A+: 100 years of visual communication by women at Central Saint Martins

The A+ exhibition at the Central Saint Martin's is a striking exhibition with over 50 female students and staff from the institute. The exhibition highlights in bold form, the disparency between the rate of women entering the graphic profession following their studies and aims to bring to the forefront of the contribution they bring to the partition. The pieces are gathered from a century of works done by women dating back to the 20th century. Starting on 23 February, the exhibition will be running on to 23 March 2016.

Tech Talk: Windows.8.1 - Windows Store

The Windows Store comes as a first for an operating system in Windows 8 (and Windows Server 2012) first to adopt it. The store introduced metro-style apps as well as desktop apps.

The Windows Store can be launched from the Start Screen, Apps View or, if pinned to the taskbar, desktop. The lives tiles feature allows notification of apps on the Windows Store tile of the Start Screen that are available to download as well as apps that require attention such as if a new update is available to download. A simple tap of click will launch the Windows Store.

Launching the Windows Store, the first thing to pop up is the main page which will contain blocks of apps featured in a particular groups based on general recommendations, featured, top grossing, best rated and recommendations based on the users’ downloads. A bar on top provides navigation around the store with a home button sporting the store’s logo as well as Top Charts, Categories, Collections, Account and a search bar.

In the top charts dropdown, it features top downloads for both games and apps with choices in “top free”, “new and rising”, “top grossing”, “top paid” and “best-rated”.

Under the categories dropdown, it offers refinement in the type of application being sought. The subcategories under this are games, social, entertainment, photo, music and video, sports, news and weather.

The collections tab contains grouped apps that go under a particular theme or particular build such as “Indie Game Spotlight” and “Made by Microsoft”. It currently stands at 40 collections ready to be explored.

The last tab is the Account tab which features “My Account” and “My apps”. The “my account” section allows details of user account login and payment and billing info to be changed. Gift cards or promotional codes can be redeemed here. Managing where the store is on which PC can be managed here which also gives an option to remove any PCs. My apps is the place to go to see all your apps in one go. It gives it an option to sort the apps by date of purchase or by name as well as an option to see if the app is still installed and on what device. One click of the “Clear” button will wipe the slate clean of the selection. The number of apps downloaded is shown as well.

 

The view on the app information page displays who published the app, the category it falls under, the user rating, the price, age rating, permissions, picture, size of app and additional information. It may display if the app is owned or installed in place of where the purchase button is. The store itself features free to apps that have a price tag on them. The installation may prompt a password if it is switched on informing and confirming of the purchase. Once the installation is complete, a notification (with the added chime noise) will pop up informing of the complete install.

The Ratings and Reviews section comes under the app info page, stating the overall rating as well as written reviews by users and the helpfulness of such reviews with a tallied “yes” or “no”. Reviews can be added by users by scrolling on the left-hand-side of the screen until “Rate this App” comes up. A rating out of 5 stars and a review of 1000 characters can be added, which can be later changed and updated at any given moment.

The Charms bar allow changes to preference, access to available app updates and access to "my account".

Henry Moore - Large Spindle Piece

Henry Moore’s Large Spindle Piece is inspired by Michelangelo’s painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Standing at 3 metres high, the sculpture is now against the backdrop of the Grade I building of St. Pancras Railway Station.

 

It was installed and chosen as the piece not only for the complimentary backdrop with the station building, but as a way to deter anyone from sitting on or climbing the sculpture. The piece was previously stood at the British Council in the Spring Gardens near Trafalgar Square from 1981 to 1996. It has since moved to the Henry Moore Foundation at Perry Green and then the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. It is on loan from the Henry Moore Foundation to the Network Rail for at least 5 years.

Moore was inspired by a rough black pebble found in the fields around his home in Perry Green, Hertfordshire. Several versions were spawned with some found across the world in USA and Japan. The sculpture is made of bronze.

Tate Modern - Empty Lot

Abraham Cruzvillegas is a Hyundai Commision 2015 installation as part of a partnership between Hyundai and Tate. Cruzvillegas’s Empty Lot uses plots of soil from across London to form this installation which is held in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern from 13 October 2015 to 3 April 2016.

