Award-winning photography selection showcasing winners from contests such as National Geographic Contest, Nikon Technology, Energizer, Sony etc. This time the Crowdsourcing blog is from the inspiring feed of Noupe.
A tribal birth in India by Abhijit Dey
Six days after Betka Tudu’s birth, female relatives and neighbors in the West Bengal village of Purulia gathered to bless him and “to protect him from harm’s way,” says Dey. Born into the Santhal tribe, Betka “unknowingly drew his distant kin closer than ever.” — Abigail Tucker
Light Dance by Rod Scott
Tough lighting situations at times produce the greatest shots. This photo is one that falls into that category. The painting of light and the illumination of the faces capture the moment beautifully.
Ted Steinke of Layton
for photo of Northern Harriers, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, UT
Today’s crowdsourced blog comes from an awesome brain feeder called Rebel Art. This hilarious, surreal & original short film “crossroads (what to do)” by Garvin Nolte deals with the influence of others on one’s own path of life in an abstract way…..v.cool
The more I discover great bloggers, funnily enough, the more I find even more great bloggers. The wealth of content out there never ceases to amaze me. Pioneering crowdsoucing Art 3.0 my cortex appropriates the world through crowdsourcing synapses. In this case I see the modern day blogger, in part, a blogging crowdsourcer; the curator of outstanding blog content; and so I present an art blogger who always picks up awesome threads including this mouth watering piece below. Go visit \\\ and get fed art triple backslash style!
Wayne Levin has spent a career photographing the eerie and mysterious underwater world. Working in black and white, he removes the surface illusions about the ocean and the assumptions about underwater photography. Levin earned his B.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute and his M.F.A. from Pratt Institute in New York. His monograph, Through a Liquid Mirror (Editions Limited, 1998), received the Hawaii Book Publishers Association’s award for Book of the Year. Levin received the Photographer’s Fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council (1989); and the National Endowment for the Arts (1984). His photographs are widely exhibited and are in major public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Bishop Museum, Honolulu; and the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts.
TV shows like Scrapheap Challenge, Robot Wars and Fun House would never have existed without these two legends who are responsible for inspiring millions. Saying that, their wild contraptions were probably down to Da Vinci’s eclectic efforts. Either way, these top ten examples of machine & mechanical art (or is it kinetic now?) have all put a smile on our face at one time or another. Bow to the industrial age of cogs, levers and pulleys…
William Heath Robinson (1872 – 1944) was an English cartoonist and illustrator. He is best known for drawings of eccentric machines and the term “Heath Robinson” has entered the language as a description of any unnecessarily complex and implausible contraption. Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist who loved to draw incredibly complicated machines designed to complete wonderfully simple tasks. Incarnations of these legends’ machines have inspired films, commercials and competitions because of their mesmerizing and entertaining functionality.
Honda’s take on the Robinson/Goldberg machines using only parts found in their car has become an incredibly acclaimed commercial. It’s about as simple as they come, but still incredibly entertaining.
The board game Mouse Trap is probably the most well known Goldberg/Robinson inspired machine, which isn’t surprising, considering it’s been entertaining children since it was first produced in 1963, and is still being widely sold in stores today. Real life incarnations have been created at makers fairs and Burning Man.
The band OK Go has become notorious for having intricate and entertaining music videos. They’ve been featured doing complex choreography involving several treadmills for their song “Here It Goes Again”, stop motion filming for “End Love”, and a wonderfully intricate Rube Goldberg video for “This Too Shall Pass”.
The variety of Rube Goldberg & Heath Robinson machines are entertaining, especially how complicated they can become when they’re simply placed against a flat board. The sprawling, room spanning ones tend to be the most interesting, especially as this is where most of the DIY machine creation tends to concentrate.
Manypeople utilize computer environments with already designed physics engines to create their own machines without having them dominate their living rooms. The computer game Half Life has a sandbox that has spawned an incredible number of machines utilizing objects found within the game.
Rube Goldberg’s original cartoons were quite popular when they were first published, and his inventiveness led these machines to be featured in everything from car commercials to the film “Back to the Future”. The popularity of these machines doesn’t seem to be fading.
Purdue holds an annual Rube Goldberg machine competition, where college students from around the country compete to create the most consistently functional, complicated, and entertaining piece of hardware to complete a specific task. Purdue came in first in the 2007 competition by creating a machine that could assemble a pre-cooked hamburger with bun, and several condiments.
Rube Goldberg art is decently popular, though I have a feeling most people are less in favor of the cartoon and sculpted versions now that so many working options are available for viewing.
