From John Lennon and Pablo Stanley, a dream worth keeping, a dream worth fighting for, a dream to keep working towards. We must resist.
Art by Pablo Stanley.
The Creators Project has an in depth look at Vortex Comics, and the Nigerian comic Strike Guard. Great stuff!
Put up July 28, 1982, at the corner of Cedar and Center Streets in Santa Cruz. Appeared on the front page of the Santa Cruz Sentinel on August 4. Despite the publicity, it was not covered over until August 31, after being up for 34 days.
The old days, specifically, the early 1980s. Before internet activism, and the ease of creating subversive memes, artists had to take a few more risks to get their message across. I was privileged to see a couple of these in person, and they pretty much delighted everyone. Well, okay, most of the younger crowd. It may well be time to get subversive once again, off the net.
The year was 1980 and no billboard was safe. A loose group of artists, designers, and troublemakers called Truth in Advertising were makjing not-so-subtle changes to advertisements all over Santa Cruz. The goal was to subvert lowbrow doublespeak with clever turns of phrase that made fun of the product being sold or revealed the truth behind the slogan. One example is is cigarette campaign with the vaguely positive language, “Kent III, Experience It!” tweaked to say “Cancer, Experience It!”
Bob Stayton, a.k.a., “William Board,” invented a method for “updating” these monumental ads that would spread to friends and friends of friends, all operating under the Truth in Advertising moniker. “No one knows how many people participated over the years,” Stayton writes on his website. “There was no roster, and no email list (there was no email back then). Since the activity was illegal, it was best not to know names.” He tells The Creators Project that his process involved carefully studying the typography of the ad words, projecting Polaroid photos onto graph paper to nail the proportions, and then pasting wallpaper painted with acrylic over the billboard.
[…]
Stayton was personally involved in at least 12 rewrites, which he planned or photographed. “I’m retired, but I published the directions in case someone else wants to give it a try,” he says. While he’s focusing on his day job as a computer consultant and the author of a book about solar energy, he’s left an open invitation to artists looking to take up his mantle. “If someone uses our method then they can use the Truth in Advertising name. No trademark there!” he says. While we don’t condone the destruction of private property, you can read the official guide to Truth in Advertising here, and do with it what you will.
The Creators Project has the full story. It’s always time to get creative!
Amazing, beautiful work here. So imaginative, and so very playful, with just a hint of dread:
Barcelona-based illustrator Vorja Sánchez depicts comically surreal storybook creatures that look like a cross between mutant dinosaurs and shadowy demons—but also captures the very lifelike spirit of birds and other animals. Working with a variety of mediums from pen and link to watercolor or spray paint, each piece is inspired by events in his daily life, an observation he makes while walking through the forest or drawing from a recent stint living in Nicaragua where he organized painting classes for children and adults. Sánchez has just begun working as a full-time artist in the last few months and is currently wrapping up work on an illustrated book. You can follow more of his artwork on Facebook and Instagram.
So much to savour and explore! Via Colossal Art.
Taking a break from the bad news factory that is the U.S., there’s some fun stuff from Make, as always. Tattoo fun, and even people who would never dream of getting a permanent tat can have fun with some of these, and I expect sprogs would be delighted to do something like this. I’ll be delighted to do something like this!
Skintillates aren’t limited just to embedded LEDs. In their video they show a few other compelling examples of using temporary tattoos for computer input devices and sensors.
On the purely visual side, Sparkfun shared this project called ElectriCute last year. It is a tutorial on how to put an Electroluminescent Panel on your skin and cover most of it up with makeup to appear as though you have a bright, glowing, tattoo.
Chaotic Moon put together this great presentation on how they would use the technology. One thing that stuck out in my mind was the very first example showing how you can easily paint on your own circuits with conductive ink. They do a pretty decent job of mixing the circuits with some aesthetic bits.
DuoSkin really stands out with their designs. They have a few that only use the conductive material, but it is shaped in striking and pleasing ways. Then they go on to show a few other really cool examples, such as using material that changes colors when hit with heat.
Then there’s this, which I’m quite interested in at the moment:
Happy watching and making!
Holy shit, Dragon! Eeeee. Remember Kumo? There’s more! Thanks to rq.
The Creators Project meets with personal trainer-turned-performance artist Cassils, who uses the body as a form of social sculpture, examining strength, violence, power, and vulnerability by testing the limits of endurance and empathy. With a focus on physicality and a continual process of “becoming” through this powerful imagery, Cassils challenges deep-seated notions of gender binaries and is physically changing the landscape of contemporary art as we know it. The artist considers the human body as a raw sculptural material that can be transformed by strict physical training regimes and captures the metamorphosis through photography and video. In Cassils’ latest live performance, Becoming An Image, the artist physically attacks a 2,000 pound clay block, delivering an emotive and forceful display of the human will.
For more info on upcoming Cassils performances, click here.
Via The Creators Project.
This is a splendid idea, wines which come with a story on the label.
A WINE TO READ OR A BOOK TO TASTE?
