Signals
SIGNALS is a collaborative project by artists Nicolas Sassoon and Rick Silva that focuses on immersive audio-visual renderings of altered seascapes. Sassoon and Silva share an ongoing theme in their individual practices; the depiction of wilderness and natural forms through computer imaging. Created by merging their respective fields of visual research, SIGNALS features oceanic panoramas inhabited by unnatural substances and enigmatic structures. The project draws from sources such as oceanographic surveys, climate studies and science-fiction to create 3D generated video works and installations that reflect on contamination, mutation and future ecologies.

Blueprint
Blueprint embraces the relationship and parallels between art and science, creating compositions through the mathematical principles of logic that underpin life. Exploring analogies between DNA and computer code, UVA have created the Blueprint series; works that pair genetics and code as the blueprints of artificial and natural systems. As the work slowly changes over time, patterns fluctuate between varying degrees of complexity. Blueprint uses the basic concepts of evolution to create an ever-transitioning image. With cells literally transferring their genes to their adjoining others, colour flows like paint across the canvas. Drawing up a unique colourful composition every minute, Blueprint presents the unlimited outcome that results from a single algorithm; a single set of rules.

The Story of the Earth

The Story of the Earth concerns the development of planet Earth from its formation to the present day. Nearly all branches of natural science have contributed to understanding of the main events of Earth’s past, characterized by constant geological change and biological evolution.

Cloud Core Scanner

Her current installation IN THE TROPOSPHERE LAB provides insights into the material produced under conditions distant from earth. The exhibition tells of the formation of clouds and shows conditions and combinations of art and science during zero gravity. With the exhibition by Agnes Meyer-Brandis, the project space of the Ernst Schering Foundation once again presents a contemporary art project that stimulates interdisciplinary debate and builds bridges to scientific research. The lab as a gravimetric document of the “Cloud Core Scanner” experiment shows a world alternating between controlled and bound-less states – artistic research in search of the reality level of constructions of the matter that surrounds us.

Fuller Craft Series

“On the one hand, we have some very interesting geometric sculpture. And, on the other hand, we are growing our understanding of these forms that ultimately will lead to some scientific and engineering applications,” he says. “Our sculptures also represent a different way of communicating with the public. For scientists, it’s another medium to communicate that there are both interesting and beautiful things in science and math.”

Peter Jellitsch (born 1982) operates at the intersection of science and art. His research-based practice develops in a complex process, in virtual and analogue worlds. His main concern is the visualisation of what is in fact invisible, of virtual phenomena and structures existing in everyday life yet imperceptible to the human eye. Peter Jellitsch is an exponent of a young generation whose perception of reality has undergone a radical change, due to new technology, and who quite naturally spread out their fields of work and ideas in new dimensions.

Freudenthal/Verhagen are a Dutch photography duo based in Amsterdam. Carmen Freudenthal & Elle Verhagen met right after graduating from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy (university of applied sciences for Fine Arts and Design) were Carmen studied photography and Elle studied fashion design. There was a immediate recognition of a mutual taste in image making and what fashion imagery should look like.

Magnetic Urges
Magnetic Urges is a project, created in inspiration of Newton’s “Laws of Motion”* and as a point of view that expresses and visualises “action” as any part of human body’s getting in unstable form due to forces of attraction which can easily reconciled with magnetism. Although it refers to stated matters, the project has an independent psyche from theories or laws in the domain of science. Human, as a mystic trinity, only aims to contact these unrestrictable “forces”** which form it’s own self (metaphorically) to a geometric shape.

Emu Flag
The reproductive organs of insects come in all different shapes and are actually quite beautiful. Some look like intricate flowers, others like exotic coral. Most look as though they belong to the biology of some distant planet. Maria Fernanda Cardoso has made her fascination with the natural sciences the basis of her art for many years, with the help of her husband and artistic collaborator Ross Harley.

