human

Posts tagged
with human

Art

Hidden Paintings Revealed with Each Turn of an Anamorphic Glass Sculpture by Thomas Medicus

In his latest project “What It Is Like To Be,” artist Thomas Medicus (previously) employs his illusory  style to create an anamorphic glass sculpture that changes with every 90 degree turn. The cubic piece is comprised of 144 glass strips that are arranged to depict four distinct images—clothes strung up on a line, bats clinging to a branch as they hang upside down, a diverse patch of mushrooms, and three figures who are caught in the rain. Each glass portion is handpainted separately with acrylic before being mounted in a concrete socle that sits inside a wooden bowl and stretches about 30 centimeters long.

The Austria-based artist’s project references a 1974 paper by American philosopher Thomas Nagel. Titled “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?,” the seminal text questions the relationship between human and animal subjectivity, stating that although people can imagine life as a bat, they can never know truly what it means to be a different animal. Nagel’s work influenced later conversations about consciousness and the ways humans understand and relate to other living beings. In a note to Colossal, Medicus described his connection to Nagel’s writing.

For quite a long time, I was seeking to understand how I can value the natural sciences without having to devalue subjectivity, personal experience, or qualitative research. Back then I wasn’t really able to do that. For me, art was a way to question an exclusively materialistic worldview without at the same time having to be a spiritual or religious person. “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” by Thomas Nagel provides a great philosophical basis to put these different worlds in one frame and personally helped me to do that.

To see more of the artist’s creative process, head over to his Instagram and Vimeo.

Design

Playful Chairs Designed by Chris Wolston Impersonate the Humans Who Sit on Them

Brooklyn-based designer Chris Wolston wonders why traditional furniture created for people to lounge and rest on lacks human-like qualities. “Wouldn’t it be nice to actually embrace these similarities?” asks a statement describing his recent Nalgona Chair line, which attempts to rectify the problems he sees with conventional seating models. Wolston’s imitative chairs have distinct appendages displayed in a way that mimics a person with their hands in the air or resting gently on their knees.

The playful seats are made entirely of wicker harvested in the Colombian Amazon. “The human form riffs on the iconic shape of the plastic Remax Chair, ubiquitous through Colombia, and the playful humanoid quality found in pre-Columbian ceramics,” reads the product’s description. Head over to The Future Perfect to add one these unconventional furnishings to your collection, and follow Wolston on Instagram for his latest projects.