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QUBIT AI: Marc Vilanova

Shell of

FILE 2024 | Installations
International Electronic Language Festival
Marc Vilanova – Cascade – Spain

Waterfalls are a continuous source of infrasonic frequency found in nature. Although inaudible to humans, they play a crucial role in ecosystems, especially for migratory birds who use them as a compass. However, many waterfalls have lost their frequencies due to climate change. The work creates an immersive experience in which the audience interacts with the visualization of sound waves, experiencing the vibration of sound through illuminated strings.

Bio

Marc Vilanova is a sound and visual artist who works at the intersection of art, science and nature. Vilanova’s artistic production has always been led by a spirit of innovation fueled by an interest in new media. His practice combines sound/light installations, performance, and sculpture.

Credits

This work was partially carried out within the scope of the EMAP program at gnration, with the support of the Creative Europe Culture Programme, the Avatar Center in Quebec City and the Ramon Llull Institute.

Photo:
Eloise Coomber

QUBIT AI: Leilanni Todd

Floating

FILE 2024 | Aesthetic Synthetics
International Electronic Language Festival
Leilanni Todd – Floating – United States

Floating explores the concept of surrendering and freeing oneself by allowing oneself to float, symbolizing overcoming adversity and mastering self-confidence. Inspired by her grandmother’s journey to overcome her fear of water through swimming, the work uses water and sea creatures as symbols of resilience and transformation. The personal narrative behind the work adds depth to its exploration of overcoming fears and discovering inner strength.

Bio

Leilanni Todd is an award-winning creative director with extensive experience in advertising, fashion and new media. Originally from Toronto and now based in New York, she harmoniously integrates art, technology and culture into her work. Through her FLOAM WORLD platform, Leilanni creates surreal narratives, reimagines traditional norms in fashion and advertising, and addresses complex human issues with humor and creativity.

Soichiro Mihara

三原 聡一郎
The Blank to Overcome
file festival
Part of the ”blank” project that the artist has been creating since 2011, “The Blank to Overcome” utilizes air pumps, power supply control circuitry, water, solution, glycerin, ethanol and electricity to produce bubbles in the air. The theme of ”blanks” denotes a space for an unsolved ”inquiry” through the perspectives for thinking about the post-3.11 present: how the bubbles are always shifting as a giant cluster, almost without mass or structure, and the facing up to this; and the framework since modernity that has prescribed society, and the ”involved” or the ”other”. From this work debate will surely emerge.

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克服するための空白

アーティストが2011年から作成している「ブランク」プロジェクトの一部である「TheBlankto Overcome」は、エアポンプ、電源制御回路、水、溶液、グリセリン、エタノール、電気を利用して空気中に気泡を生成します。 「空白」のテーマは、3.11以降の現在について考えるための視点を通して、未解決の「問い合わせ」のためのスペースを示しています。泡は、ほとんど質量や構造がなく、巨大なクラスターとして常にシフトしており、これに直面しています。 ; そして、社会を規定してきた近代以来の枠組み、そして「関与する」または「その他」。 この仕事から議論が確実に浮かび上がるでしょう。

ポンプ

Kris Verdonck

IN
In IN (2003) an actress remains motionless for an hour in a display window filled with water. The distortion to her senses caused by the environment she is in makes her go into a trance. The sounds of her breathing and movement are amplified by microphones.

Unit9

Water Made Active
Onze op maat gemaakte “regeninstallatie” druppelde water in volledige volgorde en harmonie. Het reconstrueerde de figuur van een echte atleet in een vloeibare animatie. Elke unit bevatte 64 liter water, met 8 units tegelijk. Dit betekende dat we een halve ton water gebruikten om het hele systeem bij elkaar te brengen. Om het waterkarakter levensecht te maken, hebben we een menselijke atleet in beweging vastgelegd die rent, springt en kickboksen. Vervolgens vertelden gegevens van de bewegingsregistratie het waterplatform wanneer de sproeiers aan en uit moesten worden gezet. De waterdruppels gingen aan en uit met een reeks van 2048 schakelaars. Het team gebruikte flitslicht om de waterdruppels in de lucht te verlichten en “op te hangen”. Dit betekende dat elk frame een nauwkeurigheid van millimeters en microseconden had. Als resultaat hebben we in slechts een microseconde een hele laag  door het hele systeem gestuurd.

