THE NEW ART OF RAIN NOW

The animals go about their business -- the rain doesn’t bother them in the least. They graze, they play, they cleanse.

Schaap often shoots right when the storm is breaking, when clear sky and light begin to shine through, giving his images a hopeful, inspirational feel.

He shows us isolated showers, the edges of clouds, and the lingering refrains of a storm passing.

Schaap adds art to his images post-shoot as well, as he considers image manipulation part of his artistry.

“I love the illusions I can create with a photographic system (camera, lens, light-sensitive material, image processing and presentation).”

PEREGRINE CHURCH

Rainworks, by artist Peregrine Church, is a street art installation that appears on sidewalks only when it rains.

Church’s mission was to turn a rainy day into a positive, uplifting experience. The images and messages in each piece deliver a shot of “sunshine” on a cloudy day.

Rainworks appear in various locations in one of the rainiest parts of the United States, around the Puget Sound region of Washington state.

Church paints a non-toxic, biodegradable superhydrophobic coating through custom-made stencils onto city pavements. When dry, the paintings are invisible, but as the rain falls onto the sidewalks, the images slowly appear. 

Church hopes to make the project global -- to add to the happiness quotient of other rainy places in the world.

KINETIC RAIN

Rain showers pass. Storms break. And while we look forward to the clearings, Berlin-based design collective ART+COM created an everlasting celebration of rain with their stunning kinetic sculpture, Kinetic Rain.

The massive work includes over a thousand moving aluminum raindrops. It hangs from the high ceiling of the departure hall at Singapore’s Changi Airport.

Each raindrop is suspended by a steel wire. They are all motorized and computer-controlled to move up and down in choreographed patterns -- like poetry in motion.

The sculpture expresses aviation themes, as every programmed shape mimics the slow fluid movements of flight. Sometimes they form the shapes of airplanes, hot air balloons, and kites. Other times they become a flock of birds. There are 16 different programmed segments in all.

ART+COM’s key team members, Benjamin Maus, creator of the “perpetual storytelling apparatus,” and artist Jussi Angesleva took 10 months to plan, design, engineer, and construct the installation.

The aluminum raindrops are each coated in milled copper.

The installation spans 75 square metres (810 sq ft). It is 7.3 metres (24 ft) tall. It is the world's largest kinetic sculpture.

Check out this video of Kinetic Rain in motion.

Also, check out our previous post: The Most Beautiful Story of The Way of the Rain Now.

Read more about Beautiful Rain, as they relate to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact including 10 Most Beautiful Books on Rain, The Scent of Rain Explained Now, and Beautiful Rainy Day Soups & Tureens Happening Now.

Enter your own images and ideas about Beautiful Rain in this week’s creative Photo Competition. Open for entries now until 11:59 p.m. PT on 04.12.15. If you are reading this after that date, check out the current BN Creative Competition, and enter!

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IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Photo: by Stan Schaap. Sunset with Rain Clouds and Cattle.
2. Photo: by Stan Schaap. Stormy Sky.
3. Photo: by Stan Schaap. Grazing Under Dark Sky.
4. Photo: by Stan Schaap. Horse Play in Autumn.
5. Photo: by Stan Schaap. Dune Pond in the Rain.
6. Photo: by Stan Schaap. Morning Sky with Rain Clouds.
7. Photo: by Stan Schaap. Turbulent Skies.
8. Image: Courtesy of Peregrine Church. Rainworks.
9. Image: Courtesy of Peregrine Church. Rainworks.
10. Image: Courtesy of Peregrine Church. Rainworks.
11. Image: Courtesy of Peregrine Church. Rainworks.
12. Image: Courtesy of Peregrine Church. Rainworks.
13. Photo: by Robert Tateossian. Kinetic Rain.
14. Image: Courtesy of ART+COM. Kinetic Rain at Changi Airport, Singapore.
15. Image: Courtesy of ART+COM. Kinetic Rain at Changi Airport, Singapore.
16. Image: Courtesy of ART+COM. Kinetic Rain at Changi Airport, Singapore.
17. Image: Courtesy of ART+COM. Kinetic Rain at Changi Airport, Singapore.
18. Image: Courtesy of ART+COM. Kinetic Rain at Changi Airport, Singapore.
19. Image: by Timotheus Lee. Still from Mesmerizing Kinetic Rain at Singapore Changi Airport.
20. Photo: by Brian Jeffery Beggerly. Kinetic Rain.
21. Photo: by Stan Schaap. Rain Clouds.
22. Photo: by Stan Schaap. Thunder Clouds.