We as a society sometimes forget that on a daily basis we are being watched. Whether were walking around the city or sitting in our cars at a red light. We are being watched. So Thomas voor 't Hekke and Bas van Oerle started the project called "panoptICONS" which addresses the fact that you are constantly being watched by surveillance cameras in the city. Their are so many cameras that most times we never think anything about it. We become unaware and that is where this projects concept came into play. To represent this, camera birds - city birds with cameras instead of heads were placed throughout the city to make us aware of their presence. In addition, a camera bird in captivity was displayed to show the feeding process and to make the everyday breach of our privacy more personal and tangible.
panoptICONS is a project by Thomas voor 't Hekke and Bas van Oerle who work together by the name of 'Helden'. Music: Amon Tobin - Easy Muffin
TELEPHONEME is a new film from MK12: it's a hybrid live-action/animated piece about language working as a double agent, carrying a hidden meaning with it for reasons unknown. They got the idea after discovering an educational film from the 60's, titled The Alphabet Conspiracy. In the production notes they took the original soundtrack from the 60's movie and remixed it into a slightly darker version of itself, which they stated it became the foundation for the new film TELEPHONEME. This short film uses cues from The Alphabet Conspiracy as well as other educational films from back in the day. It has some awkward editing and absurd premises that fit the genre of the past. The color palette choice in this film was simple and deliberate, and they also used a technique to split out different colors like red, green, and blue to superimpose these colors throughout the film, but they also moved independently of one another, creating different transitional and graphic effects.
Side Note: If you like the font that they used in the film. Then check out the website where you can download MK12_Chadwick font for free.
Over the weekend I took some time to check out two of Gary Hustwit's films which are Helvetica and Objectified. Helvetica was a documentary film that looked at the world of typography and graphic design, and their impact on our visual environment. Objectified was another documentary film about industrial design and product design and our relationship with the manufactured objects that we use every day. Each of these films were an interesting watch. They each took an in-depth look at the way that the human culture looks, feels, and categorizes design on a daily basis and most of the time we don't realize we are doing it. If you are like me and you were done watching them going I want more than I think you're in luck.
Hustwit is currently in the process of working on the third installment of what he calls the "Design Trilogy". The third film to join this trilogy is calledUrbanized which will look at the issues and strategies behind urban design. It will feature some of the world's foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers throughout this film. Urbanized which is currently in production will not premiere until sometime in 2011. So you will have to wait but if you want to be kept in the know about the upcoming film then you can join Hustwit Twitter feed.
In the film they follow González through scenes shot during his time working on his second album In Our Nature. They use his voice recording diary to follow his everyday reflections from struggling with writing songs to his everyday thoughts on life. The film also explores universal themes such as loneliness, boredom and isolation, The Extraordinary Ordinary Life of Jose Gonzalez gives us insight into one person's attempt to manage and understand his own existence. It was shot over a three-year period on location in Sweden, Japan, Singapore, United States, South Africa, England, Chile and Argentina.
Being one of the more enigmatic and thought-provoking musicians of the last decade, González is one of Sweden’s most successful exports. He has sold almost one million records worldwide and has received accolades from the media in every country in which he has performed. So I can see why they would want to do a documentary on such a talented musician. I hope I get a chance to see this documentary.
Before I begin I want to give a big thanks to Tycho/ISO50 Blog and FITC for giving me the chance to see him perform with his band in San Francisco. The FITC event was a private party so to be able to attend you had to attend the FITC Conference or be one of the lucky winners on ISO50's giveaway guest list spots. Although I didn't go to the conference I would have liked to have seen Scott Hansen's seminar on his background, processes, and theory's along with some walk throughs and presentations of his recent work. I did however get the next best thing and that was seeing the new band play out. Tycho's band did a great job of capturing the sound that is Tycho but also giving it a different yet more unique feel to the music. Each member of the band gave off the right energy and vibe to keep the crowd moving while satisfying our ears with great music. Overall I have to say that I was very satisfied by the end of the night with the performance and the presentation of Tycho's music and visuals. I hope that many of you will get a chance in the future to check out his band's set. Lastly, I want to give another big thanks to Raoul Ortega who I meet last night for allowing me to use his photos from the event. Raoul has done work with Dusty Brown and Tycho before so it was cool of him to allow me to use his photos. My camera was not taking the best of pictures last night, however, it did do a good job on the videos that I took which can be viewed below. I used my Samsung TL220 camera. If you want to check out more of Raoul photography which you should then check out his Flickr account and his Website.
