THE SPACE BETWEEN US, SANTA MONICA, CA, 2013

Janet Echelman was commissioned to create the headlining sculpture for GLOW 2013, the triennial art event for site-specific works on Santa Monica Beach. Lasting only one night – from dusk to dawn – the beach is transformed into a “playground for thoughtful and participatory, temporary art.”

On the night of September 28, 2013, more than 150,000 people attended GLOW and participated in sculpting the earthwork beneath Echelman’s aerial sculpture, “The Space Between Us,” making it one of the largest public art events in the U.S. In an article published the morning after the event, The New York Times credited Echelman’s work for “giving crafts a coolly conceptual edge.”

Echelman’s ground-breaking work utilized experimental elements, including shaped earth and an audio component that synced to a pulsating lighting program. The artist and her team collaborated with City Public Works staff to create carved sand indentations for visitors to enter and gaze up at the aerial sculpture, becoming a part of the immersive experience.

Echelman views this commission as a point of growth and departure. “The beach is the charged zone between human society and uncontrolled nature,” she said. “I’m interested in sculpting earth and sky, and placing ourselves in between. It’s the collision of heaviness and lightness, between our gravity-bound bodies which walk on sand, and the part of us which seeks to float in air, or in water.”

“My goal was to invite people to have an ephemeral sensory experience without words – a moment of contemplation that can evoke preverbal memory and engage our Limbic brain.”

Produced by the Santa Monica Cultural Affairs Division and the Santa Monica Arts Foundation, the goal of the evening was to “break through the public’s preconceived notion of what art can be, encouraging both thoughtful contemplation and energetic participation,” said GLOW organizers.

Poppy Girls: The Call (no need to say goodbye)

Live performance of The Poppy Girls new charity single sung live at the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance on 9 November 2013. There is a lovely surprise just after they finish.

The Poppy Girls are (L to R) Bethany, Megan, Charlotte, Florence and Alice - and all have fathers currently serving in the Royal Navy, Army and 

Man implants computer in arm – taking things too far?

If you have $500 burning a hole in your pocket, why not create a hole in your arm for a body temperature implant?

I wouldn’t, that’s for sure. But at least someone will – and they think the idea will take off.

Tim Cannon, a body-modifier, is raising eyebrows after he implanted a body temperature meter in his arm.

The Circadia 1.0, about the size of a smartphone, has a battery that can be charged wirelessly. It syncs to any Android smartphone.

LED status lights shine through the skin to indicate how the gadget in his body is working.

While it seems wearable technology is the next big thing – from Google Glass to the Samsung Galaxy Gear watch – this is taking the trend to a whole new level.

Cannon was showing off his latest feat at a body modification conference in Germany. 

“I think that our environment should listen more accurately and more intuitively to what’s happening in our body,” he told Vice’s Motherboard.

So in theory, his home’s air conditioning could ramp up if he’s feeling a little warmer after a tough day at work.

The device, although not made by any major laboratory, appears bulky underneath Cannon’s arm, stitch together by a body modification surgery expert, since no certified doctor would dare do any operation like that.

But implanting technology – and chips that can communicate outside the body – seem to be an emerging trend. Some are already experimenting with implantable tattoos.

These things don’t really show ink on the human skin, but they become active after someone taps there phone on the skin covering the tattoo chip.

Iranian actors