The Ministry of Manipulation

Robot Juggling 2 balls in 1 hand

Drew — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:49:32 +0000

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“Two Ball Juggling with High-speed Hand-Arm and High-speed Vision System,” by Takahiro Kizaki and Akio Namiki from the Graduate School of Engineering at Chiba University in Japan, file this one under “jugglers are obsolete”. More info.
Thanks to Mike Icon for the link.

Gerardam – Indian Dubstep

Dawn — Mon, 14 May 2012 22:33:21 +0000

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What a great dose of comedy and skills. Produced by two brothers, Johnnathan and Joshua Gerard, Indian Dubstep takes tutting and waving to a whole new level. This is what happens when two clowns become excellent dancers.
Johnnathen is also the composer of the music.

Claire Colinet – Joueuse de Boule

Drew — Thu, 10 May 2012 23:15:52 +0000

The sword in the stone post from last month created quite a stir, it seems like there is interest in the history of contact juggling. A good time to post about Colinet – the statue above is from around 1930, it depicts a woman dancing with 3 balls, one held in her hand, one on the back of her hand in a cradle and one held on her foot.

The title of the sculpture is: Joueuse de Boule. It’s usually translated into English as “The Juggler” (ref: Bryan Catley – Art Deco and Other Figures”). We asked Jeanine for a better translation, she writes:

…Joueuse de boule means roughly “feminine ball player”.
The suffix -euse expresses the feminine (“joueur” would be for a man); “la boule” is almost a ball, often heavier or bigger or more precious. Let’s say sphere
And you have the proposition “de” that connects the noun and the “object”.
So…. joueuse de boule means as much as (feminine) Sphereplayer

The sculpture was Claire Jeanne Roberte Colinet (apx 1880-1950): Born in Brussels, she lived and worked in Paris, creating many beautiful and dynamic art deco sculptures often depicting dancers.

MoM has one of these sculpture – it’s beautiful, With art deco sculptures, as a rule, if you can think about affording it, it’s a modern “reproduction” (better known as FAKE! There’s usually a few on ebay of varying quality). A small (17cm) genuine version of this sculpture was offered to me for £900GBP! Ouch, and it took me a while to say no. I’d guess that ours is a good quality, and quite old, “unauthorised copy”.

Joueuse de Boule is not the only art deco sculpture that MoM research has uncovered which depicts contact juggling, there even one that is definitely body rolling… more to follow.

Above picture is from Hickman Fine arts, who’ve got one for sale, and have a 360 photo view of the sculpture. here’s another that sold at Christies a few years ago.

Finally … one of Colinets, other sculptures was called: “Les reves sont des bulles da savon” (Dreams are Soap Bubbles). I think she knew how contact juggler think.

Tito – The Thin Line – Trailer

Dawn — Mon, 07 May 2012 23:36:53 +0000

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Rob (Tito) Cartwright is an amazing slack liner who street performs near traffic lights. Born in Australia, he has been performing in Chile for many years as a clown. His art is beautiful and skillful, it’s no surprise they made a documentary about him!

Andrea Brunetto – Clubs – No Art

mcp — Sun, 06 May 2012 07:10:57 +0000

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Youtube Link

Weird and Awesome. Also with club juggling.

Plus a song about heroin. Us scottish always appreciate that.

Graffiti Art – Mausolee

mcp — Sat, 05 May 2012 07:01:09 +0000

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Youtube Link

Okay, so it’s not really manipulation, but it is intensely amazing. I was awed by the tree at the start, and then it just kept going. Impressive French installation graffiti art.

Cyrille – Acryl’

mcp — Fri, 04 May 2012 07:58:38 +0000

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Sweet video of actual contact juggling on MoM? Never!

Some recording of contact juggling with the acrylic in Beijing – february 2012
Filmed by Matthieu Lindenlaub

Cigar Boxes – Pilolip

mcp — Thu, 03 May 2012 07:54:45 +0000

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Pilolip from France doing some interesting new cigar box manipulation that I’m sure Ryan will love. Takin’ the skills and techniques of CJ and applying them to oldschool props. Win.

Storyboard P – Beatles Freestyle

Ed — Wed, 02 May 2012 12:54:40 +0000

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This guy is a huge inspiration to me. Such an individual and intense style, so much control, so much expression. YUM.

I was very pleased to hear he’s gonna be at the Breakin’ Convention in london this weekend, teaching a workshop on Monday.

Oh hells yes I’m gonna be there. we need to get him more work in the UK, I reckons.

Turntable Rider

mcp — Wed, 02 May 2012 07:50:44 +0000

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A BMX bike turned into a control device for music generation. Or something like that. And then get a flatland rider to do sweet tricks with it and see what kind of music you get. In Japan. Sweet.