Physics, Chemistry and Art Combine for Berndnaut Smilde’s Installations

Dutch artist Berndnaut Smilde makes clouds and rainbows for his remarkable installations. The word “make” is key here: he really does create these phenomena thanks to some clever scientific tinkering—whether by making a prism (to then create a rainbow) or by combining water, vapor and smoke machines to conjure a cloud on demand. He then places these unnatural natural beauties in dramatic spaces—including a “gothic …

Link About It: This Week’s Picks

Swimming pools, fireworks, Dragon drones and more in our look around the web

1. University of Tokyo’s Dragon Drone Transforms While Midair Calling the University of Tokyo’s new drone the Dragon doesn’t just reference its form, the name is also an acronym short for “Dual-rotor embedded multilink Robot with the Ability of multi-deGree-of-freedom aerial transformatiON.” Composed of several small drones, powered by a pair of ducted fans that can thrust in almost any direction, the high-flyer can autonomously …

Link About It: This Week’s Picks

From cannabis culture to public art, Pantera and more—our look around the web

1. Artist Prune Nourry’s Incense + Blowtorch-Driven Catharsis For the unveiling of “The Amazon,” artist Prune Nourry’s new sculpture outside The Standard High Line hotel, Nourry took a blowtorch to a portion of the work—igniting hundreds of sticks of red incense. The French multimedia artist’s piece represents healing and catharsis, and draws inspiration from a First Century Roman marble wounded Amazon warrior statue at the …