Conceived and realized by Reverse Innovation in partnership with the Matteo Correggia winery, Librottiglia is where great wine and literary pleasure meet. The characteristics of every product are matched to a narrative genre to create an oeno-literary experience based on the perfect balance of the sensory impressions of the wine and the scenarios imagined in the stories.
Three authors have contributed to this limited collection of exciting stories that accompany the wine selection.
“L’omicidio” (“Murder”), by the journalist and satirist Danilo Zanelli, is a mystery tinged with humour that blends with the fresh and light spirit of the white Roero Arneis.
The singer and writer Patrizia Laquidara is the author of “La Rana nella Pancia” (“The Frog in the Belly”), an intriguing fable which complements the uncommon personality of the red Anthos; a dry Brachetto with a surprising sweet bouquet.
“Ti amo. Dimenticami” (“I love you. Forget me”) by Regina Marques Nadaes, writer and cultural producer, is the story of a life-changing love, as intense as the ruby red Nebbiolo Roero it accompanies.
You can see and read more at Librottiglia. The site is available in Italian and English.
@realDonaldTrump conversation is not harassment sir. And I appreciate @mike_pence for stopping to listen.
— Brandon Victor Dixon (@BrandonVDixon) November 19, 2016
Apparently, what happened to Pence at Hamilton was harassment, so sayeth President-elect Pussy Grabber, an obvious expert on harassment. If you aren’t in the mood for right wing logic, I suggest staying clear of the tweet stream.
Uh oh…
The Theater must always be a safe and special place.The cast of Hamilton was very rude last night to a very good man, Mike Pence. Apologize!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2016
Oh no, could President-elect Pussy Grabber possibly be talking about a safe space? Next thing you know, he’ll want content warnings. Tsk.
Oh, and people are having fun with #BoycottHamilton, too:
Ok, #BoycottHamilton, a sold out show, and protest at Starbucks by buying Starbucks. You guys bristle at accusations of being stupid, but…
— Matt Braunger (@Braunger) November 19, 2016
They can't deal with a musical or with Megyn Kelly asking a question but they are totally gonna destroy Isis. #BoycottHamilton
— John (@linnyitssn) November 19, 2016
MR NIGHT HAS A DAY OFF – short film from Ignas Meilunas.
Belgian filmmaker and illustrator Vincent Bal works within the confines of long shadows of everyday objects resting in the sunlight to create a wide range of whimsical doodles. The shadow of a film canister becomes a forbidding tower, or the filaments of a lightbulb cast a dramatic backdrop as a staircase for a daring escape. Bal makes many of his images available as prints over on Etsy.
You can see more of this wonderful cleverness at Colossal.
The look and texture of sugar cubes, with their near perfect crystalline symmetry, is marvelous to the eye, but perhaps even more so in the hands of Karni and Saul. The duo use this appearance to wondrous effect in their latest work, an animated music video for Katie Melua’s atmospheric ballad “Perfect World.” As the camera pans left, viewers see sugar cubes sat beside a cup of coffee before being taken into a wintery wonderland full of the sweet crystals.
Karni and Saul call their style, equal parts photographic and fantastical animation, “Casual Fantasy,” and you can see why. In “Perfect World” the two construct a world within our own—something like a playful brand of magical realism, perhaps unfolding inside the sugar cubes. Sure, even with such amazing animation work, the narrative is a bit saccharine. Then again, isn’t that the point?
Perfect World – Katie Melua from Karni and Saul on Vimeo.
Click here to see more of Karni and Saul’s work.
Via The Creators Project.
The 2016 Good Design Award results were announced recently with awards going to over 1000 entries in several different categories. But the coveted Grand Award of Japan’s most well-known design award, given to just 1 entry, was announced today. Last year the winner was a personal mobility chair and the year before that it was a robotic arm. This year, the grand prize went to a world map.
But the map of the world has been around for hundreds of years. So what’s so special about this map? To begin, Tokyo-based architect and artist Hajime Narukawa has a problem with our current map and he’s been working for years to try and fix it. In 1569 geographer Gerardus Mercator revealed his world map and, to this day, it’s the generally accepted image we have of this planet. But it has major flaws in that it dramatically distorts the sizes of Antarctica and Greenland.
Narukawa developed a map projection method called AuthaGraph (and founded a company of the same name in 2009) which aims to create maps that represent all land masses and seas as accurately as possible. Narukawa points out that in the past, his map probably wasn’t as relevant. A large bulk of the 20th century was dominated by an emphasis on East and West relations. But with issues like climate change, melting glaciers in Greenland and territorial sea claims, it’s time we establish a new view of the world: one that equally perceives all interests of our planet.
AuthaGraph not only faithfully represents all oceans and continents, but the map can be tessellated just like an MC Escher painting. Much in the same way that we can traverse the planet without ever coming to an end, “the AuthaGraphic world map provides an advanced precise perspective of our planet.”
Go here to find out where you can purchase posters and globes based on the AuthaGraph project. There’s an online shop that carries them too.
Spoon & Tamago has the full story.
