Ferrofluid Sculpture and Kinetic Art

Posted Wed, 09/03/2008 - 18:43 by Nick Winterhalter

Here's a fantastic example of kinetic art using ferrofluid, a magnetic liquid.
Also see Protrude, Flow (2001) by Sachiko Kodama and Minako Takeno

Morpho Towers — Two Standing Spirals (2007) by Sachiko Kodama

The body of the tower was made by a new technique called “ferrofluid sculpture” that enables artists to create dynamic sculptures with fluid materials. This technique uses one electromagnet, and its iron core is extended and sculpted.

City of Shadows

Posted Fri, 07/25/2008 - 18:40 by Nick Winterhalter

In City of Shadows, Alexey Titareno uses long exposures to create a haunting effect.
City of Shadows

US Air Force Aircraft Identification Chart

Posted Tue, 06/24/2008 - 12:26 by Nick Winterhalter

7ACB179B-6BBE-4CFB-B78E-92B2048CB79C.jpg

Galaxy's Youngest Supernova Remnant

Posted Wed, 05/14/2008 - 12:15 by Nick Winterhalter

At just 140 years old, this recently discovered supernova remnant is the youngest yet found. Obscured by dust until X-ray and radio telescopes revealed it, "G1.9+0.3" came into being shortly after the United States' Civil War.

200807251129.jpg

Supernova remnants are caused when the debris thrown outwards by the explosion crashes into surrounding material, generating a shell of hot gas and high-energy particles that glows brightly in X-rays, radio waves and other wavelengths for thousands of years. In the case of G1.9+0.3 the material is expanding outwards at almost 35 million miles per hour, or about 5% the speed of light, an unprecedented expansion speed for a supernova remnant. Another superlative for G1.9+0.3 is that it has generated the most energetic electrons ever seen in a supernova remnant.

Link to Chandra X-Ray Observatory article

The Boggy Empire of Belarus

Posted Thu, 05/08/2008 - 12:50 by Nick Winterhalter

0FF229A2-0803-47C3-8FC6-9D8DC8BFA9E8.jpg
Machine ( III ) by Vladimir Tsesler & Sergei Voichenko

A bog is a weird, even mystical substance. It is impossible to build something on a bog, for it will inevitably drag, digest, dissolve in its guts any alien “body.” However, it is equally impossible to completely destroy this substance, it is risky to challenge its seemingly chronic apathy. The destructive energy of the aroused element can turn into an apocalyptic tempest, the consequences of which will be fatal.

The 2004 exhibition entitled “Balota Empire,” after the Belarusian word for bog, is devoted to the problem of national-cultural identity and encompasses a multiplicity of actual questions and subjects that excite the majority of representatives of the Belarusian culture. This project represents the interesting and bright phenomena in Belarusian art today.

Olga Kovalenko, The Artists of the Bog Empire, in Umělec