JOSEPHINE BAKER

AMANDA RECORDINGS

 Found on the Free Music Archive, this album consists of broken shards of pop songs and 1980's breakbeats. The vocals are courtesy of a growling pre-pubescent, who sings, 'concrete nipples, they're so hard, concrete nipples, not made of lard, concrete nipples, rolling in the yard.' since being released on FMA two years ago, the 'Amanda' recordings have gained a cult following. enjoy. 

Micheal Cina, for Ghostly International

CINA ASSOCIATES.

Endhirnan, S. Shankar

So, I just watched this recently released Tamil film, by Shankar Shanmugam. Endhirnan was released in October of 2010 to become the most expensive Indian film ever made, as well as the highest grossing one. The plot circles around Dr. Vaseegaran who is a scientist responsible for creating an android robot that resembles him physically.  When Chitti, the andoid, fails to pass a delegated test at a technology conference, Dr. Vaseegaran decides to create artificial hormones, so that Chitti might be ablet to synthesize emotion, and thus discern right from wrong. This, the pivot point in the film, then leads to several important misshaps, one of which leads Chitti to fall in love with Sana, Dr. Vaseegaran's girlfriend. (Sana raised my eyebrows a bit as far as a representation of a modern Indian woman, but that is perhaps for another blogpost.)
  What creates the film's success is the combination of both western and eastern elements of visual storytelling, culture, and high budget computer graphics. The fight sequences are of epic stature unseen even in Hollywood's latest action films, because they recall stories of Hindi god's, as well as Indian culture.  I am no expert on Indian culture in the least, but there is something to be said when a 100 robots bind together to create a flat net, that shoots and waves as a unit, and then bind again to create a lethal gunning sphere that rolls through the streets. There is also a nice scene in which Chitti magnetically pulls the weapons of two gun squads and shoots them from himself as if they are a horizontal fan of death. The film also manages, through the kitch, the spectacle and the drama, to address deeper notions in an almost surreal way through scene meditations that seem to take the viewer complete aside from the plot. There is a scene in which Chitti has prolonged conversations with a band of mosquitos, one of whom has bitten Sana, and forces him to apologize after having agreed to a deal. The scene raises questions of nature personified vs. technology personified, and one submitting to the other. Other ideas, raised in other seemingly disjointed scenes discuss issues of gender, love, emotion, humanity and evil.
  All in all, impressive, interspersed in true Bollywood fashion with dance/song numbers, and a bit long, but creative, and very interesting to watch. Sample the very intense trailer at the link above.

EXACTITUDES

About

Photographer Ari Versluis and profiler Ellie Uyttenbroek have worked together since October 1994. Inspired by a shared interest in the striking dress codes of various social groups, they have systematically documented numerous identities over the last 16 years. Rotterdam’s heterogeneous, multicultural street scene remains a major source of inspiration for Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek, although since 1998 they have also worked in many cities abroad.

They call their series Exactitudes: a contraction of exact and attitude. By registering their subjects in an identical framework, with similar poses and a strictly observed dress code, Versluis and Uyttenbroek provide an almost scientific, anthropological record of people’s attempts to distinguish themselves from others by assuming a group identity. The apparent contradiction between individuality and uniformity is, however, taken to such extremes in their arresting objective-looking photographic viewpoint and stylistic analysis that the artistic aspect clearly dominates the purely documentary element.

Wim van Sinderen, Senior Curator Museum of Photography, The Hague 

reblogged from the Exactitudes website, found here.

http://www.exactitudes.nl/ 

DENTSU CAMPAIGN FOR CANON USING PAINT/SOUND SCULPTURES

Canon Pixma: Bringing colour to life from Dentsu London on Vimeo.

  Dentsu advertising team uses sound frequencies are used to create shots of moving paint for a new image campaign for Canon. Fascinating and beautiful.

RAFAEL ROSENDAAL

http://www.vaiavanti.com/http://www.vaiavanti.com/ .. one of the many links he has available on the internet.

  absolutely stunning. spare, brilliantly colorful, interactive internet spaces created by rosendaal moved me to question, play, interact, and wonder.

you can see his website here.

ROBIN SCHWARTZ

  

JAMES BLAKE

James Blake - Limit To Your Love from James Blake on Vimeo.

THE CORNER ROOM BY RACHEL GRIMES

The Corner Room by Rachel Grimes