Listen: Podcast, no26

I'm back at school, but accumulated apathy and free time have yielded this podcast. I promise that this time there is more where this one came from and in short order. Enjoy:

"The Package Is Wrapped" by Marnie Stern
"Going Insane" by Vivian Girls
"After Last Night" by The Rev-Lons
"Peanut Duck" by Marsha Gee
"Un Dia" by Juana Molina (video profile)
"Banana Slugs/Cosmonaut" by High Places
"House Jam" by Gang Gang Dance
"Twice Born" by Fucked Up
"Steely" by Marnie Stern
"Monkey Trick" by The Jesus Lizard
"Feedback In the Field" by Plants and Animals
"Whole Wide World" by Wreckless Eric
"You Ain't Got Nuthin' (Feat. Juelz Santana & Fabolous)" by Lil Wayne
"Good Day" by Nappy Roots
"Miss Meri" by Two Gallants

Here are some additional link(s) I blathered on about:

* You can get the Hot Chip remix of Gang Gang Dance's "House Jam" here, presuming you don't mind signing up for the mailing list
* Here is Pitchfork's Top 100 albums of the 1990s (more on that next time, probably)

As usual, the podcast is available through RSS or iTunes. Here are the appropriate links:

* Subscribe to the enhanced podcast. (rss)
* Subscribe to the mp3 podcast. (rss)
* Click here to visit the "Pleasing To Your Ears" page in the iTunes Music Store, where you can pick and choose from available episodes.
* no26 :: Indie Rock & Empty Promises (mp3)
* no26 :: Indie Rock & Empty Promises (enhanced)

That's it for episode 25. Here is an (outdated) list of tracks played on Pleasing To Your Ears! Please tell your friends. Please tell me what you think. Please post a link on your blogs. Please use the hotline: (206) 202-3142. Please tune in for a new episode next weekend.

A Couple of Things

I've been working on my thesis project for the better part of two months now, often at the expense of other design projects. I was able to sneak a few things in, two of which are below. With luck, I'll be able to work on a few additional personal projects before the end of the year.

This video is the result of a Saturday of shooting and about $24 worth of apple green craft paper. My classmate Devon and I made it in response to a really loose brief for a class that acts as a sorbet to cleanse the thesis year palette. Devon and I have an aversion to people and a love affair with the absurd. Every sequence needs a bit of editing for time. I'll upload the streamlined version once I finish it.


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I completed this opening title sequence for a department podcast back in September. If I find the time, I'd like to make some companion credits. The sequence follows the evolution of an idea, from concept to market. Fart.


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NY Times: "Hot's Not Cool"

British Steve and I designed a companion graphic for William Safire's On Language column in this week's New York Times Sunday Magazine. The project was part of their annual college issue, so all of the image-making was the product of current undergraduate or graduate students.

Our task was to design the column title, without any logical restrictions beyond reasonable legibility (for example, it didn't have to translate or in anyway interpret the meaning of the article). We perused back issues and saw a lot of digital solutions, the least interesting of which tried to create a connection in the graphic to the article, but we opted for something more playful, building a diorama of sorts, that measured more than fourteen square feet. All of the type elements were built from Play-Doh, Legos or stray toys, with additional decorative toy elements and a tinsel ocean. The end result was a lot of fun to do and I think it really stands out when held up to past issues. Below are some close-up shots that capture some of the detail lost in the overall picture.

Type Experiment: Fragmentation

I was tinkering around last night when I got a call from my friend David. "What're you up to?" he asked. "Just doing some type experiments." He laughed. "Is that what they're calling it?" "I wish I was masturbating. Sadly, I am actually playing with type."

For lack of a better source text, I used the word "type" as a starting point and began applying the Fragment filter in Photoshop again and again and again. The result creates a surprisingly organic form, given that the filter is pure, algorithmic pixelization. The text appears to bleed, like ink soaked in water. The layering of distortion and digital artifacts even starts to pull a muted blue tone into the mix (at least when working with black text on a white background). I think the result is quite beautiful.

