Seemingly disparate bites of information feed my mind. I will attempt chew, swallow and digest.

Sunday, April 05, 2009

Ed Ruscha


Parking lot pictures by Ed Ruscha
Here is a set of flickr images taken from google earth that attempt to recapture Ruscha's 'parking lot' series of images. This documentation on American car culture is amazing. These stark photos stand in opposition to the dominant, drive-in dinners and movie theatre photos that attempt to paint American homoginization as a fun new way of life.



Thirtyfour Parking Lots
, 1967
Twentysix Gasoline Stations, 1963
Wikipedia
Web 1

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Insert Clever Headline Here

Make that Clever & Catchy.
Use puns and cliche's.... Oh! cliche's with a twist.
That reminds of this bumber sticker I saw.
It was like 2+3 = 1, you know?
Maybe those numbers are wrong.

And then you ask yourself, what's going on here.

Use Few Words.
Write with impact.

My river runs broad and deep.
Your river is like a shallow stream with rapids.

Got it?

Fix it.

Don't forget to breath.

Breath again.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Women fight for rights in Film



Iron-jawed Angels.
A true story of the women who fight for their right to vote.

Best scene: The woman was handcuffed with her hands high above her head. The other women raised their hands above their head in protest of the woman's treatment. Moving with solidarity and strength.

So this friend.
I was talking to a friend about this movie. And he said, "Oh you mean the one they shot in Richmond?" Yes. That one. (Was shot at the old railway station) So my friend (whose house literally just burnt down, no joke, I'll take donations for him) was working at Elwood Thomson at the time the movie was being shot. Hilary Swank walked in wearing these big sunglasses that said, "I want to be recognizably incognito." The cashier pretended not to recognize her until he handed her card back. He grabbed her hand and said, "I absolutely loved you in "the Next karate Kid." She snatched her hand away and stormed off. ROFLMAO LOLCAT


Music dates the film - droopy hip hop bass beats and sappy strings - might have been edgy in the 90's, now it's trite.

Sunday, March 08, 2009

re>envision • housE sizE

Tiny Homes. I want one. Better yet, I would like to design my own from a single 40x8 foot shipping container. The house would require an activity & people centered, not stuff centered life.

The New York Times wrote about this phenomenon back in 2007. Their multimedia presentation gives a nice overview of the topic.

Recycled shipping container. Luxury. Simplicity. Tiny. These are not words that easily combine, but I believe that requires a different perspective on life. The movies below are some of the basis's of my inspiration. A shipping container would be highly mobile as well and find its home comfortablly in a narrow city lot or a great expanse of wilderness.

Saturday, February 28, 2009

buy design

We don't buy products, we buy product design. A stroll through Target and poster design project has had me thinking. Grids systems, Swedish design and the oh so holy Golden Ratio of (1.618...) help bring beauty into our lives everyday.

In our age of mass consumption, products that appear valuable and rare are a welcome addition to supermarket shelves. During my routine rebuy process of toothpaste, I usually reach for Colgate - the brand I grew up with. But in an aisle of blues, reds and sparkling swooshes, Rembrandt stood out in design (and in price). I paid the extra few dollars for the paste. Holding the package in my hand felt like I was holding something airy, something special and something that held a secret. Upon opening the colored tab on the front of the box, the whie exterior yielded to rich lush solid colors that held the prized tube of toothpaste.

At checkout I bought a small box of Starbucks Cafe Mocha Truffles. The exterior design was richly textured and the handwritten name made it appear one of a kind. The little box felt like it contained two little gems. With the opening of the front flap, a sentence was revealed "When coffee dream, it dreams of chocolate" The two truffles sat on a cheap looking gold tray the the candy itself was without luster and tasted cheap.

So much of our consumer experience is subconciously shapped by expectation. There have been many experiments in which people's expectation of quality actually shape and affect their judgement. Two glasses of wine from the same bottle were given to test participants. They were told one bottle was pried at $21 Dollars and the other at $8. People overwhelmingly enjoyed drinking the glass of wine they thought was more expensive, then the inexpensive one. Even thought the wine was the same. Price points go hand in hand with design.

Rembrandt is set apart in both price and design. And will I feel better about brushing with Rembrandt? Absolutely. Will I be able to tell any real difference between this and my trusted Colgate? I doubt it. After all, most of us probably can't tell a difference between toothpastes other than by taste and coloring.

In case we forget how far technology has come

Thursday, February 19, 2009

now you can track your every movement and find other who do the same

I just installed this new application on my blackberry and am, like much 'future' technology, I tend to be an early adopter, which means that I have no 'friends' or gFriends if you will (g for google) who also have installed the program. But I would imagine such a 'friend finder' would go over well in a more populated area such a NY or Asia.

What are the future implications of such a technology. Could this lead to the further erosion of social skills and the further closing our selves off in public space and hiding behind technology? Ah, of course, instead of looking around and being aware of our environment, it's another "extension" of our senses. We pour our senses, out ears and eyes into devices that promise to do more for us than we can do for ourselves. But at what cost? The movie Wall-e comes to mind with everyone plugged into their floating chairs in the spaceship. But perhaps some other, still unknown use may come out of this. What do you think?