The geometric design is composed of triangular plant plots forming across two platforms. The triangle shapes are a response to the rectangular shape of the hall, reminiscent of Russian avant-garde artists.

The installation is made from reusable and recycled materials such as the scaffold which is to be reused after the installation. The wooden beams and metals poles are used from recycled materials. The plant plots contain soil and compost found across London parks crossing areas of Peckham, Haringey, Westminster and other places. The unpredictable possibilities inspires to provide questions about the city interacting with nature as Cruzvillegas puts it as “hope and expectation”. Moreover, the installation remains untouched except by the rays of light from the lamps and when it is watered adding to concept of different possibilities.

#EmptyLot

House of Vans - Polyphonic Playground

The Polyphonic Playground installation is housed at the House of Vans in London from 30 January up until 21 February 2016. It is interactive sound installation by Studio PSK, commissioned by the Fashion Space Gallery and London College of Fashion. It was developed by musician Reeps One.

The installation is inspired by the joys of the playground as a child, which comes complete with a slide, a climbing frame and swings. The installation employs advanced music engineering made with conductive paint, tape and yarn to create MIDI triggers, visible on the steps and the slide. The swing is interwoven with electronic textile.

#HouseofVans #PolyphonicPlayground 
 
 

The Mayor Gallery presents Calculations, Permutations, Notations - LAb[au]

The Mayor Gallery presents calculations, permutations, notations with all artworks created by LAb[au]. The exhibition coincided with Lumiere London 2016 festival in which Lab[au] is featured with their art installation binaryWAVES. The exhibition ran from 13 – 31 January 2016 at the .

The exhibition, very much like binaryWAVES, employs technology for the most part of the exhibition to animate their work as it plays on the geometry, shape and lighting to create different allusions and added textured layers to the artworks.

The pieces that feature origami has a subtlety to them which is further reinforced with the slender and occasional movements as a flap moves across playing on the surrealistic themes that run throughout the exhibition. More to the this theme is the concept of technology as also appears in print as well in oneOfABillionDays which features a series of alphanumerics that dances and dazzles upon the eye. LAb[au] presents the idea of “algorithmic logic” to challenge the idea of the contemporary vision and appeal.

mosaique 4x4x4 bw

signaltoNoisePermutation

origamiSquare 6x6x4

oneOfABillionDays

Origami Square 6x6x1

origamiSnubSquare 17x1

Winter Lights Festival @ Canary Wharf

A series of light installations were displayed across Canary Wharf which was part of the Lumiere London festival this year. Many of the artworks are marvelled spectacles that are not only visually stunning but some are currently encouraged to interact with the artworks one way or another. The festival ran from 11 to 22 January 2016.

Some of the light installations can be found below:

The Luminous City - Nathaniel Rackowe

Light Sphere I - Tom Wilkinson

We Could Meet - Martin Richman

A Parallel Image - Gebhard Sengmüller

Moon - Iregular (Daniel Iregui)

Aura (2014) - Philips Lighting Design

Lumen Prize Exhibition - Lumen

The Pool - Jen Lewin Studio

My Light is Your Light - Alaa Minawi
Globoscope - Collectif Coin

Flawless - Gonzalo Bascuñan & Perrine Vichet

On the Wings of Freedom - Aether & Hemera

Infinity Pools - Stephen Newby

bit.fall - Julius Popp

Totem - Bitone Collective

Fantastic Planet - Amanda Parer

Lumiere London 2016 - Mayfair

Lumiere London is an art festival bringing artists from all around the world to create light installations situated in and around London. The festival ran from Thursday 14 to Sunday 17 January 2016. The installations were mainly around central London.

There are in total 6 light installations in Mayfair:

Sanctuary - Sarah Blood

Dissect - Sarah Blood

Spinning Night in Living Colour - Elaine Buckhoitz

Brothers and Sisters - Ron Haselden

Lightbench - Bernd Spiecker for LBO-Lichtbankobjekte

Aquarium - Benedetti Bufalino

#LumiereLDN