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Arca will use AI to soundtrack NYC's Museum of Modern Art
If you pay a visit to New York City's Museum of Modern Art in the near future, you'll be awash in artificial intelligence before you've even seen an exhibit. Electronic musician Arca (who has produced for Bjork and FKA Twigs) has announced that a piece she wrote using Bronze's AI creative tool will provide the soundtrack for MoMA's lobby for the next two years once it reopens on October 21st. Don't think that it'll be just the same tune playing on loop, though. The AI will "never make the music play the same way twice," Arca said. In that sense, it's more like one very large piece.
Bang & Olufsen unveils David Lynch speaker collaboration
Long-time Bang & Olufsen fan David Lynch is lending his creative eye to a special edition speaker collection. The series includes the Beoplay A9, M5 and P2, featuring selected images and details from Lynch's War Between the Shapes series and Paris Suite lithographs.
Google's AI scans and tags millions of 'Life' magazine photos
Google is pretty big on art. Its technology has turned clumsy doodles into masterpieces, transformed smartphones into virtual exhibitions and, in a move that caused momentary internet hysteria, helped selfie-takers find their fine art doppelganger. Now it's unveiled a new set of machine-learning experiments that not only make exploring art more engaging, but help solve some of the biggest challenges faced by curators and museums.
Emoji join Dali and van Gogh in New York's MoMA
You might think of emoji as a lowbrow form of communication, but according to MoMA, it's art. The museum added the original 176 emoji, developed by Shigetaka Kurita for Japanese pagers in 1999, to its collection. "With the advent of email in the 1970s ... the conveyance of tone and emotion became both harder and more urgently important," MoMA design specialist Paul Galloway wrote. "When combined with text, these simple images allow for more nuanced intonation."
Samsung's designer Serif TV reaches the US for $1,499
How much do you value design over sheer value for money? You're about to find out. Samsung's Serif TV is now available for US pre-orders through the Museum of Modern Art at a price of $1,499 -- given that this is only a 40-inch set, you're clearly paying for the typography-inspired body more than you are the electronics. Not that you aren't getting some decent hardware. The Serif packs a 4K display with high dynamic range color support, and you're getting perks that include an exclusive remote control, detachable legs and a custom interface with a simple "curtain mode" menu. If you're at all interested in this conversation piece, the biggest obstacle may simply be having to wait until it ships in August.
Sony's designer product series lands in the US, courtesy of MoMA
Sony is bringing its Life Space UX range of well-heeled audio and projector products to the US this May. The company has partnered with the MoMA store to sell its three of its debut devices. The LED Bulb speaker can play your music through Bluetooth (and be a bulb) at $239, followed by more light-and-sound options, the stylish Glass Sound Speaker ($799). This offers higher quality sound than a mere bulb and Sony says the organic glass cylinder vibrates in a similar way to human vocal chords to produce "uniquely lifelike sound" — it'll also run for four hours on batteries alone.
Virtual reality stole my dance with Bjork
Maximum Bjorkness! That's what I came in expecting at MoMA PS1, the Museum of Modern Art's Queens-based offshoot, where the famous musician/distressing fashionista's new virtual reality exhibit is on display. "Stonemilker," a lilting, melancholy track from her new album Vulnicura, is the basis for Bjork's foray into VR. Considering the freaky name -- Stone milk? Gross. -- the harrowing emotional subject matter of her new record and the tech, you can understand why I arrived ready to get weird.
At her MoMA retrospective, first comes tech, then comes Bjork
There are two major takeaways from Bjork's much-anticipated retrospective at NYC's Museum of Modern Art: One, the vast majority of the exhibit feels more like a celebrity amusement park ride; and two, there's the occasional glimmer of ambition around the exhibit's use of technology. I suppose it's tough to contain an avant-garde pop creature like Bjork within the confines of a museum, even one that's already honored her in the past (a digital version of her last album, Biophilia, was the first app added to MoMA's permanent collection). But for someone who's embraced the exploration of technology in her music, it makes sense that the gadgetry used to enliven Bjork's exhibit ends up being the highlight of the actual exhibit.
