:: GussetBLOG ::

:: Saturday, May 16, 2009 ::

Link Dump

Stuff I've found recently but haven't found time to write about:

Roomba, Economics and Long-Exposure Photography

Edit: Thanks to Tania for sending this iRobot Create Roomba hack link.

Dream: The Big Art Project
Watch the C4 series on Sunday evenings

New Scientist: You are made of space-time

BCS vs Singh - Astonishingly Illiberal Ruling

Behind the label: Recycled Toilet Tissue

BBC5 TV
"We are NOT the BBC. In an era when the majority of media corporations are subservient to ruling elites, new forms of underground media have to emerge. BBC5.tv would not exist if journalists were always allowed to publish the truth. The fact is that many are silenced."

Newsnight – Immigration Song Contest

BLDG BLOG:
Man unexcited by his own possessions
How the other half writes - In defence of Twitter
The Hills Have Eyes



Bacon is a health food!

Richie Hawtin's 10 most ridiculous ideas

Labels: architecture, Art, Electronic Music, Environment, Food, Gadget, Humour, Law, Photography, Physics

:: Dan 16.5.09 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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This shot of mine will be among the Second Look group shots on display at Southbank on Dean Lane as part of the South Bristol Arts Trail 2009. 11am - 6pm Sat 9th and Sun 10th May. Framed 12"x16" prints are £45.

Labels: Art, Gusset, Photography

:: Dan 7.5.09 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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"Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal."

Labels: Art, Robots, Video

:: Dan 16.4.09 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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[via claytoncubitt - "Even in a field of flowers, at sunset, set to Donna Summer, for a perfume ad, Cunningham manages to make it creepy."]

Labels: Advertising, Art, Film, Video

:: Dan 16.4.09 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Well done, Keira!



"I have had lot of press interest since early January which spread throughout the world in a very short space of time, I was featured in my local newspaper The Daily Echo, followed the next day by a report on ITV Meridian (introduced by the one and only Fred Dinenage!), followed that same week in The Sun, The Telegraph, The Mail; and The Express a couple of weeks later. International newpapers and magazines expressed a massive interest and I've been featured in Brazilian, Portuguese, Spanish, Belgian and Chinese newspapers; and featured on hundreds of online blogs and news sites.

"I am involved in The Drawing Exchange in Bristol on the May bank hoilday (1-4th May 2009) with my typewriter I will be drawing visual stories from different locations around the city using the letters and numbers of my marvellous orange machine! See festival website."

Labels: Art, Typography

:: Dan 16.4.09 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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It has never been easy to value art, in any sense. The value it represents in terms of artistic merit will be different to the value it holds to a community (and between communities) and will be different from its financial value, which is of course what someone is willing to pay for it.

This was highlighted recently by the vandalism of Banksy's Mild Wild West piece in Stokes Croft. Someone called Appropriate Media claimed responsibility for this and posted a manifesto on the gentrification of the area and the meaning of art on The Cube website. This ill thought through manifestos (complete with un-credited anti-Banksy sentiment stolen from a 2006 Charlie Brooker column) has since been removed from the website and replaced with the response emails it elicited. The work itself has been cleaned up by the Peoples Republic of Stokes Croft although now shows blood red battle scars in the mortar between the bricks, so it isn’t returned to its former glory but can now show off its war wounds with pride.

This Hijack thread documents the unfolding public outrage at this attack on a work that the community has embraced, voting it the top Alternative Landmark for Bristol in a BBC pole last year. However, the 10 pages of vitriol it produced should be read with great care as it quickly turns into a vigilante mob chasing the wrong suspects. Quite how highly valued this piece is by the community I think has come as a shock to those who sought to deface it in the name of art (and self-publicity). They couldn't have picked a worse target what with Banksy's unusual standing in Bristol where his works are protected by the city council whilst all other graffiti in the city is, hypocritically, still persecuted as vandalism.

This community ascribed value to usually transient street art lies in sharp contract to the financial value ascribed to most other art. The value here is dictated by what someone is willing to pay for it, in some cases as a cynical investment into something they believe will increase in financial value in the future. I am as guilty as many of buying limited editions of music releases or prints because, if I like it and I'm going to buy it anyway, I'll always choose the fancier presentation and perceived exclusiveness over the mass produced version.

But why? I know full well that this is often an equally cynical attempt by the artist (or their publisher) to limit supply to increase value. Sometime I wonder who this benefits as the original artist sees no increased income from future resale value. Shifting larger numbers at smaller profit may earn you more but loses you artistic credibility.

From personal experience I know that even tiny production numbers do not automatically make something more desirable. Gusset's first two self-released EPs were hand crafted by our good selves and produced in numbered limited editions of 40 of each. Even so it took us three years to sale the bastards. And we now have 600 remaining copies of the 1,000 disk run of Ask Dr Kim collecting dust. Now obviously this isn't a great example as I'm a nobody peddling substandard wares to a tiny and increasing saturated underground minority.

Music is one of the most difficult art forms to attempt to make money out of as it is so easily copied and distributed and is almost impossible to intentionally limit quantities of without attaching it to another more physical form of artwork, the packaging.

Due to either misguided artistic integrity or innate stupidity on my part my other chosen field of expression is photography. Arguably one of the most personal of all art forms with low barriers to entry in terms of skill and equipment (compared to music). Why buy someone's photo of x when you could take one yourself? OK, so yours may not to be to the same standard, but it is yours. You created it. You were there. You can talk about it if you hang it on your wall. The alternative, "Yeah, I got that in Ikeal. You have it too you say?"



With this in mind I was intrigued to see Dark Daze selling this frankly stunning Sally F**cking Reynolds motel print in a blind auction in a limited edition of just 10. The nine highest blind bidders get copies with one presumably reserved themselves. (They are a couple incidentally.)

But what's to stop him deciding to print more copies at some point in the future? Just his promise? Or will all other copies be destroyed like Jarre's Music for Supermarkets?

I'm intrigued what sort of prices are going to be offered for these prints. It's clearly an amazing photo that I would happily pay for, although the hinted started bid of a hundred quid (the price of his non-limited prints of the same size go for) already puts it beyond my budget.

Dark Daze, if you read this, I'd love to know what figures you get in the end. Would you be prepared to publish either the highest bid, 9th highest bid, or perhaps the nearest miss?

Labels: Art, Finance, Music, Photography

:: Dan 9.4.09 [Arc] [2 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Bldg Blog on Photography, Rights, Media

"...it has always struck me as somewhat economically lopsided that in order for Dwell to run a photograph in the magazine, we have to pay the photographer a not inconsiderable use fee; but that I, as BLDGBLOG, can simply post that photograph – or Dezeen can post it, or materialicious, or Apartment Therapy – and, at least for now, no one has to pay a cent.

"While I was Senior Editor at Dwell, this hit some particularly surreal notes, such as when an architecture blogger – whose entire visual content has been bought and paid for by other people – emailed me to accuse Dwell of stealing from architecture blogs because we had run images (at no small expense to us) of houses that once appeared on that person's website.

"It's interesting, for instance, in this context, that even mundane technical questions – such as whether to host your work online via a Flash website (which prevents bloggers from downloading your work) – are actually legally motivated decisions made to protect the financial integrity of your portfolio, not aesthetic or stylistic choices at all."

This post asks some interesting questions and it's nice to know it's going to be debated by a panel at the upcoming Postopolis! LA event. I hope some of that discussion makes it onto the net afterwards.

Of course, this applies just as much to any other type of photography, not just architectural, and other forms of art too. For instance, from Clayton Cubitt's tumblr it's clear he has some interesting views on this. He’s even posted to dismiss flash websites as an annoyance yet his own official site is one. [NSFW]

On a tangent, he commented on twitter recently:
"When porn does art it’s hilarious. When art does porn it’s tedious."
This makes me wonder where he sees his own work falling, as it's clearly between the two, as is most erotic photography.

Labels: Art, Copyright, Erotic, IP, Media, Photography

:: Dan 25.3.09 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Charles and Ray Eames: A Communication Primer


[via smashing telly]

"The Eames’ showed that films could be approached as a design exercise and as such were the forerunners to much of today’s information design, which has had a resurgence as a result of the Web. Their best known piece is Powers of Ten [below], but this is another little beauty.

"The film is nicely self-referential since it deals with Shannon’s information theory. However, the astounding thing is that the Eames’ were savvy about Shannon’s groundbreaking work which was published only 5 years before. To put this in context, its as if Frank Lloyd Wright had written a book about Einstein’s Special Relativity in 1910, when it wasn’t fully endorsed by the physics community."