Crowdsourcing excels as a content creation and distribution model, just look at Wikipedia. International art projects, social activism and now the UK government are all employing crowdsourcing to excel productivity. NOWHistorypin is utilising this social media phenomenon to create the biggest user-generated digital photo archive in the world. Crowdsourced photographs are synced with Google maps and hey presto, a geo-search-photo-archive-engine for everyone. This opens new doors for artists. Surely painters and photographers from past and present can exhibit on the new platform for exposure delivering crowdsourced art to the History pin mix.
The idea has gargantuan potential. They’re calling it a “digital time machine” and, this being the age of Wikiality, anyone can contribute. What’s history? Whatever you pin. Selfridges and M&S have both released their archives to the site giving Historypin a rolling start & no doubt giving the two establishments an intelligent method of ambient advertising.
It is early days but developments with augmented reality could rocket Historypin’s possibilities to a remarkable dimension. Imagine taking a walk around a city or ruin, accessing a deep interactive historic tour spanning from your present contribution back……
If you know anything about street art you’ll be familiar with the mastery of blu or you won’t forget him now. The Italian has created BIG BANG BIG BOOM; an unscientific point of view on the beginning and evolution of life … and how it could end. The wall-painted animation is full of great ideas and it shows an incredible amount of hard work and imagination. Enjoy the video. The quality and innovation of blu continues and so does his legacy as one of the best street artists of all time. Below the video I’ve also put an interview to give you more insight into the man, artist and his work.
Kolahstudio: Do you live in Italy? Would you please Describe the Street Art Scene in your City? And when you started your Career?
Blu: Yes I live in Italy. I started with graffiti 10 years ago.What you can see on the street are mostly graffiti pieces and tags, graffiti are almost everywhere in Italy, you can find it even in small towns. In the bigger cities there are also other kind of street art and people experimenting different languages and using different media. On one side there is a good quality and many original ideas, on the other side “street art” is a fashion product so most of the people are just doing it because it is “cool”, hope this “street art” game will end soon.
KS: Are your works illegal Or you always get permission to do your walls?
Blu: In the past I was working almost only illegally, going out during the night or painting abandoned building, there are also many occupied places where you can be free and paint what you want. Then in the last year more and more permissions and commissions are coming so I often work in a official way.
KS: Any influences? Do you like any Especial Gener on visual Art or any Particular Visual Artist?
Blu: I started doing art thanks to graffiti and comics so that’s my main background but I like art in general. I have a special passion for animation works.
KS: It seems you are in a Great travel-Megunica- across latin America .Why did you choose These Countries? and how you see people there?
Blu: We where interested in searching for public art, especially street painting, in those countries that have such a strong wall painting tradition. Especially in central America, painting walls is still a common work, it is used mainly for advertising because is still cheaper than printing billboards, in Europe this thing has disappeared in the past century.
We were sure to find a perfect place for painting, and that is what we actually found.
KS: What are your Basic Materials for wall paintings and how do you paint that big?
Blu: I basically use just black and white water based paint, a roller and some brushes, I draw using a long pole with a brush on the top, if the wall is really big I use a scaffold or maybe a mechanical platform.
KS: Do you make money out of Your Art? And are you ok with this situation?
Blu: At the moment I can live with my work. I sell some drawings and I make the money I need to go on with my projects.
I try to avoid other kind of works such as commissions from companies and advertising, which is something i don’t really like.
I’m not economically rich but I’m billionaire in happiness .
KS: How do you see the World today? any personal viewpoints or thoughts you have?(i think you show this in your paintings but better if you can talk about it for us)
Blu: You’ re right, my painting are reflecting more than what I could say with words. Personally I try live without making violence on anyone. I see two really dangerous things in the world: fear and rage. Everyone can be easily controlled through these emotions, especially in this historical moment.
KS: Do you have any advice for young Street Artists especially in places where the movement has just began?
Blu: Street art doesn’t exist, there is just you and the world outside. Do what you like in the best way and think about what you are doing.
KS: Thanks a lot For putting your time to answer Our questions.any Final comments or Words?
Blu: Don’t lose your time reading these last words.
Following on from the success of the ProjectRoom series in Berlin, Remi/Rough and Jaybo brought ProjectRoom to London with the help of the UK’s abstract graffiti pioneer; Juice 126. Let me introduce raw live art.
Banksy decided to hit Glastonbury this year, but is it really a Banksy or imitation? I wish I could’ve made good old glasto for its 40 year anniversary. Looks like it was a corker!
Photos below all sourced from an excellent photography feed, Boston Globe’s Big Picture.
Wonderful collages made for Pronomade (s) by the french design studio HELMO. The landscape pictures are by Serveau Francis. Do check out HELMO’s portfolio. It’s stuffed with awesomeness….
