Aerocene metallic orbs by Tomás Saraceno in Paris' Grand Palais

"By releasing hot air from inside the Aerocene globes, pressure can be regulated and the altitude of the orbs can be controlled. They could also float along natural jet streams, using these as a way of changing direction."

from dezeen.

Carston Höller: Decision at the Hayward Gallery 10 June – 6 September 2015

"Over the past 20 years Holler has created devices, vehicles and situations that alter visitors’ physical and psychological states."

"Carsten Höller: Decision is the artist’s largest survey show in the UK to date. Immersing visitors in a series of experimental environments, Höller’s interactive exhibition explores perception and decision making."

Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre
Wednesday 10 June – Sunday 6 September 2015

more here.

'Potential Architecture' Exhibition at Ambika P3, 11 March- 19 April

Potential Architecture fuses art and architecture in four site-specific commissions for Ambika P3 by international artists/architects Alexander Brodsky, Sean Griffiths, Joar Nango and Apolonija Šušterŝič. Utilising recycling, craft, and low-tech processes as well as performance, video, sculpture and installation, the works explore the social and material aspects of living environments during the unprecedented large-scale transformation of cities and towns globally.

Private View
Tuesday 10 March 18:30 – 20:30

Visitor information:
Ambika P3, University of Westminster,
35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS
Baker Street Station
Daily except Mondays
Tue – Fri, 11am – 7pm
Sat – Sun, 12pm – 6pm
Admission: Free

'Disobedient Objects' at the V & A 26 July- 1 February

"From a Suffragette tea service to protest robots, this exhibition is the first to examine the powerful role of objects in movements for social change. It demonstrates how political activism drives a wealth of design ingenuity and collective creativity that defy standard definitions of art and design. Disobedient Objects focuses on the period from the late 1970s to now, a time that has brought new technologies and political challenges. On display are arts of rebellion from around the world that illuminate the role of making in grassroots movements for social change: finely woven banners; defaced currency; changing designs for barricades and blockades; political video games; an inflatable general assembly to facilitate consensus decision-making; experimental activist-bicycles; and textiles bearing witness to political murders."

at the Victoria and Albert Museum
10.00 to 17.45 daily

more info here.
10.00 to 22.00 Friday

Pamphlet Architecture 34: Fathoming the Unfathomable

Pamphlet Architecture 34 by architects and educators Perry Kulper and Nat Chard speculates on how architecture might discuss indeterminate conditions of production through a generative agency of representation. Kulper and Chard explore the indeterminacy of architectural research through drawings that exceed traditional drawing space. Located in two different countries, they communicate by shipping each drawing across geographical borders. As a result the drawing acts as a tactical and conversational medium, providing the architects with new opportunities for the confluence of the uncertain.

more at Princeton Architectural Press.

Technical Studies - Open Lectures

TECHNICAL STUDIES – OPEN LECTURES

The 'Technical Studies - Open Lectures' starts next week.

The lectures are organised for our architecture students, but everyone is welcome.

All lectures in room M421

Thursday 3rd October, 6.30pm - Stelarc - The Cyborg Artist

Thursday 10th October, 6.30pm - Graham Stevens - Desert Cloud and other Lightweight Wonders

Thursday 17th October, 6.30pm - Neil Thomas and Aran Chadwick (Atelier One) Liquid Threshold

Thursday 24th October, 6.30pm - Tim Lucas (Price & Myers) The Kew House Project

Thursday 31st October, 6.30pm - Daniel Ptacek (Kinnickkinnic) 'The Adjacent Possible'

Thursday 7th November, 6.30pm - Dr Henrik Schoenefeldt (University of Kent) Environmental Experimentation

Thursday 14th November, 6.30pm - Nick Crosbie (Inflate) Air Structures

Thursday 21st November, 6.30pm - Paul Bavister (UCL) Sound, Acoustics, Music and Architecture

Thursday 28th November, 6.30pm - TBC

Thursday 5th December, 6.30pm - Jaisha Reichardt - 'Our Dreams Change, We Don't'

Thursday 12th December, 6.30pm – TBC

The first lecture:

'Universal Everything & You' at the Media Space, September 21st 2013 - February 7th 2014

Universal Everything & You is a new digital installation of two artworks by art and design collective Universal Everything specially commissioned for the Virgin Media Studio.

The first work, 1000 Hands is created by contributions from the public through a smart phone app. In the gallery space it takes the form of a circular projection onto multiple screens, with each one showing an individual artwork generated by app users.

Presence, the second work, is a collaboration with the LA Dance Project and has been created by using motion captured performances of dancers which will be played back with evolving digital ‘costumes’.

Universal Everything, founded in 2004 by Matt Pyke (b.1975) are a UK based digital art and design collective who work with a global network of designers, artists, musicians, producers and programmers. For Universal Everything & You Matt Pyke has collaborated with composer Simon Pyke, Benjamin Millepied’s LA Dance Project and architect Irene Shamma.

Opening 21 September 2013 at the Media Space at the Science Museum, Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, SW7 2DD

Open seven days a week, 10.00-19.00 during the school holidays. Entry to the Museum is free.

Friday at Tate Britain: Performing Architecture

Alex Schweder and Ward Shelly, Stability, Seattle, 2009 Photos 
© Scott Lawrimore, edited by Ward Shelly & author.

What does performance have to do with architecture? 
How can a building perform, and how can we perform a building?

Come on a playful journey through the gallery in its current phase of spatial and structural transformation, taking a look at architectural and art practices that explore how our physical bodies interact with built form.

With talks, performance, a workshop, and sound and film from Alex Schwederand Lamis Bayar, Kreider + O’Leary, Effie Coe, Emptyset and The Architecture Foundation. 

*Late at Tate Britain: February 2013
Performing Architecture*
Friday 1 February, 18:00 - 22:00
Tate Britain

more details here.

Theo Jansen's Strandbeests

Artist Theo Jansen makes self-propelled kinetic sculptures, primarily constructing them out of PVC pipes.

Nendo Mimicry Chairs, London Design Festival 2012

This year as part of London Design Festival’s Landmark Projects Japanese design studioNendo have installed Mimicry Chairs, a series of sporadically placed chairs, in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Rising stars of Japanese design, Nendo have already exhibited in Madrid, Milan, Paris, Tokyo and New York. 

More about Nendo here.

Maya Lin Lecture at the Tate Modern: Monday 15 October 2012

American Artist Lecture Series: Maya Lin

Tate Modern, Starr Auditorium

Monday 15 October 2012, 18.30 – 20.00

student tickets £9

Maya Lin
2 x 4 Landscape 2006

© The artist Photo: Colleen Chartier

Maya Lin has maintained a careful balance between art and architecture throughout her career, creating a remarkable body of work that encompasses large-scale site specific installations, intimate studio artworks, architectural works and memorials. She draws inspiration from the landscape, interpreting the world through a twenty-first century lens, merging rational order with notions of beauty and the transcendental. Her work asks the viewer to reconsider nature and the environment at a time when it is crucial to do so.

More info and booking here.

walk-on ceramic installation by nathan craven

Sculptor nathan craven has created a series of ceramic artwork entitled 'footing'. the interactive artwork
is built from a vast collection of uniquely-shaped ceramic components which have been placed upon the floor to form each multifaceted unit. Craven both hand-forms, glazes and paints each uniquely shaped ceramic brick featuring in 'footing'. the various components join together in a mat-like structure, awaiting the closer inspection by the gallery goer achieved by stepping atop the bright surface to better examine each unequal unit.

from designboom.

Arthur Ganson's Kinetic Art

Sculptor and engineer Arthur Ganson talks about his kinetic art.