Powers Of 10

Labels: Art, Communication, Design, Film, Maths, Physics

:: Dan 15.3.09 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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"Question: what could make 40 lawyers from the Pentagon get on the Metro to take a field trip across Washington D.C.? Answer: Christopher Sims’ exhibit Guantanamo Bay at Civilian Art Projects. The show consists of 25 photographs of the naval base and joint detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where Sims spent five days in 2006."

[via flavorwire]

Labels: Amnesty, Art, Photography

:: Dan 15.3.09 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Mrs P, Slim and I attended the Ray Harryhausen book signing, Q&A and Jason and the Argonauts screening at the Watershed on Thursday. Seeing the film on the big screen was great. I maintain that it still looks better than most of the CGI fests that we see today. It’s a shame model animation is such a dying art. And seeing the man in person, still sprightly and chipper for his 89 years, was an inspiration.

It was a shame that the lip-sync was a couple of frames out. (Or as it always like that!?) I could also criticise the continuity, the colour matching, the acting and the characterisation, but that’s all irrelevant. I never thought I would quote Tom Hanks but as he said when presenting Harryhausen with a special Academy Award, "Lots of people say Casablanca or Citizen Kane is the greatest film of all time... no way, it's Jason and the Argonauts!" And he was right.

Labels: Animation, Art, Film

:: Dan 14.3.09 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Check out the videos on the Untitled Sound Objects website. I love this sort of installation.


[press image from transmediale.de]
[thanks to martin freq. for the link]

Labels: Art, Sound

:: Dan 1.3.09 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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"IKEA is the perfect family shopping paradise, but as
Mark Hoekstra strolled through his hometown IKEA,
something bothered him. They sell everything, for
parents, for kids – they’ve thought of everything, simply
everything. From knobs for your kitchen door to cheap
ice cream after you’ve finished shopping, there's
nothing that has escaped the minds of our Swedish
interior overlords. But... where's the sex?"



IKEA Love Toy - Mark Hoekstra. Photo Leo Veger



GYNEA by Sander van Bussel - Photgraphy by Leo Veger

"GYNEA provides a glimpse into the private lives of
omnipresent IKEA products. The hyper-impersonal IKEA
chair becomes the place where the most intimate and
personal activities take place. A piece of furniture many people in the world own is transformed into a private domain."

Labels: Art, Humour

:: Dan 3.1.09 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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A selection of the worlds most beautiful libraries.


HANDELINGENKAMER TWEEDE KAMER DER STATEN-GENERAAL DEN HAAG

Labels: architecture, Art, Literature, Photography

:: Dan 24.12.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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"Ben Westwood's campaign against the forthcoming Government bill to ban "extreme pornography" is stepping up a gear.

The photographer, son of fashion doyenne Dame Vivienne, has designed a series of collectable lunchboxes bearing the sort of pornographic images which will in effect become illegal when the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 becomes law in January 2009.

Delightfully, he's planning to release one such box depicting the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, bound and gagged. Westwood had hoped to project the image on to the Houses of Parliament, but has been advised by the Palace of Westminster Police that he must seek prior consent from the crimson-coiffed Serjeant-at-Arms, Jill Pay.

He reckons Pay is likely to decline his request, but after her recent decision to let the Metropolitan Police rootle around the Commons at will, I say it's worth asking."



What would his mother say?
"Brought up by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, he spent his teenage years at the epicentre of the punk-rock explosion. After that, there were only two ways Ben Westwood could rebel: become a chartered accountant, or do something really shocking. Stuart Husband discusses fetishes, fantasy and family ties with a crusading pornographer"

Labels: Art, Fetish, Politics

:: Dan 18.12.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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From a Red Propeller gallery mailing:

Video on the Guardian website. "Vyner Street has become a hotbed of creative activity with artists' studios and galleries taking over from light industry on the London street. Photographer Thomas Eisl captures the party atmosphere of the monthly late-opening event"
Worth watching for the still at 50sec and some other great captures.

"All-new cover versions: The best new street artists have been let loose in a record shop"

Labels: Art

:: Dan 9.12.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Babble by Alex McLean

"Babble is a system for authoring mechanistic sound poetry. It occupies a space between speech and music, allowing play with the structure and form of simplified phonetics. The visitor is encouraged to enter nonsense verse, which is then immediately played back as synthesised sound. Although babble's phonetic system is quite unlike that of any natural language, when faced with the text that generates the sound, the listener has the sensation of 'hearing' speech.

"Babble is written in the open source HaXe language, which compiles to javascript and flash. The source code for babble is available under the GNU Public License version 3 or later."

This makes some fun noises and I like the rhythms it generates when given large sets of input data. However, the "simplified phonetics" are simplified to the point they bare little relation to what you put in.

Babble by Alex McLean is a project.arnolfini commission (produced for the exhibition 'Supertoys'.
[development blog]

"Alex McLean is a programmer and live coding musician. He is co-founder of the dorkbotlondon meetings on electronic art, the TOPLAP organisation for the proliferation of live algorithm programming and the runme software art repository. He is also a PhD student at Goldsmiths College, within the Intelligent Sound and Music Systems group."

I had a wander around the Supertoys exhibition last week. There is some interesting stuff, but as I've complained about previous technology based exhibitions at the Arnolfini, half of it wasn't working or was only a prototype. I may go back sometime to see if things gets fixed.

"mechanistic sound poetry. It occupies a space between speech and music"
Sometimes I think people might appreciate art more if the artists didn't write a load of balls about everything they do. That would raise the bar such that the art had to be good enough to stand on its own, rather than need to be justified by some pseudo-intellectual twaddle or gibberish manifesto.
[/end rant]

Labels: Art, Audio, Robots, Speech, Synths

:: Dan 3.12.08 [Arc] [1 comments] [links to this post] ::
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César A Hidalgo - Thinking outside the cube on physicsworld.com
"The discovery that many complex systems are actually well structured networks has not only changed the landscape of physics, but also how we visualize patterns in science."

See some of César's visualisations on his own website.


[large]

Labels: Art, Maths, Physics, science, Visuals

:: Dan 2.12.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Disinformation vs Strange Attractor
Originally uploaded by Mark Pilkington.


"Circuit Blasting emerged [when] chemist and artist names Richard Brown, told me how back in the early 80s he'd accidentally zapped a casio keyboard with a violet ray device to produce some interesting effects. In the spirit of scientific enquiry, Joe and I attacked an old Yamaha keyboard I have with one of the VRs and sure enough it triggered off a wild volley of random preset sounds, often at the same time. So we've now turned this into a performance. Our debut was at the London Dorkbot gathering in January [2006]. I was concerned that such hardened, jaded geeks would have seen it all before, but we got a fairly rapturous reception."

I found some cct blasting photos a couple of years ago and went looking for MP3s to post. Make blog explains. Audio recordings were elusive and I forgot all about it. Until I stumbled across the Strange Attractor website (after reading about Welcome to Mars in Nude Magazine)
and realised that the great ADAADAT released a CD (clips in link) of this back in Jan 2007 and there's an MP3 CD with over 13 hours of Resonance FM recordings on it. I have a feeling these were in my podcasts before the great hard drive crash, so I may have to invest in the disk.

Labels: Art, Electronics, Noise

:: Dan 3.11.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Nazi
Originally uploaded by gusset.


Artists models pose in the window of a Bristol stationers.
'Neo-Nazi invasion' terrifies villagers
Gloucestershire Uni Investigates 'Nazi' Students

Labels: Art, Bristol, Flickr, News, Photography, Politics

:: Dan 1.11.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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CERN engineer Sergio Cittolin depicts the Large Hadron Collider as Leonardo da Vinci might have seen it

Labels: Art, Physics

:: Dan 1.11.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Panty
Originally uploaded by gusset.


The Ink show at Centrespace Gallery ended today, although I got this shot of their panties while lunching yesterday. However, it's not too late if you'd like to get in their gusset yourself as they will be back there from 31st Oct - 6th Nov and in their normal home at Snap Studio when ever you feel like dropping by.

There was none-pant based art their too btw.

Labels: Art

:: Dan 28.10.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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flikr2846
Originally uploaded by flikr.
Image made by flickr user flikr using agony, which he wrote and is available for free download (although it's not open source)

Physics World: Did a Chinese calligrapher use ‘fractal expression’?

In the scientific world, fractals were first identified in the mid-1970s by the mathematican Benoît Mandelbrot.

However, it’s possible that artists and artisans have long been using the fragmented shapes in their work.