Click the full sample for a hi-res version of this experiment that provides greater clarity. Also, note the cropped portion below, which shows the effect at it's actual size--pixel bonanza. Next step: color and a more complex grid of text.

Completely By Accident

Listen: Podcast, no25

Design school is but a distant memory, for the time being at least. We now return to your regularly scheduled podcasting. Enjoy:

"Party" by Envelopes (video)
"Raging in the Plague Age" by Les Savy Fav
"Shove It (feat. Spank Rock)" by Santogold
"Navajo" by Black Lips
"Fools" by The Dodos (video)
"Blind Mary" by Gnarls Barkley
"Bonafide Lovin' (Tough Guys)" by Chromeo (video)
"Editions of You" by Roxy Music
"Strange Times" by The Black Keys (video)
"Say Aha" by Santogold (Zune Arts video)
"Trick For Treat" by Neon Neon
COVER: "Cobrastyle" by Robyn (Letterman appearance w/Teddybears)
"Run to Your Grave" by The Mae Shi (video)

Here are some additional link(s) I blathered on about:

* A quest for moonshine/White Lightning with The Black Lips in South Carolina (courtesy of VBS.TV)
* This week's covered song: "Cobrastyle (feat. Mad Cobra) by The Teddybears"

As usual, the podcast is available through RSS or iTunes. Here are the appropriate links:

* Subscribe to the enhanced podcast. (rss)
* Subscribe to the mp3 podcast. (rss)
* Click here to visit the "Pleasing To Your Ears" page in the iTunes Music Store, where you can pick and choose from available episodes.
* no25 :: Didja Miss Me? (mp3)
* no25 :: Didja Miss Me? (enhanced)

That's it for episode 25. Here is an (outdated) list of tracks played on Pleasing To Your Ears! Please tell your friends. Please tell me what you think. Please post a link on your blogs. Please use the hotline: (206) 202-3142. Please tune in for a new episode next weekend.

Backwards Portfolio Review

I haven't posted any of my school work lately and precious little otherwise. That said, I presented this concept/idea this evening and it went over pretty well. One of the critics even went so far as to call it "genius," a fact I considered omitting here but include if only because this late in the semester, when the idea tanks are empty, it's good to know there's still some gold left uncovered.

For my final presentation in Scott Stowell's class we were asked to present work from the semester in a manner consistent with a mission statement of our own design. I wrote my speech, recorded the audio, reversed it, transcribed the reversed speech phonetically, performed it on camera and then reversed the result again to create an intelligible presentation (with some assistance from subtitles). This is my literal attempt to look back(wards) at my output (a great deal of which I wasn't completely satisfied with) while pushing my belief that my best design work is witty, conceptual and performative.

Here is a truncated version of the phonetic manuscript.



And here is the final video.


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Progress

I compiled and uploaded a portfolio here. It got me a job here.

Early Morning Radio

A few weeks ago, I noticed that Claire and I have been waking up to a radio station of fair quality. She usually gets up for work, showers, has a bowl of cereal and is out the door before I've done than piss and then crawl back under the covers. Imagine my surprise when the DJ was going on about The Raveonettes and Los Campesinos! I could've sworn that the early morning alarm radio was always NPR or some world music station.

This morning I awoke to The National's "Fake Empire," a beautiful yet regrettably somber song, especially for so gray a day. I've added it to my Muxtape, so feel free to listen. I will continue to add songs to that site when the quality of a track compels me or until it gets shut down for copyright infringement. Think of it as a stop gap until I'm out of school for the Summer and my interest in podcasting is revived.

Liquid Psychedelia

We're taking this course that is a simultaneous introduction to writing and an exploration of books and the form they take. It's more often than not pretty hippie dippy stuff with esoteric "writing exercises" that usually yield little more than awful poetry. I'm not receptive to the writing crash course b'c I can already write, but I understand how part of this course serves the greater good.

In a recent assignment, our instructor asked us to take some smaller bits of writing and some other pieces that were the product of free association exercises and create a bunch of varied type treatments. Type treatments are little more than artfully arranged text on a page, with an attempt at making a point or playing with a theme.

I was working on a more mundane series the night before everything was due, composing the work in Illustrator. This yielded the usual too-slick result, a piece of graphic design that has some visual appeal but no real soul. Rather than continue in this direction and have all of the enthusiasm sucked out of the assignment, I decided to experiment with a more physical transformation of simple, black, sans serif text.

Over the course of a few hours, I manipulated printed versions of my text while mid-scan and photocopy. Moving the text back and forth over the scanner and photocopier lens either stretches or condenses the text, often times separating the black portion into it's CMYK composite colors (cyan, magenta, yellow, etc.). I am FUCKING IN LOVE with the results. They are dynamic and each experiment has a surprising outcome. Further explorations are in the works using this initial foray as inspiration. The next obvious direction is the transformation of organic images, the introduction of video/animation work and an attempt of a large scale installation of scanners that act not as devices for capturing static images, but real time video input devices.

Mother fucking art school, ya'll.

Flying Cake (Trial 001)

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On Saturday, I met my group at the studio and we set to work on the first cake flight. Scott brought in six over-sized, helium-filled balloons, but they struggled to lift an empty Nalgene bottle. A trip to the 99cent store for more balloons also failed to turn the tables in our favor. We hollowed out all but the outer ring of an angel food cake and frosted what was left. From the beginning, the integrity of the floating cake has always been paramount and, as such, we were never interested in floating a box that looked like a cake.

Unfortunately, even the lightest store bought angel food cake (which, by the by, was infinitely lighter than the one we baked in Maira's kitchen) is too heavy to really take flight without strapping an unsightly number of balloons to the base. We have since resolved to frost styrofoam and even sculpt cupcakes, create vacuum molds and churn out perfect, hand painted, nerf foam replicas. All these eventualities didn't stop us from shooting a few screen tests for the ugly prototype. In the end, it took flight twice, owing more to large gusts of wind than defiance of gravity. Pretty magical, if I do say so myself. We are shooting again tomorrow with lighter materials. Here's hoping the fucker floats for a few hours.

Your Basic (Horny) Chair

Last week, I mentioned my first visit to the wood shop for our 3-D Product Reality course. I had to transform a basic wooden chair from IKEA into the embodiment of the word "horny". I cut the legs and back on two simultaneous angles with a power saw, sanded the edges flush, filled in some holes with wood filler and then painted the entire thing with nine coats of plasticized rubber. Bind it, gag it and truss it up to a ceiling pipe and you've got yourself a kinky chair, begging to be whipped.

My classmates were kind enough to spank the horny chair again and again for a few final photos.

Stefan Sagmeister (CRIT, Ep1)

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I am spearheading the effort to bring a regular video podcast series to CRIT, the SVA MFA Designer as Author blog. I volunteered for the position of Content Editor last semester because I was eager to help develop the ideas of my fellow students that were interested in writing but were reluctant or at a loss for subject matter. I have also been kicking around the idea of the video podcast for a few months now. Ideally, we'll be able to produce something in the range of two videos a month, each of them spotlighting professionals working in any design or visual arts medium. Our program already has a wide variety of podcasts available, many of them focusing on the Paul Rand lecture series. I hope to move out of the classroom and into the studios and workspaces of designers in the NY area.

The first episode, a test run of sorts, was filmed last Thursday, during the Deitch Projects book launch for "Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far" by Stefan Sagmeister. The exciting atmosphere and the fact that we knew the guest of honor made it an ideal trial for working out the podcast kinks and planning for future episodes. With the help of some mates, we captured some dope footage and I chopped and reassembled the whole thing over the weekend.

