Kafka Office by Bea Fremderman

Kafka Office, 2012 by Bea Fremderman_

"Kafka Office is roughly a two-minute video loop consisting of a 3D rendered office scene devoid of any workers. The architectural layout of the office space was designed to resemble a maze in which dead ends, formerly of the labyrinth, transform into individual cubicles that contain deserted office furniture. A continuous sunrise and sunset casts shadows onto the scene, alluding to a passage of time in increments of a single workday. Franz Kafka’s parables function by destroying reality to then scramble the fragments back together again. “Kafka Office” functions similarly, combining parts and segments of a Capitalist reality that can be viewed as a reflection of daily life that has slipped away from society’s consciousness." See video into the post;

The Ring by Arnaud Lapierre

The Ring by Arnaud Lapierre is a cylindrical sculpture in Place Vendôme in Paris.  Its structure has been designed to create a confused and abstract panorama because of the reflectable material on the surface and the holes on the own structure, it creates a mesmerizing optical effect when the visitors  pass through it. See more;

via | IGNANT

◥ BEATS, BITS, ATOMS by ◥ panGenerator

◥ BEATS, BITS, ATOMS is a set of projects created by ◥ panGenerator. One of my favorites is called .FLOAT, it consists in 3D printed based sculptures created because of fish tracking data. There is also a painting that paints itself called CITY, PAINT, MACHINE. Then PEACOCK is a kinetic audiovisual installation creating 2.5D mapping on moving surfaces. PHOJECTOR is a hybrid of interfaces seemingly incongruent, consiting in an old cell phone and even older slide projector, glitch, feedback and other analogue-digital phenomena. See all the projects in the video into the post;

O FLUXO ISSUE#01 – Circulating Forms of Reality

Our friends from O Fluxo have finally launched today their first collectible printed publication. It's called O FLUXO ISSUE#01 – Circulating Forms of Reality, consisting in 142 pages full of exclusive content, interviews, and special features of artists and collectives here in Triangulation Blog we really admire, such as Phone Arts who are presenting their first ever printed pieces. Also there are some in-depth conversations, essays, an amazing zine-styled section with more than 50 pages of exclusive masterpieces from some of O Fluxo favorite international artists, and much more.
So I interviewed O Fluxo in order to know more about this exciting new project which is strictly limited to 200 copies and is now available to purchase here (into this post) and in O Fluxo website. Must have a copy of this!!. See more;

Could you tell us a bit more about O Fluxo (online) and when and how did it start? 

The project O Fluxo started about a year ago by a pair of members with different professional backgrounds and interests: André Moreira, a fashion designer and me, (Nuno Patrício), graphic designer. Back then, we felt a strong impulse to start something that could contribute somehow to the improvement of the Portuguese visual sensibility. Over time, we involuntarily have been attracting new audiences, especially a huge amount of foreign public, so we had to implement a bilingual format in order to be righteous to everyone and still without losing the initial purpose. In some way, we ended up developing this ever-changing-online-space format, which has quite rapidly established a sort of an examination on different creative perspectives and how they affect the visual culture in general.

Since I know ofluxo.net I saw your are really focused on new media art, including digital and net art but you also take a major relevance to contemporary graphic design and printed based projects and artist working on this area, was this the reason you have worked on a printed publication or how did you decide to create it?

Whether it is online or in physical publications, we really don't want to focus on just one, two or three formulas, we only intend to portray what is happening in all the contemporary sphere. Perhaps that's the reason why this first publication is titled 'Circulating Forms of Reality', it fosters a good portion of the current creative semantic field. Based in this principle, we can assume that Ofluxo further blurs the boundaries between the physical and the virtual atlases, so why not immortalize that principle in a printed publication? Besides, publications can take advantage on any other media, they represent material determination, people can keep them and treat them as personal objects, and if we start mixing concepts, we'll approach target groups more widely.

Can you introduce us to this O Fluxo Issue#1, Circulating Forms of Reality? 

O Fluxo Issue#01- Circulating Forms of Reality works as a crossover publication between new media art and graphic design, virtual and physical, digital and analogue. A collaborative effort set up to question and explore a multiface concept around several different fields of creative creation and research embracing both its visual and theoretical aspects. 

I'm very proud to be part of the curatorial section of this first issue called Postrender, by including some of my favorite artists working on the installation form into digital and virtual environments, can you tell us what else is inside of this first number, such as interviews, articles?  

O Fluxo Issue#01 also includes a huge range of different articles and exclusive content. It is subdivided in five major sections, in which we present some of our favorite internet-related projects featuring some extensive interviews, visual essays, research, adaptations, an amazing zine-styled section, a very special feature which documents the first ever printed material from the Phone Arts contributors, and much more!

