Oddity Central

Oddity Central

Two New York Artists Living in Human Hamster Wheel for 10 Days

Posted: 07 Mar 2014 03:00 AM PST

Performance artists Ward Shelley and Alex Schweder are currently roommates – not in an apartment, but in a large hamster wheel. Alex, who is afraid of heights, lives on the inside of the wheel, at the bottom. Ward, who has no such reservations, stays put at the very top, on the outside (180 degrees from Alex). They came into this unique living arrangement last Friday and plan to continue until March 9th.

Ward and Alex are actually in the middle of an art project that they like to call 'In Orbit'. They are on display at The Boiler, a performance space at a New York's Pierogi gallery. It took them four weeks to construct the 30-foot tall, 60-foot in circumference hamster wheel themselves, with a little help from engineer friends. The gigantic structure is suspended from the ceiling and has furniture fastened to it on the inside and the outside. Ward and Alex each have a bed, a desk, a kitchen-bathroom combo, a chair, lamps and a dresser to use.

Every piece of furniture is aligned to its counterpart, so both inhabitants of the wheel have to use the bathroom at the same time, work at the same time and go to sleep at the same time. To change the furniture setting, they simply walk on the wheel in opposite directions, moving it until the next station arrives. For safety reasons, they walk very, very slowly.

life-size-hamster-wheel

The Baikal Ice Marathon – The Ultimate Winter Endurance Race

Posted: 07 Mar 2014 02:00 AM PST

The Baikal Ice Marathon is one of the world's toughest endurance challenges. Over the years, the one-of-a-kind event has seen participants from over 50 countries. These are athletes with a heart of steel – they race across a 42 kilometer course across the completely frozen surface of Baikal, the oldest and deepest freshwater lake on Earth. Every year, the Baikal Ice Marathon is held for a noble cause – the Preservation of Clean Water. This year its 10th edition took place on March 1.

Although the terrain for the marathon is predominantly flat, it is still considered to be one of the world's 10 most challenging competitions because of the freezing Siberian weather. The cold northern winds and harsh, unpredictable climate is, in fact, the biggest challenge faced by runners. In past marathons conditions have varied in severity – from high winds and biting cold, to a sunny sky with almost no chills. The lake's surface is another problem; at times it can be hard and uneven, covered in small hills of ice rubble. Geometric springs and seismic activity beneath the ice may weaken it to form holes.

Baikal-Ice-Marathon

Toddlers Drop the Beats at Brooklyn’s Baby DJ School

Posted: 07 Mar 2014 01:00 AM PST

In another bizarre case of super parenting, some toddlers are being put through classes at the Baby DJ School in Brooklyn. The program was designed by composer and performance artist Natalie Weiss. She started off last September with six students aged between 9 and 20 months.

31-year-old Weiss said she got the idea when she took her DJ equipment to a friend's house. "I was babysitting a little boy named Rider. He's one-and-a-half. And I had my laptop and my midi trigger with me because I had a gig after. I asked him, 'Do you want to see how it works?' And he loved it! Seeing him have that enthusiasm and innocence and joy talking about pieces of electrical equipment, that's when I said like, it's time to educate kids about this stuff."

So Weiss began to write songs that teach kids about disc jockeying and electronic music. One of the songs goes: 'The midi-trigger's connected to the laptop, the laptop's connected to the PA' set to the tune of 'Dem Bones' – a baby song about dancing skeletons. There's one like a little baby rap: "I always, always pre cue, before I play in front of you!"

Baby-DJ-school

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