Needle Tower
“Inspired by architect Buckminster Fuller’s interest in the geometry of structure, Snelson’s experiments led to a prototype for a “floating compression structure.” Fuller subsequently credited Snelson with having invented a new structural principle which the architect named tensegrity, a contraction of the words tension and integrity.
These investigations into the physical properties of structure became more fully realized as an art form beginning in the 1950s. Snelson created sculptures consisting of tubes and cables. Cylinders of steel seemingly dance through space in defiance of gravity, yet it is the structural competition between tension and compression which underlies their construction. Snelson finds beauty in bringing these forces of nature into balance: the rigid compression tubes pushing outward, the flexible tension cables pulling inward. His sculptures would maintain their structural integrity beyond gravity, in the vacuum of outer space.” Joelle Burrows

田中功起
Everything is Everything

The eight-channel video installation, Everything is Everything, was created for the first time to be shown at the 2006 Taipei Biennial, curated by Dan Cameron. For this work, the artist and two assistants spent a total of eight days recording their interactions and interventions with readily available items, including hangers, glasses, towels, air mattresses and toilet paper, all found in the city of Taipei. The physical properties of these objects have been tested (a metal hanger is stretched to the breaking point) or their uses have been expanded (a level placed on two table legs becomes an improvised obstacle). Tanaka and his assistants experimented with these objects several times indoors and in public, and their explorations were compiled into eight separate video loops lasting from 1:19 to 1:50 minutes. Tanaka’s narrowly cut frame of each scene often features performers from the neck down or removes them completely from the scene, thus focusing the viewer’s attention on the simple, repetitive objects and acts being performed.

THE LONG NOW
A soap bubble usually remains stable for only a few moments – it is a perfectly formed sphere with an iridescent surface that reflects its surroundings. As one of the classical vanitas symbols the soap bubble traditionally stands for the transience of the moment and the fragility of life. THE LONG NOW approaches the soap bubble from a contemporary perspective – with reference to its chemical and physical properties as well as recent scientific and technological developments. THE LONG NOW is aimed at extending the lifespan of a soap bubble, or even to preserve it forever. Using an improved formula, a machine generates a bubble, sends it to a chamber with a controlled atmosphere and keeps it there in suspension for as long as possible. The project is presented in the form of an experimental set-up in which the newly created soap bubble oscillates permanently between fragility and stability.

In the 11th century, an English monk named Eilmer believed that the secret of flight was metaphysical. Prayer not science would enable him to fly. Eilmer thought that wings were useful only as mystical tools. Their physical properties were irrelevant. When Eilmer’s wings and prayers helped him believe he could fly, Eilmer leapt from the top of Malmesbury Abbey. Eilmer flew for more than a furlong… but then he crashed. He was crippled for the rest of his life.

Concrete Storm
On first impression, visitors experience solid forms, which draw on minimalist motifs and underscore the stable properties of concrete. While wearing the HoloLens, viewers enter a mixed reality, enlivened by responsive holograms that augment the physical environment of the installation. With Concrete Storm, DRIFT explores the layer between the parallel worlds, whereby the real and the virtual worlds co-exist. People’s attention is now constantly divided between these two worlds in which they coexist. The artists believe that combining these two seemingly separate worlds they can study the unlimited possibilities of the unstoppable evolution. Concrete Storm expands the boundaries of the digital world, freed from screens, and integrated into the fabric of physical existence.

Coworo
Coworo is an installation with a shape changing liquid that loses its texture under a spotlight and looks almost solid. After a while, bubbles appear on the surface and disappear again, as if it were breathing. The waves gradually change their size, position, and frequency and develop into physical, continual, kinetic, three-dimensional animations that extend beyond the discrete 2D pixel pattern. Through the hybrid combination of the digitally programmed machine and the organic properties of the physical material, the object creates a constant flux of ephemeral shapes and patterns.

Morphosis
Morphosis uses artificial neural networks to create morphing images of scale. The system explores how natural structures from the most tiny to the most huge, share aesthetic properties, as recognized by the trained network, and recreated in continuous flowing sequence via these connections. It’s a study of the seemingly infinite nature of space and natural physical structure, which can loop back on itself to give endless visual exploration and variation.

Эмили Мотто
My Cell
I make playful sculptures that perform and evolve throughout, and beyond, my creation – especially in terms of their shape, and the physicality of the unstable materials that I build them from. When creating parasites I was inspired by how the materials I made and used fed off each other’s properties; the net, dough and string of my recent sculpture series structurally supporting each other, and these responses creating new, and often quite fragile, forms

SIKKA MAGNUM
File Festival
Sikka is a sculptural video installation constructed from 360 used DVDs. This multi-thematic piece was inspired by “sikka”, the gold coins sewn to clothing dating back to Babylonic times that eventually became the shiny plastic objects we know today as sequins. By projecting the contents of the DVDs back onto their surfaces the artist continues to investigate both new uses for discarded objects as well as his interest in combining the phantasmagorical properties of cinema with its physical elements. In this case, film segments were selected from each of the DVDs for their color, shape and movement value, forming a digital palette from which the final projected loops were constructed. The accompanying self-generated soundtrack is the resulting “accidental composition” created by layering the soundtracks from the actual segments being projected. The final effect is that of an audio-visual mosaic. Historically, sikka were worn to remind onlookers of the wealth and power of those wearing them while also evoking the light of the divine. Similarly, the surfaces of the DVDs flash back at us images born from the glamorous world of Hollywood where image is converted to a kind of currency.