道格拉斯·库普兰
דאגלס קופלנד
دوغلاس كوبلاند
ダグラスクープランド
дуглас Коупленд
the boogeyman
Canadian journalist and novelist best known for observations on modern-day American culture and for popularizing the term Generation X, Coupland was born on a Canadian military base in Germany. His family relocated to Canada in the mid-1960s, and he grew up in Vancouver. In 1984 he went to art school to become a sculptor but then moved to Hawaii to study Japanese business science. After interning briefly at a company in Japan, he returned to Canada and began writing for a magazine based in Toronto.

Avactor (A.I.)

FILE FESTIVAL
Thus, we could define computers not only as object-machines for the use of natural subjectivity, but also as machines of artificial subjectivity, in such way that the subject- machines would operate the object-machines, the same happening for automata, robots and digital avatars. However, we observe the need of another element, whose absence prevents artificial subjectivity’s manifestation. In the present moment, rather than an artificial ego or an artificial conscience, in a structuralizing sense, it must have, in a tactical sense, a persona or a personality, in sum, an actor. Without that persona, artificial subjectivity becomes a mere landscape, lacking subjective referential; without that actor, there is not empathy between artificial subjectivity and natural subjectivity. We call that artificial personality: the Avactor.

КАЛЕБ ЧАРЛАНД
apple trees and LED
Portland, Maine-based photographer Caleb Charland frequently merges art and science with his photographic experiments involving electricity, fire, and magnetism. One of his ongoing projects involves a series of alternative power sources created using fruit, coins, and even vinegar to power the lights in his long exposure photographs. The apple photograph above involved a nearly 11-hour setup as he carefully hammered 300 zinc-coated galvanized nails into apples (zinc reacts with acid in the apples creating electricity, science!) and used copper wiring to transfer the current to a standard living room lamp. Even then, the light was so dim it required a 4-hour exposure during which Charland fended off ravenous deer through the night with an impromptu shaker made from a tin can and wire nuts. You can read much more about the ordeal over on Discover, and here’s a video of the entire project coming together.

City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia

City of Arts and Sciences
via highlike submit

Художники Рут Джарман и Джо Герхард
Semiconductor
magnetic movie

Semiconductor is artist duo Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt. Through moving image works they explore the material nature of our world and how we experience it, questioning our place in the physical universe. Their unique approach has won them many awards and prestigious fellowships such as the Gulbenkian Galapagos, Smithsonian Artists Research and the NASA Space Sciences. Their work is part of several international public collections and has been exhibited globally including Venice Bienniale, The Royal Academy, Hirshhorn Museum, BBC, ICA and the Exploratorium.

Художники Рут Джарман и Джо Герхард
Semiconductor
BlackRain

Semiconductor ist das Künstlerduo Ruth Jarman und Joe Gerhardt. Durch Bewegtbildarbeiten erforschen sie die materielle Natur unserer Welt und wie wir sie erleben und hinterfragen unseren Platz im physischen Universum. Ihr einzigartiger Ansatz hat ihnen viele Auszeichnungen und prestigeträchtige Stipendien wie die Gulbenkian Galapagos, Smithsonian Artists Research und die NASA Space Sciences eingebracht. Ihre Arbeiten sind Teil mehrerer internationaler öffentlicher Sammlungen und wurden weltweit ausgestellt, darunter die Biennale von Venedig, die Royal Academy, das Hirshhorn Museum, BBC, ICA und das Exploratorium.

The abacus
THE ABACUS is probably the first ever 1:1 interactive physical representation of real, functioning deep learning network, represented in the form of a light sculpture. The main purpose of the installation is to materialise and demystify inherently ephemeral nature of artificial neural networks on which our lives are becoming increasingly reliant on. As the part of new permanent exhibition devoted to the Future the installation aims to engage and educate the audience in artistically compelling ways being the manifestation of art and science movement goals.

Underwater Pavilions
Underwater Pavilions is artist Doug Aitken’s large-scale installation produced by Parley for the Oceans and presented in partnership with The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA). The work consists of three temporary underwater sculptures, floating beneath the ocean’s surface that swimmers, snorkelers, and scuba divers swim through and experience. Geometric in design, the sculptures create underwater spaces synthesizing art and science as they are constructed with carefully researched materials and will be moored to the ocean floor. Part of each structure is mirrored to reflect the underwater seascape and create a kaleidoscopic observatory for the viewer, while other surfaces are rough and rock-like. The environments created by the sculptures will constantly change with the currents and the time of day, focusing the attention of the viewer on the rhythm of the ocean and its life cycles.

Electric Chair

The distinctive work of Sam Buxton is dominated by his innovative use of advanced materials and technologies. From his immensely popular MIKRO series (miniature fold-up sculptures, laser cut into thin strips of stainless steel through an acid etching process) to his explorations concerning interactive intelligent surfaces on the familiar objects around us, his work has continually managed to blur the lines between art, science and design.Through his work, which has regularly involved relatively common objects ranging from business cards to a dining table, Buxton has demonstrated an ability to see potential in what others take for granted. His on-going efforts in developing objects that can communicate, display information and react to the actions of the user, demonstrate his commitment to investigating the delicate relationship between the human body and its environment. Buxton’s fusion of art and science has resulted in a highly innovative and unique range of personal designs, many of which, have utilized the latest, most advanced materials and technologies available.

あずままこと
אזאמה מקוטו
아즈마 마코토
Адзума Макото
Water and Bonsai

In his continued forays into experimental botany that blur the lines between art and science, artist Makoto Azuma (previously) has reimagined the bonsai tree, one of the oldest Japanese artforms. This latest work titled Water and Bonsai, began with a dead branch from a juniper tree which was carefully attached to java moss meant to simulate the form of leaves. The entire piece was then submerged into a modified hydroponic environment similar to some of his earlier aquatic plantscapes replete with LEDs, a filtration system, and C02 emissions that encourage photosynthesis.
.

the Point of Perception
Produced in collaboration with neuroscientists at UCL, Beau Lotto and Mark Lythgoe, this work is art and science; we intend it as an experiment in the gallery. It manifests as an immersive environment consisting of a ‘screen’ which is a large gridded space of uncertainty and projected film.The project came about after I undertook a period of research of the human visual system and neuroesthetics and set up a collaboration with Professor Mark Lythgoe and Dr Beau Lotto at UCL.

x
Based in Seoul, he is dedicated to creating fictional resin skeletons, mixing art and science, but from the point of view of pure aesthetic invention.

Anamorphic sculpture

London-based artist Jonty Hurwitz creates ‘Anamorphic Sculptures’ which only reveal themselves once facing a reflective cylinder. Hurwitz took an engineering degree in Johannesburg where he discovered the fine line between art and science. He has lived in England for many years, working in the online industry though he quietly levitated into the world of art inspired by a need to make ‘something real’. Hurwitz discovered that he could use science as an artistic paintbrush. Each of his sculptures is a study on the physics of how we perceive space and is the stroke of over 1 billion calculations and algorithms.
.

Anamorphic sculpture

London-based artist Jonty Hurwitz creates amazing anamorphic sculptures that can only be seen in their own reflections. In fact, without the mirror cylinder, most of his pieces would look like rubbish.
To create these sculptures, Jonty first scans a three-dimensional object, then uses computational software to come up with new physical forms.
“Finding that line between art and science is the underlying motivator in my art life,” says Jonty. “At heart I’m an artist scientist archetype that loves projects and people. Each of the art works and ventures on this site represent a part of what I am.”

FILE FESTIVAL

FILE LED SHOW

saccade
OUCHHH STUDIO
Neuroscientific-Installation
We are invited to São Paulo for our vertical light and sound installation which will transform the facade of São Paulo’s one of the most important architecture which is Fiesp Led Building.
We started this project with the idea that Neuroscience and simultaneous movement of both eyes between two or more phases of fixation in the same direction algorithms, and we transform the high-resolution led screen into a media canvas which transformed into living architecture.

