Bathgate returns with new Sculpture

After dedicating a few months to his small edition One and Two, Chris Bathgate is back on more familiar ground, creating a one of a kind sculpture that not only looks good, it's fun to play with.

Built around a turnbuckle system where each sphere, designated as either a right hand or left hand sphere, is joined by a bronze bushing that drives a brass turnbuckle bolt.

Check out the complete set of Chris Bathgate blogposts.

Into the Crucible of a Collaboration

Into the Crucibles of Nature
In what was 2009, the year of Astronomy, a unique partnership was formed between artist Fiorella Lavado and Scientist cum Author Arthur I. Miller to facilitate an exploration of the cosmos like never before. In concert with the Benaki Museum of Athens for the purpose of the exhibition, Into the Crucibles of Nature, Fiorella, with direction from Arthur have created a unique collection of art that recreates the science of the universe.

Fiorella’s weavings work particularly well with black holes. They contain a stillness that is unsettling which evokes a cautiousness to their exploration as the viewer. Likewise wormholes and nebulas which also feature are still very unknown quantities but there is reason to be very cautious about their exploration also, which is captured marvellously in these weavings.

Jaws of Darkness | Ultra Fine Wire Weave | Fiorella Lavado | Photography Noel Mclaughlin

Heretical Science: Parallel Universe Exhbition

The idea that our world contains more dimensions than the physical three dimensions of space and one dimension of time is both unsettling and fascinating. Not only can we not experience these dimensions, the very thought of them causes our brain to run in circles. In contrast, mathematics and computers have no problems adjusting to this realisation.

Ian Carlo Jaucian is not a computer. He is troubled by these same problems. If extra dimensions exist, what might they be good for? What do they look like? Why are some physicist focusing their entire careers on the search for these illusive dimensions?

To tackle these questions Ian has devised a unique collection of original art pieces which he has titled Heretical Science, which has been on display in the Parallel Universe exhibition at the Cultural Center of the Philippines from the 26th of August until 2nd of October.

FeverPicture @ TEDxAdelaide

Capturing information is the most important aspect of communicating. Charts, graphs and other tools are sometimes a little to formal and limited in what they can depict.

So when TEDxAdelaide, a place to introduce and discuss new ideas, needed to record their speakers talks, it was most probably very logical that FeverPicture play an important part in recording the days events. Especially so as FeverPicture has illustrated for TEDxAuckland.

FeverPicture, created by Gavin Blake, is an illustrative approach to telling stories, recording conversations and explaining complex systems.

James Fosdike @ TEDxAdelaide

Saturday, 10am CDT. Adelaide was hit by a TEDx event that rocked the city in to the early hours of Sunday morning. Aftershocks continue to reverberate throughout the city as the ideas once on the edge, continue to spread out from the epicenter and seep into the consciousness of stunned observers.

James Fosdike, creator of Visualante and Deadly, was on hand through out the day lending his talents to TEDxAdelaide in order to catalogue the days topics in his unique style of Illustration.

Augmented Reality | James Fosdike

Chris Bathgate's Small Edition #1

Chris Bathgate contacted me last week to tell me about his latest work and fascination. It was only two weeks ago that I let you know of his latest major work, yet we find our selves here again, albeit in a scaled down form.

A Series of 5 Sr622224431773524's lined up next to each other | Copyright Chris Bathgate

Dreamy Science Experiments with Art

Since Aristotle first claimed that "a person awakes from sleep when digestion is complete", the act of shut eye has been a very misunderstood phenomenon. It took Sigmund Freud arching back to ancient Egyptian and Greek times who believed dreams could be interpreted to reveal hidden meaning to revolutionalise our thoughts on sleep.

However since the 1970s our old ideas have begun to crumble in the face of harder scientific theories. Thus the question begs, should we shed our earlier notions and put our trust in the new regime? Is hard science the only way forward? Does imagination, invention and art not get to play a role?

Somnolence Structures | Copyright Lisa Carrie Goldberg

Latest Work From Chris Bathgate

Chris Bathgate creates art by experimenting with mechanical engineering.

If you can cast your mind back about 2 weeks, You'll remember that I introduced Chris's work with my Chris Bathgate is Engineering Art blog post. Little did I know he was just about to unleash a new beauty.

Today I bring you Chris's latest work, fresh off the home made lathes and with the milling lubricant still steaming.

Chris Bathgate is Engineering Art

You wouldn't expect a painter to piece together a custom brush bristle by bristle. A Photographer doesn't spend his time improving an optical lens made by cannon. Nor do illustrators make their own pencils or pastels.

Which makes Chris Bathgate a very unique artist: If he needs it, he builds it.

These are the mostly unforeseen works, the product of the Chris Bathgate process. Over the years necessity has prompted the formation of Computerised Numerical Control (CNC) machines (a large mill and two smaller lathes), Digitally operated kilns, electroplating tanks and anodizing equipment that you wont find in any gallery or private collection.

Robert Langs Origami as Art & Science

The perception of Origami held by most is that of an obscure Japanese folk art. Challenging this perception is the work of Robert Lang who's detailed and highly complex folds are in keep with Origami's recent transformation from art to science.

The 1980s marked a turning point for Origami as it increasingly became the subject of mathematicians, scientists and engineers. The next decade welcomed a flood of ideas, theories and genuine breakthroughs exposing a truth and power in Origami marking it's renascence and future direction.

Scorpion HP, opus 541 | One uncut square of Korean hanji paper | Copyright Robert Lang

A 21st Century Approach to Marquetry

Wall Piece | River | Copyright Theo Kamecke

Beauty in engineering is often a result of function or purpose, but it can also be deliberate as an aid to readability and maintainability.

Circuit boards are a great example. Look at any circuit board and you'll see groups of components and connections. Often the connections will flow from one, to another or around components creating a mirror, rotational or other symmetrical image.

On their own they can be quite beautiful, but wouldn't it be great if the beauty was more accessible, spelt out to us who are not so in tune with the symmetries of nature?

Introducing Theo Kamecke.

Art and the Atom

I came across a news release recently, via Google news and discovered that in Christchurch, New Zealand, there is an interesting exhibition merging nanotechnology and art.

The exhibition is a collaboration between the University of Canterbury and the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Material and Nanotechnology that aims to bring scientists and artists together in order to communicate a brilliant 21st century technology to the public.

Nanotechnology is the engineering of materials the size of 1 billionth of a meter. When materials are built at such a small scale and of variant sizes, different properties, that which don't appear in it's chemical makeup at macro sizes spring forward, often surprising the scientists at work: Nano silver is completely anti-bacterial, carbon nano tubes are execellent conductors of electricity.

The MacDiarmid Institute donated $2000 dollars to be awarded to the best nanotechnology picture of the exhibition.

David Garret | Towers of Vertically Aligned Nano Tubes

Khemia: Living Alchemy Exhibition & Workshops - Part 2 - Exhibition Run Down

The artists featured in this article were profiled in Khemia: Living Alchemy Exhibition & Workshops - Part I - Artists Introduction

Enter the world of Khemia, where separate and disparate things fuse to make the new and art and science are not as seperate as you might think.

Three artists: Niki Sperou, Angela Valamanesh & John Willanski.

Chimera - Niki Sperou
The centre piece of the exhibition, Chimera aims to drive a merger of biotechnology, material manipulations and ancient Greek cultural paradigms, using art as it's vehicle.

Niki Sperou | Chimera | Wall Mounted Photos

Caleb Charland

A quick blog about something I found today.

What happens when you have someone who is curious about how things work and they also happen to be a kick arse photographer? You get these...

Caleb Charland | Light Sphere with My Right Arm and Cigarette Lighter