Art

You may have already come in contact with the work of techno-artist Yasuhito Udagawa (AKA Shovelhead) before and not realised it. He has created many of the theme icons of major art, technology and other exhibitions and shows over the last decade, and has become far better known since his sponsorship by Nike. Shovelhead's work is mesmerizing. A Japanese salaryman who found himself jobless in 1995 when the company he worked for went into bankruptcy, Yasuhito turned to his passion for making models and his fertile imagination and attention to fabricating the minutest detail have propelled him to the brink of superstardom. Make sure you browse the extensive image gallery for this story. Spellbinding!  Read More

Drawing styluses are, for the most part, simply glorified sticks. They do what your finger would do, but have a finer point. The new jaja stylus developed by Australia’s Jon Atherton, however, has a few tricks up its sleeve – the big one is, it is capable of registering 1,024 levels of user-applied pressure, which it transmits to the tablet or smartphone’s microphone using sound. The resulting lines drawn on the screen will be of varying thicknesses, depending on the amount of pressure applied.  Read More

Let's face it, the audio tours in museums could use a technology upgrade. While listening to the facts and stories behind each exhibit read by a D-list celebrity is still a mainstay of any noteworthy museum or art gallery, the average cell phone today has more features than most of the audio devices visitors are given to carry around. It makes sense then that the Louvre in France, the world's most visited museum, is replacing its usual audio guides with a decidedly 21st-century gadget: the Nintendo 3DS.  Read More

A typewriter that paints? Artist Tyree Callahan modified this 1937 Underwood Standard typewriter to do just that, replacing each key with a different hue that can paint on paper. A chromatic typewriter isn't by any means practical (the keys have to be manually reloaded with paint) - but the concept is still pretty interesting. So, how did he come up with the idea to create the typewriter, and once he had that idea how did he turn it into a reality? We had the opportunity to talk about the project with Tyree.  Read More

Inkodye is a chemical solution designed for people who are passionate about photography. After all, who else would want to emblazon a T-shirt, ribbon, or a handkerchief with images based on photo negatives? The process is reportedly quite easy, and requires just a dozen or so minutes of sunlight exposure.  Read More

Robotic snakes are - perhaps surprisingly - nothing all that new. In the past several years, we've seen ones designed to swim through debris, help out at construction sites, perform surveillance, and inspect the inside of pipes. People seem to be captivated by the little guys, which begs the question: has an artist ever made one? If they did, it would have to stand out from its more utilitarian counterparts, perhaps by being enormous and incorporating colored lights. Evoking prehistory wouldn't hurt, either. Well, it turns out that there is a creation that ticks all those boxes. It's time to meet Titanoboa.  Read More

Engineered Arts Ltd.'s Robothespian is probably one of the first professional robotic actors who made it into the real world (sorry, T-1000). Its elegant movements, extraordinary body language and emotion-conveying skills make it a great communicator. It may not be capable of helping the elderly, it's not nearly as agile and athletic as Boston Dynamics' PETMAN, and it's unlikely to be of any use during eye surgery. But that's OK. Robothespian is an artist. A robot burdened with the task of exploring the ephemeral territory of the arts and claiming it for his robotic brethren. And it seems it is extremely well equipped to get the job done.  Read More

If you're a cycling enthusiast, you've probably seen plenty of bracelets made from bike chains, clocks made from chain rings, or other items constructed by local hobbyists from cast-off components. Fun as those kind of curios may be, imagine what you might get if you took 46 established artists from across the U.S., gave each of them a box of 100 brand-new bike components, and asked them to make those into whatever they wanted. Well, that was the idea behind the SRAM pART PROJECT. The resulting sculptures have been shown at the Interbike trade show in Las Vegas, will go on display in a juried exhibition at a gallery in Chicago, and are about to be put up for auction online.  Read More

Video cameras now routinely offer features such as full 1080p high-def video, night vision mode, and stereo sound ... if you're one of the people who reads that and thinks "Big deal, that just means people will have nicer-looking home videos," perhaps you would appreciate a camera that's focused less on the latest tech, and more on the art of moving pictures. Well, Lomography's new LomoKino Super 35 Movie Maker should fit the bill. Paying homage to the original Chaplin-era movie cameras, users hand-crank 35mm film through the box-like device, while a fixed-focus lens captures all the jittery, grainy action.  Read More