Oct 18, 2009

DROIDDOES





Verizon recently launched a campaign for their up coming smart phone 'Droid' this last saturday during Yankees/Angels game. Wearing the mask of an Iphone comercial "Droid Does" comercial uses the phrase "iDon't" to hint at the flaws of the Iphone. Absolutely clever!

I can't wait for the flame war. At&t has responded somewhat on their website (pictures above), but I want to see more of a response then just a couple ads on their own site.

Verizon Droid Does Commercial : Link
Verizon Droid Does website : link

ShirtFlag & Jiji




I went and visited the CHINA NOW exhibit at the Portland Art Museum. Lots of great work, but some of the pieces that caught my eye were from a group of artists that are part of a group called Shirtflag (website). They are a fashion brand that makes mostly t-shirts, jeans and various accessories. Their graphics are reworked Chinese clip art that have a modern spin. Probably the reason I was drawn to Shirtflag was because of my interest in Chinese Propaganda and Clip art and how similar my work from Project Propaganda was to theres.

Also! one of their artists JiJi (website , blog) has a group of figures called HiPanda. They had three 3 foot statues of these funny pandas at the PAM. They had some for sale, smaller of course at the PAM shop. I had to buy one, which only set me back $5.

But besides all that, if you have not gone down to the Portland Art Museum to see CHINA NOW you should do it NOW. China is at a exciting time in not only politics, but also art. GO SE THE SHOW! AHH CAPS.

PEW PEW LAZERS

Made a stencil of my nickname Pocket using the laser cutter. Laser cutter = awesome.

Oct 17, 2009

Fairey



Shepard Fairey Process video. I admire his work, he has a huge body of work. Starting from a simple screen print he did as a joke with a friend which then spanned into a huge art career. If feel obligated to say (because many others say it) that you either love or hate him.

" I found the Obey Giant campaign repetitive and nauseating. I thought it wasn't really what you would call 'art,' because it didn't change much and it was so overbearing on its surrounding. For some reason, that fucking face always seems to jump out at you even from the smallest little sticker. But if you listen to house music for a straight 10 hours on drugs, the smallest little change becomes very significant. And after a while, you don't ever want that music to change. Somehow, I got sucked into the wrestler's fat little face and now I don't want it to do anything else.
If Shepard Fairy comes to your town, every single graffiti writer gets uptight. We don't like Shepard because he makes us feel scared and lazy. I am absolutely positive he has made more reaches than any graffiti writer in history ever has done or ever will. And that means he's won. Anyway, I once got to go gambling with his wife and she's very lucky."
- BANKSY

Oct 13, 2009

Urban Jewelry




Liesbet Bussche, a Belgian artist. Amazing and cool idea, love the ear rings because of their play with perception of size and the site specific work.

Oct 4, 2009

Seeing is Forgetting


Very interesting read about the intersecting worlds of science and art. Robert Irwin is an installation artist dealing directly with light and space. This reading was about his continued exploration of his own perception, but also the perception of others. Specifically the perception of someone who thinks in a different manner then him, such as a Wortz (a scientist).
I was rather interested in the use of the anechoic chamber as a means of shifting primary and secondary senses around. Taking away visual and sound stimulus heightens the other senses. I have read about this in several magazines like Wired and such. Some suggest doing regular exercises where you eliminate visual stimulus to enhance or “work out” other senses. Suggestions such as taking a shower with your eyes closed. I've done this before, haven't slipped yet, but there is a definite change of how you bathe your self. You can feel the individual streams of water, where they hit, how hard they hit. I haven't done this in a while, but I would assume with more practice you could count the streams from feeling alone. Much like that beloved game of trying to guess how many fingers are touching your back.
One thing that comes to mind now is the use of headphones in public places. It doesn't cause the same effect as no sound, because you generally listen to music, but you perceive the world differently when listening to them. Your brain starts to do what it does best which is to match that which it hears with that which it sees. You see people walking in step with the music, the wind might blow at a climax during the song, the world appears to be in beat with you and your Ipod. The brain makes really interesting connections and I know this pretty well, I generally end up jumping to different topics in conversations. My friends would be talking and someone might mention the fact that “its getting hot..” and I would follow up with “...in here, so take off all your clothes.” Sadly that is the only example I could think of right now. Though I assure you I do this all the time in my head, link common phrases used in day to day conversations with their appropriate songs. I may not always share this, because as proven above I don't just remember songs I enjoy. In conclusion very interesting stuff about perception and sadly I didn't even get to the part about Science/Logic and Art/Reason being parallel to one another, but I did side with this idea about how the artist is the measuring tool for art while the ruler is the measuring tool for science.

Always With Honor



Local Portland Oregon Design Collective Always with Honors limited run Barn Owl t-shirt. A really nice shirt for only $20 bucks and a portion of the money goes to the Audubon Society.

I really like their stuff, the simple clean graphic style of everything.

2nd image is another personal favorite from their website, check them out.

DOMO!



I don't know why, but I love this fury stop motion character. I will definitely be stopping at 7-11 to pick up a Domo hot dog holder.

Combo



"Combo" is a collaborative stop motion animation between street artist Blu (website) and David Ellis (website).
An amazing motion painting yet again from Blu. Absolutely love the animation, It's hard to stop watching it once you have started it again.