Art + Architecture + Design
Archive for October, 2006
SCREENCOZY!
Oct 11th
These are great: http://www.jackysawatzky.net/cozy/
From her site: "The cozies alter the sensibility and the functionality of the screen, giving it a human touch. Knitting is simultaneously digital and analogue, the patterns being a combination of pearl and knit and the wool being the analogue materialization of the pattern. This is very similar to the computer: in the computer the binary code is materialized through analogue properties of the materials the computer is built of, one of them being the materiality of the screen."
Plus, they’re pretty funny! Great work!
Žizek!
Oct 10th
Don’t feel like reading the books? Wait for the movie! Opens in NYC November 18th. From the website:
"Žizek!" trails the thinker as he crisscrosses the globe, racing from New York City lecture halls, through the streets of Buenos Aires, and even stopping at home in Ljubljana, Slovenia. All the while Zizek obsessively reveals the invisible workings of ideology through his unique blend of Lacanian psychoanalysis, Marxism, and critique of pop culture. Never ceasing to observe the paradoxes that underpin our perception of reality, little goes untheorized over the course of the film, particularly Zizek’s recurring themes — ideology, belief, revolution, and love. But Zizek is also unafraid to turn his critical gaze on himself, astutely analyzing his private life for the camera and contemplating on his conflicted relationship to his growing celebrity."
See the trailer here: http://www.zizekthemovie.com/
Hmm.
RECAP: “Wild Style” 1982
Oct 9th
Pretty dorky, yet strangely compelling little ditty here: http://ricksilva.net/recap/
Makes me want to see the movie again though…
“Wild Style” 1982: http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Style-Charlie-Ahearn/dp/B00006L938
“From Mason’s review: Wild Style was created by independent New York filmmaker Charlie Ahearn with the help of Fred Braithwaite (aka Fab Five Freddy). The first movie to depict the elements of hip hop, it became an underground hit. It featured well-known graffiti writers Lee and Lady Pink as “Zoro” and “Ladybug”, and included performances by Grandmaster Flash (in his own kitchen!),”
0100101110101101.ORG
Oct 6th
This is absolutley fantastic. Thanks to rhizome.com for turning us on to this one:
"On the night of September the 20th 2006 a sign appeared on a building in the center of Viterbo, an ancient city in central Italy, not far from Rome. Apparently put by the City Council it has already caused quite a stir. The sign is in fact an art piece by controversial artist duo Eva and Franco Mattes (aka 0100101110101101.ORG). Looking as official as any other street sign, it reads:
An Ordinary Building
This building was designed by an unknown architect in an irrelevant epoch and never belonged to an important person. The complex does not show any original architectural solutions, nor does it conserve any important works of art within. No memory is kept of any significant historical events occurring on this site. No known personality was born, lived or died here, nor is any excellent artist or sublime poet still working here.
Hundreds of unaware passersby have been staring at the sign: «It’s brilliant!» comments an elderly woman «But I have no idea how to interpret it». While an outraged citizen living nearby comments «This is just unacceptable, look around, there are buildings much worse than this one, especially in the suburbs».
When asked to give an explanation of the sign, Franco Mattes, currently in New York, declared «It means what it says».
Italian curator Claudio Zecchi, who commissioned the work, comments: «This piece has a strong provocative nature like all their previous ones. The ideal stage for their art is not the official places where artworks get recognition and celebration like galleries and museums, but the city itself. It is only there that they can obtain the most genuine reaction».
The artists plan to leave the sign on the building until mid October, but whether or not the City Council and citizens will allow this, is an open question.
«History is not given» adds Eva Mattes «it has to be constructed, it’s pure fiction, like in a novel».
The Mattes are not new to this kind of interventions. Over the last decade they drawn worldwide acclaim – and contempt – for producing some of the most paradoxical artworks ever, including staging a hoax involving a completely made-up artist, challenging and defeating Nike Corporation in a legal battle for a fake advertisement campaign and inventing ‘United We Stand’, a non-existent Hollywood-style blockbuster.
SMILE HELMET
Oct 5th
How many of us had summer jobs in which we dealt with the public all day long? Well here is another great "helmet" idea: A helmet for people in jobs which demand an unusual amount of smiling, such as air-stewards, receptionists and politicians. A sensor in the front of the helmet detects anybody within a 2 metre range, at which point the mouth is pulled into a broad grin by a small servo motor and some concealed fishing wire. The helmet addresses the facades of social interaction and explores our responses to affected expressions. It is modelled here by Brendan Walker.
Check out the film here: http://www.timsimpson.net/sess/smilehelmet
MUSIC FOR PUBLIC RAIL
Oct 4th
And here is something for those of us who could not be at the Conflux Fest in Brooklyn last month.
Download Music for Public Rail and listen to it in your car as you commute to work or the post office and email Benjamin with your thoughts. Get the recording here: http://musicforpublicrail.com/
MUSICAL GRAPH THEORY
Oct 4th
We’ve got music on the brain these days. Check out this excellent porgram from Ether Ore: http://turbulence.org/Works/graphtheory/
BATTLE OF THE SAFES
Oct 4th
Check out th
is advertising scheme from the Paris Expo of 1867: http://www.safeman.org.uk/battleofsafes.htm
We love this guy’s site!
THE INFORMATION, BECK
Oct 3rd
Everyone’s favorite art-rockster is back with a killer release, THE INFORMATION. Be sure to head over to his website at http://www.beck.com to check out two music videos from the disk that are not available elsewhere.
Soldier Jane is particularly brilliant in its use of old fashioned video effects like the good old chroma key effect and that cheezy pixellation transition every first-year video student used to use back in the 70s.
Rock on!
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