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Art

Singapore Changi Airport Timelapse Turns Planes into Abstract Streaks of Light

Photographer and filmmaker Milton Tan was given unprecedented access to Singapore Changi Airport in order to film his latest timelapse of planes taking off and landing at night. In an unusual reversal, airport officials saw one of Tan’s earlier films, and immediately invited him to shoot at Changi from several restricted areas. He was at times positioned so close that you can occasionally see his tripod shake from the thrust of the jet engines.

My favorite aspect is that even when the airport appears to be busiest (Changi Airport has a takeoff or landing every minute), the airplanes only appear as abstract orbs and streaks of light moving through the sky. You can see a bit more about how it was made over on PetaPixel, and on Tan’s blog.

Photography

The Most Beautifully Terrifying Spiders You Never Knew Existed

Mirror Spider / Thwaitesia sp. / Singapore

Long Horned Orb Weaver / Macracantha arcuata / Singapore

Bird Dung Spider / Pasilobus sp. / Singapore

Ladybird Mimic / Paraplectana sp. / Singapore

Eight-Spotted Crab Spider / Platythomisus octomaculatus / Singapore

Tree Stump Orb Weaver / Poltys illepidus / Singapore

Net-Casting Ogre-Face Spider / Deinopis sp. / Singapore

Ant Mimic Jumping Spider / Myrmarachne plataleoides / Singapore

Wide-Jawed Viciria Spiderlings / Viciria praemandibularis / Singapore

Wow! Ick. Oooh. Whaaaaaaat. No. No. NOPE. That pretty much summarizes my reactions while looking at these incredible macro shots of spiders photographed by Nicky Bay who lives and works in Singapore. The boundless biodiversity found on the country’s several islands includes a vast array of insects and arachnids, many of which Bay has painstakingly documented up close with his macro photography and published on his blog and Flickr account.

Despite being creepy crawly spiders, it’s impossible to deny the endless creativity employed by evolution to create such amazing creatures. It’s hard to believe these lifeforms came from the same planet let alone the same country. For instance the Mirror Spider has an abdomen of reflective panels that glitter like a disco ball, or the various colors of Ladybird Mimic spiders that are almost indistinguishable from the insects they are camouflaged to look like. But there’s also the more frightening Two-Tailed Spider or the Bird Dung Spider that would have me scrambling for a frying pan and a quart of poison before I would even consider picking up a camera.

Nadia Drake over at Wired put together an informative gallery of Bay’s work along with a bit more detail than you’ll find here. All images above courtesy the photographer. (via Coudal)

Art

Kinetic Rain: 1,216 Computationally Controlled Bronze Raindrops at Changi Airport in Singapore

Berlin firm ART+COM just completed this stunning new kinetic sculpture in Terminal 1 of Changi Airport in Singapore. Kinetic Rain consists of two sets of 608 suspended raindrops made from lightweight aluminum covered in copper which are raised and lowered in a 15-minute computationally designed choreography controlled from motors embedded in the ceiling. ART+COM created a similar though somewhat smaller piece for the BMW Museum in 2008.