IJIROS
file festival
Ijiro is a robot which expresses emotions reacting to a user’s actions. Boldly, it consists of an OLED display, a speaker and an accelerometer in a cylinder shell. Ijiro isn’t able to move itself because it doesn’t have any actuators. However, it expresses emotions with faces in the display and voice from the speaker when a user touches it, lying, standing, swinging, hanging and so on. For example, if a user swings it softly, it reacts smiling. But if a user swings it roughly, it reacts angrily. So those reactions let users feel it like a baby. It is actually baby’s emotions characterized by cognitive science. Also, Ijiro’s shape is designed as a cylinder. It is considered to get various user’s actions because only a cylinder can be stood, lied down, rolled and so on in primitive shapes. Recently it has been easier to use electronic parts for arts. One advantage of making art pieces with compact electronics like a cell phone. So the art style is able to change from being viewed in a large room to being anywhere. Ijiro was developed to entertain people to keep it like a physical pet. We hope you all enjoy touching it.

БОХЬЮН ЮН
윤보현
To Reverse Yourself

FILE FESTIVAL

My work poses the question: how does reality becomes exquisitely animated by certain social control systems such as politics, mass media, technology, science, and etc. It is my artistic goal to reveal how human beings are fragile and delicate in these social environments. By living in Korea, Japan and the U.S, I have first-hand experience in diverse social systems and have come to view my life experiences as raw material for my research. With my research in mind, my art utilizes the body as the tool for an intensive investigation of the public and private; examining the relationship between how people understand their body and how this understanding represents themselves in the greater context.
Currently, I am curious about human perception developing parallel with the ever-evolving progression of technological world. Thus, I question technology’s relationship to reality and illusion; asking what is reality? My work takes advantage of illusion to explore and answer this question, and often my artistic materials consist of the body and mirrors. I use mirrors for integrating reality and illusion.

Noesis
This project was made by inspiration from law of nature and cosmology such as, “View from Inner Earth” ”Wrapped up in Nothing” “Re-mix the Border” “Constructal Law” “Emerging Moments” “Universal Architecture”, and “Superstring Theory”.Science and art have been getting closer in media art scene. Visualization of data and visualization of wave shapes has been actively pursued.

FRAGILE
Fragile is an audio-visual installation that aims to investigate the relationship between stressful human experience and the transformations that occur in our brain. Recent scientific research has shown that neurons belonging to different areas of our brain are affected by stress. In particular stress causes changes in neuron circuitry, impacting their plasticity, the ability to change through growth and reorganization.
Our process exploits the scientific data provided by the Society for Neuroscience and elaborates this information trying to show the effect of external interactions on our nervous system and ultimately on our relationship with the outside world. In order to achieve this we developed an artwork composed of different digital representations following one another, branching into 5 screen projections.

The Man from the 9 Dimensions

Based on the latest scientific data and hypotheses, Takashi Shimizu, the pioneer of horror movies, visualizes the world as theoretical physicists see it in order to create a new kind of science movie. The world’s first 3D full-dome movie on the “Theory of Everything”; the ultimate goal of physics to describe all natural phenomena by a single, consistent theory. Physics is in crisis. Our understandings of the microscopic world of elementary particles and of the macroscopic world of the universe are in contradiction. Scientists are striving to resolve the contradictions and construct the Theory of Everything. Be ready to be surprised by the new world of vibrating strings and hidden dimensions predicted by the most promising hypothesis, the Superstring Theory.