A’strict

Waterfall-NYC
기존의 끝이 없는 광고 환경에서 탈피하여, 타임스퀘어 방문객들은 주변 시청자에게 디지털 아트를 제공하기 위한 두 한국 회사의 파트너십의 일환으로 초현실적인 파도와 100미터가 넘는 계단식 폭포가 있는 디지털 바다로 옮겨졌습니다. 세계. 삼성의 세계 최고의 디스플레이 기술과 디스트릭트의 혁신적인 공간 기반 사용자 경험을 결합한 Waterfall-NYC(2021)는 삼성이 디지털 아트 세계에 대한 관심을 높임에 따라 더 큰 협업의 일부입니다. 두 회사는 고객과 시청자에게 중요한 정보를 제공하는 동시에 더 많은 디지털 아트워크를 선보일 삼성 스마트 LED 사이니지를 위한 다양한 콘텐츠를 개발하기 위해 지속적으로 협력하고 있습니다.

Jakob Kudsk Steensen

Liminal Lands
Liminal Lands is an environmental multiplayer experience shared by four people at the same time. Each person transforms into the basic elements controlling life across the landscape: Algae, salt, water and mud. As they embark on a communal ritual experience, people morph and change throughout their journey, exploring each new world from a changed perspective of the landscape. Visitors move across different scales and global weather conditions, shedding their human perspective as they are pulled into six different realms inspired by the macro-landscape.

Tromarama

Solaris
olaris 2020 is een led-gordijn ter grootte van een muurschildering die een spectaculair, lichtgevend ecosysteem afschermt dat bevolkt is met bloemen van kwallen. Gemaakt met een computerprogramma dat vaak wordt gebruikt in videogameplatforms, presenteert de screening een digitale simulatie van een unieke mariene omgeving – een geheel door land omgeven lichaam van zout en regenwater dat meer dan 11.000 jaar geleden is gevormd, gelegen voor de kust van Kalimantan, Indonesië. Deze kwallensoorten zijn vrij van roofdieren en kunnen gedijen in warme wateren. Ze hebben zich anders ontwikkeld, waardoor wetenschappelijke gemeenschappen een levend laboratorium hebben voor het bestuderen van de mogelijke effecten die klimaatverandering kan hebben op mariene systemen.

jamall osterholm

PINK
I explored the concept of a wearable that is either on or around the body and revisited a look that I had designed in a previous collection based on the concept of a 1920’s underwater invention.

Ned Kahn

Cloud Arbor
A 20-foot diameter sphere of fog forms inside a forest of stainless steel poles. High-pressure fog nozzles embedded in the 30-foot tall poles convert water into a cloud that appears and vanishes every few minutes. A collaboration with landscape architect Andi Cochran and the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum. Completed in 2012.

ALEXANDER PONOMAREV

База

Объект «База» реализован во время работы художника по приглашению Министерства культуры Франции в ателье Кольдера в городе Саше. Девятиметровая горизонтальная труба, заполненная водой, образует тоннель для движения черной подводной лодки, которая, двигаясь по принципу троллейбуса, улавливается в крайних точках специальным устройством. Приподнимаясь над водой, на пропеллерах лодка поворачивается в обратную сторону и подобно хамелеону изменяет свою окраску, превращаясь в разноцветную и красивую. После погружения в воду лодка опять чернеет и стремительно продолжает движение

