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New Year's Eve Ball, 1978. Photo credit: The New York Times.

What did you do to celebrate the New Year? If you haven’t ever been to Times Square on New Year’s Eve, odds are you’ve at least watched the ball drop on TV from a party or two. That moment when we collectively count backwards and sing “Auld Lang Syne” is one of those times when art fuses seamlessly into our existence, a cherished tradition.

Over the years, the ball itself – a fanciful amalgam of sculpture, craft and technology – has changed from time to time. The materials used in its construction relate directly to the era, so the ball is a beautiful physical manifestation of the passage of time and our status as a nation.

Millennial Ball | Image: TimesSquareNYC.com

Here’s a little time line, courtesy of Wikipedia:

• 1907 – Walter F. Palmer, chief electrician for The New York Times, creates the first New Year’s Eve Ball with iron and wood materials with 100 25-watt bulbs weighing 700 pounds (320 kg) and measuring 5 feet (1.5 m) in diameter.
• 1920 – The Ball was replaced with an iron material Ball and weighing less than the original, only 400 pounds (180 kg).
• 1942 – 1943 – During World War II, the descending of the Ball was stopped due to wartime lighting restrictions in case of enemy attack.
• 1955-1980 – The Ball gets replaced with a lighter version made from aluminum weighing 150 pounds (68 kg).
• 1981-1988 – Due to the I Love New York campaign, there are red light bulbs and green stem in a design of an apple.
• 1989-1994 – The traditional white bulbs again get put on the Ball, except for 1991 and 1992, as a symbol to salute the troops in Operation Desert Shield, the ball is covered with red, white and blue light bulbs.
• 1995-1998– The Ball gets computerized, aluminum coated, rhinestone, and has a strobe light system.
• 1999 – The aluminum Ball gets replaced.
• 2000-2007 – The Ball gets an overhaul for the new millennium celebrations with a design from Waterford Crystal and new technology. It weighed 1,070 pounds (490 kg) measured 6 feet (1.8 m) in diameter and installed with 504 crystal triangles, illuminated externally with 168 halogen light bulbs and internally with 432 light bulbs of clear, red, blue, green and yellow colors.
• 2008 – For New Year’s Eve 2008, the ball gets a makeover in honor of its 100th Anniversary. Brand new state of the art LED lighting provided by Philips is featured instead of the less efficient halogen bulbs. The new LED fixtures produce over 16.7 million colors and can be programmed to create special effects.
• 2009 – The 2008 design is maintained, but its diameter is doubled, and it is 20% more energy efficient than the previous one.
• 2011 – Energy-efficient LEDs are again used to light the ball. 32,256 little Luxeon LED bulbs, to be exact. According to Philips who manufactures an ever expanding line of LED bulbs, they are commercially available and they consume 80 percent less energy when compared to traditional incandescent lightbulbs.

The Kaleidescopic 2009 Design: Image: ArtDiamondBlog.com

Sadly, photos of the actual balls are hard to find online. Perhaps they became scarce when MTV announced last year that it would be putting Snooki from the cast of Jersey Shore inside a ball. Notice they said “a ball”, not “the ball” – very tricky none the less!

Zatista wishes all of our WallSpin readers a very Happy New Year!

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• Gallery: a sneak peek of Times Square’s 2012 New Year’s Eve Ball (dvice.com)
• LEDs power Times Square ball on New Year’s Eve (news.cnet.com)
• Energy-Efficient Philips LEDs Light the Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball – PR Newswire (press release) (prnewswire.com)
• 2012: Year Of The LED Light Bulb? (earthtechling.com)

Hero from Miguel Endara on Vimeo.

What?! Another crazy-great video about an unusual art making process? This one also seems like an advertisement for a pen company, but it’s not.

I find these types of videos to be fascinating – especially when they’re this well made. They can give you a great window into an artist’s method in a very short period of time. Of course, with our rapidly diminishing attention spans, we now demand to be shown every bit of information that a video like this has to give in less than three minutes, which can be problematic.

An example of stippling via Wikipedia.

Simplicity and succinctness are cool and everything, but in some cases, pared down filmmaking leads to heavy editing. What I’m getting at here is that I think I learned more about the video and what was happening once I read the “FAQs” added by the artist/filmmaker Miguel Endara on Vimeo.

Hero by Miguel Endara miguelendara.com

For example, the ongoing tally of dots on the screen is pretty amazing, but I was floored when I learned that the piece took Endara 210 hours to complete. I also learned the term for his process: stippling. Similar to pointillism, in which dots of different colors come together to create the appearance of a single color, stippling limits artists to just black.

An example of stippling via Wikipedia

Artists who focus on stippling alone aren’t tremendously prolific because the style is so time-intensive, but it’s hard to argue with the outcome. If you’d like to learn more about how Miguel does what he does, visit his Vimeo page. There are all sorts of goodies there, including how he estimated the final dot count (3.2 million). It’s also a nice reminder that even in this age of ever-increasing digitalization, it’s good to read up on what you’re seeing online from time-to-time.

You can also check out Miguel’s website here.