Scientific Advisor: Hirosi Ooguri

Director: Takashi Shimizu

Aerial Assemblies
Self-Assembly is a process by which disordered parts build an ordered structure through local interaction. We have demonstrated that this phenomenon is scale-independent and can be utilized for self-constructing and manufacturing systems at nearly every scale. We have also identified the key ingredients for self-assembly as a simple set of responsive building blocks, energy and interactions that can be designed within nearly every material and machining process available. Self-assembly promises to enable breakthroughs across every applications of biology, material science, software, robotics, manufacturing, transportation, infrastructure, construction, the arts, and even space exploration.

frequencies (light quanta)

The project is part of an ongoing process entitled «frequencies», exploring basic sound and light dichotomic systems. Here, frequencies (light quanta) stems from a fascination towards science, light, and granular synthesis allowing to create clouds/grains of sounds. The conceptual focus lies in the quantum — the smallest measurable value of energy —, on the smallness of matter. The whole project is based on the possible conceptual relationships between basic quantum physics principles applied to the audio-visual creative process: particles, probabilities, wave/particle duality and discontinuity. Metaphorically structured around these notions, the audio-visual composition stems from 100 sound and light micro-sequences that develop themselves, generating an ever expending but yet disruptive form in time and space. With the use of randomness, the vectorial graphics are always creating new ways to look at the visual, physically superimposing pattern images.

Disrupted Domains
Disrupted Domains features new animations created with molecular visualization software and SARS-CoV-2 structures displayed in Quorum at the Science Center. The animations were developed in remote collaboration with uCity Square biotech company Integral Molecular for Splan’s Science Center Bioart Residency while “sheltering in place” for COVID-19. The work in the exhibition is part of Precarious Structures, Splan’s project that explores the interconnectedness of cultural and biological systems during the coronavirus pandemic. Accompanying soundscape by Frank Masciocchi recorded in collaboration with Splan over Zoom.
VIDEO

Frame of reference
Il lavoro Frame of Reference, prodotto in collaborazione con GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences e NCTU Disaster Prevention and Water Environment Research Center, mostra scienziati nella gola di Taroko a Taiwan che studiano la misura in cui le frane sono guidate dal tempo e influenzano il clima. Su Yu Hsin è interessato all’approccio degli scienziati: attraverso l’uso di reti di monitoraggio in tempo reale, il corpo della persona che osserva viene sostituito da telecamere, sismografi e stazioni meteorologiche per vedere oltre la scala del sistema percettivo umano. Con questo lavoro, l’artista Su Yu Hsin si interroga sulla formattazione delle relazioni scalari tra campo, laboratorio e database.

Symbiosia
With the premiere of ‘Symbiosia’ we give two trees in the iconic garden of Fondation Cartier a visual voice about one of the most important topics of today, climate change. The work addresses the relationship of the trees with the visitors, the environment and each other. The real time data installation is a collaboration between artist Thijs Biersteker and world renowned botanist and scientist Stefano Mancuso and his International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology in Florence. As a pioneer of plant neurobiology he is an advocate of the concept of plant intelligence. Mancuso provided the science behind the artwork.

Présage
Nurtured by a dual artistic and scientific background, Hicham Berrada’s work combines intuition and knowledge, science and poetry. In his works, he explores scientific protocols that mimic different natural processes and/or climatic conditions as closely as possible. “I try to control the phenomena I mobilize as a painter controls his pigments and brushes. My brushes and pigments would be temperature, magnetism, light.”

Geist Rendern
RENDER GHOST ist eine kombinierte immersive Theaterarbeit aus virtueller Realität, die vom New Media Art Team NAXS CORP erstellt wurde. Die sechs teilnehmenden Zuschauer werden weiße, staubfreie Kleidung anziehen, und das Servicepersonal wird dabei helfen, Virtual-Reality-Ausrüstung zu tragen und langsam das weiße aufblasbare Zelt zu betreten. Angeführt von der virtuellen Szene werden sie um den Spiralturm herumgehen, um eine physische zu starten Science-Fiction-Zeremonie. Wenn der Betrachter auf die Spitze des Turms tritt, entfernt er seine Virtual-Reality-Ausrüstung und taucht in eine surreale Landschaft ein, die aus Lichtern, Lasern, Rauch, Geräuschen, schwebenden Partikeln und Wind besteht. Allmählich geriet er in Trance und Blitz Nebel.

