Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Strange but Cool
With his still-life performances, this German artist seems to unhinge the laws of gravity. For hours on time, he remains, as a living work of art, in physically impossible positions. Elevated or reduced to the state of a sculpture, he interacts with the bewildered and irritated audience, whose appetite for communication rises as time goes by, often culminating in the wish to touch the artist in his superhuman, angelic appearance in order to participate in his abilities.
Space Satellite Camera Views
Niagra Fall 
The image shows the Niagara River that connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, snaking around Goat Island, in the lower left of the full image. Most of the river's water plummets over the Canadian/Horseshoe Falls, but some diverted water spills over American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls downstream. Every second, more than two million liters of water plunges over the Horsehoe Falls segment of Niagara Falls creating one of the world's largest waterfalls as well as eating away as much as two meters of rock per year. The image was acquired August 2, 2004
Tsunami strikes the coast of Sri Lanka
This is a natural color, 60-centimeter (2-foot) high-resolution QuickBird satellite image featuring the southwestern coast of Sri Lanka. Imagery was collected on December 26, 2004 at 10:20 a.m. local time, slightly less than four hours after the 6:28 a.m. (local Sri Lanka time) earthquake and shortly after the moment of tsunami impact.
Ground Zero, New York City
This one-meter resolution satellite image of Manhattan, New York was collected at 11:43 a.m. EDT on Sept. 12, 2001 by Space Imaging's IKONOS satellite. The image shows an area of white and gray-colored dust and smoke at the location where the 1,350-foot towers of the World Trade Center once stood. Since all airplanes were grounded over the U.S. after the attack, IKONOS ! was the only commercial high-resolution camera that could take an overhead image at the time.
Grand Canyon
Northern Arizona and the Grand Canyon are captured in this pair of Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) images from December 31, 2000. The above image is a true color view from the nadir (vertical) camera. In addition to the Grand Canyon itself, which is visible in the western (lower) half of the images, other landmarks include Lake Powell , on the left, and Humphreys Peak and Sunset Crater National Monument
Malosmadulu Atolls, Maldives
North and South Malosmadulu Atolls are in the Maldives, an island republic in the northern Indian Ocean, southwest of India. The Maldives are made up of a chain! of 1,192 small coral islands, which are grouped into clusters of atolls.. It has a total area of 298 square kilometers and a population of about 330,000. The capital and largest city is Male, with a population of about 80,000. Arguably the lowest-lying country in the world, the average elevation is just 1 meter above sea level. The natural-color ASTER image of the Malosmadulu Atolls was acquired on December 22, 2002, and is centered near 5.3 degrees North latitude, 73.9 degrees West longitude.
Ayers Rock (Uluru), Australia
This IKONOS satellite image of Ayers Rock was collected Jan. 17, 2004. Ayers Rock is located in Kata Tjuta National Park, 280 miles (450km) southwest of Alice Springs, Australia. It is the world's largest monolith, an Aboriginal sacred site and Australia's most famous natural landmark.
Noah's Ark Site?
Is it or isn't it? Satellite images of Mt. Ararat , Turkey
The Nile River
This image of the northern portion of the Nile River was captured by the Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer's (MISR's) nadir camera on January 30, 2001. Against the barren desert of northeastern Africa, the fertile valley of the Nile River runs northward through Egypt. The city of Cairo can be seen as a gray smudge right where the river widens into its broad fan-shaped delta. Other cities are dotted across the green landscape, giving it a speckled appearance. Where the Nile empties into the Mediterranean Sea (top) the waters are swirling with color, likely a mixture of sediment, organic matter, and possibly marine plant life. Farther west! , the bright blue color of the water is likely less-organically rich sediment, perhaps sand.
