I am going to be offline during the 20+ hours of a trip to Brazil for the arte.mov festival (btw any tips on exhibition to do see in Belo Horizonte and Sao Paulo are more than welcome), i'm going to miss the broadband and wonder why no one has fine tuned teletransportation yet. In the meantime, please, do me a favour and broadsurf for me:

Art Fag City reported the cancellation of the Chelsea Art Museum's exhibition, Dialectics of Terror, and uploaded online the PDF of the catalog of a show that would have been fascinating.

Remember i mentioned the gorgeous catalog of the exhibition Nowhere/Now/Here in the interview i recently did with El Ultimo Grito? The LABoral people have decided to make it available for everyone to download. Scroll down this page and open the PDF. Because they are so generous (or maybe mad?) they distribute another of their latest catalog, Homo Ludens Ludens. Once again, scroll down and enjoy 557 pages about game art, play and contemporary culture.

Let me take you back to the '60s with the catalog of the exhibition Cybernetic Serendipity. Yes, madam!

Talking of which, María Fernández wrote an essay on Gordon Pask: Cybernetic Polymath. That's one of the many texts you can read on new media art magazine a minima.

John Frazer's 1995 book An Evolutionary Architecture can also be yours in a PDF format. The volume traces the experiments in computational architecture going back to the 1960's.

For those of you who haven't downloaded it yet, here's a link to the PDF of 'The Internet of Things. A critique of ambient technology and the all-seeing network of RFID' by Rob van Kranenburg.

I recently found out that Tate has uploaded on you tube dozens of videos of artist interviews, exhibition tours and other contemporary art niceties.

iCI has some charming interviews of artists you might like: Nina Katchadourian, Jim Campbell, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Trevor Paglen, etc. They call it Inside the Studio.

I think that's it for today. See you on the other side of the world!

Steampunk art, fashion, design and mods are seen by some as a reaction to today’s generic, plastic gadgets that all look the same until one gets very, very close - practical yes, pleasing no. So polish up that monocle, bring on the brass and banish cookie-cutter clutter as Steampunk artists find thirteen more ingenious ways to redesign and refashion the world by hijacking hi-tech back to the future (past)!

(image via: Geekologie)

How to take a keyboard from ergonomic to phantasmagoric? Start with an IBM M-15 Ergo Keyboard (shown below), drink one bottle of Absinthe and retire to the laboratory. The result may look a lot like this steampunkified deck commissioned by a young lady seeking to express her unique sense of circa-1879 sensibility.

(image via: Geekologie)

The elegant (and probably very heavy) keyboard features violet-tinted LED lighting, etched brass Acanthus leaf patterns on the sides and a cushy burgundy wrist pad. Smoking jacket and cigarette holder optional.

(image via: The Steampunk Workshop)

Headphone design hasn’t changed much in the past century, with the exception of earbuds and, of course, mass plasticization of components. While light weight is always welcome, cutting out the fat has also meant curbing originality. Not so with the vintage-look headphones created - on a budget, yet - by Steampunk artist Molly “Porkshanks” Friedrich and displayed at the Steampunk Workshop.

(image via: The Steampunk Workshop)

This illustrated tutorial shows how to retrofit & gentrify most any old pair of headphones with modern parts. Classic look outside; classy sound from inside. It’s a great way to bring past and present together without involving a wormhole.

(image via: Nicrosin)

Love it or hate it, the Bluetooth earpiece is here to stay - and it’s looking less futuristic everyday. Should that trend continue, the logical result would be the Steampunk mechanical aural communication device. Though the garish and gearish earpiece above is non-functional and just for show, sooner or later some basement inventor will craft one that will make you look like a Victorian Borg. You WILL be assimilated, so have a spot of tea in the meantime.

(image via: Unplggd)

The cellphone is one of today’s most universal mod cons, and it sure does look it. Granted, phone designers have a small space to work with and a barrage of tech tools to implant within. That’s what makes the Steampunk Cellphone above so special - it dispenses with GPS, texting capability and other things that the average E.T. (English Telecommunicator) wouldn’t phone home with anyway.

(image via: Unplggd)

Arthur Schmitt’s wooden wonder runs, as it were, on punch cards - something this writer hasn’t used since Mr. O’Grady’s math class back in ‘72.

(image via: Modding Forums)

Making a Steampunk Mouse that functions as it should is a much simpler proposition since a mouse is a much simpler device. Even so, the elaborate brass & leather mouse shown above looks as luxurious as a Faberge Egg, and rightly so as it was crafted by a Russian devotee of Steampunk. Or “Stimpank” as the Siberians say.

(image via: Modding Forums)

Filimon, the creator of this mouse-terpiece, administers a forum on “Modding of the outlying devices” that claims to be registered in the USSR - now that’s retro.

(image via: Modding Forums)

The attention to fine detail is unmatched, even down to the braided connecting cord and exquisite USB connector, packed in a custom made faux-gilded box. Putin on the Ritz, indeed!

(image via: Etsy)

Form following function is not the Steampunk way, and the gear-licious pocket watch above is a perfect example. The $43.00 watch is for display only as it’s likely the owner is already wearing a digital ticker on his/her wrist.

