schuelke: space observer

:::::BJOERN SCHUELKE ::::::: MEDIA ART :::::::: INTERACTIVE, KINETIC, ROBOTIC, ::::::: OBJECT, SCULPTURE, INSTALLATION :::::::
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	SPACE OBSERVER Bjoern Schuelke 2010 / San Jose Public Art Collection Mineta International Airport, San Jose, California Materials: Glass-fiber reinforced plastic, aluminium, car paint, motors, sensors, camaras, lcd displays. Height: 9m, width: 10m, weight: 1 ton Gallery: >Further pictures >Production pictures Videos: >Space Observer >Model >Space Observer Public Opening (Youtube)						Next picture >
				Bjoern Schuelke pursues a creative style that is equally influenced by modern abstraction and instruments of scientific measurement. The slow deliberate movements in his sculptures spatially consider mass and weight of form. Also influenced by the Dadaist tradition and Jean Tinguely, the theme of an absurd machine is key in Schuelke's work. Playfully transforming live spatial energy into active responses, his objects experiment with solar panels, infrared surveillance, and propelled wind power. Many of his larger kinetic sculptures combine elements of surveillance technologies, robotics, interactive video and sound. Schuelke's active sculptures question the way in which we interact with modern technology: on entering the installation site, the audience becomes part of the 'system' as the works (some freestanding, others suspended) monitor or react to the human element. (bitforms) High-tech art welcomes passengers at San Jose International Airport. (By Harriet Baskas, USA TODAY, 07/16/2010) Earthlings, be warned. There's a 26-foot-tall space robot with waving, propeller-tipped arms in Terminal B at California's Mineta San Jose International Airport. There's no need to be frightened. In fact, you might want to build in a little extra time to get to know this new creature. The giant, three-legged, glossy white Space Observer was created by artist Bjoern Schuelke and is just one of more than a dozen high-tech works of art commissioned specifically for the airport's futuristic-looking new 12-gate terminal, which opened for business earlier this month... San Jose airport swoops into the future (By Joe Rodriguez, Mercury News 06/21/2010) If there's one spot at Mineta San Jose International that captures the feel of the airport's billion dollar makeover, it's at the top of the escalator at the new Terminal B. Standing on a huge, mezzanine filled with natural light, an imposing three-legged sculpture named "Space Observer" stops you cold. With a camera and monitor inside a turning head, Observer can see and track you as you walk around it. For a while, machine and human dance together in the fleeting zone between trusted security and creepy surveillance. And then off you go to catch your plane. The snooping isn't real. That comes later...