2005/08/31

“L' exactitude n'est pas la vérité” -Matise


This project has always fascinated me. Ideas of identity across cultural perceptions and ideas of individual uniqueness that are mutually opposing. Very simple yet forceful project. AMAZING.

"Inspired by a shared interest in the striking dress codes of various social groups, the Rotterdam-based photographic team of Ari Versluis & Ellie Uyttenbroek have been systematically hamstringing such permutations of received identity for ten years. They call their series Exactitudes, a contraction of “exact” and “attitudes”. It’s August Sander and Eugène Atget turned on their heads by Bernd and Hilla Becher - a direct assault on the mythic formula that photography plus the street equals authenticity.

By dragging the repertory of the street kicking and screaming to the studio backdrop, the series offers a purposely absurd response to the sentimentality of Jamal Shabazz (“Back in the days”) and the beloved and utterly bogus spontaneity of the photo booth. It’s a perfect fit for an age that’s made the “cool hunt” a corporate pursuit. Of course the photos are starchy and obdurately posed and ever so consciously styled, because there can be no meaningful limit to the cross-contamination between those notions of a authenticity and supreme self-awareness."

2005/08/30

Show!


“SHOWstudio is based on the belief that showing the entire creative process—from conception to completion—is beneficial for the artist, the audience and the art itself.”

Nick Knight

SHOWstudio is an online project committed to showing the process of creativity. Throughout its first four years, SHOWstudio has consistently broken new ground in pioneering new forms of interactive and motion imagery at its London studio and broadcasting these unique art and fashion collaborations via its award-winning website. Providing a ‘view from within’ the industry, its aim is to unpack every aspect of fashion image-making, from the generation of ideas and production stages through to the problem solving and minutiae of executing the final images.

the dude











Peter Saville is one of the rockstars of graphic design: Joy division, New order, Pulp are few of his 'clients'.
From his biography:
"In July 1978, Saville graduated from Manchester with a first class degree. He then undertook Factory's next major project, the sleeve for a Factory Sample. He became a founding partner in Factory Records, with Wilson, Joy Division's manager Rob Gretton and actor Alan Erasmus. This release heralded an assault on the post-punk burgeoning music scene in Manchester. The unqualified autonomy he enjoyed while working for the new label, initiated a freedom from the overt constraints of marketing, which further allowed him to experiment in the very semiotics of visual communications.... ...After the dissolution of Din Disc in 1982, Saville, along with his collaborators, the photographer Trevor Key and Brett Wickens (a Canadian design student), formed Peter Saville Associates (PSA). During these years, music industry clients were joined by institutions like the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, the Pompidou Center, Paris, and the French Ministry of Culture, as well as fashion clients such as Yohji Yamamoto, Martin Sitbon and Jill Sander."

2005/08/29

Postmodern POP music anybody?


M.I.A. is one of the good examples of the postmodern artist. Not that you have to be exotic to express your views, but it looks so good on her!
Awesome music, it feels like future.
To see her awesome style you can go the music section where there are some videos.
She graduated From St Martins (England) from fine arts/film.

Visual music
















These guys have some good design > from the UK.
It is interesting to see the difference between cover design and poster design.

Andersen M Studio was formed by graphic designer and photographer Martin Andersen and has been operating since 1998.

The Studio works on a range of projects from music labels, book design, identities, fashion to branding campaigns. Clients include: Thames & Hudson, Virgin Records, EMI, Rough Trade, Accenture.

"Our influences stem from the classical, the avant-garde and contemporary art in creating solutions that have an enduring symbiosis between image and the written word."

The Studio ensures that each solution is artistically crafted and commercially considered.

2005/08/28

Ciao Rachell


Rachel is moving to NYC. We had to eat some italian food in case she does not find a Italian restaurant there...
I'll see ya in some weeks in the big apple.

tu eres el amor de mi vida



This guy titled his
metadata with "tu eres el amor de mi vida". Why? 'cause he's Spanish cool!

