This weekend I attended the Art in the Streets museum exhibition at the Geffen Contemporary at the MOCA in downtown Los Angeles. It was written that this was the very first major US museum display of street art and graffiti art. The obvious problem with that statement is the fact that the idea of a street art exhibition inside the whitewashed walls of a sanctioned museum is somewhat of an oxymoron. Although the display was vast and educational on the motif of graffiti and street art (and I am a fan of several of the artists), I feel like the whole thing sort of cheapened the essense of the anarchist graffiti artist. I don't think the founders and originators of the movement would have ever imagined such a spectacle. At the end of the exhibit, the old fat white security guard making sure the line to the gift shop didn't get disorderly was the metaphorical nail in the coffin for the street art movement.
Anyway, I put together a collage of my walk through the exhibit:
My involvement with Upton USA watches (website is in development) and collaboration with Product M has made me fascinated with locally sourced, domestically manufactured products. I strongly believe that companies breaking the mold of low cost, high volume overseas manufacturing are going to be become more and more ubiquitous.
One such company that is participating in this revolution is called Capital. Capital produces hand made wood sunglasses all in the USA. The woods they use are all sourced from the US and maintain their original color finish. The styles are vintage inspired with a contemporary upgrade and each pair of sunglasses is slightly unique because of the nature of the woods they use. Below is a small sampling of their designs. Take a look at their website for more information.
My girlfriend initially turned me onto the Chicago Public Radio show This American Life with Ira Glass and I have been an avid listener ever since. The show covers wildly fascinating stories of average, as well as above average and below average for that matter, individual's unique stories from a non-biased perspective. The stories never sound prying and desperate with a sense of an ulterior motive like the ones coming from mainstream news outlets. This American Life, along with most other public radio shows, are predominantly supported by listener donations. Every episode is broken up into a series of acts revolving around a singular theme with each act being a variation on that theme.
This week's episode of This American Life, which can be downloaded on iTunes in podcast format or streamed from their website, focuses on a topic that is close to me as a design professional. The episode revolves around patents and reveals several subjects pertaining to them that I did not know. I have several patent applications floating around in the ether and am constantly working on patentable undertakings. Patents, so important to American innovation that it is written into the Constitution, were materialized to protect inventors and encourage creativity. In modern times, however, patents are being used to do the exact opposite. Several companies with empty offices and zero employees, and tons of hidden subsidiary companies, buy up patents with the sole purpose of suing supposed infringers. These companies do not innovate nor create, they simply collect massive settlements from start ups and individuals that do not have the capital to fight them. Take a listen to the show:
Legendary less is more Industrial Design idol, Dieter Rams, is best known for his simplistic yet elegant designs for the German brand Braun. His Braun products, until his retirement from the head of design for Braun A.G. in 1998, ranged from shavers to audio equipment and created an important and lasting impact on the product design community. Apple's Industrial Design leader, Jonathan Ive, is highly influenced by Rams and it is very evident in the Apple product lineup.
Several Designs for Braun by Dieter Rams
The product design philosophy of Dieter Rams includes his ten principles to "good design". According to these: good design is innovative, makes a product useful, is aesthetic, makes a product understandable, is unobtrusive, is honest, is long-lasting, is thorough down to the last detail, is environmentally friendly, is as little design as possible.
In addition to the shavers and electronics for Braun; Dieter, along with co-designer Dietrich Lubs, designed and developed a number of amazingly styled timepieces. The Braun company recently decided to reissue several of these clean and classic utilitarian watches for purchase. It is said that the original aesthetics are maintained with the addition of a modest amount of modernization. It is also said that Deitrich Lubs himself has approved this reissue. Take a look.
A little over a week ago, the Venice Beach chapter of Gallery 1988 held an opening for their current Wet Hot American Summer themed show. The show is called Camp Firewood, the name of the camp in the movie, and will be displayed until June 29th. The director of the movie, David Wain, hosted the event. Cast member of fellow The State comrade to David Wain, Jo Lo Truglio, was in attendance as well. I had the great honor of briefly chatting and snapping pictures with both of them.
