24 Second Psycho

Remember Douglas Gordon's 24 Hours Psycho? Here's a 24 seconds version by Chris Bors. From the Why + Wherefore's This One Goes Up to 11 show.

Paul Pope

SUPER-MEK, originally uploaded by ernest.borg9.

Paul Pope is probably my favorite comic book illustrator. I have been a fan ever since he began his self-published series THB way back in the late 90's. Since then he has done two graphic novels for DC boutique label, Vertigo, as well as a Batman series called Batman Year 100. The new graphic novel, Battling Boy, should be out any time now.

Nutuur: De Zone Opening

Ed and I had to come back to the States to start work. So our flight was early in the afternoon on Sunday. The opening was at 3 pm. So we could not even attend the opening for our own show. But from what our friends in Holland told us, there were around 100 people that showed up to the opening. I think one of the reasons for this was that we were covered in so many media outlets throughout the week. So we definitely had free publicities.

These images were taken from a plane. Rob Sweere and Hans Jungerius were able to get the military's permission to do a flyover of De Zone. You can see everyone's pieces in this slideshow. Even ours. If you can catch it, you will our piece, Alkylphenol, on the ground among the people walking about.

De Zone Project, Day 10: The Walking Tour

Day 10 consisted of a walking tour conducted by Hans Jungerius, one of the artists in Nutuur: De Zone. Hans is an incredible person. We loved him. He has a vast knowledge of local history, particularly as it pertains to World War II. Ed and I simply love his work. He studied public art in school. But the work that he makes would turn any public art practitioner in their graves. They are far, far bettter than any public art you will find anywhere.

We all met up at the city park in Arnhem, then headed through the forested area to De Zone. The entire walk took about three and a half hour, for a total of almost eleven kilometers. Once we arrived at De Zone, we were treated to beer, wine, and food prepared by a local restaurateur. The entire event took place at Hans' piece for the show, a functioning catering bunker.

Later we headed back to the area we were staying in and got together for one last meal together at the Italian restaurant owned by the restaurateur I mentioned earlier.

De Zone Project, Day 9: Amsterdam

I'm behind again on my posts. Got back from the Netherlands last Sunday. Had to deal with getting ready to teach my class. Came home and went right back to work.

The Friday before I came back, my new Dutch friends, Monali and Sanne, took me to Amsterdam since I have not even seen it since I have been in the country. I met Sanne at the train station in Arnhem and then we headed out.

Once we got to Amsterdam we decided to go to the cafe at the city library to have some coffee and wait for Monali. This was probbaly one of the nicest library I have ever been to. The outside was not so hot architecturally, but the inside was so well designed I was completely wowed. They even have a piece by Atelier Van Lieshout in there. I was sold!

Stedelijk Museum

After our coffee, we headed to the Stedelijk Museum to meet Monali. The museum is currently housed in a temporary building near the Centraal Station Amsterdam while it's permanent home is being renovated.

They are currently showing four shows: a selection from the permanent collection as selected by Wolfgang Tillman; Snap Jundgements: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography curated by Okwui Enwezor; Deep Screen: Art in Digital Culture; and The Vincent Van Gogh Biennial Award, a show of works by Francis Alys, Peter Friedl, Liam Gillick, Deimantas Narkevicius, and Rebecca Warren.

De Appel

After the Stedelijk Museum I requested to Monali that I wanted to take in the gallery scene in Amsterdam. But I told her I did not want to deal with any commercial galleries that will be showing paintings on the walls. I have such an aversion to paintings right now it is not even funny. I have seen way too many bad ones lately that I do not even want to have to digest yet another.

So she decided to take me to De Appel. I guess you can call an alternative space. But they do charge admission to get it. The have several floors dedicated to contemporary art. Currently up is a show of work by Marc Camille Chaimowicz called ...In The Cherished Company of Others..., as well as a show called No More Reality Step 3: SHARED FOLDER. This showed featured some really interesting critical and political performative works.

I really wanted to take in more galleries, but by the time we ended with De Appel, it was late in the day. So we just headed over to Monali's apartment, then onto a really nice Turkish dinner.

Youngblood Brass Band

I vaguely remember discovering these guys way back in the late 90's/ early 2000's. I totally forgot about them until I found them today on Emusic by accident.

Why America Is Fucked

Thanks to my friend Peter for pointing this out to me. As always. A nice advertisement for the project. Definitely got us both curious.

via Fecal Face

De Zone Project, Day 8

De Zone Project, Day 7: Deutschland

If you notice, there is no Day 6. Truth of the matter was I stayed in the apartment to catch up on much needed computer work while Ed went into the forest to continue doing work.

Day 7 consists of a trip across the border into Germany. We visited Oberhausen, which is a twenty-minute drive from Arnhem. To give you another reference, the city is about 40 km from Dusseldorf.

The area is a former factory town. The structures and scenery are completely out of the Becher's photographs. No wonder they were able to catalog so many of these types of structures in there work.

In Oberhausen, we visited a museum called Gasometer. It was originally a gas silo that has been repurposed. I was told that Bill Viola did an exhibition at this museum a couple of years back. That would have been one intereting exhibition to see.

Later in the day we went to Landschaftspark, which was yet another repurposed structure. It was an old steel mill at one point. Now the local government has turned it into a park. The juxstaposition between factory and nature in the complex is quite striking. It definitely makes for interesting bed fellows.

We ended our day with a German dinner at restuarant in a small town. Though it was a short half-day trip it was definitely worth the effort to head over there.

