the xx

I've recently discovered "The XX", a wonderful London quartet:

The reverb-heavy interplay of guitars and harmonies between Romy Madley Croft’s smoldering siren’s call and Oliver Sim’s disaffected croon wonderfully recalled Interpol and Pixies at both bands’ most intimate moments. To me, it's not just the music: It's hard to describe why, but I love the style and honest youthful-but-alienated appearance of the band.

untitled-preview

"Untitled" is an indie movie on the defintion of art, starring Adam Goldberg. It is a satire that pokes fun of the nuanced world of the New York contemporary art scene through a pair of competitive brothers eclectic and self-important music composer Adrian and commercially successful painter Josh. The music was written by Pulitzer Prize winning compose David Lang

100 to watch

100 to watch - Directory of Contemporary Romanian Artists

"The creative scene in Romania is one of the most vibrant and exciting in Europe. This directory was put together to illustrate what makes it so special. A listing of 100 of the most talented artists in Romania today, from conceptual art to contemporary dance, literature and theatre to music and fashion, it’s a snapshot of an entire generation – the Romanian New Wave. Every single artist between these pages is part of the reason why Romania is such an exciting place to be right now. It’s indicative of just how much talent there is in the Romanian New Wave." via please hide

shoji uchida

Shoji Uchida via Pentru Ochi

dead man's bones

"Dead Man's Bones" is a a collaboration project between actors Ryan Gosling, Zach Shiels, and the Silverlake Children's Choir. Ghostly and at times even a bit morbid (it started as the soundtrack to a play), I find it absolutey addictive!! The nameless album was released on the 2nd of October.

Here is their song "Pa Pa Power":

Also check out their song "My Body's A Zombie For You".

never-ending piece

This is The ABC 2009, an art project by Halle- & Berlin-based Klub7 (a collective of 6 designers and artists):

THE ABC 2009 // KLUB7 from KID CASH // KLUB7 on Vimeo.

ryuichi sakamoto - concert review

On the 9th of October, I have attended Ryuichi Sakamoto's concert at Tonhalle Düsseldorf in Germany (read related post here). For the first time ever at a concert, I sat in the first row and I am happy that I got to experience such a great view: I could see his fingers hit the keys, I could admire his incredibly expressive face and hear his feet tapping.

Even though it was a bit difficult in the beginning for him to connect with the audience, the rather solemn atmosphere soon tunred into a warm one: he started talking to the audience, introducing his songs in English with a humorous feel.

Sakamoto did not have a setlist but he started his concert with a few experimental pieces (addressing global warming and its effects on Greenland's icebergs), which underlined his commitment with environmental causes ("Playing the Piano" is a carbon-free tour, watch an interview from AudiTV here).

Eventually he went on playing his most famous pieces (from movie soundtracks) and I have to say that I felt a shudder at the first notes of "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence", probably one of the most anticipated pieces of the evening. His songs are quite patterned and repetitive, nevertheless, so melodious that they really spoke to my heart. I had to smile almost throughout the entire concert. Most interesting was the fact that on stage there were two pianos, as is normally the case when two artist play at the same time. Sakamoto's team however have used a special technique, where the artist was able to play and improvise with himself: The rapid changes from one instrument to the other using digital technology will allow entire musical phrases played by Sakamoto on the first piano to be transferred to the second piano in real time (watch an example here). The only thing I disliked were the shapes and images projected in the background (similar to a media-player visualisation). Either abstarct motion or more or less undefined pictures, they were quite distracting.

I loved all his pieces but the most surpising discovery for me was "Happy End" from the Yellow Magic Orchestra days (for a solo version, similar to the one I have seen, click here):

You can buy the album to the tour, "Out of Noise", on Amazon.

(picture source: Sakamoto's photo album on facebook)

tragic story with happy ending

Here is Regina Pessoa's amazing "História Trágica Com Final Feliz" (2005). It tells the story of a young girl who doesn't fit in the small town life because she is different from everybody else: She has a tiny heart, which has to beat a lot louder than anyone else's. Unfortunatelly, it beats so loud that it disturbs everyone else.

The sound design is amazing, the animation style is powerful and reminds me of Caroline Leaf. The film has won many prizes, notably The Annecy Cristal Award International Animated Film Festival in 2006. I especially like the part at the end, where the credits appear and fragments of the empty life of the townspeople is illustrated. The story is not as powerful without that.

For the English version click here (I think that the Portuguese version sounds better, though). Visit the short film's site here. Visit the website of the National Film Board of Canada, where you can also purchase the DVD and find interviews with the artist, wallpapers and other goodies.

emily howell

Have a listen to the new star on the classical music sky: Emily Howell

Sounds impressive? However, Emily Howell is not real, but virtual. David Cope, a music professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz is her craetor. She is nothing less than a computer program, which (after almost 40 years) is now able to create original compositions of contemporary classical music. Read more here.

