Photos by Mark Landsberg
Cambridge, MA location hosts visiting artists to enhance creative environment and inspire staff
They’re from the past, but they’ve come to the future, re-imagined as the famed stories and inventions they authored and created.
Humachines dazzle the historian, inventor, and sci-fi geek that lives in all of us.
And where else would you expect to find Steampunk fans? None other than Google – where creativity and collaboration are openly promoted and embraced. Unveiled on November 20, 2019, the images originally created by illustrator Brett Kelley have been given a “revved-up” look to generate the interest and “aesthetic” that fits the Google culture.
No stranger to having their interior work spaces featured in the media, Jonah Berman of Google said the company’s designers try to stay current and relevant to staff interests – and Steampunk was certainly in the right spirit!
Jonah Berman of Google
Illustrator Brett Kelley
Bruce Rosenbaum of ModVic, LLC.
“It was a thrill to see Brett’s original imagery evolve into an amped up, “digital enhanced” version of itself,” said Bruce Rosenbaum of ModVic, LLC. “At Google, the focus has to be on work, so we could only hang wall art, floor space is at a premium. As such, I wanted to increase the size of the original artwork – and apply a high-end printed technique called Giclee to give an eye-popping quality to the art.”
For color and printing expertise, ModVic turned to Mary Blaxland, a digital effects designer, and Lisa Spencer, who is versed in the Giclee process which utilizes high density dpi printers to recreate the look of true illustration.
Rosenbaum said that also based on the lighting and location of the artwork, he sought to alter Kelley’s original backgrounds, which were detailed and utilized muted colors, with more simplified imagery and intense color. He also needed the Humachine characters to appear in a circular frame for the photo mats he had selected.
“As it turns out, Mary was able to stay true to my vision of honoring the original while establishing a new dimension,” Rosenbaum said.
The 33” square metal frames were designed by Julian Halpern, owner of Steelhead Studios in Holyoke, MA. The incredible coated, angled-steel structures with subtle “mill marks” on the surface make for a beautiful setting for each unique print.
Other details of the museum quality artwork include:
- Media – Breathing Color’s Elegance Velvet Textured Fine Art
- Paper – 19 mil 310 GSM / 100 years certified archival and acid free
- Inks – Epson High Dynamic Range Ultrachrome
- Matboard – Bainbridge Metallic Rice Paper
- Candlelight Silver – Acid free and archival
- Glass – conservation clear 99% UV protected
The artwork will stay on display at Google for at least 6-months. Framed prints as described can be purchased for $2,450 each with alternate sizes available if desired.
The History of Humachines
This exhibit was first shown in Fall 2014 at the Springfield Museums in Springfield, MA. The life size, anthropomorphic sculptures depict iconic inventors and authors who are brought back as the machines they created or wrote about.
Click Here to watch a video from the first gallery appearance.
For example, H.G. Wells appears as his famous Time Machine and George Eastman returns as the Future Camera with the ability to preview and pinpoint destinations in 4-D. Each Humachine has his or her own whimsical back story.
Currently, the exhibit is touring North America and has appeared at the Museum of Idaho as the
central attraction of an exhibit called “Discover Steampunk”.