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

prepare for the future



What do you think the authors of this video are trying to convey? Should we be frightened? No. Embrace the future.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Albert Robida









Albert Robida (1848 - 1926)




wikipedia states:

He was born in Compiègne, France, the son of a carpenter. In 1880, with Georges Decaux, he founded his own magazine La Caricature, which he edited for 12 years. He illustrated tourist guides, works of popular history, and literary classics. His fame disappeared after World War I.
During his lifetime he reportedly drew 60,000 pictures and wrote and/or illustrated over 200 books. (from "End of Books")

remyc states:
Robida unfortunately isn’t alone. There are countless numbers of thinkers, philosophers, inventors, in France they call them writers of “anticipation”, who are now hidden from public view, gathering dust on library shelves only as valuable collector’s items


From the End of Books:

But what of the future of books? The narrator argues that Gutenberg's invention will soon disappear. Reading causes lassitude and wearies us tremendously. Words through the speaking tube, however, give us a special vibrancy. The gramophone will destroy printed works. Our eyes are easily damaged, but our ears are strong.

But, his listeners object, gramophones are heavy and the cylinders easily damaged. This will be taken care of; new models will be built which will fit in the pocket; the precision of watchmaking will be applied to them. Devices will collect electricity from the movements of the individual, which will power the gramophones.

The author will become his own editor. In order to avoid imitations and counterfeits, he will deposit his voice at the Patent Office. Instead of famous men of letters, we will have famous narrators. The art of diction will become extremely important. The ladies will no longer say that they like an author's style, but that his voice is so charming, so serious, that he leaves you full of emotion after listening to his work: it is an incomparable ravishment of the ear.

The libraries will be become phonographoteques. They will house famous works by artists in vogue, such as Coquelin's performance of Moliere, Irving's Shakespeare, Salvini's Dante, etc. Bibliophiles will become phonographophiles, and collect cylinders with the unique example of the voice of a Master of the theater, poetry or music, or those with new and unknown alternate versions of a famous work. Narrators will do comic pieces, sound effects, and dialects like Irishmen and American Westerners.

At the crossroads of all cities, there will be kiosks where the passerby can put in a penny and hear the works of Dickens, Dumas Sr. or Longfellow. The author can carry his works to buildings on the street, where multiple pipes will carry his words to all the windows for the people to listen. At four or five cents per hour, even the poor can afford this, and the wandering author will still make money because of the number of listeners at each house.

Our grandchildren will use phonographs everywhere; at every restaurant table, public transportation, steamship cabins, and hotel rooms; railroads will supply Pullman circulating libraries which will make travelers forget the distances they cover, while allowing them to look out the windows. Printing will be abandoned, except for a small possible use in trade and private communication.

The newspaper will go the same way, because no one will be satisfied with the printed word if they can hear what was actually said, the current songs, the voices of the divas. The post office will bring cylinders each morning to the subscribers; the servants will lay them out so the Master and the Mistress can hear the news, telegrams, stock exchange prices, whimsical articles. Journalism will be transformed, with the best places reserved for the solid young men with warm, strong voices, whose art will be in the pronunciation rather than in the style or form of the written sentences. While literary mandarinism will not disappear, it will be for a negligible number of listeners. The newspaper offices will have enormous "spoking halls" [sic] where the writers will record the news aloud; the telephonic dispatches will be transferred automatically. The resulting cylinders will be stereotyped in great number and put into the post office before 3:00 am., except that if it can be arranged with the telephone companies the newspaper will be carried directly by wire to the ears of the subscribers.

Blackcross objects to the loss of illustrations when books disappear. Ah! the Kinetograph of Thomas Edison, which the narrator saw the first tests of, when he visited New Jersey, will record the movements of the man as the gramophone records the voice. Within a few years this will illustrate everyday life. We will have these in our residences; the scenes of fiction and adventure novels will be performed by well-costumed actors. We will also have current events, to complement the phonographic newspaper.

Finally, just as eye-doctors multiplied when Journalism was invented, in the same way in the future ear specialists will prosper.

Books must disappear, or they will ruin us. In the whole world there are eighty to a hundred thousand books published each year, and at a thousand copies each this is more than one hundred million specimens, of which the majority contain only trash and errors.

How happy we will be not to have to read any more; to be able finally to close our eyes! Hamlet, of our beloved Will, could not have said it any better ... Words! Words! Words! ...words which will pass and which no one will read any more.

Copyright 1999, 2000 by Michael Ward

Sunday, February 01, 2009

McDonalds TV ads, a social commentary

McDonald's commercials have asked Americans to buy food for decades. Seen as a whole from the start in 1967 through today. The commercials reveal a complex social commentary. The evolution of video and advertising in the commercials reveal the evolution of art and technology through the decades. Even more interesting, though, is the sales techniques employed in the commercials and how they have evolved to target a wide-range of consumer demographic segments. Some commercials employ use of gross stereotypes while others try to tie-in the food with being active, creative, business-oriented, or middle class, etc.

looking back on TV shows of the past reveals the different cultural values of the time period, what was considered socially acceptable, and how people viewed themselves.



see more here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHSWhMHmPuw

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Chinese Underground Hip Hop

Hip-hop culture in China developed as a reaction against strong assimilation forces found in China's public education system. Technology speeds diffusion of hip-hop culture in China, while students look outwards for new forms of self expression to reflect their disillusionment with conventional Chinese culture.

The New York Times documents this growing underground hip-hop scene. Having lived in Shanghai for over a year, I believe this hip hop, while borrowed from the west, is a great form of active and creative self-expression for Chinese youth. The emergence of this art form will erode state-sanctioned pop music, which dominates airwaves.

Pop music and culture in China often focuses narrowly on issues of family, tradition and romantic love. Independent, and in this case, hip-hop culture will bring new topics into the public discourse. Perhaps the music, style and attitude of these artists will challenge traditional attitudes and pressures to conform.

To me, this phenomenon speaks to wonder and curiosity for this movement is organic. Like a tree shooting skyward from a crack it does not belong. The People's Republic of China opposes diversity of thought. The enforcement of homogenized culture fuels the ascension of Chinese hip hip.

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