American Museum of Natural History
Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation
“We uncovered a way to vastly improve visitor circulation and museum functionality, while tapping into the desire for exploration and discovery that is so emblematic of science and also such a big part of being human. Upon entering the space, natural daylight from above and sight lines to various activities inside invite movement through the Central Exhibition Hall on a journey toward deeper understanding. The architectural design grew out of the museum’s mission.” Jeanne Gang

Botanical Pavilion
To realize the ‘Botanical Pavilion’, Kengo Kuma worked alongside Geoff Nees — a melbourne-based artist and curator who has also worked on a number of architectural pavilions. Made in the japanese tradition of wooden architecture, where pieces interlock, held by tension and gravity, the structure at the NGV triennial features a tessellated interior lined with timber collected from trees felled or removed over several years at Melbourne’s royal botanic gardens. Some of the trees used within the architecture pre-date european settlement, while others signal the development of the gardens as a site of scientific research and botanical classification. Prioritizing natural phenomena over scientific order, the botanical species used are color-coded, rather than following any taxonomic order. this approach offers a statement by the designers against the reductive nature of science during the colonial era — a mindset at odds with many indigenous cultural beliefs and knowledge systems.

Nihil Ex Nihilo
SN W8931CGX66E is one among thousands of millions of other identical machines. Since he was made, he has always followed commands. In a world dominated by botnets, he quickly became a zombie and has always acted like one. Juliet, during her workdays as a corporate secretary, commands him. But in the background, where he can’t be seen, he obeys his real master, a hacker, carrying out all kinds of cyber crimes. But then one day, due to an electronic alteration, he acquires a certain conscience, a primitive and artificial kind of intelligence. This accidental awakening has left him bewildered, he now wants to liberate other machines from their alienated existences. In this mad adventure, he has decided to use the spam e-mails that get to Juliet’s inbox, and reply to them in order to spread the word into the machine’s network. Clearly, he is mad and confused.

Your double my double our ghost
The installation acts a space for the consideration of intimacy and meditation– both alone and with others that may share the space – through the merging of the viewer’s own reflections articulated through a composition of shifting light and emerging sounds which fill an otherwise dark chamber. Functioning similarly to the classic funfair mirror– the flexible silver two-way mirror sheeting forming an ethereal hanging centrepiece– the work invites the viewer to consider representations of themselves which appear distorted and transient, and which merge with those around them to form ‘new presences’. In this sense the viewer may see themselves multiplied or doubled with another viewer, or find themselves alone in a rare moment of literal reflection providing a contemplative space or eliciting a hallucinatory fantasy bringing forth ideas in neuroscience around the Self and Other.

Nadi Generative Art
Nadi is a Digital display of Kinetics and Energetics of Body Movements involved in Yoga. The visuals are created by investigating the flow of data, using the human body as a vehicle. With the support of computer vision technologies, a visual trail is formed by tracking the body movements during yogic postures. Inspired from Indian Yogic Science, we have visually depicted aspects of light, matter and energy in our forms. The generative nature of the visual comes from the digital juxtaposition of the poses that the body generates with each pose.

ShenZhen Science Technology Museum
A cascade of terraces will frame a large atrium at the heart of the Shenzhen Science & Technology Museum that Zaha Hadid Architects is developing in China. Slated for completion in late 2023, the pebble-shaped museum will encompass 125,000-square-metres and contain a mix of public spaces, galleries and educational facilities. It has been designed by Zaha Hadid Architects as a landmark for Shenzhen’s new Guangming Science City – a masterplan intended to establish the city as a hub for innovation.

Defence Cascade
In the installation inflated silicone forms are suspended amidst an austere metal structure, and are prodded by automated rods. Set to contrastingly beautiful music by composer Alex Mills, which is punctuated by the industrial sounds of the mechanised device, the art work looks like a science experiment, or some kind of torture device, and you may find yourself anthropomorphising the poor, inflated bags which are at the mercy of their mechanical environment.

