‘Windwaker’: New Land Art Park will Harvest Wind Energy in Denmark

Julio Alejandro and Miguel Angel Lopez Carro have designed a land art park that will harvest wind energy in Copenhagen’s seaport. The park is composed of swaying sheets that resemble a fleet of boats sailing toward Edvard Erikson’s The Little Mermaid sculpture. Because the sheets change with the wind, the park is very dynamic and provides visitors with a unique experience each time they visit. The sheets will also provide rain protection when needed and lighting at night. Carro’s hope is that the park will put Copenhagen ahead in the urban integration of green energy.

Information from Designboom

Temporary Sand Installations

Joe Mangrum, a New York City painter, sculptor, and installation artist has created 650 unique sand art works on the streets of his city. 

His designs find inspiration in Asian mandalas and Celtic knots, but also implement fractal geometry and organic forms. They shapes that these sand installations create are in direct contrast to the stern lines of the city streets. 

Anyone can observe his process, as he works for hours on each mandala in public arenas. The spontaneity of his work continues into the end of its life. Because he uses sand, the beautiful designs will blow away and disappear forever. Such is the beauty of his conceptual approach: the process of creating the installation gathers attention from passerby who might never see the finished product. The true beauty of his artwork is in the moment, not in the final product.  

 

More Interactive Artworks

Monopoly Game

Trash Bin Hopscotch 

Musical Light Swings

People Sized Pinscreen

See more here! 

Cartoon Playground

French street artist OakOak has become a master in creating street art that interacts with its environment. The concept is beautiful in its simplicity, and the unexpected interaction between art and the space it occupies is fun for any passerby. 

Quirky cartoons find relevance in their location, figures make use of natural features of the city, and often overlooked areas are suddenly brought into focus. 

The City’s a Playground for Cartoon Characters by OakOak | Urbanist 

Boundary-Pushing Pavilions

Check out these really cool pavilions designed by various artists! We posted our favorites, but see the full list here. 

Evolving pavilion made by silk worms.

Translucent, yet solid pavilion made by a pipe-like framework.

 

Multi-faceted.

3D printed! 

This one is inflatable, the grid-like design was inspired by the atomic structure of diamonds. 

Point and Click (and Repeat?)

Artists Mimi Chan and Utsavi Jhaveri have started spray painting a stencil of shoe prints around cities. Not purely for the sake of street art, but rather to show tourists the ideal location for taking pictures of famous sights or monuments. 

The goal is to capture a “perfect” snapshot, but of course no one’s would be exactly the same. Camera differences, photography styles, and even variances in height all contribute to the fact that no two pictures would be exactly the same. 

Although the project will seemingly create endless redundant pictures of the lame landmarks, I think it would be interesting to publish all of the photos taken by tourists, but have them grouped together by each specific spot.

It would be remarkable to see what part of each area the individual person chose to focus on, chose to crop out, etc. Mimi Chan and Utsavi Jhaveri gave these amateur photographers the first step: the location. But the rest is up to the photographer’s artistic license and vision.  

Guerrilla Seed Wars

Flower grenades are a new way for gardeners to plant seeds in a guerrilla warfare manner. These “throw and go” compact capsules of seeds (some are even shaped like grenades!) bring fun and frivolity into the world of gardening.

A company called Greenaid is also capitalizing on this idea. This company is refurbishing old gumball machines that dispense the clay, compost, and seed bombs for a quarter. Purchasers can transform a vacant lot into a wild garden with ease.

This unexpected form of public artwork thrives off of audience participation and engages guerrilla gardeners in an exciting way.

“Picnic” by Arist Michael Beitz

Currently on view on the roof of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in Wisconsin, ‘Picnic‘ is a new functional sculpture by arist Michael Beitz (previously here and here). The roller coaster meets picnic table is made out of plywood and took the artist nearly a year to build using a special jig the artist says was reminiscent of a medieval torture device.

Robo Rainbow

More Street Art that Interacts with Its Environment

Some really clever work by street artist Pasha183 out of Russia. His playful interaction with urban surroundings, turning common structures like bridges, walls, and street lamps into places for art.