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    Sci-Fi-Esque ‘Portals’ on the Streets of Vilnius and Lublin Connect Passersby in Real-Time

    
    Art
    Design

    #cameras
    #installation
    #public art

    June 3, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    Vilnius. All images © Portal, shared with permission
    Prior to hopping on the train for their morning commutes, Vilnius residents can greet pals passing through a main square in Lublin, Poland, despite being 376 miles apart. Thanks to “Portal,” a sleek pair of screens installed in the city centers, passersby have the opportunity to wave hello and socialize with their counterparts just as if they were standing in front of each other on the street. Dubbed “a visual bridge,” the futuristic installation resembles large, round orbs embedded with screens and cameras that transmit views of the two locations in real-time.
    “Portal” is the culmination of five years of research and design, and the project to expand to cities around the world, with two more eye-like devices coming to Reyjavik and London soon.

    Lublin
    Vilnius
    Lublin
    Lublin
    Lublin
    Lublin

    #cameras
    #installation
    #public art

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    Everyday Objects Are Sliced and Re-Assembled into Distorted Sculptures by Fabian Oefner

    
    Art

    #cameras
    #electronics
    #sculpture
    #shoes

    April 16, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    “Heisenberg Object V – Cortez” (2021), leather, foam, and resin, 30 x 18 x 15 centimeters. All images © Fabian Oefner, shared with permission
    In Heisenberg Objects, Fabian Oefner (previously) translates quantum mechanic’s uncertainty principle into a sculptural series of segmented objects. The Connecticut-based artist uses resin to solidify the everyday items, which include sneakers, a Leica M6, a tape recorder, a Seiko clock, and flight recorder, before slicing them into countless individual pieces. He then aggregates those fragmented parts into dissected sculptures that resemble the original object through a distorted view of the inner and outer mechanisms.
    Drawing its name from German physicist Werner Heisenberg, the series is rooted in the basics of the uncertainty principle, which states that no two particles can be measured accurately at exactly the same time. “You can either determine one parameter and ignore the other or vice versa, but you can never know everything at once,” the artist writes about Heisenberg’s idea. The two opposing views—i.e. the inner and outer layers of the common items—converge in Oefner’s sculptures and visualize the principle through skewed perceptions. “As an observer, you are never able to observe the object as a whole and its inner workings simultaneously. The more accurately we see one view, the less clearly we see the other,” he says.
    Check out Oefner’s Instagram for more views of the re-interpreted objects, along with videos documenting the slicing process.

    “Heisenberg Object III – Leica M6” (2021), aluminum, glass, and resin, 20 x 15 x 5 centimeters
    “Heisenberg Object I – Seiko Clock” (2021), plastics, metal, and resin, 20 x 15 x 10 centimeters
    “Heisenberg Object II – Tape Recorder” (2021), plastics, metal, resin, 30 x 20 x 8 centimeters
    “Heisenberg Object VI – Cortez” (2021), leather, foam, and resin, 30 x 18 x 15 centimeters
    “Heisenberg Object VI – Cortez” (2021), leather, foam, and resin, 30 x 18 x 15 centimeters
    Detail of “Heisenberg Object IV – Flight Recorder” (2021), plastics, metal, resin, 50 x 50 x 40 centimeters
    “Heisenberg Object IV – Flight Recorder” (2021), plastics, metal, resin, 50 x 50 x 40 centimeters

    #cameras
    #electronics
    #sculpture
    #shoes

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    Kinetic Artwork Attempts to Get a ‘Little Piece of Privacy’ with Mechanized Curtain

     Berlin-based artist Niklas Roy isn’t just concerned about his privacy and protection online. To stop passersby from peeping into his workshop, he strung up a white, lace curtain stretching only partially across his window. Titled “My Little Piece of Privacy,” the ironic project from 2010 was established to offer seclusion to the artist, while […] More