The featured art came in various media from oil painting to screen prints to sculptures. Take a look.
As an Industrial Designer, I am very familiar with the concept of 3D printing. My company uses a Dimension Elite fused deposition modeling (FDM) machine to create physical prototypes from our 3D models. We sand, paint, apply graphics, insert springs, and mold in hinges to deliver our clients fully working prototypes of the concepts we design.
In the rapid prototyping world, there are several options for 3D printing from lasers hardening material inside of a bath of resin to print heads laying down powder and then curing the powder to a build head melting ABS plastic and a support material one layer at a time.
Historically, 3D printers are expensive, require hefty maintenance, and a plethora of technical knowledge to operate and maintain (not to mention the skill required to do 3D computer modeling in the first place). Three entrepreneurs in Brooklyn, New York set out to change the face of 3D printing with their company MakerBot Industries. The company originally launched in 2009 and has been producing affordable, DIY 3D printing contraptions in the thousands of dollar range instead of the tens of thousands of dollar range that 3D printers usually start at. The MakerBot flagship Thing-O-Matic costs $1,299 and the purchaser puts the thing together.
The drawbacks of the MakerBot are that the resolution of the parts, the thickness of a single layer of material it will lay down at a time, is not very high and the machine does not lay down a separate soluble support material to make sure the part doesn't fall over during the printing process. The lack of support material also limits the amount of undercuts that the printing model can possess. Despite this, the MakerBot machines costs a fraction of the price of the 3D printing establishment's desktop units and they are upgradable and expandable.
The DIY aspect of MakerBot, their online creative community, and their goal of allowing anybody to create and manufacture parts makes this unit a unique gadget. This unit would also be, in my opinion, an excellent commodity to any freelance Industrial Designer or small design department for providing low resolution rapid prototypes for clients. Take a look at the introductory video with Chris Hardwick.
Kevin Smith, writer/director turned podcasting internet personality, recently launched his own internet based radio network called SIR (Smodcast Internet Radio). The architect of the cult films Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, and Zach and Miri Make a Porno; my personal Kevin Smith favorites; started the original Smodcast podcast several years ago with his film producer Scott Mosier. Because of the Smodcast's success, Kevin added several more podcasts to his empire, most notably Jay and Silent Bob Get Old with Kevin's Jay to his Silent Bob (Jason Mewes) co-hosting.
In May of 2011, Kevin Smith segwayed his efficacious podcasting into opening the 24 hour a day online stream for SIR. To celebrate the launch of SIR, the neophyte network was offering two minute live reads on one of their new shows for an incredible introductory price.
I took advantage of this opportunity and a Denzinger Design ad was read on Friday morning, May 27th. The ad aired during the show Plus One Per Diem and was read by Kevin Smith and his wife, Jennifer Schwalbach. The episode containing the ad can be downloaded on iTunes and streamed from the Plus One Per Diem website. Below is the sound bite for the ad. Have a listen.
Gallery 1988 is a primarily eighties themed, pop culture driven, contemporary art gallery with spaces in Hollywood and Venice Beach California. A small sampling of illustrations displayed in 1988's shows are depiction's of deranged Alice in Wonderland characters, Doc Brown, Jay and Silent Bob, Skeletor, Milton & Mr. Lumbergh, the Mario Kart players, and original TRON characters and light bikes (just to name a few).
Perfectly aligning with this nostalgic trend of cult status pop culture motifs, the Venice Beach location of Gallery 1988 is hosting a Wet Hot American Summer art show. This event glorifies the 10th anniversary of the underground comedy written, directed, and starring several alums of MTV's 90s sketch comedy classic The State. The most notable individuals involved in Wet Hot American Summer, the trio that went on to form Stella, are Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, and David Wain.
The event features Wet Hot American Summer themed art from over 65 artists and the opening reception is Friday, June 10th from 7-10PM. The location of the newest Venice arm of Gallery 1988 is 214 Pier Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90405. I fully plan on attending this opening so stay tuned for images.
