[This is definitely one of the more interesting installation audio/sculpture pieces I’ve seen lately. -egg]

Check out the video here: https://vimeo.com/169513538

Do stressed materials emit sound waves? Yes, definitely, as we learn from the existence of Ultra Acoustic Emissions, or “ultra high and ultra short acoustic waves that travel through materials in conditions of stress.” Christoph De Boeck has brilliantly used these in his piece “Golfvorm,” where he reflects on iron in its different embodiments. Salt vapor emerges from below a steel sheet. This in turn oxidizes the steel sheet, causing iron to emerge. Furthermore, the sheet is bent by the weight of several iron mineral stones. Sensitive microphones capture the acoustic emissions of this process, which are scaled down and amplified, while the microscopic cracks produce abrupt sounds. The ongoing tension of the work creates a mesmerizing piece – revealing a process that happens right in front of our eyes but in an almost imperceptible space. Here De Boeck assembles a micro-dynamic sense of sound, reflected in materials, shapes and induced acoustics.

In one part of Chicago’s Near West Side, the median household income is $104,000. In another—about a mile away—it’s about $20,000.

A recent data visualization maps out the city’s stark income inequality in diagrams that look like a skyline: The taller the “building,” the higher the income on that block.

“It was really important to me to create the image of a city, and create this kind of post-apocalyptic ambiance,” says Austrian designer Herwig Scherabon, who mapped income in Chicago, L.A., and New York City as part of a larger Atlas of Gentrification. “When you look at it, you start to explore. The street grid is still visible in the visualizations.”

Using height to illustrate differences, instead of a standard heat map, makes the problem even more obvious. Chicago wasn’t always so starkly divided: In the 1970s, nearly half of the households in the city were middle class. Over the next four decades, Chicago added almost four times as many wealthy census tracts, while extreme poverty also grew. By 2010, middle-income tracts made up only 16% of the city.

Source: These Apocalyptic Maps Show The Holes Income Inequality Has Left In Cities | Co.Exist | ideas + impact

With dizzying wall graphics reminiscent of warped funhouse mirrors, artist Peter Kogler transforms ordinary galleries, transit centers, and lobbies into near hallucinatory experiences. For over 30 years, the Austrian artist has worked at the intersection of architecture and new media to construct both immersive environments and sculptural elements that seems to redefine physical spaces. By plastering walls with optical illusions he challenges a viewer’s sense of depth (and sanity) with his ambitious monochromatic installations of repeating patterns that incorporate pipes, ants, and bold snake-like patterns.

Kogler’s most recent pieces were on view at the ING Art Center in Brussels and at ERES-Stiftung in Munich earlier this year. You can see much more on his website.

Source: Vertigo-Inducing Room Illusions by Peter Kogler

As humanity turns its gaze increasingly outwards in search of life on distant planets, a Russian deep-sea fisherman has reminded us of the incredible biodiversity lurking in the inner depths of our own world – most of which we still know literally nothing about.

Working on a trawler based in the port of Murmansk, Roman Fedortsov has certainly seen a thing or two on his adventures in the icy waters of the Barents Sea. And while we shouldn’t be celebrating the fact that so many exquisitely unique deep-sea creatures have been accidentally caught up in the fishing nets cast by Fedortsov and his crewmates, his collection of alien-like fish does at least give us an opportunity to study some of the planet’s most bizarre creatures.

Source: Russian Fisherman Captures Insane-Looking Deep-Sea Creatures, But What The Hell Are They? | IFLScience

I’m really enjoying these miniature assemblages by sculptor J. Shea whose pinball piece, Magical Machine, was just on display here in Chicago at a videogame themed exhibit at OhNo!Doom. Tim Burton would approve. (via super punch)

Source: The Curious Assemblages of J. Shea | Colossal

Sky Villages, designed by James Paulius, is an interactive installation at the SPARK Brooklyn Children’s Museum. The play center features several stackable modules that can be rearranged as expanding homes—wooden dwellings floating between clouds in an aquamarine sky. The imaginative play area aims to educate children about our planet’s constantly evolving population, offering a space for airborne ideas.

“As Earth’s population increases, we may look to the atmosphere for inhabitable space,” said Paulius. “Sky Villages presents the possibility to dwell in the sky in modular architecture that can be added or removed as populations increase or decrease. Dwelling units are prefabricated with the intent of reuse rather than discardment. When a unit no longer fits the particular needs of its location, it can be moved elsewhere for a new family to reside in. Constantly evolving, these structures accommodate the ever-changing tendencies of humanity and nature.”

The toy homes for Sky Villages were fabricated from wood reclaimed from water towers in Manhattan. You can see more of Paulius’ block-based projects on his portfolio site and Instagram. (via Colossal Submissions)

Source: An Airborne Village of Stacking Vertical Homes at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum

Photos from Austin trip, 12/2016. Most photos from the Mexic-arte art museum’s show “Icons & Symbols of the Borderland” (http://www.mexic-artemuseum.org/exhibitions). Two are of Xu Bing’s installation “A Book from the Sky” at the Blanton art museum (https://blantonmuseum.org/2016/06/xu-bing-book-from-the-sky/).

Antonio Castro, “El Último Arcoiris” (“The Very Last Rainbow”)

Antonio Castro, “Las Armas del Terrorista” (“The Terrorist’s Weapons”)

Xu Bing: “Book from the Sky”

Xu Bing: “Book from the Sky”

Richard Armendariz, “Tlazolteotl as a Horse”

In 2016, self-driving cars made inroads in several countries, many of which rewrote their laws to accommodate the new technology. As a science-fiction writer, it’s my duty to warn the human race that the robot revolution has begun — even if no one has noticed yet.

When a few autonomous test cars appeared on the roads over the last few years, we didn’t think of them as robots because they didn’t have the humanoid shape that science-fiction movies taught us to expect. In 2016, they were adopted widely: as buses in the United Arab Emirates and the Netherlands, taxis in Singapore and private cars in the United States and China. There was a fatal accident in Florida involving an autonomous car, which caused some concerns, but this did not significantly affect our embrace of this technology.

Instead of arming ourselves against this alien presence, as some of my fellow science-fiction writers have fearfully suggested, we gawked as the vehicles pulled up to the curb. The driverless vehicles, some of which had no steering wheels or gas pedals, merged into traffic and stopped at stop signs, smoothly taking us to our destinations. We lounged in comfort, occasionally taking selfies.

Source: The Robot Revolution Will Be the Quietest One – The New York Times

[Well, this is gross. -egg]

A few years ago, Josh Golin, the executive director of the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood, was sitting in his office near South Station in Boston when he got a call from a friend of his, a public health attorney. “Have you seen what is going on with the NFL?” she asked him. He didn’t know what she was talking about, so he started to poke around and came across the league’s use of SEMs. “You hope teachers would see these for what they are and toss them in the recycling bin,” he told me. As Golin and his team of four dug deeper into what the league was doing, “the more we were like, ‘Oh my God, the NFL is using every trick in the book to market to kids.’ Junk food promotion, fantasy football, promoting sedentary screen time. They were using mobile, a TV property, live events, online, getting into schools. It was a 360-degree marketing approach to children.”

Source: Inside The NFL’s Tobacco-Style Strategy To Hook Your Kids

[This is my single biggest concern about a Trump presidency. -egg]

Source: What President Trump Will Mean for Climate Change – The Atlantic