Song Of The Week 27.08.10

Nirvana - Heart shaped Box

Tim Richardson

The above photographs are taken from the book 'Physical Frequencies' by Tim Richardson which was originally released in 2006. An edition of only 500 was made and I would love to get my hands on one.

Tim Richardson takes his subject - Taren Cunningham into a stunning juxtaposition of cold technology and vulnerability. The unsaturated photos are bleak and bland- and show levels of frustration, vulnerability and pain, through the body positions of the model and backed up by the brutally fractured images.

This fractured style of photography feels like a glitch, much like when the data in an image corrupts and transforms it into something new. The model in these photographs takes on another shape from this - some kind of moulded half human half digital creation, and it is this which influences the vulnerability and frustration in the subject. We are continually pushing into the future and becoming more and more reliant on it and less and less like ourselves. We represent ourselves in 2D digital forms and spend more and more time digitally interacting with facebook, twitter, computers and the internet - we are conduction part of our life through the digital media and moulding ourselves into something part organic and part mechanic.

Below is some examples of glitched imagery:

The above image is by Jezz Burrows, you can read him explain how he did this here. He also has a pretty damn good blog which is worth a follow.



The above two images are stolen from the glitch art group on flickr which describes a glitch as:
"Glitch is a short-lived fault or malfunction in a system. Whenever camera lenses erroneously save the data of what they see to it's recording device or whenever the binary code of an image file gets corrupted (intentionally or accidentally), the final result is a faulty image, which we call Glitch."
which I think is pretty nice.

The Evening Post, November 4th 1933

You Said We'd Beat The Rain Home

Song Of The Week 20.08.10

Start Wearing Purple - Gogol Bordello

Song Of The Week 13.08.10

Cat Power - Sea Of Love

Eniko on SHOWstudio

I don't think I have ever spent this much time on one webpage since I was about 12. Finally something has come along and actually caught my attention.

Photographer and Filmmaker Barnaby Roper and Keegan Singh have created their own fashion film titled 'Eniko' and it puts the user in complete control. Eniko puts fashion and music ever closer together, as you become your own VJ. Each button on your keyboard controls an action and you just sit there bashing away as visual matched with sound flow back to you - and it really does look quite beautiful.
Seeing as print and fashion is coming an increasingly touchy and awkward terrain it is interesting to see how fashion develops and creatively embraces the web; rather than polluting them with seen before image - which far too many fashion blogs do.



Now designers are producing films, to go with new collections, such as Alexander McQueens Surreal mesnwear Spring/Summer 2010 short film directed by David Sims. Which is exciting and it pushes the boundaries between fashion and other creative areas.

Please try out Eniko on SHOWstudio, it's loads of fun - you get to become your own VJ, even if it is just going to be to you in your room.

Root Window 11.08.10

New window up at work,
sexy uncomfy smiles.
other windows have been:
Our 'R' Shutter by Eine
Christmas Window
Pat Riley 

Tell me about it Hulk.

Film Titles

Film titles from 2000-2010

All of the above and below images are stolen from Christian Annyas website. He has the most unbelievable collection of movie titles; all of which catalogued by decade.

Seeing them like this shows a surprising and formulaic similarities. I have split the above two into type on black / type on image. Incorporating type and image adds a dynamic layer to the film, and it forces you to view them together rather than separately, creating a more fluid and coherent piece - which I just happen to prefer. Placing the predominantly white logo types on black - although refined and surprisingly understated in many cases, adds more weight to the title of the film. This has taken a progression from many 90's film titles, most of which are shockingly bad - see below. These use strong colour over black which looks incredibly cheesy, coupled with very cliched design. So it seems that the white on black adds a clarity, style and stature to the film as a brand.


There are actually some very good 90's movie title's, Toy Story uses great colour, the twelve monkeys has an incredible logo - which has stuck in my mind since I was a kid, and the great hand drawn type of the Virgin Suicides.




Below is a collection of incredibly cool film noir titles, all of which use huge type overlaid over the scene, which is a style I really want to see come back. Following are some really quite different movie titles from the 80's, 70's, 60's and 50's which include a couple from Alfred Hitchcock and the legendary Saul bass. For more film titles visit Christian Annyas' website.

Inception

I saw Inception last night, and it completely blew my mind. I've had a day to think about it, and I just love everything about it. The concept of dreams within dreams, and being able to construct, dictate and manipulate them is incredible - it has so much scope and possibilities for so many things. The acting and cast - all of which play incredible characters very well, Dicaprio at his best again, playing incredibly complexed, multifaceted and an ultimately flawed character, it also has an amazing script, but my favourite part is how Nolan touched on reality. I know it's not what most people have talked about in the film, but it's the concept of what plays on Dicaprio's wife and leads to her ultimate demise that I found really interesting.

The only way you can describe and remember your life is through memories, and reality and your identity is determined through the thoughts that you have and the past things you have done. That's why it's so horrible when people loose their memory because that means you essentially can't remember who you are and you loose your identity - even though you yourself hasn't really changed.
But what I am getting at is, if you determine reality by memories and you were able to relive those memories, add or change them - who's to say that this isn't reality either. Ok you have to have lived them first to be able to go back to them. But with the number of levels that can be gone through, you can get lost in a maze of memories within memories and dreams within dreams which is quite an exciting thing to think about.

I know that was a bit of a stream of conciousness, but I think it kind of makes sense.




Another interesting aspect which was written very well by Maria Bustillos here is that Inception is infact a film about making films. All the componants you need to make a film are embodied by the characters. Dicaprio's wife, Mal is the inspiration, which although is incredibly attractive is also incredibly selfish, and with inspiration alone you cannot make a good 'Blockbuster' film. You also need a producer, a voice of Reason, experience and conscience, represented by Arthur - played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Actors, represented by Tom Hardy in the character of Eames showing characteristics of creativity, daring, playfulness and invention. You also need a writer, played by Ellen Page as the architect, and a production designer which comes in the form of Yuseph played Dileep Rao with all his chemicals. Dicaprio plays the role of director - and Chris Nolan himself, and last but not least you need an Audience which comes in the form of the character Fisher played by Cillian Murphy, and he is the person the team are trying to reach with this idea of inception. This is a brief over view and of what Maria Bustillo wrote about, please read her original piece.

"You're waiting for a train, a train that will take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you, but you can't be sure. But it doesn't matter - because we'll be together."