Gizmodo: performance art

Light As Performance Art

Jason Chen — Fri, 15 May 2009 21:00:00 EDT

Light performance photography is impressive enough, but shoving these light performance photographs into a video and putting a Depeche Mode-like music track on it? We're sold. [Hacknmod via Boing Boing Gadgets]

Really Bored Dude Camouflages Self as Paper, Bags and Boxes at an Ikea Store

Adrian Covert — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 21:00:00 EST

Some people would file this exercise in camouflage under performance art. Others would suggest this guy has too much time on his hands. I say, why can't it be both?

This belongs to a series called Urban Camouflage, and the stunt aims to solve the mystery of disguising oneself in an urban space. I can certainly respect the high-mindedness behind the idea, but I refuse to believe the artist didn't do it part just to screw around and be a jackass (0:45 into the video is especially great). Be sure to check out more photos and video over at [Urban Camouflage via Boing Boing via Prefix]

BigDog Quadruped Robot, Or Something Like It, Spooks Tokyo Streets

Elaine Chow — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:30:00 EST

The Land of Godzilla now has another monster terrorizing its streets—Boston Dynamic's BigDog robot! Only... aren't those feet? This isn't BigDog Beta, is it? No wonder the Japanese look more puzzled than scared. [JapanProbe]

Life-Sized Autobot Assembles in French Parking Lot, Doesn't Really Roll Out

Adrian Covert — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:30:00 EDT

French performance art troupe "Not So Noisy" have spent the last month "assembling" giant, life-sized Autobots from normal cars, and shooting the action from overhead. Of course, they're not really building anything. They're really arranging cars (or people) in an empty parking lot so that it looks like Optimus Prime knocked back a few too many quarts of oil and passed out. But it's awesome.

In addition to photographing each event, they have time lapse footage of the process, which is pretty neat to watch. Not So Noisy has done this three times—once with cars and trucks, once with RetroBuses and once with people. I love each one equally. [Not So Noisy]

Crawling Businessman Robot Is a Critique On Japanese Salarymen

Jason Chen — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:00:00 EDT

Japanese Performance artist Momoyo Torimitsu built a crawling Japanese businessman robot and took it to the streets of Australia to creep out little kids and turn on weird dudes with camcorders. The bot is her critique on the Japanese salaryman lifestyle and the apparent upcoming Asian economic crash. All we know is that dressing up like a nurse and pulling down an old man's pants in the middle of the street is going to attract some lookey-loos. Oh, and I wouldn't want to scrape along the street with my undies down. Ouch. [Diagonal View via Dvice]

HipDisk Musical Instrument, the Hula Hoop of Your Nightmares

Charlie White — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 08:19:14 EDT

As if the world needed yet another weird musical instrument, Danielle Wilde has created the hipDisk, a pair of doughnut-shaped platters activated with a series of movements that might be quite attractive with the right person doing them. The idea incorporates not just one of these noisemakers, but duets, trios, quartets or even choirs of such dancers/musician angels, filling the air with discord, rude noises and dissonance. It's not entirely clear why a bathing suit must be worn during the performance. Jump to the next page for the video, but we're warning you, get ready to turn the sound down.

There hasn't been such an obnoxious cacophony since that fart-lighting frat party some of us Gizmodians went to a couple of months ago. [hipDisk, via Oh Gizmo]

'Face Your Pockets' Project Reveals the Inner You

Charlie White — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 19:45:00 EDT

What are you carrying in your pockets right now? Show the world in the "Face Your Pockets" mass photo project whose organizers are inviting worldwide participation. Artfully arrange the contents of your pockets onto a scanner, perhaps add something funny or poignant to the mix, position your face nearby and push the button. When you're happy with the results, send it to faceyourpockets@gmail.com with a few personal details. Check out the gallery below for some of the submissions we've seen so far.

"Face Your Pockets" mass photo project [Core 77 Design Blog]

Tag a Pic, Win a Zune or Slingbox! Less Than Two Days Left

Charlie White — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 12:10:00 EDT

You're doing a great job of posting hilarious, poignant, provocative or just plain dumb pictures to Richard Felix's SlickrFrame, an Internet-connected digital picture frame that displays any picture on the Flickr photo-sharing site tagged with the word "slickrframe." Richard's getting lots of spectacular shots in our performance art/Web 3.0 experiment, and he's giving you until 11:59:59, Wednesday, April 11th to tag your best pics for entry in his contest where he's giving away a Microsoft Zune and Slingbox AV. Follow the link below for contest rules and a huge list of prizes.

By the way, there are more than 4000 photos entered, and you can see them all here or go to Flickr and search for the tag "slickrframe". Or to see the photos as Richard does on his SlickrFrame, can download Slickr, the excellent open-source screensaver with effects and smooth zooms that shows all the pics with your chosen Flickr tags.

Upload your pictures you'd like to enter on the Flickr photo sharing site, tagged with the word "slickrframe," and you're in. Richard will be the judge, going through all the entries and picking out the 20 finalists. Then, we'll all vote for our favorite pic right here at the Giz, where the top five vote-getters will be the prizewinners.

You have until 11:59:59, Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 to tag your best Flickr pictures with "slickrframe" for them to be considered. If you already have, you're already entered!

Do not tag more than 50 of your photos without emailing Richard in advance to let him know that you are doing so. If you do, you'll be disqualified. He has to go through these pretty much by hand, and if a few people monopolize the tag, some great pictures are sure to be lost in the shuffle.

Keep tagging your best pictures with "slickrframe" as you add them to Flickr in the future. Richard plans to develop (or get someone else to develop) some SlickrFrame widgets for the Mac, Yahoo Widgets and even Vista, so everyone can get in on the fun!

For more details and a list of prizes including a Microsoft Zune and a Slingbox AV, visit Richard's Fresh Arrival site.

SlickrFrame Contest [Fresh Arrival]

SlickrFrame: Join In the Mass Picture Post!

Charlie White — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 09:54:57 EDT

Gizmodo reader Richard Felix put together a do-it-yourself digital picture frame that he built out of an old laptop display, and now he's asking everyone on the Internet to upload pictures to photo-sharing site Flickr so he can view them on this Wi-Fi-connected frame. All you need to do is upload any photo to your Flickr account (go ahead, sign up, it's free) and tag it "slickrframe." Then you'll be participating in this performance art/Web 3.0 experiment.

Let's demonstrate to Richard (and one another) the vast creativity and diversity of the Gizmodo readership, posting hilarious, poignant, provocative or just plain dumb pictures for his (and our) amusement. You can download Slickr, the excellent open-source screensaver with effects and smooth zooms that he'll use to view the pictures, and get in on the voyeuristic pleasure.

It'll be a community Gizmodo experience. Make them good shots, because we'll post the best pictures in a gallery here in the next few days. C'mon, Gizmodians, show us what you got! – Charlie White

SlickerFrame [Fresh Arrival]