With Popular Kinetics based in Washington, D.C., national politics is our local news. So we were delighted to find an artist who has used the pop-up format (large-scale, no less) as commentary on the current election campaign. Kenneth Tin-kin Hung has designed two 8×8x8-foot pop-ups, one featuring John McCain and the other Barak Obama. The first is titled Residential Erection: Elephant List, the other Residential Erection: Ultra Donkey. To see more photos, go to the Archives, April-May 2008, at http://www.postmastersart.com
In still animation, each frame advances the story just a little bit. The frames move so quickly before your eyes that you barely notice they are individual images spliced together to create a “moving picture.” Here, the technique is sometimes visible, but all the more amazing because the images that move are painted, then scrubbed out as part of the narrative itself. This short film titled “Muto” is by the artist Blu, shot on walls in Buenos Aires and Baden, with a soundtrack by Andrea Martignoni. It is a totally captivating adventure.
Many people know of the Library of Congress and take time to visit it’s beautiful Jefferson Building while here in Washington, D.C. But they may not realize that the core of the library was Thomas Jefferson’s own collection of books. Jefferson was an avid reader and acquired books throughout his lifetime. He eventually amassed the largest personal collection in the United States at the time. Then came the War of 1812, when the British burned Congress’s first library of 1000 titles. Jefferson offered to sell his library of 6,487 volumes to Congress. They purchased it for $23,950 in 1815. Sadly, a second fire in the library in 1851 destroyed approximately 4000 of those books.
Over the past ten years, the Library of Congress has been attempting to re-create the original Jefferson collection. Working with book dealers in the U.S. and Europe, they have managed to locate copies of most of the books. (There are still about 300 very rare books that are missing and may never be found.) The books are on display at the library, in the same configuration that they were at Jefferson’s Monticello home: in a spiral, organized into the categories of memory, reason, and imagination. The exhibit is behind glass, but visitors can look through the books digitally on computers using touch-screen technology to turn the pages.
What is art? Critics have debated this question forever. Here is a funny yet thoughtful discussion of the subject, presented in claymation by a host of gregarious animal characters. Though they don’t answer the question definitively, they make some pertinent points.
These landscapes by British photographer Carl Warner are composed of the stuff of grocery stores and farmers’ markets. Fruits, vegetables, and grains all serve to suggest landscape elements. The artist photographs individual components while his subjects are fresh, then digitally constructs the layers into finished scenes. To see more of Warner’s work, visit the haha.nu blogzine or Warner’s fancy website (requiring Flash 6 or above).
Ruth Marcus teaches an art class with students who are mostly Sudanese refugees. Recently she did a project where they learned how to make some basic pop-ups. “With only two pieces of paper, some cutting and some glue, the kids can make moving cards of their very own, and color all over them as well.” Visit the kids at Ruth’s blog to see more photos.
The long-awaited Volume 2 of Carol Barton’s The Pocket Paper Engineer is on it’s way, and will be available in late June. This volume will cover the steps in constructing four glued pop-ups: platforms, props, spirals, and straddles. The book includes ten new projects to be constructed right out of the book, plus lots of photos, ideas, and step-by-step instructions for creating your own pop-ups.
A number of readers have sent us emails about the paper sculptures of Danish artist Peter Callesen. We’ve been a fan of Callesen’s work for some time; his single-sheet, dreamlike renditions of fairy-tale figures are all the more magical because he works with the simplest of materials. If you’re not familiar with his work, be sure to visit his nicely-designed web site to enjoy a few minutes respite from the workaday world. petercallesen.com
And speaking of castles, Carolyn Hughes reminds us of another pop-up media sighting, Bruce Foster’s animated pop-up book seen as the opening and closing of the Disney movie Enchanted.
Pop-up books have been making appearances in a range of new media situations lately, from ads to TV shows to music videos. Here are a few engaging examples:
The Lexus may not be the car for everyone, but you’ve got to appreciate the ingenuity behind their pop-up book commercial. Here’s the link for viewing. And if you’re interested in a behind-the-scenes look at how the commercial was made, check out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyrTCqdVG-8
Finally, The ABC TV show “Pushing Daisies” recently featured a paper engineer character in the episode titled “The Smell of Success.” To view the episode, go to the ABC web site, scroll down to the “Pushing Daisies” series, then find “The Smell of Success” episode. (You might have to load ABC’s player program, which just takes a few minutes.)
Here at Popular Kinetics, radio is our constant studio companion. One of our favorite shows is Radio Lab, produced by New York Public Radio station WNYC. With themes such as Sleep, Morality, and Time, each hour-long segment approaches its subject from a scientific, artistic, and philosophical viewpoint. The station only produces about five shows a year because they are so research- and labor-intensive. Each program is funny, insightful, and full of great storytelling.
Here’s a sample podcast. Sleep Every creature does it - from giant hump back whales all the way down to fruit flies - and yet science still can’t answer the basic questions: Why do we sleep? What is it for? We’ll eavesdrop on the uneasy dreams of rats in search of answers. http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2007/05/25