Which is the relation between the online and the physical publication? 

There are always some equivalences between all kinds of media. At some point, everyone who is involved with an online platform feels the necessity to extend the online concept into a tangible form. We felt that desire too! Starting with the basic idea that the publication would reflect the nature of the online content, it worked out as a reasonable practice to reunite some of our favorite creatives in a single project.

Is it a periodical publication? I mean how many issues are you going to publish per year? Are you going to keep that reduced and exclusive number (200) of publications always?  

We intend to publish irregularly, whenever we feel like it. Although, we'll try to keep the biannual periodicity parenthetical as possible. And yes, we want to stay true to the limited edition concept, in some way, it increases the emotional and the pecuniary value of the object.

I'm very impressed about this printed project of O Fluxo, it's great to have such a publication on my hands, I was wondering how long it takes to do a publication like this. I also would like to know more about the editors, Nuno Patricio and Andre Moreira, there is a stunning design and editorial work on it!  

Thanks! Well, as I mentioned here before, we have very different backgrounds and interests, but they complement with each other pretty well to be honest, and that aspect definitely influenced the decision of creating something together, something that could improve our disciplinary differences and knowledge. With this first publication, our aim was to make a physical territory for contemporary reflections and experimentations in a very magazine-styled-behaviour, with interviews, sections, all the editorial structure that a first edition should represent. With the future editions we are planning to create something that would combine density, simplicity and a certain lack of editorial hierarchy, basically like all that free-stylers do, but always without losing our sense of continuity. Either way, we are talking about a self-initiated project, composed entirely with collaborations upon our invitation, so it takes a lot of time to manage and prepare everything, and of course, lots of love and determination must be put into it. 

Can you tell us more about the material/paper, dimensions..? 

The main concern was to create something easily transportable, so we choose to make the publication with 20x25cm, a medium format, not to big, not to small, just a pleasant handle dimension, and also to use an extremely lightweight paper stock like recycled paper, and because it is in offset printing, the paper helped to improve the ink absorption, ending up with a great range of delightful colors. In sum, we couldn't be more happier with the final result!

Are you going to book a number from each publication to Triangulation Blog, right :)? 

haha Sure! Triangulation Blog had always influenced us somehow, and we always walked through a similar path. Besides, we believe that exchange it's something extremely necessary in order to ensure a continuous complex web of creative relations.

First Issue Contributors include:
Alex Gibson, Alexander Lis, Andreas Banderas, Andreas Ervik, Anthony Antonellis, Antoine Aillot, Barnie Page, Barriobajero, Bonjour Jean-Jacques, Brain Metcalf, Chris Seddon, Christian Oldham, Daniel Littlewood, Emilio Gomariz, Guillaume Hugon, Hanna Terese Nilsson, IMG Masters, Jaakko Pallasvuo, Jennifer Chan, Jeremiah Johnson, Jesse Hulcher, Joel Evey, Killian Loddo, Manuel Bürger, Marcel Kaczmarek, Marlie Mul, Marvin de Deus, Mathias Ringgenberg, Michael Manning, Nic Willson, Rasmus Svensson, Rustan Söderling, Sterling Crispin, Ted Galperin, Tim Heiler, Travess Smalley, and Travis Stearns.

BUY >>> O FLUXO ISSUE#01 – Circulating Forms of Reality >>> HERE!!

Portugal €26,50 EUREurope €29,50 EURRest of World €32,50 EUR

— O FLUXO —

#1: GIFs - SPAMM at CERMÂ

"She was everything" by Michael Manning

SPAMM at CERMÂ, a new exhibition at CERM curated by Michaël Borras aka Systaime and Thomas Cheneseau who have been doing a really great and intensive curatorial work since they founded the Super Art Modern Museum last year. They were invited by CERMÂ's founder Manuel Roßner to curate this exhibition about GIFs, which have been transported into a virtual space where the GIFs have taken a physical form into the virtual but real gallery. The exhibition is divided in two parts, one month long each, this is called #1: GIFs and will be open through first October 2012.  
I had a chance to ask Manuel Roßner about the interesting interactive virtual technology, and how it's created, see more into the post, also you will find a great review about the exhibition by Sabine Weier.

