Friday 27 November 2015

Leif Podhajsky’s Psychedelic Art

Artist Leif Podhajsky creates psychedelic limited editions for Ballantine's Whisky



Specialising in the abstract, London-based Leif Podhajsky “explores themes of connectedness, the relevance of nature and the psychedelic experience” across work for the likes of Nike, Tate, “Wired” and Google. His focus however lays in the world of music, designing bold, eye-popping covers for Kelis, Grimes, Santigold, Tame Impala, Foals and Lykke Li among others. For his latest project he applies his unique aesthetic to a rather different form, becoming the first participant in Ballantine’s whisky’s “Artist Series.” Following a trip to Scotland, inspired by its wild and beautiful landscape, Podhajsky creates 3 distinctive, organic prints that merge natural forms with a strong, graphic finish. Commenting on his research methods, he states, “immersing myself in this way is exactly how I work when I’m designing album cover artwork too; after a while something just clicks and the designs start to form organically.” The finished product references both the process of whisky making and the surrounding terrain, the artist producing a series of rich and contemporary patterns adorning 3 limited edition Ballantine’s gift pack tins available from next month.

Tuesday 24 November 2015

A Giant LED Star got Captured in a Malaysian Building

A Giant LED Star Pierces the Floors of a 4-Storey Building in Malaysia

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Malaysian artist Jun Hao Ong constructed this bright LED star that appears to shoot through the floors and ceilings of a 4-story concrete building as part of the 2015 Urban Xchange public art festival. The piece is comprised of steel cables that help suspend a network of over 500 feet of LED lights that grows seamlessly in 12 directions. “The Star is a glitch in current political and cultural climate of the country, it is a manifestation of the sterile conditions of Butterworth, a once thriving industrial port and significant terminal between the mainland and island,” shares Ong.
The Star was curated by Eeyan Chuah and Gabija Grusaite from the Penang-based contemporary art centre, Hin Bus Depot. You can see more of Ong’s elaborate installations using LEDs and fluorescent lights on his website. (via The Creators Project)
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Sunday 22 November 2015

Hacking Through Bluetooth

Mobile hacking+ Bluetooth Hacking + Hack through bluetooth

Bluetooth is a wireless protocol utilizing short-range communications technology facilitating both voice and data transmissions over short distances from fixed and/or mobile devices, creating wireless personal area networks (PANs). Well, for hackers, its just another way to get into your mobile device. So let us discuss some ways in which you could actually infiltrate into someone else's mobile gadget ..

--> BlueScanner : BlueScanner is a bash script that implements a scanner for Bluetooth devices. It's a tool designed to extract as much information as possible from Bluetooth devices without the requirement to pair.



--> BlueBugger -It simply exploits the BlueBug vulnerability of the bluetooth enabled devices. By exploiting these vulnerabilities and leaks, you can gain access to the phone-book, calls lists and other information of the bluetooth device.

--> BTBrowser -Bluetooth Browser is a J2ME app. which can browse and explore all the surrounding Bluetooth devices. Browse to different kind of device information.

--> BTCrawler -It is a Bluetooth scanner for Windows Mobile based devices. It can implement BlueJacking and BlueSnarfing attacks.
       Bluejacking is the sending of unsolicited messages over Bluetooth to Bluetooth-enabled devices such as mobile phones, PDAs or laptop computers, sending a vCard which typically contains a message in the name field (i.e. for bluedating or bluechat) to another bluetooth enabled device via the OBEX protocol.




       Bluesnarfing is the theft of information from a wireless device through a Bluetooth connection, often between phones, desktops, laptops, and PDAs. This allows access to a calendar, contact list, emails and text messages. Bluesnarfing is much more serious in relation to Bluejacking, but both exploit others’ Bluetooth connections without their knowledge. Any device with its Bluetooth connection turned on and set to “discoverable” (able to be found by other Bluetooth devices in range) can be attacked. By turning off this feature you can be protected from the possibility of being Bluesnarfed. Since it is an invasion of privacy, Bluesnarfing is illegal in many countries.