(image via: Etsy)

Glass, gears and an optional chain complete the classic look of this very watchable watch. Does the all show, no go nature of the device make one a pretender? It doesn’t matter - now you have Brass In Pocket while listening to it on the radio.

(image via: Time Tapestry)

Vianney Halter makes a variety of industrial styled wristwatches that DO work, even though they often resemble turn of the century pressure gauges more than actual chronometers. The trio of “Antiqua” models above are variations on the same multi-dial theme.

(image via: Time Zone)

Vianney Halter also crafts watches for Harry Winston, with the Opus 3 shown above. Timelessly styled, if we may say, the Opus 3 features a platinum or rose gold case and a 53 jewel movement.

(image via: Nerfnauts)

Flaunting Steampunk regalia may be cool, but it could also have an unwanted side effect - attracting the eyes of covetous have-nots. That’s where the Steampunk Nerf Maverick comes in mighty handy. So what if it only shoots Nerf bullets; nobody wants the business end of this bronzed blunderbuss bearing down on them.

(image via: Frank Buchwald)

Let there be light! Not just any old light, Steampunk styled old light! Frank Buchwald’s machine lights evoke a sooty air of industrial revolution tempered with a dash of Wellsian space drama.

(image via: Frank Buchwald)

Buchwald crafts his fully functional illuminators - “lights” somehow just doesn’t cut it - from quality materials such as burnished brass & steel, textile cables and unusual yet non-custom bulbs. The result: stunning fixtures that Tesla himself might use to do a little, er, light reading beneath.

(image via: Instructables)

A little light music? Well, the latter is on tap thanks to The Ambiance Enhancer, a dashingly deco wrist-mounted MP3 player designed by someone with a very un-Steampunkish name: Porkshanks. The player began life as a SONY MDR-006 player but with a little sheet brass, brown leather and… well, Porkshanks goes through the process step by step for those who seek to follow the trail she’s blazed.

(image via: Polapix)

Sometimes it takes just one component to turn a gadget from mainstream to Steampunk. In the case of the above desk clock, it’s Nixie tubes. Seriously, the tubes are in the case. Anyway, Nixie tubes are finicky beasts that demand special care concerning their power supply - probably why they’ve been replaced by LEDs and LCD displays. Finicky or not, the tubes lend an antique aura to this clock that complements the old camera it’s built out of.

(image via: Dark Roasted Blend)

Perhaps the most outstanding example of modern technological blandness is the digital calculator. Hailed as a wonder in the 1970s, they evolved to be smaller, lighter, and to run on miniature solar cells instead of batteries. This is good, no? No… not to those who appreciate all things Steampunk.

(image via: Dark Roasted Blend)

Andy Aaron is most definitely one of “those”, and his delightfully retro Aaron Adding Machines are the antithesis of today’s sleek, near-disposable pocket calculators. Aaron cranks out less of his creations in a year than Sharp stamps out in a couple of seconds. This IS good, because each unique device displays the hand-built luster and “use what you got” tooling that make Steampunk design so appealing.

(image via: Dark Roasted Blend)

Toggle switches, ball chains and vintage components come together in a quiet riot of richly antiqued brass and distressed wood. Some of Aaron’s calculators are so cumbersome they have massive grip handles by which to lug them about. It might not be easy to take these machines anywhere, but it’s certain you’ll never take them for granted… which is really the essence of what Steampunk design is all about.

No proper building. Not even an architecture project that would give a hint of what its future headquarters would be like. That didn't prevent El Bòlit, a brand new Contemporary Art Center, from opening its borrowed doors a few weeks ago in Girona.

For many Europeans used to fly on the cheap, Girona equals Barcelona or the Costa Brava. Ever since one of the most famous 'no frills' airlines chose the airport as one of their hubs, hordes of travelers land there, grab their luggage on the rotating belt and hop on an hour bus ride that brings them directly to Barcelona centre. They never get to see Girona. They miss a lovely medieval city. Its cathedral is celebrated as one of the finest specimens of Gothic architecture in Spain, there's a local tradition of climbing steps to kiss the butt of a stone lioness and people will invite you to eat chocolate flies. And now there's that new contemporary art space called El Bolit.

The Bòlit was a game popular among children in Catalonia until the middle of the XXth century. "It's a metaphor for a dynamic center, one that is constantly moving and is pushed forward by people", explained its Director, Rosa Pera, to Spanish newspaper El Pais. The opening exhibition of the center proves that, if the center is still waiting for a proper building, it certainly doesn't lack a strong personality, a dauntless attitude and a very promising exhibition programme.

As the introduction to its current show, In Construction. Recipes from Scarcity, Ubiquity and Excess, states:Beyond the construction of a building, the creation of a contemporary art centre involves first and foremost the construction of a discourse, relationships and dialogue. This is why the first exhibition at the new centre focuses on processes that explore new methodologies to articulate narratives with the context as a starting point.

