Tiago Photography

I was invited to join Rise Art today, and was inspired by two artists in particular.
Yusuke Araki
Yusuki says of his drawings:
"Line is all linking. Please imagine the line is string. When you pick the string, it seems to be one hoop."

When the image is viewed up close, the individual lines are evident, and the line is continuous.
I am interested in the finite yet boundless properties of Yusuke Araki's drawings.

Repetitive drawing has the potential to look laboured, but these drawings look expressive and organic.
Alastair T. Willey
Alastair's work could be compared to the impossible shapes imagined by M. C. Escher.
Escher experimented with optical illusions and the illustration of the Möbius strip, to create a seemingly finite yet boundless shape.

Alastair takes photographs on a 35mm film, and processes the images digitally. These works are compared to follies: the images look like architecture but have no architectural use.
Nick Kaplony says of Alastairs work:
"I love how these images compact and overlay architectural fragments into forms which are reminiscent of microscopic or molecular structures."
I can see what Nick Kaplony means, the geometric clustered nature of these images look like they could be 3-dimensional interpretations of molecular diagrams.
It's interesting that by creating digital architectural-looking 2-dimensional sculptures, the artist has evoked molecular structure as well.

Labels: Alastair T Willey, Art, Digital, Drawing, Finite Yet Boundless, Geometry, M.C. Escher, Molecular, Rise Art, Science, Sculpture, Structure, Yusuke Araki

On Friday night, the Leeds College Of Art "Ready Or Not, Here We Come" Degree show opened for a private view.
I have been studying in the BA Fine Art department, so I knew how that the Fine Art degree show was coming along, but it's always a great surprise to see all of the finished work from other courses.
In Art & Design : Interdisciplinary, I was really impressed by Beverly Cottrell's "Paper Lab", a science laboratory made entirely from cardboard.
The attention to detail is amazing...

During this project, Beverley worked with high school children, who gave feedback on her Paper Lab project. Beverley says of the placement:
"Making my Paper Lab playful and colourful reflects on the naivety of learning, and interacting with the exhibit promotes the curiosity of learning."
I think that this is a great way to bring the Art & Science fusion to a younger audience. This theory was proven when I asked my 13 year old brother to identify his favourite piece of work from the entire Leeds College Of Art degree show! (My little brother is also a science nerd, it seems to run in the family).
If you want to see more of Beverley Cottrell's Paper Lab, please click here to see her blog which covers the progress from start to finish.

Labels: Art, Beverley Cottrell, Cardboard, Laboratory, Leeds College Of Art, Paper Lab, Science

When reading Hubble: A Journey Through Space and Time the other day, I was astonished to discover that that a bubble nebula exists in the constellation Cassiopeia.

Source
The bubble has formed due to extreme stellar winds and radiation from a nearby star which is 10 times more massive than our sun. This means that the bubble itself is six light years across, that is one big bubble!
I was excited by this discovery, as I have been working with soap bubbles in my art work for about a year now. I'm interested in the universality of roundness from the micro to the macro, so of course, bubbles fascinated me for this reason.
This is a photogram I made from blowing soap bubbles on to photo-sensitive paper and exposing the paper to light for 4 seconds. The result looks astonishingly like a far-away galaxy.

I have made lots of posts on soap bubbles in art and science, here is a directory of bubble-related entries:
"Bubbles" / "A Child's World" by Sir John Everett Millais
How To Make A Photogram With Soap Bubbles
Artist: Kim Pimmell / / Soap Bubbles & Ferrofluid
Artist: Jane Thomas // Soap Bubble Experimentation
Artist: Richard Heeks // Soap Bubble Planet Photographs
Nature.com // Hurricanes On A Soap Bubble
Do Bubbles Freeze? // Emmanuel Coupe
Living Inside Your Own Bubble
BBC: Bubbles In Space
Melanie K's Bubble Planet
Artist : Pery Burge // Inksplosions & Bubbles
Soap Bubble Popping In Slow Motion
Artist: Tomas Saraceno // Bubble Sculptures
Artist: Simon Thomas // Studies Of The Soap Bubble
Bubble-Smith Sterling Johnson

Labels: Art, Bubble, Bubble Directory, Bubbles, Emmanuel Coupe, Jane Thomas, Kim Pimmel, Melanie K, Ngc 7635, Photogram, Richard Heeks, Science, Soap, The Bubble Nebula, Tomas Saraceno, Universe

I'm a big fan of the every day soap bubble, so when I was introduced to Tomas Saraceno by Alicia Talikowska, I was naturally very excited.
Saraceno creates successful bubble-inspired sculptures, some of which are even big enough to enter!


