Tom Shannon loves the magnetic fields

Great. Just as I am promising myself to be more analytical and less effusive in my design and art posts, I find out about New York based artist Tom Shannon.

Because, what, this isn't some off the greatest installation art / mad brilliant science you've ever seen?

EARTH GLIDES AN HOUR time capsule, 1992

The round ends of this sculpture represent Earth; the length represents, proportionally, how far Earth travels along its orbit in the course of one hour. The lift magnets are installed under the concrete floor.

COMPASS MOON ATOM ROOM1990-1991

270 magnetic spheres, each 10 cm diameter. The magnetic spheres are aligned by Earth's magnetic field so all of the black halves face south. At the same time, the field of each sphere inter-links with the fields of the spheres surrounding it. Any motion of one sphere is transferred throughout the enitre array. The arrangement of the spheres is the same as the pattern of atoms in a crystal. People may walk through it.

SERENE IN SUSPENSE 1999

The figure is balanced and suspended by a fine line from her navel connected to a pole near the ceiling. The pole counter-balances the figure's weight, allowing it to move vertically. A strong magnet in her head aligns with Earth's magnetic field causing the figure's sex to face south, where the sun is, in the manner of a compass.

THE RAY 1986

Portrait of the Sun, Earth and the cone of energy connecting the two, in proportion.

He's done some crazy things, and has been around for a long time - the 1969 Moma exhibit The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age was his first show. He was 19. He seems to be working now on a huge helium party ship covered in a spherical LED screen. Learn more in a comprehensive Art in America article.

Très cool, mais non?

*all notes on specific pieces taken from tomshannon.com.

I'll play Bobby you play Whitney...

Tonight's episode of Top Model was a good reminder of why so many people get together to watch this divine bit of pop culture gutter trash every week.

I mean seriously, this photo shoot? Where the models pose as both halves of a trashy celebrity couple? Priceless.


Clockwise from top left: Jaeda, this season's high testosterone case, as Bobby and Whitney; Amanda, 'the straight twin' as Ashton and Demi; Brooke, the flyest MC, rockin' Britney and Kevin; and Melrose, corn-fed know-it-all, doing a surprisingly accurate Donald Trump and Melania.

While some of the styling was questionable - Anchal's disturbing Steadman (right) being a prime example - the shoot was funny and pretty creative. I think someone finally sent Jay Manuel to art school! Snap!

So far this season's photo shoot concepts have included: circus freaks - including 'siamese' twins, bearded ladies and elephant women; hair wars - featuring ridiculous motorized hair sculpture; modelling stereotypes - including bulemic, drug-addicted and slutty. It's a good time for Top Model fans. A good time indeed.

Nike 'Sculptures' campaign.

Now here's some nice work. This is the Fall '06 European print campaign for Nike's All Conditions Gear, done by Weiden + Kennedy Amsterdam. According to the Amsterdam office's totally great blog, 'the idea was to capture the fleeting beauty of their performance and turn it into something solid'.


Team Nike shows how it's done.


Yeah, I was doing method airs when you were still doing method pooping in your diaper.


More delightful graphics.

A great idea, and a great execution. The process they used to get the shots is really cool too. It's all detailed in their blog post about it, but essentially they took multiple angled video/stills, and then had model maker Andy Knight construct metal and fibre glass sculptures tracing the path of the skis and the snowboards.


Oh man, I'm getting paid so much for this job! I can totally buy my girlfriend that boob job she wants now!

Cognitive dissonance...

As mergers, uber-corporations and huge conglomerates create massive companies with hundreds of sub-brands, it's only natural that some of these hydras will have one head talking a completely different game than another.

Today's fun example: Unilever. Witness the following:


Here's Dove, telling women that our perception of beauty is distorted, and that the mega hot women in advertising are constructed of physical and digital retouching.


Here's Axe Deodorant with a slightly different message about these hot babes and how they're formed.

While they may be spouting political or social messages, I think it's fair to say that these corporate entities are essentially apolitical and self-interested. Or downright antisocial, if you believe half of what Corporate Watch has to say about Unilever.

Rinpa Eshidan equals big wow.

I can't find much info about Rinpa Eshidan (which loosely translates into Rin School Painters Group, rinpa being an 18th century Japanese painting style), beyond the fact that they're a Tokyo-based street art collective.

What I do know is that their videos rule. They film their painting in timelapse, but if you're thinking 'been there, done that' you should grab your three-ring binder because you're about to get schooled.

Let's hope it's non-toxic paint*

The new Sony Bravia ad is out, and, like the last one, it's pretty beautiful. This one was directed by Jonathan Glazer, known for some great music videos (Jamiroquai's Virtual Insanity being a personal fave) as well as his own films Birth and Sexy Beast.

As cool as it is, it doesn't touch the original 'balls' ad, which was absolutely original and compelling. That first one, directed by Danish photographer Nicolai Fuglsig, has this lyrical and wondrous tone. This one feels a bit flat somehow. And that clown is just a mistake. How unfortunate that it's the still YouTube chose.

Let's watch the first one again for old times sake. Or watch it in higher res, where it looks even better.



* It was water-based paint, and they spent 5 days cleaning it up afterwards.

Nobody does it better...

... than Apple. How about this commercial for the nano - which came out about a month ago:


Damn... that's pretty

Commercials with simple ideas that look amazing and make people pay attention. Now why doesn't everybody think of that?

The Fountain: Let's Get Metaphysical!

