G17 Trailer Cobla la Principal d'Amsterdam

For Edition 17. Animation and deisgn of intro and outro.

Dag in de Branding - Promo Trailer

Design and animation of intro for Dag in de Branding, Festival for new music in The Hague, the Netherlands.

Knitted Imprint.

The widows, sisters, lovers and mothers of men that have been lost during Peru's internal conflict between the Mao-inspired rebels of the Shining Path rebels and state forces in the 1980s and 90s have gotten together to knit a 'scarf of hope'. [BBC article:]

"Each one is knitting a message or epitaph to their loved one the size of an A4 sheet of page which will form part of an enormous scarf which, it is hoped, will reach a kilometre in length. 

It is being called the Scarf of Hope and it aims to be more than just a symbol of Peru's estimated 15,000 "disappeared" but a physical reminder that in the majority of cases their relatives live on without ever knowing how they died nor where to find their remains. 

"It's like a piece of memory," says Marina Garcia Burgos, a Lima-based photographer who was inspired to initiate the project with two colleagues while working in Ayacucho. "Each woman chooses the colour and the knit of her panel. As well as embroidering the loved one's name, some also sew on a piece of their clothing or a photograph."

It's a collective work of art with a great deal of emotional power behind it. It's probably one of the few truly sincere attempts at creating something guiness record worthy for a genuine, heartfelt purpose. In Peru, the indentification of the dead is often aided by the knit of the clothing the person wears. Almost like a secret code women plant on their men before they go into the world.

Narrative Fantasy Art.

Stuck in Dragon Age. Funny how my interests keep twisting and turning from one area to another just-like-that. It's almost like I'm having a running conversation with myself while stoned. Last week I became absolutely obssessed with patterns and now I'm totally hooked on game art. Years ago, before art school, I wanted nothing more than to learn how to make elaborately rendered fantasy worlds. That was why I chose to major in Animation. The eventual idea was to end up developing narratives and making concept art for games.

Lately I've been thinking of doing that again. Creating worlds and characters are fun! I found the website of this funny Norwegian artist while looking up character art of GRR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire's Arya Stark. I love his plan view drawings for the board game "Mansions of Madness". I have still yet to meet anyone intelligent that didn't appreciate beautiful minatures (whether real or drawn). There's something about it that triggers the narrative instinct in us, and immedeatly weaves a cloud of story in our minds.

Deco Fan Print.

More prints. Inspired by those turn of the century novels. A friend of mine from long days pasts back in time to my primary schoolgirl days contacted me and said they'd look nice on the dust jackets of books. Check out the new Penguin Classics covers :)

Begonia Rex Print

Aftter days of digging around online for inspiration, I've decided to get down to it and make my own. There's a lot of lovely, cute stuff out there, but very few that strike a chord with me. My favourite prints are still from Erika Wakerly. Personalljavascript:void(0)y, I prefer prints that are more abstract, drawing inspiration from scientific illustrations of exotic flora and fauna and geometry.

Inspired by the Begonia Rex plant on my kitchen still.

The Closing of the Western Mind.

Philip had this awesome book on his shelf dedicated to books solely against religion. I can't think something like this is happening again, but the religion this time is the school of rubbish economic development policies. In the hope to preserve their power and current status in the world, the paranoid economise engineer their own demise.  Here are a few reasons why:

Their Moon Shot and Ours, NYT.
China is doing moon shots. Yes, that’s plural. When I say “moon shots” I mean big, multibillion-dollar, 25-year-horizon, game-changing investments. China has at least four going now: one is building a network of ultramodern airports; another is building a web of high-speed trains connecting major cities; a third is in bioscience, where the Beijing Genomics Institute this year ordered 128 DNA sequencers — from America — giving China the largest number in the world in one institute to launch its own stem cell/genetic engineering industry; and, finally, Beijing just announced that it was providing $15 billion in seed money for the country’s leading auto and battery companies to create an electric car industry, starting in 20 pilot cities. In essence, China Inc. just named its dream team of 16-state-owned enterprises to move China off oil and into the next industrial growth engine: electric cars.

Not to worry. America today also has its own multibillion-dollar, 25-year-horizon, game-changing moon shot: fixing Afghanistan.

And the UK cutting funds for science and axing the film council.

The moral? The good guys get shafted and the bad ones are allowed to do as they please. Because after the expensive mistakes they made, they surely must be billions of dollars the wiser to manage the economy better.

Grow House Grow.

I found this collection of wallpapers inspired by female naturalist during the Victorian era. I think they are an interesting artistic tribute to the work of the scientists represented. I like the designs for their quirkiness, although I think it is the narrative behind the design that makes these wallpapers more than they are on the surface.

Mary Treat (1830-1923) was an American-born naturalist devoted to the understanding of carnivorous plants. Throughout her many years of autodidactic study, Treat made extensive contributions to the botanical world, published several books and was an outspoken correspondent to Charles Darwin.

