Architecture Graffiti

I love seeing people really elevating the art form of graffiti. This is from Libson, Portugal. I have no idea whose work this is. Please let me know if you do so I can give proper credit.

You can see more images of this wall > HERE <

This Is It

Not much to say here..just watch. If you haven't already, go back and read my big MJ post from August > HERE <

Story of Cap and Trade

If you haven't already watched it a couple of times, watch The Story Of Stuff before watching this. (or at least after watching this) I'm not taking a side on this issue yet because I don't know enough yet but this is a good introduction. All you designers out there, and just socially responsible citizens, need to get educated on these issues so you really know what 'sustainability' really means and what the issues really are that affect our everyday lives and our futures.

To watch the movie, just click on the image above or click > HERE <

Lightworks

This video is INCREDIBLE!!!! Light art stop motion animation by Dee Pee Studios. Just WOW!!

Oh baby!

An amazing glipse inside (literally) the life cycle of other mammals.
More pictures can be found > HERE <

More flat speakers?!?!

Just a couple of months ago I posted THESE amazing flat speakers coming out of Taiwan. And now I see these that were actually published even earlier. I think the ones from Taiwan will actually sound better though but still these are amazing!

A groundbreaking new loudspeaker, less than 0.25mm thick, has been developed by University of Warwick engineers, it's flat, flexible, could be hung on a wall like a picture, and its particular method of sound generation could make public announcements in places like passenger terminals clearer, crisper, and easier to hear.

Lightweight and inexpensive to manufacture, the speakers are slim and flexible: they could be concealed inside ceiling tiles or car interiors, or printed with a design and hung on the wall like a picture.

Read the full article > HERE <

Mos Def - Super Magic

Another video off the Ecstatic album...a.k.a. one of the top 5 albums of the year. If you don't got it, GO GET IT! The video kinda gives me seizures but maybe that's the effect he was going for? And some newness produced by Ski. Be sure to find that 24hr Karate School track too! Mos is killing shit right now..oh yeah, the BlacRoc album is out which he's one as as well! Make sure to watch that other video I posted of Mos Def in Nippon too!

MOS DEF "Supermagic" from nabil elderkin on Vimeo.

Catch the beat

I love these synchronized metronome videos!

Weird video of the week

It's been a while since I've posted one of these but this has got to be one of the weirdest music videos made in a while. The techniques are cool and the song's pretty good but what the hell is going on in some of these scenes!!??? Hilarious..weird..intriguing..bizarre..

Birds, in concert

This is the first time I've really seen this phenomenon on video. Too bad it's such low quality but still beautiful to watch. There's a photographer, I think Italian, who does some great black & white photos of this sort of thing too. Sorry, couldn't find the name in the few minutes I had to post this...was in Seed Magazine about 6 issues ago.

Sound Sculpture

This is a nice little piece by Daniel Franke called "One Minute Sound Sculpture". The idea of a sculpture made from sound is really intriguing to me and something I hope to explore in the near future. This guy's take on it is pretty cool and he's really good at tracking an animation and placing it in a live environment.

Analog blogging

I'm not sure why VBS titled their report this way. Maybe they didn't realize 'blog' is short for 'web log' and that the web is not analog. Never the less, this is a good little piece and speaks to the importance of information. If you didn't already know, VBS is Vice magazine's online video service and has some really great content such as a crazy report on North Korea, buying bootleg guns in Pakistan, buying a warhead on the black market and interviews with people like Kanye West and Sasha Grey.

Vincent Ganivet sculptures

French artist Vincent Ganivet makes beautiful and sculptures using mostly common building materials. The appear simple until you actually realize the work involved in making a free standing arcs and circles from cinder blocks. Have you ever thought about making a big trail using cinder blocks instead of dominoes? Yeah, we all have. But he actually does it! His non-building material pieces are also interesting and worth taking a look at.

Watch the video >> HERE <<

Halftones

Nice opArt halftones by Travess Smally. Keep staring!

Snakes

This new Massive Attack video is dope. Black and white graphics NEVER get old when done well. The song's pretty good too.

45 King on HandyTrax

Had to share this...it's a video of Mark The 45 King KILLING a breaks set on a pair of Vestax HandyTrax portables and a stack of 45s.

R.A.D.

