Hey - it's celebrity of the week time! Okay, that isn't actually a feature on my blog, and I'm actually not a big fan of salivating celebrity content (except for R Kelly, obviously), but this is some good business.
Hey! Remember us? Remember how awesome Kevin's brother Wayne (left) was? That haircut is one of the seven wonders of the world.
Here is an article from NY Times about her math excellence. Don't have a password/account? Try Bug Me Not - an archive of usernames and passwords for similar sites.
So the field of technology and textiles is very exciting right now. No, not the bizarre satrire proposed by The Yes Men in disguise as WTO representatives at the 2001 Textiles of the Future conference.
Rather I'm talking about all the absolutely amazing research and development happening internationally in material/textile design, creating wearable garments and textiles that communicate/interact/change etc. based on environmental inputs of various types. There's so much radness going on in this medium that you should probably make that cup of tea you were thinking about, and get ready for a long read. Check it:
This Stockholm-based school is blowing minds on a daily basis across the new media/technology fields. Definitely worth cruising around the research section of their site... some really amazing work.
Their IT + Textiles research design program in particular is doing some great work:
This bag is intended for use with several sensors that react and reflect the environment. Light strips react to sensors that measure sound level, light, temperature.
Reach around scarves reveal or create patterns and even hidden messages based hanging on environmental conditions (sunlight, temperature, wind). The first sketches provide warmth in addition to changing the pattern of the scarf based on temperature. When it gets cold outside, the scarves heat up and chage patterns.
Close to home, and doing really cool stuff too, is this great school out in Banff. They don't have much in the way of images on their site, but are definitely working on some cutting edge stuff. The following is from a collaborative project called Code Zebra, which is very cool, despite its terribly optimized and slow-loading website.
No, I don't know what these garments do either. Yeah, no, I wouldn't wear them... hells no.
XS Labs is a design research studio where "we develop artifacts that are extra soft and react in weird ways to our bodies and our environments. We play, we experiment, we develop new technologies, we make art, and we design prototypes in electronic textiles and wearable computing."
I'll be honest - a lot of their stuff is just fucking weird (like their worst-idea-ever Inflating Hips Dress). But you've got to love these Montreal kids for being this out there.
These neckline flowers open and close in response to heat levels, on a 15 second cycle.
Commercial Products
On left - the shirt is a working equalizer - responding to music and sound. On right - hey, it's a clock yo. Out-doing Flava Flav, one shirt at a time.
This is my favourite of the IT+textile designers. A british artist/designer, she is absolutely amazing. Below is just a small sampling of her work, some done in collaboration with her partner in Loop, sound/interactive artist Mathias Gmachl.
Light Sleeper is an illuminating, personalised alarm integrated into bedding that gently wakes in the most natural way. This pillow and duvet simulates a natural dawn that eases you into your day
The History Table tablecloth signals how long things have been left upon it. If an object is left on the table for a while, a glowing halo forms beneath it that grows slowly over time, until the object is moved.
This is a pretty cool project - still at the prototype stage. They have put together a jacket that creates electronic music based on sensing bodily and environmental factors. Mapping these to the real-time processing of concrete sounds, Sonic City generates a personal soundscape co-produced by physical movement, local activity, and urban ambiance. The video below is an outtake from a testing series, showing roughly how the whole thing works.
In line visually with their excellent Sculptures campaign is an older Nike campaign for the '05 All Star Game.
I hadn't seen this before, but I like it. It's done in a more sophisticated way in the Sculptures stuff, but I think it's still great. The concept of solidifying motion is really smart and appropriate for the sports/athletic industry. A good solution to the 'how do we represent kinetic energy in a static medium?' problem. This campaign was done by DDB Paris.
Here is a great campaign that won Best of Show at the Extra Awards, the Canadian Newspaper Ad Awards. Dry stuff, I know, but bear with me, the images are beautiful.
DDB Vancouver has had their account for a while, and has been absolutely bang on in their work. Good stuff.
