Found Type Friday #62
Sat Sep 6, 2008 – 03:36Don’t know about anyone else but I’m quite enjoying these one image FTFs. This one’s from Loïc, with finds courtesy of his wife.
Contributions welcome here.
America’s Cup circling galaxy
Sat Sep 6, 2008 – 01:23From America’s Cup circling galaxy
a network-like visualization of the history of the America’s Cup
through the visual depiction of all the people & the boats who are
part of “the legend”.
[link: americascup.com]
Tadasu Takamine’s Supercapacitor! Say it again!
Fri Sep 5, 2008 – 06:53From Tadasu Takamine’s Supercapacitor! Say it again!
Arataniurano is a pleasant, smallish gallery. When you walk in the door you can take in a whole exhibit with one turn of the head, and this is a nice way to read a show, in one viewing, before you step to examine the pieces one by one.
Currently, the show is Tadasu Takamine’s “The Supercapacitor”. The pieces are quite varied, and expertly rendered. There is a rug, for example, and a set of textured silk screen prints (some made with mayonnaise), funny little electronic figures that you can download for free onto your mobile phone, a stamp made out of plaster and chocolate, large plywood hexagons connected in rings and painted in pastels, and even T-shirts. For all their variety, all the pieces are, in one way or another, branded with the word SUPERCAPACITOR (in English or katakana), or with the cute little characters (half monkeys half aliens) that I suppose are inspired by the physical structure of a supercapacitor. And, significantly, all the works are attractive.
In the center of the room, placed at an angle, is a large rectangular panel encrusted with brown oil paint. Carved into the paint is a line of those little characters and a haiku-like text. Clearly this huge tablet is the Rosetta Stone of the show, I thought to myself. The text reads:
Supercapacitor: Houses and vegetables and
electricity.
We can make them ourselves.
So why are supercapacitors so expensive?
家も野èœã‚‚電力も
è²·ã‚ãšè‡ªåˆ†ã§ä½œã‚ŒãŸã‚‰
スーパーã‚ャパシタãªãœé«˜ã„？
Something unsettling was happening. The theme of supercapacitors was both dominant and diminutive. A print-out, titled “About Supercapacitors†was being given by gallery staff. It explains that a supercapacitor is a device capable of storing energy with very little impact on natural resources, and is a highly viable solution to the world’s energy problems. It ends with this strangely flat statement of purpose: “If the technology is right there before our eyes, but the only thing preventing it from taking off is the high price, then I believe we have to find a way to remove that obstacle.â€
The paper is unsigned (though it credits Cooperation: Takahito Hirano). I can only assume it was written by the artist. And yet in it, somehow, the artist is strangely absent. And, even more upsetting, the activist who authored the text (both the paper “About Supercapacitors†and the uncanny haiku on the huge tablet) is absent from the event, which remains firmly an apolitical art exhibition in a gallery.
I felt a lot of anxiety at this point, unable to bridge the gap between the actual work in front of me and the purpose clearly spelled out by the artist’s statement. Was my anxiety a measure of Takamine’s success?
In an interview with the artist, I asked him about his commitment to supercapacitors. Was he going to be fighting for this issue in 10 years? In 10 months? Takamine never answered this directly, but he spoke about how important supercapacitors could be for our urgent environmental problems. Supercapacitors were worthwhile, he insisted.
When I asked if the structure or function of the supercapacitor was a model for the works he made, he laughed and told me that, actually, he didn’t have a deep understanding of how the supercapacitor works. His only concern was to create works that would capture the viewers’ attention. Then, they too could start talking about supercapacitors without real knowledge. They could wear his cute T-shirts which carry and spread the word SUPERCAPACITOR, or they could download the funny little characters on their mobile phones and pass them to their friends.
This is supercapacitor as a buzz word, social progress initiated by armies of thoughtless but energetic repeaters. And perhaps this is art as a re-appropriation of advertisement, as a viral campaign — not for cigarettes or sneakers or even for the “next big artist†— but for sustainable energy. The Supercapacitor is not so much an exhibition, as it is a performance of an exhibition. And, standing in for the artist (who is the real product in the gallery and the art market), ladies and gentlemen, we introduce the supercapacitor.
Whether or not Takamine is successful in his project remains to be seen. But it is already some small measure of success that his work is so supported by Arataniurano, whose simple room can house awkward, complicated structures, mixed messages, and work that doesn’t fit comfortably into the assumptions and expectations of the art market.