Whatever the reason behind the awesome use of my 'lengua materna' his work is amazing!

*The Works of Nigel Evan Dennis
Skills to Pay the Bills.
2005.

2005/08/27

New social club in NYC

A comment from an article in the NY times:"the Core Club, set to open its doors, for a few people anyway, in mid-September. "
"I see it more like a SOHO House," she said. "You know it's not really about if you're of a certain class. It's about interesting people."To assist members in this mission, club consultants or "curators" will filter through the cultural detritus of the day to recommend the best stuff to members.Lea Carpenter, a former publisher of The Paris Review, has been hired to curate the library; Yvonne Force Villareal, an art consultant and the wife of the artist Leo Villareal, will curate the art offerings. David Koh, a former film executive, will curate the movie library and so on. For the tens of thousands of dollars in fees, the elite membership is also promised access to galleys of coming books and screenings of not-yet-released movies - all the entree, in other words, of your average Entertainment Weekly intern.While traditional clubs serve to promote homogeneity and to preserve the social order by keeping new and different people away, the Core Club's pitch - and as a for-profit corporation, it has a pitch - is that it will serve as a place for a geographically and socially diverse set of wealthy people to gather and meet others of the same disparate tribe. As a result, its membership list resembles a kind of Noah's ark manifest of overachievers from various professional species."

Classism and colonialism recedes in front professional success (?)
Yeah, sure! If you give me $55.000 , I'll tell you how progressive you are.

My comment on such leisure activities of these "interesting" rich dudes, is that they think that only by paying they can compare them selves to intellectuals, artist and other "interesting people", when they are mere consumers of the work of others. Are they producing, in return, valuable matter? Are they even getting a profound experience? Do they want superficial interactions?
Is the consumption of cultural issues helping others than themselves?

I think that being a Museum patron or a "one artist" patron is more rewarding for all sides involved.

I would say the "interesting people club" is creating for them selves an illusion of cultural awareness: entertaining but superficial. A congregation of pseudo intellectual people that get bored easily, paying for sophisticated buffoons.
The question is: does the "new buffoon" make these "new kings", or the other way around?
If they would really interest in being part of trascendental social progress they should consider being witnesses also of the not flattering cultural reality: not only for entertaining purposes.
A real jester was able to pronounce what others would not dare to the king. The benefit was awareness, something elusive to people that isolate themselves with power or within the same group of people. Are those interactions from the new club meaningful for society at large? The level of ethics is still low if they think that they can acquire instantly the identity and awareness than others struggle to achieve -without that many curators by their side-.

Interesting topic anyhow.



2005/08/26

Sweet song

This song is so sweet, but the video kind of sucks!
It has some cute characters, but the plot is totally out of synchrony with the song
...Plus the textures are not as harmonic as they can be. The wolf is pretty awesome. I don't know what is what bothers me about the video...I think is the textures and the pace.
I like the song so much that I don't mind the bad video .
...But what a wasted opportunity.
The lyrics and the sound are gorgeous.
Icelandic songstress Torrini unspools a nifty folkie ditty with deft musicianship and a winning sense of melody. The vid is a lumpy-but-cool animation telling the tale of returned call via message in a bottle. Love ain't easy, but this tune goes down smooth and sweet.

Ignore the ad before the video.

exploradora

Pamela's (my boss) partner is Ann Bancroft. Interesting...

  • February 2001 - Ann and Norwegian polar explorer Liv Arnesen become the first women in history to sail and ski across Antarcticaÿs landmass - completing a 94 -day, 1,717-mile (2,747 trek).
  • 1993 - Ann leads the American Women's Expedition to the South Pole, a 67-day expedition of 660 miles (1,060 km) on skis by four women, earning the distinction of being the first known woman in history to cross the ice to both the North and South Poles.
  • 1992 - Ann leads the first American women's east to west crossing of Greenland.
  • 1986 - Ann dogsleds 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from the Northwest Territories in Canada to the North Pole as the only female member of the Steger International Polar Expedition, earning the distinction of being the first known woman in history to cross the ice to the North Pole.
  • Ann's other achievements include founding and leading the Ann Bancroft Foundation, a non-profit organization that celebrates the existing and potential achievements of women and girls.

some music for you today!