Saraceno is inspired by naturally occuring formations:
"The biospheres of this work are inspired by careful scientific studies of e.g. the formation of clouds, soap bubbles and the geometric principles in spider webs." source
One of the sculptures inspired by spider webs is 14 Billions 2009.

Intriguing...

Labels: Art, Bubbles, Science, Sculpture, Spider, Tomas Saraceno, Webs

I just wanted to stop by and share this amazing video of the artist Amy Shackleton painting using a very interesting technique. Amy's technique utilizes the force of gravity, by rotating the canvas and letting the paint drip downwards to create each line.

Labels: Amy Shackleton, Gravity, Paint, Painting, Physics, Science, Youtube

Currently, the artist duo Semiconductor have an exhibition at FACT Liverpool.
Semiconductor's latest artwork is a collection of videos called Worlds In The Making which explores geological patterns such as crystallization and volcanic activity.
The piece "Worlds In The Making" is the result of many years of work, collaborating with scientists from all over the world.
Kindly, Semiconductor have provided a preview of their exhibition on Vimeo:
Worlds in the Making - preview from Semiconductor on Vimeo.
Personally, I find Crystallised (2011) intriguing. Crystallised is a series of animations created by recording the sound of ice crystals, working out the algorithms of their formations and generating a digital animation based on the information. This was an extremely long process, as the software alone took six months to write!
This piece of work is incredibly interesting, because their research is re-contextualising science based art. The artists are not simply illustrating the work of scientists, nor are they trying to achieve a scientific discovery through arts based practise.
Gerhardt says of his work:
"Everyone is very familiar now with the very standard format of creating a narrative and a way of documenting science, and hopefully we're challenging this." source.

Labels: Algorithms, Art, Crystal, Crystallised, Crystallization, Fact Liverpool, Joe Gerhardt, Liverpool, Ruth Jarman, Science, Semiconductor, The Guardian, Volcanic, Volcano, Worlds In The Making

In 2008, Gunther Von Haagen brought his Body Worlds exhibition to Manchester's Science & Industry museum. I visited out of pure morbid curiosity, and then wished I hadn't gone at all. For me, the plastination of corpses had not taken away any of the horror of seeing real dismembered organs splayed out in glass boxes.

Recently I have been considering the artistic and scientific merits of Gunther Von Haagens work, and came across an essay by Lucia Tanassi in The Anatomy Of Body Worlds.
The essay was named "Twilife: The Art and Science Of Consuming Death."
Tanassi raises many issues about the Body Worlds exhibition, firstly by suggesting that humans have a "curious discomfort with death" and we crave knowledge of our mortality in a clinical, non-threatening way.
The plastination in Body Worlds is designed to halt the organic process of decay, and produces
"full body specimens that are dry and odourless and can last for an indefinite amount of time."

Gunther Von Haagen aims to promote the disadvantages of obesity and smoking, but it could be argued that immediately facing tar-covered lungs feels a little too visceral.
I certainly felt sick looking at the innards of other humans!
In "Twi-life: The Art and Science Of Consuming Death", Tanassi doubts that Haagen will be successful in promoting healthy lifestyles through plastination of ruined organs.
It is believed that Gunther Von Haagen has created a "new sociology of death", wherein we are free to satisfy our curiosities by gazing upon some poor sod encased in plastic.
This particular method of viewing cadavers for educational purposes is new, but death and art have been interlinked through-out art history.
For example, Rembrandt painted "The Anatomy Lesson Of Dr Tulip" and is famous for "Vanitas" still life.


