whiteblackboard: Art

Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts

anything goes?

I was casually surfing the net when I came across Interior Semiotics.

Basically the low down:

Girl opens a can of expired spaghetti-ish food (took a really long time - definitely not housewife material)
Smears the food all over her shirt
Sprouts some nihilistic message
Cuts open her leggings and proceeds to expel vaginal discharge/urinate into the can.

It's not really that shocking - I've heard of similar 'art' performances before, plus there's some really nasty gory/scatological stuff online these days. But I'm looking at the hipster audience cheering at the end and thinking: Are they really seeing it as art?

To start off, art is hard to define in this modern times as people are looking for more and more creative ways to express themselves. No more confining to just the classic medium such as paintings, music, film or photography, Post-modernism ushered in the theory of 'anything goes'. A few months back Roger Ebert was discussing on the topic of whether video games is considered art. Then there's the video that you've just seen.

From a personal viewpoint of a average guy like myself, art to me is about (1) creating a form of asethetics that stimulate the senses and (2) bearing a signifance to its culture and time period.

Putting Interior Semiotics into my definition, it... probably is. For (1) it definitely stimulated my senses, while for (2) it could be a nihilistic response by the youth in view of all the stuff thats happening right now e.g. terrorism, financial crisis, etc.

But unlike the reaching the end credits of a great film which provokes deep thoughts and feelings of catharsis, it instead brought forth feelings of disdain and disgust.

Thus to me its rubbish art, but then again the hipsters in the video loved it. Am I missing out on something?

carbon made only wants to be unmade

As I was looking at Stephen Wiltshire's landscape drawings I can't help but felt slightly down by the art's current fortunes when compared against it's distant cousin, photography.

Back in the days between the two, drawing was the more accessible hobby simply for the fact that all you need is a pencil and a drawing block. Apart from the analog point-and-shoot cameras, the professional ones back then were expensive and requires film (which can hit you like your car petrol bill). It used to be quite common to see parents taking their kids to drawing classes, where you would see them rushing out to their parents at the end of the lesson, proudly displaying their magnum opus to their bewildered parents (I was one of them). This was prior to the age of tuition classes and golf lessons for kids.

Now with the digital revolution of limitless shots (read: camwhor-ing with QC) and online photo albums, the art of photography has really overtaken the art of drawing, entering into the mainstream. Throw a brick from a window and you'll most likely hit someone with a SLR slinged over his/her neck.

But I think deep down it has probably got something to do with our lifestyle now, in which all things have to be swee swee and chop chop. Why take the time and effort to do a portrait or a mural when you can get instant beauty with a click?

hip-pee

I had just finished a training session at The Arcade today when my attention turned to the toilet signs on the toilet entrances in the building.

I know The Arcade is one of the older buildings around Raffles Place, but when the stickman in the sign wears bell-bottoms I'm pretty sure it was constructed sometime between the 70's and the 80's.

Update: The building was completed in 1981. Woo hoo!

AWOL part 42

The Straits Times today showed this print ad from my university - I was feeling very juxtaposed until I read into the text at the bottom.

I remembered when I first stepped into SMU, their print ads is about the concept of "being different" by emphasizing on a close interactive learning relationship between students and lecturers (the Affirmation series is my favourite so far)- ads would show both groups of people being struck in casual informal poses suggesting a close bond to the boundaries of friendship, like a United Colors of Benetton ad.

In this case I think it's a case of nice idea, jumbled execution?

red monster comics

My friend Hwang has created RedMonsterComics, a portal for budding writers and artists to share their ideas and works. Comics are downloadable as well so do support and take a look!

uninspiring movie posters

I was checking out the latest movie trailers on Apple' site when I can't help but notice the poster designs of some of these million dollar productions.

How About You: Looks like a combination of Love Actually and The Upside of Anger.

Yonkers Joe: This looks like it was done by using the 'poster edge' effect on Illustrator.

New In Town: This pose has been done to death already - can't really remember other examples right now except Bewitched.

Knowing: Okay this one isn't really bad, just that it just reminds me of...

evolution of the olympic torches

The New York Times covered an article on the evolution of the Olympic torches a few days ago, from 1936 Berlin to the upcoming Beijing Olympics.

At a quick glance across all the torches I must say that China's design easily stands out among the rest. The vibrant red and the swirling graphics inscribed on the curved torch gives exudes the perfect oriental feel. Well done.

Check out the full article here.

creative business cards

I was looking for inspiration on designing business cards when I chanced upon a thread on creativebits.org about creative business cards.

The ones listed in the thread were visually great, but the most importantly thing was making the design relevant to what the person's business is about. Here's a few of my favourites: