This year the legendary Irish band U2 is taking stadium rock to the next level with a colossal 360-degree rotating stage that looks as though it just landed from outer space – Bono himself calls it the “U2 Space Station.” The Claw, which is likely one of the largest and most complex sets ever to be taken on the road, is a massive four-legged structure that stands close to 100 feet and takes three days to set up. It was constructed by Atelier One, a structural engineering consultancy firm.

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Tags: Architectural, Art, Music

Maurizio Seracini, an engineering professor at the University of California, San Diego, may soon be on his way to uncovering a long-lost mural by Leonardo DaVinci. Seracini believes the painting is hidden beneath another fresco in ceremonial hall of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. With permission from Italian government, he will soon be able to proceed with his search and use specially developed devices (including one that bombards the fresco with neutrons) to look for traces of DaVinci’s hand. [NYT]

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Tags: Art, Chemical, Museums, Nuclear

“The walls between art and engineering exist only in our minds.”
– Theo Jansen

Photo by Loek van der Kils, http://www.Loekvanderklis.com

Next time you go to the beach, look out for Strandbeesten – enormous free-roaming mechanical “beasts” – engineered by Dutch painter and sculptor Theo Jansen. Jansen studied physics at the University of Delft, Holland before he decided to become an artist, and his scientific background is evident in much of his work. The Strandbeest project originated from a computer program he wrote over 18 years ago where multi-legged animals raced each other in a survival-of-the-fittest competition. So how exactly do his whimsical creatures work?

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Tags: Art, Mechanical

A software designer helped ‘Pirates’ come to life.

One of the key moments in the blockbuster movie Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End was a battle between two ships in a raging ocean storm. The 15-minute scene featured a gigantic whirlpool and lots of lightning, waves, and spray. It wasn’t the type of thing that could be faked in a neighborhood swimming pool or even on a Hollywood soundstage. So the directors came up with a solution: They created the scene on a computer with software developed by Industrial Light & Magic, the special effects company created by George Lucas when he made the first Star Wars film in the 1970s.

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Tags: Art, Computer, Technology

A group of engineers, artists and architects have unveiled plans (coinciding with the 2012 London Olympics) for a Digital Cloud that would seemingly hover over London. It’s actually a complex of interconnected, inflatable plastic bubbles connected to the tops of three, 400-foot mesh-like towers. The cloud would be both an observation deck, and a giant LED screen on to which data could be projected.

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Tags: Architectural, Art, Green Technology, Olympics, Sports