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SpY

DATA
In “DATA”, SpY offers a reflection on the rapid and widespread inclusion of algorithms in numerous aspects of our lives. In this audio-visual work, digital abstraction is used to explore and interpret how predictive tools operated through algorithms and artificial intelligence are highly beneficial in terms of aspects such as communication, research and medicine, but can also lead us to lose some of our freedoms if they are not used ethically.
Through this immersive audio-visual format, SpY explores new tools such as the holographic fabrics used to give the graphics an amazing sense of weightlessness. A 15-metre high screen made from this fabric was installed in one of Madrid’s smallest streets between the walls of the buildings.

Robert Breer

Float
The Floats – or floating sculptures – that Robert Breer took up producing again at the end of the 1990s, emerged in 1965. The word “float” meaning something floating – a marker, fishing float or buoy – and which also describes those carnival vehicles whose pretend wheels give them the appearance of floating above the tarmac, enabled Robert Breer to apply this principle to works of a new genre. Primary shapes, neutral colours and, for the most recent, an industrial aspect, the Floats were then made with polystyrene, foam, painted plywood, and, more latterly, out of fibreglass. At first glance, these simple structures appear immobile. In fact, they are moving, imperceptibly, within the space they inhabit. Motorised and on mini-rollers – which raise them slightly above ground, giving them an air of weightlessness – they glide unbeknown to the visitor, following random paths that are interrupted by the slightest obstacle that they encounter.

MAD Architects

Shenzhen Bay Culture Park
“I want to create a surreal atmosphere, so that the people who visit, relax or exercise here have the possibility of engaging in a dialogue with the past and the future. Time and space are dissolved and placed against each other, manifesting a sense of weightlessness, and unrestrained imagination,” Ma Yansong

julius von bismarck

Freedom Table & Democracy Chair
Suspended from the ceiling of the exhibition space, a blue office chair and a simple table each swing in a circular orbit. At times the movement of table and chair is closely aligned, at other times out of sync. Moving in a rhythm of dance-like accompaniment, the two objects seem to have attained weightless freedom.
The table and chair originate from the gallery. Computer-operated motors determine their precise circular paths, which have marginally deferred frequencies.

Tavares Strachan

塔瓦雷斯斯特拉坎
ТАВАРЕС СТРАЧАН
Invisible Astronaut

“This neon and glass sculpture represents the cardiovascular system of astronaut Sally Ride shortly after her return to earth. The human body adapts to periods of prolonged weightlessness. When gravity suddenly returns, the blood pools in the lower extremities, and blood pressure drops. This condition is known as orthostatic intolerance. Hanging upside down can cause blood to pool around the heart, a potentially lethal condition. The awkward position shown above helps blood reach the brain without causing pooling around the heart.”

CHOE U-RAM

チェ·ウラム
Cakra Lamp

CHOE U-RAM’s work engages a fanciful dialog of aesthetics and machinery and explores themes of biological transformation, flight, and movement. In his recent work, large-scale metal and plastic automata materialize with such a delicacy and weightlessness that it seems to take on the shape and silhouette of an organic life form. Motors, heat and light sensitive materials add to the intricacy of Choe’s kinetic sculptures.

SHIRO KURAMATA

倉俣 史朗
glass chair

Shiro Kuramata’s approach to designing objects reflects the atmosphere of innovation in postwar Japan. By 1970, Kuramata had introduced alternative materials such as acrylic and glass into his furniture, which played on traditional ideas of materiality and form.Transparency, the appearance of weightlessness, and a Minimalist vocabulary quickly became his signature aesthetic. In 1976, Kuramata designed Glass Chair. Its reductivist and planar form reflects his interest in geometry as well as the effect of light as it transforms and illuminates the glass. Kuramata, like many of his Japanese contemporaries, looked to Western culture for inspiration. In particular, the sculptures of Donald Judd and Dan Flavin influenced Kuramata’s furniture designs of the 1970s, such as Glass Chair.