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Base

Object “Base” was realized during the artist’s work at the invitation of the Ministry of Culture of France in the atelier Colder in the city of Sachet. A nine-meter horizontal pipe, filled with water, forms a tunnel for the movement of a black submarine, which, moving according to the principle of a trolleybus, is caught at the extreme points by a special device. Rising above the water, on the propellers, the boat turns in the opposite direction and, like a chameleon, changes its color, turning into a multi-colored and beautiful one. After immersion in the water, the boat turns black again and continues to move rapidly

BILL VIOLA

The Raft
The Raft depicts at life-sized scale a group of ordinary people casually standing together. Suddenly, they are struck by strong blasts of water that rush in, overtake them, and then, just as unexpectedly, recede. In the aftermath of the deluge, the victims huddle together, seek protection, and help those who have fallen. The viewer experiences this event in an immersive setting, standing in a darkened room and surrounded by the roaring sounds of the water. Meticulously captured in slow-motion, The Raft arouses a visceral experience of human calamity and shared humanity, provoking a consideration of the range of responses to crisis.

DOUG AITKEN

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.

LIN HWAI-MIN

White Water and Dust
White Water and Dust, a rare double bill by the internationally renowned choreographer Lin Hwai-min, brings great intensity of contrast between the two works. While White Water, set to piano music by Erik Satie, flows like a movable celebration of life, Dust, to a powerful rendering of Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8, evokes a memory of Goya’s Black Paintings.

JAMES CASEBERE

Am Wasserrand
Das Interesse an Architektur und Leben an der Küste veranlasste Casebere, das Projekt zu entwickeln, das eine Folge einer Reihe von Bildern ist, die er 2016 auf der Grundlage der Gebäude von Luis Barragán erstellt hat. Casebere hat die Serie mit dem Titel On the Water’s Edge erstellt, um auf Probleme im Zusammenhang mit dem Klimawandel und insbesondere auf die Notwendigkeit aufmerksam zu machen, dass Menschen kreativ auf die Bedrohung durch den Anstieg des Meeresspiegels reagieren müssen.

Ujoo+limheeyoung

Fountain with Red
Stainless steel, water pump, red liquid, urethane paint. Ujoo+limheeyoung is the husband and wife team of media artists Ujoo and Limheeyoung. Since first working together in 2004 in preparation for design competition, they have been involved in projects that use a variety of means of visual expression – kinect expression sculpture, drawings, real-time interactive videos – to address the theme of absurdity of reality.

VTOL

Until I die
This installation operates on unique batteries that generate electricity using my blood. The electric current produced by the batteries powers a small electronic algorithmic synth module. This module creates generative sound composition that plays via a small speaker. The blood used in the installation was stored up gradually over 18 months. The conservation included a number of manipulations to preserve the blood’s chemical composition, color, homogeneity and sterility to avoid bacterial contamination. The total amount of blood conserved was around 4.5 liters; it was then diluted to yield 7 liters, the amount required for the installation. The blood was diluted with distilled water and preservatives such as sodium citrate, antibiotics, antifungal agents, glucose, glycerol etc. The last portion of blood (200ml) was drawn from my arm during the performance presentation, shortly before the launch of the installation.

Jennifer Steinkamp

EON
“I considered the first life forms on Earth and how we came to be as a way to refer to the Natural Sciences. I looked at fossil records of the first multi cellular organisms of the Ediacaran Period, 555 million years ago for inspiration. I was struck by the theory of symbiosis in evolution; our DNA ancestors are the resultant fusion of single cellular organisms and bacteria. The millions of bacteria in our bodies are our foremothers. EON is a speculative fiction, a depiction of early life forms underwater. The Universe was formed 13.7 billion years ago. The Earth is 4.543 billion years old. Cyanobacteria or blue-green algae were the first microbes to create oxygen on Earth via photosynthesis 3.5 billion years ago. First humans 200,000-300,000 years ago.” Jennifer Steinkamp

Stephen Hilyard

Waterfall
video art
FILE FESTIVAL
Waterfall presents the viewer with a single static shot of a majestic waterfall. Over the course of the piece a number of diminutive figures walk slowly into the shot on the gravel bar at the bottom of the falls. They have come to pay their respects to the waterfall, we might call them pilgrims – we might call them tourists. Their slow-motion performances appear to be a mixture of the comedic and the devout.