Retrospective Cirugeda. Image courtesy El Bolit

Heading the party is Santiago Cirugeda whose Recetas Urbanas (Urban recipes) are lined up for a retrospective made of models, videos and a brand new intervention. The work of the Sevillan architect fosters the dialogue between institutions and citizens in order to come up with better ideas susceptible to solve the issue of housing and public space management.

Retrospective Cirugeda. Image courtesy El Bolit

Santiago Cirugeda has sometimes been labeled as a "guerilla architect", "a subversive artist", "a urban hacker". His action/constructions are always adapted to the situation. Because his home town, Sevilla, would not authorize him to build a playground, Cirugeda obtained a dumpster permit and installed a playground on top of a dumpster container. In another intervention, he built and occupied a rooftop crane that passersby believed was there only to move building materials. He even posted on you tube a video to demo how to build a temporary flat in your rooftop. Cirugeda's recipes are cheap, fast, accessible to everyone and one of their key ingredient is that some of them exploit the gaps in administrative structure and official procedures. They intervene where the law falls short.

Santiago Cirugeda, Niu. Images courtesy El Bolit

Cirugeda also developed a site specific architectural intervention on the roof of Girona's Sala de La Rambla (where half of the exhibition is hosted.) The temporary infrastructure has been designed with the aim of hosting artistic activities as well as providing a working space for Spanish and international artists invited to work at El Bolit. El Niu (the Nest in catalan) is made of several containers and covered with branches and leaves.

Probably more famous to the new media art community, Michelle Teran opens the second chapter of the exhibition, the one dedicated to Ubiquity. The artist is showing her recipes for making and re-making narratives out of everyday experience inside Girona's intimate Capella de Sant Nicolau.

Screening of videos by Michelle Teran inside the Capella de Sant Nicolau. Image courtesy El Bolit

In her performance series titled Life: A User's Manual, the artist applies potential literature methodologies and uses video scanners to pick up images recorded on wireless security cameras (inside hotel lobby, private home, bank entrances, etc.) Scenes thus recorded in 17 cities around the world are projected in the exhibition space. I had seen the work of Teran in countless exhibitions but it was the first time i had the opportunity to see displayed next to one another not only the videos of her performances, but also the wide range of devices she uses to host the video scanners. Suddenly i realized the breadth and complexity of her work. I was particularly struck by A20 Recall, a collective exercise in cultural memory carried out by the artist over the course of three weeks with the help of residents of Quebec City. The result of the experiment is an online map of made of texts and images documenting situations that arose in response to the fortification of Quebec City during the FTAA Summit of the Americas in 2001.

Technology is used as a tool to discover the significance of the trivial and to re-endow hidden stories with meaning, while fostering a critical spirit among citizens from their immediate surroundings. This is active, collective voyeurism used to combat indifference and oblivion.

The third part of the exhibition is From excess, recipes for an architecture of accumulative thought by Catalan artist Jordi Mitja?. The Catalan artist defines himself as an 'image collector'. He has carefully compiled and slightly edited images recorded by amateur film-makers in the 1970s in order to create a singular portrait of Emporda? County in Catalonia.

Installation of Jordi Mitja?. Image courtesi El Bolit

Mitja? has also composed a large-scale installation for El Bòlit. An accumulation of old photos, fragments, left-overs, video, and findings, the piece builds up the foundations of argumental architectures that welcome and rebuff those who, trapped perhaps between illness and therapy, dare to enter.

The smart-looking little man up here isn't very concerned by the exhibition but i'd nevertheless like to introduce you to him. He is Sant Narcís (St Narcissus), Girona's patron saint, famous for having defeated French invaders by throwing swarms of flies at them.

More images from Girona and El Bòlit.

In Construction. Recipes from Scarcity, Ubiquity and Excess runs until January 11, 2009 at El Bòlit, Girona (SP).

Recycling discarded materials into new buildings and adapting disused structures to new uses is not just about sustainability - it is also about savvy innovation and stylish adaptation. Some architects build modular wonders from existing units (such as shipping containers). Others draw from recycled, found and local materials (or entire old buildings) to create aesthetically amazing designs that brilliantly blend old and new.

Spiral island (shown above) is just one such example: an incredible mobile private island floating on 250,000 recycled plastic bottles off the coast of Mexico. From a pre-industrial pigsty converted to a postmodern home and a magnificent monastery built from a million glass bottles to adaptively reused cargo containers, airplane hangars and water towers, here are twenty awesome more examples of brilliantly creative and sustainably innovative recycled architecture. Click below to learn more:

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UHER.C. Photo Guido Costa Projects

Robert Kusmirowski does copies, simulacra, forgeries, mock-ups. Meticulously and masterfully. The result of his craft is an illusion. You believe you're in front of a relic from the past, complete with patina: a sepia photography, old newspapers, cigarette packs, but also a graveyard, the wagon of a '40s train or an entire train station. I never used to be fascinated by sculptures but the young artist put such a eerie, retro-innovative' spin to the genre that he won me over.

Robert Ku?mirowski, Ungut, 2006

Information about the artist state that he started to make deliberate mock-ups as a child, building toys he couldn't get in socialist Poland. Elsewhere you will read that from an early age he painstakingly forged bus passes and postage stamps for his entire family.

