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
Matt Schlian does amazing things with paper! But even more fascinating is his collaborative work with scientists at the University of Michigan. There they are studying how paper folding relates to protein structure. Mis-folded proteins are suspected to be one of the causes of Alzehimer’s disease, for example, and paper folding on a nano scale might lead to a better understanding of how to correct this problem. To see images of Matt’s work and read more about this project, visit marcusprize.blogspot.com/2008/02/matt-schlian.html and also his website www.mattschlian.com
Marion Bataille’s new pop-up alphabet book will be coming out in September, 2008 (Roaring Book Press, ISBN 978-1-5964-3-425-7). It’s full of interesting pop-up maneuvers, tracing the entire alphabet in a dance of movable pages. A great video with a zippy soundtrack previews the upcoming edition.
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.
We’re so impressed with Krisitne Suhr’s handsome web site, and with her wonderful mechanical paintings. Each framed painting has a pull tab, rotating wheel (called a volvelle) or other mechanical device which can be manipulated by the viewer. When activited, the image in the painting moves or transforms with surprising results. To see her paintings in action, visit Kristine’s web site.
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.
Carol Barton recently was interviewed by Mary-Charlotte Domandi on the public radio member station KSFR in Santa Fe, NM, along with Santa Fe Art Institute director Diane Karp. The half-hour segment covers a wide range of topics ranging from Barton’s work with pop-ups, historical background on artist’s books, and even a few science subjects. To listen to the full interview, go to SantaFeRadioCafe.org
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.)
The ABC web site is now up! ABC stands for Arts, Books, & Creativity, and is an elementary-level arts integration program that helps students make connections between visual art, writing, and other classroom subjects. Based on a two-year pilot program designed by the National Museum of Women in the Arts and funded by the U.S. Department of Education, ABC is a model for integrating the visual arts into core school curicula.
A complete set of lesson plans on incorporating book arts into the classroom is now available on the web site, www.artbookscreativity.org Please pass this information on to any teachers who might be interested in utilizing this important resource! I’ve been involved as one of the artist-teachers in this program from its inception, and have found that teaching kids to make their own books empowers them to improve their reading and writing skills, explore new subject matter, and develop three-dimensional design and trial-and-error problem-solving techniques. In an era when the arts have been reduced or cut from many school programs, this is an important way to incorporate them back into the classroom as a vital teaching tool.
Did you ever want to pop up photos of your family, your pet, or your best friends? Now you can, by following the step-by-step instructions we’ve posted on Wikipedia’s How-To Encyclopedia. Just go to http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Pop-up-Photograph.
The Wikihow Encyclopedia covers a wealth of subjects, from crafts, to plumbing, to how to make Eggs Benedict. You can add the “How-To Of The Day” selection to your own Google page by going to www.google.com/ig. And we’re excited that our Pop-Up Photo How-To has been chosen by Google to appear as their feature on September 10th!
