teamLab Biovortex Kyoto Museum

TeamLab (previously here), the international “ultra-technologist" artist collective, has created a permanent museum in Kyoto which opens today! Called the Biovortex Kyoto Museum, the nearly 110,000 square foot space holds 50 different art works which are total multi-sensory, immersive spaces. The magical works can be seen in the video below.

https://www.teamlab.art/e/kyoto/

"Techtopia" by BOSS

Presented last week at Milan's Allianz MiCo conference center, the BOSS FW '-23-'24 show was a jaw-dropping spectacle of set design. Sophia the Robot, created by Hong Kong-based Hanson Robotics, greeted audience members as they arrived at the reception area of what BOSS calls their Techtopia, "a vision of the workplace of tomorrow, where game-changing technologies are combined with lush green spaces." Audience members sat at desks with Sophia while the models navigated the layout of the space. Maybe I have simply seen too many sci-fi films but this seemed much more DYS-topian than U-topian. There is something eerie about the five pods scattered around the presentation space that housed a man doing yoga, the BOSS synth-lab for manufacturing fragrances, a VR pod of people reclining in chairs engaged in an unseen digital reality, and two meeting rooms filled with floating plants on a conference table. The bright, clinical lighting is harsh and unrelenting. The entire scene is absolutely worthy of a sci-fi film (it feels a bit like "THX1138") and carries an undercurrent of dread... but the clothes are lovely! While not of the experimental nature of some of my favorite designers, current head of BOSS Marco Falcioni created a collection that Vogue journalist Luke Leitch called "an almost anthropological and at times surreal excavation of the tradition of 'executive dress' at a social moment where Lazy Girl Jobs are trending and 'Working Girl' [the 1988 film] feels like a historical document." Please do take a moment to watch the show below, and marvel at the stage design on the show.

https://www.hugoboss.com/

"BOX"

I have posted other videos of projection mapping installations in the past (here), but this one is just incredible. It features projection mapping on moving surfaces with the interaction of a human being. Incredible.

Bot & Dolly, the production company responsible for this amazing feat says, "The short film documents a live performance, captured entirely in camera. Bot & Dolly produced this work to serve as both an artistic statement and technical demonstration. It is the culmination of multiple technologies, including large scale robotics, projection mapping, and software engineering. We believe this methodology has tremendous potential to radically transform theatrical presentations, and define new genres of expression."
I'll say.

And it concludes with one of my favorite quotes, by Arthur C. Clarke...

http://www.botndolly.com/box

BEAUTY: Painting--William Fisk

These extraordinary hyper-realistic oil on canvas works by artist William Fisk glorify retro and extinct technology and objects. They serve not only as an homage to an object but to a time period, society, and cultural beliefs. The narrative that naturally follows from them is the eventual extinction of our current technology. It is hard to imagine what will replace the gadgets with which we currently share our lives.

Top to bottom: Untitled #26; Untitled #30; Untitled #40; Untitled #41; Untitled #59; Untitled #61; Untitled #64; Untitled #66; Untitled #71; Untitled #73

http://www.williamfisk.ca/

The Interspecies Internet

This very exciting TED Talk features dolphin researcher Diana Reiss, musician Peter Gabriel, "Internet of Things" visionary Neil Gershenfeld, and Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the internet, presenting information on the profound, awe-inspiring idea of including sentient creatures in our creation of technology, in order to learn more about them but also as a way to communicate on a literal level with other species. Think of the ramifications of this!

And see Peter Gabriel play a haunting duet with a bonobo. It is a goosebump moment...

http://www.ted.com/talks/the_interspecies_internet_an_idea_in_progress.html