NYC MoMA adds five maker devices to its permanent collection
If you've ever been to a Maker Faire, you know its as much of an art show as a technology showcase. Builders debut everything from robotic bands to educational circuitry kits at these events, and the NYC Museum of Modern Art is about to immortalize five maker products into its permanent collection. Early next year, the Arduino, Ototo, Makey Makey, Colour Chaser and a DIY Gamer Kit will be on display in the MoMA's design galleries, serving as representatives of the maker culture to the museum's visitors. MoMA is excited about the new additions, but it's not the first time technology has found its way into the museum's collection: in 2011 both Botanicalls and Little Bits found its way into MoMA's galleries. Check out the announcement at the source link below. [Image credit: NYC MoMA]
Bjork's interactive 'Biophilia' album is the first downloadable app in MoMA's permanent collection
We've seen lots of crazy things on display at the Museum of Modern Art -- a "rain room," a sex toy that works with your phone, a sleeping Academy Award-winning actress. Now you can add "tablet app" to that list. Bjork's "Biophilia," an interactive album released on iOS and Android, has become the first downloadable app to join MoMA's permanent collection. First released in 2011 (and still available for sale), the album allows listeners to "contribute" to songs by playing with interactive on-screen visuals. In "Solstice," for instance (pictured above), the orbits actually allow you to control the string music, with the option to save and record your own version. Ultimately, it was that interactivity that earned the app a spot in the collection. "With Biophilia, Björk truly innovated the way people experience music by letting them participate in performing and making the music and visuals, rather than just listening passively," said MoMA senior curator Paola Antonelli in a blog post.
First iPad app added to NYC Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection
New York City's Museum of Modern Art showcases one of the world's finest collections of modern art from across the spectrum of creation -- painting, sculpture, creative installations, and now iPad apps. MoMA has officially added added the first iPad app to its permanent collection of fine art. The app is called Biophilia and was developed by the Icelandic pop star Björk. Part music exploration and part game, players are presented with a series of mini games based around various songs Björk has written. Depending on how players manipulate the world in each mini game, the song playing chang. For example, in the game for the song "Virus" players are shown a cell being slowly attacked by a virus. Players can choose to stop the virus, but upon doing so discover that saving the cell causes the music to end. Only by allowing the virus to destroy the cell can players hear the full song, and see the end of the level. Developed with the help of several masters of interactive design, the app is challenging musically, aesthetically, and conceptually. In an article about the app, which you should certainly read, MoMA explains exactly why even an iPad app can be considered art. Biophilia is the first downloadable app in MoMA's collection. Apps-short for applications-are packaged, portable programs that are designed as products one can purchase from digital shelves. We have in the past acquired several digital artifacts, from dynamic visualizations to fonts and video games. For all of our digital acquisitions, we have established a protocol that speaks to the modalities of acquisition-code, files, videos-conservation, and display. The first apps added to the collection were John Maeda's 1994 Reactive Books, distributed on floppy disks inside old-school physical books. Even more than video games, apps are highly "collectible" because of their finite or semi-finite nature-they might be connected to live feeds and to the Web, but their infrastructure design is stable and defined, unlike that of websites. Indeed, in the case of an app like Biophilia, the only variable left open is the exquisite interaction that the artwork welcomes and invites, a testament to the equally exquisite experimental nature of the artist that conceived it. Collaboration, creativity, open-mindedness, curiosity, and endless talent are the basic ingredients of most great examples of art and design. True innovation-technological, social, performative-supported by great art is a mesmerizing gift to the world. You can download the app yourself here on the iTunes store for $12.99.