Last year Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, in partnership with KIA, launched a singles series called 8 singles 8 weeks. Every Monday for eight weeks, they would release a never before heard track on their website. Some of the tracks included in the 2010 series are Cults "Oh My God", Washed Out feat. Caroline Polachek "You and I", and an original Holy Ghost! Adult Swim remix of LCD Soundsytem's "Drunk Girls".
This series returns this year a little more ambitious with 10 tracks in 10 weeks. The 2011 series began with the release of Ford & Lopatin's "Too Much MIDI (Please Forgive Me) on Monday, June 6th and will end July 26th. Some artists included in this new series are Best Coast, Mastodon, The Rapture and also previously DD'd jj (collaborating with Ne-Yo) and Active Child.
Single #1 Ford & Lopatin "Too Much MIDI (Please Forgive Me)"
Rob Curedale; founder of the highly successful product design LinkedIn groups, design mixer coordinator, and previous Denzinger Design interviewee; is gearing up to teach a series of design driven continuing education workshops. The first in this suit of classes is titled Design Research Methods 1. The course will be hosted by Yeh Studios in Los Angeles.
Yeh Studios is a design, architecture, and interior design business that was behind the inception of Obey frontman Shepard Fairey's gallery and design space, Studio Number One, in Echo Park.
Studio Number One
Design research is an imperative aspect of the product development process that generally doesn't get the regard that it deserves. In order to make informed and deliberate decisions, designers need to take the time to focus on research throughout the process. As Rob states, it is important to inform colleagues and clients why a designer is pursuing a particular design direction within projects.
The workshop will cover several paramount design research topics and implementation techniques. It will take place on Saturday, June 11th between the hours of 1-5PM. The registration fee is $139 for professionals and $79 for full time students. Visit the website for more details and registration information.
L.A. up-and-comer turned all star Active Child dropped the first single today for his upcoming debut full length You are All I See, out August 23 on Vagrant Records. "Playing House" features Active Child's well known harp skills and crystalline synth lines, with guest vocals from How To Dress Well's R&B-minded Tom Krell. This smooth jam displays more swagger than you can shake a stick at, and these boys are getting plenty of shakes. Don't believe me, just visit Active Child's facebook - homeboy's been getting blown up all day.
You Are All I See is the follow-up to 2010's out of nowhere and completely irresistible Curtis Lane EP. After extensive touring with groups like the trio-turned-duo and Vagrant label mates School of Seven Bells, Patrick Grossi, A.K.A. Active Child, gained a strong following and a record deal. After wrapping up a tour with the UK's electro output James Blake, the self-proclaimed "hymntronic" artist announced the release of the single yesterday to the great anticipation of many. If You Are All I See is anything like the evocative and haunting sounds of Curtis Lane, it's sure to make many end of the year top record lists.
You can stream the silky new track over at Pitchfork.
Here's some tracks from Active Child's Curtis Lane.
Since the dawn of man, we have used the tools in our environment to depict images of the Gods believed to have created us and renderings of some sort of afterlife. The Last Judgement by Hans Memling, created during the 15th century, is a classical example of a painting portraying the Christian's end of the world belief in the rapture.
In modern times, Harold Camping falsely predicted that the rapture would transpire on May 21st of this year. This marked his third wrong prediction (according to wikipedia). As stated before, THIS gallery, located in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, celebrated "Judgement Night" on the night of May 20th with a one night art show. I had the opportunity to attend the event.
I would have to describe the motif of the show as a guide to post-apocalyptic survival. The first things visible in the gallery were haunting ski masks and nail-ridden baseball bats. The harshness of the Mad Max-esq baseball bat weapons were contrasted with images of colorful butterflies. The back wall of the gallery featured more zombie killing, end of time era weapons constructed of twisted metal, broken glass, rusted steel, and splintered wood.
The armageddon themed event also contained a wall of mostly geometric, grey scale artwork. A few of these pieces seemed to have slightly ambiguous cosmic undertones to keep with the tone of the night.
The final region of the show incorporated a fantastic collage containing images of the occult, S&M, voodoo, and a lone picture of Johnny Cash.
THIS gallery had recently been invaded by the French street artist Invader with a red, white and blue mosaic piece.
