machines

Posts tagged
with machines

Animation Music

An Eerie Atmosphere Envelops the Post-Apocalyptic Universe of a New Animated Music Video for Woodkid’s ‘Reactor’

Ashy lava oozing over the landscape, flames ripping through piles of mechanical waste, and debris floating through a thick, smokey haze shroud an animated music video for Woodkid in an eerie, post-apocalyptic ambiguity. Directed by Saad Moosajee and produced by Reef Oldberg, “Reactor” descends into a world that’s been marred by an atomic meltdown. Children rise from fiery rubble, and their elegantly choreographed movements appear to control the machinery within the enveloping, dystopian environment.

In “Reactor” and the S16 album more broadly, Woodkid references the chemical properties of sulphur and Japanese classics like Akira and Ghost in The Shell as inspiration, and the animated component takes similar cues. “Our intention was to create something deeply personal that could communicate the feeling of being swallowed by the world around you. About trying to breathe in a place where no one and nothing can breathe anymore,” Moosajee shares in an interview.

Watch the unearthly CG-creation above, and check out Woodkid’s similarly elemental track titled “Iron” from a few years back.

 

Photography

Framing Pattern and Symmetry, Unintended Beauty Explores Intricacies of Industrial Spaces

It’s well understood that producing a single book is an arduous task, making it even more impressive that British photographer Alastair Philip Wiper is offering three distinct versions of his newly released work, Unintended Beauty. The monograph is available in three covers⁠—an orange or blue option with architectural and machine focuses and a black one with hanging sausages⁠—created by the design firm, IRONFLAG.

The Copenhagen-based artist has an eye for spotting the sublime complexities inside warehouses, factories, and shipyards of global institutions like Adidas, Boeing, The European Space Agency, and the Swiss research laboratory CERN, where he captured the pattern and symmetry of the industrial spaces. “We create systems, structures and machines that allow us to provide for our lives and answer our questions about the universe. Machines tell the story of our needs and desires, our hopes and follies, our visions for the future,” Wiper said in a statement.

Something I want to do is challenge what people think of as beautiful, because there are a lot of things that you can say are ugly and beautiful at the same time. The title of the book ‘Unintended Beauty’ is meant to be a bit provocative. A lot of beautiful things should have a bit of ugliness to them.

Including a foreward written by theoretical physicist Marcelo Gleiser and an interview with the artist conducted by Ian Chillag, the 208-page book features 90 full-color images and is printed on Galerie Art Silk paper with a cover of Italian Manifattura del Seveso cotton textile. Unintended Beauty is now available from Hatje Cantz, although each edition has a limited number of copies.

Two exhibitions for the project will open this year, one on February 26 at RIBA, London and another on April 2 at the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design in Bordeaux. Until then, you can keep up with Wiper’s exploration of technical intricacies by following him on Instagram. (via Creative Boom)

Art Design

An Enormous Smoke-Spewing Dragon Roves the Streets of Calais, France

La Machine, the group of inventors, designers, artists, and builders responsible for 46 foot-tall minotaurs and massive tarantulas roving the streets of Europe, has most recently unleashed the Dragon of Calais. The moveable beast, complete with articulated limbs and a smoke-spewing snout, was paraded around Calais for 3 days at the beginning of November. It has now been installed as a stationary sculpture, on which visitors can climb up and walk around. Follow the latest projects from La Machine on Instagram. (via Laughing Squid)

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Compagnie La Machine (@compagnie_la_machine) on Nov 3, 2019 at 11:10am PST

Art Design

Mechanations: Historical Machines Exploded into Individual Components in Sculptures by John A. Peralta

Artist John Peralta creates sculptural odes to some of our most historic innovations by organizing and suspending components of sewing machines, typewriters, and old film projectors. In his “Mechanations,” Peralta hangs each screw, wheel, and lightbulb side-by-side in specially created lightboxes, creating three-dimensional diagrams which illuminate the inner workings of each machine.

The sculptures break down the mechanics of the 20th-century devices, presenting a unique peek into the simplicity of objects before the Digital Revolution. Peralta dissects iconic machines in areas such as design, communication, and entertainment. This technique, which he has used for over a decade, was inspired by seeing a similar sculptural diagram on the back of a Chinese magazine in 2005.  “I was inspired by its fragile beauty, and imagined a three-dimensional version with a real object,” Peralta outlines on his website. “Using only a ruler and simple tools, which I still use today, I developed techniques for suspension which expose the inner workings of these humble mechanical objects.”

The artist’s work will be included in a presentation by New York and Los Angeles-based gallery George Billis at the upcoming SOFA fair from November 1-4, 2018 at Chicago’s Navy Pier. Peralta also has a solo show at Billis’ New York location, which runs from December 11, 2018 to January 12, 2019.  You can see more of Peralta’s work on his website and Instagram.

Animation

Short Animation TINK Takes You on a Lovely Rube Goldberg-esque Adventure

TINK is a colorful animation by motion design studio Mr. Kaplin that showcases the intricate workings of a fictional Rube Goldberg-like machine. At just 45 seconds long, the very short film takes a close look at several oddly shaped ball bearings, like an oblong one that leaps vertically through a rectangular box, or a line of cubed, metallic pieces that roll in single file down a bright yellow slope. The project evolved from a series of animation experiments created by the London-based studio this past April. You can view more of their animations on Instagram and Vimeo.  (via Vimeo Staff Picks)

Design

Cyclo Knitter: A Bicycle-Based Machine That Knits a Scarf in Five Minutes

The Cyclo Knitter is a bicycle-based machine by design student George Barratt-Jones. The contraption is made from a simple combination of wood and bike parts, and allows one to knit a scarf through light exercise. Barratt-Jones came up with the idea one day while waiting for the train in Eindhoven. His invention allows other riders to stay warm while passing time on the platform, and step away with a winter accessory.

If you like this creative knitting mechanism, check out the Rocking Knit, a rocking chair designed by Damien Ludi and Colin Peillex that converts rocking into knitted hats.