In this day and age, it is rare that we would come across a corpse.
However in previous centuries, humans were used to public executions and open-casket funerals were more common.
Tanassi explains with the concept of "twi-life" playing on the idea of an "after-life".
Tanassi imagines that through plastination, the cadavers gain a new plasticized identity and even, social life, as the public flock to view them.
In this particular "piece", Gunther Von Haagen was inspired by an anatomical drawing of a man holding all of his skin in one hand, to show his muscular structure.
In drawing form, the picture is fairly easy to confront, but conjured in to reality by Haagen, it becomes positively grotesque.
Tanassi argues that Von - Haagens message to "democratize anatomy" is overshadowed by the sheer power of human curiosity to view the dead. "The gaze" is heavily theorized in Fine Art history, so it is understandable from an artists perspective, that Tanassi would question the motive of Body World visitors.
One thing is for sure, Gunther Von Haagens work has definitely raised some debate between both the art and science field!
I would be interested to know your experiences of Gunter Von Haagens work, have you been to a Body Worlds exhibition or seen the live autopsy ?

Labels: Art, Death, Gunther Von Haagen, Science, The Gaze

Okay, so you know about Fibonacci, but have you heard about Fibonacci haiku / poetry?
Instead of the original haiku sequence of:
5-7-5
Poets have started to use the Fibonacci sequence to inspire poetry:
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144,
Here are some examples


Source: The Silent K
This is a great article about Fibonacci Poetry.
Feel free to comment with your own!

Labels: Algorithms, Art, Fibonacci, Haiku, Literature, Mathematics, Number, Poetry, Science, Sequence, Words

This summer I graduatedfrom my Fine Art degree, and was eager to continue making photograms.I had no access to adarkroom, so I was overjoyed when I came across the fabulousStenoflex pin-hole camera at Fred Aldous, Manchester.
The Stenoflex materialsare packaged compactly inside the little black box that cleverlybecomes the pin-hole camera. When opening the Stenoflex, I was alittle worried that the photo-sensitive paper would be exposed tolight, but the photographic paper comes in its own handy little blackvelcro pouch.
Additional to the paperand box there is:
~ A red gel to coveryour light source, mimicking a traditional dark room light.
~ Developer & Fixer, both of which are labelled in French. Developer is labelled as"Revelateur" and fixer is labelled as "Fixateur".
~ Instructions in bothFrench & English.
To make photograms with the Stenoflex Pinhole Camera Kit you will need:
~ A torch to cover with the redgel to use as your dark room light while you are working. (I used aheadlamp from the pound shop and crudely gaffer-taped the gel on tothe torch making sure the red gel covered all of the light.)
~ 3 trays or bowls foryour developer, fixer and water. I bought a small plastic chest ofdesk drawers from the pound shop (again!) as I didn't want tocontaminate anything I use at home.
~ A light source whichyou can turn on and off again very easily i.e. lamp, torch, mainlight bulb.
~ A space that can bemade pitch black i.e. a cellar, shed, attic, bathroom (with windowscovered). This is very important, you shouldn't be able to seeanything unless you have your red-gel light on.
To Make A Photogram Use These Steps:Find something youwould like to make a photogram of. I used these objects: glassbeaker, dead leaves, soap bubbles, a �10 note, hair, nuts andbolts. The most fun part is experimentation and waiting to see whatit looks like as a photogram!
Assemble yourdeveloper, fixer and rinse trays and put them in to your make-shiftdark room. Switch on your red gel light.
Take your foundobjects in to your darkroom along with your photo-sensitive paperand torch / lamp which should be switched off at this point.
Make sure yourdarkroom is only lit by your red gel lamp, and then remove one pieceof paper from its pouch, making sure to close the pouch afterwardsso that you don't expose the whole pack!
Find a flatsurface and position your found objects on top of thephoto-sensitive paper.
Grab your lightsource (torch, lamp), hold directly over the paper and switch on for1-2 seconds. Your found object is blocking the light from reachingthe paper, and this is how your image is "printed" on to thepaper.
Develop, rinse andfix as normal.This technique willmost likely require a little trial and error, but you can work outhow much light you need to use by looking at your photogram after ithas been fixed.
If your fixed photogramhas gone white it is under-exposed.You have not used enough light oryour found object is blocking too much light from the paper.
If your fixed photogramhas gone black it is over-exposed. Too much light has reached thepaper, or your object isn't blocking enough light.
Here are my results:

Found Object: Soap Bubble blown directly on to photo-sensitive paper.