Friday 20 November 2015

Space-time loops may explain black holes

Explaining black holes

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Physics cannot describe what happens inside a black hole. There, current theories break down, and general relativity collides with quantum mechanics, creating what's called a singularity, or a point at which the equations spit out infinities.
But some advanced physics theories are trying to bridge the gap between general relativity and quantum mechanics, to understand what's truly going on inside the densest objects in the universe. Recently, scientists applied a theory called loop quantum gravity to the case of black holes, and found that inside these objects, space and time may be extremely curved, but that gravity there is not infinite, as general relativity predicts.
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This was the first time scientists have applied the full loop quantum gravity theory to black holes, and the results were encouraging, researchers said.
"What they have done is a major step, because they have been able to provide a much more complete description of what really happens near the black hole singularity using loop quantum gravity," said Abhay Ashtekar, a physicist who studies loop quantum gravity at Pennsylvania State University, who was not involved in the new research."We still don't have a clear picture of the details of what happens. So it is opening a new door that other people will follow." 

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A black hole is created when a huge star runs out of fuel for nuclear fusion and collapses under its own gravity. The star's outer layers are expelled, and its core falls in on itself, with the pull of gravity becoming ever stronger, until what's left is the core's mass condensed into an extremely small area. According to general relativity, this area is a single point of space-time, and the density there is infinitely large -- a singularity.
But most scientists think singularities don't really exist, that they're just a sign that equations have broken down and fail to adequately describe reality. Loop quantum gravity appears to be an improvement on general relativity in describing black holes because it doesn't produce a singularity.
The idea is based on the notion of "quantization," which breaks an entity up into discrete pieces.Whilequantum mechanics says atoms exist in quantized, discrete states, loop quantum gravity posits that space-time itself is made of quantized, discrete bits, in the form of tiny, one-dimensional loops.
"The loop means the fundamental excitations of space-time themselves are one-dimensional in nature," said Jorge Pullin, a physicist at Louisiana State University, who co-authored the new study with Rodolfo Gambini of the University of the Republic in Montevideo, Uruguay. "The fundamental building block is a loop, or network of loops. For a visual image, think of a mesh fabric."
This way of portraying space-time changes fundamental physics, especially in extreme settingssuch as black holes or the Big Bang -- which is thought to have birthed the universe. The Big Bang, like black holes, is indescribable under general relativity, understood only as a singularity.
"The subject really took off in 2005 when it was realized loop quantum gravity can naturally resolve the Big Bang singularity and that quantum space-time is much larger than what Einstein envisioned," Ashtekar told SPACE.com.

Pullin and Gambini said their work is just a preliminary step, far from a full description of the true complexity of black holes.
"This model we've done is extremely simple," Pullin said. Under their simplified model,"the black hole exists forever and doesn't evolve. As a consequence I cannot tell you exactly what nature is going to do inside a black hole. It could be that the singularity gets replaced by a region that gets highly curved, but not infinitely curved. Or it could be that it just doesn't make sense -- you get a region which doesn't behave like classical space-time. It would interact with particles in different ways than we normally think."
Now that they've achieved this step, the researchers hope to advance their work by making the black holes in their model more dynamic and changeable.
"The black holes we studied were in empty space -- there was no matter in them. They were pure space-time," Pullin said."We're trying to add matter, because then it addsdynamics. We're in the middle of that now."

Wednesday 18 November 2015

The Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale - Art Festival

The Largest Art Festival in the World: The Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale

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Kyota Takahashi (Japan), Gift for Frozen Village, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015. Photo by Osamu Nakamura
Every three years in Japan an exciting event kicks off; one that invites visitors to enjoy the great outdoors while simultaneously visiting the largest art gallery in the world. For 50 days, visitors to the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale traverse 200 villages across roughly 190,000 acres of mountainous terrain located in Niigata, Japan. The entire land is dotted with site-specific artworks created by 160 artists from all over the world, making it the largest, most ambitious art festival in the world. And each piece is united by a single theme: humans are part of nature.
Originally initiated in 2000, the festival recently wrapped up its 6th iteration. And now, in an exhaustive look at the past 15 years, curator and director of the Triennale Fram Kitagawa has put together a book called Art Place Japan that includes all 800 artworks ever created for the festival, as well essays and traveling tips. But seeing it all has never been an objective. Organizers will admit that the sprawling nature of the festival is an “absolutely inefficient approach deliberately at odds with the rationalization and efficiency of modern society.” The intention is to interact with the beauty and richness of the land, which serves as a canvas for art.
Kitagawa’s book will be out November 14, 2015 and will be available through Amazon and other retailers.
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Chiyoko Todaka (Japan),
Yamanaka Zutsumi Spiral Works, 2006. Photo by Hisao Ogose
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Takahito Kimura (Japan), Sun and Footprints, 2012
. Photo by Osamu Nakamura
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Katsuhiko Hibino (Japan), The Day After Tomorrow Newspaper Cultural Department, 2003–ongoing. 
Photo by T. Kobayashi