De Zone Project, Day 5

Levi van Veluw

Theo Jansen

Here's a Dutch artist I am currently digging. Theo Jansen is a kenetic sculptor. He has been making his Strandbeests since 1990. These windwalking creatures are created with the help of genetic algorithms. You may remember Jansen from a BMW commercial from sometime back. I have included the video below.

Inhabitat has a good article about Jansen up right now. Head over there to read more about his work.

via Inhabitat

De Zone Project, Day 4

De Zone Project, Day 3

Napkin Graphics

Ever feel bored while waiting for that certain someone on your first date at the coffee shop? How about creating some amazing graphic design on those ubiquitous paper napkins to pass your time.

SHCH Graphics Group

via i love typography

De Zone Project, Day 2

Radiohead "House of Cards"

This new video by Radiohead is simply beautiful. I just found out about it today. My Facebook friend Sarah France posted it on her blog several days ago. I'm not going to attempt to explain how they do it. I'll simply let the "making of" video below do all the talking.

Incidentally, In Rainbows is probably my favorite Radiohead album since Kid-A. I'm going to miss their performance at the Hollywood Bowl this month. I really wish I can go to see them perform live.

Thai Teen Murdered Taxi Driver To Simulate GTA

I don't even know what to do with a story like this. I have never been one to say that violent video games results in violent crimes by young people. But this story is simply unfathomable. A teenager in Thailand wanted to find out how easy it was to actually rob a taxi cab in real life. His inspiration was the game Grand Theft Auto. He ended up murdering the cab driver when he tried to retaliate. But the story also mentioned that the teenager showed signs of mental problem. I think that is key. I don't know if any person in their right mind would commit something like this.

I also will say that the fact the video game industry banks on violent games and games with simulated warfare as their top sellers is a big problem. The question is why is there a large market for these kinds of video games. The game designer Will Wright will be unveiling his new game, Spore, in the next month or so. Wright's game such as Sim City and The Sims have been smash hits without resorting to simulated violence. So there is a market for non-violent games. Is the popularity of violence in video games a symptom of the culture? I don't know if I truly believe in what they say that it is the other way around. But when I hear a story like this it gets me thinking once again.

Thailand halts Grand Theft Auto sales after murder

via Reuters

(titel onbekend)

We are able to get free wi-fi at the apartment we are staying in here in Arnhem. But I just love that every time I go on one of the big websites I get redirected to the "dot nl" version. Everything is now in Dutch. It is a lot of fun trying to decipher a language you do not understand. "I'm feeling lucky" sounds a lot more interesting when you cannot understand it.

Oh, and did I mention that our apartment is in the former red light district in Arnhem? You can still see a couple of remnants of that time, but mostly it is now artists' studios and living spaces.

08.08.08

We were just watching the 2008 Olympics opening ceremony in a bar here in Arnhem not too long ago. The spot above is for BBC Sport. The legend of the monkey god was one of my favorite stories as a child. They did really a nice job with this one. I love the little touches of 8-bit music in there.

De Zone Project, Day 1

I am here in the Netherlands with the collective Finishing School. We have an exhibition here in a show called De Zone. We arrived in the country around noon time Thursday. We then took an hour train ride to a city called Arnhem where our exhibition will be held.

De Zone was an old military area used by the German Luftwaffe in World War II. The area has been recently dedicated to the veterans of that war. You can still see the remnants from that time inside the forest. Even the villages that the German built for their officers still remain intact.

Once we arrived at the train station, we were picked up by the artist Rob Sweere. Those of you in the Orange County area may know him from the show that he did at the Huntington Beach Art Center about a year ago. He then took us to De Zone, which is a forest. We scouted out places where we will be placing our works. As we were hiking through the forest, it began to rain heavily. In fact the day we arrived was the day that it started to rain here. This will definitely be a challenge for us in the next several days as we begin to realize our part in the project.

Portishead in Portishead

Portishead was probably one of my favorite bands during the late 90's. They recently came out with a new album called Third. I think it has been something like a decade since their last one. The album is quite good, but I would have to say that it does not sound entirely like the old Portishead stuff.

Recently on YouTube, the band released a 31-minute video of a live performance. All the songs are from the new album. Too bad they do not allow embedding of the video. But head over here to see the entire performance.

Public Fruit Jam

Public Fruit Jam is a project presented by the art collective Fallen Fruit. The public was invited to bring in any kind of fruits to be turned into homemade jams. The event happened this past Sunday at Machine Project. I was able to talk a bit to Matias Viegener, one of the member of the collective, about Fallen Fruit and Public Fruit Jam.

Suggestion Box @ GR2

Once again I am behind on my blog posts. I think it has a lot to do with the boredom I am developing with the Internet. I went on a four-day hiatus from all things computer and online this week. It did me some good. I was starting not to like what it was doing to me.

Anyway, enough of my personal life. These images are from the opening of Suggestion Box at GR2. Once again I had a nice conversation with Eric Nakamura, the co-founder of Giant Robot. I have run into Eric off and on many times over the last decade or so. No matter how long time has past, he is still the same nice guy. Even though Giant Robot has become big beyond belief, Eric is still very down to earth. You can tell he never allowed the success of Giant Robot to get to his head.

We mainly talked about the show. About the San Diego Comic-Con that was about to happen the weekend following. I was telling him how pissed I was with the fact that the one year I had planned to go to the Con, I could not because the passes were completely sold out. And we talked about the fact that our friend Aaron Brown should have been more punctual about attending the opening of a show he was in.