Related articles

• Miguel Endara needed 3,2 Million ink dots to create the Hero portrait (designmadness.wordpress.com)
• Miguel Endara (charcoalmellowed.wordpress.com)
• Definition: Stipple (bellasugar.com)
• Round and Round (zatista.com)

James Alex after Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth

Odds are you’ve heard of a meme, defined by dictionary.com as, “an idea or element of social behavior passed on through generations in a culture, especially by imitation.” Wikipedia defines an Internet meme as, “a concept that spreads via the Internet.” Pretty ambiguous, I know. But, these days most Internet phenomena, from Barking Cats, to Double Dream Hands, Honey Badger (and its parody), to stuffwhitepeoplelike.com, fit into the meme category. If you are still confused, reference this guide.

James Alex after The Gross Clinic by Thomas Eakins

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James Alex after Arcadia by Thomas Eakins

Last week when UC Davis police pepper sprayed student protesters on campus, one result was the near-instantaneous creation of a new Internet meme. In this case it happens to be art related, which we love here on Zatista.

James Alex after The Spirit of '76 by Archibald Willard

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James Alex after The Luncheon on the Grass by Édouard Manet

After watching lengthy videos of the UC Davis event on YouTube, an American artist living in Scotland named James Alex, Photoshopped some quick alterations of several masterpiece paintings. The idea caught on quickly and within a few hours, Lt. John Pike – by that time notorious around the world – appeared to be pepper-spraying his way through canvas after famous canvas.

James Alex after A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat

Alex “mashed” up The Gross Clinic and Arcadia by Thomas Eakins, The Spirit of 76’ by Archibald Willard, Christina’s World by Andrew Wyeth, and The Luncheon on the Grass by Édouard Manet. Then, other Internet denizens took up the torch altering Georges Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, and John Trumbull’s Declaration of Independence.

James Alex after Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull

Where does it go from there? Well, Abbey Road, for starters:

image: The Dissenter

Next stop, Star Wars:

image: The Dissenter

Where it ends is another question all together. What are your favorite memes? Share with us here on WallSpin.

Related articles

• ‘Casually Pepper Spraying Cop’ Meme Takes Off (npr.org)
• Pepper-spray incident takes on own life on the Web (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• The joy of viral art inspired by UCD pepper-spray video (news.cnet.com)
• Pepper Spray Cop Becomes an Internet Meme (mediabistro.com)

Image: TwentyTwoWords.com

It’s hard to say much more than “Wow!” while watching the video below from Faber Castell:

It’s also a pretty good example of the power viral video advertising, but given that it was created by an art supply company, it’s a whole lot less lamentable than some of the hair brained stuff on the internet these days.

Personally, I’m just enjoying being in awe of the talent involved. I’ve always heard artists say things like, “I just find the art within the medium” – especially sculptors – but in this case, it seems pretty literal. Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Earring slowly appears here, almost as if she had been there all along, but came out to take a peek at the artist, Chan Hwee Chong.

The stills above indicate that Chong was also able to replicate the Mona Lisa in the same single line spiral fashion. How one arrives at the conclusion that such things are possible, I don’t know. The detail and accuracy are uncanny. Of course, they could have made it a bit more unforgettable by setting the clip to Ratt‘s epic 1984 hair band jam “Round and Round” – but that might also have been terrible.

Nice work to Faber Castell for creating a fun ad with an artistic engine. If this doesn’t make you want to buy their pens, I’m not sure what will!

Related articles

• Famous Paintings Recreated with Just One Spiral Line (weirdasianews.com)
• Faber-Castell Pen Portraits (design-milk.com)

Artist Tom Otterness Photo: Gawker.com

Animal Lover Advisory: Explicit Content Herein

Gawker dropped a bomb on legions of animal lovers in San Francisco earlier this month: New York based artist Tom Otterness, who was contracted by the city to create a series of statues for a local subway station, is known to have shot a dog ‘in the name of art’ back in 1977.

Otterness publicly apologized for his gross act of animal cruelty (documented on film, no less) in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 2008 saying, “Thirty years ago when I was 25 years old, I made a film in which I shot a dog. It was an indefensible act that I am deeply sorry for. Many of us have experienced profound emotional turmoil and despair. Few have made the mistake I made. I hope people can find it in their hearts to forgive me.” The question is, can San Franciscans forgive this man? Then give him public funds for a large commission?

"The Herring Eater" by Tom Otterness at Dutch museum Beelden aan Zee Photo: Wikipedia

The artist’s deceptively whimsical bronze sculptures depicting politically-spiked characters have found homes in New York, Los Angeles, Portland, Sacramento and Minneapolis. Hardly the most judgmental cities in the US, but still – supporting a dog killer?

For now, the San Francisco project is on hold pending an investigation of the artist. It’s a tough call: everybody deserves a little forgiveness, and Otterness’ work is both culturally relevant and distinctive. Still, we’re more-or-less a nation of dog lovers here in the US, and we don’t take kindly to anyone – artist or otherwise – mistreating our toothy, tail wagging, four-legged friends.

Art by Tom Otterness Photo: zine.Artcat.com

The good news is that it shouldn’t be too hard for the City of San Francisco to find another talented and worthy artist in need of $750,000.

What’s your opinion? Voice it below in our comments section.