Everything You Should Know About Sound

“The next time you’re talking to someone, I want you to stop and think about what’s happening. Your brain has a thought. It translates that thought into a pattern of pressure waves. Then your lungs send air out of your body, but as you do that, you vibrate your vocal chords in just the right way and you move your mouth and tongue into just the right shapes that by the time the air leaves you, it’s embedded with a pattern of high and low pressure areas. The code in that air then spreads out to all the air in the vicinity, a little bit of which ends up in your friend’s ear, where it passes by their eardrum. When it does, it vibrates their eardrum in such a way as to pass on not only the code, but exactly where in the room it came from and the particular tone of voice it came with. The eardrum’s vibrations are transmitted through three tiny bones and into a little sac of fluid, which then transmits the information into electrical impulses and sends them up the auditory nerve and into the brain, where the information is decoded. And all of that happens in an eighth of a second, without any effort from either of you. Talking is a miracle.”

        Italian artist Nunzio Paci works with pencil and oil paints to create strange amalgamations of plants and animals in what he describes as an intent to “explore the infinite possibilities of life, in search of a balance between reality and imagination.” Paci currently has a solo show including several of the pieces you see here at the Palazzo del Podestà in Bologna through October 12. (via Artchipel)

Buzz

Generative artworks by Jonathan McCabe (based on reaction-diffusion computations)

Danny Quirk’s work lies somewhere between fine art and scientific illustration. His collection of anatomical body art, some of which he paints directly on his subjects, others which he depicts in traditional painting, dares the viewer to see what’s beneath the surface. You won’t see skin the same.

This delicate series of sculpted plants is part of a project by artist Camila Carlow titled Eye Heart Spleen. The photographic project is comprised of 13 images representing human organs constructed from plants and flowers. From Carlow’s statement about the project:

The most fascinating and intricate of biological structures, yet we rarely pay heed to the organs inside our body. Regardless of whether we fill ourselves with toxins or nourishing food, whether we exercise or not—our organs sustain us, working away effortlessly and unnoticed.

In a similar way, plants flourishing in the urban environment are a testament to nature’s indifference to our goings on. They grow out of the sides of buildings, in brick walls and between the cracks in concrete, despite of the traffic and pollution.

Camila Carlow is a Guatemalan-born artist based in Bristol, England, and she works in a range of mediums from photography and painting as well as cinematography. Several of the Eye Heart Spleen photos are available as prints in her shop. (via Sweet Station)

Identical twins Ryan and Trevor Oakes have always been interested in creating artwork that explores visual perception and light, but their most impressive work yet may be their invention of Vision, a concave easel that functions as a 3D drawing machine. A fascinating blend of science and art, the device takes advantage of the spherical quality of human vision, thus avoiding the distortions that occur when tracing an image onto a flat surface. Using strips of paper taped together in a concave shape, the artists cross their eyes until an image floats onto the paper’s edge, hovering over the scene transparently, which allows them to trace it.

The science behind the unique contraption stems from the way that human optics work: we see a double image because of our two eyes, but our brain interprets these twin images together, giving us an unbroken view of space and a 3D perspective. In a similar vein, Vision separates the images projected from each eye so the user can scan the world with one eye and draw it with the other, as if tracing onto reality. As a result, users of the easel can create remarkably detailed and realistic drawings of the scenes before them. “Our subject matter is as much an eye looking as the thing being looked at,” says Trevor. Ryan adds, “We’re dissecting what it feels like to have two eyes.”

Be sure to learn more about the Oakes twins’ technique in the video below, or check out an exhibition of their work titled Compounding Visions at the National Museum of Mathematics in NYC until July 21.

Over the past few days there have been several time-lapse videos circulating around the web of a supercell storm forming over the skies in Wyoming. While that video is incredible, this footage by photographerStephen Locke, captured near Climax, Kansas on May 10th of this year, is even more astounding. A massive vortex of clouds, rain, lightning, and a clearly visible sunset to boot. (via Vimeo)

Drawing inspiration from early theatrical training, and influenced by methods of staged photography and set design, artist Barry Underwood (previously) transforms ordinary landscapes into something out of science fiction. The artist utilizes LED lights, luminescent material, and other photographic effects to create fleeting abstract landscapes that are influenced by both accidental and incidental light. He shares via his artist statement:

My artwork examines community and land-use in rural, suburban and urban sites. I created this series of installations by researching local agricultural, industrial, and recreational land-use. Curiosity about ecological and social history of specific places drives my work. By revealing the beauty and potential of an ordinary landscape an everyday scene is transformed into a memorable, visual experience. Each photograph image is a dialogue – the result of my direct encounter with nature and history. Inspired by land art, landscape photography and painting, as well as cinema, my images are both surreal and familiar.

