The week so far...

I think it's a record...Started off with a parking ticket on Sunday, private residence and absolutely NOWHERE to park,couldn't move it in the morning because i had alcohol in my system and got it at about 12 on a SUNDAY morning, do these arse-holes have nothing else to do? It was in a safe and out of way place. But that's just another way the ever crumbling city council can get more money for the methadone...
Then my sewing machine decided to stop working...I have shit loads to finish. I'll just have to give it an hour or so and if it's not working I'm officially FCUKed.
Oh and i have yet another shitty sore throat, with my neck feeling stiff and a wonky stomach that wont settle.
I'm doing well.
Listening to -

Moon

Thoughts on the said film?...
Absolutely fucking brilliant. I can't believe it was only shot in 33 days. Urgh it's so good, but that could be because it's mostly Sam Rockwell that you see with the added bonus of Kevin Spacey as the voice of Gerty. Hurrah, a film you MUST watch.







Well done David Bowie, you bring great music to the earth, then a talented son who makes fantastic films.

Maurizio Anzeri

I meant to bring up Maurizio Anzeri a while ago but i totally forgot to post about him until now.
A recent visit to my friends house brought back the memories of how much i love him because her flat 
mate is doing something similar with her work just now using embroidery.
He has a lot of other work but my favourite is his embroidered vintage photos and how he manipulates 
the photographs with stitch,making a seemingly sweet and innocent picture something that can appear
quite creepy! 

I actually just LOVE his work. Especially the bottom one, she looks like she has a balaclava on and appears quite threatening but by just seeing the face behind the embroidery you know that she's quite innocent.

I like the initial shock factor of the pieces.

I've got Moon on the agenda to watch tonight...

*Drool*


But I think I'm going to watch a quick screenwipe with another of my favourite men, Brooker.

Because he is king.

Listening to -

Websites

Trendhunter So i'm on this one almost every day, for a good hour or so just trawling through everything. Really good for new designs and for inspiration.

Saatchi online is also really good for art and just having a trawl through peoples work. You can upload and sell your own stuff on it commission free if you're a student. I've seen some Duncan of Jordanstone people on it!

Art Collaboration  is a candy shop for photography. With links to artists that have collaborated which is always a bonus.

Juxtapoz yum, and an amazing magazine to get your hands on too. This has lots of links to blogs that tend to be pretty interesting.

And 2sleep   ok,so it does have a fair bit of crap on it but it's link after link after link, and you sometimes tend to get lost in all the information it gives you. A lot of design and technology through out it.

RCRDLBL, free to download, whoooo! Seriously good though because it has a lot of up and coming music on it.

Homotography kinda does what it says on the tin. The tag line is " Photography with homosexual tendencies" but it's so good. They are mostly fashion photography, but with BEAUTIFUL men. And interesting articles and links to if you want to look further than the men.

Channel4  for the news, and for the good television.

The Guardian  for a good interesting read and it's always nice to keep up to date with current affairs.

And Lastly the youtube factor.Obviously.


Fix up. Look sharp.

Listening to - 

*edit*

Never good to post when you're intoxicated...


Fix up. Look sharp.

Assignment 3*edit*

I'm late with this (as previously stated) because I'm a "Div" and was having slight problems. I digress...
We were asked to look up on Cross-Search (an absolute nightmare might i add) stuff about our previous thoughts, mine being the Graffiti "problems". It was a bit of a stressful "activity" that made me want to puke a few times with sheer frustration and worry. But here goes...( I bet you I've done it all wrong)

Austin,J,2001, Taking The Train : How Graffiti Art became An Urban Crisis in New York City, Columbia University Press.

I was quite shocked by this article as it talks about how in the 1960's and early 1970's in New York City, a city short on funds, at the time, wanted to "wipe out" graffiti and so this was an expensive priority and other needs went unnoticed and unfunded!

The "epidemic" started as the city youths were being greatly influenced by the wide spread use of famous names that were displayed everywhere, on billboards, sides of buses,trains etc.

It tracks how graffiti assumed crisis level importance as so the Bureaucracy and Public Relations in New York City AND the Metropolitan Transport Authority took notice and tried to prevent and clean it up for almost 2 decades!

Bemused by the slight idiocy of wasting 2 decades on something that can't really be stopped, an interesting read about the dumb...

Calvin, I. M, 2005, Graffiti, the Ultimate Realia : Meeting the Standards Through An Unconventional Cultural Lesson, Journal Devoted to the teachings of Spanish and Portuguese.

