ART + COM: Manta Rhei

Founded in 1988 by a group of designers, scientists, artists, and technicians, ART + COM is a company committed to the exploration of new media and technology. The company designs and executes commissioned projects for clients such as the German Salt Museum, the BMW Museum, and Autostadt Wolfsburg. Based in Berlin, ART + COM relies on both the content of their projects and cutting edge technology to produce commissions that establish new innovative boundaries between the fields of art, design, science, and technology.

Manta Rhei (2012) is ART + COM’s newest completed project. A collaboration between ART + COM and light fixture manufacturer Selux, “Manta Rhei merges physical movement and light choreography for a new kind of luminaire, the first to be based in OLED technology.” 

More than a simple light installation, Manta Rhei is a performance of impressive choreography and machinery. Composed of sets of ten OLEDs which are attached to fourteen 1.2m flexible metal “lamellae,” the installation shifts with the aid of motors hidden in the ceiling. Each motor can be controlled individually, allowing each set of lamellae to perform patterns of prescribed motion. 

Suspended from the ceiling, Manta Rhei looks like a large-scale Minimalist sculpture, a testament to its design aesthetic. However, the individual movements of each metal lamel allow the entire installation to appear as if it is moving though the air. This important design feature provides the added element of functionality that blurs the line between art, design, and technology. Manta Rhei is as functional as a light source as it is a breathtaking art/tech installation. 

For more information about Manta Rhei and other projects by ART + COM, please visit their website here. 

- Victoria Nolte

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Jihyun Ryou

A quick review before Sunday’s edition.

How many items have we left in the fridge with the assumption that “it will last,” taking it for granted that because its temperature is set within the golden range of 35 to 38 degrees fahrenheit we need not worry, unless the power goes out. 

With the introduction of the refrigerator into the average home around the 1950’s, food storage, sustainability, and quality were taken as a given. Somehow, because of the convenience and ease of an “open-door” policy, we seem to have forgotten the essentials of what food (vegetables, fruits, meats and cheese’s) entail namely, responsibility and care. How do we go about this? Well According to Jihyun Ryou one way is to do what she has done and design a minimalist food preservation system for the modern kitchen. 

What differentiate’s Ryou’s designs from other “buy it off the shelf” or “designer” goods is the importance and transmission of traditional oral knowledge. Traditional oral knowledge brings long or forgotten food practices back into everyday living.    

By designing minimal objects for everyday use, Jihyun Ryou gives us an opportunity to enhance our experience and knowledge of food and the traditional oral practices that shape food culture. Foremost, Ryou’s designs remind us of our continual dependence upon food and asks us to consider how we approach and treat such food.   

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Patrick Laumond

Patrick Laumond’s artworks began with a stain, “a representation of the big bang”. In his art practice, Laumond uses visual queues to create a type of visual language. The white space shows infinity. The blots and lines are where we come in. 

“My search is about how to express a model of the whole universe in a comprehensive body of work. I explored the notion of the void, creating works that generate a multidimensional space and seem to destabilize our assumptions about the world and express dualities such as reality and illusion, solidity and intangibility, certainty and uncertainty” 

Overall, Laumond’s work is fueled by one question, “How does one show questioning, doubts, assumptions and the human condition?” For more information on Laumond click here. 

- Lee Jones

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