Found Object: Soap Bubble blown directly on to photo-sensitive paper.

Found Object:Dead Leaves

Found Object: Dead Leaves
Found Object: Glass Paperweight
See more of my photograms at Melaniek.Co.Uk

Labels: Artist, Britain, Bubbles, Camera, Cameraless Photography, Chemistry, England, Fred Aldous, Home, Leaves, Manchester, Melanie K, Photogram, Pinhole, Science, Soap Bubble, Stenoflex, Uk, United Kingdom

In the first year of my degree at Leeds College Of Art, one of my coursemates introduced me to the Fibonacci sequence.
My friend was fascinated with the Fibonacci sequence, as this mathematical pattern occurs in nature.
I won't write in too much depth about the Fibonacci sequence, as my understanding came ultimately from pictures and diagrams.
Fibonacci Sequence In Numerical Form
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987
Fibonacci Numbers Placed In Diagram

If you were to draw a line from between these squares in numerical order, you would then create a spiral.

Fibonacci In Nature
The fibonacci spiral is clearly seen in this cross cut of a shell.
You can also see a fibonacci spiral looking directly on top of a pine cone or the fruit spouts of a pineapple.
Here's a fibonacci spiral you can witness right now, by merely looking closely at your finger tips.
This discovery has made my every-day experiences much more profound, and it has the same effect on mathematicians, scientists and artists alike.
For a regular dose of fibonacci inspiration, I follow Fuck Yeah Fibonacci. This page has some great art and photographs, here are some of my favourites:

This is a 1985 artwork from the artist Andy Goldsworthy:
There is also evidence of Fibonacci in Hokusai's "Great Wave".

Keep your eye out!

Labels: Andy Goldsworthy, Art, Fibonacci, Hokusai, Mathmatics, Nature, Science

Today, I had an hour to kill in Manchester's Northern Quarter, and thought I'd have a look in Magma Books.
I was immediately drawn to How To Be An Explorer Of The World by Keri Smith, a book which promotes the Joseph Beuys "Everyone Is An Artist" way of thinking.
I can't resist Keri Smith's interactive art books or keeping note of every little detail, so I went ahead and purchased the book.
Inside, this book encourages collections of objects, recording of experiences, and looking more closely at things we see every day. For example, to inspire drawing, we can make maps of cracks on the floor and copy water stains.
One of my projects in 2007 was to photograph every chewing gum splat I could find, so this inspired the urban explorer inside me.

On page 6, after this list, Keri Smith writes "Artists and scientists analyse the world around them in similar ways." and I have to agree.
Albert Einstein said "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is."
Artists and scientists are both keen observers, and this book facilitates this need to document the world around us in detail. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to record their world and experiences in an unconventional way. I am definitely going to complete my copy, as I think it will help me to stay focused on my artistic and scientific tendencies, while I am not enrolled in to an academic institution over the Summer!

Labels: Albert Einstein, Art, Book, How To Be An Explorer Of The World, Joseph Beuys, Keri Smith, Magma, Psychogeography, Review, Science

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."

Labels: Albert Einstein, Art, Awe, Mysterious, Quotes, Science, Wonder

Recently, I wrote my undergraduate dissertation (thesis) on the benefits of a synthesis between art and science, focusing on the artwork of Helen Chadwick.
Luckily, The Henry Moore Institute in Leeds has a Helen Chadwick archive, so for my dissertation I got to delve in to Chadwicks sketchbooks, notebooks and preparatory work for her art pieces. There is also a box of her more private correspondence, and copies of her books with her own notations. You can view the notebooks online here, which is a great resource and easy to use.
I feel strongly that Helen Chadwick was way ahead of her time in her art-work, and that her work is still relevant today.

