Lately it seems BMW has taken an interest in the arts. This is a commercial for the new 5 series, utilizing a kinetic sculpture recently installed in BMW's museum in germany. The piece was commissioned by BMW, and was built by a group called ART+COM.
"714 metal spheres, hanging from thin steel wires attached to individually-controlled stepper motors and covering the area of six square meters, animate a seven minute long mechatronic narrative."*
BMW's connection with art dates back (at least) to the mid 70's with their "Art Cars" These cars are considered "rolling canvases" and are treated as such. They have been painted by some very popular contemporary artists including Warhol (above) and Rauschenberg. Supposedly, Jeff Koons is going to be the next to put his stamp on a BMW, the car has not yet been unveiled but a preview image of his concept has been released, which you can see here.
I'll leave off with one last connection between the car company and art. A program that has been featured on PBS recently shows South African artist Robin Rhode using the BMW Z4, modified to spray paint onto the wheels, as a remote controlled brush on a massive canvas. You can read more here, and there is an image below of the car in action. Apparently the technology used was adapted from water jets used on stunt cars to grease up the tires during powerslides. To display the piece, only a small section of the massive canvas is brought to the gallery space, but video of the entire event is shown in it's place.
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ReplyDeleteI love the kinetic sculpture. <3 It is so beautiful and it seems to float on the air. The fact that it's technology mixed with art makes it even more amazing. Although it does make me wonder where is the motor and timer for this piece? It is so clean looking that I cannot seem to find it while watching the clip! This was so cool, how did you find it?
ReplyDelete-Danielle Enos
The interaction between both contemporary art and the use of the cars as canvases is interesting. The way the cars were transformed from ordinary to works of art is a newer way to make art. I also like the kinetic sculpture because it was intriguing to see the motion of the ball bearing utilizing the motion of waves and other things before forming the outline of a car.
ReplyDelete-Doug Lyons