Part & Parcel is a new studio from Brooklyn heavy hitters, Damien Correll and Garrett Morin.

Sister is a small press run by Harsh and friends. It is a collection of small run art zines at a very limited amount. Very interesting idea and fascinated by it. I wish there were more images but I guess that is part of the deal, trust.

“Ways of Seeing” Artwork by Michael Cina
First Ammendment Arts
Saturday, July 25, 2009. 7-10pm

 

First Amendment Arts presents “Ways of Seeing” an exhibition of over 100 paintings and drawings by Michael Cina. Cina is best known for his work in the field of graphic design, but in April 2009 he returned to a more organic artform: painting. In three months time, Cina has produced a startling number of drawings and paintings on paper and canvas. People that are familiar with his design work may recognize a correlation, but the works featured in Ways of Seeing are more vibrant and abstract as a whole. Inspired in part by Rauschenberg, Rothko and Twombly, Cina’s work creates a vivid, landscape atmosphere.

Boom, our latest publication has finally landed! A work of art that explores the relationship between nature, motion and sound, The Interpretation takes us on a languid journey through a slowly flourishing forest. Hinting at vague memories of microbiology and rotating through a cool organic spectrum of greens, blues, browns, blacks and whites; this motion-based work will entrance its viewer as the forest evolves. The Interpretation is set to a minimal score filled with authentic sounds of nature, complimenting the environmental essence of the visuals. One of the movies on this DVD also features a soundtrack composed by various Ghostly Records musicians.

Just got back from the Andrew Holder show at Subtext. Amazing show, something different in Andrew’s work than your average 60’s folk art revivalist, something happy and wonderful. If you live in the San Diego/Los Angeles area you definitely need to come out and see for yourself. I just wish I was rich so I could have bought everything at the show. Definitely a new favorite of mine.

NEW INDUSTRY ARTS

James Widegren & Kaya Sorhaindo are passing out candy in the form of the latest & greatest in fashion, photography, visual culture, & creative/art. A wonderfully curated treasure trove that I am looking forward to watch grow in the months to come.

We finally got back our latest project, Sentence. It’s an illustrated loosely around a poem by Grant Leuning and was worked on between the two YWFT Studio’s. We created the publication so that it can be viewed/displayed two different ways. You can read it like a magazine, from left to right or you can unfold it for larger spreads. It was created around a grid, so the pages somewhat relate to each other, even when out of context.

Mr Steve wrote me this weekend to let me know he posted up a new video with some insight to his Our Mountain traveling Art Experience. Other than getting to see the skilled wizard rock some insane t-shirt fashion, the video does indeed provide a nice look into his recent work. Hotness all around and then some. Peep the Video, Yeah!

Really enjoying the work over at Sacred Mtn. Again another artist emerging in this Folk Art meets Glaser style that seems to be all the rage right now in the illustration grass roots art scene. Also nice collection of photos showing work for their latest exhibit on Flickr.

For all who don’t know, what is D-Fuse? D-Fuse was founded by Michael Faulkner in the mid-1990s, D-Fuse is a group of designers and artists working in a trans-disciplinary method with cutting edge technology. Exploring a wide range of creative media, from mobile media, web and print to art and architecture, live A/V performances, TV and film, D-Fuse encourage their audience to reflect on the key relationship between sound and image. They continuously endeavor explore the possibilities of digital art through their desire to develop a unique language for the needs of the digital world.

 

D-Fuse’s visual art is screened internationally - at Sonar (Barcelona), onedotzero festivals, The V&A Museum (London), Nokia Labs in St Petersburg and Moscow, Mori Arts Center (Tokyo), Eyebeam (NYC), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Prix Ars Electronica (Linz), and the Lisbon and Valencia biennales. D-Fuse have collaborated with ground breaking musicians Scanner and Beck, as well as contemporary classical composers Steve Reich (performed with The London SymphonyOrchestra) and the Italian ensemble Alter Ego (who work with Salvatore Sciarrino and Philip Glass)

 

 

Explain this recent tour you’ve been on, what is the project, and how has it progressed as of yet. Surface originates with our interest in cites and how people relate to their surroundings in the urban environment. East Asia is particularly interesting, because cities are very diverse and have been going through great changes over the past few decades. The collaboration with local artists in each city is a key component of the project - it enables us to engage directly with the experiences and concerns of the people who live there, a bit like seeing the city like a local person but with fresh eyes. At the same time the dialogue with these artists requires us to question our own ideas and approaches. Surface is very ambitious, as we are researching each city and create new material in only a few days before performing the latest version of the piece.