Earth's City Lights
This image of Earth's city lights, captured on October 19, 2000, was created with data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS). The brightest areas of the Earth are the most urbanized, but not necessarily the most populated. Cities tend to grow along coastlines and transportation networks. The United States interstate highway system appears as a lattice connecting the brighter dots of city centers. In Russia, the Trans-Siberian railroad is a thin line stretching from Moscow through the center of Asia to Vladivostok. The Nile River, from the Aswan Dam to the Mediterranean Sea, is another bright thread through an otherwise dark region.
Mount St. Helens, Washington
On a Space Station expedition, astronauts observed and captured this detailed image of the volcano's summit caldera. In the center of the crater sits a lava dome that is 876 feet above the crater floor and is about 3,500 feet in diameter. The dome began to form after the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens. After the eruption, there was not any dome building eruptions for more than a decade. Afternoon lighting accents the flow features in the volcanic and debris flows and the steep valleys eroded into the loosely consolidated material near the summit. This picture was taken on October 25, 2002
The Great Pyramid, Giza, Egypt
The image shows the Niagara River that connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, snaking around Goat Island, in the lower left of the full image. Most of the river's water plummets over the Canadian/Horseshoe Falls, but some diverted water spills over American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls downstream. Every second, more than two million liters of water plunges over the Horsehoe Falls segment of Niagara Falls creating one of the world's largest waterfalls as well as eating away as much as two meters of rock per year. The image was acquired August 2, 2004Tsunami strikes the coast of Sri Lanka
This is a natural color, 60-centimeter (2-foot) high-resolution QuickBird satellite image featuring the southwestern coast of Sri Lanka. Imagery was collected on December 26, 2004 at 10:20 a.m. local time, slightly less than four hours after the 6:28 a.m. (local Sri Lanka time) earthquake and shortly after the moment of tsunami impact. Ground Zero, New York City
This one-meter resolution satellite image of Manhattan, New York was collected at 11:43 a.m. EDT on Sept. 12, 2001 by Space Imaging's IKONOS satellite. The image shows an area of white and gray-colored dust and smoke at the location where the 1,350-foot towers of the World Trade Center once stood. Since all airplanes were grounded over the U.S. after the attack, IKONOS ! was the only commercial high-resolution camera that could take an overhead image at the time.Grand Canyon
Northern Arizona and the Malosmadulu Atolls, Maldives
North and South Malosmadulu Atolls are in the Maldives, an island republic in the northern Indian Ocean, southwest of India. The Maldives are made up of a chain! of 1,192 small coral islands, which are grouped into clusters of atolls.. It has a total area of 298 square kilometers and a population of about 330,000. The capital and largest city is Male, with a population of about 80,000. Arguably the lowest-lying country in the world, the average elevation is just 1 meter above sea level. The natural-color ASTER image of the Malosmadulu Atolls was acquired on December 22, 2002, and is centered near 5.3 degrees North latitude, 73.9 degrees West longitude.Ayers Rock (Uluru), Australia
This IKONOS satellite image of Ayers Rock was collected Jan. 17, 2004. Ayers Rock is located in Kata Tjuta National Park, 280 miles (450km) southwest of Alice Springs, Australia. It is the world's largest monolith, an Aboriginal sacred site and Australia's most famous natural landmark. Noah's Ark Site?
