I am pleased to be able to share Watermans presention of a new outdoor commission and other scheduled exhibitions.  I was not able to get the images and hope to be adding these soon!

GEOMETRY by Félicie d’Estienne d’Orves

Wednesday 1 February – Wednesday 12 September 2012
Dawn – 12 midnight

GEOMETRY was made possible with a grant from The Mayor of London’s Outer London Fund and is supported by The London Borough of Hounslow. The installation will be opened by Boris Johnson, Mayor of London on Thursday 2 February and will run until the end of September 2012.



GEOMETRY is a kinetic installation that uses light as a means of communication and is inspired by such communication devices as light houses, military signal lights and the Morse code. The interplay of the different movements of the sculpture create a symbolic language of communication between the sculpture and the viewer.
GEOMETRY exploits wind-farm technology to drive two masts which cross (one vertically one horizontally) on which mirrors are attached. The reflection of the sky in the mirrored blades and the movement of the sculpture itself create different kinetic effects according to the time of the day and season. At nightfall the signal is reinforced through projections of laser light from the horizontal mast. Laser lines will be projected from the Watermans building onto the horizontal mast and reflected from the sky. 

Félicie d’Estienne d’Orves explores the meaning and impact of light through her work. She uses light and sound technologies to create a mysterious art of beauty and power, challenging the boundaries of her materials and our own perceptions of them. The resulting kinetic work appears frameless and seems to possess a life of its own. Her audience is invited to engage in both the works’ seductive simplicity and delve into their complex layers of mystery.
Key examples of D’Estienne d’Orves’ work include Gong: a resonant, pulsating, often frightening work from her Cosmos Series in 2009 and Monolithe, in 2008, which stands like a futuristic needle-point surrounded by ancient spiritual drama and was presented at Paris’ all-night art happening, Nuit Blanche.
In 2004, Félicie founded the in-visible collective, a conceptual multi-media studio, In-visible - http://www.feliciedestiennedorves.com/

Technical support has been provided by Mechatronic company Bonfiglioli who delivered the motor solutions for the installation. Watermans would also like to acknowledge the contribution of David Simpson of Show Laser Systems for the laser technology, Michel Delarasse and the Institut Français.
GEOMETRY is part of the International Festival of Digital Art 2012 - http://www.watermans.org.uk/exhibitions/exhibitions/international-festival-of-digital-art-2012.aspx
Also showing at Watermans Gallery:

Cymatics by Suguru Goto

Produced by Action Sharing

 

Saturday 7 January – Sunday 19 February 2012

Daily 12 noon – 9 pm, Free

 

 

Cymatics is a kinetic sound sculpture that expresses the artist’s vision of nature through a series of symbolic elements that are used harmoniously in a technological context.

 

Cymatics creates real spaces that are metaphysical and spiritual at the same time. A place where art is a bridge between the material and the spiritual, between technology and nature, and between the humanities and science. The result is a harmonic vision of the elements of nature, demonstrating the morphogenic effect of sound waves (cymatics).

 

The creative process involved building a synergy between music to be seen and images to be heard, so as to create a sensorial performance for the complexity of human perception.

 

Goto’s works have been performed at major festivals. In 1998, he was invited to perform at Sonar, Barcelona; in 2003, he gave a concert at the Pompidou Centre, in Paris; in 2011 performed at Share Festival and in 2009 his ’Robotic Music’ was shown at the 53rd Venice Biennale  in Italy.

 

Cymatics is the second project to be produced by Action Sharing, an initiative proudly sponsored by the Torino Chamber of Commerce.

Action Sharing is designed to create a platform for syncretic research, encouraging the convergence of art, innovation and science. Based in Turin (IT) and directed by Simona Lodi and Chiara Garibaldi, Action Sharing is the only project of its kind in Europe to give artists a team of robotics engineers, with specific high-level expertise, to produce works of visual art.

 

http://www.toshare.it/cymatics/                                                                                            

http://suguru.goto.free.fr

http://sugurugoto.blogspot.com

 

 

Cymatics is exhibited at Watermans as part of the International Festival of Digital Art 2012 with support from The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and The Japan Foundation

Watermans Riverside Gallery:
The aesthetics of disgust by Katrin Baumgarten

 

Sunday 22 January – Sunday 19 February 2012

 

“The revolting object exerts a certain ‘macabre attraction’ over the subject, leading to a peculiar absorption in the object and lending a magnetism to this aversion.” Kolonai, Aurel

The power of disgust affects us in every aspect of our life. Disgust shocks, entertains, and sears itself into memory. By introducing the aesthetics of disgust as a tool for design, one can intensify the user and object relationship through creating paradoxal emotions, going beyond practicality and functionality.

These eccentric light switches explore disgust and its possible transitions in the technological age. The exhibit consists of multiple designs of an everyday object, each based on a different approach to disgust, and to examine the provoked reactions. Every time a switch is pressed, a virtual light-bulb on a screen is lighting up as a feedback for the test-person. Through its simplicity and its everyday occurrence, the interaction with a switch has been marginalised into subconscious behaviour. But what if your interaction has consequences.

One of the switches has hairs that become erect when a finger approaches. Another secretes goo, one is made of fingernails and another of chewing gum. The most playful creation refuses to be
switched at all and hides when a finger approaches. The switches are monitored by an Arduino circuit board which records which was pressed, when and for how long.

One of the purposes of the work is to show that people are indeed both repelled and fascinated by the disgusting transformation of the switches.

Katrin Baumgarten holds an MA from the Royal College of Art and an MSc from Imperial College London. Her projects revolve around human-technology interaction and explore future possibilities within technology and art. She loves to see the magic that appears when an inanimate object suddenly starts to move and respond to external stimuli in ways normally attributed to humans. Katrin is freelancing for interactive design consultancies at the moment, as well as developing her own practice. http://katrinbaumgarten.de/

For more information about the above please contact:

Irini Papadimitriou
Head of New Media Arts Development
Watermans
40 High Street
Brentford
TW8 0DS

Direct line: +44 (0)20 8232 1012
Admin: +44 (0)20 8232 1020

www.watermans.org.uk