Robert Kusmirowski's solo show at Migros in 2007

The Polish artist currently has two works in Turin, one is UHER.C at Guida Costa Projects. The second one, DATAmatic 880, is on show at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo as part of the Turin Triennale.

Both use mechanics and electronics as symbols of a broader reflection on 20th century European history.? They are suggestive, non-functional machines, they are nostalgic and absurd. They play with time and place. They evoke a period the artist is too young to have experienced.

DATAmatic 880 is a 1960's computer lab that comes straight from the time machine. Its name recalls the DATAmatic 1000, a large-scale electronic data processing machine, launched by American company DATAmatic in the '50s. As you can guess, Kusmirowski's DATAmatic 880 never existed.
?

Robert Kusmirowski DATAmatic 88. © 2007 Robert Kusmirowski & Galerie ZAK | BRANICKA, Berlin Courtesy Leif Djurhuus

UHER.C is another non-relic from the '60s.

Especially conceived for the Guido Costa Projects gallery, UHER.C is a recording studio. It is meant to be manipulated by rockers, not by neat scientists in white gowns. UHER.C is as cluttered, messy and dusty as DATAmatic 880 is glossy and hygienic.

You can only observe UHER.C through a window panel. In turn, the recording studio lets you take a peak at the future that has been (or might have been) but which appears obsolete today.

UHER.C is a classical, archaic sculpture that has gone berserk: it is both the nightmarish and joyous side of machine.??

The press release says: UHER.C gets its name for phonetic, geographic and historical reasons (respectively Hertz; UHER a mountain region in the environs of Lubin; and Mr UHER.C, a researcher into the physics of sound). It is an extraordinary sculpture with a thousand souls, keyboard, oscillators, microphones, amplifiers, recording devices, cables, mysterious objects, pure inventions, sounds, voices and lights. It is a living sculpture that now and again unplugs one of its souls, caged in its circuits for decades, or it gives a voice to other souls born especially for the occasion.

Slideshow of the exhibition:

On view at Guida Costa Projects, Turin, until Saturday 28 February 2009. At the end of the exhibition a limited edition LP will be produced of music by Robert Kusmirowski.

See also Vernissage TV coverage of the opening of DATAmatic 880 in Berlin.

Previously: Wagon, a faithful reproduction of the vehicles that served to deport countless people.
At Guido Costa Project: In Loving Memory, The Velocity of Thought.

??
UHER.C. Photo Guido Costa Projects

Robert Kusmirowski does copies, simulacra, forgeries, mock-ups. Meticulously and masterfully. The result of his craft is an illusion. You believe you're in front of a relic from the past, complete with patina: a sepia photography, old newspapers, cigarette packs, but also a graveyard, the wagon of a '40s train or an entire train station. I never used to be fascinated by sculptures but the young artist put such a eerie, retro-innovative' spin to the genre that he won me over.

Robert Ku?mirowski, Ungut, 2006

Information about the artist state that he started to make deliberate mock-ups as a child, building toys he couldn't get in socialist Poland. Elsewhere you will read that from an early age he painstakingly forged bus passes and postage stamps for his entire family.

Robert Kusmirowski's solo show at Migros in 2007

The Polish artist currently has two works in Turin, one is UHER.C at Guida Costa Projects. The second one, DATAmatic 880, is on show at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo as part of the Turin Triennale.

Both use mechanics and electronics as symbols of a broader reflection on 20th century European history.? They are suggestive, non-functional machines, they are nostalgic and absurd. They play with time and place. They evoke a period the artist is too young to have experienced.

DATAmatic 880 is a 1960's computer lab that comes straight from the time machine. Its name recalls the DATAmatic 1000, a large-scale electronic data processing machine, launched by American company DATAmatic in the '50s. As you can guess, Kusmirowski's DATAmatic 880 never existed.
?

Robert Kusmirowski DATAmatic 88. © 2007 Robert Kusmirowski & Galerie ZAK | BRANICKA, Berlin Courtesy Leif Djurhuus

UHER.C is another non-relic from the '60s.

Especially conceived for the Guido Costa Projects gallery, UHER.C is a recording studio. It is meant to be manipulated by rockers, not by neat scientists in white gowns. UHER.C is as cluttered, messy and dusty as DATAmatic 880 is glossy and hygienic.

You can only observe UHER.C through a window panel. In turn, the recording studio lets you take a peak at the future that has been (or might have been) but which appears obsolete today.

UHER.C is a classical, archaic sculpture that has gone berserk: it is both the nightmarish and joyous side of machine.??

The press release says: UHER.C gets its name for phonetic, geographic and historical reasons (respectively Hertz; UHER a mountain region in the environs of Lubin; and Mr UHER.C, a researcher into the physics of sound). It is an extraordinary sculpture with a thousand souls, keyboard, oscillators, microphones, amplifiers, recording devices, cables, mysterious objects, pure inventions, sounds, voices and lights. It is a living sculpture that now and again unplugs one of its souls, caged in its circuits for decades, or it gives a voice to other souls born especially for the occasion.