Is it or isn't it? Satellite images of The Nile River
This image of the northern portion of the Nile River was captured by the Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer's (MISR's) nadir camera on January 30, 2001. Against the barren desert of northeastern Africa, the fertile valley of the Nile River runs northward through Egypt. The city of Cairo can be seen as a gray smudge right where the river widens into its broad fan-shaped delta. Other cities are dotted across the green landscape, giving it a speckled appearance. Where the Nile empties into the Mediterranean Sea (top) the waters are swirling with color, likely a mixture of sediment, organic matter, and possibly marine plant life. Farther west! , the bright blue color of the water is likely less-organically rich sediment, perhaps sand. Earth's City Lights
This image of Earth's city lights, captured on October 19, 2000, was created with data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS). The brightest areas of the Earth are the most urbanized, but not necessarily the most populated. Cities tend to grow along coastlines and transportation networks. The United States interstate highway system appears as a lattice connecting the brighter dots of city centers. In Russia, the Trans-Siberian railroad is a thin line stretching from Moscow through the center of Asia to Vladivostok. The Nile River, from the Aswan Dam to the Mediterranean Sea, is another bright thread through an otherwise dark region. Mount St. Helens, Washington
On a Space Station expedition, astronauts observed and captured this detailed image of the volcano's summit caldera. In the center of the crater sits a lava dome that is 876 feet above the crater floor and is about 3,500 feet in diameter. The dome began to form after the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens. After the eruption, there was not any dome building eruptions for more than a decade. Afternoon lighting accents the flow features in the volcanic and debris flows and the steep valleys eroded into the loosely consolidated material near the summit. This picture was taken on October 25, 2002 The Great Pyramid, Giza, Egypt
Monday, May 5, 2008
The amazing pictures of an artist dangling horizontally out of a skyscraper
Dangling horizontally out of a skyscraper, this hovering figure looks set to fall to his doom.
But this 'jumper' hasn't just lost it all on a game of chance - this is performance art with a difference.
Chinese artist Li Wei has produced an unsettling series of self-portraits involving his face reflected in mirrors in public places, and photographs of himself crashing into walls and sidewalks.
His work is a mixture of performance art and photography that creates illusions of a sometimes dangerous reality.
Li Wei uses props such as metal wires to create his spectacular workCreating hair-raising performances to convey his continual sense of lost gravity, Wei has taken his work all over the world from Italy, Spain, Korea and the USA.
"My work and artistic experience are characterised by a unique specificity and particularity," says the 37-year-old artist from Beijing.
"My artistic language is universal and deals with themes about contemporary politics and society using symbols understood by everyone in every part of the world.
"I am fascinated by the unstable and dangerous sides of art and I hope my works reflect these aspects.
Wei's photos, which sell up to $8,000 (£4,200), depict him free falling from tall buildings-pictures that resemble the famous photograph of the French artist Yves Kline hurtling out a window.
Wei's photos depict him free falling from tall buildings"My favourite pieces are the 'Mirror' and the 'Li Wei falls...' series," he says.
"I began my career in the late 1990s, and is most like my Mirror 2000 series, which includes over 40 site-specific performance pieces.
"Using a large mirror, three feet square, with a hole in the centre large enough to accommodate my head and neck, I place my head through the hole and "project" my image onto various historical and urban environments.
"The philosophy that emerges from my work shows the independence of the spiritual values of Chinese artists and the internal peace of a culture."
The artist loves the reaction that his work evokes from people who pass it on the street.
A giant arm appears to save the artist from a spectacular fallHe said: "The first reaction is astonishment. Some people think they are full of sense of humour. They are curious about how I did this.
"Sometimes I am in real danger - I have to hang myself high with steel wires and people do get a little worried for me - but I am fine."
Li Wei sees his art as both a mission to set the scene for the perfect photograph and a perfect performance.
"Each photograph lies with a performance", he said.
"For me, how to express myself and the process is more important. I don't care much about if that's performance or photography."
And he has no intention of letting up with his work and is aiming to go as high as possible.
Li said: "I'll continue creating works in high places.
"I incorporated gravity as one of my main elements. My work and artistic experience are characterised by a unique specificity and particularity.
"My artistic language is universal and deals with themes about contemporary politics and society using symbols understood by everyone in every part of the world.
"Li Wei falls to..' which has led my work to be recognised as the perfect metaphor for the Chinese conquest of the world.
"In these, my body crashes like a meteorite in different contexts."
The 37-year-old's work has been successful all over the world
Li Wei sees his art as a mission to set the scene for the perfect photograph and a perfect performance
He specialises in creating the illusion of dangerous reality
The artist employs a mix of acrobatics
Wei admits sometimes he is in real danger
he 'jumper' says he aims to go as high as possible with his work
Here he appears buried in the ground. The artist says people do get a little worried about him
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