An overgrown garden appeared in Brookner House, a.k.a. the temple of music. I followed some bird-like sounds into the garden to find weird machines with their circuit boards in full view. This, it seems, was the artwork.

It's called Elf, and lives in this electronically engineered forest. In this world of hybridization, boundaries are crossed everyday, and new, unexplainable chemical reactions abound. This work implies that a world where technology and nature harmoniously coexist is not so far away. Elf lives off sunlight; it's operated by solar energy, meaning that these machines can essentially sing and fidget forever. Plus, they sleep at night. What a wholesome little hybrid.

Seeing the man-made gadgets among real trees as if it's the most natural thing in the world, I began to lose grip of what's fiction, and what's not. They really got me there. Elf was obviously the main attraction and it was exhibited accordingly, and in seeing it, I was again impressed by the high quality of ARS, and the talent of the artist. The way in which it shivered and fidgeted with regular intervals accentuated the calculated exactness of technology, and yet there was an unmistakable other-worldly creature-esque feel to it.

Enjoy this artwork.

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A cockroach controls a mobile robot. Yes, indeed, a hybrid. The two are not linked directly, but mediated by a ping pong ball. Basically, a cockroach with masking tape on its back is placed on the ping pong ball, and the robot moves in the same direction that the ball rolls. As you know, cockroaches tend to move towards the dark. Thus, an LED light is placed in front of the cockroach, and controls its movements by switching on whenever it tries to move to a darker spot.

That's all good, but the interpretation of "hybrid" seems a little too straightforward here, almost archaic. It's very simple and easy to understand. It's funny because without the "hybrid" thing, I kept thinking about how melancholic the roach looked and tried to imagine the situation from its perspective. By the way, the roach was a Madagascar. 5 Euros. You can buy them in Japan for 700 yen a pop. I don't have a problem with roaches, and I thought this one looked really cool with its huge armor.

The artist Garnet Hertz specializes in this sort of art. Frogs, worms, etc ... Those who are interested should check out his website. The first page is totally covered in text, I got a headache from just looking at it ... Garnet Hertz's Site http://www.conceptlab.com/

Enjoy this art work.

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When the audience blows air into a neat row of 12 paddle wheels, 12 electrical fans placed in front of them start turning. There is a sensor that detects wind in the middle of the paddle wheels. The strength of the wind doesn't matter. And even if you stop blowing, the sensor memorizes the wind pattern and refers to this repeatedly until someone new blows into the wheel.

This is a hybrid of technology and the environment. In our world, tiny things become really big, then really really big, without us even noticing. Simple text messages and emails, for example, race around the world through a tightly woven network.

We spend most of our waking day in the hybrid environment created by Mr. Communication and Miss. Technology. There was once a time when we were constantly reminded to sit at least 3 meters away from the TV screen, yet now, we're no further than 50cm from the interfaces of our computers. This leads to bad eyesight. Soon, glasses or contact lenses are needed. And voila, we become hybrids... Don't worry, I didn't actually mull over such deep thoughts when I saw this artwork, it just came to me later.

I recommend seeing this work with a girl you fancy. I was lucky enough to attend with the coordinator Mrs. Nomura's Czech friend Misha, who was absolutely stunning... I asked her to pose for our camera, and blew with all my might into the 12 wheels. The Czech lady's hair gently swayed with the breeze. And oh, her smile... I felt as if I was witnessing the birth of Venus! Thus, my ulterior motive created beauty... great installation, isn't it?

Enjoy this artwork.

An assortment of rubber sticks and wind-up toys are placed on a rectangular table, and a light beam runs along the surface of the objects. With the moving light comes sound... Basically, an infra-red camera reacts to objects placed on the table, and when the light beam comes in contact with an object, it makes a noise. Objects on the lower end of the table create low sounds, and vice versa.

The sound rings non-stop while the beam is in contact with an object, which means that you can compose your own "music" by rearranging the thick and thin objects on the table. This is an entertainment-oriented exhibit in line with the ARS Center's wide demographic. But maybe it's a tad too childish??

Enjoy this artwork.

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Believe it or not, this is the first Japanese artist that's appeared since we started AAL. Come to think of it, there weren't many Japanese artists exhibited at this year's ARS. I'd like to discuss this a little more if I have the chance to some time.

A monitor is imbedded in the surface of a table, and a really lame CG character swims by with a plate on its back. On the plate are natto (fermented soy beans), shaved ice, eggs, a hookah, as well as other food and drinks. Placed on the tabletop/monitor is a cup-like thing with a straw.

