Nerds Republic

Take a good look at the sumptuous wallpaper in this room. Take a really good look. The bright magenta hue itself is inviting, but once you get past that, get right in there and have a look at those details.

When you get close enough, you might want to recoil.

That’s because these designs are all made from dead insects.

Yep. Those are all bugs.

This installation is the work of Jennifer Angus, an artist and professor of apparel and textile design at the University of Wisconsin. She was inspired by the beauty of insects after a trip to Thailand, where she encountered “singing shawls,” which are traditional shawls with tassels made from the iridescent green shells of beetles. Combined with her fascination with textile patterns, the shawls became the foundation of this installation.

The inspiration resulted in several installations, the most recent of which is housed in the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery.

In this installation, Angus used the bodies of over 5,000 weevils, cicadas, green stag beetles, and other insects to create the pattern seen here.

So many bugs…

Angus is careful to use farmed insects when possible to avoid damaging ecosystems.

She also reuses as many insects as possible, keeping them carefully pinned and stored between projects.

If they become too damaged to display, Angus also donates them to schools so that kids can explore insect life.

In case you’re wondering, this vibrant pink background also has buggy origins.

It’s created from the cochineal — an insect that produces a vibrant red-purple pigment.

But if you’re worried about the ecological repercussions of using once-living creatures for art, Angus discusses these concerns on her website.

In fact, Angus hopes that educating people about the huge variety of insects on our planet will inspire more people to support the conservation of rainforests around the world.

(via Slate)

If you’ve only thought of bugs as being gross, artwork like this is here to change your mind. They might be creepy and crawly, but the insects with which we share a planet can also be strikingly beautiful, and they remind us that there are habitats beyond our own that need to be protected.

You can see more of Angus’ work on her website (which includes some pretty awesome games, too).

The installations of artist Wolfgang Stiller take everyday objects and turn them into powerful, unsettling images. Such is the case with his Matchstick Men installation, which is comprised of human-sized matchsticks that are topped with blackened human heads.

They’re at once serene and mysterious, but their charred appearance also makes them seem a bit frightening. So what do they mean?

Stiller isn’t big on explaining his art. He’d rather inspire viewers to come to their own conclusions.

His installations are site- specific, meaning that the arrangement is based on the space itself.

The matches were made using bamboo beams and a few head-shaped molds that were left over from an earlier project.

They almost look like totems when they’re all lined up.

The serene face of each piece is at odds with its charred appearance.

The pieces definitely bring to mind images of death.

Standing, lying, and leaning in the exhibition space, the Matchstick Men seem otherworldly. They remind us of memorials, grave markers, and sign posts. They’re human, but not quite human enough.

Are they designed to strike fear into us, or are they meant to incite calming contemplation? Are they a literal representation of being burnt out, or are they merely interesting works of art?

Stiller sometimes arranges them into specific configurations, like this tally design.

These arrangements add different dimensions to each cluster.

The addition of other objects has a similar effect.

If you look carefully, you can even find some un-charred heads lying on the ground.

(via Beautiful Decay, Fubiz)

An installation like this has no definite meaning. Viewers are left to their own devices when it comes to drawing conclusions about the work. If you’re not interested in getting too mentally or emotionally involved, you could simply appreciate the craftsmanship of these strange, eerie sculptures. You can see more of Stiller’s work on his website.

When you think of art, you probably imagine something hanging on a wall, but that’s not how Dutch artist Suzan Drummen creates. Her glittering installations, featuring thousands of shiny glass pieces, beads, and jewels, are laid out right on the floor in carefully arranged mandala and textile-like patterns. The bright colors and shining elements make them look magical, while their placement causes viewers to stop and rethink how they plan on navigating the space.

Drummen uses pins to attach items to walls, but the pieces on the floor are simply laid down. There’s nothing holding them in place.

This means that for all the work that goes into them, these installations are rather fragile.

Though they’re meticulously arranged, Drummen says that she never creates a plan for her pieces beforehand. She says everything is spontaneous: “I check the light, the route of the visitors, the colors, the height, etc., on [the] spot. The whole atmosphere actually guides me. Every space requires something else and the installation grows slowly.”

Needless to say, the process of creating these pieces is a time-consuming one.

And the art is not at all permanent, although Drummen has created some permanent installations.

The artist says that when people realize the pieces are loose, they tend to get very excited. She wants her work to draw people in and compel them to examine it from a closer perspective, inspecting all the tiny components.

Sometimes, Drummen uses other surfaces besides just floors and walls.

