Thursday Salute to Originals: The Charcoal-Studded Helium Balloon

Karina Smigla-Bobinski and her ADA sculpture are causing a buzz within the art community! ADA is an analog interactive installation or artwork with soul. Smigla-Bobinski is a freelance artist in Munich who uses kinetic art, mixed media, and painting as her medium. It is evident that this artist relies on her creative intuition and doesn’t limit herself with artistic tools or creative ideas when initially brainstorming a project and then bringing it to fruition.

Smigla-Bobinski’s inspiration is Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage who developed the first archetype of a computer. The artist describes ADA as “The globe put in action fabricates a composition of lines and points, which remain incalculable in their intensity, expression, and form however hard the visitor tries to control ADA, to drive her, to domesticate her. Whatever he tries out, he would notice very soon, that ADA is an independent performer, studying the originally white walls with drawings and signs.” Smigla-Bobinski compares ADA to a modern computer that has an unpredictable outcome when given simple commands by human beings.

ADA is a helium sort of balloon floating freely in a room. The design aesthetic created by ADA is a result of the charcoal spikes that are on the exterior of the balloon. The giant balloon leaves charcoal markings on the floor, ceiling, and wall generating a distinct sense of motion and design in every instance with ADA.

This Thursday, we’re saluting Karina Smigla-Bobinski and her ADA helium-filled sculpture! Although a giant balloon with a charcoal crayon seems like a simplistic concept, the construction and designs stemming from the structure are complex and original. ADA is evocative of your childhood creative innocence similar to using crayons on paper evolving to an architect building a structure that is highly robust and built to last.

Sources: Karina Smigla-Bobinski, This is Colossal, Art Insider