jwt shanghai & hailong li: shan shui animation

This post has been originally posted on Neocha EDGE.

The China Environment Protection Foundation(CEPF) recently commissioned JWT Shanghai to develop three print advertisements using shan shui style art by renowned landscape artist Yang Yongliang. The advertisements, titled Global Warming, Industrial Pollution, and Automotive Pollution, aimed to raise public awareness of ongoing environmental damage to China’s environment and were displayed as subway posters and full-page newspaper ads.

The ads bear a striking resemblance to traditional Chinese paintings but, when looked at closely, portray environmentally unfriendly factories, cars, and buildings littering the landscape. The campaign has been a big hit with both the public and the press. The printed ads have received a number of international awards: Cannes Lions 2009 Outdoor Silver Ads, New York Festival Awards 2009, NYF 2009 Print Gold ads.

The print ads have been adapted into an excellent animated short (see below) directed by Li Hailong from Beijing's One Production to run on air and on plasma screens in the Shanghai People Square Subway Station. The animation short was awarded the "Spikes Asia Gold Craft Spike" prize in the Category "TV - Best Use of Animation/Computer Graphics/ Special Effects" at this year's Spike Asia - Asian Advertising Festival. Additionally, the entire campaign won a number of Lotus awards at AdFest 2009, including gold for social engagement, best use of illustration, best art direction, and animation.

Apart from its mere artistic value, the campaign has also communicational and educational value: Raising public and governmental awareness might be the first step towards change. The campaign's worth is to be seen in the fact that, it manages to highlight the threat that ignorance represents to cultural identity by making use of aesthetic cues charged with traditional value.

Li, a graduate of the Beijing Film Academy with a degree in animation, told us he did not try to solely address environmental issues but also social ones as well: "The campaign expresses a societal attitude change with respect to the concept of "survival" – it activates an "environmental mindset" by addressing motives deeply rooted in everyone's psyche: the universal drive for continuance and the desire for a comfortable life." Li explained that he made use of exaggerated imagery in order to emphasize the lack of space and suffocation people are confronted with today in China – a phenomenon, he says, that leads to increased levels of societal anxiety, confusion, and ultimately, a redefinition of necessity that exploits nature and replaces it with artificial substitutes.

Bravo JWT and One Production.

I would like to thank Hailong for his interview, patience and helpful comments.

feeling

"And be sure of this, I spent my entire youth writing slowly with revisions and endless rehashing speculation and deleting and got so I was writing one sentence a day and the sentence had no FEELING. Goddamn it, FEELING is what I like in art, not CRAFTINESS and the hiding of feelings." Jack Kerouac, 1968, Paris Review (via pinkhotel)

vitalic

On KoiKoiKoi, I have come across this awesome video for Vitalic' "Pony". However, I have discovered Vitalic only recently, through their album "Flashmob". I love absolutely every single track on it!

Enjoy:

the appropriate place

Just in time for the Romanian elections, "Guess Who" has released the single ("anu' 2000/ year 2000" aka "locul potrivit/the appropriate place") and I adore it. I love the lyrics, the beat, the kids' voices in the beginning (reminiscent of the cartoons of my childhood). Well done!

mono

Mono is the first Japanese band I have listened to and they have remained one of my favourites ever since. They are a Japanese instrumental rock band that formed in 1999. The band consists of Takaakira Goto (electric guitar), Yoda (electric guitar), Tamaki Kunishi (bass guitar, guitar, piano, glockenspiel), and Yasunori Takada (drum kit, glockenspiel, synthesiser). Although they belong to the post-rock movement, they understand their style rather related to classical music. It is not as much a question of style category, they say, music is about emotion.

"The Kidnapper Bell", may not be their best, but it's their first song I have listened to, the one that got me hooked on them and definetely representative in structure to most of their work: mesmerizing, it starts off in a very soft and delicate mood, builds up tension, holds the tension, holds it even farther and ends in an unbearable climax of melody mixed with crushing noise, leaving the listener (as a youtube user has noted) feeling like they would have only one more heartbeat left.

stuff white people like

Stuff White People Like is a wonderful, intelligent and entertaining blog on the stuff white people like. Strongly recommended!

chinese beat: banana monkey

Through the bilingual website NeochaEDGE, I have recently discovered some great Chinese bands and I would like to do a sereis on posts on them. For the rest of the series, check out the "Chinese Beat" tag.