This journal talks about graffiti being and unconventional advertisement, billboard, created by students and their peer group to attract attention.

Since it is a learning journal, it talks about language teachers and how they should use the graffiti as teaching tools rather than banishing them completely. It demonstrates the use of graffiti and how it can be a "truly academic exercise" for lessons in language and culture.

It gives procedures for lessons and graffiti samples to show to the class as well as possible extensions of the topic if interested for the language teachers.

Halsey,M, 2006, "Our Desires are Ungovernable" - Writing Graffiti in Urban Space.

I found this book interesting as it seemed like it "sat on the fence" in the debate of good or bad graffiti.It considers the hidden aspects of graffiti in the cultures today along with detailed interviews with graffiti writers or artists, which again was another interesting point of view.

It covered 4 main themes throughout it; the motivation for carrying out graffiti, the threshold of dividing "vandalism" and "art" with graffiti, the reactions of the graffiti artists to a "blank" surface and what makes them want to graffiti in a certain place and lastly and perhaps most important, how graffiti is perceived in relation to other types of vandalism.

Martinez,S, 2009, Graff: The Art and Technique of Graffiti, IMPACT books.

This book was VERY interesting to have a scope through. It actually helps you to create, legally, graffiti It talks in depth about the techniques used buy graffiti artists  and gives real instructions on hoe to create sketching of work and the basics of developing letter forms etc.

On a more serious note to the book it discussed the roots of graffiti and its roots in vandalism, but also talks about it as an art form.

I thought this was a great book as it helps the reader differentiate between the "vandalism" side and the "art" side of graffiti.

Werwath, T, 2006, The Culture And Politics of Graffiti Art, Independent Research paper - Wilde Lake High School, Columbia, MD, USA.

I found this article interesting as it was from someone younger who talked about graffiti's politics as well as the culture behind it. Werwath writes about the history, again, behind the art of graffiti and how graffiti had a social significance and the intentional or unintentional goal of it.

He describes the 3 major types of modern graffiti; "tag", "throw-up" and "piece" and also how there are motives behind producing graffiti, is it a mass communication / cultural frustration i.e war, or is it for an individual to express themselves e.g Blu?

Whitford.M.J, 1991, Getting Rid of Graffiti: Practical Guide to Graffiti Removal and Anti-Graffiti Protection, Spoon Press.

I decided to look at this book because it was an "anti-graffiti" book and was the opposite of what i was wanting really. It made some interesting points on todays effectiveness with modern chemical systems and the economic benefits of the approach.
It goes in to great detail in techniques on how to get rid of graffiti and gives practical references. It also helps in helping to identify and understand the surface of the affected area before helping the reader choose what removal methods would be best suited to it.
It also talks about protecting surfaces against graffiti which is what i had originally thought about when i first started out with the "graffiti" problem until i realised it wasn't actually one.
The book is very interesting as the whole book is based on the first hand experiences of the people at London Underground and what they are doing to prevent and remove the graffiti.

Finished? Phew...


Fix up. Look sharp.

Listening to - 

I'm late...

Fix up. Look sharp.

Listening to -

Weaving

Needing to get in to the habit of "recording" what i'm doing with my days.
These are from our week of weaving, which i did enjoy, although not sure it's for me.

I need to separate them so i'll be doing that soon and perhaps more photos up.

Got knitting tomorrow, dunno if i'm looking forward to it or not. There have been mixed reviews!

Fix up. Look sharp.

Listening to -

The Tipping Point ideas.

I didn't make a poster or anything because i wasn't sure if i was doing it right or not so i stored it in the empty space of my mind and sort of ran with it at our seminar when we were talking about it in the group.
I thought about the part in the book where Gladwell talks about the graffiti on the trains and subways as it is a well known "annoyance" that happens everywhere.
At first i thought about a special paint that would be used on the train and subway carriages instead of the normal coating they receive, one that would stop the spray paint or foreign ink from sticking to the paint and there for the carrage. Stopping the graffiti. But then i thought that surely with technology these days the graffiti "artists" would work round the paint not sticking and compose something else up. As there is always a flaw with most things.
So i started looking at the actual "crime"

