Joel Ong: guest blogger coming soon!

Joel Ong will be a guest blogger here very soon. Keep an eye out for his posts; in the meantime, here's a little bit of information about what he's been up to these days:

Undertaking the Masters of Science (Biological Art) at SymbioticA in the University of Western Australia, Joel Ong is interested in the acoustic culture of medical and biological fields as well as the architectural design of the body and its components. With an artistic practice spanning the audiovisual domains in the wave of new media art, he is particularly optimistic about using human processes (conscious or unconscious) as raw material, even as interactive systems, for the development of emotive sound works that expose the mechanisms of the body in a way that synapse the heart and the mind. Joel has a background in the life sciences from the National University of Singapore and is currently an avid participant in discourses around acoustic ecology, interactive musical systems, biological data sonification and sound art. He is particularly interested in the amplification of microscopic cellular activity and cell vibration.

http://www.symbiotica.uwa.edu.au/educate/courses/postgraduate/joel

http://www.symbiotica.uwa.edu.au/

Welcome Joel!!!

Hair Art: Part I

Hair work embellishments to a wood pendant utilizing a new technique of applying finely cut hair in a tattoo motif. (Elfriede and Christina Witz)

HAIR! We spend so much time and money styling and caring for our hair and then we get a trim and it gets swept away and forgotten. Not everyone feels the same way though. Throughout history, there have been many examples of hair used as an artistic medium. In this posting, we'll look at some examples from contemporary artists who make jewelry and images out of human hair.

As a token of affection in the Victorian era, it was not uncommon for people to exchange lockets of their hair in decorative pieces of jewelry and other accoutrements. Hair works were also used to mourn the loss of a loved one. There is a good description of some of the techniques at the Victorian Hair Jewelry website (http://www.victorianhairjewelry.com/victorianhairwork.html).

There are a small number of artists who have kept the tradition alive and continue to innovate in the genre of hair art. For example, German artists Elfriede and Christina Witz (http://www.myperceptionart.com/images/nutshell/art_in_a_nut_shell.htm) have been making beautiful contemporary pieces of hair art including jewelry made from tree nut shells, egg shells, hair, glass, and wood. Elfriede and Christina were so kind to share photos and samples of their work, which includes palette work and hair paintings.

Hair work pendant from Elfriede and Christina Witz made from tree nut shell, hair, and Tiffany glass with a one Euro cent coin to show the scale of the piece.

Hair work pendant from Elfriede and Christina Witz made from tree nut shell, hair, and Tiffany glass with a one Euro cent coin to show the scale of the piece.

Hair work embellishments to egg shells (Elfriede and Christina Witz)

Hair work embellishments to a wood pendant utilizing a new technique of finely cut hair. (Elfriede and Christina Witz)

In the next posting (Hair Art II), we'll look at other examples of contemporary hair art including horse hair pottery, embroidered hair drawings, and even a purse made of hair.

A special thank you to Elfriede and Christina Witz for sending amazing samples of their work and for sharing their photos. Please visit their website for more photos of their work and to inquire about a piece that suits you.

http://www.myperceptionart.com/images/nutshell/art_in_a_nut_shell.htm

"CURB" your enthusiasm

DiscoFungi from the CURB Media company uses bio-florescent bacteria for making visual images. (photo snagged from their website)

CURB (the natural media company) is an interesting organization. My friend Denisa sent me an article about the recent florescent bacteria media campaign and in looking at the company website, they have been responsible for some really amazing works of biological media. They have sculpted sand, snow, dust, grass, you name it -- making eye catching and ecologically safe advertising campaigns and beautiful works of art.

glowfungi - http://www.curbmedia.com/what-we-do-glowfungi.asp

Browse their website for burned grass and even Obama art -- http://www.curbmedia.com

Genes, Pets, and Blue Roses

Genetically Modified blue roses produced by the FloriGene company. This picture was snagged from their website

Man has been domesticating animals, plants, bugs--you name it. Now, with the increasing ability to manipulate the code of life through genetic engineering, there are plenty of examples of pets that are the result of bioengineering to make special colored flowers, cats that are allergen-free, fluorescent fish, even clone pets (currently this option is on hold for one US company) or store the DNA for future use.

Maybe someday, we'll have examples like this to buy in the store: GenPet which is proclaimed as some sort of semi-living flesh based organism, but is just a sketch by artist Adam Brandejs for now.

Florigene -- http://www.florigene.com/index.php
Genetically modified flowers - they created the blue rose...

Felix Cats -- http://www.felixpets.com/welcome.html
Allergy-free cats

Allerca -- http://www.allerca.com/html/aboutallerca.html
Hypoallergenic cats

GloFish -- http://www.glofish.com/
Glowing fish

BioArts -- http://www.bioarts.com/press_release/ba09_10_09.htm
BioArts - used to offer pet cloning, but has ceased this product offering

RNL Bio -- http://rnl.co.kr/eng/main.asp
Cloning pets as a service offering in South Korea

Fluffy 2.0 -- http://www.fluffy2.com/
Fluffy 2.0 - DNA bank for pets

GenPets -- http://www.genpets.com
http://www.brandejs.ca/portfolio/Genpets/Why
Semi-living pets coming soon? ;)

Carbon Copies: Spread your ashes over pages and pages...

Carbon Copies photo from Nadine Jarvis' research website.

Nadine Jarvis has created an interesting new concept for dealing with the body after death. In her Carbon Copies piece, the human body is cremated and the remaining ash is made into 240 pencils which are stored neatly in a beautifully designed box. The box also contains a sharpener built in, so that the shavings are collected in the box, becoming another form of the human ash. I like the idea of this; it makes me wonder how the family will use the pencils, what they will write, will they keep their writings forever? Or will they write tributes to the dead and then burn the pages in some sort of a grieving ritual? Who knows?

Project website: http://www.nadinejarvis.com/projects/carbon_copies

My DNA Fragrance smells fishy

Image of the "M" fragrance that is apparently based on the DNA of Michael Jackson

A collector of strands of hair from famous people has lended some of them to the "My DNA Fragrance" company which extracts mtDNA and then uses that as a way to make mixing decisions for fragrances. They market the fragrances to individuals who can order their own unique personalized fragrance and they sell premixed fragrances based on the celebrity mtDNA.

The perfume contains no DNA or any materials from a human, but has been used in some mysterious way to determine the amounts of each component that goes into a perfume. The website claims to donate some of the proceeds to the charities of the late celebrities, but I just have to imagine they are not authorized to use the likenesses of these dead folks for their own profit. I bet they will battling it out in court with many estate lawyers in the near future.

What is your opinion? Whether the product is cool or not, does it raise some ethical issues? What does M actually smell like?

Company website:

http://mydnafragrance.com

This blog, apparently from the company describes some of the details:

http://mydnafragrance.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/34/

Metabolic Materials: Dr. Rachel Armstrong

An artist's depiction of the city of Venice after the implementation of the metabolic materials of Rachel Armstrong. The limestone formations protect the buildings from the sea and new sea life can utilize the architectural formations bringing a new attraction to the city which is sustainable and natural.

Another exciting bit of research involving living, or in this case, semi-living protocells and architecture. Dr. Rachel Armstrong, from the Bartlett School of Architecture, discussed her ideas for buildings that not only repair themselves, but signal a departure from traditional architecture. Her ideas call for architecture that merges with the environment through materials that are alive and become part of the ecological systems in the surroundings. In this way the buildings can be sustainable, beneficial to the inhabitants of cities, and produce opportunities for new encounters with life.

Watch her TED talk here: http://www.ted.com/talks/rachel_armstrong_architecture_that_repairs_itself.html