Philipp Artus

FLORA 2

The animation in FLORA is generated by overlapping sine waves that travel through a string of lines. This wave principle often appears in nature when energy is transmitted through a medium like water, air or simply a rope. It can also be observed in the locomotion of animals and human-beings, in which kinetic energy is transmitted successively through joints.
The FLORA algorithm of is based on the discovery that a simple system of rotating lines can create endless variations of abstract shapes – ranging from curved harmonious lines to edgy and chaotic patterns. The resulting aesthetics combine computational accuracy with an organic playfulness, and tend to trigger diverse associations in the mind of the viewer.

FILE FESTIVAL
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FKA TWIGS

water me
The English Tahliah Debrett Barnett, born on January 16, 1988 and a descendant of Jamaicans and Spaniards, began to gain space in the music scene at the age of 17 as a dancer, appearing in music videos by artists such as Jessie J, Ed Sheeran and Kylie Minogue. Using the stage name of Twigs, in 2012 she released ‘EP1’ on the Bandcamp website, an EP with four tracks.
Due to the existence of another artist with the name Twigs, she changed it to FKA twigs. FKA is an abbreviation for the English expression “Formerly Known As”, which in free translation is “formerly known as”.
In August 2013, Twigs released the video for her first single, “Water Me”, on YouTube.[27] The video was directed by Jesse Kanda.

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Heatherwick Studio

Zeitz MOCAA
The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa

Heatherwick Studio au inaugurat în data de 22 septembrie 2017 un nou Muzeu de Artă Contem­porană în Africa de Sud – Zeitz MOCAA. Muzeul este amplasat în Cape Town în lungul celebrului V&A Waterfront. Frontul la apă, denumit cu sens istoric Victoria and Albe­­­rt, atrage zilnic peste 100 000 de oameni. Este amplasat la baza Muntelui Table, în golful natural al fostului port istoric, beneficiind de o deschidere superbă spre ocean, pe de o parte, şi spre vârfurile muntoase, pe de alta.

TORAFU ARCHITECTS

minamo
The MINAMO is a space which embodies TOTO’s concept of “cherishing water”. Created by TORAFU ARCHITECTS for Tokyo Designers Week 2011, it lets you feel the shimmer and beauty of water. It is an exhibition booth that uses no water yet interactively gives visitors the sense of the surface of water (minamo).

Iris Van Herpen

АЙРИС ВАН ЭРПЕН
イリス ヴァン ヘルペン
FALL 2017
AERIFORM

‘Aeriform’ examines the nature and anatomy of air and the idea of airborne materiality and lightness, creating negative and positive space with shadow and light. Van Herpen also drew inspiration from the Danish underwater artists Between Music who challenge the relationship between the body and its elemental surround, in a subaquatic environment where air is absent.

Lina Ghotmeh

Light in Water Installation
‘Light in Water’ is a site-specific installation intended to provide an immersive and emotional experience. It was previously presented at Milan Design Week 2011. The installation took advantage of the unique status of the venue – one of the oldest concrete domes in Paris. The installation was thus adapted to the circular form of the space, defining the inner sanctuary as a ‘place to be’ and an outer area as a space for a bystander. There are sixteen rings of slotted tubes on the ceiling. From each hole, 60 drops of water fall every minute; in total 3 tons of water circulate in the space. The LED lights vibrate between on and off, with frequencies ranging from the shortest interval possible, at 7μs, allowing the viewer to materialise a point of light in water, up to 6000μs, where light becomes the line of water.

james casebere

on the water edge

bright yellow house on water

An interest in architecture and coastal living led Casebere to develop the project, which is a follow up to a set of images he created in 2016 based on the buildings of Luis Barragán. Casebere created the series titled On the Water’s Edge to draw attention to issues relating to climate change and, in particular, the need for humans to respond creatively to the threat posed by rising sea levels.

