Oscar G. Torres

These images where made using Processing, Photoshop and lots of Pictures.

The WAMI Dome is a simple digital wave modulation instrument, which really means that it can make a bunch of cool sounds by waving your hands over it.

Jonah Brucker-Cohen Wrote a brief description of it on the Make Zine Blog.

Thanks for the shout out! =)

Wami Dome from Oscar G. Torres on Vimeo.

Jason Krugman will be hosting a reception for his public art project titled Living Objects Opening on Sunday, Dec 13th, 6pm. The Living Objects installation will be opening in McCarren Park at the corner of Union and Driggs in Brooklyn, NYC.

Victimless Leather by TC&A

A couple of years ago, I remember toying with the idea of using living organisms to create art. I had a few different ideas that did not materialize. Specially after having a very tough time trying to define for my self what the moral/ethical limit of art.

~Guillermo Varga

After researching projects such as Guillermo Habacuc’s “Exposición N° 1″ (above) I had a more clear understanding of my stance on the matter of using animals as art.

~Damien Hirst

~Damien Hirst

Damien Hirst is also an artist that has made a large body of work with organisms including sharks, sheep and cattle to name a few. Both of these artist used animals as their subjects even-though their message was very different.

The digital age has brought us different concepts relating to art. New points of view regarding esthetics and the meaning of visual information has take a new direction. In the mid 1990s artists pioneered into the new world of digital information. http://wwwwwwwww.jodi.org/, http://graffitiresearchlab.com/ and 60X1.com/ are groups that broke way from traditional art creation into the digital realm. Current art trends and our increase in technology and understanding of our world has lead many artist to branch out into various fields that where previously reserved for institutional research only, one of them being Biology.

Recent pioneers of this art include Eduardo Kac and his GFP BUNNY
Where the bunny’s genes where modified so that it adopted the gene found in jellyfish to make the bunny glow in the dark.

GFP BUNNY, Eduardo Kac

The Tissue Culture & Art (TC&A) Project is a group of people using Biology to create art. Victimless Leather is a project where leather is grown into a fully designed Garment. This project was shown at the Design and the Elastic Mind show at MoMA New York, USA

Victimless Leather, TC&A

MeArt is a semi-living artist which is part robot part neural tissue matter.

MEART, SymbioticA Research Group

MEART, SymbioticA Research Group

Earlier this year there was a iGEM competition at MIT, where collaborators from the University of Texas and UCSF unveiled their modified E. coli which acts like photographic film.

Engineered E. coli bacteria, UCSF and the University of Texas

Engineered E. coli bacteria, UCSF and the University of Texas

Latent Figure Protocol by Paul Vanouse, 2007 is a project that used the dna of organisms to create art. The DNA is processed with gel electrophoresis and shown via projection, live.

Video File

Latent Figure Protocol, Paul Vanouse, 2007

Latent Figure Protocol, Paul Vanouse, 2007

There are a variety of artists that have taken a path that some may consider a little extreme other may think its just, the moral discussion behind these works continues and artists keep pushing the limits of their craft. As progression of technology brings new understanding of life it also brings new methods and inspiration to create art.

Don’t worry you are not seeing double, Jackoon the painting robot has a new friend! Jackoon v.2 is an other hacked toy with a robotic arm made from Jackoon’s blue print. Jackoon v.2 made its debut at The Gizmodo Gallery exhibit and a fine job he did.

The two artbots teamed up to make the paintings of a few subjects including one of the king of all robots R2D2!

The robots used this image as a reference and painted the composition with gray, orange, yellow and black.

2/3 of the way into the painting, I made an outline of where R2D2 was located on the painting. You can see the subtle contour of r2’s body on the robotic painting. I was really happy with the resulting painting.

This is a silkscreen on top of an etching I made in 2002. its roughly 24″ x 36″

I made this art for the CD cover of Beau Black’s “Record Meant to Be”
rhapsody.com link
itunes link

This is an etching I made in 2002. its roughly 24″ x 36″

What if you could drink a song? What would the Black and Tan Fantasy taste like?
The Pianocktail is a project that attempts to give us the experience of synesthesia and be able to taste music by mixing a cocktail according to what you played in the piano.

The Pianocktail works by sitting in a stool that has a sensor which tells the Pianocktail that someone is ready to play a tune. The Pianocktail then records all the keys and notes that are played. When the person playing the Pianocktail stands up, the mixing of liquids begin. Little lights under the bottles indicate which ingredient is being dispensed. After a minute or so, the drink will be ready! What does it taste like? I guess you will have to find out your self one day!

Don’t know how to play the piano? Well, you could play your self a strange drink, or you could have one of your friends play you a Beethoven Symphony.

This is what the wiring of the Pianocktail looks like:

A video of a person playing himself a drink at the ITP Winter Show ‘08:

The Pianocktail by Florica and Oscar from Oscar G. Torres on Vimeo.