Lastly, the event was scored with two turntables by the awesomely eccentric punk rock icon Keith Morris. Keith is the original lead singer and founding member of Black Flag before Henry Rollins took the reins. He also leads the rowdy and raucous punk bands the Circle Jerks and, most recently, OFF!
I was slightly too awkward to snap a picture of Keith DJing so I'm going to impart his presence with YouTube videos. Below are two of OFF!'s official music videos released for their first album. The second video was filmed in a downtown Los Angeles warehouse/arts complex that hosted one of the best art shows that I have been to on the west coast. Another event that Keith Morris provided the sounds for.
Even though the "Judgement Day" weekend proved to be the uneventful psychobabble of an elderly religious weirdo, THIS Gallery embraced the opportunity to put on a hell of a party and art show. Also, the event provided excellent inspiration for home made weapons to use during the zombie apocalypse.
The Biophilia Hypothesis, in a nutshell, is that everything is connected - all living systems are bonded. Björk, being the closest thing to an actual nymph we have, is set to release a technology and organic influenced multimedia album, entitled Biophilia, sometime this year.
Björk has always been one to set the curve, and finally technology has caught up with her genius. The partly recorded album was developed in collaboration with Apple and creative team mate Michel Gondry, and is said to be released in installments as a series of apps as the world's "first app album."
The first glimpse of the music from Biophilia, came with the release of the ipad app "Solar System". The app is an interactive 3D eBook written by award-winning author and journalist Marcus Chown. "Solar System" is based on real scientific data and is accompanied by a horn-heavy instrumental track, reminiscent of Björk's earlier releases, such as the evocative "Overture" from Selmasongs.
The official unveiling of tracks from Biophilia will occur during Björk's performances at the third Manchester International Festival from June 30th to July 17th. Björk has said that the live performance will be a "meditation on the relationship between music, nature and technology"
The first official app single to be released, which is hinted at in the video below, is "Crystalline".
Wanderlust sufferers Beirut, led by New Mexico native and musical prodigy Zach Condon, are set to release a new album sometime this year. In preparation for this release they have a new single dropping Monday, June 6th. The two track single is by no means completely fresh material. The A-side track "East Harlem" has been in circulation in Beirut's live set for some time now. Written when Zach Condon was "17...I think", "East Harlem" is a horn-heavy upbeat toe-tapper that could have been the bridge between 2009's outstanding split March of the Zapotec/Holland EP. The album's B-side, "Goshen", is a little more subdued and emotional.
Beirut is currently on tour in support of their upcoming release. You can purchase the new East Harlem/Goshen single, along with other releases, and check out tour dates here.
"East Harlem"
Live footage of Beirut performing a solo piano version of "Goshen"
On May 10th, the man who single-handedly put Instrumental Hip Hop on the map with the critically acclaimed 1996's Endtroducing..., announced that his long-awaited new LP The Less You Know, the Better is completed and scheduled to drop in September. That same day he released a digital download of remixed tracks from TLYKTB, which will be the follow up to 2006's not-so-acclaimed and all over the place The Outsider. These tracks, released as I Gotta Rokk EP, mark yet another shift in his sound. Here's the music video for the title track of the EP. It's definitely missing the soul and bangin' mentality of his earlier work that changed the game for hip hop production, but stays true to his hip hop roots unlike The Outsider's frenetic set up.
Pick up the I Gotta Rock ep along with DJ Shadow's other releases here.
The U.K.'s grimy dubstep underlord Zomby is back! Now signed to musical mashup label 4AD Records, Zomby is preparing to release the follow-up to 2008's rave boogie Where Were U in '92 with the cleaner and crisper 2011's Dedication. Dedication is now streaming over at Disco Naivete and right from the start you can hear that he's turned up his swagger and is looking forward, not back, like on his acclaimed '92 break out. The first glimpse of Dedication we received was the glittering collaboration with Noah Lennox (A.K.A. Panda Bear), "Things Fall Apart", posted here.
