eatART Magazine
We’re proud to announce the inaugural issue of eatART magazine! It exists to bring you the latest and greatest of the growing energy aware art movement. The project was born out of editor in chief Peter Holmes’ realization that there is no public forum for works standing at the crossroads of art, technology, and education. eatART magazine completes the loop with a physical publication of international work representing this emerging genre of art.
For our first issue, we’re doing a crowd funding campaign through Crowd Supply. They’re a new website which not only hosts the campaign but will also be the printer of the magazine after the successful campaign. Check it out over here.
From gBikes to gSnails
What has a seat, two pedals, and brews a mean espresso? No, not our lead engineer Curtis Perrin on a bike; it’s our latest project, the gSnails.
gBikes has partnered with local business owner Boyd Thomson to design and build a creative and sustainable way to power his business, in what will be gBikes’ first permanent installation. Working with a small grant provided by the LiveSmart BC: Small Business Champion Program, the idea was to design a functional and stylish piece that allows visitors to the Wilder Snail Cafe to generate their own electricity while enjoying a nice hot beverage.
Bikes that generate electricity? Yeah, that sounds like gBikes. (more…)
Black Ghost Paints With Light!
The gBikes crew added a new feature to the Black Ghost the other night. We had bought a strand of addressable LEDs a while back. These easily ALEDs are easily controlled from our Rasperry Pi mini Linux computer. One of the cool things you can do with them is light painting where by using long exposure photography you can reveal an image that is displayed one column of pixels at a time. We used these instructions on light painting with the raspberry pi and got some pretty awesome results. We’re looking at making this into a interactive type setup via a simple wifi drawing app. See below for a video of the photo session as it happened. Special thanks to Kiki Falconer for the opening animation and you also might recognize the music by Ben Abraham from our very first bike car video. Bryant Deroy photo, Mike Rogers video.
Like us on Facebook to keep updated on project progress and future events!
The Mondo Spider and Titanoboa take CES by storm
Early this January, core crews from the creative teams behind The Mondo Spider and Titanoboa set out over the treacherous, snowy southern California mountains to deploy at the worlds largest consumer electronics show, CES, in Las Vegas. The two machines were brought down to spread our message of rethinking energy through art in place where tech is king.
The machines were stationed at by the Lenovo booth, and even amidst the latest, biggest transparent televisions and blaring tech gadgetry, Spider and the Snake still captured peoples imaginations. The crowds and media were stunned and thrilled to see what could be done with the creative application of engineering and what you could run off modern battery technology. Over the 3 day deployment we had coverage from Popular Mechanics, BBC World, c|net and made the IGN top 10.
The folks at IGN were so excited by the machines that they did a separate interview with Mondo Spider co-creator Jonathan Tippett about his next project, Prosthesis: The Anti-Robot, which he is building in the eatART Laboratory.
And as if the media adulation and crowd wowing were not enough, the week was topped of with a moment that could only take place in Vegas: The King himself, Elvis, came back from the grave just to ride the Spider!
As final bonus Ryan Johnston and Jonathan Tippett got a ride in the worlds first electric DeLorean, and guess what? It ran on the same batteries as The Mondo Spider! Now that’s the future!
eatART’s 5th annual Wavelength
eatART invites you to dive into a visual extravaganza with their 5th annual Wavelength party, themed Water: from Reverence to Revelry.
Experience an abstract journey from a time when we worshiped water to today, when we largely take it for granted. The visuals will delight and amaze while the music will rock your pants, and a portion of the proceeds will go to the Council of Canadians’ campaigns for sustainable water management and water rights in Canada.
Sublight is partnering with eatART to create a visual smorgasbord sure to bring out your inner water god or goddess, and costumes are encouraged. Stunning interactive projections will immerse you in an aquatic utopia of running rivers, crashing ocean surf, and maybe even a water fight or two, so be prepared to get wet ‘n wild. Click “more…” for ticket information, a look at Dallyn Rule’s incredible poster and more details about the event. (more…)
New Forms Festival
New Forms Festival is coming to GNWC: Sept 13-16, 2012
eatART is excited to be a partnering organization in this years New Forms Festival. Two of our sponsored projects will be exhibited - Jonathan Tippett’s work in progress ‘Prosthesis’ will be on display along with the Black Ghost by the gBikes team, which will be on the move during the event. The eatART lab will also be hosting visual and musical artists for performances on Friday September 14th & Saturday September 15th.
New Forms Media Society is a non-profit society and media arts organization founded in 2000 that nurtures and connects local and international arts, science and grassroots communities through the annual New Forms Festival.
By promoting Canadian Artists in collaboration with the international arts and technology world, the NFF facilitates multimodal art works and engages in discussion on their role in our cultural environment. Since its inception, an integral element of the NFF is the recognition of independent and groundbreaking artists; the NFF aims to showcase and increase awareness of these artists and their work within our community and beyond by promoting them within a larger milieu.
The NFF is part of a larger, international, multi-media festival movement, which explores the ever changing and evolving world of art and creates a platform for artistic growth. The society wishes to make new media art, music, film, technology based installation and performance accessible to a wider audience.
2012 marks the twelfth year of New Forms Festival. From Sept 13-16, NFF12 will be taking over the Masters of Digital Media building at the Centre for Digital Media campus on 577 Great Northern Way, as well as the Waldorf Hotel and New Brighton Special at New Brighton Park. This year, as part of the International Cities of Advanced Sound (ICAS) initiative, exhibition artists will address the theme of ‘Living Labs’
eatART: Power the VAG 2012
eatART cordially invites you to the 4th annual eatART: Power the VAG on Saturday July 28th from 11am to 5pm.
The Annual Energy Awareness Art Party takes place in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery and includes a pedal powered sound system and an unforgettable outdoor dance party!
The event will showcase our giant zero emissions kinetic sculptures.
Pedal power will be generated by teams of “watt-riders” who will power the event by pedalling with their back wheels resting on a spinning mini generator that is connected to the sound system. The riders will collect “energy pledges” that coincide with the amount of “watts raised,” with all proceeds going to the eatART Foundation. In tandem with this pedal-powered energy source, an array of solar panels will be powering the tents and info booth.
For more information and to become a Watt Rider, email emily@eatart.org
gBikes team “Black Ghost” bike-car haunts eatART’s Beakerhead deployments
The gBikes team newest creation, “Black Ghost” the energy generating bike-car, has been popping up at all of the other eatART Beakerhead deployments here in Calgary. They zoom in and zoom out, bringing the “creature investigators” to the scenes of Titanoboa, Daisy and Mondospider sightings.
They’re nimble, speedy and most important of all, zero-emissions.