I don't think it looks that bad! So then i thought about how the city council could get the "culprits" actually involved to "stop" them from defacing the public transport.
I thought they could arrange competitions to get the graffiti artists to design work for the carriages and so then have their work on the train/ subway and so no one would be defacing anything.
Ok, so someone might graffiti over it but at least it's not going to be as obvious!
The council could advertise in the paper, on tv, have posters put up over the city, the internet etc explaining that they want graffiti artists for the purpose of designing for the carriages. Giving a postal address for where to send their ideas, or having a site where they could hand them in or even have a full day event where artists could collaborate.
I thought this could happen every 3-4 years with a new lick of paint and new spray of ink and competition to keep it "fresh".
Obvious people to get in touch with would be the city council and the heads of the railway companies. They could be a bit old fashioned and stiff but if they know what's best and more cost efficient they would go with this sort of idea.
Run the costs by them and i'm sure they would find it hard to pass by.

Fix up. Look sharp.

Listening to -

M.I.A.

Ok so i've been a bit "M.I.A" recently, lack of brian cells and internet. It's up and working and the few brain cells i have left are finally hitting a spark.
Away to pop up my thoughts on The Tipping Point assignment we had for our seminar...

Fix up. Look sharp.
Watched The Crow last night...amazing film. Beats the dark knight any day, but Heath...

Believe in curses?

Listening to -

Felice Varini

I'm going to test you...

These images have NOT been photoshopped....

They are the work of Swiss artist Felice Varini who makes art illusions on a massive scale. Although ,like with all illusions, you have to get in the exact spot to see it. Otherwise it just looks like random blocks of colours.

Like that one, which helps make up this...

It's the same idea as artist Julian Beever

                      

Although i do prefer Varini's much more as it's on such a huge scale. But i can hardly talk, my perception in drawing and painting is crap!

This post isn't that informative on my behalf but i believe my brain is currently looking like this...

Fix up. Look sharp.

Listening to - 

Banana Juice

I've just come across Naoto Fukasawa who is a Japanese Industrial Designer who also is the head of Naoto Fukasawa Designs. He has designed these juice cartons that actually look and feel like the contained fruit drink...

“I imagined that if the surface of the package imitated the colour and texture of the fruit skin, then the object would reproduce the feeling of the real skin.”

The white carton is "silken tofu skin" that contains soy milk added as a bit of a wild card!

Might seem a bit "obvious" but it's the first i've seen!

Fix up. Look sharp.


Listening to -



Watch this video because i WANT this girls life.

Death Penalty part 2

I've had a massive rant about bringing back the death penalty on here before and I've just seen an advert for a channel 4 drama based on the government bringing it back and it happening to Garry Glitter of all people. It's on at 9 on Monday i think. One to watch.
Fix up. Look sharp.

Lace and all things girlie.

I've been having a look at Cal Lane's work which i think goes quite well with my work that I'm doing just now with my project.
I've been looking at the Victorian Era, and English Romanticism and have been doing a lot of the doilies work...shudder. But more really at lace and old patterns and the "textiles" of then.
Cal Lane uses "manly objects" and cuts out patterns of lace in to them, so to say shortly!

"I like to work as a visual devil’s advocate, using contradiction as a vehicle for finding my way to an empathetic image, an image of opposition that creates a balance - as well as a clash - by comparing and contrasting ideas and materials.This manifested in a series of “Industrial Doilies”, pulling together industrial and domestic life as well as relationships of strong and delicate, masculine and feminine, practical and frivolity, ornament and function. There is also a secondary relationship being explored here, of lace used in religious ceremonies as in weddings, christenings and funerals"

A few of my favourite pieces include her shovels and also her "dirt" work.

Absolutely stunning.

Fix up. Look sharp.

Mummy I want to be a picture taker.

It really upsets me that you can't see this view anymore from where it was taken, because of "new office space" that really isn't needed.

These pictures where taken a while ago from a friends "balcony" with fond memories of fantastic sunsets and sunrises. And mental parties...

Beloved Glasgow Queen Street.

Needle park  Baxter Park.

Under The Bridge. "I don't ever wanna feel like i did that day.Take me to the place i love"

Which would be a place i love.

Fix up. Look sharp.

Listening to -

I love this song more than you.

More tipping point.

Been a bit slow getting these up, was suppose to put them up for "a'bady" on Friday but it seemed to get very hectic as soon as I left the building...
We were discussing the Tipping Point book and the design aspects through out it.

Fix up. Look sharp.

Listening to -

Halloween

I honestly can't believe it's finished for another year. I think i'm more upset about this than christmas.

Listening to - Ce Ce  Peniston - Finally