Not So Quiet Village

I´m So Totally, Digitally Close to You by Clive Thompson is an intelligent view on social networking and how it continues to change and re-define our perception of ourselves and others. Surrounded by constant "ambient information" we see the internet changing from "global village" to an enclave before our eyes.


Only a short time ago the Internet was an anonymous, virtual place where everyone could define his own appearance. New social networks are reversing this trend at a rapid space, making it hard at all to lie about yourself.

Quote from the article: ‘On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog’? On the Internet today, everybody knows you’re a dog! If you don’t want people to know you’re a dog, you’d better stay away from a keyboard.”

My Favourite Mutant

Charles Burns´ paintings are glowing from the centre with the blackest black. Obsessed with the horrors of science, puberty and nature, Burns is certainly one of the most "american" contemporary artists.



A vast exhibition has just opened in New York and David Fincher is currently adapting Burns´ "Black Hole" for the big screen.



Charles Burns also did the sleeves for Iggy Pop´s 1990 second attempt to cross over into mainstream rock with "Brick by Brick" and his stunning duet-single "Candy" with Kate "B-52" Pierson.



Both characters in their own right look as if they jumped out of one of Charles´ paintings. Here is the video for "Candy" which is always welcomed for the incredible vocal performance of Kate Pierson and Iggy´s sleek, marine-green chair.

Europa Endlos

He rode, rode, rode on the Autobahn: See what a trip through 10 European Countries via highway looks like in a sped- and cut-up video.

"Europe by Car" by Doubleplusungood Thoughtcriminal might be a tad bit disappointing for someone who hopes to see some glimpses of European cities. On the other hand it is an interesting look into a world that looks increasingly the same.

The only diversity between the countries is the colours of the road signs.

Is He?

I was pondering this idea several times during the last years. Was Warhol over when he was shot? When he died (or went to Bloomingdales)? When Victor Bockris published his biography that told me more about Andy that I ever wanted to know?

Of course Warhol is not over! He might smell stranger and the reception and appliance of his philosophy and work might have become more cynical these days. However, if you read "From A to B and Back Again - The Philosophy of Andy Warhol" you´ll see that Andy had a way to see right through to the core of things. Being an outsider, someone only watching the life of others, made him a prototype for the man of the future.

When Andy once read in the papers that he was going to attend some society-event, he decided to stay home. He said, that he felt he had already been there after reading about it and there was no need for him to show up for real.
Isn´t that exactly what social networking is all about? How can Warhol be over, when his ideas were already anticipating the technological possibilities of the future?

Sway the Vote: Jayne Mansfield for President

If only...
















Clicking leads to enormous increase in size!

Hey, Jayne Mansfield Superstar! This sexy alternative to the current state of affairs via The Percy Trout Hour

Artistically Incorrect

John Waters "Baby Michael Jackson"

Even in his early auto-biography "Shock Value" and in the later anthology "Crackpot", John Waters surprised with many creative job-ideas to fill the gaps between his films. However, being a conventional artist, was something he might have planned or giggled about with his friends only in private.

John Waters "Jackie and Andy" 1998 (click to make very big)

Staying true to his obsessions, Waters popped his favourite films into the video-recorder and snapped some pictures off the screen. He then assembled the captures to fit his favourite themes. As in his story "Guilty Pleasures", Waters lets his inner film-buff shine through.

John Waters "Movie Star Junkie" Edited by StellaVista

His later work would include sculptures, puppets and installations. The acidic pairing of pop-art myths and sarcastic humour is certainly on the edge of what many would consider "art", and I´d guess that Waters would be the first to agree.

The Laumeier Sculpture Park Gallery in St. Louis will host an exhibition of Waters extensive work, titled "Artistically Incorrect: The Photographs and Sculptures of John Waters", from october 11 through january 11.

Chrome

I think there is not enough talk about Chrome

In Transit again...

back in september

Low Flying Aircraft

Swedish Director Solveig Nordlund added another J.G. Ballard adaption to the small number of Ballard-films in 2002. It took her 15 years to let her vision of a film version of "Low Flying Aircraft" become a reality. With the help of a Swedish-Portugese co-production deal, filmed in Portuegese it became "Aparelho Voador a Baixa Altitude"
Set in a perfectly fitting location in an abandoned holiday-resort on the Portugese coast, the seldom seen feature lengths film takes Ballards story on a different, yet very fitting route.


The eerie Ballard distopia tells a story of an empty world that suffers under massive numbers of deformed child births. What sounds like a standard sci-fi sujet ("Children of Men" almost stopped there) is turned on its head by Ballard revealing the disturbing truth about the mutated children.

Nordlund decided to shift the focus of the story on the pregnant female lead Judith Forester (played by hauntingly strong and beautiful Margarida Marinho), who is determined to give birth to her baby, no matter what the outcome might be.

"Aparelho Voador a Baixa Altitude" is currently shown at various festivals. The film has a fantastic setting and amazing production values, despite its relatively small budget. Shot in Portugese and only available locally without subtitles on DVD, it is deemed to remain relatively obscure.

The ever brilliant folks at Ballardian have conducted an interesting interview with Solveig Nordlund recently and wrote a nice write-up of her work. They also extracted three 10-minute excerpts of "Low Flying Aircraft" of which I posted the second part here.

Parts one and three are available here and here. Recommended!

Since you´ve been polyGONE

Norwegian born artist Bård Edlund has worked for over a year on his sad and touching animated short-film "Gone", which follows his faceless, continuously sad, polygon figures through a situation we all know too well.

Today, Edlund lives in New York and works as an art director with CNN. His Scandinavian melancholy seems to have followed him.