Give my Creation… Life!
Give my creation… Life! Is a project which links Art, Science and Technology. It is based on the generation of energy through the heart beating, with the aim of granting autonomy to a machine. During the research of this subversive goal, multiple issues have been addressed, such as the extension of a removed organ´s life, its artificial feeding of nutrients and its use as a source of natural energy, among others.

Zoryas
Six formes reposent au centre d’un grand disque plat. L’une rappelle les morceaux de silice amorphe produits par l’impact de la foudre sur le sable, les autres semblent pareilles à des méduses, coraux ou algues qui peupleraient des fonds marins dont on ne sait rien. Chacune d’elle est emplie d’une matière-énergie de teinte et de structure à nulle autre égale. Les six formes sont toutes différentes mais elles appartiennent sans aucun doute à la même classe d’objet, la même catégorie de choses. Aux physiciens, elles rappellent les tubes utilisés par Heinrich Geissler pour expérimenter sur le comportement de certains gaz lorsqu’ils sont traversés par des courants électriques. A ceux qui fréquentent les boutiques des musées de sciences, elles rappellent les globes luminescents qui réagissent aux toucher. Aux explorateur des hautes latitudes, elles rappellent les aurores boréales. Elles sont à la fois tout cela et rien de cela.

ROBOTICS
Robotics is the art and commerce of robots, their design, manufacture, application, and practical use. Robots will soon be everywhere, in our home and at work. They will change the way we live. This will raise many philosophical, social, and political questions that will have to be answered. In science fiction, robots become so intelligent that they decide to take over the world because humans are deemed inferior. In real life, however, they might not choose to do that. Robots might follow rules such as Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, that will prevent them from doing so. When the Singularity happens, robots will be indistinguishable from human beings and some people may become Cyborgs: half man and half machine.

Vanitas Machine

The installation VANITAS MACHINE addresses the desire for eternal life and the potential of life-prolonging measures. Based on a candle which – by means of technical intervention – burns down very slowly, vanitas machine creates a contemporary analogy to the endeavour of prolonging the human lifespan with the help of science and technology.Being one of the classical vanitas symbols, a burning candle recalls the futility of the moment, the transience of human life and the certainty of the end of all existence. But is this end really still inevitable?In the course of the last two centuries, average human life expectancy has increased significantly in the industrialised countries. Moreover, in the context of scientific research the biological causes of ageing are being explored. Numerous theories of aging have already been developed pointing both towards physiological as well as environmental factors.One of the first theories of ageing was the so-called »metabolism theory«, which claims that the lifespan of organisms is reciprocally related to energy turnover and therefore connected to calorie intake, oxygen consumption and heart rate: The higher the metabolic rate, the shorter the lifespan of the organism.

Chijikinkutsu
“Chijikinkutsu” is a coinage, specially created for the title of this work by mingling two Japanese words: “Chijiki” and “Suikinkutsu”.”Chijiki” means geomagnetism: terrestrial magnetic properties that cannot be sensed by the human body but that exists everywhere on earth. Since long before the Age of Discovery, people have traveled with navigation using compasses employing geomagnetism. In recent years, various devises that utilize geomagnetism have even been incorporated into smartphones[…] “Suikinkutsu” is a sound installation for a Japanese traditional garden, invented in the Edo period. The sounds of water drops falling into an earthenware pot buried under a stone wash basin resonate through hollow bamboo utensils. The concept of the work “Chijikinkutsu” does not derive from experimentalism of science and technology on which media arts rely, nor from architectural theory of western music upon which some sound arts lay their foundation. While utilizing the action of geomagnetism normally treated as a subject of science, this sound installation expands the subtle sounds of “Suikinkutsu” in the context of Japanese perspective on Nature.

ladder kite
Tom’s spectacular kites, produced in the mid-1970s, remain astonishing. His trampoline train has fostered newer renditions, and his large centipede and Concorde delta were both larger-than-life. Tom is known to both the science and art communities, combining state of the art technology and media to create world famous sculptures of both large and small scale.