Through March 12, the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, Australia is hosting a miraculous installation by artist Yayoi Kusama. Called “The Obliteration Room,” it is part of an exhibition called “Look Now, See Forever.” It’s simply a white room of white things to start, but the whiteness is, well, obliterated by thousands of colorful stickers handed out to young visitors over time. Another testament to the strange magnetic attraction between museum visitors and stickers. See more images over at Colossal.
Another one I wish I’d done: Italian architect Werner Tscholl has created yet another lookout / observation deck / museum high in the mountains (here is the last one). This one, called Granat and overlooking the town of Moos, Italy, has two parts linked by a wooden bridge: one is a precipitous cage that glows at night, the other a gravity-defying, windowless exhibit gallery. Spectacular.
What would you pay to help create a new interactive sound installation about something meaningful? Indie Go-Go, the project-funding site (a competitor of Kickstarter), has a project you might be interested in: “Resolution” by Stephanie Andreou. Her campaign is worthwhile and her video is informative. Worth watching, worth donating. (Link to the campaign after the jump.)
Speaking of virtual museums, “Road Inc.” is a new iPad app from Pyrolia in France. One reviewer has apparently said “Road Inc. is the closest thing you’ll find to a dynamic museum exhibition [in an iPad, I assume] and some of the best proof that there is life beyond coffee table books.” I’ve heard similar claims before, so I wasn’t optimistic. But this time, there may be cause for optimism.
I paid $4.99, downloaded it, and went through a few cars. (As their blurb says: “The first digital object dedicated to the automobile, Road Inc. comes with 50 iconic models to unveil.”) It comes with a Ferrari “exhibit” preloaded. The rest require individual waits for downloads, but they don’t take long, and otherwise that first download would take most of the day.
This frankly gorgeous app is utterly packed with interesting content of all kinds, from original studio photography to historic schematics to essays. And it’s full of little touches. Three of my favorites: you can choose what order you use to walk through this “museum”: sorted by type (racer, supercar, etc.), price (from 7,000 to yikes, 55,000,000), or (ha!) speed (from 15.6 to 254 mph). When you download a new car, you get to whisk off a little virtual tarpaulin to unveil it. And, at least for the ones I’ve done so far, you can listen to what the car sounds like when it accelerates. That all might not be the same as the real thing, but $4.99 is a little more in my price range than, let’s say, $2,100,000 (for a Pagani Zonda). More on “Road Inc.” after I have visited the whole “museum” but my initial visit made me smile.
A new book from the same source as New Exhibition Design 01 & 02, but now looking back, is now available for pre-order. Just pre-ordered mine. Due in January. (If you don’t have the first two, get them while you’re at it. Quite indispensable recent surveys.)
UPDATE, 30 Dec 2011: Just heard that the release date has been pushed back to March. Sigh.
Google and JC Decaux have collaborated to create a new permanent interactive exhibit on the future of the city of Paris at the Pavillon de l’Arsenal. My, that’s a lot of screens.
Good Lord, I wish I’d made that. Italian architect Werner Tscholl has created what must be one of the most singular museums … ever.
Located at, looking over, and themed around a single mountain pass in the Alps, this insanely cantilevered one-room space is a hallway, a hyper-specific history exhibit, and a lookout, all at the same time. Bravo!
PLOT has some good images of the new Military History Museum in Dresden (Germany). Daniel Libeskind was the architect (as you might expect from the images), and exhibits were done by two firms: HG Merz and Holzer Kobler.
I am told a Norwegian scent artist named Sissel Tolaas created an essence that is the “smell of death” for the museum. I’ll, er, just leave that one and move on. Here is an English version of the text over on PLOT, in case you click your way there (courtesy of Google Translate, all trademark odd turns of phrase theirs alone):
With over 10,000 square feet of space, all designed by HG Merz and Holzer Kobler architectures include new permanent exhibition in the Military History Museum Dresden probably the largest of its kind – not only in Germany. It aims on dialogue classical and unusual perspectives. The two museum designers tap into memorable imagery a new, cross-company access to the complex topic.
