Friday, August 14, 2009

Top 10 Aug 14

Finally Friday and finally another top 10 list at your service.
Hope you enjoy this weeks nuggets of 1 and 0's.

/J

Thursday, August 13, 2009

1. RiP! A Remix Manifesto - Documentary


Girl Talk and Director Brett Gaylor aim to re-define Fair Use in the music industry by arguing that remix culture is a matter of creativity over legality.

See the documentary on hulu HERE

2. Jennifer Maestre - Pencil Sculptures



Artist's Statement:

My sculptures were originally inspired by the form and function of the sea urchin. The spines of the urchin, so dangerous yet beautiful, serve as an explicit warning against contact. The alluring texture of the spines draws the touch in spite of the possible consequences. The tension unveiled, we feel push and pull, desire and repulsion. The sections of pencils present aspects of sharp and smooth for two very different textural and aesthetic experiences. Paradox and surprise are integral in my choice of materials. Quantities of industrially manufactured objects are used to create flexible forms reminiscent of the organic shapes of animals and nature. Pencils are common objects, here, these anonymous objects become the structure. There is true a fragility to the sometimes brutal aspect of the sculptures, vulnerability that is belied by the fearsome texture.

To make the pencil sculptures, I take hundreds of pencils, cut them into 1-inch sections, drill a hole in each section (to turn them into beads), sharpen them all and sew them together. The beading technique I rely on most is peyote stitch.

I’m inspired by animals, plants, other art, Ernst Haeckel, Odilon Redon, mythology. In fact, it isn’t easy to specify particular sources of inspiration. Sometimes one sculpture will inspire the next, or maybe I’ll make a mistake, and that will send me off in a new direction.

I started off in the direction of prickly things when I was in my last year at Mass College of Art. It all comes from one idea I had for a box with a secret compartment that would contain a pearl. The box would be shaped like a sea urchin, made of silver. In order to open the box and reveal the secret compartment, you’d have to pull on one of the urchin’s spines. The idea was of something beautiful, sculptural, but that you wouldn’t necessarily want to touch, and that also held a secret treasure. I never developed the small-metals skills to ever make the box, but it got me thinking about that kind of form. I started experimenting with different materials to make urchin forms. I found that nails, pushed through window screen, worked well, and I could use many different types and textures and colors of nails.

After graduation, I didn’t have the facilities to do glass, so I kept playing with the nails and screen (very low tech), and gradually started working larger, adding zippers and other elements. Continuing with the container theme, I started making the tack-coated eggs to place inside the nail baskets.

The eggs were so beautiful on their own, as well, that I decided to open some of them up, putting little windows in, for example.

While I was doing that work, I was also dabbling in bead work. I taught myself several beading techniques, especially peyote stitch, which is great for creating sculptural work.

I was constrained a bit with the nails, because I couldn’t get all the turns and twists I wanted. I loved the textures and the contrast between the industrial qualities of the nails and the organic forms of the sculptures, but I wanted more complex forms. I was also thinking about how bad the liquid rubber probably was for my health.

So, I experimented with other pointy things and techniques, and finally hit on turning pencils into beads and sewing them together. Using this combination of technique and materials allows me to retain all the qualities that I want in my work, with the potential for more variety of form.

Check out more work by Jennifer Maestre HERE

3. Wes Anderson - Fantastic Mr. Fox







FANTASTIC MR. FOX is visionary director Wes Anderson’s first animated film, utilizing classic handmade stop motion techniques to tell the story of the best selling children’s book by Roald Dahl (author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach). The film features the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Wally Wolodarsky, Eric Anderson, Michael Gambon, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson, Jarvis Cocker Mr and Mrs Fox (Clooney and Streep) live an idyllic home life with their son Ash (Schwartzman) and visiting young nephew Kristopherson (Eric Anderson). But after 12 years, the bucolic existence proves too much for Mr Fox’s wild animal instincts. Soon he slips back into his old ways as a sneaky chicken thief and in doing so, endangers not only his beloved family, but the whole animal community. Trapped underground and with not enough food to go around, the animals band together to fight against the evil Farmers - Boggis, Bunce and Bean - who are determined to capture the audacious, fantastic Mr Fox at any cost.

Check it out in HD HERE

4. Kalle Gustafsson - Photographer





Kalle Gustafsson is a photographer from Stockholm and is represented by the skarp agency.

Check out his portfolio HERE
Check out Skarp HERE

5. Lola Dupré - Collages





See more awesome collages by Lola Dupré HERE

6. True Blood Main Title - Making Of


The making of.


Finished Titles.

A truly hand-made sequence for one of the most watched dramatic series in HBO’s history. The final edit contains over 65 shots comprised of original documentary, studio, tabletop photography and found footage. 6 separate shoots took place in Louisiana, Seattle, Chicago on 7 different still, film, and video cameras. 3 new babies were born at DK between award and delivery. No divorces. 1 Bolex passed peacefully in the night.

Check out more work by Digitalkitchen HERE

7. Erik Mark Sandberg - Hairy Teens




Pop culture and the beauty industry’s tendency to turn childhood into a commodity is the concept that inspired Erik Mark Sandberg’s series of unsettling paintings, Hairy Children Portraits– but they can be enjoyed just fine if they’re simply taken as weird for weirdness’ sake.

Check out more work by Erik Mark Sandberg HERE

8. Spaghetti Bench By Pablo Reinoso



Artistic furniture by Pablo Reinoso.
Check out more Spaghetti Benches HERE

9. swmpdnky




Check out swmpdnky flickr HERE

10. Lemonade


More than 70,000 advertising professionals have lost their jobs in this “Great Recession.” Lemonade is about what happens when people who were once paid to be creative in advertising are forced to be creative with their own lives.