Intense. White noise and visuals.
Here's a snapshot of what it was like -
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Supposed to be getting ready for work...
Tristan Perich's 1-Bit Symphony is an electronic composition in five movements on a single microchip. Though housed in a CD jewel case, 1-Bit Symphony is not a recording in the traditional sense; it literally "performs" its music live when turned on. A complete electronic circuit—programmed by the artist and assembled by hand—plays the music through a headphone jack mounted into the case itself. The project is set to be released on Cantaloupe on August 24, 2010.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Spiders
After floods last year left a fifth of Pakistan underwater, millions of the countries’ spiders have taken to the trees. As an unexpected but welcome side-effect of the disaster, The UK Department for International Development are reporting far less malaria-carrying mosquitos in the area than would otherwise be expected, given the huge swathes of stagnating open water.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Alice Moloney
Newent House
A series of watercolour drawings completed during a week spent with the residents of Newent House, which is a day centre for elderly people. - Alice Moloney
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Empathy
'I sat in Alyth Gardens synagogue in Golders Green in north London last year. Two men went up on the stage. The first one spoke: "I am Ahmed, and I am a Palestinian. My son died in the Intifada, killed by an Israeli bullet. I come to wish you all Shabbat Shalom."
Then the other man spoke: "I am Moishe, and I am an Israeli. My son also died in the Intifada, killed by a homemade petrol bomb thrown by a Palestinian teenager. I come to wish you all Salaam Alaikum."
I was shocked: here were two fathers, from different sides of the political divide, united by their grief and now embracing each other's language. How had they met? Moishe had taken up the opportunity offered by a charity called The Parents Circle for Israelis and Palestinians to make free phone calls directly into each other's homes, to express their empathy to bereaved parents on the other side of the barbed-wire fence. Ahmed described how he had been at home in Gaza one day when the phone rang. It was Moishe, at that time a stranger in Jerusalem, who had taken that brave first step. They both openly wept down the phone. Neither had ever met or even spoken to someone from the other community, but both told the other they knew what the other was going through.
Empathy is like a universal solvent. Any problem immersed in empathy becomes soluble. It is effective as a way of anticipating and resolving interpersonal problems, whether this is a marital conflict, an international conflict, a problem at work, difficulties in a friendship, political deadlocks, a family dispute, or a problem with the neighbour. Unlike the arms industry that costs trillions of dollars to maintain, or the prison service and legal system that cost millions of dollars to keep oiled, empathy is free. And, unlike religion, empathy cannot, by definition, oppress anyone.'
Zero Degrees of Empathy: a New Theory of Human Cruelty by Simon Baron-Cohen (Allen Lane, £20) is published on 7 April. To order a copy for £16 with free UK p&p, go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0330 333 6847
Simon Baron-Cohen is professor of psychology and psychiatry at Cambridge university
From - "The Science of Empathy" - http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/mar/27/the-science-of-empathy
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Listening to:
Jamie xx – In The Mix for Benji B (Jan ’11) [mp3]
http://www.pinglewood.com/pinglewood/2011/01/slow-burn/
The soundtrack to re-doing my portfolio.
Jamie xx In The Mix
Timmy Thomas — Why Can’t We Live Together
Zomby — Tarantula
Jamie Woon — Night Air – Becoming Real Remix
Koreless — M.T.I.
James Blake — I Mind
Cassie — Must Be Love – Jacques Greene’s Marriage Proposal Mix
Mount Kimbie — Before I Move Off
Rui Da Silva — Touch Me – Chopped and Screwed
DJ Choko — Stealth Drums
Jamie xx — Far Nearer – The Knife Bootleg
Beach House — 10 Mile Stereo
Crazy Cousinz — Inflation – Chopped and Screwed
Tanya Stephens — Can’t Touch Me No More
Dj A B — Darbuka
Harmonic 313 — Problem 7
Lumidee — Never Leave You
Adele — Rolling In The Deep – Jamie XX Shuffle
Gil Scott Heron and Jamie XX — One Take
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Mirconations
I wish I'd gone to this at Shunt this weekend -
"MICRONATIONS REVOLUTION, A show directed by Nelly Ben Hayoun for Shuntand Co-produced with Shunt
“It will be a beautiful day when we will be celebrating the party of the human kind” Robespierre May 1794
If you could be a man or a superman what would you choose or as Hamlet immortally asks, to be or not to be?
