i went to see the supersonic MFA exhibtion of 8 southern californian schools. though i liked just a handful of pieces, this installation made the trip worth it. it's by Claudia Bucher, who was from art center. it's an organic-looking alien of sorts made with vinyl tubing, optical fibers, 3 eyeball pods with video projection coming out of them, a very cool spine of rapid prototyped forms. here's a somewhat better picture of it.

i'm going to see this movie tonite, What the

this woman is listening to music through a bouquet of gerberas. they have been made into speakers by being inserted into an acrylic tube containing a magnetic coil and an oscillating component. Applying an alternating electrical current causes the tube, and the flowers, to vibrate at high speed, producing audible sound. skeptics say the sound may not be comparable to conventional speakers but perhaps someone could write a sound software tailored to the flowers to compensate for that.

Alison Barth and team from CMU developed a strain of transgenic mice with glowing neurons so they can monitor the neural activity of cells and synapses for their research in perception, behavior, and learning. dying neurons and cells with fluorescent dye is common (like the photo above) but it doesn't show the activity of the neurons as they fire. this seems to do the trick. she recently received a $1.125M award from NIH for this project. [via]

Ko Nishino and Shree K. Nayar at Columbia U developed this corneal imaging system that reveals the whole image that lands on our cornea, whether we "see" it or not - what is in our peripheral vision. they can take any photograph of someone and know how the photo was taken, where, by whom, and what else was going on in the scene at the time. [via]

not just 3d implant but also magnetic! so you can, uh, grab hold of a paperclip in case you need one later? here are some more 3D-art implants as well as pocketing/stapling/transdermal implants (not for the weak-hearted). they claim to be the only ones in Finland doing implants altho Steve Haworth is probably the most well-known. then there's Lukas Zpira and Emilio Gonzalez. bmezine has an FAQ on body modification implants as well as more photos. [via]

the Cassini space probe entered Saturnian orbit and took these awesome photos of the "A", "B", and "C" rings. in these color-enhanced captures, the red part is where there is more dust while the turquoise part is more icey.

Bitforms gallery's current show called Touch and Temperature: Art in the Age of Cybernetic Totalism is mostly composed of wall pieces - digital prints, photography, screen-based, hung objects, and some paintings. the show statement references Ray Kurzweil and Jaron Lanier. the works in the show address issues in post humanism. this one by John Gerrard, a tribute to Dorian Gray, is a 3D temporal portrait that grows sadder and sadder over 100 years thru the course of the exhibition. temporal portraits seem to be the current trend in portraiture. [via]

the Takao Someya Group developed a synthetic "skin" that is almost as sensitive as our own skin. they are still working on it's sensitivity to temperature and humidity while trying to make it elastic like skin. another synthetic skin in the works by Scott White and team is a self-healing material. see an interview with him on a Discovery Channel show called Plastic Skin. [via]

here's one for the ladies.... no need to wear bras anymore! just implant a titanium mesh cup! i doubt the bra industry will go out of business anytime soon though. there seems to be more cons than pros according to the bottom of this article, What a lovely pair of titaniums! the things people do to themselves in the name of beauty never ceases to amaze me.... [via]