"The Cerma exhibition space occupies that fascinating area between internet appearance and cultural institution. It exists in both the built and the virtual environment. In the virtual part, which happens on the internet, everything is digital. We explore the possibilities that arise through this and look into a digitalised future. A guest exhibition curated by SPAMM displays tendencies within the current digital art. Four artists work in the first part of the two-part exhibition in SPAMM’s virtual project room. They all create animated GIFs and sculptures for a virtual space." See more;

Press release by Sabine Weier - http://www.sabineweier.de/

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»Visual arts have entered a new era. It’s a place where immediacy rules, where visual arts becomes virtual«, promises the Super Art Modern Museum, or SPAMM for short. Michaël Borras aka Systaime and Thomas Cheneseau founded the online museum in France, that geographical information is practically irrelevant in the internet era. Borras and Cheneseau present more than 50 works from the `community´, another concept that does not follow geographical frontiers. Eight of these works can now be seen at CERMÂ in two parts. The new `Digital Art Avant-garde´ discovers each other, receives and produces, communicates and grows. This is a scene that is not accessible to everyone, nevertheless extremely productive.

All over the world, new artistic positions arise that evade the ›White Cube‹: animated GIFs, Glitches, web based conceptual art, three-dimensional animations. Institutions have grown around digital art, real and virtual spaces such as the Rhizome at the New Museum in New York, the MACBA in Barcelona and the Berlin based Transmediale give these positions a stage and an audience. Pixels are the material artists use to paint and shape, realizing their aesthetic visions.

But can we herald the beginning of a new era, or is this just a handful of nerds who place some virtual artefacts here and there on the web? It seems quite apropos to use a commonplace cliché: one imagines pale, socially awkward creatures suffering from a lack of sunlight who sit in a darkened basement staring at brightly illuminated screens, typing furiously and moving pixels. The reason why digital art has not yet found its way into lounges, the ›white cubes‹, the living rooms of the postmodern society, may partially be explained with this stereotype.

However, there is nothing wrong with being seen as a nerd. This stereotype allows young artists to experiment and can also become the material for humorous self-reflection. Jeremy Bailey, who was part of the previous CERMÂ exhibition, likes to poke fun at the typical nerd and the whole spectrum of media art. He creates pixel sculptures, which he integrates in video clips as overlays to his body and comments ironically.

A guest exhibition curated by SPAMM displays tendencies within the current digital art. Four artists work in the first part of the two-part exhibition in SPAMM’s virtual project room. They all create animated GIFs and sculptures for a virtual space.

Anthony Antonellis lives and works on the internet, as his short biography states. His work is called ›beholdbehold‹ two GIF sculptures placed next to each other. They adapt the typical art exhibition to a digital environment. Antonelli displays dancing patterns, Windows emblems and radiant dots chasing in the viewer’s direction in a virtual showcase. This hypnotic screensaver aesthetic becomes art.

The second work cannot be interpreted at first sight. On top of a marble texture pedestal, a rectangular box rotates slowly around its axis, around the edges, stripes of a picture with flowers can be seen. Maybe a photograph, maybe a photorealistic illustration – in the digital era realism replaces reality. Much more than the flowers, the structure of bricks or pieces of concrete characterizes the appearance. Antonellis toys with the possibilities of computer illustration, the brick character of virtual realities, the virtual mimesis, which means not only the remodelling of reality but also the expansion of it.

beholdbehold by Anthony Antonellis

In an email to Manuel Rossner, the founder of CERMÂ, he described his inspiration: »I went through a period of time where I felt real objects should become GIFs. Sort of like found objects that were replicated, photographed, or recreated digitally. The sculpture on the right was an object built to mimic something I saw in real life, an object that I felt looked as though it must have come from the internet. Basically it is sidewalk tiles in a display at a Baumarkt in Weimar. The display case was just a metal frame, but the frame had a giant photograph of flowers printed on it. I recreated it as a solid shape using images from the internet, and used a photograph of the real tiles for the centre. Someday I’d like to see a real 3D version of it being built, but for now, the internet is a good home.«

The ›objet trouvé‹ reverberates also into digital art, albeit as a virtual replica of the object. In 1917, Marcel Duchamp started a discussion about what can be art with ›Fountain‹, a urinal presented as a sculpture; this defined the start of a new era in fine arts.

»Invisible “O”bject« is the title of Emilio Gomariz’ work. It is visible (disregarding the title), but only on second sight: In front of the gray and white checkerboard background from the image editing software Photoshop, which is the atelier of many digital artists, a transparent ring, almost like a doughnut, rotates. This requires some concentration because the ring does not manifest itself at a casual glance. The longer one focuses on the rotating ring, the more one would like to grab it. In CERMÂ’s project room this sculpture gains some height, it almost reaches the floor and the ceiling – a gigantic virtual Op Art object.

