highlike

ÖYVIND FAHLSTRÖM

The Little General Pinball Machine
“One of the most memorable pieces in the 1997 Documenta X was Öyvind Fahlström’s The Little General (Pinball Machine), 1967. Resembling a raised indoor swimming pool with some two dozen movable parts spread out across its shimmering Plexiglas surface, the thirty-year-old “variable” sculpture radiated a visual audacity that made much of the current work around it pale by comparison. Ersatz scoring cues brushed up against cutouts of historical and pop-culture figures, who in turn seemed to jostle dismembered cartoon limbs and partial anatomies. The cumulative effect was dizzying, as if news, commercials, and cartoons were being broadcast in one overpowering barrage.”Dan Cameron

Strijbos & Van Rijswijk

whispers
Blue lightening discs seem to hang freely in a darkened space. They’re the horns of five more than man-sized ceramic trumpets, arranged in various directions. The white inside is radiated with blacklight, as it turns out when your eyes have adapted to the darkness. The horns transmit words, fragments of sentences, laughter, alternated with noise and a strange crackles and sputters. Each trumpet has it’s own repertory of expressions, of which the meaning is hard to probe. And each has it’s own characteristic sound, due to their difference in length.

KOHN PEDERSEN FOX ASSOCIATES

Yongsan IBD Block H
Inspired by crystalline growth patterns found in nature, the tower’s three tiered wings radiate out from the building’s center. Unlike the design of most Y-type high-rise towers, the design of Block H “steps” each wing asymmetrically so there is a low-wing, a mid-wing and a high-wing. The three wing configuration also enables each apartment to have a corner view from the living space, while maximizing its privacy from the adjacent unit.

Chris Klapper & Patrick Gallagher

Symphony in D Minor

‘Symphony in D Minor’ is an interactive sound and video installation on an epic scale. A thunderstorm contained within a series of large hand cast resin sculptures, each individual form is a unique instrument hanging from the ceiling. Suspended just within reach and activated by touch, the viewer sets the symphony in motion by pushing the forms through the air to trigger the various sound elements of the storm. Sensors relay individual recordings of thunder, lightning, wind and rain with alternating intensities to a full-scale sound system. Acting as both conductor and musician, the viewer creates an evolving composition out of atmospheric sounds, forging an environment that envelops the audience. Housed within each piece are 2 video projectors employing mapping software to evenly fill the surface of the forms. Like giant illuminated pendulums each sculpture radiates video projections that in their dormant state display abstractions of water droplets and slow moving clouds. As the sensors detect movement different ranges initiate more visual elements of the storm. Once activated, the form then shifts to a swirling torrent of clouds.

HUSSEIN CHALAYAN

フセイン·チャラヤン
Чалаян
후세인 샬 라얀
Animatronic Fashion mashup
Furthering his technological trend, Chalayan unveiled the collection entitlledReadings, on screen, eshewing the conventional runway. The dresses themselves are highly structured, creating bold silhouettes from which the laser beams radiate. They are embellished with Swarovski crystals that either deflect the lasers, or take in their light, depending on the angle of the laser. The effect is hauntingly beautiful; where lasers shine directly into Swarovski crystals, they resemble glowing embers, yet where they are deflected the laser beams project into the surrounding space, evoking phantasmagorical new-age sun gods.