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3604 cups of coffee.
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Mona Lisa at Play: Part 7
The Paintball Assault on the Mona Lisa
As a fan of both the cable program Mythbusters and Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, I am pleased to talk about both in this posting.
The paring of Mona and Mythbusters is at first blush an unlikely one. But as the most universally known work of art, it isn’t much of a stretch to think that if the Mythbusters duo were going to re-create a work of art, then the Mona would be their likely target. And as target, I’ve aptly described how they re-created her. Since paintball guns were the brushes Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman used to make their version of the Mona Lisa.
In August of 2008, the boys of Mythbusters were invited to the Nvidia’s NVISON conference in San Jose, CA. Mythbusters was enlisted by the conference organizers to provide the closing act. That last bit of sparkle and pow, everyone would go home and talk about.
Their closing act, as Adam describes it, was a “science lesson” on how a GPU processor out performs a CPU. And with all things Mythbuster, blowing stuff up and shooting things was involved. And on a good day…they’ll use robots.
This was a good day.
Taking six months to build two robots, Jamie and Adam fashioned a demonstration on Parallel Processing for the closing performance at NVISION. Not a subject I would find particularly scintillating, but as always the Mythbusters demonstrate you can have fun with just about anything.
Two robots were built. One robot to mimics the performance of a CPU. (A CPU works by performing a series of discrete actions, executed sequentially.) The other showcases the enhanced power of a GPU. (GPU’s can do immense parallel processing, producing high quality graphics for video games.)
The first robot, dubbed Leonardo, exhibited how a CPU processor works. And Leonardo functioned as designed when he methodically painted a Smiley-face using a single paint gun that was attached to its head.
It came off like a clever party trick. Amusing, but lacking wow.
Leonardo’s lackluster performance acknowledged, the Mythbuster boys set themselves a task to paint something more complex. Hence, their decision to re-create the most famous Smiley-face of them all… the Mona Lisa.
And of course, this was going to require a bigger bot. The Leonardo 2.0.
Leonardo 2.0 was built from a thousand pounds of aluminum and steel…a mile of high-pressure air hose… which required hundreds of pounds of compressed air… with 1,100 specifically addressed paint balls in 1,100 paint ball barrels.
When the trigger on the Leonardo 2.0 was hit…
… 2,100 gallons of air went through accumulators… then out a series of valves… into 1,100 paint gun barrels (all of exactly the same length)… at the bottom of which was a paint ball… which flew across 7 feet of space… and in 80 milliseconds… hit their target.
When it was all said and done… there was a new, freshly painted Mona Lisa and a new Guinness World Record. (Fastest painting of a Mona Lisa.)
Take a look at the video.
Be warned, it may take awhile to download. And once downloaded it’s a whopping 9:21 minutes long. Shorter versions of this performance can be found on YouTube. But the image quality on everything I looked at was grainy and unstable. This link is from the conference, and the production values are superior to anything else I’ve been able to find. Trust me, if you are going to watch the video, this is the video to watch.
Today’s paint ball post, marks the last entry on “Mona Lisa at Play”.
At least for now.
What’s next in the Mona exploration?
Not sure. Thinking about showing off Mona in the many off beat places she has appeared. But I don’t know. Might be fun to start talking about some of the serious artists who have used her image. Or some of the ads she has appeared in. Or I could talk about why she is the global icon she is. I just don’t know.
I’ll wait and see what my mood is when I sit down to write about her again. In the meantime, thanks for taking the time to read and explore with me, the Mona Lisa in all her iterations.
Mona Lisa at Play: Part 4
A Mona Lisa made from Ivory?
Historically, ivory was the material of choice. But today Domino sets are made of synthetic materials, such as ABS or polystyrene plastics, or Bakelite or other phenolic resins. These materials are often chosen because they best approximate the look and feel of ivory. Today, it’s not uncommon for modern sets to stray from the white tiles with black dots. You can find different colors for the dotted numerical display or for the base tile. Colored and translucent plastics are considered modern iteration of the ivory tiles.
The end result… there exits a diverse selection of dominos tiles in the marketplace.
And this selection is the raw material some artists use to create their own version of the Mona Lisa.
So today, we are going to be exploring the Mona Lisa as she is found in Domino tiles.
