Artwork of the week
Touched echo, 2007
Markus Wilson
On February 13, 1945, during the final stages of WWII, large air raids by Allied Forces virtually flattened the old town of Dresden. Touched echo takes people right back to that fateful day.
Identifiable only by four small plaques, it is a place of silent contemplation rather than a monumental memorial. By leaning onto the railing of the terrace with the elbows placed on the railing and the hands covering the ears, visitors are able to hear sounds of airplanes and bombs exploding, transported from the railing via bone conduction, a technology developed for hearing devices.
it is completely silent unless you touch the railing.
Topographical Atlas of the City of New York showing original water courses and made land (underneath the city grid) by Egbert L.Viele, 1874.
On the map, Minetta Stream runs under Washington Square. Uptown, near First Avenue and 103rd Street, water pools and collects in a large pond. A creek zigzags under the intersection of Broadway and 25th Street.
The map provides information Manhattan builders find indispensable: where former underground streams are; where soil quality might be poor because of erosion; where the island’s original shoreline ends and landfill begins
It is still being used today by many of the city’s structural engineers.
From the New York Times
One of two twin underground reservoirs in Forstenried Park holding the drinking water for Munich, Germany.
In the 1880s, Gustav Holm led an expedition to the Ammassalik coast of eastern Greenland, where he met several Inuit communities who had had no prior direct contact with Europeans. He returned to Denmark with a set of tactile maps of the coast carved by a native of Umivik named Kunit.
These tactile maps were used to navigate the coastline, held inside the users’ mittens, and read by feel, rather than visually. These could be employed in a kayak by at night in conjunction with the stars.
To save space the outline of the coast is carried up one side and down the other.
ARTWORK OF THE WEEK
Vanishing Point photographies (2003 - ongoing)
Michael Cook
Read more and see more pictures on the Vanishing point website
ARTWORK OF THE WEEK
Shy Fountain (2012)
Simon Faithfull
A fountain that only exists when no-one is there.
Connected to a series of movement sensors, the fountain can only be seen in the distance (particularly at night when lit from below). As soon as the viewer tries to approach, however, the fountain and lights switch off, leaving only the wet stone as a trace of its recent presence. If the viewer stays still, again, the fountain will cautiously reappear… getting progressively higher till it reaches its full height once more.
Read more in Art and the Public Realm Bristol
As industrial cities grew many rivers were buried to be used as sewers or to make space. These largely lost rivers still flow hidden underneath our cities. The Canadian film Lost Rivers brings together the narratives about how river explorers, with varying degrees of official support, are drawing public attention to urban rivers and promoting ambitious visions for their restoration in Montreal, Toronto, London, New York, Bresica and Seoul.
Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg created a live animated wind map of the US using near-term forecast from the National Digital Forecast Database.
The visual technique of using comet-like trails to show motion goes back to Edmund Halley in 1686.
See the live map here
Via Architizer
The tank of Montsouris was constructed in the south of Paris in 1874. At the time it was the biggest tank in the world and to this day, still supplies 1/5 of the Parisian population with water. At the time trouts were used in the reservoir itself to monitor the water quality.
More at MyParisNet.com
U.S. Geological Survey maps of the shafts and tunnels of the Comstock mines, published in 1881. The different colors used indicate each separate hundred feet of depth.
From the David Rumsey collection in the Harvard University digital map library. Via Venue
This visual blog presents images and projects related to the WATERSHED+ art program.
WATERSHED+ is a public art program hosted by City of Calgary's department of Utilities and Environment Protection.
WATERSHED+ aims to develop awareness and pleasure in the environment, not by changing water management practice, nor developing a uniform visual language, but rather by creating a climate of opportunity for water initiatives to build an emotional connection between people and the watershed.
WATERSHED+ presents a unique approach to public art by embedding artists and artistic practices within UEP core activities, participating as members on infrastructure design teams, contributing to project design, development of events, community education, etc.
You can visit us at:
watershedplus.ca
This program was devised by Sans façon (Charles Blanc & Tristan Surtees) with a team composed of Matt Baker, Emlyn Firth, Yan Olivares of Yes Architectes, Eric Laurier and Bert van Duin.
