Art

I can’t sleep. So this post will probably just make you crinkle your nose, particularly if you’re sober. No worries.

This is a chapter of a book, Sound Unbound, edited by DJ Spooky (who besides being a most interesting musician working with the broadest imaginable range of artists, majored in French lit and philo and is a long-time friend of Shepard Fairey). I recommend that you read the chapter; don’t be a-skeerd of it even though it looks dense. That just means you’ll get through more coolness in less time.

The essay’s like a series of TED talks on speed for people who are in to technology and art and architecture and geography and music and film and the all-consuming fastness of the speed of life in which all of these things articulate … it pulls together a plethora of things, people, and ideas I’m interested in at absolute warp speed.

But that’s the point. He’s sampling history and books and philosophers and programmer-speak and art exhibits. He’s filtering them, finding the patterns, trying to decipher a system that makes sense in his (and, since I know who’s reading this, it’s safe to say our) world. And the common denominator for him is the archive as the dominant form. The web as an archive, his music collection as archive, ftp having the potential to be the ultimate communication tool so far.

He tells a story of how a clock maker invented the modern system of latitute (as in longitude and latitude), and the moral of the story is that time is the archival system for the measurement (and thus understanding) of space, and that time is also the archival system for the measurement (and thus the understanding) of music (rhythm). Presence and absence of material. Well … I take it back. It may not have a moral. That’s okay, though. It gets me worked up, and that’s about all anyone can ask for from ideas.

Due to the political debate and all things related to field dressing a moose, this came up in my gmail RSS feed today. Gentlemen, start yer field dressin’. Please take careful note of the instructions for this one.

Worst. Mental. Image. Ever.

Field Gutting Tool

Actually, I find the cover shot to be the first in a long time that doesn’t look old-man-creepy. The photographer’s photoshoped use of the the rest of the pics from the shoot is out of hand and eye-rollingly juvenile, but it offers an interesting view into the ethics of photography:

“One thing I do know is that if I, or any other editor or art director, ever caught a photographer using images held back for secondary profit outside of the contract, or using images in a way that would undercut our publication, we would pull that photographer’s card out of the assignment rolodex. Not only that we would make it out business to tell other editors and art directors at other publications that such a photographer was never to be trusted again.”

So this is basically the scariest thing i’ve ever seen relating to copyright laws and their abuse.

Happy Monday!

http://www.bestofartists.com/creative-sculpture/2008/7/7/you-could-lose-your-rights.html

What if the corporate design process was used to design the stop sign?

Is awesome.

It is referenced in the Vanity Fair article linked below.

“The design of the new Central Chinese Television (CCTV) headquarters defies the popular conception of a skyscraper — and it broke Beijing’s building codes and required approval by a special review panel. The standard systems for engineering gravity and lateral loads in buildings didn’t apply to the CCTV building, which is formed by two leaning towers, each bent 90 degrees at the top and bottom to form a continuous loop.

The engineer’s solution is to create a structural “tube” of diagonal supports. The irregular pattern of this “diagrid” system reflects the distribution of forces across the tube’s surface. Designed by Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren and engineered by Ove Arup, the new CCTV tower rethinks what a skyscraper can be.”

This is amazing.  Modern and postmodern, form follows function, but you can literally see the forces on the building.  I am completely enthralled with this thing.  The irregular grid on the building’s facades is an expression of the forces traveling throughout its structure. I like the word expression.

The other cool aspect–as the author in the VF article pointed out, there is a slight nod to communism– is how in this skyscraper the relationship between individuals is completely different.  Unlike a traditional skyscraper, in which you can usually not see any other part of the building, the CCTV tower gives its denizens a sense of their surroundings, of the building itself and of the other people with which they are working.  The architecture creates a relationship among those within, as opposed to a verticle stack of disconnectness.

The architects also mentioned how the building is not overwhelming.  It can be broken down into three distinct building which are easily visually digestable, and b/c it is only 47 stories the viewer does not have to crane to see to the top.

China: Figuring their shit out.  more pics

I realize that this probably will miss the mark with some of you kids, but none-the-less, here’s a link to my latest creative ideology. Please note: the image at bottom of page is the philosophy, not the image at top.

http://tcritic.com/archives/design-wont-save-the-world-you-pretentious-fuck/

Motivational posters for your monday morning. Just a little something to get you through the week. (Should you find yourself wasting some time checking your friendly neighborhood cooperative blog this morning.)

Word.
http://www.geneticanomaly.com/RPG-Motivational/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y5eBRWQerY

That dapper band in the background is “Pulp.” Shatner covered this song (Common Peoples) on his 2004 album “Has Been.”

This has been your VH1 popup video moment of the blog.

Since there are no more HabVio shirts to buy, check out these ones. They’re on sale. And awesome. My favorites are heavy on the words, of course:

I Listen To Bands That Don’t Even Exist Yet

Shakespeare Hates Your Emo Poems

This Was Supposed to Be the Future … Where Is My Jetpack

Yours?