Treat and Darwin’s recorded discourse extends over five years, and most notably involves the inner workings of the Utricularia plant's trap. Darwin believed insects wedged their heads into the traps, thus becoming stuck and then consumed. Treat's extensive research, fueled by her curiosity and vigor for experimentation, revealed that the Utricularia plant actually snapped shut when small hairs around the entrance of the trap were triggered. Treat so influenced Darwin's understanding on the subject that he references her several times in his Insectivorous Plants (1875).

Though much of Treat's work has been forgotten, four species of plants and animals bear her name, including the ant species Aphaenogaster treatiae. Look hard enough, and you might spy one of the little critters within her leafy carnivorous menagerie. 

Mary Ward (1827-1869) was born into to a renowned scientific family in Co. Offaly, Ireland, she was educated at home with her sisters and by the age of three had developed a penchant for collecting bugs. These insects became the subject of study for Mary, and with the help of a magnifying glass she began meticulously drawing and reproducing their details. By a stroke of luck, astronomer James South discovered the drawings, and was so impressed with her talent that he persuaded her father to invest in a microscope.

Owning her own microscope allowed her to transform her love of insects into full-blown, self-taught microscopy. She spent her time reading everything she could get her hands on regarding the subject, and became so skilled that her knowledge surpassed that of most experts. Over the years she wrote a series of books, of which A World of Wonders Revealed by the Microscope (1858) was reprinted eight times. It became a go-to student text in the field of microscopy, which considering her sex, is truly representative of her talent.

Further distinctions include her work as an illustrator for scientific publications, and her significant status as one of just three female recipients of the Royal Astronomical Society's newsletter (of the other two women, one was Queen Victoria).

True to her love of scale, this pattern blends late-Georgian silhouettes with over-sized insects; an entomologist's dream.
 
Visit Grow House Grow.

There is Light on Earth.

Poverty is big business, and it's really quite amazing how designers have managed to put a gloss over the whole affair and market poverty as a pet project for the rest of us not in the majority. Artemide's new campaign features light sculptures by some of the world's top designers throwing light onto evocative portraits of some of the heroes in the world of aid and political turbulance.

It's a very catchy idea. Now if only the people with the most money had a bit more taste (see Inside the world's mos opulent private jets.), this campaign might just be more then just a very clever gimmick selling light fittings.

Generous Gesture

While digging around for awesome fonts, I came across Generous Gesture. Another one of those fair trade outfits that provide decent work and decent pay for the underprivileged in Bangladesh. I'm skeptical as to how much these women are paid for every €129 shawl is sold, but they are very beautiful. I particularly like how the letters are stiched on. They would be a lot better though, if there were a wider variety of fonts to choose from.

Natural Media.

Gosh, am I so behind the curve? I noticed while cycling to the gym a few days ago an imprint on the pavement advertising the location of the Gemeente Museum. These imprints are very popular in Holland, and are done by a company called Green Graffiti.

It's genius isn't it. You don't ever have to pay for advertising space, it's natural and oh-so-playful. Reminds me of that Art Attack show I used to watch when I was a kid where the guy goes out into nature and makes a really, really big piece of art with random materials. Like salt, sand, chipwood, etc.

The work at Curb is pretty amazing. There's something beautiful about taking such precise forms and implementing them in nature.

Interactive Magazines.

I saw this today.



It might not look like much in terms of the differences between the layouts of magazines form print to digital, but one day we'll look back at those mag archives and wonder at how stale the experience had been before these arrived.

The magazines I regularly read are New Scientist, Wallpaper and the Economist. I think particularly for mags whoes sole function is to instill material desire (like Wallpaper) e-readers are fantastic. You get to see the glam in 3-D, like in The Elements, for the iPad. I can't help but wish such things were around while I was still studying high school science. For visual thinkers, words and static images just don't cut it. Digital animation can get to the point faster and clearer. As for political magazines, linking to interactive infographics can get the point across so much better, cross referencing alot easier.

I also have a particular love for Sci-Fi and Fantasy. I know it's great that because books usually don't have pictures in them, you're compelled into imagining your own. But sometimes, it's just nice to have pictures, and e-readers can link to the best fan art out there. Why not?

Coming of age in Bumfuck nowhere.

While working on my novel today, I was reminded of Very Annie-Mary, a film I saw in 2003 in a small art house cinema in Christchurch. The concept of an Art-House cinema didn't exist in Singapore there. If you wanted art films, you had to go to the alliance francaise (which didn't necessarily show only French films- the last time I was there was to see an animated American remake of the Ramayana).

In it, Rachel Griffiths plays Anne-Mary, an introverted, repressed small town girl with a big voice, kept under the mysogynistic thumb of her father, Jack Pugh,  played by Jonathan Pryce. As the town baker, he delivers his loaves in a Luciano Pavarotti mask. Whenever his feet get cold, he uses Annie-Mary as a human sleeping bottle.