In 1999, two Australian physicists famously showed that the “paint-drip” canvasses of Jackson Pollock could be dated by computing their fractal dimension — which tended to increase as Pollock matured as an artist.



Now, Yuelin Li of Argonne National Lab in the US has posted a paper on the arXiv preprint server claiming that calligraphy done by the “maniac Buddist monk” Huai Su more than 1200 years ago contains fractals. Li analysed a request for “bitter bamboo shoots and tea” written by the monk and found that it can be characterized by two different fractal dimensions.



Li believes that the fractal nature of some artworks “can be attributed to the artist’s pursuit of the hidden order of [the] fractal”.

Also in physics related art, Physics World are trying to pick their favourite cover image from the last 20 years to celebrate their anniversary. You can see the 20 short listed images and vote on the link above.

Labels: Art, Flickr, Maths, Physics

:: Dan 24.10.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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When I posted about Zero Image Pinhole Cameras back in July I was inspired to look into them by an exhibition I'd seen at Photographique by Kate Kirkby.

Well, you can now see it again.

Kate writes:
"First of all I would like to thank all of you who attended my exhibition at Photographique in June. If you were unable to make it to Photographique you have a second chance to see the same collection of photographs at The Rummer until the end of November. Or, perhaps you came to my last show but fancy a second look!

"The Rummer Bar and Restaurant is a hidden gem in Bristol city centre, just off Corn Street. It is open everyday from 9am - 12pm (11am - 10.30pm Sundays) and they serve fantastic food throughout the day. If you don't fancy a meal then just pop in for a coffee, cocktail or a glass of wine from their extensive selection and cosy up by the open fire on one of the large comfy sofas. For more info about The Rummer click HERE!

"All the photographs on show in the bar are available for purchase and starting at only £40 would make excellent christmas presents. Many of these photographs were taken on my recent travels to Asia, including a selection of pinhole images.

"Most of my photographs from this show are now on my website www.katekirkbyphotography.co.uk

"Please feel free to forward this email to anyone you think may be interested.
Many thanks
Kate"

I won't deeplink to her images, but this is my favourite one.

Labels: Art, Photography, Pinhole

:: Dan 20.10.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Artist/culture jammer Jimmy Cauty's latest project: horrifically gory versions of classic animated cartoon cells
[via null device]

I've just bought one of these:


Not an entirely new idea (see Massimo Mattioli's "Squeak the Mouse" for example) but very nicely executed, if you forgive the phrase. But nice to see something other than Disney getting subverted for a change.

Talking of which, Grom recently linked to the stunning animationbackgrounds blog. This also focused a little too much on Disney for my liking. OK, so some of the artwork is amazing, but it's not the strange angled, hard lined, brightly coloured toons I grow up loving. Check the Warner Brothers and Tom and Jerry tags for that.




^ Click for large size.

P.S. Some of Cauty's 4th Class Stamps in my flickr stream.

Labels: Animation, Art

:: Dan 20.10.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Friend & Co
Originally uploaded by gusset.

Trying to show just how small Friend & Co is. Love the street scene painting on the hoarding.

Geoff Barrow says:
"last week a me and a friend opened a little gallery in bristol its fuking tiny and the work is pretty cool it incudes work by marc bessant who does our artwork including 3rd it also has work by some fuking good local guys and faris from the band the horrors which looks like a mousaphant.
friend-and-co.blogspot.com/
and the shop is here
friendandco.bigcartel.com/
cheers for now
Geoff {P}"

Labels: Art, Bristol

:: Dan 20.10.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Betraying the fact that I bought a Sunday Observer a few weeks ago and circles half a dozen articles for blogging, then put it aside until now, here's a link dump I should have published a month ago.

Alex James on making cheese

Plea to save vanishing art of the pub sign
(I notice The Victoria in St Wurbergs replaced their Victoria Beckham pub sign with Vicky Pollard last month, perhaps a couple of years too late.)

Warning to advertisers on 2012 cash-in

Einstein fridge design can help global cooling
"Scientists relaunch a 1930 invention that uses no electricity and would reduce greenhouse gases"


Isle of plenty
"In the past 10 years, one Danish island has cut its carbon footprint by a staggering 140%. Now, with a simple grid of windfarms, solar panels and sheep, it's selling power to the mainland and taking calls from Shell. ... 'Shell heard about what we were doing and asked to be involved - but only on condition they ended up owning the turbines. We told them to go away. We are a nation of farmers. We believe in self-sufficiency.'"

Labels: Advertising, Art, Environment, Food, News, Physics

:: Dan 17.10.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Steal From Work are very happy to have been asked to produce the debut SPQR solo show...



Saturday 11th - Sunday 19th October, 12pm-7pm
Trash Express, 8-10 Bond Street, Broadmead, Bristol, UK
(between Rikaxxe Music and Debenhams)

"Way back in May SPQR chatted about doing his first solo show in Bristol, and asked if we could find a suitably 'interesting' venue and help produce the show for him. Although we've spent the summer gallivanting round the world, we returned just in time to find the perfect venue (a former pawn shop, just doors down from the new shopping monstrosity in the heart of Bristol) and we are well on the way to producing a killer show.

"SPQR uses a mix of stencils and freehand spray-can work to montage and subvert popular contemporary imagery from the pop art world through to images harvested from the continual media onslaught. Simply Producing Quality Results.

"Highly collected and hugely popular, he quickly sold out at his last two shows and is famed for such iconic pieces as The Fifth Man, Paint Bomber and Patty Hirst.

"We invite you to come and enjoy the unveiling of all new works and take note of these cautionary tales…"

Please email stealfromwork@gmail.com with any sales enquiries
PDF catalogue

www.spqr.uk.net

Labels: Art, graffiti

:: Dan 12.10.08 [Arc] [1 comments] [links to this post] ::
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I visited the Arnolfini today to see the On Purpose: Design Concepts show. The stuff that caught my attention the most was Yuri Suzuki work. Check out the Prepared Turntable 2008, Sound Chaser and Sound Jewellery, which were on display but annoyingly not working. (Staff jumped in to stop you switching this on as they were "only prototypes.") Bizarrely I'd suggest just watching these videos and having a look around the site rather than actually going to the gallery. Go internet!

Labels: Art, Music

:: Dan 23.9.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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I've waffled in the past about what is the ultimate art-form (in terms of flexibility) and concluded that film will soon be usurped by computer gaming. Sculpture may be the oldest art-form but it is still the most difficult to convert into any other media. Which is what fascinated about Waldemar Januszczak's brilliant first part of The Sculpture Diaries on Channel 4 last weekend. If you missed it you can see it again here for a few more days and look out for the next two parts on Sunday evenings, 7pm. The first episode focuses on the female form, the second will be leaders, and the final one landscapes.


The Willendorf Venus


Hans Bellmer, Les jeux de la poupée

Back to my point about the difficulty in representing sculpture in a 2D medium; you have to show it from many angles to be able to give any real impression, and even then on TV the view has no choice over what those angles are. Which is where computer rendering comes in. The art of architecture has already found a home in the simulated world of gaming so I imagine sculpture fits just as well. Here is BLDG BLOG on game/space and Tactical Landscaping.

Labels: Art

:: Dan 4.9.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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The Rambler links to Cage/Knowles: Notations and Will Redman’s Book [both as PDFs], for those who would like to examine the graphic beauty of avant-garde musical scores.

Labels: Art, Music

:: Dan 29.8.08 [Arc] [2 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Teaching with the Choir: Pop maverick Bill Drummond re-imagines music with The17

"Imagine waking up tomorrow and all music has disappeared."

So begins the first score for The17, a music and art project helmed by Scottish pop maverick Bill Drummond. A series of unrecorded public choral performances, The17 is "a vehicle to explore frustrations with recorded music," positing that the current glut of music has sapped it of meaning. Discarding the idea of music as product, the project reasserts the importance of experiences bound to a specific place and time.

"Recorded music is a very 20th-century way of defining our relationship," Drummond told Earplug. "I'm throwing down a gauntlet to other musicians to break out of this cocoon we're not even aware we're in, to take on the challenge of making interesting music."

Drummond is currently performing The17 in Derby, England, in celebration of the QUAD arts center's recent opening. For the piece, 100 separate groups of 17 city residents — from teachers to Bollywood dancers and pirates — are photographed and recorded singing a single note for five minutes. The recordings are then combined into a pentatonic chord and played together once, on August 22, for the 1,700 participants. After that, they will be destroyed forever.

How do The17 performances sound? Drummond admits it's difficult to describe, saying, "Sometimes it's frightening, sometimes it's incredibly beautiful — but even that sounds too trite."