Sure, you've heard of CAD but now we have RAD (Robot Aided Drawing). Jen Hui Liao has designed and built the Self Portrait Machine to assist the sitter with drawing themselves. The machine "takes a picture of the sitter and draws it but with the model's help. The wrists of the individual are tied to the machine and it is his or her hands that are guided to draw the lines that will eventually form the portrait." Ok, so you may be asking, "So, what's the point?!" This may help explain:

The project aims to explore the cooperation process of human & machine. The designer explains: I found some the relationship between human and machine are amazing and could be horrible (like this one that shows how we human invent machines then put human inside to it to manufacture goods), The final object - A machine is a miniature of what I understand through the process of research, and the aim of the machine is to let people have a chance to feel the condensed process of how we generate our self identity from external point of view as from the society, which is a big machine we all in.

You can read more about the project >HERE<

Mos Def in Nippon

Definitely worth watching! Check the Ecstatic Mos Def on tour in Japan and get some perspective on where his head's at, the importance of hip-hop and how the culture affects the world. Oh, and go get the new album, The Ecstatic!! One of the top 10 albums of the year...sure, there were plenty of good songs (Drake, Kid Cudi, Kanye, Jay-Z, etc...) but very few good albums...in hip-hop, the only full hip-hop albums worth getting this year are the new Raekwon, Q-Tip & the new Mos Def...period. It's a RAP!

I'll Kill Her

Beautifully done video by Joerg Barton as his thesis project!

I´ll kill her from Joerg Barton on Vimeo.

Visualizing Music

Really dope motion graphics by Belgian artist Gwen Vanhee exploring new ways to interpret music. Finding new and innovative ways to translate sound to visuals and vice versa always fascinates me. The graphics by themselves are great but the context and execution really brings them to a higher level. I highly recommend checking out some of his other work on Vimeo and Flickr.

Flat paper speakers..the future of sound?

If you're slightly crazy like me, you've thought about the possibility of flat, flexible speakers and if you're even partially out there you've considered paper speakers. Well, our dreams our becoming a reality. Scientists in Taiwan have developed a flexible paper speaker by sandwiching paper and CNTs together.

”Aside from use in family, stereo, or automobile hi-fi equipment, it can also be used in earphones or for industrial antinoise purposes,” says Johnsee Lee, president of Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), where the technology has been under development since 2006.

The device, named fleXpeaker, is basically a sandwich of paper and metal filled with an electroactive polymer that contracts and expands with an audio signal’s electric field.

”It’s soft [and can] easily fit in different curves,” says Ming-Daw Chen, division director of ITRI’s Electronics and Optoelectronics Research Laboratories. ”Therefore, the product customization can be done in diverse fields, such as art for public facilities, interior design,...costume accessories, and others.”

I doubt these will ever fully replace traditional cone speakers but for many applications these will hopefully become the standard.
Read more about it >HERE<

We Were Once A Fairy Tale

Crazy new video from Kanye West...say what you will but the man's got talent, vision and balls...yeah, he makes mistakes too, just like a normal human being...plus, the dude vomits and bleeds rose petals!!

UPDATED- sorry...didn't realize the Vimeo link was broken..Kanye posted it on his own site so you'd think it was legit..anyway here it is..

WE WERE ONCE A FAIRYTALE BY SPIKE JONZE & KANYE WEST
by teleTOC

Stelarc

I'm sure many of us have thought about the possibility of adding to our body's natural architecture. Well Australian artist known as Stelarc (Stelios Arcadious) actually does! Seen here is one of my personal favorites called simply Ear On Arm. The artist went through a series of surgeries to have a prosthetic ear implanted into his arm with a microphone that would send audio to the web. Yeah, really intense and just in the name of art. Think about the possibilities. Here's a brief explanation in the artists' own words.

I have always been intrigued about engineering a soft prosthesis using my own skin, as a permanent modification of the body architecture. The assumption being that if the body was altered it might mean adjusting its awareness. Engineering an alternate anatomical architecture, one that also performs telematically. Certainly what becomes important now is not merely the body's identity, but its connectivity- not its mobility or location, but its interface. In these projects and performances, a prosthesis is not seen as a sign of lack but rather as a symptom of excess. As technology proliferates and microminiaturizes it becomes biocompatible in both scale and substance and is incorporated as a component of the body. These prosthetic attachments and implants are not simply replacements for a part of the body that has been traumatized or has been amputated. These are prosthetic objects that augment the body's architecture, engineering extended operational systems of bodies and bits of bodies, spatially separated but electronically connected.

Definitely go to his site and learn about his other crazy projects such as 1/4 Scale Ear and Ping Body. Click > HERE <

RFID Radio

One of the best things I've seen crossing boundaries between music and design is RFID Radio concept by someone by the name of D.A.R.Y.L. His idea is that these paper radios with RFID chips will be programmed only to play a certain station. You would need to subscribe to the station via iTunes and have a special speaker also with an RFID tag. I guess the radio would have a passive tag and the desktop speaker would have an active tag? Honestly, RFID is probably NOT the best technology for this product but it's still a great concept and is along the lines of Yuri Suzuki's Graffiti Radio concept which is also brilliant.

Check out more of D.A.R.Y.L.'s creations at Real Tomato

Back On-Air

Well, it's that time again....finishing up my last year of a degree is really kicking my ass! Like I've said before, DO NOT GO BACK TO SCHOOL! haha...Seriously though, think twice before you do.

I'll do my best to make up for the lost time these last few weeks...SOOOOO much content to sort through! Don't be alarmed though, we're going strong even when the posts are less frequent.

Here, take my card..

(I usually wouldn't post my own designs like this but...this relates to music and people have really loved this design since May. So, why not.?)

Designed by Matt Braun (aka The Record Player). Laser cut & engraved business cards that work come with a 45 insert. Shown in here is the version on black mat board. They also come in other colors variations. If you're interested in working with him on similar concepts for your record label or for your self, contact him. Check out some of his other work on-

Coroflot
Behance
Etsy

Make it yourself...vinyl clocks

About 9 years ago I was making some clocks out of records. They were ok and used spraypaint for the markings. These are better though and now with the internet people can share and teach each other how to do simple things like that.

Go to instructibles.com to learn how to make your own vinyl clock or almost anything else. DO NOT USE GOOD RECORDS for projects like this. Only use beat up records that are unplayable.

More amazing animation by Blu

One of my first posts was an animation by this artist by the name of Blu. His style of animation blended with painting and graffiti is really dope. His newest animation is a collaborative piece done with David Ellis and is one of the best motion graphic pieces I've seen in a long time.




Here's another older video by Blu:

Grandmaster Roc Raida RIP

WTF!!! Only 37 years young! The hip-hop world mourns for the loss of another pioneer. I was just thinking about one of my favorite mix tapes this week, which happens to be an '80s hip-hop mix Roc Raida did around '97. Here' some footage from 13 years ago showing how ill this dude was on the wheels. If you ever got the chance to see him live you know that this video doesn't really capture the energy. He was truly a phenom in the art of DJing. I'll be happy when I'm even 1% as good as this dude.




Here's a more recent video showing how insanely skilled this dude was at beat juggling.

Fight child drug addiction PSA

Great PSA for the FSITO organization featuring Chocolate Giddy Up. Visit the FSITO website for more information and see how you can help.

Not Your Typical '80s Jam Pt. 1

This came up today while my iTunes was on shuffle. I did this mix to be given out at a party I did back in 2004. This was recorded at about 10am on a Wednesday in one session with just a stack of some of my favorite records from the '80s. The theme of the party and the mix was to highlight some of the '80s joints that get overlooked when people talk about "80s music" and to put in context with some of the more familiar classics. Enjoy!

Also, go download Not Your Typical '80s Jam Pt. 2 if you haven't already. > HERE <


Not Your Typical '80s Jam Pt.1 (©2004)


DOWNLOAD NOW

Porcelain Speakers

Just as the title suggests these speakers are made of porcelain ceramic and handmade by the designer, Joey Roth. I like the concept of using ceramics for speaker design but I'm curious about how they sound. Also, the speakers themselves are nice but there's a disconnect in choices of form and material for the other components that make up this system. The boxy brushed aluminum interface and 2 part plywood stands are unresolved and are more of a distraction than a compliment to the speakers. Why can't the speakers be made to stand on their own and why do they need their own interface? Just focus on the speakers Joey!

Solid Melts to Air

All that is solid melts into the air. from Sooz on Vimeo.

Neurosonics Audiomedical

WOW! This short little movie titled "Neurosonics Audiomedical" is dope on so many levels! You really just need to watch it and see for yourself...

Neurosonics Audiomedical Labs Inc. from Chris Cairns on Vimeo.