 

Chen Qi

The Overall Effect of Flying with the Wind
Chen Qi has applied watermarked prints, woodcuts, books, installations, videos and other various media in his “Notations of Time” of 2010. In his new creations, he continues his exploration into “time”, “life”, “existence” and other basic issues with his off-screen language. Thus, his “Flying with the Wind” can be taken as an extension of his general concept of “Notation of Time”, as well as being closely related to his water-based printmaking which is a continuation of the infatuation with the traces of objects from Chinese wash paintings and the ink rubbings of ancient stele inscriptions.

Jeppe Hein

杰普·海因
ЙЕППЕ ХАЙН
ЈЕПЕ ХЕИН
Please touch the art
Brooklyn park NYC
celebrated for engaging audiences in seas of sculptural, inventive and whimsical works, danish artist jeppe hein brings a series of participatory installations to new york city, situated around the waterfront brooklyn bridge park. from now until april 17, 2016, public art fund presents ‘please touch the art’, an exhibition of 18 interactive sculptures including ‘social’ benches, rooms made of jetting water, and a dizzying mirror maze.

Jason Middlebrook

Джейсон Миддлбрук
Falling Water

[…] Middlebrook’s work consistently references art-historical traditions, styles, and movements. For instance, his sculptures crafted from hardwood planks, which he began in 2008 after relocating from New York City to Hudson, New York, feature painted abstractions. They are collisions of nature, art-making, and history that exemplify the artist’s approach.

Zhu Pei and UNRBANUS

Digital Beijing
The Digital Beijing building begins to explore what will occur in the digital epoch. The building served as the control and data centre for the 2008 Olympics. The concept for Digital Beijing was developed through reconsideration and reflection on the role of contemporary architecture in the information era. Resembling that omnipresent symbol, the bar code, the building emerges from a serene water surface. The façade itself is detailed to resemble an integrated circuit board.

BERNIE LUBELL

Conservation of Intimacy

Made of pine, latex, music wire, copper, nylon line, paper, pens and video surveillance. It measured 20′ x 35′ x 26′ at Southern Exposdure.
A couple rocking on the bench sends air pulses to another room causing balls to move and pens to transcribe their motions onto paper. The paper is moved by a third person on a stationary bike. The couple on the bench can watch the balls on a video monitor before them where the balls appear to bounce into the air. The motion is delayed and languid as though under water. Action is best when the couple is moving slowly together. As visitors work together to animate the mechanisms, they create a theatre for themselves and each other. By encouraging participation, and touch the pieces coax visitors to engage their bodies as well as their minds. The way that pieces move and feel and sound as you rock them, pedal, crank and press against them applies the kinesthetic comprehension’s of childhood to the tasks of philosophy. Bernie Lubell’s interactive installations have evolved from his studies in both psychology and engineering. As participants play with his whimsical wood machines, they become actors in a theater of their own imagining.

FIONA TAN

פיונה טאן
フィオナ·タン
Фиона Тан
فيونا تان
Rise and Fall
Fiona Tan explores storytelling, memory, and the part they play in the formation of identity throughout this exhibition of five video installations, various associated sketches and one single-channel video. Rise and Fall (2009), elongated projections onto two large, side-by-side screens, is a wordless meditation, set to music, of a woman no longer young but still conscious of her looks; she was clearly a beauty in her youth. As the video proceeds we gather that the young woman pictured on the second screen is the memory of her younger self. They often move through domestic activities (sleeping, bathing, dressing) in parallel; this is inter-cut with scenes of violently rushing water (shot at Niagra Falls, it turns out). It’s a hackneyed metaphor – the water’s endless surging as an image of time’s relentless uni-directionality – but in Tan’s hands that doesn’t seem to matter; she creates extraordinarily emotional work out of simple stories and well-worn themes.

