A 5-MINUTE DIP INTO FOAM
Theun presented some of the people and projects of FoAM in Brussels and FoAMLab Amsterdam.
FoAM
FoAM is an intricate gossamer of people and places, extending through the interstices between artistic and scientific, physical and digital, professional and cultural boundaries. FoAM is shaped by a group of designers, scientists, cooks, artists, engineers and gardeners, interested in advancing their own fields, as well as sharing and applying knowledge in new public contexts. Theun is an illustrator, artist, and builder of lightweight structures. He is a member of FoAM Brussels and FoAMLab Amsterdam. He has studied art at St Joost, Breda and the Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam.
'Gurukula Sanctuary' and 'Barefoot' are two exceptional projects in India that FoAM supports (see pictures). More about his can be found also on the Wiki the libarynth (RSS feed).
Luminous Green
Luminous Green is a series of gatherings about the world. About the world that supports life today and about the possible worlds that can support more luminous life in the future. With these events, the interdisciplinary laboratory FoAM calls upon the creative sector to enrich the public debate around environmental sustainability, ethical living and eco-technology.
The first Luminous Green series took place in and around Brussels during the spring of 2007. Consisting of a symposium, an expert gathering, a hands-on workshop and an open lab, all the events promised new and intriguing directions for many participants, as well as for FoAM.
There will be more Luminous Green events in the future and Theun welcomed the ragtaggers to join the exploration of becoming more green.
TRG
TRG is a project that builds upon the two previous immersive installations / responsive environments: TGarden and txOom. All three projects are concerned with the 'irreal' in new media art. By 'irreal' we mean artworks that provoke a tension or imbalance between tangible reality and the imaginary worlds. With responsive environments, the line between the real and the imaginary can be very thin, allowing for the experience to become 'irreal' - where the participants fade in and out of physical reality, uncertain of their position in this 'reality continuum'. TGarden was designed to allow human gestures to use video and audio as calligraphic media, to 'write and draw' the immersive environment on the fly. txOom extended the concept and became an 'irreal ecology' where media would grow based on their interaction with the participants. TRG changes scale once more, to infinitely large and infinitely small 'irreal universes', whose existence is highly unstable and unpredictable, where minuscule local interactions can conjure up the lives massive worlds.
Theun and Cocky Eek make up FoAMlab in Amsterdam, and Theun also showed images from Cocky's kite adventures. Patrick de Koning, kite maker from the Netherlands commissioned friend Cocky Eek to be lifted. Dangling beneath the kites, Eek seems to fly herself in the ephemeral Tyvek dress that she created for this purpose, moving her arms to make its train bend and flow far beneath her. Their first attempt in 2001 was a wild success, the kites lifting Eek over 140 meters.