Paul Henry Ramirez

The first time I saw a picture of something by Paul Henry Ramirez I really didn't pay attention to it and just glanced over it as if it were just some other contemporary graphic design that I've seen thousands of times before. I think the piece was "Chunk 5". The second time, however, his work immediately caught my eye. Sometimes we just need to be in a certain frame of mind to really appreciate something. When I did a little investigating to see more of his work I was hooked!

The thing is, his work is so simple it could be easily glanced over. When you take more than a second to really see the life in his pieces. The bold colors, simple forms, balance and contrast all work in harmony to create depth and movement. In many of his works, shapes seem to assume the role of machinery and the composition is presented as one frame, frozen in time, of the workings of a larger machine and you wonder, "how this machine is working and why?" In his installations, Paul Henry Ramirez gets to show us how his canvases work with a larger machine and each piece works with the others to create a cohesive stystem that seems to be part of the architectural space.

I highly recommend visiting his website

House of Flying Daggers

I'm really into this right now...even thought the beat gets pretty boring after about a minute of the same loop. The rhymes are thorough and the video is tight. The Chef Raekwon went with a recipe that works cooked up a classic.

Lego my video

Where do people find time to do these things!!?? Oh yeah, I forgot, some people don't have to actually work or pay bills...or just neglect everything to make awesome lego videos like this for 1,500 hours!! (or roughly 4 months of full-time work.

Yuri Suzuki

I need to apologize to you for not posting any of this guy's work sooner! I swore that I did but when I was looking for the back links I realized I did not :( Yuri Suzuki has done some of my favorite installation works that I've seen maybe ever. He is a very multi-disciplined creator but what I'm most interested in is his "sound art" pieces. He really pushes the limits of new uses for vinyl records and turntables in art and finds new and interesting ways to reinterpret how we interact with sound and the connection between music and the tangible medium. In addition to being a great artist, he's also an electronic music producer and an industrial designer. Go to his website and do some searches for him to learn more.


His most recent exhibit is going on now in Luxembourg and is part of a show titled "Coalition Of Amateurs". For this show, Yuri set up a full music production system which recorded music from 3 bands direct to master disk and then they pressed their own vinyl all in the same day!! I haven't been able to find out details yet on how exactly he did it but it appears that he made is own CNC cutter to make the masters on a standard Technics 1200 turntable.


Of all of Yuri's work I've seen thus far, the pieces created for his well-noted "The Physical Value Of Sound" exhibit last year at Clear Gallery in Tokyo. This show included a turntable with 5 tonearms, jewelry with sound etched onto it to be played on a turntable, a piece called "Sound Chaser" that used pieces of records as train tracks for a miniature train engine with a cartridge and speaker in it and a piece simply called "Digital and Analog" which is just a regular CD on one side and the top has grooves etched in to play sound (I REALLY love that one). Some others I really love are his "Jellyfish Theramin","Finger Player" and his "Graffiti Radio" project.

D-Touch

WOW! This is essentially an interface that requires only a computer, a webcam, a printer and a lot of ideas. The D-Touch sequencer and drum machine are available for FREE (both Mac and PC versions). Just watch the video and definately go to their site. Simply amazing.

Light Art Performance Photography

This is some of the best examples of this kind of work that I've seen. Beautiful, well thought out compositions by this team of German photographers simply called LAPP. Check out more of their work and learn more about them at their site > HERE

Let Yourself Feel

Nice animation, I think made with Processing, just simply using graceful strokes of color and quotes from famous designers and artists. This guy has a really impressive portfolio of motion graphics that you should check out.

Weird video of the week

I know I've missed a lot of weeks but don't worry, I got you covered! I just got to edit that post a bit but be on the lookout for a mega "Weird Video Of The Week" post with probably 6 or more videos. In the meantime, Major Lazor wins again. First it was the epic video for "Zumbies" and now this!

Pon De Floor featuring Afro Jack & VYBZ Cartel

Malice (of The Clipse)

Wow! All I got to say. Just watch the video blog from Malice (of The Clipse).
Check out all the videos > HERE <

Video Game Hell/Heaven

Interesting piece by German studio Muscle Beaver. I guess with a name like that you need to be dope...really, dope! Which they happen to be. Really good quality work on all fronts and a good range of styles.

Video Games from MUSCLEBEAVER on Vimeo.