But Howell is, her critics say, dumbly re-arranging phrases from the work of earlier human composers into a new pattern which is only theoretically original (...) "From the heart – may it go to the heart," wrote Beethoven on the manuscript of his Missa Solemnis. From the byte to the brain can never be equivalent to that (Mark Lawson in the Guardian).

I'm relieved.

a good book

"What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it." (Holden Caulfield - "Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger)

the psychiatrist

Who is the therapist and who is the client? This is a wonderfully poetic and surreal animation by Emily Howells, called "The Psychiatrist". The oddball paranoid versifier is voiced by Roger McGough who speaks a fantastical, fearful and funny imagery. A Must-See!

le processus

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!

Here is "Le Processus"/"the Process" made in 2000 at the prestigious Supinfocum by Philippe Grammaticopoulos and Xavier L'Hermuzière: A wonderful b&w animation depicting a dystopian society on a great soundtrack by Ivo Malec, Nine Inch Nails and Parmegiani.

hud mo

Hudson Mowhawke (a.k.a. Hud Mo, DJ Itchy) is a young, genius electronic music producer/DJ from Glasgow, Scotland. I adore his sound, a mix of hip-hop and digital,definetely fresh. Can't wait to get a hold of his new album "Butter". Here is his tune "Zoo000o00m" (credits for the wonderful clip go to MaSSoN):

ghostvillage

"Ghostvillage" is an interesting project: Six urban artists, Remi/Rough, Stormie, System, Timid, Derm and Juice 126, were given free reign of an abandoned village on the west coast of Scotland.

by Agents of Change via Arrested Motion

Ghostvillage from Agents Of Change on Vimeo.

despite. even though.

I help because I can (afford it). But would I help otherwise? This question makes me think about who I am. It might be a trivial thought, but I could never understand and express it clearly up to now:

Most of the times we perceive any helping hand as a true blessing, especially when it comes unasked or during tough times, when we need it most. But I believe that an important distinction needs to be made here: A helping act can only be called genuinely kind, when it involves some kind of effort or sacrifice from the helper*. In my opinion (although I might be wrong), genuine kindness has got nothing to do with friendship or love, but with a certain character type. This means that friends, even though they love us, might never be able to help genuinely kind. But there might well be strangers who would: A genuinely kind helping hand might come from anywhere and even from people we expect it least from.

I will always be thankful for any help, but from now on, I will definetely notice and cherish the genuinely kind helping hands most. The ones that come from people who help despite the fact that they cannot afford it. Even though it's not convenient for them.

*Genuine kindness might be in danger of extinction (if we think of it from an evolutionary perspective, genuine kindness, as I have defined it, is absurd).

stupid skeleton

"BOZO SKELETON" is a very funny piece by Japanese artist Shohei Takasaki (one of the first urban artists I have become interested in). I especially like the author's comment:

"This 'BOZO SKELETON (aka Stupid Skeleton)' is obviously what a person looks like after death. But BOZO SKELETON handsomely wears a tight suit and a fancy hat, holds a flower, key, gun, pen...and looks in some sense adorable and also cool. It almost seems like he's trying to do what he wanted to do before he died, and he's enjoying himself while he whistles in the dark. You never know when you are going to die in the world today, and you can feel the effort of a human trying to live the life to the fullest through this dead BOZO SKELETON. This is a story of a departed soul trying to bring back the passion of a normal human being, the passion that living human beings hold."

It is a stupid skeleton after all. Because it is irrational. I highlighted some of the words that made me smile. In my opinion, they are the key words that illustrate how an ambiguous image can tell a complex, multi-facetted story. What it is, what it wears and holds is not as important as how it does all that. This comment is a wonderful example of how the work tells more about the artist than the artist about his work ;)

toy on wood

London-born and U.K. and U.S.-trained visual artist Robert Bradford makes use of discarded plastic items, (mainly toys but also other colorful plastic bits, such as pegs, combs and buttons) to construct large sculptures. Basically he recycles toys and creates new ones! Pretty original, I would say ;)

Like many artists, he also had another career on the side. Interestingly enough, his was that of a psychotherapist.

picture source

In 2002, he started to consider the possibilities that his children’s forgotten toys could have as part of something bigger. Bradford says he likes the idea that the plastic pieces have a history, some unknown past, and that they also pass on a "cultural" history as each of the pieces represents a point in time. Recycling is not his primary concern, but each sculpture certainly keeps quite a few pieces from becoming landfill. Some of the sculptures contain pieces from up to 3,000 toys and sell for £12,000 (US$19,000).

if graffitti were alive

After Blu's wonderful piece "Muto", here comes "Combo", a collaboration with fellow artist David Ellis. It's so original and truly amazing!