The origins of the game of Dominos are attributed to the Chinese. With the oldest domino sets dating around 1120. Europe…specifically the Italians, started playing the game in the early 18th century.
Considering his love for puzzles and games, it’s not a stretch to suggest if Dominoes were around in his time, Leonardo would have played with them. I’d be surprised if he wouldn’t have engaged them into his own scientific inquiries. But would he ever have contemplated making art with Dominos? Or ever consider that his art would be re-created with Domino tiles?
The subtleties of his sfumato technique are lost with the use of tiles. But I think he might have been impressed with the ingenuity used in employing such a limited medium for recreating images.
Dominos + Algorithms + Integers + computer programming. Not the typical stuff of art. But Mr. Bosch, a Professor of Mathematics at Oberlin College, has devised the means to convert images into domino art. His software divides an image into areas of gray scale values. These values range from white to black. And to each grey value in a section, the domino that best represents that value is assigned. More impressive still, the Professor also imposes the requirement to work only with complete sets of dominos. If a set comes with 48 pieces, he uses all 48 tiles. It’s a discipline that would have impress Leonardo.
Visit www.dominoartwork.com to see examples of Professor Bosch’s other domino artworks. You can even order your own portraits made from dominos.
4519 colored domino tiles were used to create Mona Lisa for this video.
Mona Lisa at Play: Part 3
LEGOS and ART
The focus of this entry is fine art re-created out of LEGO building blocks. Thus continuing the investigation of Mona Lisa as she is constructed out of children’s toys.
The primary function of a set of LEGO blocks is to construct something.
Structures. Vehicles. Cities. Random-colorful-nonfunctioning-what-is-this-suppose-to-be-shapes. Even the occasional working robot.
You build something, then break it down to build something else. I suspect it was a part of everyone’s creative play growing up.
But is it art?
Legos have been around since the 1940’s. Currently, the product extensions include movies, music videos, games, competitions and even theme parks. (Lego Group operates 4 Leogland amusement parks worldwide.)
One cool thing about these building blocks is that even though block construction has changed since the first manufactured playing piece, (changed in its design and purpose), Lego pieces built in 1958 still work with sets on store shelves today. Pieces remain compatible no matter what set you use. And there are thousands of different sets out there. The company estimates that in 50 years they have sold over 400 billion Lego blocks.
And a few of that number have been put to use re-creating artwork.
Leogoland has already been mentioned so let’s start there.
The picture at the top of this posting is a detail of the Mona you will find at the Leogoland amusement parks. And below is the full image of the work.
Eric Harshbarger is one of a dozen full-time freelance Lego artists in the country. His prices depend on the scale and complexity of the Lego construction. Starting at a few hundred dollars then moving upwards of $10,000 for those constructions that are large and involved.
To get a sense of Eric’s extensive output, I suggest you wander through the pages attached to the above link. His site says he has greatly pared down his commissioned work. So don’t get too excited if you want to commission your own Mona Lisa.
The “Mona Lego” Eric built in 2000, is a commissioned piece that measures about 6 feet wide by 8 feet tall. The construction of 30,000 blocks, weighs in at 15 pounds. He used the standard primary colors, red, green, blue, yellow, white and black to render Da Vinci’s work.
A former banker turned Lego artist, Marco Pece, recreates masterpieces with Lego building blocks. The average construction takes nine days to complete, as it is built in stages, photographed, then assembled on his computer.
He does amazing things with these dimpled plastic blocks. I strongly suggest you visit his website, http://www.udronotto.it. You will be enchanted.
Here are a few other Lego artists that I think you might enjoy as well. Even though I could find no Mona Lisa re-creations in their body of work, they all have a thing for re-creating works of art.
Andrew Lipson and Daniel Shinu prefer Esher to Da Vinci.
Brian Korte of Brickworkz is partial to Lichtenstein.
John Cake and Darren Neave of The Little Artists, have gone with the outrageous Damien Hirst.
And the last artist you should checkout, Nathan Sawaya.
Child’s play is not so childish.
The Connection between Mona Lisa and 3D
via stuff.co.nz
Mona Lisa and other masterpieces come to life in Beijing, wowing gallery visitors with their life-like movements and speech...
Vertical Search: Social Interactivity
A sheepish Mona Lisa.
The Mona Lisa. The Shepherds. And their illuminated sheep.