 

 

How do the multi faceted aspects of your work come together - do the mediums feel separate or do they all remain fluid and connected? Our team with Michael Faulkner and Barnaby Steel creating video and Matthias Kispert for audio, has been working together for a number of years now and we always create sound and video at the same time, so both feed off each other and develop together. They’re pretty much inseparable.

 

 

How about the architecture projects? At the moment we’re working on a few public art projects, we’re always interested in redefining spaces. This is also something that happens with our Vjing, working with layers of transparent screens we create temporary architecture.

 

 

How do the collaborative projects work? Specifically with Beck? D-Fuse has always been about collaboration, sharing and moulding ideas together. Beck was an interesting project because there was only small amount of collaboration involved, it took us a little while to realize we were going to be left to our own devices with no interference from the record label. Beck was the only person who had input and that was pretty laid back. I only wish we had more time to develop the project, it was a pretty intense deadline. This and the VJ book wiped me out energy-wise.

 

 

Do you ever feel that technology limits what you’re trying to do? No but often the machine always wants more RAM or hard drive space. When we started over 10 years ago, you were lucky to make something move on screen, now there are almost too many choices and maybe too many people trying.

 

 

What would the work be without limits? What are some technologies that you’d like to see pushed father? I guess our limits are creative time, energy and render time. Funnily enough, I got quite used to those render moments they gave you time to reconsider the edit. Also the good thing about technology is cost is always coming down so you can wait a little while and still have the best set up at a fraction of the cost to high end film industry. We have just brought a Sony EX-1 XDCam tapeless camera. A few years ago that sort of thing would have cost $200,000 today it costs $6000.

 

 

VJing has come a long way since its start two decades ago. Where is it going? VJ culture has really spread into different areas in recent years - people who just used to play in clubs now work on art installations, interactive pieces, live cinema, remixes of films for Hollywood studios, or motion graphics and events for the commercial world. The scene is maturing with sub categories - DVJs, A/V, VJs who sample, narrative VJs, Live Cinema/sonic Cinema. Almost like how punk music evolved, a whole variety of music was named ‘punk’, but then you had new genres evolving new wave, Raggae/ska, and early electronica. I think the great thing is it is getting to be known in the public domain, people are now creating music and video on an equal paring.

 

 

Will it become consistently more prevalent? Yes, I am surprised considering how much screen based hardware there is out there. I am surprised it has not been more. This is probably because, most of it has been used for advertising and peoples general lack of understanding of VJ culture. Hopefully this is changing.

 

 

What is the significance of live video editing… what are its capabilities? Live Video editing is really interesting and more suited to a long VJ club set, where the whole performance is amorphous and evolving. We enjoy these, however our set for Surface is a live cinema (Sonic Cinema), so it has to be based on a timeline that we mix over, in order to cue and combine the audio, which is played with Ableton Live. The video is a mixture of edited clips that are either tempo controlled on a Pioneer DVJ1000 and video clips on Macbook Pro using modl8 or VDMX.

 

 

What are the downfalls of the medium? Endless back ups and Filling. Mike Figgis says in his book on digital filmmaking “with the digital age, he has become a filling clerk/ film maker.�

 

 

What are you most afraid of? Realizing no one is really in control of the planet, just lots of power struggles and maybe we’re f*cked environmentally.

 

 

Have you seen Alien Vs. Predator Requiem (AVPR) and would you suggest watching it? No, but my friend went to see it instead of Beowulf (which is a terrible film). He said the feeling in the cinema was how bad it is, the first one was surprisingly ok.

 

 

Advice for life? Do some shit jobs first, then try not sucked into the money break away and you’ll appreciate creative freedom later on in life. Also everyone should visit a third world country to put your life in perspective and see how lucky you are.

 

 

Favorite Websites? http://www.globalrichlist.com/

 

 

Is there anything else you would like say, what have you been thinking about? Tax avoidance of the super rich, I heard a program on the radio about this, (the UK is a tax heaven) they mentioned if they paid their proper percentage this would be enough cash to resolve global warming! Not sure how they worked this cost out but still interesting.

 

 

Have you ever had a reptile as a pet? Yes, a terrapin.