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2047 Apologue

Collaboration between WHITEvoid, Kinetic Lights and director Zhang Yimou incorporates a mechanical array of arrangeable lamps to provide context to a dance performance:

Chinese director Zhang Yimou who is best known for his movies “Raise the Red Lantern”, “Hero” and “The Great Wall” but also for directing the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics returns to the theater stage with his concept perfomance “2047 APOLOGUE”.  

Zhang Yimou has unveiled his latest work at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing. Based on Peking Opera “Sanchakou,” “2047 Apologue” is breaking the form of traditional stage plays, combining Chinese folk art with the latest technology. The show aims to mirror reality, commenting on how science and technology are a huge part of life in the 21st century. The show consists of 8 parts, each combining a traditional chinese craft, music or dance style with modern high tech such as lasers, robots, drones and kinetics.

WHITEvoid was commissioned to create, program and direct the kinetic display for the last part of the show called “Weaving Machine”. The 9 minute performance features 640 motorized LED spheres, an anchient chinese weaving machine and a modern dancer. German motor winch producer KINETIC LIGHTS provided the vertical hoist systems for the LED spheres and control software. Russian RADUGADESIGN animated a complementing video backdrop and CPG Concepts from Hong Kong provided the dance choreography for british dancer Rose Alice.

Link

I did the thing! - From the Star Wars app

AR Experiments

Following the announcement of ARCore, Google Creative Lab have released a site featuring various projects using the framework ranging from drawing in mid-air, portals, and strange characters popping up:

AR Experiments is a site that features work by coders who are experimenting with augmented reality in exciting ways. These experiments use various tools like ARCore, an SDK that lets Android developers create awesome AR experiences. We’re featuring some of our favorite projects here to help inspire more coders to imagine what could be made with AR. 

At the moment, these projects are compatible with Android Nougat devices such as the Pixel and Samsung S8 but rollout for other devices is happening.

You can explore the set of experiments here

Sacred Mathematics - Japanesse Temple Geometry

This is a book about a special kind of geometry that was invented and widely practiced in Japan during the centuries when Japan was isolated from Western influences. Japanese geometry is a mixture of art and mathematics. The experts communicated with one another by means of sangaku, which are wooden tablets painted with geometrical figures and displayed in Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Each tablet states a theorem or a problem. It is a challenge to other experts to prove the theorem or to solve the problem. It is a work of art as well as a mathematical statement. Sangaku are perishable, and the majority of them have decayed and disappeared during the last two centuries, but enough of them have survived to fill a book with examples of this unique Japanese blend of exact science and exquisite artistry.

Copyright © 2008 by Princeton University Press and Oxford

http://kknop.com/math/sangaku.pdf

Researchers make a breakthrough toward the next generation of memory devices

A*STAR and NTU researchers have created a thin film material that allows them to control the size and density of magnetic skyrmions. In addition, they have also achieved electrical detection of these skyrmions. The fabrication process for these films is compatible with current industrial methods. This discovery is a breakthrough and is a key step towards the creation of a skyrmion-based memory device, which is one of the promising contenders for the next generation of memory technologies.

The discovery has been recently published in Nature Materials.

Skyrmions are small particle-like magnetic structures about 400 times smaller than a red blood cell. They can be created in magnetic materials, and their stability at small sizes makes them ideal candidates for memory devices. Since the discovery of room temperature skyrmions in 2015, there has been a global race to create a skyrmion memory device because such a device could potentially hold more information, while using less power.

The need for more memory

Increasingly large amounts of data are created daily in our rapidly digitalised world. Moreover, cutting-edge technologies such as the Internet of Things (IOT), edge computing, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) require immediate processing of this data for effective performance. This requires the development of memory devices with increasingly higher capacities.

Read more.

Jeff Chang

Designer and artist is experimenting with ARKit to place and control cute characters he has created and place them in realworld scenes:

A post shared by Jeff Chang (@jeffchangart) on Aug 28, 2017 at 8:03am PDT

A post shared by Jeff Chang (@jeffchangart) on Sep 11, 2017 at 6:03pm PDT

A post shared by Jeff Chang (@jeffchangart) on Sep 12, 2017 at 6:08pm PDT

A post shared by Jeff Chang (@jeffchangart) on Sep 13, 2017 at 6:15pm PDT

Jeff has a Tumblr account [@jeffchangart] but you can find updates on Instagram here

Augmented reality sandbox - move the land around and it shows off the topography and sea/water level.

Shape Representation by Zippables

Computational Fabrication research from the Interactive Geometry Lab can turn 3D model files into objects with textiles, connecting parts and forming shape using zip fasteners:

Fabrication from developable parts is the basis for arts such as papercraft and needlework, as well as modern architecture and CAD in general, and it has inspired much research. We observe that the assembly of complex 3D shapes created by existing methods often requires first fabricating many small parts and then carefully following instructions to assemble them together. Despite its significance, this error prone and tedious process is generally neglected in the discussion. We present the concept of zippables – single, two dimensional, branching, ribbon-like pieces of fabric that can be quickly zipped up without any instructions to form 3D objects. Our inspiration comes from the so-called zipit bags (just-zipit.com), which are made of a single, long ribbon with a zipper around its boundary. In order to assemble the bag, one simply needs to zip up the ribbon. Our method operates in the same fashion, but it can be used to approximate a wide variety of shapes. Given a 3D model, our algorithm produces plans for a single 2D shape that can be laser cut in few parts from fabric or paper. A zipper can then be attached along the boundary by sewing, or by gluing using a custom-built fastening rig. We show physical and virtual results that demonstrate the capabilities of our method and the ease with which shapes can be assembled. 

More Here

Quick, Draw! by Google

Quick, Draw! is an artificial intelligence experiment that looks for familiarizing yourself with how neural networks work to identify objects and text in photos 

Ever wished you could have a few more arms to get stuff done? Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed Metalimbs. They’re strap-on robotic arms controlled by the lower body.

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