“It is clear from the beginning, what will be the basic idea of the museum, the Military Group should only be limited to give much pleasure. Change of perspective”, feels and Stefan Schirmer (Schirmer, Stefan: So the war. In: THE TIME No. 41, 06.10.2011, p. 21). First of all, however, is clear that the issue goes into their design both a symbiotic relationship with the classical old building and the wedge-shaped building by Daniel Libeskind: Sun shows the chronology of the building – structured as a timeline – the story of the German military. The space showcases meandering present selected historical objects in shop windows. The course topics in the new building on the other hand wants to touch the emotions of the visitors. Therefore, the exhibition dealt with individual aspects of different epochs and phenomena of the military, which affect the sustainable society. Walk-in installations, the thematic content is translated effectively into associative images. But not only media stations produce memorable images: The olfaktoriche perception is sharpened: the Norwegian scent artist Sissel Tolass an essence that is the smell of death and the visitors while opening a flap developed the beating.
The naturally-acting blend of exhibition space objects creates a unique museum architecture and presentation of the history of the military as part of our culture. Link as an additional image plane of contemporary media art and space exhibits.
Retired fashion great Valentino has launched a new “virtual museum” of couture with “10,000 square meters” of fashion galleries that you can download (Mac/PC) for free. After a few days of seeing promising screen grabs everywhere, I dutifully downloaded. If you’re a fan, it seems encyclopedic enough, and there is a lot of content to get into here. As a digital visitor experience, the “Valentino Garavani Virtual Museum” has some room for improvement, particularly the execution of the first-person 3D navigation. That alone got me wondering about the whole idea of a “virtual” (i.e. faux-spatial) museum in digital form. More on that later.
I don’t really need any more proof that the Dutch can out-design us all. But if I did, I could refer to Engaging Spaces: Exhibition Design Explored, a new monograph by Amsterdam “exhibition architects” Kossman.dejong. The book is big, and so are the ideas in it. Highly recommended.
Spotted recently at My Modern Met: Artist Lise Bjorne Linnert’s powerful installation “Desconocida Unknown Ukjenthas” uses more than 5,500 unique hand-embroidered (yes, embroidered) names on pink gallery surfaces to represent female victims of violence.
Long live the humble recycled paper tube as a design element. The latest addition to the … trend? … is the display wall of a bike shop in Hong Kong by architects Eureka. 5,412 tubes can be slid in and out of the wall to hold literature, display products, spell words, you name it. Brilliant.
The images I’ve seen of this Design Miami installation by London-based rAndom International are hard to put out of my mind. The video speaks for itself. It’s lovely. (Note to self: hire modern dancer for next portfolio shoot.) And apparently all it took was:
1064 warm white Philips Lumiblade OLEDs, black custom circuit board back plane, aluminium suspension, custom driver software, camera based motion tracking system, custom motion tracking software by Chris O’Shea, computer, iPod touch remote control
Last month, November 2011, officially marked my 20th year practicing … whatever it is I do. I was first hired to work on an exhibit design project (the Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, NY) in November, 1991. I had no idea that it was a career, or that people even did it at all. Now I am at least somewhat more convinced.
So thanks, everyone, for helping me survive my first 20 years of it, and thank you in advance for helping me through my second 20 years of it. Whatever it is.
I will be in touch somewhat later, regarding my third 20 years.
“Constellation Gaga,” the only interactive installation in Gaga’s Holiday Workshop Windows, enables visitors to Barney’s to Tweet their Holiday wishes to Gaga’s Constellation, where they will be streamed live on the Prysm laser phosphor display (LPD) and hosted on a website.
Explorations of new developments in exhibit design, museum planning and interactive space by Jonathan Alger, co-founder of the design firm C&G Partners.