When my brother and I were young we used to always get a kick out of scaring ourselves, and each other. We would intentionally fool ourselves into thinking things were more sinister than they actually were and would hide from one another, lurking in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment of silence to burst out and send the other off screaming. We've both always been fascinated with everything related to horror: the films; the scores; the sound effects - all of it.
When we got a little older, we found an old tape of spooky haunted house noises that was full of cauldrons bubbling, witches cackling, werewolves howling, and victims screaming. It was a decade old and a little cheesy, but there were times when it had the potential to cause our skin to crawl. Since we were weird kids, we naturally listened to it all the time. I remember sitting in his truck late one night listening to that tape and thinking to myself how amazing it would be if someone could use the sounds we both feared and loved as the backdrop of an actual album. Timber Timbre's Creep on Creepin' on is that album - afully realized childhood dream (or nightmare, rather) come to life.
Helmed by multi-instrumentalist Taylor Kirk, Timber Timbre's roots are in stripped down, bleak, and eerie folk and blues. A shift in sound occurred in 2009 when Canadian music visionaries Kevin Drew (of Broken Social Scene) and Jeffrey Remedios signed Timber Timbre to their label, Arts & Crafts Production,just prior to the release of their larger sounding self-titled third album. With the saxophone support of musical helping-hand and Arcade Fire side man Colin Stetson; Timber Timbre's Taylor Kirk, Simon Trottier, and Mika Posen set out to create an even larger and more atmospheric portrait of swampy and sinister Americana. The result: the bubbling and brimming starkness of 2011's Creep on Creepin' on.
Breaking away from his earlier Randy Newman delivery and adopting a more snarl-and-warble '50s rock 'n' roll sound more akin to Jerry Lee Lewis, Taylor Kirk has a swagger on this album that was missing before. His stutter-to-smooth flow compliments the down tempo doo-wop key strokes in the albums hypnotic stand out "Woman". The folk twang and screaming samples in "Too Old to Die Young" give way to Kirk's newly found growling bravado to create a sinister anthem that slowly unfolds into a bluesy love song in it's latter string-laden half. This track embodies the tone of the album, mixing sounds in a bewildered state of subdued mania.
There is a haunting sense of forlorn fearfulness within Creep on Creepin' on, which is expressed on both "Woman" and "Too Old to Die Young", but most overtly in the zombie romance "Lonesome Hunter", which sounds strikingly like Arcade Fire in the Funeral years. Falling back on the throaty Newman delivery from their earlier albums, Taylor Kirk slowly sputters "Sparrows at your window/ Starlings at your door/ Magpies wherever we go/ Is it blackbirds forever more?" in a brooding aw-shucks fashion.
The sonics of Creep on Creepin' on rely deeply on atmosphere and negative space, maintaining a contrast between harrowing cacophony and murky orchestrations - displayed perfectly in the albums creepy instrumental intermissions "Obelisk" and "Swamp Magic". The addition of saxophonist Colin Stetson aids in this increase in foreboding as well, making Timber Timbre's blues a bit darker. With the addition of the sax the outro to the sullen love sick "Black Water" is made more dismal,the ending to the title track "Creep on Creeping on" is made more desolate, and the intro to "Woman" is made more ominous.
The group developed the name Timber Timbre by combining the fact that their earliest recordings were made in a lumber cabin (timber) and the music term for distinguishing instruments and tone quality or tone color (timbre). Decidedly, Timber Timbre's tone color would have to be the blood-red-blues. These tracks are as sorrowful as they are sinister and they embody my childhood memories of the almost gleeful terror that sounds can elicit.
Electronic music juggernauts Warp Records, known for such musical staples as Boards of Canada and Aphex Twin, have dropped a new bomb in the music world in the form of dub-drenched beat masterminds Africa Hitech. Their debut full length, 93 Million Miles, sounds as if it was recorded and pressed today. This is as fresh as it get in a music world dominated by nostalgia. Instead of looking to the past, the duos members, Steve Spacek and Mark Pritchard, are looking to the future. They've crafted a ragga rich, bass crazy epic of a dance album that pulls inspiration from reggae, hip hop, dancehall, and dub (with the occasional -step thrown in) to form a breed all its own.
