Hasta La Ideas

Thermochromic interactive grids invade Issey Miyake’s Tribeca location

A bright blue interactive installation has taken over the walls of Issey Miyake‘s Tribeca storefront. Composed of grids of hexagonal pads or “voxels”, Symbiosis0: Voxel responds to body heat or “artifacts” left by users who touch its textile surface. Accompanying the physical responsiveness of the piece is a mobile website that enables users to design a pattern that is displayed across the polygons upon submission. The display, a collaboration between artists Alex Dodge, Kärt Ojavee and Eszter Ozsvald had visitors pressing hands and faces against the shapes and delighting both fashionistas and children alike.

“Issey Miyake’s ability to take traditional designs and techniques and reinvent them through new materials and technology is something we all felt inspired by,” relates Alex Dodge. “When we first thought about possible colors for the installation, we found a nice relationship to a traditional Japanese textile dyeing technique known as “shibori”—it’s typically indigo blue with white lines. So we found a way of doing something similar with a totally new technology.”

Connected by a series of wires, the royal blue shapes turn bright white on contact, retaining the impression for a few minutes afterwards. As Kärt Ojavee explains, “Every pixel of the honeycomb-structured installation is individually constructed of several layers: covered with silk, the substrate material is felt, and in between are the warming elements. All voxels have two visual states—blue and a highlighted wire-frame of a cube. The silk is coated with thermochromic ink, reacting to body temperature or activated by the middle layer, which is controlled through a web-based interface.”

The installation was imagined as an interactive piece that would engage shoppers in a way that traditional art cannot. “People are usually not supposed to touch artworks nor create their own content on the medium,” says Eszter Ozsvald. “Suddenly, from a passive listener you become an important part of the installation and your displayed image becomes a part of the interior. I like the fact that you not only take something from the store but you leave a trace, a unique touch behind.”

SymbiosisO: Voxel will be on display at Issey Miyake in Tribeca through 28 April 2012. Check out the installation in action by watching our rough cut.

Tribeca Issey Miyake

119 Hudson Street

New York, NY 10013

By Greg Stefano and James Thorne.

A new body of work by artist Paula Scher takes a subjective look at topography

by Maj Hartov

Graphic design heavyweight Paula Scher‘s new book Maps covers her cartographic artwork since the late 1990s. She calls her large-scale paintings “distortions of reality,” as they comment on our world of information overload in a deeply personal way. When she was a child, Scher’s father—who wrote an introductory essay for the book—invented a device called Stereo Templates that helps correct the naturally occurring deviations in aerial photos used for creating maps. As a result, the artist grew up understanding that all maps contain distortions and used that riff on reality to guide her own interpretations. When Scher started painting her maps, she wanted to create them through her own altered lens, understanding that such inconsistencies were all around her as part of her everyday life—through her own work and the work of others.

Scher’s book of colorful, multilayered paintings present familiar geography in vibrant, thoughtful new ways. Besides being visually stunning, on closer look each map is crammed with geographical information. One titled “International Air Routes” includes airline hubs, flight routes, names of airlines and time zones, while another called “World Trade” outlines ports, trade routes and currencies. The book also features several pages of zoomed-in slices of each painting for closer examination of every angle of the maps.

With the book, Scher takes the reader on a virtual world tour with a twist and her “paintings of distortions” compel us to take a look at the idea of truth within our own reality in the process.

“Maps” is available from Amazon for $30.

Australian graffiti artist’s scuffling greyscale characters inhabit everything from paintings to scarves

Using everything from street walls to hundred-dollar bills and dresser drawers, Australian graffiti artist Stormie Mills has been exploring themes of urban decay since 1984. Characters, rendered predominantly in greyscale, evoke a sense of loneliness and isolation, portraying the age-old themes of quests for identity. His street art-style paintings, well-received by critics and collectors alike, have been commissioned for the creation of murals across Greece for the Athens Olympics and featured at Miami Art Basel, as well as at exhibitions in Barcelona, Greece, London, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth.

Throughout his career, Mills has undertaken several unusual projects. In 2009, he and five other artists, calling themselves “Agents of Change,” stayed in an abandoned village in Scotland prior to its imminent demolition, transforming the area into a large work of art. The undertaking was documented in a short film, which showed at the London Film Festival. Stormie has also ventured into the world of collectible toy-making, releasing a limited-edition figure which was sold in Tokyo and New York.

His latest project gives wearable art the Stormie treatment. Inspired by the famous Oscar Wilde quote, “We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars,” the artist created a limited-edition scarf, of which only 150 were produced. Available in black, blue, and grey and featuring a character dubbed “The Time Keeper,” the scarves include a hand-numbered booklet and sell from the Art Gallery of Western Australia for $450.

Commercial endeavors aside, the graffiti vet has enjoyed widespread success in his gallery showings, the most recent of which opened last Wednesday at Metro Gallery in Melbourne, Australia. The show, titled “Scuffling,” runs through 20 August 2011 and explores the idea of perpetual motion as well as a method of applying paint. “Scuffling as a way of painting seems to fit well with the sounds that I imagine my paintings would make if they were to walk,” explains Stormie, “I imagine they’d scuffle along, a cross between a shuffle and a scrape, very much like the way that I paint them.”

Ping-pong balls and dance in the U.S. debut of a visually arresting performance

On a black stage a singular ping-pong ball triggers four dancers, followed by thousands more balls dropping, rolling and flooding the scene in controlled chaos. This is “Why Patterns.” Making its U.S. debut next week, the performance piece is a collaboration between choreographer Jonah Bokaer and Snarkitecture, a creative studio founded by artist Daniel Arsham and architect Alex Mustonen.

First commissioned by Dance Works Rotterdam, the show draws inspiration from the musical composition by Morton Feldman of the same name. The creative partnership formed after Arsham met Bokaer while stage designing for the late choreographer Merce Cunningham. “We had many interests in common,” says Arsham. “In the case of ‘Why Patterns,’ I proposed the possibility of what we could do with one ball, and with 5,000 balls.” Costumes were redesigned by menswear’s Richard Chai.

With Arsham’s years of experience in stage design, the performance is a logical transition for Snarkitecture’s practice, but with the challenge of creating a lightweight set portable enough for touring. “Working within this, we created something that had a strong visual impact and some very unexpected moments that respond to the movement of the dancers,” says Mustonen.

“Why Patterns” runs from 3-7 August 2011 at the Jacob Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Massachusetts. Tickets are $23.50-$37.50, with special pricing on Friday. Visit Jacob Pillow Dance online to purchase and for more information.

Photos by Snarkitecture

Flout diplomacy with Dicks of the World decals

Bodega collaborated with a number of artists to bring a little street art to your living room wall. With vinyl as their medium, artists Cody Hudson, Barry McGee, Hisham Bharoocha, Steve Harrington and Michael Leon made prints that make an affordable way to add something special to your wall. The collection is eco-friendly, temporary and made for indoors.

One notably provocative print, Michael Leon’s “Dicks of the World” depicts said appendage in various sizes with the markings of flags from various countries of the world—but he doesn’t discriminate. Fun and unpretentious, the theme will surely liven up any room. You can choose your wang by country and Bodega will provide you with the tools needed to paste it to the wall.

The vinyl quality is at gallery standards, making your home a backdrop to a collection of art unparalleled to your neighbors. The art is meant to last up to five years, by then maybe you will have been inspired to try a new country. Pick up the series online at Third Drawer Down.