte’s experiments on vimeo: Seeing in Circles and Revolve.
Posted on Motionographer

The Paranormal Unicorn Promo Video

ManvsMachine: More4 Rebrand

ManvsMachine: More4 Rebrand:re-blog from Motionographer

MvsM / More4 Idents from ManvsMachine on Vimeo.

MvsM / More4 Idents – Making Of from ManvsMachine on Vimeo.

MvsM / More4 On-screen GFX from ManvsMachine on Vimeo.

ManvsMachine created this lovely rebrand for Channel 4′s More4. The logo morphs through a series of flips, folds and reveals, reflecting the range of content on the channel. It works as both a punchy onscreen element and as a series of “flippers” in real-world art installations.


Credits
Concept, design & direction:
ManvsMachine
Music:
Guy Connelly
Sound design:
Rich Martin
Installation design:
Jason Bruges Studio
Client:
Channel4 / 4Creative
Posted on Motionographer

Daft Punk Derezzed Floppy Cover! SO AWESOME!

Daft Punk Derezzed Floppy Cover:



YouTuber MrSolidSnake745 covers Daft Punk’s bliptastic TRON single Derezzed using five floppy drives. It’s not as clean as the electric guitar cover, but you can’t miss the song’s unmistakable riff.

Magnetotron is an armonica mellotron mashup

Magnetotron is an armonica mellotron mashup:re-blog from Hack A Day


[Michael] is a huge fan of old media formats. There’s something special about quarter-inch thick 78s, fragile blue cylinders holding music, and thin strips of mylar that preserve the human voice. He’s had an idea for a tape-based instrument for a while, and now that the Magnetotron is complete, we’re in awe of this glass harmonica and Mellotron mashup.

The Magnetotron is a large rotating cylinder that has dozens of strips of audio tape attached to it. The cylinder rotates with the help of a small motor. As the strips of tape rotate in front of him, [Michael] presses two tape heads up to the instrument, making some sort of sound.

Each strip of tape contains a recording of one note, like the venerable Mellotron. Instead of physical keys, the Magnetotron is played in a much more tactile fashion like the glass harmonica. The output of the Magnetotron is interesting with a whole bunch of wow and flutter. Check out the demo of [Michael] playing his instrument at NIME in Brooklyn after the break.

Playing with routers, vinyl and music concrete

Playing with routers, vinyl and music concrete:re-blog from Hack A Day


When Danish musicians Vinyl Terror and Horror visited [Daniel] and his CNC router at EMS in Sweden, things were sure to get interesting. The band uses heavily modified record players and modified vinyl records to produce strange soundscapes. During their time at EMS, Vinyl Terror and Horror were able to produce some strange vinyl that shouldn’t play on a record, but do.

Most of VTaH and [Daniel]‘s work is centered on a CNC router. This soundscape took two records to produce. The spare rectangles were cut from a second record and designed to be press-fit into the host. When the newly assembled record is played, truly bizarre ‘skipping-but-still-playing’ sounds are made. The same process was used on the puzzle piece record the guys made.

The experiments continued by cutting a circle out of a record and gluing it back into place with a different orientation. This idea was taken to its logical conclusion that serves as the exemplar of music concrete.

[Daniel] and Vinyl Terror and Horror came up with a pretty neat spin (HA!) on century-old way of making electronic music, so we’ll give all of them some props. Check out all the videos from VTaH’s time at EMS after the break.

rectangle pieces from vinyl terror & horror on Vimeo.

Tango from vinyl terror & horror on Vimeo.

cirkel-fuck-up from vinyl terror & horror on Vimeo.

Beethoven meets E.T from vinyl terror & horror on Vimeo.

Panoramic ball camera; toss to snap a picture

Panoramic ball camera; toss to snap a picture:re-blog from Hack A Day!


This odd-looking ball can automatically take a panoramic image whenever you throw it up into the air. Seriously, that’s then entire set of operating instructions for the device. Inside, a 3D printed frame hosts an array of 36 cellphone cameras, each capable of taking a two megapixel image. Also included is an accelerometer. When it senses the change in momentum associated with the apex of its vertical trajectory it snaps an image with all of the cameras at the same time. The result is a spherical image with no obstructions-like a tripod or other support mechanism. The images are automatically stitched together and displayed on a computer which allows the user to pan and zoom.

The whole story is told in the video after the break. The example images shown are quite good, although there are a few artifacts where the segments meet. Most notably, color variances between the images captured by different CCD modules. We’d image that this can be fixed automatically in software if a talented programmer were willing to put in the time. The thing about spherical photos is that methods using post processing to unwrap an image always have some distortion to them. With that in mind, we think the ball camera is as good a solution as we’ve seen.
[Thanks Gregory and Hans]

Moto Undone by Joey Ruiter

Moto Undone by Joey Ruiter:re-blog from The Coolist


Aside from their functional elements, the allure of a motorcycle is largely in its appearance. Designer JRuiter has crafted an electric motorcycle that takes that entirely out of the equation, by “ignoring what makes motorcycles interesting”. Moto Undone by Joey Ruiter may not look like your standard motorbike, but it [...]