»Invisible “O”bject« by Emilio Gomariz

Michael Manning gives room for interpretation, the title »She was everything« does not correspond with the five plains lying over each other, flat rectangular panels that float with some distance between them and move synchronously. On the surface of the slightly transparent plains wood, water and a sky with white clouds can be seen. Besides its shape and array, the second panel irritates the viewer. It looks like a nubby steel sheet, but in its centre, a drop of water seems to cause concentric waves. All the other panels also have this concentric wave pattern, which creates an effect as if water had seeped through the sculpture.

Manning wrote to Manuel Rossner about his position: »The piece conceptually is about the collapse of the natural and technological. the idea being that they are one in the same. Each layer of the GIF represents a different natural element and the 5th being humans or technology. The animation is meant to show their overlap, blending and perpetual interconnected nature. My work focuses on the augmentation and distortion of our perception of reality by technology and the deconstruction of the false divide between the natural and technological.«

Manning turns nature into a flat visual trace, the constructed aesthetic and its artificial movement contrast the affectionate title and dominate the work. The virtual element, to which our reality is gradually moving, is stronger.

»She was everything« by Michael Manning

The fourth work is of a more concrete nature: a three dimensional skull rotates quickly around its axis, in the background there is a freeze of Englishman Damien Hirst’s famous diamond-encrusted skull. Jasper Elings titled this work »For the Love of God» which alludes to religious fantatism. With his explicit appropriation of Hirst’s masterpiece, he hints at the art market. Fanatism is part of the art market – a kind of madness that dies out in a new era of art?

»For the Love of God» by Jasper Elings

Digital art on the internet can often be acquired for free. This challenges traditional concepts of authorship, aesthetic and reception. These concepts root in Modernism and have barely been challenged by Postmodernism. Digital art does not quite fit these concepts. The SPAMM manifesto has found an answer to this: »(...) if ›contemporary art‹ isn’t ›from today‹ anymore, but just a continuing period of the XIX° century ›modern art‹, we can proclaim - without hesitation - the existence of the Super Modern Art.«

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Press release by Sabine Weier

As I told before I was really interested on CERMÂ's exhibition format. Here we have seen other online and offline interactive virtual spaces working as a virtual galleries, a good one I published while ago was PRINT FICTION created and curated by Michael Alfred, which is created using Unity 3D technology and which functions and interaction are the same than a video game. But this, CERMÂ virtual representation is also interactive but seems to be a virtual video where you can control the view of the tridimensional space at the same time the video brings to the viewer a walkthrough from the beginning to the end of the exhibition. Manuel Roßner tell us what and how is created CERMÂ;

Manuel Roßner: CERMÂ is an exhibition project which tries to include the new possibilites that come up with the digitalisation of everything. We invite artists to explore both: the virtual an the real space, always keeping in mind, that "space" isn't what it used to be before.

How did you decide to create a virtual space of the gallery?  

MR: As an artist I've been working with software seeking to create realistic images before. I then decided to use the cultural technique of the museum to approach the virtual space. This is useful in many ways: Like in a real space you can put things together relying to each other. It also limits the endless space, which is important to gather attention for the artworks. And maybe most the important aspect: It helps to deal with all the changes we can't really grasp in our physical environment. So many things transfer into the virtual: Cinema(special effects & animated films), Architecure (visualisations) and games or war. Those examples affect our imagination and with CERMÂ T try to give artists the possibility to work with that in an appropriate way.

Wat kiind of technology are yoi using for the virtual experience, its a kind of  interactive-tridimensional-video, what kind of files it supports, how is the rendering process..  

MR: At first I create a 3D duplicate of an existing space, then I import artworks from different software. Now the exhibition is finished. I can render images from every perspective and angle. For the walkthrough I render a panorama image from each frame of the movement. In the browser you look at the inside of a sphere with the video as a texture. When you move your mouse you just turn the camera inside this sphere. 

See #1: GIFs here.

Street Views Patchwork by Julien Levesque

Street Views Patchwork is a work made by Julien Levesque in 2009, it is one of the most beautiful conceptual collages I have ever seen. It consists in a online collage series which shows nonexistent landscapes using 4 horizontally parts of existent landscapes around the world. It is basically four embedded horizontally views from Google Street View forming one hypothetical landscape. It is nice to see how different parts around the world fit really well each other.  The website refresh itself every 30 seconds more or less, and of course you can interact with the street view. See more;

See the website here.

via | @arambartholl 

Brandon Blommaert

Brandon Blommaert has lately made a stunning video series by following a similar aesthetic than his generative GIF series such as  AMERICA’S_MOST_HAUNTED / TWO / THREE,  ENDOR_SANCTUARY_MOON_C+D, and other series which he has created since he started using the GIF format some years ago, highly recommendable to check out his work. This pastel aesthetic and the minimalist generative movements and forms have become a great reference of Blommaert who has decided to evolve with onto the video format by joining the movement with the sound, btw a great sound  by Tomb Blizzard. Brandon Blommaert tells us more about these new works, see more;

"Only the first video in the series (the first one below) was made for Jim Guthrie. He did the sound track (remixed by Tomb Blizzard) for indie game the movie and wanted some people to do some videos for some of the songs from the album. I think the last 2 (_AAAAA_ and aaa[A]aaa) are a bit more cohesive / self contained pieces because the sounds where made specifically for the animation by Tomb Blizzard so I feel like the sounds and visuals mesh a bit better.