Labels: Art, Music

:: Dan 3.8.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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A character study of present and past cartoon characters by Michael Paulus

"Animation was the format of choice for children's television in the 1960s, a decade in which children's programming became almost entirely animated. Growing up in that period, I tended to take for granted the distortions and strange bodies of these entities.

"These Icons are usually grotesquely distorted from the human form from which they derive. I decided to take a select few of these popular characters and render their skeletal systems as I imagine they might resemble if one truly had eye sockets half the size of its head, or fingerless-hands, or feet comprising 60% of its body mass.

"These characters have become conventions that are set, defined, and well-known personas in our culture. Being that they are so commonplace and accepted as existing I thought I would dissect them like science does to all living objects - trying to come to an understanding as to their origins and true physiological make up. Possibly to better understand them and see them in a new light for what they are in the most basic of terms.

"I am currently offering a few of these for SALE"

Bubbles


Betty Boop


Marvin the Martian

Labels: Animation, Art

:: Dan 2.8.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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If you missed Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes, Jon Ronson's documentary about the 1000's of archival boxes on Kubrick’s estate, it's now on Google video.
[via lmg]
Previous post.

The letters of Stanley Kubrick

Labels: Art, Film, TV, Video

:: Dan 31.7.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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PencilBreak Book, 200 pages of breakcore inspired graphics from all arround the world, edited by Belio.
Release date: July 20th



"A big mashup of the best art and graphics inspired by and for the digital hardcore subcultures we live and enjoy. This book compiles fresh work from more than twenty international artists. All of them share a similar feeling and passion for distorted sounds and graphics. This book is meant to be an homage to Breakcore and other styles of hardcore music and corresponding attitudes.

"This book doesn't pretend to be the bible of breakcore music [so, don't espect to find everybodies faces here!], it's just a visual approximation to what we think it has been one of most fresh musical scenes during the last years. We like so many different kind of music [not only breakcore, of course], but since an aesthetic and conceptual point of view, we want to focus in this scene, because it means to us [and many others] one of the most inspirative influences in graphic creation, and a perfect mixture and remixture of the best ingredients from the culture we lived during the past decades, from the skate style, passing by the postdigital easthetic, breakcore makes fun and re-invented black metal, trash culture, rave, terror movies, 80's, rock attitudes, videogames, tattoos, errors & mistakes, tv, superheroes... and whatever could be saved in your mind during the time you grew up, all twisted... in a graphic tsunami that defines very well a music genre that is based in the creation of something new using all kind of music styles, where you can't always follow a concret rhythm, to be exact, breakcore's definition is where concret sounds or rhythm are the last thing you gonna find."

UK distro via Toy Life
Strike that. I've checked with Toy Life and although Dave does sell Belio titles in the UK he will not be getting this in. Best to order from Belio direct.

Labels: Art, Breakcore, Comics, graphics, Literature

:: Dan 15.7.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Monster Pop
Originally uploaded by LostSouls.

Labels: Art, Flickr, lightpainting, Photography

:: Dan 15.7.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Nuclear fallout used to spot fake art

"Scientists and art historians have developed what they say is a foolproof way of identifying forged works of art. They can distinguish between art created before 1945 and that produced after that date by measuring levels of the isotopes caesium–137 and strontium–90. These isotopes do not occur naturally but are released into the environment by nuclear blasts."

Labels: Art, Physics

:: Dan 11.7.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Channel 4 recreates The Shining to promote its Kubrick season
[video]

"Channel 4 has painstakingly recreated the set of Stanley Kubrick horror film The Shining, complete with look-a-likes of the crew and cast members including Shelley Duvall, for a TV ad to promote a More 4 season of the director's films.

The 65-second promotional spot has been filmed as a one-take tracking shot through the recreation of The Shining set.

It promotes the season of 10 Kubrick films to be broadcast on More 4 from July 15. Jon Ronson's documentary, Citizen Kubrick, will air ahead of the start of the first film."

Labels: Art, Film, TV

:: Dan 9.7.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Art with Chunks 09
Originally uploaded by gusset.


When I started the Drinks with Chunks blog I never imagined it would be crossing into the world of modern art. And likewise, the staff at the Arnolfini never saw me coming. Today, a clashing of cultures was staged; the Far West Cross-Artform Project meets Drinks with Chunks. What better way to introduce our respective audiences to each other?

Labels: Art, Drinks with Chunks, Food

:: Dan 8.7.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Fecal Face is an SF based art site, with an emphasis on stuff that looks like fun! (Including the Ladyscraper Video from the MP3 Friday post above.) It's full of great stuff. Check out this photography of MAJOR BONER KILLER. Now, if this band don't rock, I don't know what rockin' is!

Labels: Art, Photography

:: Dan 27.6.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Lily takes a trip
Originally uploaded by Keroles.


stern Fotografie : Tim Walker

Loads more shots on his agent's site

The Sunday Times - The Dreamcatcher


[image via]

Walker is famed for his very British, Alice-in-Wonderland aesthetic. He has shot Erin O’Connor as a goose, Lily Cole as a peacock girl standing awkwardly on a mantelpiece in a dilapidated mansion, a redcoated Otis Ferry crammed into a tiny room with a pack of beagles.

The Guardian - Tim Walker's best shot



'A lot of people get confused when they see this image. They think it was done by computer, but we actually took pigment powder, mixed it with talc to get the right ice-cream pastel colours, and brushed it into the cats. ... they were so vain they loved it. ... There wasn't enough light to do the picture indoors - but, by a fluke, all the cats seemed to gravitate to this clematis at the bottom of some steps. I didn't arrange them. This is just what the cats did, and they all pretty much stayed where they were throughout. So it's actually quite a naturalistic portrait - apart from the colour.'

Pictures, an exhibition of Tim Walker photographs, is at the Design Museum, London SE1, until September 7. His book of the same name is available now.

Edit: More images from the Lily Takes a Trip shoot

Labels: Art, Cats, Fashion, Photography

:: Dan 18.6.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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45 RPM Owl badge sticker set on Etsy

Labels: Art

:: Dan 17.6.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Inner City Snail - a slow-moving street art project
[via grom]
I've been sat in this link for weeks but this image still makes it worth posting:

Labels: Art, graffiti

:: Dan 16.6.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Raoul Sinier: Speedpainting 4

SpeedPainting4
Uploaded by Ra

Labels: Art, Ra, Video

:: Dan 4.6.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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From my friend Keira,

"Hello !
Hope you're very well...all of you.
I wanted to share with you my latest (very short) film , where I typed a picture of Bournemouth Pier using my old typewriter. I recently showed this, and the picture/s at Aruba, the bar situated on Bournemouth Pier approach as part of an event called Muse Platform, you can see footage of this event here.
I will be doing more typing at events soon so please check my website for news.
Thanks!
Keira"

Labels: Art, Film, Typography

:: Dan 15.5.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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"A little piece of trivia I didn't know, apparently Stanley Kubrick asked Roger Waters if he could use music from Pink Floyd's 'Atom Heart Mother' for Clockwork Orange. Someone's re-imagined what the opening sequence would have looked like if he'd said yes and this is the result." [via grom]

Labels: Art, Film, Literature, Music

:: Dan 12.5.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Not A Penny 06
Originally uploaded by gusset.

Motorboy - 'Abandon Your Soul to Hades'
From the 'Not A Penny Off The Pay, Not A Second On The Day' show at the Old Motorcycle Workshop, Stokes Croft, Bristol
www.stealfromwork.org

More added to my Steal From Work flickr set, which also includes the 12 Days of Xmas show from last year.

Labels: Art, Flickr, graffiti

:: Dan 7.5.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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New Steal From Work show. A group urban art show celebrating International Workers Day.

1st May – 11th May, 2008
Opening night - Thursday 1st May 7pm-10pm
Then open everyday 12pm-7pm (closed on Tue 6th)
The Old Motorcycle Workshop
15-19 Stokes Croft (opposite Pieminster), Bristol, UK

After the huge success of December’s ‘12 Days of Xmas' we bring you our next major group exhibition.

Lost behind the jangling of Morris Dancing and Maypoles, May 1st has long stood as the date to remember the common struggles and achievements of workers around the globe. ‘Not A Penny Off The Pay, Not A Second On The Day’ will be a celebration of the working classes, featuring a truly international line up of acclaimed urban artists

...and...



1st - 11th May 2008
Various venues, Bristol, UK

It's a lovely coincidence that the Not A Penny show coincides with this event, as it’s just round the corner so you can easily go to both!