So evidently I missed the best film at the film fest by far - The Lives of Others or Das Leben der Anderen, the first film by German Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck which won the people's choice award this year and which everybody wouldn't stop talking about. Whatever.

I did see The Fountain though, Darren Aronofsky's (Requiem for a Dream and Pi) latest film, about the Tree of Life, metaphysics and mortality.

Isobel/Izzy and Tomas/Tommy (Rachel Weisz and Hugh Jackman - both great) are lovers in three different time periods stretching over a millenia. From the 16th century (where she is Queen Isobel of spain and he a conquistador) to the present (where she has terminal brain cancer and he's an experimental cancer researcher) to the 26th century (where he's... basically floating through outer space in a bubble), the story is the same - he's fighting to make her immortal.

The ideas are pretty cool, but more than anything the art direction and cinematography were incredible.


16th Century - Conquistadors gone wild.


Present Day - Hey what's that? Oh, if only we had a flying tree bubble...


26th Century - Stop this ride, I want to get off.

The story is presented in a non-linear way, and it's not totally clear how much of what we see is actually happening. Overall, a lovely little poem about trying to hold on to things you love. There just aren't enough metaphysical fantasy films these days, really.

Sellevision by Augusten Burroughs

Maybe it's because it was so rainy. Maybe it's because I was mildly hungover and in the mood for laying about. In any case, I guzzled this book down in a voracious fit this weekend.

Sellevision is Augusten Burrough's first book, supposedly written mainly over a single week. It's not perfect writing, but it's dark, fast and funny.

The story revolves around the team of hosts at Sellevision, America's premier shopping network, as the much-loved and handsome host of Slumber Party Sundown, accidentally exposes himself in front of 60 million kids and their parents during a "Toys for Tots" segment. The characters quickly lose control as each hurls towards his own twisted and subversive climax - finding redemption in porno, valium and other public humiliations. Quick, mean-spirited good fun.

Augusten Burroughs is pretty big right now, due to his bizarre and disturbing memoir Running with Scissors being made into an indy 'it' movie with a-list first namers like Gwenyth and Alec.


Joseph Cross and Evan Rachel Wood in the 'we made a skylight' scene.

Sellevision is supposedly going to be made into a film with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Kristin Davis and Carrie Fischer, but it seems pretty sketchy right now. In any case, a rather good excerpt from Sellevision if you're interested in reading more.

Then the party foul...

An open letter re: Friday's party foul:

Dear couch guy,

Listen, I know it's hard. You're all on some camping weekend, you meet what you think is a friendly dog, yada yada yada, suddenly you're a werewolf. I get it - it's a rough life.

But biting a stranger? Really hard on the arm and not letting go? Bad bad bad couch guy. If you want to be let out of your kennel at parties, this is not the way to do it.

Looking out for you,
Dawg-bitten

As secretary-treasurer, I call this meeting of party bite victims to order.


An untouched close-up. Note that this bite happened through my jacket.

It's weird. Lately I find myself getting accidentally beat up. At dance class last week a girl elbowed me in the face. I ended up bleeding all over the bathroom like some billion-dollar baby. And now the party-biter.

Now with coincidences like these I have to wonder... what's the bigger point here? Does the universe has a message for me of some kind, and is it just going to keep repeating itself until I clue in? In which case, should I start wearing protective gear all day long?

And seriously - what is the message here? I deserve a beatdown? If anyone has any insight into why I'm suddenly finding myself the victim of accidental aggression, please offer it.

First the good parties...

With the exception of a minor brush with rabies, Friday night was a magical brew of party madness.

We started at ye olde Wild Coyote, where I have to give mad props to Joni and her cousin Colin, the owner. He hooked us up large! Ridiculous good times. The spontaneous suburban streetside photo shoots after? All class, all the way. And Patty-C's jumpsuit karaoke party later that evening? Off the hook.

I'm just waiting for the photos from Mika, and then you will see how we turn it out old skool on a foggy Friday night.

Edit: After me beatin' her down like a crackho for rock, she's now sent the photos. You'd better hold on to your socks, because they're about to be rocked off. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you:

Thirteen photos of Friday the thirteenth

No. 1: The VIPs step to the club. Soooo gangsta.


No. 2: My! T'was was so kindly of these gentlemen to demonstrate the traditional gang signs of their native Richmond for us.


No. 3: More gang signs. How you gonna step to this bad ass mama?


No. 4: Even when near sweat-related death, I always throw up my 'Ar-ah'.


No. 5: This one is priceless. The looks in their eyes? Classic.


No. 6: Marcus. Mika. Joni. Gangsta. Gangsta. Gangsta.


No. 7: Marcus and Nick try too outrun the fog. Boys are so silly!


No. 8: Have you ever had the kind of night where standing under a sign that says 'Lounge Entrance' and pointing to your crotch seemed like the right move? Yeah, me and Joni neither.


No. 9: We arrive at Patty-C (guess which one's him!)'s karaoke jumpsuit birthday party around 1 to find the fun well underway.


No. 10: The birthday boy with some dames. Fun fact: I used to tutor Ashleigh (right) years ago, when she was a cool high school kid who thought math was boring, and not the illustrious singer-songwriter/ luminescent party cheetah she is today.


No. 11: Carley looks pretty creeped out by me in this shot. I can't imagine why.


No. 12: Damn right that's why they call them jumpsuits. Ashleigh, Pat, Joni, Rob.


No. 13: Joni, earning her MVP trophy for the evening. Well played Joni... well played indeed.