Although some people have suggested that I try to make music videos in the style of my gifs I have always resisted. I always felt like the ultra minimalist shapes wouldn't translate into a very entertaining or engaging viewing experience. It is one thing to create a loop that people can watch for as long as they want, but an entirely other thing to force people to watch something for a whole 2:30 min.

I think this is a good direction. I guess I have always been interested in the idea of synesthesia. There is allot of music that I listen to that seems to reflect some kind of physical form. and I have always wanted to capture that in some way. These are just one possible way to represent music in a physical form. But what I like about these is that the music is directly influencing the shapes in a way that I can't really control. So the results are often surprising. Hopefully they don't just look like overly elaborate screensavers... (if they do that is ok)" - Brandon Blommaert.

syncing feeling ('concrete eyelids' remix by tomb blizzard)

_AAAAA_

aaa[A]aaa

Zooms From Nowhere by Chris Timms

Zooms From Nowhere (Ecology Visions v~0.1) by Chris Timms is part of an ongoing engagement exploring experiential relationships with virtual content streams. Specifically live data and image feeds which accumulate beyond individual narratives into ambient meta-streams. This generation of a visual ambience 'points us to the here and now, in a compelling way that goes beyond explicit content' [1]. This going beyond the explicit is the liminal stage of restructuring ones framework of orientation. As ambience blurs the definition between background and foreground, of the explicit here and now as opposed to what is not here and now, it provokes a spatial sense of nowhere and everywhere at the same time. [1] The Ecological Thought, Timothy Morton, 2010. See more

"Zooms From Nowhere" was included recently as part of a collaborative piece by Chris Timms at Cloaque.org called Ecology Portal, see here.

Recommended full screen_

GIF 3D gallery by Akihiko Taniguchi

Akihiko Taniguchi made an interesting GIF based project called GIF 3D Gallery, it consists in a interactive tridimensional space/white room with a pedestal simulating a physical room of a gallery where the user can upload an animated GIF through an url and contemplate it exhibited over that pedestal. The user also can interact with the view and perspective into the room through the mouse movement. It only accepts GIF files, it is nice as this kind of file allows transparency and makes to fit better the animated object or whatever over the pedestal, interact with the example above here or just put your own GIF. See more;

Maybe the GIF 3D Gallery reminds you of another projects like the great one by Anthony Antonellis called http://www.putitonapedestal.com/ , and yes, Akihiko Taniguchi told us he was inspired to create it by that work and other virtual spaces and references such as Print Fiction, http://barmecidalprojects.com/ or http://chrystalgallery.info/.

The first screenshots below is the easy way to upload your GIF and to view it into the gallery. The following images show different examples from found gifs except the first one which it's also from Akihiko.

Gif 3D Gallery.

Landscape Abbreviated by Nova Jiang

Landscape Abbreviated by Nova Jiang is a kinetic maze consisting of modular elements with rotating planters, which form a garden that is simultaneously a machine. Nova Jiang is interested in the way that simple interventions can make the experience of space dynamic and unpredictable. The planters are controlled by a software program that continuously generates new maze patterns based on mathematical rules; they rotate to form shifting pathways that encourage visitors to change direction and viewpoints as they move through the space.
Nova Jiang says; I envision this sculpture not as a classical labyrinth built to ensnare, but rather as an architectural abbreviation of grand ideas. In this way, the maze relates to literature, mathematical beauty, game play and the rigor of software programming, as much as it does to architecture and landscape. See more;

The planters contain live moss collected from the sides of buildings, cracks in the pavement, subway grates and other urban nooks and crannies in New York City’s landscape. Full of particles of broken glass, plastic and other detritus, they form a patchwork of unintentional archaeology.

"Landscape Abbreviated" is controlled by an Arduino Mega using the servo library. The project is commissioned for Wave Hill in New York.

Software: Olov Sundstrom, camera: Raymond Yeung, sound: Maria Chavez, photos: Raymond Yeung.