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blow up: amplifies breath into a windstorm

Posted February 18, 2008 4:54 PM

From technabob:

This incredible art installation records the tiniest human breathing patterns and magnifies them into a room-filling blast of wind. Created by interactive artist Scott Snibbe, Blow Up is comprised of two main pieces. On one side of the room is an array of 12 small impellers which act as a breath-controlled input device. On the other side of the room is a wall with a dozen powerful electric fans. The impellers are electronically synchronized with the fans, which automatically adjust to match the direction and velocity input on the tiny controller. In addition to playing real-time "amplified" wind patterns, the system stores the most recently captured breath patterns and replays them in a loop until someone breathes a different pattern. To really understand how it all works, be sure to check out this cool video clip Snibbe recently posted. Blow Up was commissioned by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco back in 2005. Even though it's no longer on exhibit, this is the first time we can all see it in action, all thanks to the magic of YouTube.

Read the whole article and watch the video

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Guru
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#1

Re: blow up: amplifies breath into a windstorm

02/18/2008 11:01 PM

Interesting display.

That apparatus should also be able to amplify sound patterns too, because they are just modulated breath patterns.

Kind Regards....

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#2

Re: blow up: amplifies breath into a windstorm

02/19/2008 11:09 AM

"This incredible art installation records the tiniest human breathing patterns and magnifies them into a room-filling blast of wind."

A nice museum exhibit play toy. As to tiniest human breathing patterns it is mis-billed. Each little fan has to be blown on indivually, so there is NO pattern other that in the imagination of the inventor or the individual blowing on the little fans!

Art or pseudo-art?

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#3
In reply to #2

Re: blow up: amplifies breath into a windstorm

02/19/2008 2:10 PM

A couple of folks spent all kinds of (their own, thank goodness) money hanging curtains all over Central Park in New York City in the name of art.

Whatever floats your boat. I can't possibly define art, but I know it when I see it. People have an infinite capacity for art, and there are no shortage of visionaries claiming to extend our horizons in art. Some (OK, a lot) of it, won't stand the test of time.

I guess what separates good art from other art, is the test of time. When someone pisses in a jar with a crucifix and is heralded in art circles, they have not bolstered their case with the public in general. But then again, they will look down their art snob noses at the proletariat and sneer that we wouldn't know art if it smacked us in the face. And then there was someone who canned their #2 as art. That's just too funny.

In this warped scenario, I believe Piero Manzoni pointed out how so much modern art is just ****. And the Tate Gallery paid more ($61,000 USD) for it than its weight in gold, which exquisitely proves his point.

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Guru
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#4
In reply to #3

Re: blow up: amplifies breath into a windstorm

02/19/2008 4:17 PM

Hello Brave Sir Robin

Much of what passes for "Art" is another case of The Emperor's New Clothes.

Pablo Picasso's last words, as he lay dying: "I've had the last laugh on the Art world".

In Picasso's will, he left US$70,000,000 to the Communist Party of Spain.

Kind Regards....

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