HEATHERWICK STUDIO

Zeitz MOCCA
V&A Waterfront and Jochen Zeitz have announced a unique partnership to create a major new cultural institution that will focus on collecting, preserving, researching, and exhibiting contemporary art from Africa. An addition to Cape Town’s already prestigious V&AWaterfront, the museum is scheduled to be completed in 2016, at which point it will assume its place as the largest museum of modern art on the continent. In the meantime, the Zeitz MOCCA Pavilian presents changing exhibitions and educational programs that are available throughout the year.

jaesik lim, ahyoung lee, jaeyeol kim and taegu lim

clear orb

“The sustainable architectural culture that aspires the coexistence of human, nature and the architecture itself” is a core value of Heerim Architects and Planners in South Korea, the team behind a sparkling orb designed for Santa Monica Pier. A finalist in the biennial site-specific 2016 Land Art Generator Initiative design competition, which promotes the uptake of energy-generating public art that informs, delights, and uplifts communities and visitors, The Clear Orb reveals a playful approach to holistic design. Using transparent luminescent solar concentrators, the installation is purportedly capable of producing up to half-a-million gallons of fresh water each year for California.

Peter Flemming

Canoe
The work here in Dawson is like an old vehicle in which I’ve put a new engine. Entitled Canoe, it consists of an approximately 20 foot long trough of water, that resembles some kind of boat. This provides a means for a gunwales tracking mechanism to slowly, endlessly paddle its way back and forth. It was first constructed in 2001 in a studio beside Halifax harbour. It draws visual inspiration from the bridges and water vessels of this port. Conceptually, it grew from an interest in technological obsolescence: how things (like canoes) make shifts from utility to leisure.
It has experienced several major rebuilds since 2001. Most of them have been practical, but for Dawson I’ve opted for an experimental configuration that changes significantly the nature of the work. Previously, Canoe has only ever been shown indoors. Normally in runs on rechargeable batteries, with a continuous, smooth motion. In Dawson, it is shown outdoors, alongside the Yukon river, showing up in an absurd way the paleness of its artificial river. Here, the primary source of power is sunlight.
Making use of the long northern day, solar panels receive light, storing energy in an array of super-capacitor cells. At this time, Canoe remains still. A custom circuit monitors the amount of charge, and when a predetermined trigger point is reached, it is dumped into Canoe’s electric motor in a burst, allowing it to make a few strokes. Then Canoe rests, while the charging cycle begins again. Motion is intermittent, entirely dependent on the amount and intensity of sunlight. It ranges from near standstill in overcast conditions to perhaps 1 or 2 strokes every minute in full light. The technical term for this type of circuit is a relaxation oscillator. I like this term because, if you remove it from its technical context, it points back to ideas about leisure and utility.

james turrell

جيمس توريل
詹姆斯·特瑞尔
ג’יימס טורל
ジェームズ·タレル
설치작품 제임스 터렐
ДЖЕЙМСА ТАРРЕЛЛА
stone sky
2005-Calistoga, California
Turrell was commissioned to create this piece in the heart of Napa Valley in California. It features an infinity pool that stretches out toward the valley floor beyond. One cool thing to note is that by swimming underwater at the end of the pool, you can surface within the cube and there is a teak-lined Sky Space inside.

Elizabeth Ogilvie

the liquid room

Elizabeth Ogilvie is a Scottish artist who uses water as a medium and as a research focus. Water is the obsession which returns in most of her works and it becomes experience through the use of installations and videos. Her work embraces universal and timeless concerns, offering her public an innocent pleasure and at the same time underlining philosophical and ecological issues.
Through her installations, the artist isolates water inside an artificial state, creating a process which highlights its fundamental qualities in order to return to its place of origin which is the natural habitat. Among her most important works there is Liquid Room realized in 2002. Inside a derelict warehouse the artist created basins with water which were crossed by a footbridge. By linking art, architecture and science, she realized an interactive installation where the visitor, walking on the footbridge, can touch the water, whose movement is reflected on the walls of the installation. In 2006 she created Bodies of Water, whose operation took over from her previous work.
Once again, through a series of installations, the public was able to share the experience of sensorial involvement within an environment dominated by water.