Slideshow of the exhibition:

On view at Guida Costa Projects, Turin, until Saturday 28 February 2009. At the end of the exhibition a limited edition LP will be produced of music by Robert Kusmirowski.

See also Vernissage TV coverage of the opening of DATAmatic 880 in Berlin.

Previously: Wagon, a faithful reproduction of the vehicles that served to deport countless people.
At Guido Costa Project: In Loving Memory, The Velocity of Thought.

There is a lot of commercial emphasis on the safety of vehicle designs, but did you know that 25% of auto accidents involve pedestrians? While the purpose of these crossings is to assist people (or in some cases animals) wishing to cross a road, their utilitarianism hasn’t not stopped people from creative experimentation in the form of quite literal pedestrian street art.

The most famous of these works come, unsurprisingly, from Peter Gibson, often referred to as Canada’s answer to Britain’s Banksy. Gibson’s stencils are a direct response to the proliferation of ‘car culture‘ and though have gotten him into trouble with the law (he was arrested and charged with 53 counts of mischief) have gotten almost universal praise from the public for questioning the impact of our dependency on automobiles on society. Ironically enough, all charges were dropped against Gibson, instead he was asked to participate in 40 hours of community service focusing on street art.

While a majority of our efforts towards reducing automotive deaths tend to focus on passenger safety, they overlook the startling fact that about 25% of all automotive-accident victims are pedestrians. To spread awareness of this fact as part of Portugal’s ‘Safe Street Week’, Draft FCB Lisbon was commissioned to create a zebra crossing memorial where the stripes consisted of names of pedestrians killed by cars. The result is a spine-chilling visualization of pedestrian deaths that may ultimately be self-defeating as it distracts people trying to cross the street.

Sentieri Urbani is a project by two brothers, Davide and Gabriele Adriano, that aims to reinvent zebra crossings to communicate the distinct identities of cities where display their works. Their goal is to make each zebra crossing individually recognizable and actually allow pedestrians who take the time to “read more information and learn the place they’re visiting”. At the same time, the designs are created in such a way that they don’t present any distraction or hazard to cars driving faster than walking speed since they just see a traditional crossing. In fact, these works help drivers because they are created in a way that increases the friction between the car and the road, giving them more control and making the roads safer.

Finally, like many other previously ‘underground’ art forms, zebra crossing street art is being used for guerrilla marketing. In an attempt to battle ad-blindness that consumers are fast developing, MTN Company recently used zebra crossing art to advertise an architecture and design event.

In the early days of photography, monochrome wasn’t a choice - it was a fact. When color film was made possible, it became all the rage. For decades, black and white photography was all but forgotten by everyone other than professional photographers. But recently it’s been making a resurgence. A new generation of photographers is exploring the amazing visual possibilities of black and white photography.

Richard Vanek

(images via: Richard Vanek)

It has been said that color photography requires far less thought than monochrome. While that may or may not be true, anyone who has photographed in both knows that black and white does take some careful planning. The lighting and composition of a black and white shot will make a huge effect on the finished photograph, perhaps more so than on color shots. The foresight that Slovakian photographer Richard Vanek invests in his photographs is obvious. His “Remembering Childhood” series consists of reconstructed memories of his childhood or images that remind him of specific moments from his early life.

CB Clements

(images via: Webshots)

Infrared photography is a stunning way to get a different perspective on common subjects. When it’s combined with monochrome photography, such as in these photos from C.B. Clements, the results are truly incredible. Black and white infrared photographs look somewhere between HDR photos and old film negatives. The unexpected tones and enhanced textures make for some of the most beautiful monochrome pictures ever.

Roby 72

(images via: Roby 72)

The sense of personality and feeling displayed by subjects in photographs is somewhat more poignant in black and white than in color. Because there are no bright colors to convey happiness or muted colors to display desperation, the weight of emotion lies wholly on the composition, textures, and lighting of the photograph. Roby 72 has only been taking photographs since 2007, but judging from his masterful composition of monochrome photos, it’s easy to assume that he’s been a photographer for much longer.

Phil Douglis

(images via: Phil Douglis)

Photographers favor monochrome photos for a variety of reasons. Phil Douglis often takes his photographs in color and converts them to black and white in order to emphasize certain aspects of the image. By removing the color, he removes the distraction of colors and is able to draw attention to shapes, negative spaces, textures, and positions. His photographs are strong in color, but incredible without color.

Marcus Puschmann

(images via: fotopusch)

Even images that have been seen before become extraordinary when seen in black and white. Without colors to distract the eye, the viewer is free to discover new details and parts of the picture that aren’t apparent in a brightly colored image. These photographs from Marcus Puschmann show images from Venice, one of the most heavily photographed cities in the world, but they seem to show a new side of the city. The spiral staircase in the Vatican is a highlight of his set, showing a unique perspective and beautiful composition.