I'm really psyched to develop this project. Shame I'm not getting a grade for it. Stay tuned for more episodes in the future.

Precision Cut and Made To Order

As the ice breaker assignment in our 3-D Product Reality course, our instructor gave us each a wooden chair from Ikea with a personality trait scrawled on the underside. We walked into class, sat down in the Ikea seats and at the end, like a scene out of a low-rent episode of Oprah, turned the chairs over to reveal our assignment.

The chairs have to be transformed into something that embodies the given trait. I got "horny". After proposing a few different ideas (a chair transformed into Senator Larry Craig, sticking one of it's legs through a glory hole in an airport bathroom or a chair with a bike pedal connected to a cow tongue sticking through a hole in the seat that, when pedaled, allowed you to pleasure yourself), the class chose my more traditional bondage scenario. The bound, gagged, latex-covered transformation is due Thursday and I'll be sure to upload pictures, but in the meantime, here are a few shots of our first afternoon in the wood shop.

"It puts the lotion on it's skin..."

On Tuesday, we have a class called "The Visual Book" in which we complete a number of avant garde projects, many of them in the form of books that mix a visual form with a traditional style of narrative. For our first assignment, we were asked to "alchemize" an existing book and turn it into something else. Lacking inspiration, I stopped by The Strand and told myself that I would transform the first book I saw in the bargain bin. With that out of the way, I bought a cheap bucket, some cheap lotion, some cheap twine and got my papier mache on.

Cake with Maira

As I mentioned in passing here, one of our classes this semester consists almost entirely of the class meeting at our instructor's house, making angel food cake, icing them with bright pink whipped cream, tethering the cakes to balloons and letting go. We haven't got to the end just yet, but we did make a cake. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was worth the price of admission.

The Alameda

While I was in San Antonio over the winter holiday, my parents and I visited the Alameda, a Smithsonian affiliate museum that is dedicated to telling the story of the Latino experience through art, history and culture. The afternoon was a real delight, spent pouring over the work of Vincent Valdez and Alex Rubio, two infamous Westside artists. If you are in South Texas in the near future, I recommend checking the Alameda out. The fine art and anthropological pieces on display made it one of the most memorable and inspiring museum visits in recent memory.

(The picture above is a cropped portion of a collage I made of “Casa Mireles Botanica Infinito," a piece that is in the permanent collection and can be found in the entrance to the Alameda gift shop. Click here for a larger version of "Casa Mireles".)

Picturing to Learn Workshop

This weekend I'm headed to MIT with three other SVA MFAD students to participate in the National Science Foundation-funded pilot program of Picturing to Learn. Details and a full account to follow.

Picturing to Learn actively engages students in creating visual explanations. To go beyond viewing and analyzing images made by others, Picturing to Learn emphasizes:
* Making visual representations to increase understanding of science and engineering concepts
* How visual communication can improve information exchange between disciplines
* The importance of communicating science to the public for the next generation of researchers
* A new approach for teachers to evaluate students' comprehension of various principles

Slog

School began again on Monday. The week is a calm before the semester's storm because, while we have class each night, there isn't yet the crushing pressure of ALWAYS HAVING SOMETHING DUE (! x3). I on the other hand, volunteered to create a title sequence for the program's new podcast series, so I've been arriving early in the morning and leaving really late each night, in addition to preparing for a trip to MIT, brainstorming thesis projects and Treehead scenarios and figuring out the physics necessary to make a tasty pink cake float 10 stories above Fifth Avenue. In other words, business as usual.

My graduate program is better than yours is.

Basil Eggling

Claire gave me an Eggling for Christmas, a small clay pot in the shape of an egg that comes loaded to bear with seeds for herbs or flowers. All you do is crack it like a hard boiled egg, add the seeds, water and wait for a few weeks for your plant to grow. After a few months I can transplant the basil and use the remaining egg shell to fertilize the soil. This is a great gift to give someone that needs a bit of natural growth to liven up their home or office.