The world is constantly changing, ideas are always evolving and people are struggling to belong. For two nights only, the spirit of the revolutionary party will be harnessed in London Bridge’s hottest arts venue. Forget North, South, East and West, Conservative, Labour or Liberal Democrat, on the 11th and 12th of March 2011, Shunt in association with Nelly Ben Hayoun, is opening it’s wrought iron doors and introducing four new worlds, four party systems, four micro-nations. Each new nation represents a site of adventure and play, for the audience to move through, explore and own. Yet, they are also potent instruments of propaganda, laboratories of new forms and vocabularies orchestrated by an unseen puppet master.
Enter the threshold and push your physical limits in sea-salt park, learning to scuba dive with Shadwell Diving Instructors. Enjoy the world of play in the marble kingdom and bid your love away. Apply your economic and creative talents to the realm of work, crafting mini models to be sold in auction or be bold in Ice Break mountain, participating in Shunt’s unique seed dating event, just be ware of the Yeti !
If that’s not enough to satiate one’s appetite for experience, then can-can the night away or jump on a wood horse, armed with a flag and your micro nations rallying cry, battling it out against your recently wed spouse!
Time as we know it will cease and a new time will begin, measured on success and participation in these new lands. We celebrate winners. We celebrate losers."
To try and make up for it I am now reading about micronations! -
The Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands
Friday, March 11, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
The Green Wave
Iran is a nation of bloggers. Thousands of young people write down their feelings, write down what is on their minds in their blogs. If it was no longer possible for me to shoot my film in Iran, to interview the people there, these blogs were exactly the right source to reach the inner voices of the people. For a long time Ali Soozandeh and I had been searching for an adequate visual language, when we came across the so-called motion comic to tell about these blogs. I chose 15 blogs from 1,500 websites which we then translated into images.
director, Ali Samadi Ahadi
(Recent protests in London and big changes in the Middle East)
Sunday, February 27, 2011
20 predictions for the next 25 years
The Guardian has put together an interesting list of predictions for the next 25 years:
– Geopolitics: 'Rivals will take greater risks against the US'
– UK economy: 'The popular revolt against bankers will become impossible to resist'
– Global development: 'A vaccine will rid the world of Aids'
– Energy: 'Returning to a world that relies on muscle power is not an option'
– Advertising: 'All sorts of things will just be sold in plain packages'
– Neuroscience: 'We'll be able to plug information streams directly into the cortex'
– Physics: 'Within a decade, we'll know what dark matter is'
– Food: 'Russia will become a global food superpower'
– Nanotechnology: 'Privacy will be a quaint obsession'
– Gaming: 'We'll play games to solve problems'
– Web/internet: 'Quantum computing is the future'
– Fashion: 'Technology creates smarter clothes'
– Nature: 'We'll redefine the wild'
– Architecture: What constitutes a 'city' will change
– Sport: 'Broadcasts will use holograms'
– Transport: 'There will be more automated cars'
– Health: 'We'll feel less healthy'
– Religion: 'Secularists will flatter to deceive'
– Theatre: 'Cuts could force a new political fringe'
– Storytelling: 'Eventually there'll be a Twitter classic'
– Geopolitics: 'Rivals will take greater risks against the US'
– UK economy: 'The popular revolt against bankers will become impossible to resist'
– Global development: 'A vaccine will rid the world of Aids'
– Energy: 'Returning to a world that relies on muscle power is not an option'
– Advertising: 'All sorts of things will just be sold in plain packages'
– Neuroscience: 'We'll be able to plug information streams directly into the cortex'
– Physics: 'Within a decade, we'll know what dark matter is'
– Food: 'Russia will become a global food superpower'
– Nanotechnology: 'Privacy will be a quaint obsession'
– Gaming: 'We'll play games to solve problems'
– Web/internet: 'Quantum computing is the future'
– Fashion: 'Technology creates smarter clothes'
– Nature: 'We'll redefine the wild'
– Architecture: What constitutes a 'city' will change
– Sport: 'Broadcasts will use holograms'
– Transport: 'There will be more automated cars'
– Health: 'We'll feel less healthy'
– Religion: 'Secularists will flatter to deceive'
– Theatre: 'Cuts could force a new political fringe'
– Storytelling: 'Eventually there'll be a Twitter classic'
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Supposed to be researching fairy tales...