And since we're at urban art that should be alive: I would love to see an animation of Sail's work (picture source: NeochaEDGE):

"I think graffiti should really appear 'alive' on the wall, so my pieces are quite dynamic and powerful in style. It’s almost like you can feel them moving. They’re not just sitting still for people to take pictures of them."(Sail)

astro boy?

Here comes the Americanized 3D version of the popular series: Astro Boy, produced by Imagi Animation Studios. It was a Japanese manga series first published in 1952 and later an anime television program that began broadcasting in Japan in 1963. The story follows the adventures of a fictional robot named Astro Boy and a selection of other characters along the way. Creator Dr. Osamu Tezuka (1928 - 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, animator, producer and medical doctor. He is often credited as the "Godfather of Anime", or the "God of Manga" (picture via shanghaiist).

And now it has apparently become time for Astro Boy to become three dimensional. When looking at the new trailer it seems obvious that once again we will see an animated blockbuster based on the same format, the same jokes and the same predictable Hollywood storytelling that way too often gets free rein these days.

There is something almost repulsive in hearing Japanese manga figures speaking with a thick American accent, and just reading about the movie´s "Dubbing into Japanese", feels like a knife in the heart. And, why in god´s name have they brushed off Astro´s beautiful long eye lashes? To make him less androgynous and sweet - to turn him into a norm fitting masculine stereotype? Makes one wonder, where in all this did the original Astro Boy vanish?

authenticity

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don't bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: "It's not where you take things from - it's where you take them to..." (Jim Jarmush via Adam Schokora).

Basically the only artform we are left with is a "combinatory artform", a collage of references. Because everything has already been expressed. The only thing left for us to do is to play with and reinterpret fragments. Maybe now more than ever, art is a dialogue (related post on Romanian post-modernism).

la maison en petites cubes

Academy Award winning animation by Kunio Kato: "La Maison en Petites Cubes":

La Maison en Petites Cubes from dorsumi on Vimeo.

invisible people

A recent post on Alice in my head introduced a wonderful Korean artist to me: Jin Young Yu. Her work is so mesmerizing and I just cannot help wanting to own one of her transparent sculptures (clay and PVC). Both expressionless and expressive at the same time, the mask-like faces (masks seem to be a major motif, as they appear as accessoires, as well) symbolize a character, a persona, behind which true identity and emotion hides. Like a three-dimensional examination of hypocrisy, domestic secrets, and the ongoing battle between a private versus public self.

"It was too simple to define them as “the alienated people” or “the depressed people”. Instead, I thought that I, or we, could easily be one of them. My works are about people who, instead of getting along with others, choose to keep a distance from them, and be invisible or be left alone unconcerned. Instead of trying to fit into the world, they climb into a space of their own and reject other people’s intrusions (read the rest of the interview here)."

"My figures express the loneliness of people living today. The transparent body means a perfect shield that makes it possible to hide itself anywhere, while the crying face represents a warning: ‘Don’t come towards me!’ I intend to remind viewers of the loneliness of people in this modern society, where there is little of true communication." And as for an overall theme? "I want to get away from the plastic smiles and fake facial expressions," she says. Thus is the essence of Jin Young’s stoic army.

For more see Union or the artist's blog. Read an interview with the artist on Arrested Motion.

taking the "fiction" out of "science fiction"

First in a series of posts on the future of brain imaging technology (I will use this for a debate in class with the students): CBS's 60 Minutes with Lesley Stahl: "How Technology May Soon 'Read' Your Mind" (picture via Bertrand Thirion).

Watch an interesting lecture on this topic by Martha Farah here ("Imaging the Brain, Reading the Mind" is a Northwestern University public outreach program to help the general public understand the impact of cutting-edge brain imaging technology on human health, law, and ethics).

precious things

"After all, the most precious things in life are found by searching."

I have recently read this comment on the internet and it made me smile. No matter how I think of it: it's true. And it goes for people, places, feelings, ideas, things.

Many times in our lives we are offered precious things, but we fail to acknowledge their worth because we haven't been needing and searching for them. We first realize something is precious only after we have experienced its (potential) absence. Because if it's not there, one needs to look for it or for a substitute. The mere fact of looking for something, makes one realize how indispensable it is for satisfying one's needs. A bit intrigued, I'm really looking for an exception for this rule. I guess, after all, the most precious things, are found by searching ;)

annie

Annie's new album "Don't Stop" is so cool!

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. This week's snap for boys comes from Scrapture:

This week's snap for girls comes from Dropsnap: