Kyna – Looking Outwards 1

http://archive.rhizome.org:8080/exhibition/montage/katchadourian/

Nina Katchadourian’s Continuum of Cute from 2008 is an interactive piece hosted online wherein the viewer arranges 100 pictures of animals in order of cuteness. The piece to me speaks of the  social construct that is conventional cuteness and has the potential to reveal many of the traits which are deemed collectively as attractive or unattractive. Since the piece is stored as individual continuums rather than one large continuum shared by all, I wish there was some sort of running average continuum wherein all the gathered results were compiled into some sort of conclusive but dynamic product.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXuQnDeIyY8&w=560&h=315]

 

Kinetic Rain is a fairly new piece that was installed at Singapore’s Changi Airport Terminal 1 earlier this year. It consists of over 1000 bronze-coated droplets suspended from the ceiling, which rise and fall in patterns determined by a custom piece of German software. The fluidity of the piece is what appeals to me most, it is both ambient and captivating.

http://www.staggeringbeauty.com/

Staggering Beauty is a recent project coded in JavaScript by George Micheal Brower. I believe it was intended as a demo, but the fluidity of the creature and its reactions to movement are appealing enough to me that I would consider it a work. The only thing about it that really bothers me is that it prompts the viewer when I feel that it’s more effective to let the viewer play around without instruction.