Jamaican Writing

Summer has begun, so  companies want to make sure their customers have the necessary tools to enjoy the season to the fullest. And if that mean a company stepping outside of it’s traditional business activity. So be it.  Its what we’ve come to expect. Last night at Howard 38, a new party space in downtown Manhattan, Red Stripe jumped into the fray.

Reduce Reuse Recycle – this new world order can’t come soon enough

Consistent growth is the only thing that can sustain our world economy, but sustaining our world and us outweighs the need for short-term rapid economic development. So the only answer is to learn to live without constant growth, to find a sustainable level and maintain it.

This need for growth is directly affecting our waistlines. Even food, which was about nurturing and nourishing one’s body and soul, has been degraded, commercialized, and bastardized to the point that most food has become unrecognizable.

Additives, to make foods addictive or give you a sense of hunger even when full, have been developed to keep this year’s numbers higher than last year’s. The more people pile in their faces the better off processed ‘food’ companies are, the more resources get used, and the carbon emissions chasm deepens. If we give them the power to destroy our health and longevity, how pacified we must be.

Going for the ONE

This is exactly what I mean when I talk about 1974 + the Hippie Tinge being real big for Fall ‘08. When the last dark vestiges  of the 1960s meet druid pagan frocks they land squarely in the mid 70s.  The Best thing about simulated nostalgia is you get all the heavy feelings without doing all the hard work.

Moment of Zen: Kinetic Art

Constructivism rocks… the Russian sculptors that wrote the book on Constructivism also defined Kinetic art.  Sure this week Russia is pissing the US off, but look at the beauty they’ve historically inspired.  Now if we could only get all of the policy makers to stop scheming and start enjoying art pieces like this wind-driven sculpture is by Jeffery Laudenslager, maybe they’d reflect more on their decisions to destroy thousands of lives. And change their minds.

Data Visualization Art – Mapping Britain’s Information Economy from Above

Art is everywhere – we, as a species, weave our collective artistic sense into everything we do. The paths that fiber optic cables weave as they transmit information, flight paths, shipping routes, and land based telecommunications all create intricate patterns. These patterns were not derived from concerns of aesthetic impact, but created out of concern for the systems functionality. However, though this functionality arises a planned chaos that is both breathtaking and awe inspiring when visualized.

This type of art is concerned with presenting the everyday, overlooked, functions of the world in striking visualizations of pure data. My first encounter with this type of art making was when I researched Radiohead’s latest video. I found a group of UCLA researchers, that had inspired the video’s director, were using laser to record the movement of aerial vehicles and compiling the data into still images.

This time around the BBC presents data visualization, in Britain From Above, through time lapse video using among other things GPS signatures or trails. The images are not of humans, but their systems, and it’s truly amazing to see so many people interacting on such a large scale. These vids makes all our randomness – seem magical.

Link to videos

Tropic Thunder Pushing the Limits?

Tropic Thunder looks like it could be really funny. Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr. are all funny dudes, and great actors. But one thing about the film I can’t understand is the modern day black face Downey dons for his part. Come on were Will Smith or Mekhi Phifer unavailable, or is it for comedic and or publicity’s sake? I’ll continue to do more research into why the choice. I do wonder if the film will get any backlash or negative publicity for such a risky move? Even in an age where a biracial man may soon be President of the United States of America… best to believe race is still a divisive, and mighty touchy subject for many.

NYC Waterfalls,really?

I’m all for public art. All the discussion, culture, and revenue it brings to the city are good. It’s exactly what a world class city like New York, New York needs to have, and NYC does it well. Now with the NYC Waterfalls and previously a few years back with The Gates New York has shone and proved that it’s got the vision, connections, ability, follow through and most of all money to turn an abstract concept that pertains to public space and its use into a concrete and enjoyable diversion.

My only question is could the money allocated for these public projects be used in a more thoughtful, more useful for more people kind of a way?

The Mad Men Aesthetic

I always love comparisons and it makes it even sweeter when it’s a comparison of two things I support so strongly Mad Men, the show about liquor swilling, lovablely hateable, non-P.C. ad executives from the 1960’s, and G.Q., the iconic men’s magazine celebrating 50 years of dictating classic American style seem to share the same aesthectic leanings. That is classic American business and sportswear. An appreciation of women boarding on objectification, and the whole black and white silhouette figure icon. Kind of noir, sort of classic American. Kudos to both

The 4 C’s of Peak Williamsburg

One thing that has fascinated, surprised and horrified me to a certain extent, is a phenomenon that I call PEAK Williamsburg. The hippest neighborhood in New York City, arguably in the entire U.S., is growing and changing. Some folks thinks it’s great. Ask any NYU student stumbling giddily down Bedford Ave on any weekend night. Other folks are not so excited. Think families and people who have lived in Williamsburg for a while or for generations, but are now being pushed, or more accurately priced out to make way for condos, yuppie dream castles, and nubile, hipper than thou Midwesterners. The pro and cons of gentrification are complex and this is not a forum in which I want to make value judgments on the current situation that is Peak Williamsburg. Instead what I’d like to point out the 4 C’s of Peak Williamsburg. The increase of these 4 C’s usually can be made applicable to most any area that is in the middle of gentrification or at least areas experiencing what I’ll call for my purposes here a non organic turnover in population. That means a neighborhood whose residents are fundamentally shifting not due to age, birth , and or death rates. These 4 C’s do not apply to neighborhoods experiencing fluctuating crime rates due to focus or neglect of a city’s limited allocations and resources, or lack there of, or anomalies like when interstates are built in the middle of existing communities either. These 4 C’s are limited to shifts where economic upgrading and or development act as overt driving forces

Urban Outfitters are Slow Learners

The Internet has spawned many things; one of most culturally impactful is the emergence of a definite web aesthetic. It’s more like an inherent change in visual communication.  Graphic designs whether designed for the web or not, look as if they belong there. Grade school textbook pages look like a web layouts with colorful graphics and snippets of info. Connecting the dots is left up to the student… and we all were students so we know that ain’t happening the majority of the time.

Digital photography, the immediacy of image creation, and instant picture sharing has fueled the amateur photographer like never before. This digital imaging revolution is a huge component of the web aesthetic. Seemly more real, true, and gritty this direction is a ‘perfect companion for your web 2.0 marketing strategy’. Emulations of amateurism have gained popularity as a more sincere form of advertising photography.

American Apparel is an obvious early purveyor of this amateur aesthetic.  It probably didn’t hurt that in the beginning, Dov, the CEO seducer, took the photos. He managed to get hot young models to pose for next to nothing, then exploited the spontaneous feel – by photographing without flattering lighting or sets; instead the girls were in bed or somewhere similarly intimate. Of course, they were AA clad usually in a state of undress.

Now it would seem that Urban Outfitters is finally catching on, much like their shoppers.