Design books on Flickr
Fri Sep 5, 2008 – 05:28
Speaking of books, check out this collection of design books on Flickr
Not your Standard FEMA trailer
Fri Sep 5, 2008 – 02:49From Not your Standard FEMA trailer
As the America awaits the triple threat of Hannah, Ike, and Josephine, the New York City Office of Emergency Management (OEM) is preparing to mount an exhibition of the winners of it’s Post-Disaster Provisional Housing Design Competition, “What If New York City…”
The question that the international competition sought to answer was “What if New York City were hit by a Category 3 Hurricane?” and is based on a “fictional but realistic” New York City neighborhood that has been devastated by a hypothetical Category 3 hurricane. The competition investigates how residents can be provided with safe and comfortable living spaces that can be quickly deployed and adapted to different site conditions or reused in subsequent emergencies, while still remaining environmentally sustainable and cost effective.
The winning project by two young Danish architects Carsten Laursen and Morten Norup Fassov re-shapes the NY city grid into a system that evolves from a single hexagon into a unique structure that is highly flexible. The units are prefabricated and stored in warehouses until deployment. Each unit consists of 4, 6 or 8 accommodated pieces assembled on site. Families, having been displaced by the storm, are provided with quick occupancy and comfortable homes including facilities such as kitchen, bed, storage etc.
But from looking at the entire project description here, it seems like these units offer more square footage and green spaces than most current NYC living situations, so we’re sure there will be a waiting list of 10 years or more…
View more images after the jump
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Disappearing License Plate Trick
Fri Sep 5, 2008 – 01:40From Disappearing License Plate Trick
Get this guy to the Maker Faire! The Daily News reports this morning about a Queens truck driver who “took a move from the magician’s playbook” and rigged up his license plate with a secret cable so that he could make it disappear as he drove through toll plazas, avoiding the $40 payment. The cable, ingeniously, was routed all the way to the cigarette lighter cavity in the dash, allowing the driver to flip the license plate up under the chassis and out of surveillance sight.
…
Paraphernalia Vêtements Collection.
Fri Sep 5, 2008 Р12:55From Paraphernalia V̻tements Collection.
Why not forgo the neck-kerchief and wear a Paraphernalia necklace instead? Each piece (made from a lightweight acrylic) adds a fun and quirky element to your look.
Vêtements Bow Tie Necklace
Vêtements
Polka Dot Bow Necklace
Vêtements Cravat Necklace
Champagne design
Fri Sep 5, 2008 – 12:02From Champagne design
On a blogger’s budget, your correspondent’s booze intake is limited to the more affordable scotches and gins. But for those who swill champagne on the regular, have you noticed how design-y the packaging’s gotten?
Dom Perignon’s Marc-Newson-designed champagne cooler is made out of (surprise) aluminum, and the shape provides clever clues as to what might be inside.
Krug teamed up with bespoke trunk-maker Pinel & Pinel to come up with the Escape Artist, above. The three variants of the design come with either stogie paraphernalia (cigar holder, cigar cutter and lighter), degenerate gambler paraphernalia (deck of cards, poker chips, “casino” dice), or tech geek paraphernalia (video/MP3 player, JBL speakers), not to mention two bottles of Krug.
The Karim-Rashid-designed Globalight for Veuve Clicquot serves as both a carrier and a cooler, and is one of those designs that will puzzle future anthropologists when the bottle’s long gone and they dig the thing up in 3,000 years.
Veuve Clicquot also teamed up with luxury Italian boat design company Riva to produce the “Made to Measure” cruise collection, loaded up with bottles, magnums, flutes, tumblers, plates, mats, and cutlery.
The Cruiser Bag only comes with one measly bottle and two flutes, but it’s still made out of mahogany, chrome and leather.
Last but not least, VC’s Porsche-designed champagne cooler is designed to keep 12 magnums of your best nice and frosty, as well as to make you forget the world is filled with poverty and injustice.
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CR Blog hosts new Cinematic Orchestra film
Fri Sep 5, 2008 – 11:45From CR Blog hosts new Cinematic Orchestra film
Still from To Build A Home, a new film by Up The Resolution created
for The Cinematic Orchestra’s forthcoming DVD, Ma Fleur
Here at CR, we get sent dozens of music promos every week. And most, to be perfectly honest, tend towards a predictable and frankly uninspiring formula as overstyled youths bounce around in a studio/street/park playing their instruments as a singer, usually lacking in charisma, good looks and sartorial elegance, mimes vocals to camera (yawn). Or worse, an aging, muscly popstar jumps around like she’s 21 wearing a leotard (for the love of all that is good in the world, make it stop, make it stop).
