personal projects

Whenever I get the time, I want to work on several personal projects:

1. visual inspiration from Romania, is a short series of posts (maybe 5?) that will help me introduce Romanian artists to a larger audience. The focus of these posts lies less on fine arts in the traditional sense but more on urban, pop & digital art and youth culture in Romania. The first part can be found here on KoiKoiKoi.

2. music from Macau is a short series of posts planned for NeochaEDGE. It will profile several bands and DJ's and feature interviews with them and music videos of live performances. I am also planning an article featuring interviews with Portuguese and Chinese people from Macau (music critics, producers etc), who describe and comment on the current state of the local music scene. I am not sure yet, where I could submit such an article, but the people I have met so far, make it difficult for me not to want to put everything I discover on paper.

3. Chinese photography is a young project and the one that motivates me most at the moment. The idea behind it was that I wanted to introduce Chinese photographers, who I discover and interview for NeochaEDGE, to a German audience. Since I have access to both cultures, why not make something beautiful out of it? I have the opportunity to guest-blog for a German photography blog and I received pretty much freedom in what and how I wanted to write. But the more I plan this article, the more confused I become about its concept and what I want to achieve with it. And on top of everything I anticipate that it will take time. It's a long process of viewing portfolios, conversing with photographers, Chinese bloggers and photography experts, using google translator A LOT, deciding on how to showcase together professional and amateur photographers of different generations and different styles. But the wait will be worth it!

It's so exciting to discover, share and hopefully inspire!

back to the future

Here's this saturday's morning cartoon: a geat example of creative talent from China. It was made as an MV (music starts at 1:55) for Chinese 8-bit producer Baifan. It is the very first animation by Chinese animator, painter and VJ Wang Meng, whom I had the pleasure to interview for NeochaEDGE.

"When I was doing this series, I put forth a concept I call “I’m gonna regret the rest of my life if I give up my transformers and be a mama’s boy.” (如果为了比别的小朋友小红花多 而放弃玩变形金刚，我会遗憾终生的。)

(...) We started losing that happiness in high school when we were pressured to study excessively, and now we are pressured to work excessively, etc. – but what’s it all for? What’s the relationship between the “ideal” and reality? Is the “ideal” that we spend so much time studying and working really all that great?

Over the last few years there has been a resurgence of all things “retro” in China – 8-bit music, of course, can be included in this trend. This trend has greatly influenced me and my work. I think the reason people are into these things is not because the retro games or fashions of the past are better than the modern games or fashions or whatever. It’s mostly because people nowadays want to rediscover the happiness we all had when we were kids. That’s what’s happening with 8-bit music, it’s being made all over again as a re-fabricated retro thing because it makes us happy."

shallow sleep

It's saturday morning, it's cartoon morning!

Link here to watch a fantastic animation titled “Shallow Sleep” created by Beijing-based Little Kong and Feng Ling.

The eight-minute short invites viewers to follow the adventures of a young girl as she explores her dream universe and meets incredible creatures, bizarre machines, and singing robots. The short is characterized by resourceful transitions, beautiful coloring, and a story-line that manages to ingeniously diffuse the boundaries between reality and the surreal realm of the subconscious.

The animation’s soundtrack is by Neocha.com-user The Curry Soap and Cha Liangfen.

This post has been originally posted on NeochaEDGE, a bilingual blog showcasing creative content from China that I contribute to. Picture source: Little Kong on NeochaEDGE.

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.

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 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.

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.

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)

taobot the robot

(reposted from NeochaEDGE; picture source & more pictures here)

These wonderful illustrations belong to Beijing-based Little Kong and are all based on a story about a robot named "Taobot" (model number: M-TAOBOT-05172007). He is a robot made from a mixture of metal and playdough. Taobot has lived for hundreds of years, and been in hundreds of short stories, but is doomed to play the role of a tragic figure in each. Some of these roles include: a fanatical writer who writes until he becomes rusted with time; a hanger for laboratory cloaks in an experimental lab; a nerdy college student who is not able to feel emotions; a secret admirer of Little Red Riding Hood; a janitor who is a wonderful poet and climbs to the roof to watch the moon; a fireman who makes friends with kittens; a mailman who wholeheartedly delivers letters to the prince of outer space, a forgotten nursemaid who becomes a lumberjack, a heartless murderer, etc.