Here's a video of "Drunk Daddy" of one of my favourites: Banana Monkey. The sound quality is not perfect, but it gives a good idea of what these guys can do :)

the seeds

I'm addicted to this song!

the soliloquist

It's Saturday morning! It's cartoon morning!

Even though, I usually post animations from The Saturday Morning Cartoon Index, I have now decided to post other little jewels of animations that I find elsewhere, as well. This post was originally posted on NeochaEDGE, a wonderful site I was fortunate enough to be invited to contributed to.

"The Soliloquist" by Taiwanese illustrator and animator Ma Kuangpei (馬匡霈, aka Keats) is a modern fable about loneliness and self-deception. It tells the story of a heart broken man who receives letters and packages stating with the wrong addressee. Unable to return the letters, he starts to read them and develops a strange illusory relationship with his fictitious alter-ego.

Ma’s animated short combines Eastern and Western aesthetic concepts and is defined by a wonderful combination of collage and watercolor styles with brilliant transitions. Watch the entire six-minute film below.

Born in 1981, Ma graduated from the Tainan National University of the Arts. The Soliloquist (aka 我说啊，我说) was produced in 2008 as his graduation work. It has received amazing feedback ever since and was nominated and screened at numerous international film festivals. In 2009 it was awarded the “Little Nomad Prize“ at the Urban Nomad Filmfest in Taipei, Taiwan and it received the “Special Mention – Asian New Force“ at the Hong Kong Independent Short Film and Video Awards. Moreover, it has received the “Special Distinction Award” in the Graduation Films category at the 33rd 2009 Annecy International Animation Film Festival, becoming the first Taiwanese animated movie to receive an award at the competition. Ma’s success this year, in combination with this most-recent honor, will serve to show Chinese artists, most of whom are currently focused on the technical aspect of animation, another direction in which they can grow.

china in art

Here are two artists who make use of 'China' to create fascinating works of art:

Li Xiaofeng is a Beijing based artist who creates beautiful sculptures that can actually be worn. His creations are made out of traditional Chinese ceramic shards coming from the Song, Ming, Yuan and Quing dynasties, which are then sewn together on a leather undergarnment (picture source Arrested Motion).

Born to Trinidadian parents in Ireland, Brendan Lee Satish Tang is a ceramic artist who now resides in Kamploops, British Columbia, Canada. His series ‘Manga Ormolu’ is a commentary on globalization examined through the relationship between traditional Chinese Ming dynasty vessels and techno-pop art of Japan. Tang casts traditional vessels and adorns them with prosthetics inspired by Japanese anime and manga, subverting the elitism of the vessels ‘with the accessibility of popular culture.’ The concept of adapting the Ming vessels is designed to recall 18th century French gilded ormolu, which borrowed Chinese vessel forms to act as curiosity pieces for aristocrats (via Designboom).

china's creative cyberyouth

Here is a nice article I have found on censorship and how it may foster creativity. A case that emerged where creativity would be least expected? Let this article prove your preconceptions wrong!

The Flash Culture Revolution

by Duncan Rickelton (Shanghai, China)

via Juxtapoz Magazine

“Jia Jun Peng, your mother wants you to come home for dinner.”

Sounds like a fairly innocuous phrase, doesn’t it? But in fact when it was posted on a Chinese internet forum last Thursday it gave rise to an unprecedented flash flood of public creativity: 300,000 responses within two days. What has transpired is fascinating not only for what it reveals about Chinese youth, but also for its wider sociological implications. It seems to indicate that the ever-quickening pace of cultural development is now moving up a gear, breaking the waters on an entirely new social trend: flash culture.

At 10:59pm last Thursday the message was posted on a forum operated by Baidu, China’s largest search engine. The first responses came within minutes, apparently from random members viewing the forum: “I’m not coming back home for dinner today. I’m eating at the internet café. Tell my mother for me, will you?”; “If you don’t come back home right now I’ll make you kneel on the washboard.” More responses began to pour in by the second, and after six hours there were more than 17,000 posts in the thread. Members had set up accounts as Jia Jun Peng’s mother, sister, grandfather, creating a humorous fictional dialogue between the characters. From Jia Jun Peng’s girlfriend: “Peng Peng, come back. Your mother has accepted we can be together. Let’s not argue.” There were soon entire stories being posted. The artists were also quick to get involved – every moment a new picture was Photoshopped and uploaded to the board, depicting President Obama entreating Jia Jun Peng to return home for dinner, or a government meeting in the Great Hall of the People to discuss “Jia Jun Peng’s dinner problem”.

Still no-one is exactly sure who Jan Jun Peng is, or whether he even exists at all. But it doesn’t really seem to matter. This is by no means the first example of mass creativity to emerge out of cyberculture. (...) But what is remarkable about the Jia Jun Peng phenomenon is the sheer volume of participation, and the rate of spread. By 1:38 pm on July 20th, four days after the initial post, the thread reached its limit of 315,649 posts. It was 10,421 pages long. (...)

However, that this has happened in China may be an eye-opener for the rest of the world. The rapidity of China’s economic development of recent years is undeniable, but there remained question marks about the capacity of the People’s Republic for creative innovation given the tendency of the education system to promote rote learning over individual creativity. The Jia Jun Peng thread, though, sends a strong message into cyberspace: there are fertile imaginations aplenty among China’s 21st century youth, and, given the right conditions, there is huge creative potential.

Whether the government will provide those conditions remains to be seen. They certainly do not seem to be loosening their grip on the internet – the recently adopted ‘Green Dam’ policy decrees that all new computers be manufactured with in-built filtering software. But Chinese netizens don’t take this kind of thing sitting down. When the government tried to clamp down on internet profanity earlier this year, the public responded by inventing ten ‘mythical creatures’ whose names were pronounced in a similar way to the banned expletives they represented (the ‘French-Croatian Squid’, for instance, pronounced in Mandarin fa ke you, actually referenced the pronunciation of a well-known English insult). There developed a whole sub-culture surrounding these mythical creatures, with images, faux-documentaries and songs being produced. Call it protest, call it ridiculous – but you can’t say it’s not creative.(...)

yeasayer - ambling alp

"(...) Now, the world can be an unfair place at times

But your lows will have their complement of highs

And if anyone should cheat you, take advantage of, or beat you

Raise your head and wear your wounds with pride

You must stick up for yourself, son

Never mind what anybody else done (...)"

time of the gypsies

La Via Show is a wonderful Korean project, which documents young musicians and their performances. I love the idea behind the project: like a street diary, using great art direction and wonderful concepts for the filming in unusual settings (street, public toilets, restaurants, offices etc.). Here is "Beautiful Days - Time of the Gypsies":

ida's bad luck

The Saturday Morning Cartoon Index is a wonderful collection of animated short movies. Since it is saturday morning ;) I am going to share some of my favourites with you and I will try to do so each saturday!

Even though Halloween is over, I would like to share Katy Towell's "Ida's Luck", a story about a mysterious little girl. And while I can't say the animation style blows me away, I have to admit that the narrative is excellent.

Part 1:

Ida's Luck Part 1 from Katy Towell on Vimeo.

Part 2:

Ida's Luck Part 2 from Katy Towell on Vimeo.

snap of the week

Since I am a huge fan of street fashion, I have decided to share each week my favourite snap with you. Sometimes it will be up-to-date posts on street style blogs, other times, they might come from the archives. Most of the times, however, it will be Japanese street fashion, as I believe that it is by far the most refreshing one.

Because I haven't been posting in a while, I will post two street style posts this week. I have recently discovered this young man on Ridsnap:

tim burton on wearing striped socks

I have posted before on Tim Burton's restrospective at New York's MoMA, which features well over 700 paintings, drawings, photos, puppets, costumes, story boards, short films, and slideshows. Watch a video below, where the master himself shares with us some of his thoughts on drawing, movies, childhood, normality...and striped socks:

via Arrested Motion

snap of the week

Since I am a huge fan of street fashion, I have decided to share each week my favourite snap with you. Sometimes it will be up-to-date posts on street style blogs, other times, they might come from the archives. Most of the times, however, it will be Japanese street fashion, as I believe that it is by far the most refreshing one.

Now, I know, I haven't posted in a while, because I have been quite busy and did not have time to "scout". Recently I checked up on Ridsnap to see what I have been missing and spontaneously decided to do a quick post on Japanese male fashion of the eccentric type (click on the pics to enlarge, the details make the outfit!):

AWESOME!

my favourite: check the glasses, shoes, glove...

TRYING TOO HARD?

still, I like how he tied the scarf around the bag, as is fashionable on handbags...

korean office

La Via Show is a wonderful Korean project on documenting young creatives and their music. Here's a taster: great concept, amazing cinematography and surprisingly good music (by nunco). That's my kind of office!

the girl effect

The Girl Effect is about girls. And boys. And moms and dads and villages and towns and countries.

and action!

"What are you waiting for?", she asked.

"Well, I am waiting for the movie to start", I replied.

"But the movie has aaaalready started!", she cried in an enthusiastic voice. It seemed to me like every pore in her body was passionately urging me to look closely, as the answer was right there in front of me. "You still don't realize that, do you..." she continued in an almost affirmative tone, and I could sense that all her enthusiasm had suddenly dried out. Not because she had realized that I wasn't able to follow, but because she realized that she would not be the one to open my eyes.

"I feel like I am on stand-by", I said, and thought I had given an extremely witty answer.

chinese beat: women in chinese music

Through the bilingual website NeochaEDGE, I have recently discovered some great Chinese bands and I would like to do a series on posts on them: PK-14, Hedgehog, Carsick Cars, Queen Sea Big Shark, Banana Monkey and many more. As a first post in the series, I wanted to introduce some talented ladies passionate about making music:

For more videos in this series, check out the "Chinese Beat" tag.

days with my father

Phillip Toledano is a very talented photographer. He has recently signed a book deal for his online project "Days With My Father". This project documents in photographs and words the moments the artist spends with his 98 year old father, who suffers from a short-term memory impairment. I love everything about this project. Its beauty, honesty, simplicity.

NOTHING cheers up my dad, like stories of my success. So if he's down, or obsessing about something, I'll immediately conjure up a blossoming career. I'm shooting for the New York Times. The New Yorker. Multi-million dollar advertising campaigns. Sometimes it's true, sometimes it's not. But it doesn't matter. The important thing is to fill him with as much joy as I can. His face bursts with happiness. He'll say "I have to tell ALL my friends, my son is famous!".

tim and jean

Tim and Jean are two talented kids (15 and 18 years old) from Australia. The electro duo has received amazing feedback form public and press and here is the reason why: "Come Around" (listen to the entire track on their myspace page)

picture source: The Cool Hunter

masks

Jonny Wan is an illustrator based in Sheffield, he studied at Manchester School of Art, graduating in Design and Art Direction. His passions, are facial expressions, shapes and hand drawn typography. via KoiKoiKoi

urban media festival

If you happen to be anywhere near Cologne (Germany) in November, make sure to check out the Urban Media Festival: International crews made up of young media talents from France, UK, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain will develop statements on urban life together with their Cologne hosts. Watch, discuss, join and grab some ideas: From November 25th to 29th, the Urban Media Lounge at Alte Feuerwache Cologne will open doors for all young media afficionados. Starting from 14:00 CET, urban Gemütlichkeit will be re-defined here on a daily base. With snacks, drinks, workshops and exhibitions. And on Sunday, the „Film Makers‘ Coffee Circle“ invites movie makers and cineastes to cake, talk and freshly pressed video productions. From workshops on After Effects and digital graffiti to light tagging and sound design: There's a little bit of everything for everyone!

the reverse graffiti project

Meet English graffiti artist Moose's eco friendly art:

the eye writer

The Eyewriter from Evan Roth on Vimeo.

The EyeWriter project is an ongoing collaborative research effort to empower people, who are suffering from ALS, with creative technologies. It is a low-cost eye-tracking apparatus & custom software that allows graffiti writers and artists with paralysis resulting from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to draw using only their eyes.