The duo is the culmination of two electro hard-hitters who joined forces after their stint as instructors for the 2007 Red Bull Music Academy. Steve Spacek, known for not only his solo work, but also his work with such groups as the electronic-fusion of Spacek and the post-Dilla jams of Black Pocket. The other half of Africa Hitech, Mark Pritchard, has a different and incredibly varied musical background. He, along with Tom Middleton as Global Communication, created one of the most acclaimed ambient and electronic albums of the '90s, 76:14. He's also involved in countless other musical endeavours that are much different then his success in ambiance, such as the dirty dark beats of Harmonic 313. Steve Spacek and Mark Pritchard came together to meld their dominant styles together to form an inspired slice of ragga flow with a hip hop flavor.
93 Million Miles, with it's many inspiration and producers varying musical backgrounds,is a dense and challenging listen. The album spans 11 tracks, each one a sprawling display of genre bending madness. They utilize heavy amounts of repetition, with slight alterations to create a tightly knit track with little negative space to move around. There is a lot to hear in each of these songs. However pleasing it is track-to-track, the album as a whole can come across slightly bi-polar at times. The first half displays a fast-paced dark urban atmosphere; a more hip hop influenced sound. The latter half is more smooth with tropical undertones that's a little more ragga savy.
A good example of the multiple personality style of 93 Million Miles would be the comparison between the orchestral gang stomp and liquid bass line of "Do U Wanna Fight" and the smooth bongo-banging of another vocal-dominant song "Spirit". "Do U Wanna Fight", Africa Hitech's undeclared shout out to Major Lazer, opens with a sax-heavy intro that grinds into unintelligible vocals that are heavily manipulated and a beat that proves quite difficult to locate initially. This is a strong example of the hip hop mentality of these two creating a powerful urban sprawl of a song. "Spirit", however, displays a smoother and decidedly more natural tone. Softly delivered vocals cover the jungle sounds flowing in between the drums, both kettle and bongo. Both of these tracks are from opposite sides of the album, and they both display the trend of duality between the dark city front half and the bright jungle back half.
93 Million Miles' stand out "Out in the Streets" is a danchall dubstep banger that's backbone is formed by a layered Ini Kamoze vocal sample "out in the street" repeated incessantly, circulating through bass-crazy alternating beat cycles. Utilizing the solid structures heard throughout this album, this song is relentless with sound and gives no room to move around - creating a city claustrophobia that rivals that of the dirty beat doctor Babe Rainbow. This track in particular is an example of how with proper balance, all of their influences melded together can truly create an exciting listen.
Throughout this album there are varied techniques and talents employed that are truly innovative and very now. The albums midway epic "Our Luv's" wavering synth work and vocal cyclone ending; the guttural bass line of "Footsteps"; and the Broken Spindles-esque "Cyclic Sun", with it's clicking metronome beat -each track uncovers a new layer in the city-soundscape-to-jungle-landscape narrative that is consistently challenging, but consistently rewarding as well.
You can purchase Africa Hitech's Hitecherous EP and 93 Million Miles LP here.
Through local design events, I've had the chance to meet a few of the individuals in the current graduating class for the Industrial Design program at Cal State Long Beach. All of them are extremely friendly and excellent networkers. I had the opportunity to view their product design work when I was invited down to CSULB for the grad show.
Below are a few of the final presentation boards that I felt were strong. In these, I noticed innovative concepts with a nice balance of research, ideation sketching, digital rendering, and hand finished prototyping. Take a look.
Michael Ly's Camera Bag, Vinyl Figure Clock, & Table
All over Los Angeles there are billboards with Family Radio Worldwide claiming that the end of the world is Saturday, May 21st. There is a great deal of brouhaha about this all over the internet as well.
To honor this, THIS gallery in Highland Park is doing a one night show. The show is Friday, May 20th (the night before the big day!) from 7-10PM. It features Keith Morris; the original lead singer of Black Flag, Circle Jerks front man and OFF! lead singer. Check it out.
THIS los angeles; 5906 North Figueroa Street; Los Angeles, CA 90042
