MoMA

Latest MoMA Exhibit Is an AI-Generated Swirling Hallucination of Other Museum Art

'Unsupervised' by artist Refik Anadol first appeared online last year, and it uses a different AI model from DALL-E 2 to create its artistic representations.

Picasso Going on the Auction Block to Fund MoMA’s Potential Push Into NFTs

A $70 million art collection endowed to the museum is being auctioned off, and the proceeds will go towards growing its ‘digital audience.’

An Amazing Japanese Take on C-3PO, and More of the Loveliest Toys of the Week

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9’s regular roundup of all things merch. This week, Tamashii Nation’s “movie realization” range takes on Threepoio, an incredibly detailed Keanu Reeves emerges from the Continental, and Doctor Who’s Bill Potts finally gets her own action figure. Check it out! Tamashii Nations Star Wars Movie Realization Translation Karakuri C-3PO Figure…

Artists Protest Elite Art World With Unauthorized AR Gallery at the MoMA

At this point, augmented reality has mostly been too gimmicky or too good to be true. But a group of internet artists just gave the technology what might be its coolest use case yet: a tool to stick it to the man. On Friday, eight artists launched an augmented reality gallery at the Museum of…

Designers Will Knit a Neon Rope Canopy Over MoMA’s Concrete Courtyard This Summer

Each summer the Museum of Modern Art’s Queens outpost, PS1, chooses an up-and-coming designer to create a temporary installation in its courtyard. These have ranged from a fortress of used skateboards to towers of bricks grown from fungus. This year, it’s a colorful crocheted net. Mexico City-based Escobedo Solíz Studio have been selected as the…

Don’t Be Grossed Out, the Bacteria on These Petri Dish Plates Is Art

Looking for a great prank to pull on a germaphobe? Invite them over for dinner, but serve it on these colorful plates that look like modern art, but are actually microscopic images of bacteria grown in a petri dish. Bonus germaphobe prank: just don’t wash your hands during meal prep. Created by Brazilian artist and…

These Legendary UI Icons Are Now Hanging In a Museum

The original Mac OS icons. The Google Maps pin. The power-on symbol. These marks, which have been with us for years on our screens (or decades, in some cases), are all on display this month at the Museum of Modern Art. In the balcony of MoMA this year, you’ll find a collection of icons and…

I Heard the Future of Sound Technology While Björk Weirded In My Ear

First launched as a Kickstarter back in 2013, Dysonic’sRondoMotion’s 3D head-tracking technology is now being used to power trippy acoustic effects in Björk’s MoMA retrospective. It’s true 3D listening in your earbuds. That and also Björk. The retrospective, which opens on March 7th in New York, contains a 40 minute “Songlines” tour through Björk’s musical…

This Bauhaus-Inspired Watch Is Smart Because It’s So Simple

When I started college, my family bought me a Mondaine Swiss Railway watch based on actual Swiss Railway clocks. I loved it. How could you beat a classic? Now, a new addition to the MoMA Design Store from Uniform Wares has shown me the way—in the form of a timepiece designed to look like Bauhaus-inspired…

6 Ways the World’s Mega-Cities Could Deal With Explosive Growth

People are moving into cities at an astounding rate—so fast, not even the cities themselves will be able to keep up. A new show at the Museum of Modern Art opens this week to examine how that explosive growth will affect six cities globally: Hong Kong, Istanbul, Lagos, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, and New York…

These Five Gadgets Are Now In MoMA’s Permanent Collection

A microcontroller. An experimental synthesizer. A kit for building game consoles. You can read about these things online, you can buy them online, and you can build them yourself. But starting this year, you’ll also find them in arguably the most important modern art museum in the world. In a blog post this week, MoMA’s…

Trade In Your Boring Desk Lamp For This Glowing Optical Illusion Light

Good lighting can make or break the ambience in a room. For something truly unique that finally makes illumination fun again, check out the Bulbing Light, a really cool Kickstarter-turned-Moma Design Store product that combines simple materials with magical effects. The lamp consists of a wooden base that contains simple LED lamp, on top of…

An Artist Is Using Augmented Reality To Stage a Guerrilla Show at MoMA

New York’s Museum of Modern Art won’t display the early work of choreographer Ted Shawn—so Adam H. Weinert is doing it for them. Surprise! MoMa just got a permanent unauthorized exhibition that displays performances inside the museum through an augmented reality app. Weinert explains that while Shawn gave his works to MoMA, the museum gave…

This Folding Knife and Spork Is Plastic Cutlery Evolved

If there’s one downside to a summer spent relaxing at garden parties and backyard barbecues, it’s having to dine with disposable plastic cutlery. It’s flimsy and it’s awkward—and thanks to designer Wei Young, you’d be far better off just bringing this reusable set that folds away so it can hang off a carabiner. Just ten…

Rare Photos of NYC’s Museums Under Construction

Museums are lightning rods for criticism. The most public of all buildings, they’re also the most vulnerable, and even long-accepted classics faced scorn in their infancy. Today we’re taking a look at vintage photographs of New York City’s famous museums while under construction. It’s hard to believe now, but Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum endured…

This Reflective Umbrella Surrounds You In a Super-Safe Halo of Light

To me, whimsical umbrellas—you know, the kind printed with Starry Night or cats—have always seemed like a mockery of the rain-drenched commuter’s misery. But this reflective version actually makes practical sense, since it turns its owner into a glowing beacon of safety. The umbrella was designed by British-born, Hong Kong-based designer Yee-Ling Wan, and it’s…

A Tower Grown From Fungus Is Coming to NYC This Summer

Buildings “grown” from fungus and other organic materials may seem like a far-off concept to some. But this summer, a group of young Brooklyn architects are planning to demonstrate just how real the technology is—by building a tower out of bricks “grown” from mycelium in the courtyard of MoMA P.S.1. The curators at MoMA P.S.1…

Martin Luther King’s 1956 tips for riding integrated buses, examining how design has helped an Alabama county, building instant cities in Accra and instant skyscrapers in Mumbai, and how two New York architects are tearing down the work of their former friends. It’s all this week in our favorite Urban Reads. “Do not deliberately sit…

Cannibal Buildings! Why MoMA Is Eating Its Next Door Neighbor

This week, MoMA confirmed its plans to raze a neighboring museum, creating a continuous connection to the luxury supertall going up next door. The smaller museum is called the American Folk Art Museum, and it’s only been around since 2001—it’s not even a tween. When MoMA announced it would take over the Folk Museum’s considerable…

Inside the Hidden NYC Clocktower Gallery’s Grand Finale

Even though the Clocktower Gallery has been around since 1972, you might never have known it was even there. It resides in the top two floors of a government-owned building in Tribeca, which is just part of the odd story of how this alternative art space has operated through the years. Now it is hosting…