Kites and Art

Kites posess an inherent beauty. They touch the sky, they fly in silent magnificence, they capture the eye and the mind. They are art in motion.

Yet we were still surprised a true, accomplished, renowned artist would call us and ask for assistance in a true art project.

Elixir Distillers, Tanja Vujinovic, Ultramono 2018. Gallery Kapelica exibition.

Dr. Tanja Vujinovic (her website; and her wikipedia entry in Slovene), a renowned intermedia artist, deals with the relationship of body, mind, and technology. She uses new media technologies both as the medium of production and subject of her work. Whether through interactive installations, virtual environments, sound, or video, she explores phenomena and issues brought about by ubiquitous use of (new) media technologies, such as our attachments to gadgets, machine anthropomorphization, noise, signal processing, privacy, data collection, virtual avatars, human augmentation, and life enhancement through technology.

And she loved our kites!

Rokkaku kite (in the distance) carrying the glass dew collector. Tanja Vujinovic, Ultramono 2018.

In her last work, an installation - a long-term project - called "The Elixir Distillers", Tanja Vujinovic explores the notions of life, agency, and subjectivity of human and nonhuman actors.

Garden of the Elixir Pill. Tanja Vujinovic, Ultramono 2018. Gallery Kapelica exibition.

We assisted the artist in collection of dew by attaching a special glass collector to the kite line and lifting it to the sky.

Dew collector after successful landing, still attached to the Picavet.

And while the artist got what she needed for the exhibition, we managed to pull out some nice kite aerial videos of the process.

Test flight 1 of the dew collector. Stills from a kite aerial video, iPhone SE on a Rokkaku kite. Fužine district, Ljubljana.

Test flight 2 of the dew collector. Stills from a kite aerial video, iPhone SE on a Rokkaku kite. Kozler forest, Ljubljana Marshes landscape park.

Final flight of the dew collector above the flood forest and marshes of Iška Moor nature reserve. Stills from a kite aerial video, iPhone SE on a Rokkaku kite.

While the Rokkaku was busy flying the collector, we let Millie the french military kite fly too it for a quick KAP session. And it somehow managed to get the Rok and the collector flying below! :-)

Millie shoots Rokkaku in flight. The dew collector is visible suspended below the camera.

The national Radio-Television of Slovenia did an interview with dr. Vujinovic about her exhibition - and you can see our Rokkaku in the clip! :-) We'd like to thank the artist for this beautiful and interesting experience.