A big dose of awe brought to you by photographer Goff Kitsawad
Posts marked art
Silk Pavilion is a biomimicry project from the always amazing MIT Media Lab.
About the project:
The Silk Pavilion explores the relationship between digital and biological fabrication on product and architectural scales.The primary structure was created of 26 polygonal panels made of silk threads laid down by a CNC (Computer-Numerically Controlled) machine. Inspired by the silkworm’s ability to generate a 3D cocoon out of a single multi-property silk thread (1km in length), the overall geometry of the pavilion was created using an algorithm that assigns a single continuous thread across patches providing various degrees of density. Overall density variation was informed by the silkworm itself deployed as a biological printer in the creation of a secondary structure. A swarm of 6,500 silkworms was positioned at the bottom rim of the scaffold spinning flat non-woven silk patches as they locally reinforced the gaps across CNC-deposited silk fibers.
You can read more here or watch the video to learn more about the project:
SILK PAVILION from Mediated Matter Group on Vimeo.
La Lune 1 and 2 by Christian Chaize
Chaize on his project:
We know the moon well…through storybooks, werewolf films, telescopes, planetariums, NASA photographs, charcoal drawings, rounds of cheese, and of course, in the sky. It occupies its familiar place in space, in legends, in our daily lives. Yes, we know the moon, though it may affect us in ways we don’t even recognize. And like the beach I often visit, like so many things taken for granted, I wanted to see it anew. I wanted to see it in detail. And I wanted to see it in grand dimensions.
The route was long and filled with hard won introductions, visits to observatories, experiments with various telescopes, lenses and cameras…at one point, I thought this new series should be made up of all my failures. But the subject was far and, after all, I was trying to “shoot the moon”. Over a year later, I finally arrived at the vision I’d hoped for. Using an assemblage of over 4500 photographs. I faithfully composed and enlarged them to arrive at a single image over two meters wide. Technically, I reached the limit of what one can presently shoot photographically from the Earth. The scale, the detail, the cropping…here, the moon is not so much floating in space, but rather, it is the space. Maybe, like me, you can now see it again for the first time.
These images of the La Niña effect observed over the Tasman Sea is an ongoing photo project by Irenaeus Herok
Selections from National Geographic’s super fun gallery of Masters of Undersea Camouflage. Check it out to learn more about these masters of disguise.
And if you really want to be impressed, watch this 5 minute TED video to see some ocean creatures that would put Peeta’s camouflage skills to shame:
Vincent Fournier’s follow-up to his wonderful Man Machine and Space Projects is every bit as intriguing as his previous work.
At the beginning of XXI century the genetic modification has taken two new paths. On the one hand, synthetic biology, which combines genetic engineering and, secondly, the reprogramming of stem cells leads to the production of new cells, new fabrics and new bodies.
Living species from synthetic biology, integrating new DNA fragments and artificial elements (eg metal or electronics), have new properties to better adapt to new environments (and accompanying events as drought stress, disease, predators) due to climate change.
Living organisms whose cells have been genetically manipulated strains show new opportunities or performance properties: better acuity or vision, increased breathing capacity, longer life expectancy … Also, these neo-beings have characteristics to better adapt to different environments, new scalable.
Post Natural History archives report on these two lines of research pioneered by the very creation of these bodies, synthetics, improved or increased.
Photographer Christian Chaize tracked the changing tides and weather of a single beach in southern Portugal for his ongoing project and book Time and Tide, photographs from Praia Piquinia
Photography and watercolor have merged in these images that represent the best of both worlds by Fabienne Rivory.
El Chaltén in Argentina as captured by Thienthongthai Worachat (aka Oxyz Photography)
Microcosms by Claudia Fährenkemper
About the work:
Fährenkemper has borrowed the tools and analytical values of scientific investigation to make art. In the end it is not the scientific significance that has meaning for her but the ability of the image to interpret this new relationship with the microcosmic world, to convey to the viewer a sensual experience of the perfect and complex tiny forms that constitute its inhabitants.
These are some of the phenomenal winners of the 2013 Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science Contest. Click on the images for image information and visit the contest site for more fantastic underwater photos.
Dubai-based photographer/pilot Karim Nafatni’s office is so much cooler than most. Check out his photos for some truly amazing views of his home city.
Colorful digital photograms of butterflies and dragonflies by Harold Davis
Multiple exposure photos of lights on the blades of a Sikorsky helicopter taking off in Anacostia, MD in 1949 by Andreas Feininger
Wonderfully whimsical map art by Paul Morstad
Visit the Thinx site