2005/08/24

Macabre spring roll in summer time


Today, I choked eating spring rolls in a Vietnamese restaurant.I felt that I had no air left...I'm OK now, I coughed up the macabre little thing.
Next time when chocking alone, I'll throw my self rapidly against a chair...

2005/08/23

base design



















" Created in Brussels in 1993, Base is made up of 35 people divided between studios in Brussels, New York, Barcelona, Madrid, and Paris. The studio specializes in creative direction and brand development. With a clientele that spans the corporate, cultural, and institutional sectors, Base has worked on a broad range of projects, from creating small art pieces to designing brand identities and campaigns for major corporations. In addition, the agency has produced its own products, created BEople—a magazine about Belgian culture, and established BaseWORDS, a division dedicated to creative writing." Niiice!

NYC baby!

street style if you happen to enjoy virtual passers by,
spring
summer

shaolin dude

















I wonder if these dudes actually have some hidden strong math skills or mere sense of present without fearing the future.
A hidden math dragon!?

2005/08/20

style in movement


















Hint is a design/fashion/style publication on the web. I specially enjoy the slide show articles and fashion week coverage. (Milan, Paris or NY). Plus some fashion editorials are magnificent motion graphic's creations.

2005/08/17

Gems for my heart

I just bought two CD's of "The real Tuesday weld":
" I Lucifer", "The return of clerkenwell kid".












My review: awesome, folky, dark, quirky, and a bit electronic.
A fantastic soup for my ageless gipsy heart .
I have a new favorite group: The real Tuesday weld!
And a new favorite movie: Life aquatic! WEEEE!
Their website has some interesting videos -if you happen to have a fast connection-.
A sample (audio and video) here:
sample

pong and telebolitos






I have some friends with an awesome band: los telebolitos. The band is named after the game PONG.They asked me to create the new album cover. I'm developing some ideas.
My concept: silly pong .

2005/08/16

Another day, another dollar...






















Summer goes slowly, very slowly.
I'm almost done with the cover design for the Water~Stone project. I'm still a pupil, so I can have the time to meditate on small changes (very small changes). It is not a preference, it just happens. The proofing process of the book is taking longer than anybody expected, so I'll have to perform efficiently once the editor is done with the 2d proofing. I'm talking here about the content (300 pages) of literature. And yes there is a third proofing! I'm OK with proofing forever... But there are deadlines to print. Weee! Yes, printing deadlines mark the time line of design: the hectic crazy days.
Proofing is kind of tortuous, if you ask me. But as Pamela (boss) says, "welcome to the editorial world". The concept: Light Keepers, butterflies, and childhood. A half cover device (with a collage that conveys the idea of fiction against reality) covering half of the cover. That half cover can be removed and used as a bookmark.

Design: Me with the constrains of my boss.

Photo : Ukraine, Karolina Karlic

2005/08/15

broken flowers

Antonia, I lost your comments while editing.

I watched "broken flowers" with Don -as in Don Juan- Bill Murray yesterday, pretty amazing movie. Some people's life consists of deciphering their own life in almost solitude.
For others life consists of being able to find (and to loose) as many individuals that might work as his or hers mirrors: tools for an ego, a never ending hunt…the whole playboy spiel. Ein spiel, ganz genau!
The pace of the movie was great. It values contemplation of details more than other movies...similar to what happens in "dead man" with Johnny Deep; almost spiritual, or at least a comment on mortality and awareness.

Additionally, the director (Jim Jarmusch) made some poignant criticism to American architecture and landscape, only by showing pretty realistic settings. But I'm biased against American architecture (the lack of it).... AWESOME film: factual criticism…the good type.

I'm hungry, I'll be back latter on.

Pickings:

'Dead Man' Guitar

Broken Flowers' Trailer

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