Programme

Labels: Art, Bristol, graffiti, Politics

:: Dan 1.5.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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iGoogle Artist Themes

Shepard Fairey
Iconic OBEY artist Shepard Fairey and Amanda Fairey founded Studio Number One in 2003, bringing together a gifted and diverse group of designers and managers, seamlessly merging art and commerce in a truly authentic way.
www.studionumber-one.com

Labels: Art, Google, graffiti, Search

:: Dan 30.4.08 [Arc] [1 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Red lines: Robert '3D' Del Naja's massive attack on the art world

Labels: Art, Politics

:: Dan 26.4.08 [Arc] [1 comments] [links to this post] ::
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The Penguin Blog on book blurbs and the new issues of Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm with cover art by Shepard Fairey
[via natali]

Labels: Art, graffiti, Literature

:: Dan 24.4.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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From: Ad Noiseam
"Hello,
Coming as a perfect reading companion to Raoul Sinier's new full length
album ("Brain Kitchen", Ad Noiseam adn92), a free 24 pages pdf magazine
is now available for download at brainkitchen.raoulsinier.com/."

Direct link [3MB PDF]

"Featuring illustrations by Raoul Sinier as well as other artists
inspired by his music, an interview, some drafts and three short stories
(including one by yours truely), it should help everybody grasp better
the intricate and plaful universe of Raoul Sinier. And you know what to
play while reading this."

"Brain Kitchen" info & mp3
"Brain Kitchen" free pdf magazine and video
"Brain Kitchen" in the mailorder
"Best regards,
Nicolas"

Labels: Art, Electronic Music, graphics, Ra

:: Dan 24.4.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Rhapsody's Verdict
Originally uploaded by gusset.

Parasite and Ana Kissed's 6(?) year old daughter, Rhapsody, is helped a little by Anarchist606 to write this little summary of Friday's Goatlab gig for me. The phonetic spelling is beautiful, but I've provided some explanatory notes in case you have any trouble. (Click to zoom in and see notes.)

Labels: Art, Flickr, Review

:: Dan 20.4.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Japanese Creative Barcodes
Beautiful.
[via grom]

I love this barcode related rant:
"Are you not familiar with the Revelations of Saint John, the final book of the bible, prophesizing the apocalypse? He forced everyone to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead so that no one shall be able to sell unless he has out that mark which is the name of the beast and the number of his name and the number is six, six, six.
What can such a specific prophecy mean? What is the mark?
Well the mark is the bar-code. The ubiquitous bar-code that you'll find on every (something) and every (packet of jonnies) and every (poxy-pork-pie). And every bar-code is divided into two sections by three markers and those markers are always represented by the number six. Six, six, six!"
(I've been meaning for ages to play this out when DJing. I'll do it at the next Goatlab.)
From the Mike Leigh film Naked, sampled by The Orb in S.A.L.T.

Labels: Art

:: Dan 4.4.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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During their 1974 Darkside of the Moon Tour, the program for the gigs was a comic [14MB CBR file on sendspace]

The comic was in black and white except the cover and last page. Here's an extract:




[via pandemonium plus on hijack]

Labels: Art, Comics, Floyd, Music

:: Dan 31.3.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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[thanks ana]

Labels: Art, Engineering, Robots

:: Dan 31.3.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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As spotted by Bristle in the comments of the last post:

[amazon]

I'm also intrigued by this:


[amazon]

"Thanks for your reviews of our book,"A Field Guide to Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels, and Other Subversive Spirits." This introduction to some of the world's most enchanting, weird and powerful spirits is intended to observe them in action in their natural habitats. Rather than separate the species by religious tradition, ethnicity, national boundaries or time, we opted to place them side-by-side and see how similar their fangs, talons, lore, and bad habits might be when in Forest, Mountain or Domicile anywhere in the history of humankind. We are a mother and daughter team, both writers, who share a love of mythology and who hold graduate degrees in Religious Studies and in Cultural Anthropology respectively. We hope that the readers of this work find these creatures as fabulous and informative as we did. For each entry, there is a "Dispelling and Disarming" section just in case! The universal cure is this: Hold them up to the light and see them for what they are, then show them Love and Compassion and the'll be blown away."

I don't believe in any of these fairy stories of demons or angles or gods or leprechauns or unicorns - yes, your God is in that list too - and a field guide to studying them seems ridiculous. I'm tempted to buy it for the Ecologists in the office so they can look out for them on site. File it along with all of their bat identification books as so on. Yet this sentence suddenly made it more interesting: "Rather than separate the species by religious tradition, ethnicity, national boundaries or time, we opted to place them side-by-side and see how similar their fangs, talons, lore, and bad habits might be." That's a very telling exercise that may help people see to the root of the psychology that created these theories in the first place.

Labels: Art, Literature, psychology

:: Dan 11.3.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Garfield Minus Garfield
"Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolor disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against lonliness and methamphetamine addiction in a quiet American suburb."

Labels: Art, Humour, psychology

:: Dan 28.2.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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"Wonder even sang a little dittie, with a harmonica, that was sung as if he were reciting the musical scales in ascending and descending order to the name of “Ba-rack O-ba-ma.”"
Stevie Wonder sings for Barack... and it sounds awful. What was he doing?

In my mind it works best sung to the tune of Long Distance Clara from Pigeon Street. He should have tried that.



[That wonderful example of Alan Rogers artwork is available as a print from easyart.com. Thanks for the bandwidth!]

Labels: Animation, Art, Humour, Music, News, Politics

:: Dan 6.2.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Morning. I am offline at the moment. My PC died last Friday (power surge wrote off the power supply and mother-board and due to age rendered processor and RAM useless) so only have internet access in work, which I obviously try to minimise. Webmail is blocked. Should anyone really want to contact me for some reason, I can still pick up Flickr and Murdockspace messages, but not Facebook. I bought a new PC from yoyotech last night. Thanks to Spoksey for specing that up for me. Normal service will resume soon.

News

From Sunday's Independent:
"At present, Britain does not routinely fingerprint airline passengers (see page 3 for the US attitude). But starting two months from tomorrow, several million travellers each year will have their fingerprints, and photograph, taken twice before being allowed aboard a domestic flight."
The referenced article about the US attitude is here.
I mailed this to a security consultant friend to find out how it came about. Apparently it's down to commercial reasons, so every one gets to access one set of shops. Wooo.

Rambert Dance Company's ‘Britney Breakdown’
(I did some acoustic work for Rambert a couple of years ago. Lovely people.)
"Rambert Dance Company's ever-popular Season of New Choreography is an exciting opportunity to see brand new work created by some of Rambert's versatile dancers. The company has a track record of nurturing young choreographers. One of these is Hubert Essakow, who has commissioned a new work from Richard Thomas for Adey to sing live with the dancers. You won't be surprised to know that she gets to sing the word "arse" quite a bit."
(You may remember Richard Thomas from sitting behind the piano on TMWRNJ and as the person who provided the music for and co-wrote Jerry Springer the Opera with Stewart Lee.)

Spotted

Filthy, muck-strewn white van on the M5 on whose back door a mischievous passing finger had scrolled, "Cleaned by the NHS."

Busses

Chatting to "That'll be the Day: The Musical: The Fleece woman" on the bus stop yesterday morning. Tells me about her job then asks what I do. I say I work for an engineering practice in the centre. "Is that an admin role?" she asks. What!? Look at me. Glasses. Beard. Carrying laptop bag. I'm an engineer you cheeky cow.

I sat on the bus today, reading The God Delusion, next to someone reading the Bible. Book II of Psalms to be precise. What a wonderfully secular society we live in.

Labels: Art, Literature, News, Personal, Secuirty, Spotted, Travel

:: Dan 31.1.08 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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banksy
Originally uploaded by gusset.


This Banksy, his largest work in the UK, in Liverpool's China Town, is in the news again today as it is planned to cover (the lower half of) it up for the European Capital of Culture celebrations, due to the state the building is in.

The thing that really bugged me about this was The Metro reporting, "The image of a rat toting a machine gun, painted before the artist was famous, had faded and the Liverpool Culture Company plans to conceal it with a hoarding before the culture capital year opens tomorrow."

At what stretch of the imagination does that look like a machine gun? It’s a marker pen. At least they’ve had the sense not to repeat the error online.

Labels: Art, Flickr, graffiti

:: Dan 10.1.08 [Arc] [1 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Sorry to geek out way beyond my normal bounds by posting about stamps. The quote below shows why I found this interesting.

Bond stamps: From Ruislip with love

"Each stamp offers a potted history of spy-novel iconography. The Pan jackets, with their understated secret codes and visual metaphors (Dr No's spider web, From Russia With Love's Fabergé egg, the Spirit of Ecstasy from Goldfinger's Rolls-Royce) were replaced by crass pictures of the spy hero centre-stage, in action, in the sea, and on a bar stool – themselves to be replaced by the Penguin Viking covers, beautiful retro images of the books' real selling propositions: chicks and baddies."



More images: Ian Fleming photos - Daylife

Labels: Art, Literature

:: Dan 30.12.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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12 Days of Xmas - Coppers
Originally uploaded by gusset.


My photos from the 12 Days of Christmas group show at The Old Bridewell Police Station in Bristol are online (at last) now.

Labels: Art, Bristol, Flickr, graffiti

:: Dan 24.12.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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I was reading a Times article about Boris Mikhailov's photography and was inspired to look further into his work. Have a read through the linked articles and see the highly selective retrospective I've included below.

"His photographs of naked women in the Soviet Union were banned by the KGB, and he was persecuted for his ideals. ... In 2001 he won the prestigious Citibank prize. But for years he was only able to take pictures as a dangerous hobby, under the watchful eye of the Russian secret police. Twice they nearly imprisoned him for taking forbidden photographs.

"More than a decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the restrictions that regime placed on everyday life seem almost inconceivable. Any images perceived as portraying life in the USSR as anything but ideal were forbidden. This included images of people smoking, drinking, poor, ill or nude. One photographer who took pictures of people holding cigarettes “in western poses”, for instance, was jailed for three years."

A brief retrospective:

From the Sandwich series of overlaid shots (1960s and '70s):




"I made these compositions at a time when people were more used to interpreting coded messages and signs, when people were on the lookout for any new information and studied images closely in search of their truth and meaning."

From the "Red USSR" series (1968 - 75):


Case History, 1999:


"portraits of homeless people he describes as “living out their last moments”, part of a series of more than 400 searing portraits he shot in the late 1990s called Case History"

Ukrainian pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2007:


No prizes for guessing why I like that one.

Works for sale here and books on Amazon:

Labels: Art, Photography

:: Dan 17.12.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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"Electric December is an online advent calendar. Explore 24 days of short film treats created by young people from across the UK. This year Electric December is curated by eShed.net - a Bristol-based film website for 14-21yr-olds. Visit the archive to view eight years of presents. Pick it up, pass it on… Subscribe to the podcast, embed films in your own site, send your friends an ecard, or bluetooth to your mobile."


Gotta love the electro-sprouts!

Labels: Art, Film, Watershed

:: Dan 9.12.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Japanese Louis Vuitton commercial by Takashi Murakami

[music by Fantastic Plastic Machine]

Takashi Murakami is probably best known for his Manga related work. "[His] style, called Superflat, is characterized by flat planes of color and graphic images involving a character style derived from anime and manga. Superflat is an artistic style that comments on otaku lifestyle and subculture, as well as consumerism and sexual fetishism. Social commentary is nothing new, nor is appropriation of mass media or popular culture." [source wikipedia]

Murakami - Army of Mushrooms


Which reminds me. I bought the recent Pop magazine because I was intrigued by the article about creating mushrooms out of designer clothes with similar sounding names. eg Shitake Versace:

Labels: Animation, Art, Fashion, Food, graphics

:: Dan 8.12.07 [Arc] [2 comments] [links to this post] ::
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glasgow00291
Originally uploaded by gusset.

On Nov 29, 2007 7:27 AM, Ville Takanen wrote:

"Hi

I just wanted to thank you for sharing your images with a CC/SA lisence.

I'm using a picture from your flickr collection for my art roleplaying
project here (in Finnish)
and I tought I should let you know about it.
--
Ville Takanen"

Hi Ville.
Thanks for letting me know.
Glad you appreciate it.
Cheers,
Dan

[via that link...]

Underground ‘terrorists’ with a mission to save city’s neglected heritage

Last year the Untergunther spent months hidden in the Panthéon, the Parisian mausoleum that holds France’s greatest citizens, where they repaired a clock that had been left to rust. … When the clock began working again, officials were horrified. The Centre for National Monuments confirmed that the clock had been repaired but said that the authority had begun legal action against the Untergunther. Under official investigation for breaking and entry, its members face a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a €15,000 (£10,500) fine. “We could go down in legal history as the first people ever to be prosecuted for repairing a clock,” said Mr Kunstmann.

Labels: Art, Flickr, Underground, Urban Exploring

:: Dan 29.11.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Totterdown Art Trail 2007
17th & 18th November, various venues and people's houses.
I'll be there, and I'll also be sampling the Trail Ale.
Last year

Labels: Art, Bristol

:: Dan 6.11.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Free legal advice for the creative industries

The Rambler reports, "...copyright is becoming an increasingly important issue for anyone working in the creative industries. I’m frequently baffled (and increasingly concerned) that so many of the writers, performers and composers that I come across don’t have even the most rudimentary understanding of how intellectual property works, and how it is crucial to their professional lives ... So, it’s particularly timely for the Legal Advice Centre of the Queen Mary, University of London School of Law to expand its free pro bono advice to the creative industries, starting from 7th November."

It's an appointment only centre but it is free. Handy to know should you ever need it. Read the post linked above and keep in bookmarked in case you ever need it.

Labels: Art, Copyright, Law

:: Dan 29.10.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Iannis Xenakis: Phillips Pavilion, Poème Electronique, Edgard Varèse [Brussels 1958]
I've read a lot about, and listened to a lot of, Xenakis’s music, so it's interesting to see something pop up about his architecture now and again. Especially when it was designed as a specific audio/visual display space.

Labels: Acoustics, architecture, Art, Visuals

:: Dan 24.10.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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The art work of Glenn Barr [pos NSFW]

Labels: Art

:: Dan 1.10.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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BLDG BLOG is a brilliant blog of "architectural conjecture, urban speculation & landscape futures," that I have just discovered thanks to Natali linking to this post about Hot-Mapping. Apparently Haringey Council have been busy flying planes over their district taking thermal images of the area. The council explains it here and full maps of the region are available here. It's interesting to look over. I would genuinely be interested to see how my own house compared to others around it. I'm sure it would be exactly the same as all the others on the estate (it is new build) but I'd really like to know how it compares to houses of different ages and see how age and build vary. The comment on the blog bring up privacy issues, although I'm not sure how much heat loss your house suffers from is a private issue? As long as vigilantes don't start searching out energy loss offenders I think it's pretty harmless from that point of view and I think I'd like to see more councils doing it.



The blog also has two noise related posts from the last week or so. This one following up an interview with neurologist Oliver Sacks about the affects of noise on people. It's interesting although, as with psychology generally, it relies heavily on the exceptional cases rather than the norm. I guess that makes things a lot easier to test and interpret.

This lowest common denominator approach is similar to the way the World Health Organisation Guidelines for Community Noise are based on preventing adverse health affects in the most sensitive population. From conversations with the papers co-editor Birgitta Berglund I know that children in particular are her largest concern. Perhaps by designing to ensure the protection of the most sensitive we can bring down average noise levels over a period of time?

(The Erik Satie anecdote sounds like he failed to do Eno was doing with Music for Airports etc. I imagine these days you could get away with it without anybody flinching. Sometime a space without background music seems odd.)

There is also a post about intentional additions to urban noise to make cities sound more "musical" and to help mask more unpleasant sounds. Soudscaping cities is a bit of a buzz word with architects these days and I've been involved in the soundscaping of some major district developments in the middle-east (without ever actually going there annoying!) I'm interested to see how this study pans out.

Labels: Academic, Acoustics, architecture, Art, Maps, Noise

:: Dan 30.9.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Dotcom
Originally uploaded by _saturnine.

In sharp contrast to the M.E.N.s impartial journalist approach to the Krek and Mers case, Bristol Evening Post has jumped hard to the right today and is outraged as "£200,000 VANDAL SPARED JAIL"
*Sigh*
Although, he was already on a suspended sentence and broke the terms, so to an extent he probably should be expecting a sentence. What this highlights though, and my reasons for bring it up, are the huge differences in sentencing between magistrates and the partisan reporting in local press.

Labels: Art, News

:: Dan 22.9.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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free krek.
Originally uploaded by night_photographer.


The campaign to overturn, or at least reduce, the jail sentences handed out to Krek and Mers has been making national headline news today.

Natali summarised the problems with the sentence last Friday (see quote below) and Night Photographer (a friend of Krek and one of the best young photographers I have come across) is leading the online campaign on Flickr.