Funnily enough, while listening to the BBC Radio's The Strand, a recent movie of Griffiths came up. Beautiful Kate is directed by Rachel Ward,  and set in the Australian outback. It is about impossible love, comming of age and family secrets. The interesting thing about the film is that Ward has set it in the present, with flashbacks tot he 80's; what she has attempted to recreate is an impossible romance for a cynical audience in a permissive society.



I love films set in the outback; I love minimalist films set in bumfuck no-where in general. They are always beautiful and exotic, infused with a sense of the Edenic utopia gone awry. The remind me of my childhood, where life was slow, the days were always warm and humid, nothing ever changed -not even the weather- and that little neighbourhood was all there was to life.

Another one I watched recently was Down in the Valley, where Edward Norton plays a delusional cowboy who falls in love with a teenage girl, played by Evan Rachel Wood (the "Queen" in True Blood).



I think about these films are that because there's less going on, a lot more attention is paid to simple details, like how the light would fall througha flower vase or how people say their words, and all those other little details that are in our lives, everday, that we fail to notice.

From Africa to NY.

One of my favourite contemporary artists, Wangechi Mutu has an exhibition in Brussels till September, at a contemporary art space called WIELS, which is slightly off the main core of the city. I think the aesthetic and emotional response her work yields is throughly compelling; a mixture of sensuality dashed with repulsion.



Another African artist based in NY I also love is Julie Mehretu.

“Julie Mehretu’s abstract paintings explore the often unwieldy issues of mobility, social organization, political entanglement, and global competition. Most cities are built, dismantled, and rebuilt over time, yielding structures and spaces that reflect ongoing urban change. Mehretu’s paintings follow a similar course as she layers and, in her most recent works, erases information from her compositions, showing how each new level becomes a foundation for new iterations, stories, and identities. Embedded in her abstract images, are elements taken from architectural blue prints, maps, sports arenas, and commercial logos.”

Brochure for art company.

Milos Sadik

Long ago I used to do some modeling for this Brit-Serb Photog. He also commissioned me to design his site.www.milossadik.com

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

City, Town, Village.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Fash & Fun.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Earthtree

Website for Singapore-Norwegian Television company, Earthtree. http://www.earthtree.com.sg/

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Beyond Words

Writing has come a long way since the first scratches of abstracted images on stone. It has influenced the way we think by giving us the ability to record our thoughts visually, which has in turn, contributed to the collective memory of society over the millennia.

For most people, writing is separate from the plastic arts. The form of text has nothing to do with the content of the words that are written. It is reasonable to assume that since the words have meaning in themselves, independent of the way they are written or presented, then the method in which they are put down in ink or print, and finally viewed, is of negligible importance. Only that the words are legible and that the conditions for writing and reading them in are sufficiently conducive.

However, this isn’t always the case. Writing is a visual means for the structuring and communication of information and sellers of luxury notebooks have managed to exploit this to the extreme. In some circles, notebook keeping has become an art in the recording and presentation of visual-textual information. Linear narratives are the norm, but ideas, like puzzles of all sorts, can be expressed through disparate patches of coherent thought, with embellished texts, emoticons, detailed diagrams and what not, later then on to be linked together to form the final picture or solution.

There are many situations in which a non-linear method of the presentation of an idea or thought is preferable to a linear one. A large collection of information on a particular subject, for example, might be best expressed on a two-fold page spread that shows collections of data from different aspects that are important to its understanding. Many contemporary news journals employ this to great effect, taking advantage of the reader’s ability to link disparate information together. However, this form of information presentation is also easily exploited, as no untruth needs to be said if the author wishes the audience to infer a biased opinion.

In the 1920s, the German Dadaists combined in collages, disparate texts and pictures to make politically charged art. The value in the text consisted of both the definition of the word itself, for example, LOVE, and its typographic style, and of course the pictures that accompanied it. Textual information cannot be consumed out of context, be it on the printed page, or in the current social and political climate. The words “World Trade Center” have different connotations pre and post 9/11.
In the days before writing machines were invented, penmanship was of great importance. Good penmanship signified good upbringing, civility and class. For a few decades, graphology was even an accepted subject at institutes of higher learning. However, like astrology, there has been no scientific proof to back it up, only opinion. And mere opinion alone only ever ranges from the merely entertaining to the potentially harmful.

But since the advent of machine type, good penmanship has fallen into the fold and is now only of importance to parents with very young children who still believe good handwriting is a sign of intelligence, discipline and adequate neuromotor control.

Since the early 1800’s, Typography has steadfastly usurped penmanship over the visual meaning of words such that the form of the text implies information beyond the text itself. And ever since designers realized the power of designed text to affect our environment and our social and political consciousness, they have exploited it to great effect.

Links:

http://www.typography.com

http://www.odedezer.com/

http://crookedtimber.org/2008/07/26/back-to-the-futura/

http://miller-mccune.com/culture_society/handwriting-is-history-1647