Polargraph | Sandy Noble

Polargraph | Sandy Noble:re-blog Computerlove

A polargraph is what I decided to call this drawing
machine that I made, but it also describes the output. The machine is a
simple device, that draws picture using a normal pen, some motors and
some string. It is only just good enough to get the job done, and in
keeping with this technical brevity, I'm going to spare you more
explanations about how it works: The pictures tell the story better.
~ Sandy Noble

www.polargraph.co.uk

Polargraph / slow drawing show preview from Sandy Noble on Vimeo.

It's called a polargraph because it uses a dual-polar coordinates system internally, rather than the regular cartesian system we (and computer systems) tend to use.

The mechanism is not wholly original: I have mainly taken inspiration from Hektor the spraycan robot, but in researching my machine came across prior art in the form of the AS200 drawbot and Harvey Moon's drawing machine. And draftsmen will recognise this as a primitive, gravity assisted pen plotter. An awesome one.

Technology

The whole system is fairly technologically agnostic, but the current incarnation uses an Arduino microcontroller and an Adafruit Motorshield, along with a couple of stepper motors. The application that drives it from the computer is written in Processing. It decodes a bitmap and creates a map of the file using a polar coordinates system, recording pixel position, size and brightness. The hardware requests each pixel in turn, and renders it on the page using it's own shading and movement algorithms.

I'm experimenting with the rigging and the gondola all the time, trying to find the best way to hold a pen stable to let me draw reasonably quickly and accurately.

I'm using bristol board and smooth cartridge paper to draw on (bristol board doesn't come in A1 sizes), with Sharpie markers, Kuretake ZIG Writers and ZIG Millennium pens and UNIPIN fineliners for fine stuff.

Hoverbike Flying Machine

Hoverbike Flying Machine:reblog from TheCoolist



If inventor Chris Malloy has his way, we’ll all get a chance to take to the skies with his Hoverbike Flying Machine.  This motorcycle-inspired flyer uses a pair of caged rotors to create the downward thrust necessary to achieve real flight.  A single pilot hops aboard just as they would a motorcycle, and a twist of the throttle will take the Hoverbike to heights up to 10,000 ft.  While experience flying a helicopter or propeller plane will help, the Hoverbike is to be classified as an “ultralite” in the US, meaning owners will not need a license to fly as currently planned.

Sound like a pipe dream? Note that these pictures aren’t renderings, the Hoverbike is a very real machine.  The Hoverbike is approaching its first untethered test flight, a giant leap forward for individual aviation.  It has been a stable test subject when tethered, and Malloy is raising funds to perform the final tweaks before Hoverbike takes to the skies untethered.

Once the prototype is complete and the Hoverbike is ready for the market, Malloy hopes to begin by selling 100 Hoverbikes per year.  At that rate, they’ll be priced at around $50,000 USD per unit.  Once he can boost production accordingly, he hopes to bring the price down to a rate similar to common motorcycle prices.  Hey, we may still be a ways away from flying cars, but I’ll gladly be pacified with a flying motorcycle.  Check please!

Movie Barcodes

Movie Barcodes: re-blog from The Motionographer



Interesting tumblr which shows every frame of a movie compressed into a single image – prints are also available.

Computational Art, From Screen to Paper: Prints by Jer Thorp, Marius Watz

Computational Art, From Screen to Paper: Prints by Jer Thorp, Marius Watz: re-blog from CreateDigitalMotion




From generated pixels on a screen to artwork, translating computer art to prints can give computer-produced visuals new life. This week, Christina Vassallo lets us know about her new series of silkscreened limited editions from two artists whose work in code (via Processing) we already know and love. Christina writes:

February 1 was the online launch of Random Number Multiples, a curated collection of limited edition artworks. This extension of my practice supports artists in their exploration of printmaking processes, and connects contemporary art appreciators with new and collectible work. Random Number Multiples debuts with two silk screened data visualizations by Jer Thorp, and two abstract compositions by Marius Watz. Both artists use custom software as their medium, but for this project they have chosen to experiment with an analog print process.

It’s a treat not only to see the output, but in the Flickr slideshow here, some of the process that went into that output. Just seeing that MacBook Pro and big buckets of color next to one another is a reminder that something special happens when you use the digital medium alongside traditional craft, when the continuity with art is restored.

And lest people assume that making work for browsers has to make art somehow valueless, that really doesn’t have to be the case. It does make art affordable – the limited runs are just US$100 for an edition of 50.

Random Number Multiples

A look at the results after the jump, with low-resolution works that give you some small taste of the quality of the physical objects… and having seen some of those, it really is special to see the beauty of these works when they’re no longer limited to screen resolution. Digital art can be cold and abstract onscreen but have a sensual quality as a print; it’s hard to describe.

I’ll be curious to check back in to see how this project goes. Random Multiple has done a number of interesting projects. I was part of an installation that took over an abandoned convent; more recently, artists reimagined the miniature golf course. (Really.)





















All photos courtesy Random Number; used by permission and (C) Random Number / Christina Vassallo — see her Flickr stream.

Random Number

Jer Thorp aka blprint

Marius Watz: Generator.x, Code & Form