Wendell “In the Rough”

(images via: In the Rough)

Photographers who use black and white know that not all shots will work without color. Some look boring or too dark, and some lose a lot of detail. But there are some shots that work much better with a lack of color. Close-up nature shots can be absolutely stunning in black and white, as can architectural photographs and portraits. This photographer, who goes by the Flickr handle “intherough,” has a great eye for striking black and white compositions.

Sara Heinrichs

(images via: Sara Heinrichs Photography)

Although complex and heavily textured subjects look amazing in black and white, there is also something to be said for smooth, simple lines in black and white. Sara Heinrichs is an outstanding photographer specializing in portraits, and her portraits of newborns utilize black and white for gorgeous results. The simple innocence of the tiny babies is emphasized by the lack of distracting colors. Their flawless skin and bright eyes light up the frames and never fail to elicit an “aww” from viewers.

Sarajevo, 2008. ©Wolfgang Thaler

Last week, just a few hours after having landed in Switzerland for the IETM Autumn Plenary Meeting (which focused on the very sexy theme of 'misunderstanding'), i was sitting in a train to Basel. Like an automaton, i had been drawn to the city to visit Balkanology, New Architecture and Urban Phenomena in South Eastern Europe, the ongoing exhibition at the Swiss Architecture Museum.

SA M explores contemporary architecture and urban design from a trans-disciplinary perspective, not just at national level as its title might suggest, it also puts architecture into a global context.

Having been very impressed by their previous show, Re-sampling Ornament, i was more than eager to get very enthusiastic about the current one. Expectations were high. Expectations were met.

It started well right from the start. The exhibition design by Thilo Fuchs & Oliver Mayer of Tatin, with Oliver Theinert was a delight. Floating panels, writings on the floors, elegant typography and graphics.

© Tom Bisig

Now about the content of the show: Balkans generally refers to South Eastern Europe, a region with varying geographical definitions. Going beyond clichés and the pathos, the Balkanology exhibition focuses on the impact of recent socio-political changes on architecture and urban planning, drawing a variegated picture of urban development in the region and the forces that determine it.

Prishtina, 2008. © Kai Voeckler

Curated by Kai Vöckler, the exhibitions focuses on two main themes:

- the way inhabitants solved the lack of housing and initiated construction projects on their own account.
- a comparison between outstanding yet hardly known buildings of socialist modernism in Yugoslavia with contemporary architecture.

Prishtina, 2008. © Kai Vöckler

Since the collapse of the socialist economic system in ex-Yugoslavia and Albania and the war that lead to the split of Yugoslavia, a new form of urbanisation typified by extensive informal building activity has appeared on the territory. Taking advantage of sketchy legal frameworks and governments initially too weak to enforce rules and regulations, inhabitants have taken the issue of housing shortage in their own hands, they started building new dwellings from scratch and adapting existing edifice for their own purposes.

Prishtina, 2008. © Kai Voeckler

In this context, a term often used in all its negative connotations like Balkanization takes a radically different meaning: it stands for the improvisation and adaptation skills of architecture. Some of the many questions the exhibition aims to raise iinclude: how can a combination of governmental and social control offer the best possible basis for a successful retro-active 'post-regulation? To what extent unregulated, informal urbanism develops new typologies and urban forms, and how these forms could also emerge under the banner of neo-liberal de-urbanisation in the rest of Europe.

As part of a broader research on Belgrade informal architecture, Dubravka Sekulic and Ivan Kucina have compiled a fascinating archive of Belgrade roof extensions. The project in longer run wants to examine the cultural habits that provoke this kind of action in the city and their implication on architecture and public space of the city.

More images of the roof extensions in the PDF report

In the other chapter of Balkanology, examples found in Belgrade, Zagreb, Kotor, Prishtina and Tirana illustrate the way architects, artists, urbanists and activists from South Eastern Europe are dealing with these rapid new transformation processes. The outstanding yet hardly known buildings of socialist modernism in Yugoslavia are compared with contemporary architecture.

National and University Library, Prishtina, Kosovo, 1983. Architect: Andrija Mutnjakovic?. ©Wolfgang Thaler

Using selected cases, Maroje Mrduljaš, editor of Oris, and architectural historian Vladimir Kuli? show how Yugoslavian architects and planners have tackled "modernity" and "internationality". As you will see in the following examples, the outcome of their investigation oscillates between the depressing and the exhilarating.

©Wolfgang Thaler

New Belgrade, a residential area built across the river from Belgrade by Tito after 1950, was conceived as a city of 'light, sun and future' and planned following the principles of the CIAM (the International Congress of Modern Architecture). The challenge at the time was to erect as many buildings, as fast as possible, in order to accommodate a displaced and quickly growing post WW II population. The initial vision of functionality and modernity was translated into what has been defined as a 'brutalist architectural approach'.

