Man decorates basement in Sharpie

Ususally I'm wary when I hear about projects done in sharpie or duct tape. There are a lot of people doing really cool things with both materials, but there are also a lot of people making complete crap out of both materials.

This guy, I must say, has done a real classy job with black sharpie.

"When Charlie Kratzer started on the basement art project in his south Lexington home, he was surrounded by walls painted a classic cream. Ten dollars of Magic Marker and Sharpie later, the place was black and cream and drawn all over. . .

Says Kratzer, 53, the associate general counsel for Lexmark: "People are amazed that with something as simple and inexpensive as a Sharpie, you can decorate a whole basement."

How did this Sharpie world start? With a single swipe of the marker.

Kratzer started mid-wall, with the Salon by Picasso. Then he thought, well, taking a design out to the edge of the wall wouldn't be overwhelming.

Then the rest of the basement flared off that first wall."

Check out the rest of the really cool article, and the cool rotating photograph showing all 360 degrees of his sharpie-done basement.

http://www.kentucky.com/181/story/532854.html

Mind-Bending archetecture

"Venice Architecture Biennale: Dutch architects NL present this series of images in the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale."
(From De Zene)

For example :

What if airliners flew in the same V-formation as most birds?



And how would YOU feel if you saw THIS coming at you down the highway?


These are just two small snapshots of the complete works, which are all very well-done and really cool to look and think about. See the full images here :
http://www.dezeen.com/2008/09/12/virtual-realities-by-nl-architects/

See-Through Skyscraper

The folks over at the New York Times caught this photo of 7 World Trade Center almost completely disappearing into the New York Skyline.

Check out the full-size photo and article here
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/the-see-through-skyscraper/

Where the Hell is Matt?

http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
I know I embedded this video, but it actually gets better. . .Youtube is offering this video in high quality, so click the video, go to the youtube page for it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY) and click "watch in high quality" right below the bottom right corner of the video. It's MUCH better, and a feature that will hopefully be on ALL youtube videos soon. Going back on topic. . . . .

So, if you're wondering just who in the world this guy is, how he managed to travel around the world, and why he's dancing on the internet, check out his "about me" page here

http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/about.shtml,

and check out his homepage here
http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/

Lego Artist Repairs Holes in Italian Walls - with Lego blocks

"...Artist and lego enthusiast Jan Vormann went around the quiet little town of Bocchignano, Italy filling its decrepit walls with lego pieces. The work was done as part of an Italian group project “20 Eventi.” A group of artists developed projects in the Sabina region to create a open-air museum that spans four villages."

Information (and ofc more photos) from here
http://gizmodo.com/5014234/artist-repairs-walls-in-italy-with-lego-bricks

New York City Waterfalls

"The New York City Waterfalls was conceived by artist Olafur Eliasson.
Eliasson was born in Copenhagen in 1967, and grew up in both
Iceland and Denmark. He attended the Royal Danish Academy of
Fine Arts in Copenhagen and currently divides his time between
his family home in Copenhagen and his studio in Berlin. Throughout
his career, he has taken inspiration from natural elements and
phenomena to create sculptures and installations that evoke
sensory experiences. "

"What inspired Olafur Eliasson to make the Waterfalls and to
build them in New York City?

Olafur Eliasson has been traveling to New York since he was a
student in the late 1980s, and he is inspired by the waterways that
surround and flow through the City. The Waterfalls address his
interest in highlighting our relationship to our environment. The New
York City Waterfalls integrate the spectacular beauty of nature into
the urban landscape on a dramatic scale. While Eliasson has built
waterfalls before, he has never created them on such a grand scale. "


Read more about the four man-made waterfalls (pumping almost 2 million gallons of East River water each day), where you can see them, why and how they were made, and where you can view them from here

http://www.nycwaterfalls.org/

(All quotes and images from http://www.nycwaterfalls.org/ )

Thats no pipe, thats my lamp

No, the pipes aren't about to melt.
They're a new floor lamp, designed to glow, but to LOOK like pipes. I guess the industrial style is really "in" right now. . . .

The cost? "Only" $614.

I'm pretty sure I can do something similar with a can of spray paint, some clear tubing, and a couple of light fixtures for about a quarter of that price. . . .

View/purchase one here
http://en.dawanda.com/product/217244-Lightpipe-
Lichtroehre-Leuchtsystem-Nachbau-Lueftungsrohr

Serious about archetecture. . . . .

Image from story/AP


"HUNTS POINT, Wash. — Rolling the waterfront house onto a barge on Lake Washington took just over 20 minutes. The house's maritime trip to British Columbia will take a bit longer.

In an effort to preserve a spectacular home at a bargain price, a Canadian family is moving the 3,360-square-foot, two-story house from its lakeshore location in this suburb east of Seattle to a site near Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.

According to public filings, the former owners bought the home for $9.4 million; but they just wanted the 44,000-square-foot lot.

So they contacted Nickel Brothers House Moving USA Inc., which then listed the home for $335,000, including moving the entire thing."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,368952,00.html

David Byrne Uses An Entire Building as a Giant Instrument

"Boing Boing TV got to sit down with Talking Heads' front man David Byrne, who has created an awesome, humongoid instrument from a whole building. Basically, Byrne took an organ and wired the keys to different areas of the building where various gizmos are set up. When he strikes a key, it sends an electric current that starts a motor at the end of the wire, powering something that might strike the side of a wall or send a breeze through a pipe. This project is for Byrne's installation "Playing the Building," which is on display at NYC's Battery Maritime Building until August."

From
http://gizmodo.com/5015113/david-byrne-uses-an-entire-building-as-a-giant-instrument

Buildings of the Old World

In thought that this poster was really interesting as an illustaration/drawing, done in ink (I think), and as a chart showing the tallest buildings of the old world, with the Washington Monument being the tallest at 555 feet tall.

Take a look here
http://www.infocustech.com/skyscrapers/worlds%20tallest%20buildings.jpg

Can you copyright the exterior of a building? (No)

I'm not entirely certain what brought this up, but judging from some of the sidebars on this website, it was quite an interesting debate. In Chicago, there's an area called Marina Towers, because of two rather large condominium towers located there, in a rather unique round design. Supposedly these are very photogenic, and possibly iconic images of Chicago. (I've never lived there, so I can't really say.) Apparently, the Marina Towers Condominium Association wanted to try and copyright the image of their towers - basically preventing anyone from photographing, drawing, or reproducing images of the buildings in any way, shape, or form. Well, the substance of this post, is that you can't do that.

As cited on the linked to article,

"The copyright in an architectural work that has been constructed does not include the right to prevent the making, distributing, or public display of pictures, paintings, photographs, or other pictorial representations of the work, if the building in which the work is embodied is located in or ordinarily visible from a public place.

– United States Code, Title 17, Section 102(a) "

My interpretation is that if you can reasonably see it, you can take a picture of it.
It its easily publicly visible, then you can't be prevented from photographing the structure.


Just because you tan take a photograph of it doesn't mean you can go totally nuts however. If you trespass on private land A to take a photo of building B, you're still trespassing on private land A. It doesn't matter that building B is the tallest thing in town, and can be seen for miles around. You can take a photo of Building B, as long as you have premission and access to where you're taking the photo from.


I know that this isn't exactly the most interesting art-related thing around, but it is important, and it has been something I've been wondering about for a while, being primarily an urban photographer (at least for the moment ;) ). Now I can go out and snap away without worry.

To read more about it, check out the full story of the condo association, and their attempts to copyright their own building, which they legally can't do, and see some examples of why the idea is foolish, and read the page that inspired and was cited in this post,

http://www.marinacityonline.com/rulefive.htm