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Chiharu Shiota (Japan), House Memory, 2009–ongoing. Photo by Takenori Miyamoto
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Shintaro Tanaka (Japan), The ○△□ Tower
and the Red Dragonfly, 2000–ongoing. Photo by Anzai
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Yoshio Kitayama (Japan), To the Dead, to the Living, 2000. Photo by Anzai
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Akiko Utsumi (Japan), 
For Lots of Lost Windows, 2006-ongoing


. Photo by T. Kuratani
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Harumi Yukutake (Japan), Restructure, 2006-ongoing. Photo by Masanori Ikeda
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Yayoi Kusama (Japan), Tsumari in Bloom, 2003–ongoing. Photo by Osamu Nakamura

Thursday 12 November 2015

Never-Before-Seen Images Reveal How The Fukushima Exclusion Zone Was Swallowed By Nature

Never-Before-Seen Images Reveal How The Fukushima Exclusion Zone Was Swallowed By Nature

Polish photographer Arkadiusz Podniesinski travelled to the site of the Fukushima nuclear disaster last month to see the location with his own eyes. When he obtained permits to enter the roughly 20km (12.5 mile) Exclusion Zone, he was confronted with a scene similar to one from a post apocalyptic film. Podniesinski previously photographed the area around the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

“It is not earthquakes or tsunami that are to blame for the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, but humans,” writes Podniesinski on his website. He undertook the project so that he could draw his “own conclusions without being influenced by any media sensation, government propaganda, or nuclear lobbyists who are trying to play down the effects of the disaster, and pass on the information obtained to as wider a public as possible.”

Abandoned vehicles are slowly swallowed up by nature on a stretch of road near the power plant


Some of the cars have entirely disappeared in the wild grass


Podniesinski shows a radiation reading of 6.7 uSv/h


A chained-up motorcycle is slowly absorbed into the field


These contaminated televisions were collected and piled up as part of the cleaning efforts


Cobwebs hang above the scattered products in this abandoned supermarket


Another photo from within a supermarket feels eerily similar to those from post-apocalyptic movies


This abandoned computer lab covered in animal droppings is from a village near the plant


A dining table with portable cookers ready to prepare food looks like it was left in haste


These go-karts have had their last race in an entertainment park located within the 12.5mile exclusion zone


Monday 9 November 2015

‘Camp’ the Pigeon is a Muse for Adele Renault’s Giant Oil Paintings

Hatched from a Discarded Egg on a Chicago Windowsill, ‘Camp’ the Pigeon Becomes a Muse for Adele Renault’s Giant Oil Paintings

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Follow the daily adventures of Camp the pigeon on Instagram
In the summer of 2013, Chicago artist George Keaton and photographer Mariah Naella were preparing for their engagement party in Wisconsin when they made a seemingly insignificant discovery that would soon dramatically impact their life. Repairmen who were replacing old window frames in their apartment had quietly left something on their kitchen counter: a tiny egg. The workers had inadvertently destroyed a pigeon nest while fixing windows and randomly decided to salvage the egg.
The couple tells the Chicago Sun Times that in the process of discarding the egg outside, Naella realized something was moving inside of it. Within minutes—and to their great astonishment—it almost immediately began to hatch. Late that night the couple purchased a small syringe at Walgreens to use for feeding, and the next few weeks were dedicated to rearing a peppy little pigeon they named Camp.
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Two months later, following advice from a wildlife expert, they decided Camp was large enough to release into the wild, but upon opening the window they discovered he was completely uninterested in leaving. Camp has since become accustomed to flying near their Lincoln Square home, and is free to come and go as he pleases, but has never traveled far and always returns home. The pigeon is now a part of the family, and has become a bit of a local celebrity whose daily adventures are shared on Instagram
On learning about Camp’s story randomly through Instagram, Belgian painter Adele Renault realized she had a new muse. Renault is known for her large-scale photorealistic portraits of people and pigeons, and it wasn’t long before she began documenting the Chicago bird’s adventures in lockstep with Naella and Keaton. A selection of her giant oil on linen paintings depicting Camp during several stages of his life will be on view starting tomorrow at Havas Annex in Chicago.
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