Art

Initially presented in 2009 as a rather eccentric architect's idea, one of the world's narrowest houses will be built in Warsaw, Poland. Referred to as an "impossible house" by its designer Jakub Szczesny of Centrala design studio, the house will be 152 cm (60 in) across in its widest spot on the outside. It's located in the center of Warsaw in a small slot between two buildings, and will be officially defined as an art installation, as it does not meet any legal standards of construction in Poland. Read More

If you think that heavy construction machinery like a Caterpillar 5230B Excavator is an unlikely source of inspiration for a piece of art, then you obviously don't work for Michigan art studio Woodchuck and Co. The team there has built a highly detailed wooden model, or rather, a semi-working replica of the large machine, in 1/16th scale. The collector's piece is up for sale at US$35,900. Read More

We tend to quickly forget about technology that's no longer shiny and state-of-the-art, which is part of the reason that piles of discarded electronics are becoming larger and larger. Polish sculptor Marek Tomasik, however, thought of a way of bringing them back to life ... sort of. He created an enormous and disturbing rectangular, walk-in sculpture made of several thousand discarded computer parts. The piece, entitled "Sometimes You Have To Be Open," is in the form of a room measuring 5m x 4m x 4.5m (16' x 14' x 15'), based around a wooden structure. Read More

Anyone who has finger-painted, sketched with a pencil and painted with a brush will tell you that the three activities feel different when you're doing them, and that feel influences the look of the finished piece of artwork. It would seem to follow that if you were trying to simulate the experience of using a paintbrush when creating art on a touchscreen device, you would use a brush, and not a stylus or your finger ... that's the thinking behind the Flow, a capacitive paintbrush designed for use on the iPad and similar devices. Read More

Fast cars, shiny shoes, monster flat screen TVs ... all these things play a role as status symbols in our adult lives, but cast yourself back to your early school days when nothing said cool as much as a crackingly good pencil case. What I would have given to have one of these beauties in tow instead of my brothers' graffiti-ridden hand-me-down! Faber-Castell is the world’s oldest and largest manufacturer of wood-cased pencils and the company is marking its 250th Anniversary with this Limited Edition Wood Case set. Read More

Most of us living in the upper reaches of North America are getting pretty tired of winter by now, but for one Minnesota resident, the arrival of spring will mean the destruction of his incredible work of art. Software engineer Roger Hanson uses water from his home’s geothermal heating system, along with a half-inch rebar framing system and a computer-controlled robotic sprayer, to create gigantic free-form ice sculptures in his backyard. His current masterpiece is 85 feet (26 meters) wide and 64 feet (19.5 meters) tall – although winter’s not over yet. Read More

Should you find yourself in Dublin, pondering the social and ethical ramifications of advances in bioscience, you really ought to check out VISCERAL: THE LIVING ART EXPERIMENT at Trinity College’s Science Gallery. The show was put together by the University of Western Australia’s SymboticA art-science residency program, and features 15 works of art (or are they works of science?) that incorporate living tissue, created by SymboticA researchers from several countries. It’s intended to be an exploration of the boundaries between art and science, and of “our changing understandings and perceptions of life in the light of rapid developments in the life sciences and their applied technologies.” It’s also a chance to see books grown out of human skin cells. Read More

When you think of people having a blast with science experiments, hands-on product research and wacky but clever inventions, chances are you think of MythBusters. Five years before that show’s 2003 premiere, however, Sacramento’s Rob Cockerham set about doing much the same thing on his Cockeyed blog. Today, approximately a million readers from around the world visit it every month, checking out his latest activities as documented in sections such as Incredible Construction, Science Club, and Pranks. We had a chance to talk to Rob recently ... when he wasn’t busy making cyclones out of fireworks, analyzing the compostability of SunChips bags, or sneaking bogus time machines into shopping mall displays. Read More

Google has announced a collaboration with 17 of the world’s most acclaimed art museums that lets people view over 1,000 high res artwork images and 17 "gigapixel" images while taking a virtual stroll through their galleries using “Street View” technology. While nothing can beat seeing a work of art in person, the Google Art Project could be the next best thing for those without the time and money to pop on a plane and trade elbows with crowds of tourists looking to catch a glimpse of what some of the best museums have on offer. Read More