QR codes rule!

QR Cloud Project by Golfstrommen

I for one, am a great fan of QR codes - I think they're a really interesting and interactive way of connecting with your consumers and encouraging more online/digital interaction. In Japan, they're a big thing, featured almost everywhere, from magazines to shop windows to product aisles in supermarkets - it's a quick way for consumers to get more information on a product and to receive exclusive deals/coupons. It's also a way to track who your consumer is - though slightly bordering on privacy issues, I think QR codes should be embraced more in today's marketing world. Using it across different media platforms and channels will be interesting and maybe even using it for branding purposes as this company has started doing: an application that allows you to barcode your online profile and identity as a branding tool!

http://jumpscan.com/

Anyway, you can only imagine my excitement when Golfstrommen came up with the idea of using QR codes as a new way to disseminate art! Genius! I love the idea of making art consumable like products - in today's byte-sized and snappy culture, taking the time out to really enjoy and savor the arts is a luxury. So, having the ability to access art while you're on the go and having stored into a digital database for later viewing is a great way to go about promoting the arts to a wider audience! Imagine having QR codes at museums, where you can download a thumbnail of your favorite artwork with a quick discussion about the work, all on your phone! two thumbs up!

For more information on the project, visit http://golfstromen.nl/work/qr-cloud-project/

One-step closer to a cyborg universe

flicflex concept from chris woebken on Vimeo.

Flicflex by Chris Woebken

Taking the concept of the ipad and Kindle one step further, Chris Woebken came up with a concept for the future of flexible displays and interactions: "...'opening a letter, unfolding it and feeling the texture of the paper is a very tactile experience compared to receiving an e-mail. on top of the content itself, the behavior and micro-interactions adds a level of engagement to the medium.’ using this physical approach, he designed a series of interface gestures that take advantage of motion sensors and flexible displays."

It's one step closer towards a cyborgian future where the digital is so intertwined and co-opted into our everyday 'tangible' experiences. Imagine owning one of these bad boys - you won't ever need to carry around a book/laptop/notebook - just sync it up and you have instant digital access and yet somehow retain a 'virtual' sense of tangibility with the 'real' world... but who are we kidding? Eons from now, kids will be toting these flexible screens around and will never have had the satisfaction of feeling paper between their fingers and enjoying that little moment when you rip off a page from your favorite magazine and feeling the paper grain as you fold it and put it into your 'scrapbook'.

Call me old school, hey, maybe even a little nostalgic...but i worry about the day when books are no longer printed and i won't get the joy of looking at my ever-expanding bookshelves cos it's all stored digitally in these nifty little devices..

:: geek chic ::

First blog entry and we're going geek!

Here are some interactive digital artworks/projects that I find rather intriguing. I like how the use of technology brings another dimension to your experience of art - it's kinda like how Jeff Koon's blow up dog came to life in "Night at the Museum II". I'm sure that at some point in our lives, we all had that moment where we wished that an art work would come to life and interact with us. (or maybe that's just me - I always wondered what it'd be like to have a conversation with Mona Lisa!)


Cinimod Studios is a cross-discipline practice based in London specializing in the fusion of architecture and lighting design. It was started by the architect Dominic Harris, whose passion for interactive art and lighting design has produced built projects now found across the international art and architecture scene.

'Flutter’ is a new interactive artwork that explores the viewer’s encounter with a rabble of virtual butterflies. Flutter consists of a linear array of 88 vertical double-sided video fins projecting from a mirrored surface. Butterflies flash through these screens on virtual flight paths, visible for fleeting moments as the light irridesces off their wings. (seen at the recent Kinetica Art Fair in London)

To celebrate the launch of the UK’s first Restaurant and Bar Awards, Cinimod Studio was commissioned to create an outdoor interactive lighting installation. Conceived as an exploded blank canvas, the huge “exploded globe of light” was suspended from the trees over London’s famed Hoxton Square and was interactively controlled by the guests.

Over the past 10 years, artist Roseline De Thelin has been working with light as a medium and subject. Her ethereal installations explore all aspects of the medium - reflection, refraction, fragmentation and transparency (we're one step away from a full-blown PoMo reading here) Recently seen at the Kinetica Art Fair, Roseline's Homos Luminosos brings to mind Star Trek/Close encounters of the 3rd kind and the like. Fascinating stuff!

Speaking of Mona Lisa, Korean artist Lee Lee Nam uses digital technology to bring to life some of our most loved classics. Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring sheds a tear as she looks out at you, seemingly communicating her melancholy (which if you watched the movie of the same name, it totally makes sense). And yes, the Mona Lisa features in his body of work as well. In his parodic take of the enigmatic beauty, Nam puts the Mona Lisa in the midst of war as helicopters and parachutes rain down upon her.