She occasionally uses participants who sit or lie on the floor and allow themselves to be adorned with glittering jewels.

If these bright, dizzying designs seem a bit overwhelming to you, that’s exactly what Drummen wants.

“From a distance they appear clear and orderly, yet upon closer inspection, the eyes become disoriented by the many details and visual stimuli,” she explains.

“That moment, of being able to take it all in or not, is explored, time and time again. The visual perception is challenged, requisitioned, and intensified.”

(via Bored Panda, Colossal, Irenebrination)

You can see much more of Drummen’s work on her website, including other types of installations and art forms. You can also see what she’s up to on Facebook.

More than half of Estonia is covered by dense forests, all of which are open to backpacking, hiking, and camping. To celebrate the beauty and harmony of nature, as well as how forests factor into many aspects of Estonian culture, architecture students at the Estonian Arts Academy decided to create structures that would help hikers appreciate the rich tapestry of sounds — and the beautiful silence — that these forests have to offer.

What did they build? Giant megaphones!

The megaphones were assembled by students of the Estonian Arts Academy, and were designed by student Birgit Õigus.

They all worked as a team under the supervision of their advisors.

Made of wood, the megaphones have a sleek, geometrical design. They even caught the attention of popular Estonian author Valdur Mikita, who described them as being audio libraries of the forest. “It’s a place to listen, to browse the audible book of nature — there hasn’t really been a place like that in Estonia before.”

The megaphones were shipped to the Pähni Nature Center in Võrumaa, near the Latvian border.

They were installed in one of Estonia’s many thick, wild forests.

Hikers can stop and enjoy them whenever they want.

While sitting in one of these megaphones, one can hear the unique sounds of the forest, from the chirping of birds to the rustling of leaves. Each megaphone is positioned to capture the sounds of a different area of the forest, so no two megaphones ever amplify the same thing.

The wooden structures also double as small shelters for hikers.

They make perfect little seating areas for adventurers who need a break.

They may look a little odd in the middle of all these trees, but there’s something kind of magical about them, too.

(via BoredPanda)

The megaphones are free to any and all hikers, and their creators hope that pausing for a moment in these strangely beautiful structures will help people appreciate the forests of Estonia — and nature in general. The Nature Center is also pleased with the addition of the megaphones, and representatives say that they may even hold small seminars in them in the future.

Email the ViralNova team!

Waiting for a train, even if you have a distraction, can lead to some surprisingly introspective thoughts. In the company of hundreds of faceless strangers, the mind has plenty of time to wander. There’s something about being in transit that turns everyday people into philosophers.

That’s the feeling that software developer Alan Donohoe and designer Steven Parker wanted to capture when they created The Waiting Wall and put it up for public display in England’s bustling Brighton Station. It looks like a board that would display arrivals and departures, but instead, it broadcasts deep, dark, anonymous secrets.

The idea came to Donohoe while he was waiting for a train in Brighton Station.

The pair asked people to divulge their secrets anonymously online so that they could be displayed on the board.

The finished product now hangs above the actual train times.

Many messages take on the lonely, melancholy tones of late-night confessions.

They speak of the fear, anxiety, and trepidation that we’ve all felt at one point or another.

These secrets tell stories of betrayal, infidelity, addiction, and personal failure.

We all understand the pain of these feelings in our own way.

Why such a melancholy topic? Well, Donohoe says that the project has two sides. On one hand, it’s a statement about feeling pressured by society to be happy at all times. He sees this as an impossible, unhealthy goal.

But at the same time, the brutal honesty of these confessions may help people feel less alone. We all have secrets that we’d rather not talk about, but at least we’re not the only ones.

Donohoe was inspired by the work of author and philosopher Alain de Botton, who proposed an electronic, global version of Jerusalem’s famous Wailing Wall that would be accessible to all people.

The creative developer hopes that his project will help people feel “comforted by having a space where they can share these thoughts.” He continues by pointing out that “some of life’s biggest questions don’t have any answers, but there’s some consolation in knowing that we haven’t been singled out for persecution, and that we’re all battling the same things.”

While there have been some instances of spam, Donohoe is happy with how honest and forthcoming most people have been.

He’s glad to give people a safe space to talk about the things that keep them up at night.

(via Distractify, Brighton Digital Festival, The Guardian)

The Waiting Wall will be on display through September 27 at Brighton Station, with regularly changing secrets supplied via the project’s website, where you can submit a secret of your own — anonymously, of course. It’s part of the Brighton Digital Festival, which celebrates digital innovation in Brighton and Hove.