Archive for the ‘Things That Might Be Art’ Category
These mouth-shaped urinals at a Rolling Stones museum in Lüchow, Germany have some women’s rights groups up in arms. The functional sculptures were designed by a woman, Dutch artist Meike van Schijndel and based on the Rolling Stones logo, the “Tongue and Lip Design,” created by art designer John Pasche in 1971 (which he originally modeled after Mick Jagger‘s mouth). Despite, some are bothered by the inherent femininity of the mouths and are speaking out against them, claiming sexism. Local activist Roda Armbruster was quoted in Spiegel as stating, ”Why does it have to be a woman’s mouth? If it had been based on the emblem of the Stones with the tongue, it would have been OK. But the tongue’s been left out and they really look like women’s mouths.” Ulli Schröder, who opened the museum after collecting Stones memorabilia for decades, said, ”That’s not a man’s mouth or a woman’s mouth, that’s art. They were damned expensive and they’re staying where they are and that’s final.” Check out some more shots of the controversial urinals after the jump.
British artist Chris Thornley (aka “Raid71“) started the organization Arts V Cancer after he was diagnosed with “a very rare, incurable non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at the age of 37.” Arts V Cancer is Thornley’s attempt to use his art to raise money and awareness to help others. Since 2011, he has been designing and selling prints like “Panther Pink” (pictured above), with all proceeds going to organizations that research cures or otherwise help those those affected by cancer. So far, Arts V Cancer has featured only Raid71′s designs, but is seeking other artists to join the fight and donate their work for the cause. It seems like a worthy one. Check out three more of Raid71′s designs below.
Artist Bartholomäus Traubeck created this piece, titled “Years,” by rigging his record player’s tone arm with a PlayStation Eye camera so he could take a disc of wood – a thin cross section of a tree – and listen to it as if it were an LP. The rings of years are picked up by the camera and and translated through Ableton Live to give them life in sound. The result: a beautiful, sad and eerie piano concerto. YEARS from Bartholomäus Traubeck on Vimeo. via Boing Boing
UK news publication The Guardian collected this gallery of photos of newsworthy events from 2011 reenacted with Legos.  While I’ve seen a lot of year-end round-ups floating around (as with every year at this time), none struck me as entertaining as this. Also, one of the photos in the gallery seems to be from the same Occupy Wall Street Lego piece we posted about from Zucotti Park earlier this year. Although, they’re missing some arguably major events (read: Gabrielle Giffords shooting, Snowpocylapse, Egyptian protests, Joplin tornado, gay marriage in New York, Hurricane Irene, 10th Anniversary of 9/11, floods in Thailand, etc.), the results are nonetheless clever and poignant. Besides, the world looks like more fun through Lego colored glasses. Are there any events from 2011 you’d like to see recreated in Lego? [viaNeatorama] This animated short film is directed by Sean Mullen for Giant Creative animation studio. It depicts two artists having canvas envy, with each attempting to one-up the other while painting a sunset. Without giving too much away, it results in an inadvertant collaboration. Sometimes collaboration is by careful cooperation; other times it is by beautiful accident. This video’s theme indirectly reminds me of a recent referential game of catch between Jailbreak Collective collaborator Jason Freeny and the artist Ron English. Stay tuned for more about Jason Freeny as we gear up to release his exciting CAPSL designs in the new year.
These figures by self-described “Evil Arts Organization” Suckadelic depict a Cybertron version of the Occupy Wall Street conflict. With obvious references to the classic Transformers tussle of Autobots (the 99%) vs. Decepticons (the 1%), Sucklord is the leader of the 1%’s battle for cyber domination over occupation. These were released at a show yesterday on the Lower East Side, complete with accompanying trading cards. My only question is, in the war for a fair shake, the Decepticons have Megatron played by, perhaps, Goldman Sachs, but does OWS have an Optimus Prime? I guess I always pictured the OWS answer as more of a Voltron-type mashup of powers. Regardless, I like the metaphor.
[via The World's Best Ever]
This series of ads was designed by Team Detroit for an enrollment campaign for Detroit’s College of Creative Studies. They cleverly depict teens in situations common to anti-drug PSAs. The art direction and production value of these is pretty fantastic. I’ve included some of my favorites below, but you can check out a few others here. I wish more schools would be so creative in their advertising. These keep it edgy while targeting parents to confront their kids and encourage them to follow their real passions. “I learned it by watching you, alright!” Good stuff.
I couldn’t help being drawn to this stool made by British environmental design studio, FAT. It’s made of soft foam rubber (like a stress ball) and appears more or less actually comfortable. I tend to like the idea of this quite a bit: take a classical icon like Hercules, known for his power and godlike stature, his image often made of stone, towering over viewers of his effigy in a sculpture garden somewhere, but make his bust into something as common as a comfy place to sit. From the product description: “The bust of Hercules, usually something solid both in its material and the culture it represents becomes unexpectedly soft, deforming a recognizable object into stranger shapes when it is sat on. It uses the plasticity of rubber to suggest a more uncertain and doubtful state.”
New York City’s Department of Transportation commissioned artist John Morse to design these 12 street signs as part of a program called “Curbside Haiku.” The signs are intended to raise awarenss of the “critical importance of shared responsibility among pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists in keeping New York City’s streets safe.” Many of the haiku are embedded in QR codes on the sign itself (because we need more reasons for people to stop walking in the middle of the sidewalk to do something on their phone). They’re located primarily around cultural institutions (like the Brooklyn Museum and MoMA) and public schools. The New York Times posted a story about them (written in haiku stanzas) and asked readers to submit their own sign suggestions, some of which are pretty clever. The signs are available from the Safe Streets Fund for $65 each or $100 for a set. This video from UK-based Open University uses clever animation to describe six of the most famous thought experiments: Zeno’s Achilles & The Tortoise, Barjavel’s Grandfather Paradox, Searle’s Chinese Room, Hilbert’s Grand Hotel, Einstein’s Twin Paradox, and Schrödinger’s Cat. My personal favorites have always been the Chinese Room and the Grandfather Paradox, but I can’t help but think that Schrodinger’s Cat reminds me of the Bonsai Kitten we posted about last week. Multiple states of being. [via Laughing Squid]
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