Image by Jim Skreech, via Belgraded

One of the most striking projects that demonstrates the modernity of Yugoslavia is Rijeka's Flexible Swimming Pool, designed by Vladimir Turina in 1949. The auditoriums of this 'architectural device" would have been place on railway tracks to be moved from inside to outside depending on the weather. The inner pool could be easily turned into an exhibition hall or an airplane hangar. All the elements could have been constructed with the technology of the time. I couldn't find any image of the project online so let's drift to another project i found particularly appealing:

Zlatko Ugljen was a student interested in the reinterpretation and modernization of Bosnian Ottoman heritage when he started the Šerefudin's White Mosque project in Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina. What started as a modest project made pro bono for the local community ended up as one of the most internationally celebrated buildings in former Yugoslavia: it was awarded the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1983 and in 2007, Hungarian architects declared that the mosque was one of the three best designed sacral places in Europe. More images.

On the left, the minaret and mosque as seen from the graveyard. © Jacques Betant.On the right, inside view. ©Wolfgang Thaler

Balkanology, New Architecture and Urban Phenomena in South Eastern Europe runs until December 28 at SA M, the Swiss Architecture Museum in Basel.

One final recommendation: get your hands on S AM No. 6 - The publication accompanying the exhibition Balkanology - New Architecture and Urban Phenomena in South Eastern Europe, edited by Francesca Ferguson & Kai Vo?ckler.

Related entries: The K67 kiosk.

The Medialab-Prado people whose workshops i like so much i dedicated them 2 categories on the blog are launching the latest of their increasingly successful interactivos? calls for the presentation of projects.

A maximum of 8 projects will be selected for their production in a workshop that will take place in Madrid on January 28 to February 14, 2009. Happy project leaders will count with the help of instructors, assistants and collaborators. Pending application, Medialab-Prado will provide lodging in a Youth Hostel for participants residing outside of the city. They will also cover travel expenses wholly or in part for one person per selected project.

The theme of this edition of Interactivos? is Garage Science and its keywords include: critical design, bio-art, mechanical devices, impossible machines, Rube Goldberg machines, pataphysic, free hardware, fabbing, recycling, biocomputing, biology, biohacking, biopunk, "license to fail". Software, hardware, wetware! The selected projects will show innovative ways to make science, technology and art converge.

Now comes the best part: the Critical Art Ensemble will take part to the workshop.

Deadline for entries: December 14.

A quickie on painted and drawn goodies seen at Artissima, the international fair on contemporary art that closed on Sunday in Turin.

One of the few artworks that made me feel alive at Artissima is the series of clown paintings by Shane Campbell (at the booth of NYC-based Bortolami Gallery). His clowns are depressed and pathetic which has always been the way i saw clowns.

The Dirge , 2006

A Whisper , 2008

mitterrand + sanz / contemporary art in Geneva featured the delicately hot drawings of Virginie Morillo.

Come on baby, light my fire!, 2008

The Galleria Antonio Colombo in Milan had some merry and eerie drawings by the underground artist and musician Daniel Johnston.

Daniel Johnston, Last chance to loose nothing, 20

The Kevin Bruk Gallery (Miami) was showing paintings by Christian Curiel

Sinking Feeling, 2007

The Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Centre from Athens had a great diptych by Dimitris Andreadis

DEAD, 2008

Galleria Perugi from Padova had many interesting paintings. They didn't have the one below but that won't prevent me from introducing you to Laurina Paperina.

The Kiss, 2006

Alexander Gray Associates had set up a solo exhibition by performance artist and political activist Karen Finley.

With Artissima 15 opening immediately after the United States Presidential election, the gallery decided to dedicate its booth to Drawings from the Bush Administration, 2000-2008 , a selection of Finley's works on paper made over the past eight years of Bush's presidency. The works reflected on social and political events such as 9/11, the War of Iraq, the rise of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, fictional journals of Laura Bush's dreams, the execution of Saddam Hussein, and Sarah Palin's vice-presidential candidacy.

Mr. President, 2008

Besides, visitors were invited to inscribe on the booth's walls the names of those killed in the War on Iraq, creating a collective witness, site for mourning and, ultimately, a call to action. The names of the nearly 150,000 deaths were gathered from internet sources.

Whether polished obsidian, bronze or metal-backed-glass, we have been gazing at our reflection for thousands of years. And while mirror mirror on the wall still holds true in most cases (we have yet to think of a better place for it), designers have never been more playful at exploring new design concepts in mirror-making. Here are 16 unique examples of new mirror designs that one would expect to find lurking with Alice in Through the Looking Glass.

Images: Daniel Rozin.

Whatever a mirror is made from, it has to be reflective, surely? Not if you think laterally. Daniel Rozin’s creations get around non-reflectivity by interpreting the image from an outward-facing camera and converting it into subtle changes in an array of small side-lit objects - in effect, pixels. The result is mirroring made from wooden blocks, wooden pegs, ball-bearings and even lumps of trash.  See the wooden mirror at work here (Quicktime required).

Images: Will Gurley.

Converting the humble wall-mirror into something rarely seen outside a funfair, the Flect Magic Mirror warps and contorts when you run the magnetic “magic wand” over it. When you have finished twisting your reflection hither and thither, remove the wand and the mirror springs back into shape. All the fun of “breaking” a mirror without the seven years of bad luck.

Images: Philippe Starck and Juanco.