Minecraft belongs in a museum, according to MoMA
New York's Museum of Modern Art has announced that it is adding six video games, including Minecraft, and a console to its famous collection of contemporary art. The Museum chose to honor fourteen games last year (including Pac-Man, SimCity 2000, EVE Online, and Portal) based on their traits of behavior, aesthetics, space, and time. This year, the museum is adding Atari classics Pong, Space Invaders, Asteroids, Tempest, and Yar's Revenge, as well as Mojang's modern hit, Minecraft. MoMA's also adding the Magnavox Odyssey to the collection, remembering it not only as the first commercial home video game console, but as "a masterpiece of engineering and industrial design." As part of the museum's collection, all of these games and the console will periodically show up in exhibits put together by MoMA's Architecture and Design department.
EVE Online: Retribution gets a launch trailer
The launch of EVE Online: Retribution just wouldn't be right without a launch trailer. That's why today, in preparation for the blessed event, a snazzy trailer called Consequences made its way to IGN. Skip below the cut to see and hear the trailer in all its sci-fi glory. While we're on the subject of videos, though, there's something else for EVE Online fans to get excited about. Remember how we told you about EVE making it into the Museum of Modern Art's upcoming video game exhibit? The CCP team wants your help making that a spectacular exhibit! A new blog post is putting out a call to make Sunday, December 9th, the busiest and most interesting day in the history of the game -- and to record every last second of it. Well, at least every last riveting second. The team is hoping to use user-captured video and sound, in conjunction with other recordings and infographics, to present New Eden in an accessible light. Read the official post for all the details.
NYC Museum of Modern Art opens game collection with 14 classics, exhibiting in March 2013
Given the subject matter, this is usually where the author waxes philosophical about whether -- having been accepted by a major international museum -- games are indeed "art." We're gonna skip that needless exercise today and simply tell you that the New York City Museum of Modern Art is officiating its intake of 14 video game classics as the start of an ongoing gaming collection, set to go on display in March 2013 in the MoMA's Philip Johnson Architecture and Design Galleries -- the same galleries that house an original iPod and more. The games range from Buckner & Garcia inspiration Pac-Man to modern classic Portal, and even includes some lesser known gems (vib-ribbon, anyone?). The MoMA blog calls this initial selection just the "seedbed" for a chunkier collection of around 40 titles, all of which will be part of a "new category of artworks" at the iconic museum. Head below for the full first 14.
Museum of Modern Art picks 14 pretty, ugly games for new exhibit
New York's Museum of Modern Art is hosting a video game exhibit beginning in March 2013 with installments of 14 initial games, featuring Pac-Man, Tetris, Myst, Katamari Damacy, Dwarf Fortress, Portal and Canabalt, among others.MoMA eventually wants to incorporate 40 games into the show, with a wishlist including Asteroids, The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Grim Fandango and Minecraft. Games are chosen based on a "tight filter" that covers behavior, aesthetics, space and time, meaning the "selection does not include some immensely popular video games that might have seemed like no-brainers to video game historians," Senior Curator Paola Antonelli writes."Are video games art?" Antonelli asks herself. "They sure are, but they are also design, and a design approach is what we chose for this new foray into this universe."Check out the full list of 14 below, along with a few more from MoMA's wishlist.
EVE Online coming to NYC's Museum of Modern Art
New York City's Museum of Modern Art is prepping a new video game exhibit for next year and has selected EVE Online to be one of the first 14 titles included. The sci-fi MMO will join the company of titles like Tetris, Portal, and The Sims starting in March 2013. While attendees will be able to play some of the titles in the gallery, Senior Curator Paola Antonelli said that the staff had to get creative with titles like EVE Online: "To convey their experience, we will work with players and designers to create guided tours of these alternate worlds so the visitor can begin to appreciate the extent and possibilities of the complex gameplay." Antonelli said that all of the selections were chosen "as outstanding examples of interaction design." The museum hopes to expand the exhibit to 40 titles in the near future.
