Art

Swarms, Flocks & Herds: Installations by Kristi Malakoff

I’m really enjoying these large-scale installations of animals and insects by Canadian visual artist Kristi Malakoff. Also check out her work with currency and flowers. And if you liked this also see the work of Eiji Watanabe. (via pulmonaire)

Art

Global Rainbow

Global rainbow is an ongoing light installation by Yvette Mattern consisting of seven parallel laser beams representing a rainbow that’s being projected over populated urban areas and is meant “to encompass geographical and social diversity in its reach and symbolise hope.” The installation was switched on in the UK for the first time last night over the North Tyneside coastline and will be making several additional stops over the next few weeks. You can read more about Global Rainbow on Mattern’s blog and see tons of great photos here.

Photography

An Interactive 360° Aerial Panorama of the World’s Highest Waterfall

All images © AirPano

Maybe I’m just a huge geek, but I found this vertigo-inducing aerial panorama of the world’s highest waterfall, Angel Falls, and nearby Dragon and Cortina Falls in Venezuela to be pretty incredible. This takes a few steps, but trust me it’s worth it. Head on over to AirPano and if you’re on a nice fast internet connection (or have a moment to wait) click the “High Resolution” viewer. You can turn off the music down on the bottom, click full-screen on top and then use the thumbnails on the right to switch views. Then click and drag anywhere on the screen to explore 360°. Unless you plan on traveling to Venezuela, renting a helicopter from a gold mine and flying perilously close to the 3,200 foot (979 meter) falls while dangling upside down from said helicopter, this is the next best thing. Angel Falls is so tall that the water never reaches the bottom, instead the flow turns into a dense fog during its half mile flight.

The panoramas linked above are actually from the first part of a 2-day trip in which the photographer, Dima Moiseenko, struggled with weather and other unexpected conditions to get the right shots. See a number of panoramas from his second day of shooting, and don’t miss AirPano’s full listing of close to 70 aerial projects.

Lastly, a contender for your new desktop background.

Update: For those of you who think this scenery looks uncannily like the backdrop of Pixar’s movie Up, you’re right.

Art Design

A French Hotel Room Half Covered in Graffiti

All images © Tilt, shared with permission

Internationally recognized graffiti artist Tilt has just completed this eye-popping interior design work for the Au Vieux Panier hotel in Marseille, France. The hotel has just five rooms that are annually reconceptualized by commissioned artists and designers, somewhat similar to NYC’s Carlton Arms. For this space entitled Panic Room (which might aptly describe your mental state after a few nights in this Willy Wonkaesque environment) Tilt divided the room perfectly down the middle, one half covered entirely in his trademark vibrant and bubbly graffiti and the other half left stark white. See a sneak peek of all five concepts at Au Vieux Panier, including a room by Philippe Baudelocque who draws fantastic illustrations of animals using chalk. All in all, if I were checking in, Panic Room would be the clear choice. Photography above by the Big Addict. (via my modern met)

Art

Light Sculptures by Makoto Tojiki

All images © Makoto Tojiki, shared with permission

Japanese artist Makoto Tojiki works primarily with light, exploring its use in installations, figurative sculptures, as well as kinetic pieces. His No Shadow works shown above are among my favorite, using long strands of lights to create representations of people and animals. See much more over in his gallery.

The Man with No Shadow, 2009

The Horse with No Shadow, 2010

The Blue Bird 2009

Photography

Floral X-Rays by Brendan Fitzpatrick

All images © Brendan Fitzpatrick

Photographer Brendan Fitzpatrick has been shooting photos for over 20 years, and for the last seven has been living and working in Singapore. These colorful floral x-rays were the result of several radiology experiments that ended with help from a radiography lab in Singapore who assisted him with use of a digital x-ray system followed by a few rounds of image editing and color correction in Photoshop to reach the final results you see here. Several of the specimens are available as prints over on Society6. For a polar opposite project, also check out his Anonymous Aliens series, which confronts the dehumanization of transient workers and their often unrecognized contribution to modern society by capturing anonymous stormtroopers enduring the back-breaking labor often performed by migrants.