My favourite work, Nebula (1996) tackles the ethical implications of IVF treatment, the embryologist picks the most perfect embryo for insemination, just as a jeweller would choose the most perfect gem. Here, Chadwick has used "rejected" embryos to immortalise forever.
The definition of "Nebula" is interesting, as "Nebula" can describe both the clouding of an eye (an eye cataract) or the cloud of gas which appears when a star dies or is born, both implicating death. The image of the cataracted eye above is deliciously ambiguous, it could just as easily be a scene from space. This universality of a circular form is something I am fascinated with in my own art practice.
The dandelion in this piece acts as a paused clock, in storytelling / folklore, dandelions are said to measure the time by the breaths in which you blow off all of the seeds. source.
Put together, the rejected embryos suspended in formalin (an organic preservative chemical), the cataracted eye (or Nebula) and the dandelion clock, are a bold statement on the fragility of life.
I will be writing segments on the work of Helen Chadwick regularly, but if you would like to get a full overview in the meantime, this documentary is fantastic.

Labels: Archive, Biology, Dandelion, Dandelion Clock, Embryology, Formalin, Helen Chadwick, Henry Moore Institute, Kings College London, Life, Nebula, Nebulae, Science

As an AS Level art student, I was introduced to the work of M. C. Escher and he quickly became my favourite artist. Aesthetically, I am a big fan of monochrome and bright popping colours, but I was also intrigued by the skill of his drawing. How do the tessellations fit together, for example?
I can barely draw tessellations of squares!

My interest has always stayed quite strong, though I am becoming more intrigued by the work of Escher as I read Hyperspace by Michio Kaku.
For example, Michio Kaku starts "Hyperspace" by sharing a story from his childhood.
"I remember that my parents would sometimes take me to visit the famous Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco. One of my happiest childhood memories is of crouching next to the pond, memorised by the brilliantly coloured carp swimming slowly beneath the water lilies.
In these quiet moments, I felt free to let my imagination wander. I would ask myself silly questions that only a child might ask, such as how the carp in that pond would view the world around them. I thought, What a strange world theirs must be!
Living their entire lives in the shallow pond, the carp would believe that their "universe" consisted of murky water and the lilies. Spending most of their time foraging on the bottom of the pond, they would be only dimly aware that an alien world could exist above the surface.
The nature of our world was beyond their comprehension. I was intrigued that I could sit only a few inches from the carp, yet be separated from them by an immense chasm. The carp and I spent our lives in two distinct universes, never entering each other's world, yet were separated by only the thinnest barrier, the water's surface."
Michio Kaku then goes on to explain how rain would feel to the carp. The force of the rain drops would disturb the environment of the pond, and the carp would believe that the lilies could move without being touched. Similarly, we may see evidence of forces around us, but not understand their origin.
Kaku then suggests that a human could pull a carp from the "universe" of the pool, and the carp will have experienced a new "universe". Similarly, if there is a fifth dimension, it may be possible that we may be able to experience it by being pulled up out of it.

This image was designed by Escher to make us think of dimensions; beneath the water, the surface on which the leaves are resting, and the reflection of the trees above.
However, with the addition of Michio Kaku's carp theory, the image has new meaning to me.
I began reading "Hyperspace" as I found out that it was the book that inspired Muse to call their 2nd album "Origin Of Symmetry". I hoped that the book could inspire me in my art work, but I didn't know that it would enlighten my understanding of Eschers work!

Labels: Art, Carp, Catalyst, Dimensions, Escher, Fish, Hyperspace, Koi, M.C. Escher, Michio Kaku, Muse, Origin Of Symmetry, Physics, Science, Tesselation

Every once in a while, I come across a piece of work which blows me away.
The kinetic drawing sculpture that Karina Smigla-Bobinski has devised seems to me as a stroke of genius.
The concept at once seems obvious, yet none of us had thought of it.
A bespoke floating orb filled with helium has been embedded with charcoal sticks and left to float around in a pure white room.
As the sphere travels around the room reacting to the immediate environment, the sphere begins to scrape against the wall, leaving marks.





This work can not be described solely as a sculpture or a drawing
Interestingly, it seems to me that the work is an experiment of neither art nor science, floating somewhere in-between the two.
This is the kind of work which inspires me greatly, the art work is all at once playful, experimental and interactive.

Labels: Art, Berlin, Drawing, Experimental, Experimental Drawing, Germany, Installation, Interactive, Karina Smigla Bobinski, Kinetic, Science, Sculpture