James Turrell

Turrell’s minimalistic work heavily involves the examination of light and space. He often uses optical illusion which stems from his undergraduate studies in psychology at Pomona College. Anyone who has interacted with his work knows how sparse, ethereal, and self-examining it can be.

He lives in Arizona.

There is currently an exhibition of his work at his undergraduate alma mater running through May 17, 2008.

Cell Phone Disco

Cell Phone Disco is an interactive art installation that makes visible the electromagnetic field of an active mobile phone. It consists of several thousand sensors each connected to a LED diode which illuminates when said electromagnetic field is present.

The piece is currently touring exhibitions in the United States.

Ursula Lavrencic & Auke Touwslanger, Slovenia & Netherlands based.

They are currently working on the “Cell Phone Organ”.

National Museum of Health and Medicine

Slightly off the beaten path of things to do and see in Washington DC is the National Museum of Health and Medicine. It’s a museum dedicated to the history of medicine and “where the public can actually see the effects of disease on the human body”. It has an awesome array of artifacts including the bullet that ended President Lincolns life, photos of President Garfield’s spine, and many Civil War battle field relics.

6900 Georgia Ave, NW
Washington D.C. 20306

Skullphone over Los Angeles

The now widely known logo for the street artist, Skullphone popped up on digital billboards around Los Angeles last week. This prompted some bloggers to think that he must of hacked into the system of billboards owner, Comcast. Because, you know no self-respecting vandal would pay to get over. But it is obvious that Skullphone paid for the ad space.

Personally I think it was a great idea.

Audium

Audium is a theater pioneering the exploration of space in music. The theater’s 169 speakers bathe listeners in sounds that move past, over, and under them. “Sound sculptures” are performed in total darkness in the 49-seat theater.

1616 Bush Street
San Francisco, Ca 94109

Photoshop Express

Adobe released the public beta version of Photoshop Express today. Being flash based, its contained in-browser with no need to download stuff; and being aimed at the casual photo editor.

I used it this morning, and its pretty good. It has most of the main features from regular photoshop, but doesn’t have an API with flickr so thats a drawback.

I imagine myspace pictures will be upped a notch with this.

Check it out here.

James Brown: Future Shock

In the mid-70’s  the open shirt wearing, mustache having, “dazed” James Brown had a short-lived television show.

It looks like it was totally awesome; what with all the open shirt bell-bottom dance off funk.

I hope somebody will put the series out on DVD soon.

See an extended clip at the WFMU blog.

Penanggalan

The Penanggalan or `Hantu Penanggal` is a peculiar variation of the vampire myth that apparently began in the Malay Peninsula. According to the folklore of that region, the Penanggalan is a detached female head that is capable of flying about on its own. As it flies, the stomach and entrails dangle below it, and these organs twinkle like fireflies as the Penanggalan moves through the night. In Malaysian folklore, a Penanggal may either be a beautiful old or young woman who obtained her beauty through the active use of black magic, supernatural, mystical, or paranormal means which is most commonly described in local folklores to be dark or demonic in nature.

See also the Manannanggal, a similar creature of Filipino folklore.

Tim Davis: My Audience

When I was in college, I had this friend Todd who wanted to start a “band” where we would lip-sinc to prerecorded music and secretly video tape the audiences reaction, and use that footage towards some sort of video art jam. We were too lazy and never saw this idea through to fruition.

Now, Tim Davis (a stellar photographer) has pretty much seen this same idea through. In his series “My Audience” he photographs the audience (or lack of) that come to hear him at various talks and book signings.

Its funny stuff.

see there series here.

Yosuke Yamashita: Burning Piano

March 10, 2008: Jazz pianist Yosuke Yamashita, 66, plays a burning piano on the beach in Shiga, Ishikawa Prefecture. He was showing his appreciation for his old piano that he no longer uses. Yamashita did the same thing once before in 1973.

To see footage from his 1973 “performance” visit his site.