The Exposure Project
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2010
Angela Strassheim's Evidence
Angela Strassheim's project Evidence hybridizes aspects of criminology and photography into an eerie, often visually savage body of work. In the press release for her recent exhibition at Marvelli Gallery, it states:
"Long after the struggles ended in these spaces, despite the cleaning, repainting and subsequent re-habitation of the rooms, the "Blue Star" solution is capable of activating the physical memory of blood through its contact with remaining proteins on the walls. Long exposures- from ten minutes to one hour- with minimal ambient night light pouring in from the crevices of windows and doors, capture the physical presence of blood as a lurid glow: a constellation of stars embedded in the walls.
Through a long and painstaking research process, Angela mapped out the exact locations where violent, often horrific crimes were perpetrated. She convinced new owners and tenants, some unaware of the violent history of their residences, to revisit the unnoticed, unseen past. Angela captures the tracing of a final struggle through the hard evidence of a violent moment, thereby revealing the silent yet omniscient memory of everyday living spaces. The physical result of her work is a series of luscious, large black and white prints, which attract the viewer like stills from a film noir with their eerie seduction and mysterious quality. Ultimately, these images are honest and true to the original space; they make visible, once again, the traces of violence and death that took place in those spaces in a forgotten past."
"Long after the struggles ended in these spaces, despite the cleaning, repainting and subsequent re-habitation of the rooms, the "Blue Star" solution is capable of activating the physical memory of blood through its contact with remaining proteins on the walls. Long exposures- from ten minutes to one hour- with minimal ambient night light pouring in from the crevices of windows and doors, capture the physical presence of blood as a lurid glow: a constellation of stars embedded in the walls.
Through a long and painstaking research process, Angela mapped out the exact locations where violent, often horrific crimes were perpetrated. She convinced new owners and tenants, some unaware of the violent history of their residences, to revisit the unnoticed, unseen past. Angela captures the tracing of a final struggle through the hard evidence of a violent moment, thereby revealing the silent yet omniscient memory of everyday living spaces. The physical result of her work is a series of luscious, large black and white prints, which attract the viewer like stills from a film noir with their eerie seduction and mysterious quality. Ultimately, these images are honest and true to the original space; they make visible, once again, the traces of violence and death that took place in those spaces in a forgotten past."
Human milk ice cream
At £15 for every 10 ounces, you could certainly say they're milking it for all it's worth.
A central London ice-cream parlour has started selling ice-cream made with human breast milk. The Icecreamists in Covent Garden, London, have named their unusual delicacy Baby Gaga.
The treat is made by mixing breast milk with Madagascan vanilla pods and lemon zest. The milk has been donated by women who were paid £15 for every 10 ounces of their bodily fluid.
The dessert is offered up in a martini glass to those daring enough to try it for £14. Liquid nitrogen is also poured into the glass using a syringe.
Despite its unusual ingredient, the company said the "organic, free-range and totally natural" product sold out when launched today.
