A/ I really need everyone on the East Coast to go see this.
B/ “Co-organized by Andrew Blauvelt of the Walker Art Center and Ellen Lupton of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Graphic Design—Now in Production is the single largest exhibition of contemporary graphic design to take place in the United States in over 15 years.”
C/ Imagine being tasked (BY THE WALKER!!) to create an identity system and exhibit space for this. No big deal right?
Project Projects does it, again. They continue to create beautiful, meaningful, time-sensitive but also timeless work that strikes by simplicity and conceptual strength, by printed matter and exhibition design. Just incredible (and rad).
In their words because I can’t say it as perfectly:
A collaboration with choreographer Jonah Bokaer, Why Patterns is a performance in which the visual design emerges from a single ping-pong ball that is introduced into a frame on stage, initiating a series of choreographed games. Unpredictable results trigger events that flood the stage with thousands of balls, which are manipulated by the movements of the dancers as the square frame is collapsed.
Snarkitecture is a collaborative practice operating in territories between the disciplines of art and architecture. Working within existing spaces or in collaboration with other artists and designers, the practice focuses on the investigation of structure, material and program and how these elements can be manipulated to serve new and imaginative purposes. Searching for sites within architecture with the possibility for confusion or misuse, Snarkitecture aims to make architecture perform the unexpected.
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Architecture and art, stewed up together. SO BEAUTIFUL. Happy Monday friends. It’s fall.
This sunday will mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11. On Wednesday, NYC mayor Bloomberg and almost everyone else working on the new World Trade Center site held a press conference to give yet another thin update on building progress. I feel like the process has been long and empty – but I was thrilled to see Silverstein properties come out with a moving video to re-stimulate my interest and connection to the site.
The video (more like a short film, really) mixes live action, tilt shift and impressive CGI effects to tell the story of a new World Trade Center. Surprisingly, (though it’s been a big piece of the winners and losers bidding to build) there are green spaces and water features. It’s calm and thriving and new and somehow, even with it’s soaring heights, modest. After all NYC and the rest of the country have been through, it seems like a high point. Finally, after all this time.
Also, here is a link to an incredible article that my good friend sent me on grief and western culture’s abandonment of grieving rituals. It just makes me think about all those times when I felt a splinter of anger rise up in me when someone very, very far removed from the tragedy of 9/11 somehow makes a distant connection to the death and destruction via the friend of a 3rd cousing or something. I used to think that they had no right to feel the same way I felt about 9/11 – I was there, they were in Wisconsin or something. I’m rethinking that now. In a situation this big and sad, I guess we all need to grieve.
This Sunday, I’ll take a moment to remember that day back in 2001 and thank all the men and women involved in responding, recovering and rebuilding. I hope you do too.
There are troves of posts on the subject of inspiration. There are great arguments negotiating where the line is drawn between inspired and stolen. There’s also a great quote from Chuck Close that made the Tumblr rounds. Basically, he says to stop reading and looking at shit and just get the work done already. I could almost agree, but I’ll be damned if I miss out on all that glorious time lounging around, flipping through magazines and reading my google reader.
For inspiration, of course.
I think it’s good for us to seek inspiration but there needs to be some limits, some…routine, maybe? It’s easy to get sucked into the internet (particularly when you have a turntable.fm chat dinging in your ears) and it can get stale, boring, routine in the worst sense of the word, so I get away from my desk. I look for inspiration elsewhere and I try to allow myself a specific amount of time to revel and ruminate before a project begins. So, I thought I’d share what we do because IT’S FRIGGIN AWESOME. Not to mention, inspiring.
This is the Phillips Exeter Library, part of the Phillips Exeter Academy (see super serious and world renowned prep school) in Exeter, New Hampshire. 20 minutes from our office. The architectural style of the building is Brutalist. I mean, really? Can that be any cooler? The architect who designed it was Louis Kahn and this building was his opus. Again, it’s 20 minutes from our office.
There’s a lot going on over at cityfabric these days. You guys may remember when I posted about them back in November. Well, now they have a new logo and an awesome new kickstarter project with lots of new collateral—if they raise $13,000 by August 31, you will be able to get their signature figureground maps on pillows, totes, canvases, prints and limited edition t-shirts. Watch the video above to learn more about their project and support your local business!
Recently my brother has been working with Brooklyn’s Mark Fores and The Very Many. Check out their new project which is now a part of the permanent collection at Centre Pompidou.
Augor, Enue, Ewok, Pose, Jaes of Ironlak Team USA and Askew, Phatone, Vans the Omega and Berst of the Ironlak Extended Family got together in the Erotic City for 2010′s Primary Flight jam. Special guests on the wall were: Vizie, Persue, Wane, Cope2, Ket, Sueme, Lango, Steel and Has.
Ever wanted to get back to childhood and run away to hide in your favorite fort/treehouse/cardboard structure?
Well, today is one of those days for me. This knit fort by Matt Gagnon Studio (“famed design office and craftsmen atelier”) would be the perfect remedy. What an incredibly constructed object—perfect for children but also for anyone who understands the beauty of well-crafted, beautifully engineered and yet simple wood objects.
Quoted from the site:
Depending on the scale, the surface can remain elastic allowing the occupant to manipulate and deform the profile. The shape can be expanded or contracted to alter the apertures of the space. The participatory aspect of the surface prolongs the process of creation and allows fine tuning the boundary of the space.