Serpentine Pavillion 2009

This year's pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery is one of the best pieces of architecture constructed this year. Designed by the team SANAA, this structure is meant to reflect on the natural environment of the park both figuratively and literally. The amoeba-like form seems to naturally flow as if it were water or a cloud. It's a shame this will only be here for a short time. Since the Serpentine started it's annual pavilions in 2000 it has hosted some of the most important contemporary architects today including: Zaha Hadid, Daniel Liebeskind, Frank Gehry and Toyo Ito. Click on those links to learn more or do a search on Google or Bing.


image © 2009 Graeme Robertson

image © 2009 Kenn Munk

Music In My Head

I hope I never need hearing aids but now at least there are options to make my hearing as good or possibly better than before. Plus, I can have music right in my ears via external source- MP3 player, radio, etc... These are attched to your bone behind your ear via small titanium screws that sense vibrations. So, it's basically like dolphins' ears (which have some of the best sense of hearing in all of the animal kingdom by the way). Read more and get your nerd on >
HERE<.

Burial

It took this video for me to like this song by Mike Snow. I wasn't really into but the video definitely does it justice. Really high quality video shot in India.

Hairy Situation

The pavilion at PS-1 this year by MOS architects is awesome! It's actually palm fibre but it looks like hair from a wooly mammouth to me. Actually, I was disappointed when I learned that it is not synthetic fur. Yeah, I know this is technically more 'sustainable' but this is more about making something cool on a smallish budget. I still like last year's installation by Ball-Nogues Studio better, but this is really good.

Record Ratchet

I only posted this because it has records in it. As a DIY project it's fine but I think it's silly as a designer piece of furniture. I do like the concept using soft materials to make something strong and I like the idea of using what's around you to build something. However, Harry Hasson's ratchet furniture is just another example of why this concept just doesn't work 99% of the time.

Four the love of music

I've been overwhelmed by a tidal wave of music recently. Here are 4 of my favorite songs from the past week. Unfortunately all this new music has been digital :( someday when I'm really ballin' I'll buy these on vinyl. That's about $1200+ worth of wax right there IF you can actually find copies for sale. I know the Magnum LP has been reissued and songs off the Copa 7 LP appear on compilations. Good luck on finding clean copies of the Ofege albums..they had 4 albums between 1974-78 and they're all exxxxxpensive!

Everybody Feels The Same by Ofege from "The Last Of The Origins" LP EMI Nigeria 1974













Natural Juices by Magnum from "Fully Loaded" LP Phoenix 1974


BUY IT!










Mulher Absoluta by Copa 7 from "O Som Do" LP Top Tape 1979













You Are Beautiful by Mr Something Something & Ikwunga The Afrobeat Poet from Deep Sleep LP World Records 2007


BUY IT!

Second Skin

Great documentary about gaming addicts. It's presented and put together in such a way that it teeters on the edge of fiction which is fitting given the subject matter but is very real, bizzare and beautiful at the same time. I thought I'd fall asleep watching it at 3am but ended up watching the whole thing. Second Skin is the best documentary I've seen this month so far..highly recommended! It may be coming to a theater near you soon. Check the comments for more info.

Lou Beach

I think this guy is a modern incarnation of Hieronymus Bosch. Seriously, this guys stuff is just weird, fun, witty, deep and layerd with meaning and interpretation. Lou Beach's work is no secret though and new pieces are published on a consistent basis the same as they have been for over 30 years. Beach's illustrations have scattered the print media landscape to the point where they are in our subconscious. In fact some of his works have become staples of pop culture. On any given month you may see his work in Wired, Time, The New York Times or even the cover art of some band. When you see Lou Beach's work you suddenly start to realize just how unoriginal a lot of this new 'hipster' art is. Heads of animals fused with people, bright colors and weird collage is old news. His commercial work is really good but his personal stuff is where the truly bizarre happens. Seriously though go back and look at Bosch's epic tryptich "The Garden Of Earthly Delights" and tell me you don't see the resemblance.

Go to LouBeach.com and play with his monkey! (it will make sense when you go to the site)

High Voltage animation

Voltage from Bam Studio on Vimeo.

Warped space

I'm really feeling this project. I've seen similar methods of using optical illusion to transform architectural space and have wanted to explore that stuff myself. This is just one of the best landscaping solutions I've ever seen for a tight space. Great work by Faulders Studio from Berkley, CA.

You can see more images of this project > HERE <