What else can a mirror be? Here are two designs that reflect on this problem. Philippe Starck evidently believes that it can be a set of shelving that subtly encourages you to tidy up after yourself. Juanco’s mirror has a built-in tape measure, neatly stepping around the need for another person in the room when you want to check exactly how tall you are in your new shoes.

Image: Get Organized!

Seeing yourself head-on is all very well, but hair-styles wrap around. A sensible alternative to awkwardly working a hand mirror behind your head is this 360 Degree Mirror - except it’s only 180 degrees, and surely they’ve got their reflections mixed up there? However, no denying it is a great concept.

Images: Claire Requa Design and Iggloo.

One theme, two perspectives. On the left we have the Chandelier Mirror, adding a touch of Phantom of the Opera to your decor. And on the right, its mirror-image, the Mirror Chandelier - a pendant lamp that wouldn’t fail to stun if it was surrounded by candles or positioned to catch firelight.

Images: Afroditi Krassa and Domestic.

Convention dictates that a mirror is a single unbroken surface. Evidently these designers don’t hold much truck with convention. Afroditi Krassa works with mirrored sculptures, working mirrors into images of her design to hold images of yours. Alternately, this mirror from Inside IDSland appears to be cascading gently off the wall like a giant, feather-like Slinky.

Images: Bytrico and Artecnica.

For traditional single-surface wall mirrors, there are two directions to go. The Wipe Mirror goes down the quirky route, simulating what you’re forced to do when the mirror’s too fogged up to be useful. The stunningly clean-lined Dog Head mirror from TranSglass® seeks otherworldly sophistication, looking less manufactured than CGI-rendered.

Images: Soner Ozenc and Oregon Scientific.

Mirrors for the geekily-minded. A tribute to the maddeningly addictive puzzle game by Alexey Pajitnov, the Tetris Mirror will have you whistling that theme tune as you brush your hair - and Oregon Scientific’s grandly-titled Mirror Weather Station will be able to tell you the likelihood of whether you will need a coat to two decimal places.

Images: Physorg and Lumisource.

So what is next for mirrors? Most likely, they turn into windows. Thanks to nifty technology developed in Japan, what appears to be simple plate glass can become a mirrored surface at the flick of a switch, via the introduction of either oxygen or hydrogen into a layer between glass sheets. As well as a breakthrough in the techniques of keeping sunlit buildings cool, it’s a whole new world of mirrors. Although we cannot be sure, we are presuming the Allure mirror is one such example - from a few feet away it appears to be an array of glowing lights, but get within sensor-range (around 18 inches) and suddenly there you are, staring right back…

The 15th edition of Artissima, the international fair of contemporary art in Turin, closed yesterday. 128 galleries from 19 different countries gathered under the roof of the city's historic FIAT factory building at Lingotto.

The event is certainly not as glamorous as Frieze nor is it as vibrant, invigorating and edgy as Art Forum Berlin. Artissima nevertheless scores a few points in the 'emerging galleries and artists' category and i'm going to document some of them this week.

Prometeo Gallery put up the most exciting show. but that's just my opinion and i lose any pretense to be objective the minute i see the name of Santiago Sierra on a wall.

Prometeo is also representing Regina José Galindo, a Guatemalan performance artist who received the Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale in 2005, in the category of "artists under 30", for a video (click only if you're very brave!) that depicted the surgical reconstruction of her hymen.

Galindo's performances address social injustice, gender discrimination, racism and the governmental atrocities of her own country. In March 2008, she enrolled her family in a performance that protested against the U.S.' booming industry of private prisons.

Regina José Galindo, America's Family Prison, 2008. Portable jail cell, trailer. Installation external view

For her performance, America's Family Prison, Galindo rented a cell for $8,000 from Sweeper Metal Fabricators Corp and had it transported to the Art Pace gallery in San Antonio TX.

The artist, her husband and their 2-year-old daughter locked themselves in the mobile prison unit for 36 hours. Gallery visitors could peep through the narrow windows of the brightly-lighted cell and observe the family as they tried to occupy themselves with books and drawings during their voluntary detention.

The performance refers in particular to T. Don Hutto "Family Residential Center," a for-profit private prison located in Taylor, near Austin, and operated by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest private jail company in the world with one of the highest stock market values on Wall Street.

Charles Reed/Department of Homeland Security, via Associated Press, via TNYT

T. Don Hutto is the first prison authorized by the state to lodge whole families: men, pregnant women, adolescents, children, women, and even babies. The inmates are not necessarily criminals, very often they are detained there while their immigration status is determined.

A 3 part documentary in english and spanish describing the conditions of life inside T. Don Hutto:

The lucrative market of private prison took off in the 1980s under the Reagan-Bush administrations, prospered throughout the 1990s, and today flourishes due to anti-terrorism measures and tougher immigration laws. Many organizations for human, political, and social rights consider these facilities a new form of human exploitation.

The private prison business is huge. It has its own commercial exhibitions, conventions, websites, and mail-order catalogues. It works with hundreds of partner companies --from architecture and construction firms to plumbers and vendors of food, security equipment and uniforms-- that provide services, equipments and goods.

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