KATHARINA UNGER

Катарины Унгер
FARM 432 : INSECT BREEDING

By 2050 meat production will have to increase by 50%. Considering that we already use one third of croplands for the production of animal feed, we will have to look for alternative food sources and alternative ways of growing it.Farm 432 enables people to turn against the dysfunctional system of current meat production by growing their own protein source at home. After 432 hours, 1 gram of black soldier fly eggs turn into 2.4 kilogram of larvae protein, larvae that self-harvest and fall clean and ready to eat into a harvest bucket.This scenario creates not only a more sustainable future of food production, but suggests new lifestyles and food cultures.Black soldier fly adults don´t eat, the larvae can be fed on bio waste, therefore the production almost costs no water or CO2. Black soldier fly larvae are one of the most efficient protein converters in insects, containing up to 42% of protein, a lot of calcium and amino acids.

SUNYUAN & PENGYU

孙原和彭禹
ВС Юань и Пэн Юй
Old persons home
Sun was born in Beijing and Peng in Heilongjiang. Sun and Peng are contemporary conceptual artists whose work has a reputation for being confrontational – they have previously used live animals in their installations. As their contribution to the 2005 Venice Biennale, the duo invited Chinese farmer Du Wenda to present his home-made UFO at the Chinese Pavilion. They won the Contemporary Chinese Art Award in 2001. Their 2009 solo exhibition, “Freedom”, at Tang Contemporary in Beijing, was seen by some critics as a memorial to the Tiananmen Square incident. The installation featured a large fire-hose hooked to a chain that erupted water spray at a distance of 120 meters.

DILLER + SCOFIDIO

The Blur Building (an architecture of atmosphere)
The Blur Building is a media pavilion for Swiss EXPO 2002 at the base of Lake Neuchatel in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland.From piles in the water, a tensegrity system of rectilinear struts and diagonal rods cantilevers out over the lake. Ramps and walkways weave through the tensegrity system, some of them providing a counterweight for the structure. The form is based on the work of Buckminster Fuller.The pavilion is made of filtered lake water shot as a fine mist through 13,000 fog nozzles creating an artificial cloud that measures 300 feet wide by 200 feet deep by 65 feet high. A built-in weather station controls fog output in response to shifting climatic conditions such as temperature, humidity, wind direction, and wind speed.The public can approach Blur via a ramped bridge. The 400 foot long ramp deposits visitors at the center of the fog mass onto a large open-air platform where movement is unregulated. Visual and acoustical references are erased along the journey toward the fog leaving only an optical “white-out” and the “white-noise” of pulsing water nozzles. Prior to entering the cloud, each visitor responds to a questionnaire/character profile and receives a “braincoat” (smart raincoat). The coat is used as protection from the wet environment and storage of the personality data for communication with the cloud’s computer network. Using tracking and location technologies, each visitor’s position can be identified and their character profiles compared to any other visitor.In the Glass Box, a space surrounded by glass on six sides, visitors experience a “sense of physical suspension only heightened by an occasional opening in the fog.” As visitors pass one another, their coats compare profiles and change color indicating the degree of attraction or repulsion, much like an involuntary blush – red for affinity, green for antipathy. The system allows interaction among 400 visitors at any time.Visitors can climb another level to the Angel Bar at the summit. The final ascent resembles the sensation of flight as one pierces through the cloud layer to the open sky. Here, visitors relax, take in the view, and choose from a large selection of commercial waters, municipal waters from world capitals, and glacial waters. At night, the fog will function as a dynamic and thick video screen.