Never Can Say Goodbye Exhibit & Panel Discussion
It begins as a throwback, something of a mirage-like homage to music history. In the former spot of Tower Records is a small sign outside, a faux cd cover entitled “Never Can Say Goodbye” by No Longer Empty. It’s the introduction to Never Records, a record store that never was but is, replete with record bins, posters, flyers, merchandise for sale, even a cash register, with individually painted dollar bills and calling cards of artists swapped out for change. Each item, from cardboard box to employee of the month sculpture, recreated and repurposed with the theme of invoking the history of how music was represented in a time when record stores could turn a huge profit. Composed by Ted Riederer, Never Records (a befitting moniker), is in actuality a record of 40+ artists whose displayed work has never had anything to do with music recording prior to its inception for the show.
Travel down the rabbit hole…
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It’s a scratchpad for ideas…want to join, get in touch 908.917.7273
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ASAD A smile a day: The effects of smiling drawings and sketches
What’s on your Desktop – a foray into the creative space analog to digital and back again
Life of the plastic bottle on multiple planes of time (inspired by Einstein time) mumbai
Ideation: the genesis of the idea via the family tree
Redesigning the tarot
A Musing Fool
My brother once described Mr. Larry Young as his “cheat sheet to life.” Granted this was after he’d gotten over the fact that Larry was dating our mother and after he no longer searched for his picture posting on the bulletin at the post office for America’s most wanted. And while the comment was made in passing it is, in my eyes, one of the greatest compliments and one that is rarely bestowed because it’s seldom deserved. It’s not as if Larry has any secret short cuts or special tricks, he lived and lives a full life, one that enables him to impart that crucial nugget of information that makes things go off in your head and connect the dots. And like any good cheat sheet he does so discreetly. If you were to meet Larry face to face, you’d think yourself in front of an unassuming country boy, silver from years of living both the high and low life, but still colorful and with a muted southern twang to boot; his blue laughing eyes the only part hinting at the deep ocean of knowledge just a story away.
Brooklyn Mobile
I’ve never actually seen the setup in the street and just happened to find out the creator is something of a neighbor, since his office is 3 floors up from mine. Regardless the contraption caught my attention and I snapped a couple shots from my iPhone thinking it was a fun little idea. But low and behold with the power of google, flickr, youtube, and wordpress a whole new side, much more elaborate lay behind this seemingly innocent cardboard facade.
2009 Year in Review: Favorites, Best Of’s and Top 10′s
With 2009 coming to a close, it seems like everyone is making a list and checking it twice…from the high-brow to the low a smattering of findings below:
Proportion and the Golden Ratio
I’ve always been in love with building blocks, deeply drawn to the idea of starting with a simple form and adding to it, building and constructing something far more complex from a single element…it’s also not intimidating. Try to add to an existing fort and it’s possible to witness it crumble having barely touched the thing. To start from square one, on the other hand, well if you didn’t like the placement of the first block, it’s not exactly difficult to start over.
To try and understand the whole of art history (in all its forms) and its influence on design is, to say the least, a tall order. I’d recently stumbled upon the writings of Jack Cheng, whose facetiously titled posting, 51 Ways to Change Your Life, bestowed only a single, but very poignant lesson (inspired in part from the 43 of Bruce Mau’s Incomplete Manifesto for Growth)- learn in moderation.
When you find yourself saying “that’s a really great idea, I should try that,” stop reading. Pick one thing from that list of fifteen. Don’t worry about finishing the rest of the book. Try it. Practice it, repeat it, until it becomes routine. Remind yourself to consciously think about it on a regular basis. When you make that one item a habit, you can come back to the source and learn something else. Then, every time you practice the new thing, you’ll be reminded to keep practicing all the old ones.
Moderation is key. The more we try to learn everything, the more we learn nothing.
So in the spirit of learning in moderation intermingled with my love of building blocks, it’s back to basics, exploring some of the most elementary principles of art and design, mainly of composition. Be it music or literature, painting or poster design, composition is the very basic building framework of any creative work, the combining of different parts to make a whole. How one consciously puts together the elements at their disposal- the first block.
Bruce Mau’s Incomplete Manifesto for Growth
Written in 1998, the Incomplete Manifesto is an articulation of statements exemplifying Bruce Mau’s beliefs, strategies and motivations.
Keep Calm and Carry On
Though the now recognized british poster found huge popularity during the Christmas of 2005, it was originally produced in 1939 for the Ministry of Information and was only to be distributed should the Nazis succeed in an invasion of Great Britain. The third in a series of three it was designed as a motivational poster for the British Government.
Printed and stored, the poster didn’t see the full light of day until the year 2000, when a copy was discovered by a bookseller Stuart Manley and gained popularity shortly after it was featured as a newspaper supplement Christmas gift idea.
Below is the original image along with a parody found on ffffound. While the typography is clearly off the mark, the British stiff upper lip sentiment surely gets turned on its head.
RELATED LINKS & RESOURCES
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7869458.stm
http://ww2poster.wordpress.com/2009/04/05/1939-3-posters/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Calm_and_Carry_On
Sol LeWitt & Serendipity
Sometimes something happens and for an odd moment it seems like the world is in sync and that fate is telling you something, revealing its pearls of wisdom…you may only catch a glimpse and it may be fleeting but all the same you can appreciate.
In a place where homes are more often referred to as apartments than houses, where the art of space saving has created its own booming industry, it’s no wonder that one isn’t often a physical house caller in New York City. So when you do find yourself in the privacy of an acquaintance’s home, it’s always something of a exploratory discovery.
Personally, my first gravitation is to the bookshelf, since there is usually at least one, even if it’s a single plank of wood, in a one room studio with a murphy bed and other space saving articles of dual purpose furnishings. In a recent experience, as the resident of said abode stepped into the bathroom I found myself perusing the pages of a book by Sol LeWitt. I’d never heard of him and hadn’t again till recently.
But his drawings did stay with me, I can’t really say why, the boldness, the simplicity…and yet I put it down and never thought about it again, that is until today, when I came across this quote randomly in the header of http://www.boym.com/blog/ I liked it and having a little widget of collected quotes added it and googled his name. When I found the drawings of said book, from said apartment, I wanted to know the full context and this is what I found:
Space Invader in Varanasi
You couldn’t help but notice the small, slightly dilapidated markings – discrete and yet so out of place in this ancient city by the sacred Ganges River. I do believe it is the work of the french graffiti artist known as Space Invader.