The obliteration room 2011 revisits the popular interactive children’s project developed by Yayoi Kusama for the Queensland Art Gallery’s ‘APT 2002: Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’. In this reworked and enlarged installation, an Australian domestic environment is recreated in the gallery space, complete with locally sourced furniture and ornamentation, all of which has been painted completely white. While this may suggest an everyday topography drained of all colour and specificity, it also functions as a blank canvas to be invigorated — or, in Kusama’s vocabulary, ‘obliterated’ — through the application, to every available surface, of brightly coloured stickers in the shape of dots.

As with many of Kusama’s installations, the work is disarmingly simple in its elemental composition; however, it brilliantly exploits the framework of its presentation. The white room is gradually obliterated over the course of the exhibition, the space changing measurably with the passage of time as the dots accumulate as a result of thousands and thousands of collaborators.

Interactivity became an important component of Kusama’s work in the mid to late 1960s, when her solo public performances expanded into participatory happenings. A product of the postwar Avant-garde, which almost immediately crossed over into popular culture, or at least underground counter culture, happenings developed as unconventional performance events increasingly relying on audience reaction and direct participation. Kusama’s happenings, known as ‘body festivals’ — or ‘orgies’, as they were often sensationally reported in the mainstream press — typically provided platforms for spontaneous and improvisatory behaviour within conceptual and aesthetic frameworks determined by the artist. Often involving public nudity — the artist hoped to contrast the beauty of the youthful human body with the violence of the US–Vietnam War — they challenged prevailing moral frameworks.

Installation view of The obliteration room 2011 as part of ‘Yayoi Kusama: Look Now, See Forever’, Gallery of Modern Art, 2011 / © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio Inc. / Photograph: Mark Sherwood

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Whisky is a complex spirit with a range of flavors. The Macallan recognizes that introducing whisky to some people requires a bit of education. Knowing that smell is such an important element in taste, they thought it would be an interesting experiment to teach people about the flavors of whisky. The Macallan‘s partnership with celebrated British perfumer Roja Dove created an olfactory experience to do just that.

The Macallan and Roja Dove Sensory Experience takes people through the spectrum of scent, educating the nose in common whisky notes. It’s meant to help people approach the whisky palate without the immediate—and often overpowering—alcoholic sensation so that later on, tasting the whiskey may bring out characteristics that may otherwise have been missed. “Everybody so far has said that they are shocked that they are able to smell things in the whisky that they have never, ever noticed before,” explains Dove. I was lucky enough to spend an hour going through the Experience with Dove and David Cox, director of The Macallan’s Fine and Rare whiskies and indeed learned to distinguish the various components that give whisky its flavor.

Dove selected 12 pure essences that he felt were representative of different whiskey traits. The first six introduce scent pairs that help distinguish between things like stillness versus volatility, fruitiness versus spiciness, and maturity versus immaturity. Dove’s experience goes back and forth between scents in an opposite way from traditional whisky-tasting, bringing out base notes after the high notes and the sweet before the dry. The kit provides a certain education that a tasting alone cannot. The second set of six scents creates two aromatic blends that imitate whiskies from The Macallan range, which are later used in combination with the whisky during tasting. By the end, the nose has been properly trained and participants leave equipped with the vocabulary to go forward and taste whiskey on their own. It’s perhaps not a surprise that through his own methods Dove has come to appreciate and enjoy whisky. The box contains scent strips for testing and glasses to combine the scents into a “bouquet,” which mirrors the whiskey-tasting experience. Armed with this educational tool, The Macallan’s brand ambassadors are set to spread the essence of their spirit through scent, hoping to convert non-believers to the fascinating world of scotch whisky and provide connoisseurs with an additional tool for appreciation

Via: psssst

The Lapin Kulta Solar Kitchen Restaurant is a concept resulted by the  collaboration between Catalan designer Martí Guixé and Finnish food visionary Antto Melasniemi. Is a concept built around a solar kitchen, where the food is cooked using only alternative energy: the sun. Unlike the traditional way of cooking, solar heat affects the taste and texture of the dish in a surprising and positive way, producing a completely different taste experience.

The restaurant is fully powered by (and therefore dependent on) solar energy, so the amount of sunshine each day will determine the menu of the day.

Via: PSSSSST

Theatre for One is project conceived by Christine Jones , a freelance set designer.

Theatre for One is a portable performing arts space for one performer and one audience member, that turns public events into private acts.

You can check a video here.

Limelight: Saturday Night is a project created by Sans façon taken place in 2010 in six cities across the UK and America, where a selection of sidewalks has been turned into a impromptu stages by turning streetlights into theatre spotlights. The result is an astonishing mix of reactions.

The simple intervention replaces two streetlights with theatre spotlights and instantly transfoms the street into a stage and passers-by into performers, somewhere between spectacle and surveillance. This intentionally subtle alteration to street lighting suggests on one hand the latent potential of public realm as places of interaction and celebration and on the other hand offers an alternative approach to city’s lighting as more than securitarian.

Made by Hand was created out of the belief that the things we collect, consume, use, and share are part of who we are as individuals. For example, the food that we eat says something about each of us, as do the tools we use and the chairs we rest on. Objects that surround the space we dwell in tell stories, and not just about us. Where did they come from? Who made them? How were they made?

Each film aims to promote that which is made locally, sustainably, and with a love for craft. Based in Brooklyn, the project takes its influence from the handmade movement here and elsewhere. We hope you find the spirit of it inspiring.

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Made by Hand was created out of the belief that the things we collect, consume, use, and share are part of who we are as individuals. For example, the food that we eat says something about each of us, as do the tools we use and the chairs we rest on. Objects that surround the space we dwell in tell stories, and not just about us. Where did they come from? Who made them? How were they made?

Each film aims to promote that which is made locally, sustainably, and with a love for craft. Based in Brooklyn, the project takes its influence from the handmade movement here and elsewhere. We hope you find the spirit of it inspiring.

Lullaby is a gentle, slumber show designed to send you to sleep. Bring your pyjamas and toothbrush and pile up the zzz’s at this romantic rock-a-bye nocturne. Book a single, a double or a triple bed and sleep with us on a summer night in the city. Enjoy your reveries as sister songstresses H. Plewis, Harriet Plewis and domestic dreamers Matthew Robins and Tim Spooner create a nod-off narrative of soothing storytelling and choral cradle song.

Lullaby is a moonlit soporific serenade followed by seven hours of slow-wave sleep rounded-off by breakfast to send you on your way.

via Barbican

In 2010, Burma held its first elections in 20 years. As part of its campaign to help free Burma’s 2,100 political prisoners, Human Rights Watch created a giant installation at New York’s Grand Central Station. Consisting of hundreds of prison cells, a closer look reveals that the cells bars are actually pens.
Visitors could remove the pens to symbolically free the prisoners and then use the pen to sign a petition calling for the release of these innocent prisoners.