My quest for showcasing the different faces of Mona Lisa continues.
I’ve dedicated my last few blogs to the Mona Lisa as she has been depicted using foodstuffs as the artistic medium. It was my intention to move on to another Mona Lisa making ingredient… toys. I have a reasonable collection of Monas made out of Legos, Dominos, Rubic Cubes and even a Mona drawn on an Etch-a-sketch. But I wanted more.
So I went trolling on the web… and I came across something totally unexpected.
A Mona Lisa made out of illuminated sheep.
I laughed. I cried, (from laughing). I wondered how they did it.
I set aside the toys to get down to business. Here is the story as I’ve best been able to piece it together.
March 19, 2009. A group calling themselves “BaaaStuds”, released this video of their exploits using sheep to create moving and static images. They called it “Extreme Sheepherding”. Two minutes and 45 seconds long, this viral ad for Samsung was shot on the green Welsh hills of Caregg Cennen.
National Sheepherding Champion, Gerry Lewis, along with a group of sheepherders and their dogs, orchestrated 400 sheep into specific configurations. Working under the direction of London’s The Viral Factory and Director James Rouse, shepherds, sheep and 43,200 LED lights were herded into creating a number of amusing images.
- 400 sheep (200 white and 200 black) make up the image of one two-toned sheep. This depiction is then made to walk across the hillside.
- A nighttime game of Pong is played with LED lit sheep
- Mona Lisa is “built” in segments, with sheep wearing colored LED light jackets, creating “Leonardo Baa Vinci”
- The finale, (like any good finale) ends in fireworks… lit sheep portraying a fireworks explosion.
It is great fun. Even thought it was enhanced in post-production.
Real sheepherders. Real sheep. Real sheepherding dogs. All doing their real sheep and sheepherding thing. But the images there were all working to create were helped along in post. Computer trickery was employed.
Matt Smith, the co-founder of The Viral Factory, said the main problem they experienced, was not in herding the sheep, but in getting enough of them collected for filming. Filming coincided with the lambing season, making sheep availability difficult. Over the 2-day shoot, livestock was constantly being switched out so as not to over tire the animals.
How do sheep.. making pictures… tie into LED TV’s?
I have no idea.
But the ad did attract over 3.5 million hits just one week after being released.
Not Baaaaa-d.
(Sorry about that. Couldn’t resist.)
Another Serving of Mona Lisa (Part Two)
7. and 8. A starch and vegetable mix…Bento dishes
These two Bento Art images continue the Mona created out of foodstuff theme. Both images were found on the web.
Seaweed and ham appear to make up one of the lunch box Monas. But as the text that corresponds to the pictures is in Japanese, I am unable to elaborate on these works or their creators.
9. Fruit Roll-up
Mona out of a Fruit-roll up… why not.
Here we have a poster announcing an Edible Art Exhibition at Loyola Crown Center Gallery, in Chicago. Brenda Bramel is the artist of this Mona rendition. A Photography graduate from LUC, Brenda appears to be very versed in other mediums besides photography.
10. The Grease from 14 Hamburgers on 11 feet of butcher paper
Yes, I saved the best for last.
Phil Hansen is a London x-ray technician who works on his art in his spare time.
And in his spare time, Phil was contacted by Arby’s to help promote their new “Roastburgers”. Posted on March 13, 2009, the viral ad doesn’t overtly mention Arby’s, but he does say people proclaim hamburgers to be too greasy. And…well, the video demonstrates just how greasy 14 drive-thru burgers can be. The provided website, www.burgergreaseart.com, links to the Arby’s website.
I have now idea how Leonado would have responded to this Mona iteration. Leonardo da Vinci is said to have been a vegetarian.
Fernando Botero is the artist of this last work.
I wonder if he had all her foodstuff iterations in mind when he painted this work.
Another Mona Lisa Serving (Part One)
Foodstuffs appear to be a popular painting medium.
The Mona Lisa painting has been rendered and re-rendered with products that are hard to fathom as viable artistic mediums. Products you could hardly ascribe to having the nuanced properties to adequately depict the storied Mona Lisa canvas.
Peanut butter and jelly?
Lasagna?
Varying amounts of cream in cups of coffee?
Fruit roll-ups?
Hamburger grease?