Refreshingly, a new video by Up The Resolution for Ninja Tune act, The Cinematic Orchestra – entitled To Build A Home – avoids clichéd music video formulas. Instead it combines beautiful cinematography with a talented cast of actors and an emotionally harrowing story line. The film is also unusual in that the soundtrack consists of two, rather than the usual one, track…
We’re delighted to announce that the CR blog is hosting, right here, right now, the very first screening of To Build A Home. Read on to view the film and to read a Q&A with director Andrew Griffin (UTR’s Griff) about the project…
CR:One video for two tracks is unusual, how did this come
about?
UTR: We were initially approached by Vez, commissioning on
behalf of Ninja Tune, to submit two separate animated treatments for
The Cinematic Orchestra tracks, To Build a Home and Breathe.
We’d worked with Vez and Ninja Tune before on the promo for Coldcut track, Sound Mirrors, and that video persuaded them we’d be right to pitch something on these tracks which have a similar mood and atmosphere. The difference was a much tighter schedule, and whilst Sound Mirrors was done in down time over a year, both these videos had to be delivered in a fraction of the time so a different approach was called for. We also needed to come up with something different stylistically so we wouldn’t repeat ourselves; working on such low budget six minute promos can only ever really be a labour of love, but they can also be good opportunities to suggest new styles or ideas to clients who are receptive to taking chances.
We offered up a short live action film that would span both tracks, something we hadn’t done prior to this, but which we’d always had ambitions toward. By doing this, and assimilating the budgets for both videos, we had the opportunity to work on writing a short film-like script, shooting live action to 35mm, and were also offering the label an innovative approach for them to market.
CR: Two tracks could work as the soundtrack to a short
film?
UTR: We believed so, yes. Beyond the obvious allusion to
soundtracks in the band name, and in the music itself, there was a
narrative theme (of love and loss) that ran through both songs lending
them to being linked as a single story. The band had themselves
commissioned an unmade film treatment for which these tracks were
intended as a ‘score’, and whilst
we didn’t read that script we were very sensitive to
writing something sympathetic to the music and lyrics, and that was
suitably moving, but (hopefully) not too mawkish or melodramatic.
The label and band warmed to the idea, but the commission really solidified once we landed actors Peter Mullan and Julia Ford as the cast. Their involvement dispelled any concerns in regards to the production, their experience and talent adding and altering the shoot for the better. Once we had the cast, the crew came a little easier with some donating their considerable efforts in exchange for expenses only. This was probably helped by the fact we’d decided to shoot on location in the Cumbrian countryside over a sunny bank holiday weekend giving the impression it was a subsidized holiday – though that was pretty short lived once they saw the on-set facilities consisted of a dry toilet ‘hole’ in an outside stone hut!
The Cinematic Orchestra will play their albums Man With A Moviecamera and Ma Fleur (from which the two tracks featured in this film are taken) live at The Roundhouse in London on 10 October. Full details here: http://tinyurl.com/5z49z8
A DVD version of their Ma Fleur album is due for release next year. It will include this film - which will also be available as a download from 27 October
To Build A Home credits:
Title: To Build A Home
Artist: Cinematic Orchestra
Label: Ninja Tune
Commissioner: Vez
Written by: Up The Resolution
Directed by: Up The Resolution
Director of Photography: Connor Connolly
Produced by: Up The Resolution
Co-produced by: Sophia Pendar-Hughes & Griff
Edited by: Up The Resolution
Cast (Husband): Peter Mullan
Cast (Wife): Julia Ford
uptheresolution.co.uk/
cinematicorchestra.com/
ninjatune.net/home/
Von’s Illustration Migration
Fri Sep 5, 2008 – 10:14From Von’s Illustration Migration
Visitors to London’s Truman Brewery will have spotted the presence of a beautifully drawn flock of birds on one wall, the work of illustrator Von. Later this month the birds will migrate to New York to reappear on the wall of another gallery…
This video documents the first part of the project, which Von has titled, appropriately enough, Migration
Von’s work also appears in this month’s Monograph, CR’s subscriber only publication. In it, he reveals more about the Migration project:
“I was kindly invited by the Espeis Gallery [where he had a solo show last year] to exhibit on the billboard they have erected especially to showÂcase the work of artists and designers they admire. Previous exhibitors include Build, MOMO and WK interact among others.
It is from developing ideas for the NY installation that the project grew into what it is now. Migration will take place in two parts, in two capital cities in two months. A flock of abstracted birds will be installed first on the Truman Brewery, London. In September the birds will reappear in New York flocking towards the billboard on the side of the Espeis Gallery in Williamsburg – the project inheriting the migrational nature of its content.”
You must be a CR subscriber in order to receive Monograph each month. For more information, go here