Freelance Whales have been playing nonstop since I downloaded their CD Weathervanes last week. I highly anticipate in seeing then at the Outside Lands festival in San Francisco this month. The sounds of FW is intergrated with mass amounts of different collective instruments from guitars, banjos, tambourines, harmonium, and glockenspiels to yes the occasional keyboard and laptop assist. Amidst a strange amalgam of unfamiliar instruments, and precariously arranged pop songs. This five member band worked at crafting songs with interlocking rhythmic patterns, lush textural layering, and an engaged group-vocal energy. The band is also gaining a lot of attention and besides that their label Frenchkiss, already has a great track record of locating bands with quality plus commercial appeal (Passion Pit, the Antlers, Dodos, Local Natives), FW sound is on the surface of a lot 00's Indie Hall of Famers Arcade Fire, Ben Gibbard, and Sufjan Stevens. So check out their sound and let me know what you think. I also want to give the band props for making their whole album available to the public via stream.
I enjoy coming across short film movies. They seem to have an ambiance to them. The short 3D film Descendants fits this description. This film is a 14 minute animated short about the wish of attaining the unattainable and about the fact that something good can evolve from something evil. This film is definitely a aspirational piece of art and it even goes deep with it's philosophical core. An interesting fact about this film is that one of the characters voice over was done by Whoopi Goldberg which it's nice to see that she was interested in something like this. If your interesting in learning about the making of the film. Then check out Binary Alchemy where you can read all the details of this project. Leave a comment about the film. I would like to hear about what you think about the film.
A collaboration has been joined by Kid Cudi, Rostam from Vampire Weekend and Bethany fromBest Coast to create a single for Converse All Summer Jam. It is an innovated advertising campaign by Converse to remind you to keep on liking the brand. I think they did a great job on this by adding in three talented people and coming up with a great idea for the music video. The way that the video was created is awesome. I'm all about the vintage burn look with the overly large paper mache heads. They must have had a blast making this video. You can tell just by watching this music video. If you like the song you can download it here
Lots of video content and words on the artists and their work up at Converse.com
The time has come for this video to be shared. It was directed and created by Chris Wang. It's actually a viral campaign, and half website content made for Else Mobile Phones. The time has come acts as an intro for a new mobile device. It seems that this company is looking to utilize many new features that are not being used due to real world: complexity, usability, and the endless menus preventing them from being used. So they created a new phone called ELSE to address these issues, with an entirely different approach. You can go to the site and see a small demo of the phone and also get the specs for it.
I also have to give props to the creator of this video because the cinematography on the videos is amazing with its darker vintage look and it's technological data being portrayed all over the place. Plus it's kind of moving and you're hoping its for a new movie but nope it's a commercial.
I have been contemplating getting a bike but the only problem I have with that is space. I don't want to keep it in my place because I don't want a bike taking up space. So I have been looking at different bikes lately that can be folded up. That way the space that it does take up is very little. On my search for various design I came across Dominic Hargreaves concept bike call the Contortionist. This bike can be completely folded into the space of the wheel's 26in circumference. The 24-year-old from London, said he wanted to create a decent folding bike after the one he was using collapsed. "I couldn't find a folding bicycle I liked," he added. "I wanted something that could take a bit of punishment and that you could have fun with. "So I made one myself." Now Hargreaves is in contact with various manufacturers and hopes to get this bike into production soon.
This short film that's only 2 minutes take you through some beautiful landscapes that can put you in a place of sublime. What I like most about this film is the images and the tone and colors that the film is generating. This film was done by cinematographer Kevin Otterness from Posthousepictures.com. The director stated that film was entirely shot on a Canon 7D at 11,990Ft. He also said that the Canon 7D held up to the extreme conditions. So it seems to be a very stable camera.
When I was at Bonnaroo they had a workshop in which you could make your own instrument. So within an hour I had completed making my own musical instrument. Which I thought was pretty cool. So when I found this video of Diego Stocco and his Bassoforte I had to share it with you the reader. There is nothing like making an instrument to get your creativity moving.
To create his instrument Diego dismantled parts of a piano he had in his garden and also used some other parts that he had laying around his home and generated the Bassoforte (bass + pianoforte). He states that the neck is from a broken electric bass, as a bridge he used a cabinet handle, the pickups are from a guitar, and the part at the top where the strings are attached is a chimney cap, which works as resonator as well as percussive sound.
When you think of a sculpture you think of statues or things that don't move. Well this is not the case for one artist. Theo Jansen who is a talented Dutch artist that creates kinetic sculptures which resemble animals and are able to walk using the power of wind. Jansen is looking to eventually let these creatures roam free on the beach to live on their own. These creatures use different styles of wind capturing and also have an understanding of if an obstacle is in the way and it will walk back in the opposite direction. Below are some videos that will give you an understanding and a demo of these animari and their creator.
Keith Loutit is known for his Little Sydney series of short films, that present Sydney and its surroundings in miniature form. He basically scaled down, and sped up the film and it challenges people's perceptions of scale, helping them to distance themselves from place they know well. The videos that Keith has produced are one of wonder and and great imagination. I can only imagine how long it took for him to just put on of these masterpieces together. In an interview by "It's Nice That" it states that his work is heavily stylized, his aim is mostly documentary in nature. Keith stated I saw the combination of tilt shift and time-lapse photography as a means of creating a new style of documentary film-making. Keith is currently working on a new project called Small Worlds in which he documents the world's great cities, landscapes and monuments of the ancient world in miniature. Keith states from the interview that in a time of population explosion, impacts to our environment, and concern over limited resources our world feels smaller than ever and I hope that this work inspires people by presenting mankind as a positive collaborative force, and for people to see wonder in the ordinary.
So I came about this musician Vital from Change The Thought Blog. They posted a motion graphic video up called Airport. Which is Vital's video for his song called Airport. It was directed by TAKCOM. This video is not only interesting and intriguing but the music goes so well with the video. Vital is currently providing people with a free download of his EP which consists of 5 songs on his website. I highly recommend downloading his CD and just an FYI you should be able to download it as well on iTunes for free this month. Here is a little bit of information about Vital. Prior to starting his solo career Vital wanted to be behind the music scene, writing and contributing by recording demos for other musicians in the Bay Area. After being persuaded by the many people he met, he released two EP’s in the genre of Hip Hop and R&B. “I never found my true self while doing what society expected me to do, I never felt at home doing what’s expected”. Wanting to experiment more with the music, he felt it was a better reflection of himself. He then went into the studio to record his first solo album in the summer of 2008. Now, almost two years later he is now letting the world hear his music. His CD is one that I will consistently be playing and I think you should do the same.
So I was catching up on things in the world from being on vacation and I came upon two Nike's concepts. So I thought I would share them with you. The first was the Nike Sneaker Wire frame Sculpture that was made by Benedict Radcliffe. According to the artist, it took 2 months to finish the shoe. Nike Air Max 1 wire sculpture was constructed entirely out of bent steel rods. According to SneakerFreaker.com Radcliffe was commissioned to create a whopping 3.5 meter long giant Air Max sculpture for the Dizzee Rascal Air Max 90 launch at Nike Sportswear’s 1948 space in London.
The second thing I would like to share is the Nike Music Shoe it features Tokyo DJ duo Hifana playing with different Nike shoes by bending, twisting and bouncing. This video is pretty interesting when you think about it. It has to have some kind of sensor that then sends the signal to a programmed sound. It's quite fascinating how they worked their music in playing with shoes but I will advice that the shoe is sold at retailers but will NOT make music when bent or twisted. These are two interesting things to get you interested in the Nike products.
I found this video the other day where Motherboard host Jordan Redaelli hangs out with Moby while he shows him all of his vintage drum machines. In this video Moby talks geek about a lot of his analog drum machines that he has collected over the years. Then he shows you his studio in which he talks about the sizes of the studio and his view on large and small studios. He then goes on to talk more about the history of the drum machines and the time in which you could purchase them at lower cost compared to now where the price is about doubled in cost. The most interesting part is near the end where he states that there is no such thing as a cool electronic musician. You will have to watch the video to find out his view on that.
The PlayStation Move ($TBA) is bringing motion-based gaming to the PS3, in full 1080p. The system will use a main motion controller, a "sub-controller," like a more advanced version of the Wii's controller, and the Playstation Eye camera to offer precise detection of movement, angle, and absolute position in 3D space, which should make for some really competitive games of Golf. The strange looking ball thing on the end of the controller is there to help with the motion tracking. It also lights up in different colors to notify you of stuff within the game. The ball is made from a soft rubber material, which will hopefully help you out if you accidentally lose control of your controller. If you want to get more of an idea about what the controller can do watch the video below.
So being that I'm a sucker for animation and I think Owl's are pretty cool animals. I wanted to talk about the movie Legend of the Guardians which I saw the preview last night at the opening of Alice in Wonderland. Legend of the Guardians is directed by Zack Snyder, a former commercials director who has directed Dawn of the Dead, 300, and Watchmen, and is currently working on SuckerPunch. This movie is specifically based on the first three books in Kathryn Lasky's popular series of novels known as the Guardians of Ga'Hoole. Warner Brothers will be bringing Legend of the Guardians to theaters everywhere, in both 2D and 3D, starting on September 24th this year. The story plot may be a little cheesy but the manner in which it is produced looks amazing. Planning on seeing this?
Legend of the Guardians Official Trailer
If your wondering who does the song to this trailer it is 30 Seconds to Mars.