Underwood will open an exhibition of both old and new work at Sous Les Etoiles Gallery in New York titledScenes, on May 29th, 2014. You can see more over on Johansson Projects and read a 2011 interview atJuxtapoz. Images courtesy Sous Les Etoiles Gallery and the artist.

Well these are fucking EPIC. With his anatomical illustrations, Salvatore Zanfrisco gives us a glance at what’s in our heart, our mind, our soul. It is an attempt to take inside out whatever defines who we are. The artist describes it as “a project born to show what really defines people through anatomical portraits made by pen”.

Since 1988, over 19,000 rap songs have made reference to marijuana and cocaine. Far fewer have mentioned prescription drugs, Codeine and MDMA, though Sizzurp, that foul concoction of cough syrup, alcohol, soda, and Jolly Ranchers, seems to be having a resurgence. Meanwhile, rappers seem less interested in calling out specific alcohol brands today than they did in the mid 1990s.

These are some of the observations from Drug Slang in Hip Hop, a series of graphs that catalog drug references in rap lyrics between the late ‘80s through 2013. The charts break each drug into its various nicknames–i.e. cocaine, blow, piff, and eight ball–and show the “prevalence” of each name in a given year. (Prevalence is the number of songs with a specific drug reference divided by the total number of songs released that year.)

The graphs, which are based on a study of RapGenius lyrics, were commissioned by Project Know, an online resource for families and friends whose loved ones are struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. Mostly, it’s fascinating to see the spectrum of names for a single substance–and to speculate about the ebb and flow of their popularity. It’s striking, for example, to see the explosion in the number and overall volume of prescription drugs mentioned around 2006, and the rise of Adderall. “Along with the steep rise in various pain killers, including Percs, Lortab, and hydrocodone since the mid-2000s, Adderall’s popularity has surged,” the researchers have said.

It’s also interesting to see the rise and fall in popularity of certain alcohol brands, including a Patron spike starting in 2003, and the inexplicable durability of Hennessy.

A few days ago the London-based illustrator and textile designer Ciara Phelan launched a new website. If you’re not that familiar with Ciara’s work then you’re probably in for a treat. Her collage-based illustrations typically buzz with energy and through her client work and personal projects she has carved out a distinctive style which feels fluid and natural despite the often rigid nature of her medium.One piece in particular which stands out for me is an ongoing personal project which mixes fashion illustration with Ciara’s love of Greek mythology. Combining collage with textures and vector shapes she has created three stunning images from Greek myth: Demeter, the goddess of the harvest; Aphrodite, the goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation; and Persephone, the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. I think they’re beautiful images.

It’s such a great series that I would love to see it continue. For now though, why not check out more work from Ciara on her website here. Enjoy!

Excerpt taken from TheFoxIsBlack.com

paper flowers - tiffany turner

http://www.papelsf.com/

In the realm of genetic anomalies found in living organisms perhaps none is more visually striking than bilateral gynandromorphism, a condition where an animal or insect contains both male and female characteristics, evenly split, right down the middle. While cases have been reported in lobsters, crabs and even in birds, it seems butterflies and moths lucked out with the visual splendor of having both male and female wings as a result of the anomaly. For those interested in the science, here’s a bit from Elise over at IFLScience:

In insects the mechanism is fairly well understood. A fly with XX chromosomes will be a female. However, an embryo that loses a Y chromosome still develops into what looks like an adult male, although it will be sterile. It’s thought that bilateral gynandromorphism occurs when two sperm enter an egg. One of those sperm fuses with the nucleus of the egg and a female insect develops. The other sperm develops without another set of chromosomes within the same egg. Both a male and a female insect develop within the same body.

Above are some great examples of bilateral gynandromorphism, but follow the links above and below for many more. (via Live Science, The Endless Airshow, Butterflies of America, IFLScience)