Katamari Damacy rolling into New York Museum of Modern Art
Katamari Damacy – the game, and not a big ball made up of everything in sight – will be on display in New York's Museum of Modern Art. The game is part of the "Century of the Child: Growing by Design" exhibit, running from July 29 until November 5."Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900-2000," is an overview of the "modernist preoccupation with children and childhood as a paradigm for progressive design thinking." OMG, right!?But, for real, the exhibition plans on bringing together areas underrepresented in design history, including "school architecture, clothing, playgrounds, children's hospitals and safety equipment, nurseries, furniture, and books."If only they'd conclude the exhibit by rolling up everything on display into a giant ball and displaying it in the lobby for years to come.
Kraftwerk performing 3D-enhanced retrospective concerts over 8 nights at MoMA
New York City isn't Europe and eight straight nights isn't exactly endless (though, it's plenty long if you're talking about lamp oil), but this humble metropolis is good enough for electronic and Krautrock pioneers Kraftwerk. The robo-rockers are heading to MoMa on April 10th and will be playing eight albums in chronological order, starting with Autobahn, over eight nights. The performances will sadly only feature one member of the classic lineup, but it will be augmented with 3D video and other visual media (presumably including neon lights). Tickets for the concert series, Kraftwerk-Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, go on sale at noon on February 22nd for $25.[Image credit: Andréas Hagström, Wikipedia]
The Artist is Present is a game about waiting in line at a museum
Writing articles about video games is so much fun that we often have to stop, wipe the manic grins off our faces and find something really boring to do. Sometimes we stare at a blank white wall and recite the Declaration of Independence under our breath, other times we watch Lost in Translation. Now we have a new option: We can play The Artist is Present, a game about waiting in line at New York's Museum of Modern Art created by Pippin Barr. Unfortunately for us, the game's backstory is pretty entertaining. Contemporary artist Marina Abramović held an exhibit in 2010 that had people waiting hours in line for a chance to look into her eyes for as long as they wanted, and Barr used that idea to make a hilariously serious game about the contemporary art experience. In the game, you enter MoMA, buy a ticket and -- surprise -- wait in line to stare into Abramović's eyes. The game mimics MoMA's hours in real life, meaning when the real museum closes, the game kicks you to the curb and you can wait until it opens again IRL to get back in line. Or you can leave and grab a slice of pizza. Not in the game; in reality. We haven't made it to the front yet, but already we feel enlightened. And bored.
'Pxl Pushr' blends Kinect and iPad play to impressive, multicolor results
Among the dozen or so games strewn about New York City's Museum of Modern Art (during last week's Kill Screen-curated "Arcade" event) two titles had their playable debuts: Eric Zimmerman and Nathalie Pozzi's "Starry Heavens" ("a physical game of power and betrayal"), as well as Matt Boch and Ryan Challinor's "Pxl Pushr" ("something akin to a full-bodied theremin blended with a puzzle game"). Considering what the two freshman entries were up against -- critically acclaimed games like Limbo, Canabalt, and Echochrome -- it was impressive that both games had lengthy lines throughout the evening. I mean no offense when I say this, but Pxl Pusher looks like what would've happened if Kinect technology had existed in the Coleco Vision days. In the same way that your Dad's sweet 1973 Lacoste track jacket still looks totally rad, so does Pxl Pushr. The bizarre look is both a measure of the dev duo's style -- their day jobs are as designers at Harmonix -- and of the short-term development cycle. "Over the past four weeks-ish we've been messing around building this game," Boch explained. In Pxl Pushr, one player places dots on an iPad, while another player attempts to catch as many dots as possible by using the contortions of their body (via Kinect). The player contorting their body is scored on how many pixels he/she is able to "push" versus the ones they miss. It's a simple concept for sure, but one that had many attendees smiling while making very silly poses. Not that the crowd's reaction was foreign to Boch and Challinor, two gentlemen who spend their working hours with Dance Central 2.%Gallery-129438%