So during a delightful little jaunt down to Seattle, I managed (despite the best efforts of Quick Shuttle - grrrrrrrr) to catch the last day of the Henry Darger Folk Art Museum touring show at the Frye Gallery. Which is a great (and free!) space by the way.
Mommy, why do the little girls have boy parts?
Never mock a janitor - he could be making beautiful things like this.
If I remember correctly, this is a good guy. One of the few adult protagonists.
Henry Darger intrests the hell out of me for a few reasons.
First, his story is captivating. A reclusive janitor, he died at 81, leaving behind a massive amount of artwork, including a 15,000 page illustrated novel of considerable weirdness, called The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. His life is summarized pretty well on his wikipedia page, and excellently in the amazing movie made of his life - In the Realms of the Unreal.
Secondly, his stuff is almost more psychology than art. The Story of the Vivian Girls is an incredibly rich system of symbols which stand so clearly for his own internal issues. The same themes he struggled with at 15 - oppression and totalitarianism within the asylum in which he was institutionalized at 13; a conflicted and intense relationship with the Catholic church etc. - are replayed and explored as he writes the book over 65 years. It gets really meta at points too - where he writes himself into the stories, and
Thirdly, whether he intends to or not, he asks some pretty challenging questions around media and culture. The faces and images he's blatantly traced and re-used from advertising and other sources take on an entirely different tone in his surreal environments. At the same time, they're inherently contextless. They're no less connected to Darger's bizarre epic than they are to their original 'sources' - the happy beach scene in the Coppertone ads etc.
This is the trailer - but it hangs a bit at the beginning. Come for the outsider artist - stay for the Dakota Fanning narration.
Okay, I'm babbling. Moral of the story? His work is fascinating, and I'm really glad I got a chance to see it in person.
Well, I don't really get the connection between Johnny Walker and a robot with flesh-envy, but I'm really glad this spot got pushed through. It's pretty lovely, especially to a robot-fetishist such as myself.
Okay, so if there was ever a reason to fall in love with my friends, it's Halloween.
There are many more pics to come, and this post will be continually updated as more documentation of the weekend Halloween madness trickles in. These people are solid gold.
Sorry Katie and Scott. I've found my new polygamous lifemates. Seriously - could Rhya and Kyle be any more awesome? Answer: no fucking way. Sniff sniff. Move to Vancouver already, will you guys?
If you've seen the brilliant show Futurama, you know this is the best Zoidberg costume ever. If you haven't, you're probably saying something like someone at our party: "I still don't know what the girl in the pink oven mitts is".
In a twisted vortex of awesomeness, Joni and Mika go as Clinton and Randy to the Halloween party, and officially blow everyone's minds.
I think the universe just folded in on itself. Take that Stephen Hawking!
Twin Peaks has never looked so good. From left: Tony as Dr. Jacobi; Elaine as Laura "Dead" Palmer; Sheila as Agent Cooper;
I love this kid. Plus - he won 'Best Costume' at his school. Why? Because he's the greatest Headless Horseman anyone's ever seen.
It's Saturday night, so naturally you'll find Joni "Axl" McKervy, rocking out with her cock out.
Hey guys - let's party!
Party party!
KT as 'Tippy Hedron' from The Birds. Once again, showing everyone else how it's done.
Scott hates 'concept' costumes, so I probably won't tell him that he was clearly dressed as a one-man-party.
The height of concept costume. Jeff as an identity thief, aka 'how to get every girl at the party's name and number'.
Disco fairy hugs VIP lineup. All is right in the universe.
Hey! It's Steve, as every guy you went to high school with.
Joe as an IBM employee. Loves it!
I know, I know, it was a stupid idea - but I put it together in like an hour. What was I? A Danger Zone. Complete with shards of glass, a tattered electric cord, and almost (no time to print it) a sign reading 'Condoms are for Sailors'.
"I like women who look like me. Generally, you're attracted to women who look like you, because the most beautiful thing in nature is your own reflection."
:: supreme douchebag Terrence Howard, in a pretty revealing Elle magazine interview.