"They didn't drink and drive, didn't sexually abuse someone, they didn't deal drugs, commit any kind of violence, didn't steal anything, break anything - just painted something, an act that can be easily reversed. But the courts have jailed two young adults, stuck them into jails full of rapists, thieves and drug addicts, instead of making them clean up the "mess" they made and contribute their talents to society in a more productive manner."

The Guardian news blog tries to pull the various opinions together and Manchester Evening News reports on the campaign. Some of the comments following that M.E.N. article are quiet astonishing. People who take the side of the financial hit corporation over the talented young artists brightening up and protesting against a bland, conformist, branded landscape, amaze me.

It's clear that both guys have changed their ways and are making further efforts to use their skills to better society by offering to teach other prisoners while they are in prison.

Lots of people are coming down on the "well, the law is the law" side on this. Bollocks to that. There is an injustice here and the law is wrong. Do something about it.

Labels: Art, Flickr, graffiti, Law

:: Dan 18.9.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Beat Blocks, by Jeff Hoefs and Boutique Vizique.

"Most fascinating about the interface is its simplicity. A wooden grid and a series of blocks form an uncomplicated interface that is completely self-explanatory. As a user you can create and manipulate a small sound loop by physically re-arranging the wooden blocks within the grid. Doing so will turn the matrix into a rhythm sequencer that operates at a 1/16 note resolution. Each block has a pattern of colored stripes representing 1/4 measures, directly indicating what kind of sequence the underlying system will play. The sequence runs in a continuous loop and a LED indicates the speed of the loop that can be changed by means of a simple slider. The direct relation between these minimal visual aspects and the instantaneously generated sound makes 'Beat Blocks' very accessible to anyone, even with little or no musical background. Since the whole system generates a MIDI output, it can be hooked up to a lot of other hardware devices."



I want one!

Labels: Art, Electronic Music

:: Dan 15.9.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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flikr2175
Originally uploaded by flikr.

"made with Agony - a program that I wrote."
>>>>>>DOWNLOAD AGONY HERE<<<<<<

Labels: Art, Flickr, graphics

:: Dan 11.9.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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"When is a paddy not a paddy? When it's a canvas, of course. But as staff writer YOKO HANI discovered in northern Aomori Prefecture, what's nice to look at is rice to eat as well." [from Japan Times]

Labels: Art, Food

:: Dan 30.8.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Basic Instructions [via Dilbert Blog]

Labels: Art, Humour

:: Dan 9.8.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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By email:
"Hello,
I'm a French visual artist living in England, and I've been doing VJing and live visuals around Europe for about 2 years, in clubs, festivals and art galleries..
I'd like to introduce you my latest technique, called "Visual Mapping". The idea is to get out of the usual 2D format, and project on volumes actual 3D objects, to play with a new dimension, and explore depth, perspective, optical illusions, and discover new links between shapes, light and visual perception..

"Here's an example of a recent installation I did in Berlin recently with visomat inc, based on this technique (transmediale festival).


High res video
More pictures and details on www.antivj.com

"We can also use this projection technique with any object, shape, sculpture or building. Example of visual mapping on a building:



"By the way, AntiVJ is a new "visual label", which aim is to explore and discover techniques around the visual art, news artists, installations and project will be revealed regularly on the website.

"We will be touring in Europe ths summer, and would be happy to meet you if you are around:
July - UK / London / Glade Festival
July - France / Paris / Batofar
August - UK / Bristol / Cuisine
Sept - Ireland / Dublin / Electric Picnic
Sept - France / Nantes / Scopitone Festival."

Labels: Art, Visuals, VJ

:: Dan 19.7.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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I'm working from the Birmingham office for part of the day today. I planned my day to make sure I'd have time to nip round How to Improve the World: 60 Years of British Art From the Arts Council Collection in the Gas Hall at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Unfortunately, it was quite disappointing, with very few pieces that said anything to me.

The one exception, which really caught me, was Mark Titchner's Invisible Republic [image below, bandwidth stolen from Art Daily, sorry]



'Seeing a piece by him for the first time is a slightly creepy experience. The Invisible Republic is a fibreglass banner, the height of a house, on which is painted: "We want mutual loyalty and we want to realise potential and we want to improve the human condition and we want unyielding integrity and we want to shape the world's future and we want inspiration energy and excitement and we want to make dreams a reality and we want your contribution and we want continuous improvement and we want to be open and transparent."

'The words have a chilling, almost familiar, relevance. This makes sense when you realise Titchner pilfered them from the corporate manifestos of 10 leading global consumer brands. The slogan style, the "we want", comes from the Black Panther's 10-point programme, a document that called for staples like bread, housing, education and justice. The language of a US black civil rights movement, that once stood for things that mattered, now has the hollow beat of advertising speak. It's this continuous movement of ideas and values, our beliefs and faith - how formerly powerful language becomes anodyne - that fascinates the 33-year-old artist.'
[source]

Labels: Art

:: Dan 10.7.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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My nephew, who is three years old, is for some reason bed wettingly terrified owls. Yet, he loves Cybermen. I posed this little conundrum on the back of a menu recently; What if there were Cyber-Owls? The look of terrified-amused-confusion was priceless. So I drew more of them. That's what uncles are for.


cyber owl 1
Originally uploaded by gusset.


cyber owls 2
Originally uploaded by gusset.


cyber owl army
Originally uploaded by gusset.

Labels: Art, Cyber-Owls, Cybermen, Dr Who, Flickr

:: Dan 3.7.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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_MG_6588
Originally uploaded by lichtfaktor.

Light writing on Flickr from lichtfaktor
[via Hezza on Hijack]

Labels: Art, Flickr, graffiti

:: Dan 2.7.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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One of my shots of The Royal Academy of Arts (complete with Invader tile tag) has been included in the latest edition of the Schmapp!! travel guide to London. See it here and check the fancy widget:

Labels: Art, Flickr, Maps

:: Dan 29.6.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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In album news I had a chat with Death$ucker head honcho Parasite over the weekend and we've finally slated a release date for the Gusset remix album that was now been THREE YEARS in the making. This September you will see a bargain priced CD of remixes from Gusset's Skidmark CD-R release (last few left on dSWAT). Ask Dr Kim – clever anagram, see? – will feature remixes from The Teknoist, Shitmat, Jason Forrest, Parasite, Binary, Atki2, hard.off, m||m, Hoonboy, Twocsinak and more!

We gave up on the slutty nurse photoshoot idea due to budget restrictions (ie, £0). So instead we will be making a collage of gusset photos. Please send photos of your gusset to: gusset[at]gmail.com. You don’t have to be wearing the item, just pose your pants and snap away. Photos will be used under a CC licence and you will get a credit in the artwork. You won't get paid mind, but you get the satisfaction of being able to point and say;

"Check this; that's my gusset on that album cover."
"Get away!" your friends will say.
"No really, look, my name’s on the 'thanks' inside, here," points.
"You magnificent bastard!" they will declare.

Submission deadline is 1st September 2007!!!

Labels: Art, Death$ucker, Gusset, Music, Photography

:: Dan 19.6.07 [Arc] [1 comments] [links to this post] ::
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New Sickboy website

Labels: Art, Bristol, graffiti

:: Dan 12.6.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Leafcutter John says:
"It gives me great pleasure to invite you to the opening of my first ever solo art show. For Soundtrap II, I have transformed Beaconsfield's acoustically live Upper space – a voluminous 19th c. schoolroom with a raked, wooden floor – into an interactive instrument.

"The Preview is on the 12th June from 6pm until 9pm and is open to all.

"There will be a special live performance of several pieces I have written specially for the installation. this will be very limited in terms of audience numbers (due to the size of the space). There will be two performances on the night of 7th July. For this event you must purchase tickets by clicking HERE. Advance tickets: £12 standard and £8 concessions Tickets on the door: £15/£10

"The show runs from 13th June until 22nd July the gallery will be open Wed - Sun 12-6pm.

"Location: Beaconsfield, 22 Newport Street, Vauxhall, London, SE11 6AY MAP
For more information please email: info@beaconsfield.ltd.uk
Or phone Rachel Fleming-Mulford on: +44 (0) 20 7582 6465

"Best,
Leafcutter John"

[some background]

Labels: Art, Music

:: Dan 10.6.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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125 magazine - Japan issue
Originally uploaded by gusset.


125 magazine issue 9, Japan special, international cover, reprint.
Cover image by Felix Larher.

If you browse the online shop it's best to search by Photographer rather than Keyword btw, as the images don't seem to be tagged very well. Love the way you can order prints of pretty much every image.

"...the only magazine in the world, which acts as a completely unbiased photography gallery, open to both emerging and established artists, and making affordable art available to all."

