#lustlab

“A mid point between transparency and reflection, introspection and extrospection.”

In honour of International Womens day the 8th of March, LUSTlab made an interesting map that shows women's political rights around the world.

<< What could happen if the internet is embedded in everyday objects? >>  

The dutch LUSTlab tried it with a set of lamps and called it Res Sapiens  

<< 13 everyday lamps, using the energy of the internet, responding to data traffic, physically interacting with their surroundings, communicate via their own social network, building a microcosm of things. The Res Sapiens project merges the digital world with the physical. The continuous stream of (public) digital data and information form the energy on which the Res Sapiens can live. >> 

(source: LUSTlab)

The set-up of this garden of lamps connected to the net is to me a archetypical example of 21st century media-art. Looking at this wondrous Res Sapiens makes me think of the tv garden (1974) of Nam June Paik, which looks like it wants to convey the same message (which is it does not), but the form has striking similarities in set-up: connectedness & everyday objects. In association to the gardenlike features of the lampproject you should check out Philip Beesley's Protocell Field. It links to a video where the artist himself explains his 'responsive architecture of plants'

TV GARDEN (1974) by Nam June Paik