The kitchen turns out to make quite a nice artist’s studio.
- Peanut Butter and Jelly
“Double Mona Lisa” is fashioned after Andy Warhol’s same-named silk-screened print. Vik Muniz has made a name for himself fashioning art using off-beat materials, and photographing the result. In this instance, healthy amounts of peanut butter and jelly have been used. The “Double Mona Lisa” is a huge cibachrome print (48” x 60”) that was done in 1961.
Muniz is no stranger to using foodstuffs as art materials. He has also fashioned Leonardo’s “Last Supper” out of Bosco Chocolate Sauce.
And yes, he is a serious artist. Having exhibited at the Whitney, The Settle Art Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Frick, MoMA and museums and galleries in San Paulo, Rome, Madrid… Pick a major city anywhere in the world, and by the look of his catalog, I think he has shown there.
His body of work is interesting. And if you want to see more, visit his website: vikmuniz.net.
2. 3604 cups of coffee (from black to latte)
The 2009 Rocks Aroma Coffee Festival in Sydney, Australia has just concluded. As part of this years festivities… the Mona Lisa was rendered using 3604 cups of coffee. Milk being added to the coffee cups at different levels to obtain the delicate modeling to best replicate the painting.
3. Coffee Beans…kinda
This is a bit of a cheat, as actual coffee beans were not used.
Tony White is an acclaimed animator, director, author, teacher and a Starbucks fan.
On his blog he talks about how an empty 20” x 30” picture frame at his local Starbucks was “crying out to be filled with something”. So he volunteered to create posters to fill the frame. Among his offerings, his Bena-Lisa, constructed with thousands of hand-drawn coffee beans rendered in different color values.
Here is a very patient man.
4. Fusilli, macaroni and lasagna
In commemoration of their 50th anniversary, Pizza Hut commissioned Prudence Emma Strait to create a pasta version of the Mona Lisa. This is the result, entitled Mona Lisagne.
Ms. Strait said the project took 2 weeks to create. Which required her to go through 10,000 pieces of pasta to find the best match for Mona Lisa’s smile.
(Also of note, both Leonardo and Ms. Strait used wood as the substrate for their creations.)
5. Another serving of pasta
Found on Robert Baron’s website. There isn’t much information about this image. Mr. Baron states it’s a greeting card published under Union Hill Paperworks by Hallmark.
6. Keeping with grains: bread
A collaborative process, this Mona was made by artisans Scott Williamson, Michael Frye, Joe Schleicher, Valorie Schleicher and Chris Tuschen of Tosa Breadsmith in Wauwatosa, WI.
Molds were created to make this 3’ x 4’ Mona Lisa. From which the breads were baked to a specific tone. Finally, the pieces were assembled and another Mona comes into existence to add to the Mona pool of art…or “art”.
Part Two coming right up.
A correction:
Mona Lisa made with sausage not chocolate
My bad.
Yesterday I posted this image to help illustrate my blog on the Mona Lisa rendered in chocolate.
Initially discovered on www.dlist.com as part of a caption writing contest. No information was given about the source, the event depicted or the photographer.
I made an assumption the material used was chocolate.
I made a wrong assumption.
Well, not 24 hours later while working on my next Mona posting, I discovered sausage was the raw materials used in this Mona reconstruction.
And like any good buffet, there was more.
• The artist was Sergey Venyavsky.
• The work was created in 2008.
• It was one of several meat masterpieces at a Russian exhibition.
• The exhibit marked the 1ooth anniversary of state-owned GK Tavr. GK Tavr, apparently being a major sausage maker in southern Russia.
• Other masterpieces represented in the exhibition include Vincent Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” and Picasso’s “Girl on a Ball”.
• The works took 6 meat artists 3 days to build.
• These paintings were made up of 40 lbs. of sausages and various luncheon meats.
• Ham was a favorite medium because of its soft and pliable nature.
• Gelatin was used to affix the various proteins.
• And the Guinness World Record officials were on hand. Wherein all 6 artists received a Guinness record certificate. But I can find no mention of the feat being lauded.
Attached are other images that comprise this exhibition.
And below are the links that helped me piece together the background about this exhibition.
The assumption I made about an image was completely wrong. It turns out, the truth is much more interesting then originally imagined.
Oh. In case you were wondering. Yes, people did actually eat the art.