"JAPAN ISSUE RE-PRINT
Our Japan issue went on-sale worldwide on March 1st and sold out in record time, as a biannual we make every effort to maintain at least a 5 month presence in stores, so we have decided to capitalize on the popularity of this issue by re-printing and re-distributing in the UK later this month across all key and major outlets. The re-print will feature the international cover version which was previously only available outside the UK so this is your chance to get both versions of our best issue to date."

"SOLD OUT ONLINE - NOW AVAILABLE ONLY IN SHOPS"

Found this in Boarders (£6.99) in the week. Stunning material. All fans on Japan, Fruits, fetish, fashion and just plane good photography should get this.

Labels: Art, Fashion, Fetish, Photography

:: Dan 9.6.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Grom blogged this link to Jamie Hewlett Monkey train yesterday, and it looks great. I've also got dragged into loads of other bits linked from it on the Cool Hunting site like Cymatics ("looks at the mesmerizing organic shapes created by sound") and Guido Mocafico's prints of complicated mechanical watch movements. Well worth a poke around.

Labels: Art

:: Dan 31.5.07 [Arc] [1 comments] [links to this post] ::
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The Wrong Music guys have declared tomorrow, 31st May, the UKs first National Noise Day.
"Inspired by tara pattersons National Noise Day in Berlin last year this event will feature live music, sound art and street performance.
Curated by Henry Collins and Set in the idealic uk location of brighton.
Featuring artists from around the globe doign weird and wonderfull things with sound, noise and music..."

If you can be in Brighton tomorrow night, which I'm quite upset I can't, you can see live music by:
Extreme Noise Terror
Justice Yeldham and The Dynamic Ribbon Device
DJ Scotch Egg
Trencher
The Nail Bomb Cults
Ladyscraper
Dylan Nyoukis
The Polly Shang Kuan Band
Greenmist
Knowledge of Bugs
Zan Lyons
Ninja Robot Dinosaur Bastards
Team Brick
Horacio Pollard
Shitmat
Permanent bag System
Minimal Impact Vs Kymoto
DJ Tendraw and the Gypsies Dog
The control group
Alex B
Sorry

Official website & myspace
The website is well worth a visit. Soem great videos and MP3s if you poke around.

Labels: Art, Music, Noise

:: Dan 30.5.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Corrupt photo of Gusset, made with Corrupt™ - data corruption software by recyclism aka bnjmn gaulon.

"Corrupt™ was first built with Proce55ing. The corruption process start by reading the binary of an image file [JPG or GIF], then some bytes are swaps [the number of replacement is a random value from 1 to 20]. The file is then "saved as" a new document. Depending on the number replacement and of the original compression, the image will have a completely different and unpredictable aesthetics. So from a single image the program can generate millions of corrupted versions. And because it is a real corruption system that damages the binaries of a file, some of the results can't be showed because they are too damaged... This online version is dedicated to anyone who desire to corrupt JPG files."

Labels: Art, Photography, Processing, Visuals

:: Dan 26.5.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Autistic Man Draws Near-Perfect Panorama of Rome - Brought to you by Break.com Video Search
[thanks linford*]

* I would normally use other artist's stage names rather than real names but saying "thanks spazmo" seemed inappropriate here.

Labels: Art, Autism

:: Dan 8.5.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Some beautiful erotic photography by Nick Sushkevich. altlink
[via aco]

Labels: Art, Erotic, Fetish, Photography

:: Dan 8.5.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Miss Van, Junko Mizuno & Aiko Nakagawa at Merry Karnowsky Gallery:

As visited by Natali recently, see her pictures. This video was found in the comments on her post and I liked it, although the pictures aren't that well synced with the voice over and the typography is a bit pony but it gives a good idea of what the show was about. Lots of Junko Mizuno work I recognise from Nude in there. Lovely.

Labels: Art

:: Dan 24.4.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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I dropped by the Burlesque Gorefest exhibition at Centrespace in Bristol yesterday. It's there until Thursday.



There wasn't as much stuff there as I hoped but it was all very good. I was glad to see some of Vicky Scott's work, been a fan for a while (since the Nude magazine article). And well done to local boy Chris Instinct, whose manipulated photography was possibly the stuff there.

Labels: Art, Bristol

:: Dan 17.4.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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2260 Sketch
Originally uploaded by gusset.

Found when clearing out. A little sketch I did when I was sat by the side of an A-road (in Wigan, I think) doing a noise survey, around 1998 or '99. The thing on the tripod is a B&K 2260 Sound Level Meter. The road was hidden from my seated point of view but you can still see the streetlights. As I wasn't really thinking about what I was doing it's on the lined side of the paper. If I'd thought to turn it over there wouldn't be vertical stripes all over it. Doh.

Labels: Acoustics, Art, Sketch

:: Dan 10.4.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Gallery - Street Graffiti in Kiev, Ukraine
[Thanks serpico009]

Labels: Art, graffiti

:: Dan 4.4.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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My music teacher had this amazing work of art in his office, which was an orchestral score turned on its side that looked exactly like Kologne Cathedral, you know, two big pointy towers. To my shame I never bothered to find out exactly what it was but I've found this Japanese site that has some other Amazing Musical Scores on it.

How do you play this, for example!

Labels: Art, Music

:: executor 19.3.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Does a week go by without a Banksy story in the news?

£100,000 Banksy painted over [Images]

"A group of bungling council workers have painted over one of the earliest surviving murals by guerrilla graffiti artist Banksy.

"The 25ft x 4ft design, thought to be worth more than £100,000*, was mistaken as vandalism by workmen who slapped thick black paint over it."

* The current record sale price for a Banksy work is £102k. Saying that everything he ever sprayed on the side of a garage is worth the same is pushing it. Good luck to the people wanting to sell one (with free house attached) for £200k.

"The artwork was sprayed onto the side of garages at Albion Road, in Easton, Bristol, about ten years ago.

"Locals are furious that the series of blue shapes, along with Banksy's trademark tag, has been lost forever.

"Bristol City Council [BCC], which has ordered all Banksy work to be preserved, launched a full investigation into the blunder yesterday."

It seems somewhat cynical of BCC to have a no-Banksy-removal policy AND a graffiti removal team. However, in the interest of more balanced journalism than most of the available sources and a less knee-jerk reaction that the forums, closer inspection shows that they actually have a no-mural removal policy, which I guess means the removal team focus on tagging. Obviously they aren't very good at drawing the distinction (even if it wasn't a very good Banksy mural).

That said, they do come down HARD on the tagging. The recent BCC community news letter that got dropped through my door seemed to have more column inches dedicated to graf removal than any other topic, and on every occasional referred to the "increased fear of crime" it causes in neighbourhoods.

It makes me wonder. Some graffiti artists are now recognised parts of the art establishment in their own right. They have worked their way up from simply tagging their names on ugly or abandoned buildings. Their work, even the older less impressive works, are now to be preserved. Yet people doing what they did when they started out are still criminals. How is the next generation to come through with this double standard?

The only way this can work fairly is if works are judged purely on their artist merits, so the less impressive or less interesting works get covered over and the only strong survive. It's what always happened in the street art scene anyway. Should councils be interfering and passing judgement or just letting people get on with it? I'd like to think they'll do the latter but know they never will as they would be giving up the power to censor what people may want to say (and potentially say about them), and they'll never do that.

To stray off the subject completely I'll finish my grumble about the council with a story. As you may know, I work in an environmental consultancy. I sit between the ecologists and the recycling consultants, who are sadly no-where near the bunch of hippies you would like to imagine them to be. One of them attended a launch lunch last week where BCC stood up and waffled for ages about the importance of locally sourcing materials. In the panel discussion afterwards someone asked them where the lunch that had been provided had been sourced / supplied from. No one knew.

All mouth and no trousers.

Labels: Art, banksy, Bristol, graffiti

:: Dan 13.3.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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32 mins of Ra painting compressed into 6 min:

Labels: Art, Ra, Video

:: Dan 26.2.07 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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I just about managed to squeeze into the last couple of hours of this years Front Room - Totterdown Art Trail this evening. I wish I'd had more time to explore but what I did see was great and the whole idea of having open access to the artists house to see their work is inspired. I don't know how many other places do it?

I think the thing I enjoyed most was the live jazz band playing in 17 St Luke's Cres. Of the various other bits and pieces I picked up here are some assorted links:
http://www.oivindhovland.co.uk/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/helene_rattin
http://www.janmartin.co.uk/
http://courgettecards.com/
and my photos.

Labels: Art

:: Dan 19.11.06 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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