Archive for May, 2008

Screensavers for Designers

Posted on: May 28th, 2008 by Dante No Comments

The screensaver is an example of a technological art that once served a specific purpose, but was never made obsolete once that purpose was lost. Old CRT monitors needed a screen saver so that images wouldn’t burn or ghost onto the screen. Now, they serve as mainly entertainment. Recently, two very nice screen savers have been developed that also keep track of the date and time typographically. Word clock by Simon Heys is a simple list of days and numbers that highlight when needed. The interesting thing about Word Clock is that it is so customizable. Another screensaver of note is Drop Clock by SCR featuring helvetica numbers free falling into water in slow motion.

Alternate Worlds

Posted on: May 18th, 2008 by Dante No Comments

A trip through the galleries of Chelsea is an adventure and an escape from the large overcrowded museums of the city. There is more diversity in the small gallery. You can see Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings next to the work of an unknown artist’s renderings of the relationship between bread and butter. Everything is for sale and for twenty thousand dollars you could take it home with you. I was most impressed with the sculptures of Robert Therrien at the Gagosian Gallery. A small closet with 888 red objects, stacks of giant pots and pans, and a towering card table with huge fold-out chairs were particularly interesting. Each small exhibit always give me the feeling that I’m inside a micro-universe that the artist has created and Therrien’s giant objects heightened that sense. In this alternate world we entered the land of giants.

Poor Toulouse

Posted on: May 16th, 2008 by Dante 1 Comment

This is what happens when a cat eats a whole spool of baker’s twine…

Business Card as Art Object

Posted on: May 9th, 2008 by Dante No Comments

Recently, I have been experimenting with the idea that a business card should be something more. It will now be thought of not only a means of communicating important contact information, but also something even more personal. An unspoken form of communication that will force the recipient to create meaning.

The card I am envisioning as a shell or container for a found object or material. This found object within the card functions almost as a non sequitur because there is no apparent connection between it and the shell. The personal information (shell) represents the giver, and the object (found material), after it is discovered, work together to create a different meaning all together. For instance, if the shell appears to be a very formal business card with small type and embossed monograms, the receiver forms an initial impression. Later, when they realize that inside the card is a cut-out magazine clipping of Flava Flav’s gold tooth they would form an altogether different meaning or persona.

As this is an ongoing experiment, I will be updating this post in the next few days.

The Online Mixtape

Posted on: May 3rd, 2008 by Dante 2 Comments

When cassette tape technology matured in the 80′s becoming cheaper and of higher quality, it enabled easy home recording, and a new art form took shape. A mix tape could be recorded from different sources beginning with LPs, off the radio, and later from CDs. Nick Hornby’s “High Fidelity” which was later made into the movie starring John Cusack publicizes the etiquette that is so important in the creation of mix tapes and mix tape culture. No back-to-back songs by the same artist is a given. Starting off the mix with a song that will grab attention is key, but you don’t want to over do it, so you might have to turn it down a notch with he next track. Maintaining a flow is also very important because you want to maintain a seamlessness from one track to another. The most important aspect of mix tapes is that it allows the author to say something or make a statement through the music. With the rise of CD burners and the creation of mix CDs, the tape has fallen by the wayside. The idea of the mix has even surpassed the CD and gone completely digital. Muxtape.com allows you to create a mix that lives completely online and can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection. The site is so simple and refreshing to use that it’s as easy as uploading your own mp3s, dragging around your track listing as desired, and sending out a link to your mix. The site also makes it easy to randomly listen to mixes that others have created and bookmark them. Check out my mix.