"The response has been amazing. People at first say it's disgusting because it's a bodily fluid, but so is cow's milk," said owner Matt O'Connor. "People love it when they try it."
The company paid women who donated their breast milk after health screening. The Food Standards Agency says there are no specific laws prohibiting businesses from selling human milk products, but they must comply with general food safety laws to ensure the product is safe for consumption.
The Icecreamists say Baby Gaga will be on the menu as long as the supplies keep flowing.
From the Guardian here.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Visited: Work in Progress @ RCA
Went to see work by Design Interactions however also really enjoyed Innovation Design Engineering.
Recently read in The Metro that they having a new building built especially for the course called the Dyson building (named after Mr. James Dyson, who previously studied at the RCA). Also read an astonishing 80% of students manage to secure further funding for their projects.
A project by Marguerite Humeau particularly caught my eye.
We-make-money-not-art also picked up on her work and published an interview with here here.
"With BACK, HERE BELOW, FORMIDABLE [ the rebirth of prehistoric creatures ],Marguerite Humeau, attempts to ressuscitate the sound of extinct animals by reconstructing their voicebox (lungs, trachea, larynx + vocal folds, mouth and nose). Made of soft tissue, the vocal tract does not fossilize. The only elements which have been preserved through time are their bones. By comparing them with the larynx CT scans of their closest modern relatives, Humeau hopes to be able to deduce what the vocal organs of the extinct animals looked and sounded like. With the help of a specialist of each animal, the designer plans to remodel the soft tissues of the modern animals on the basis of the bone structure of the extinct one. The structure of the soft tissues will then be printed in 3D."
Visited: Shadow Catchers @ V&A + collections
An exhibition of camera-less photography. As with all V&A temporary exhibitions it was really good but too short! More info here.
Pierre Cordier's work the most. His 'chemigrams' created really exciting patterns. -
Pierre Cordier (b. Brussels, 1933) discovered the 'chemigram' process in 1956. Over many years, he has explored the potential of the chemigram like an experimental scientist.
Working more like a painter or printmaker than a photographer, Cordier replaces the canvas or printing plate with photographic paper. He applies photographic developer to the paper to create dark areas and fixer for lighter tones. Further changes to shape and pattern are made by 'localising' products such as varnish, wax, glue, oil, egg and syrup. These protect the surface of the photographic emulsion or can be incised to create a drawing, graphic motif or written text. Entrancing chemical and physical reactions can then be made by repeatedly dipping the paper in photographic developer and fixer. This method allows him to create images impossible to realise by any other means. The process has become the artwork and his style is his technique.
My dad is a photography teacher and has his own studio and on a recent visit I made some photograms of a collection of clips I own -
Also while I was there my dad showed me a collection of amazing hand-painted glass slides, that he was given, which he believes to be over 100 years old. He has no idea of their origins but they appear to have been taken all over the world including China and India.
Pie Paper
Really enjoying this zine from New Zealand. Mixture of art, design, science. The issue I have is called 'Trace'. More infoformation here - http://www.piepaper.com/
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Here & There
I've previously written about Berg's Here & There maps on this blog. I think they're wicked, but read about the maps influences here and you'll realise how fantastic they really are.
(perspective)
Friday, February 11, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Wikipedia for Robots
Robots could soon have an equivalent of the internet and Wikipedia.
European scientists have embarked on a project to let robots share and store what they discover about the world.
Called RoboEarth it will be a place that robots can upload data to when they master a task, and ask for help in carrying out new ones.
Researchers behind it hope it will allow robots to come into service more quickly, armed with a growing library of knowledge about their human masters.
Whole article from the BBC here.
Monday, February 7, 2011
NEWS (!!) - Stamp Collection Found
I secretly love stamps. I have a small collection that my next door neighbour gave me when I was little. Recently discovered again. Amazing graphics. Click to make the picture big.
Elastic Band
Sunday, February 6, 2011
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