quoted: A story about a future world where the dream of living in utopia can only be sustained by a nomadic tribe of artists and intellectuals, Mark Amerika’s Immobilité mashes up the language of “foreign films” with landscape painting and literary metafiction. The work was composed using an unscripted, improvisational method of acting and the mobile phone images are intentionally shot in an amateurish or DIY [do-it-yourself] style similar to the evolving forms of video distributed in social media environments such as YouTube. By interfacing this low-tech version of video making with more sophisticated forms of European art-house movies, Amerika both asks and answers the question “What is the future of cinema?”

Quoted: The past 120 years saw some of the most rapid changes in how we record, collect, and use audio, visual, and now digital information. The pace creates in its wake, a long list of obsolete technologies, some of which, still exist, but for which equipment and storage technologies are not always available. This exhibit reflects this light-speed, developing technology world with a selection of media formats.

for 1 week last year, french art duo hehe (helen evans and heiki hansen) illuminated the night sky of helsinki with green laser outlines of the emission of a power plant, literally highlighting the energy consumption of local residents. residents were asked to lower their energy use and observe the visible changes. nuage vert (green cloud) has won several environmental art awards.

kevin kelly is fascinated with tracking his mood. inspired by atish mehta’s facebook app happy factor, the former chief editor of wired magazine traces the lineage of various framework and investigates the methods and applications of emotional architecture mapping. long on research and a tad short on new ideas, this is nonetheless an educational read for those who are interested in exploring emotions as a key factor in design.

Quoted: interview with fernando gutiérrez, whose award-winning installation crisálidas is on view at la boral in gijon (spain) until april 6. sketchy drawings and animations based on images from mass media are projected and layered in unpredictable ways, generating subjective associations and a parallel world for viewers to participate in.

quoted: Multiverse, the largest and most complex light sculpture created by American artist Leo Villareal, may be seen and experienced by visitors as they pass through the Concourse walkway between the East and West Buildings of the National Gallery of Art. Commissioned by the Gallery and on view until November 2009, the work features approximately 41,000 computer-programmed LED (light-emitting diode) nodes that run through channels along the entire 200-foot-long space. The development of this LED project began in 2005, and the installation created by Villareal specifically for this location began in September 2008.

nerds, hackers, artists, non-experts and novices have become the experts. and the world is much more than task-based problems. on the 100th anniversary of the futurist manifesto, eric paulos - author, artist, computer scientist, professor at carnegie mellon, and father of urban computing - asked his fellow designers, computer scientists and engineers to channel their creativity and energy into reinventing a better future. eric paulos also has all 5 vowels in his name.

interview with artist and computer programmer john f. simon jr. simon recently opened his show outside in at maramotti collection in italy. the exhibit looks back at 10 years of the artist’s research into software art up to his latest piece vision (2009).