When you move the cup above the moving character, it suddenly stops moving and fidgets around on the spot. Then, as you suck on the straw, the sucking sensation is as if you're sucking up whatever is on the plate. You can't taste anything, but the pressure in the straw and the vibrations that you feel on your lips is uncannily similar to what you'd imagine sucking up food with a straw to feel like.

Apparently the creators of this gadget actually sucked up real food in order to replicate the sensation. Feeling as if you really sucked up food with a straw... I guess you could call this a virtual reality of sorts? Which means that the viewers of this clip will have to experience this virtual reality within a virtual reality of the video...

Personally, playing with this gadget was really interesting and it's a unique idea that nobody has tried yet, but the lame, cheap-looking digital character brought it down a notch. Maybe the lameness is intentional, or maybe they just don't have any sense of style. It's too hard to tell.

And another thing - this should probably be categorized as technical research rather than "art". Seeing work that exudes social critiques, or the creator's intention and so on, provokes you to think reflectively about your position as the audience. But I think that these works are better (and more easily) appreciated when considered as a result of technical breakthroughs or great discoveries, rather than as art. This piece was a fresh reminder of the ambiguity of the term "media art", and the difficulty of curating such festivals as ARS.

Enjoy this artwork.

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My first recommendation. This is the thing I wanted to show you all the most. It was a giant dinosaur-skeleton-like thing that appeared in Haupt Square, which is in the center of town and features a huge statue of the Holy Trinity. Just when you think it's standing still, it suddenly starts moving with this whooshing noise! When you look at it closely you can see that it's made of countless yellow plastic tubes connected together. There isn't a single nail in the whole thing, and the joints are fastened together using wooden poles and stuff. What powers it isn't electricity, but air... When it moves its wings, an air compressor made out of plastic bottles draws in air, and when that air is released, the joints move. Basically, the wings are its gills and the plastic bottles are its lungs. It was seriously well made. And the size of it was astounding.

The artist who made it was a cool-looking older guy. Theo Jansen was born and raised on the coast of Holland, and spent fourteen years making Strandbeest. This is definitely what you'd call a "life work." With this and Marnix's "Run Motherfucker Run," it seems like I tend to be drawn to things made by Dutch artists. Same goes for soccer and architecture...

Strandbeest's Site
http://www.strandbeest.com/

Enjoy this artwork.

Recommendation Number Two. This work is being exhibited at the Architecture Forum, the location of which I briefly covered before. Well, it's hard to say whether it's more of an exhibit or a performance... I heard a strange "gagagaga" kind of sound coming from a room inside, and when I took a look, it was packed with people and I couldn't really see.

So I pushed my way through and looked inside, where there was a man lying face down with a hard machine on his back. In front of him is an old CRT television, which is showing footage of him doing a run of a skeleton sledding course. Basically, the idea is that you can experience skeleton sledding virtually. But it's not like you can feel the centrifugal force at a curve or sense how fast you're going with the wind or anything. On closer inspection, the machine he has on his back making the "gagagaga" noise turned out to be plucking a guitar string with a propeller.

The artist, who completed a full run of the skeleton course with this guitar strapped to his back, is a bit of a dunce.

This form, this ridiculousness, and this happy, wild-child artist with the brain power of a ten-year-old but who is already thirty-three... it was so adorable I could hardly stand it. Apparently Stephan Pirker herds cows in the mountains. That seems to be his sport of choice to take the place of skeleton sledding in the summer...

There's no way I could have gone without experiencing this thing for myself. So I gave it a try. The guitar weighed thirty kilos. Under the pressure of the guitar, I started sliding, and within ten seconds I was finding it hard to breathe. You should have seen how pathetic and shameful my face looked!! Ah, it was truly shameful. When I'd finished sliding, my neck and shoulders were hurting like hell. Really, it was like being in a one-man camel crutch for three full minutes. Stephan was laughing as he watched me, but I couldn't bring myself to respond, having had all the energy drained out of me by his work...

Enjoy this artwork.

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A much anticipated reunion in Barcelona. This is the new piece by Jens Brand, who we introduced in AAL003 with "G-player".
* The grinding noise in the background is part of the artwork. It's not static!

→ Go to AAL003 for Jens Brand's "G-player"

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Endlessly typing out strange, nonsensical letters. Waste of paper. Take a look.

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