April 3, 2010

New Coke

Industrial designer Andrew Kim has come up with a concept for an eco-friendly (or greenwashed, if you’re cynical) Coca-Cola bottle. (DB)

See also: Harc Lee’s green(er) monochrome Coke can.

Meanwhile, Karl Lagerfeld has come up with a concept for a fashion-friendly Coca-Cola bottle:

colette via HB

Finally, as an HTML/CSS designer, this “Pure CSS Coke Can” never ceases to amaze me:

March 9, 2010

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March 3, 2010

Aanteni (2010: A Space Odyssey)

*UPDATE: Embeddable version (via Creativity Online) embedded below.

Like the rest of the blogosphere, I posted about OK Go’s latest viral effort “This Too Shall Pass” yesterday. I also posted a link to Nicholas Carr’s infamous essay on Google, which is bookended by a 2001 reference. Well, for a completely different take on what you can do with an empty warehouse in LA / an allusion to Kubrick’s Space Odyssey, Rodarte and Todd Cole present Aanteni.

Guinevere van Seenus stars in Aanteni, a high-fashion techno-thriller from CFDA award-winning design sisters Rodarte, shot by their friend and frequent collaborator, the photographer and video artist Todd Cole. Set in the deserted grounds of Paypal founder Elon Musk’s Space X jet lab in Hawthorne, California, the film was inspired by the pioneering spirit of the space race, which, according to Rodarte’s Kate and Laura Mulleavy, “has defined generations of artists in their desire to use new mediums and question the established rules they were taught to follow.” This cinematic collision between rocket science and visual daring is an apt match for Rodarte’s spring 2010 collection—a symphony of flesh-colored crochet knits, fluorescent fibres, leather bandages and distressed plaid.

I enjoyed Ryan McGinley & Tilda Swinton for Pringle of Scotland, Yang Fudong for Prada, and Lifetime Collective but, to be perfectly frank, I think Aanteni is just a bit too over-the-top. Maybe it’s just me, but I found the imagery captivating yet nauseatingly arty at times, while the film itself simply lacked a compelling narrative—honestly, I watched it mostly for No Age’s original soundtrack, which sounded like No Age playing incidental music for an art film. In sum: it’s more style than substance, and it shows.

But don’t let me deter you: Todd Cole for Rodarte – Aanteni / 2010: A Space Odyssey (NSFW)

Nowness also has a brief artist statement by Todd Cole.

February 28, 2010

Interviews of Interest

• The Future of Fashion with Hedi Slimane on Style.com (plus 2006 New Yorker profile)
• Chuck Klosterman chats with Stephen Malkmus for GQ.
• Hot Chip in the Guardian.
• GOOD Magazine’s Top 10 Talks from TED 2010.
• Related: Chatroulette in Wired, NYMag, NYTimes, NYT again. Also, video artist Casey Neistat explains Chatroulette in video art form (HuffPo).

February 27, 2010

Still vs Moving

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February 24, 2010

Ryan McGinley & Tilda Swinton for Pringle of Scotland

A couple weeks ago, I posted about Ryan McGinley’s photos of Tilda Swinton for the venerable for Pringle of Scotland’s Spring/Summer 2010 campaign, but I neglected to mention that the two also expanded upon the theme in video form to mark McGinley’s transition to moving pictures.

The short film follows Swinton as she plays an altogether androgynous sylphlike pixie (in a good way) roaming the lush, almost-magical Scottish highlands. Brilliantly executed aside from the two atrocious lines that might have ruined it for me, had I not been viewing it on mute (with Björk on headphones) the first time around. (The video was actually pretty intense when set to Vespertine as a coincidental soundtrack.)

McGinley’s been pretty busy lately, with a recent photo essay on the Olympics in the Times and an upcoming solo show at Team Gallery (previewed at AM).

February 15, 2010

Re-Make/Re-Model

Yes it’s happening (see Finite Regression below): more random crap that people may or may not care about. Welcome to the blogosphere.

The Times T Magazine blog has an ongoing series of slideshows and interactive images of runway models photographed by Greg Kessler. He captures two kinds of transformation, both equally vain: the first variation chronicles a set of show-by-show looks for a given model, capturing a surprisingly depth of character to different collections and sometimes the girls themselves; the second variation consists of before-and-after portraits of models (presented with a nifty slider effect) sans and post makeup. Although the latter version does its best not to flatter—there are a fair share of veritable caterpillar-to-butterfly metamorphoses—many of the girls are undeniably natural beauties.

It’s all the more fascinating to me because I had the pleasure of witnessing my first (and hopefully not my last) runway show yesterday. Pretty much what I expected, but a worthwhile experience nonetheless.

February 2, 2010

Yang Fudong – First Spring

or, A New Direction in China’s Visual Communications

Once again, Designboom seems to have tapped into my subconscious, enriching my recent firsthand exposure to images created by Chinese artists.

Still from First Spring, 2009

Yang Fudong is today’s topic. I recently came across his work as a “new direction in Prada’s visual communications”: his latest work is a short film for the luxury brand (full video at the end of the post), which was picked up by Hypebeast, among other blogs. I watched it and didn’t give it a second thought.

Dawn Mist, Separation Faith, 2009

It wasn’t until I chanced upon his name in Designboom later that day that I realized that I had seen his work before, at UCCA’s “Breaking Forecast” exhibition (which runs through the end of February). Unfortunately, I somehow managed to miss the film ‘Dawn Mist, Separation Faith,’ a new full-length film that was screening at the UCCA.

Ms. Huang at M Last Night #2, 2006

In any case, the show included a couple of photos from his 2006 series ‘Ms. Huang at M Last Night,’ which suggest a mute narrative that is probably less intriguing than the stylistic content/composition implied by the noirish glamour of the stills.

Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest, Part I, 2003

‘Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest‘ is a five-part video piece that apparently found an audience at the 2007 Venice Biennale. I don’t really know enough about film or photography to legitimately critique his work, so I’ll just say that it looks pretty good to me.

Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest, Part V, 2007

Which brings us to Yang Fudong’s latest film, ‘First Spring,’ a period piece set in Shanghai during what the West knows as the Interbellum Period.
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January 30, 2010

New Shoes

» Tiga – Shoes (3:48) – 8.2MB mp3 @ 293kbps

Dior Homme Chukka, via HB as always.

At this point in short history of IYK, it should be fairly obvious that I have a thing for shoes.

Hiroshi Fujiwara is on point as always. Via DQM.

Hair and shoes say it all. Everything in between is forgivable as long as you keep it simple. Trying to talk with your clothes is passive-aggressive.

–Rick Owens, Rules of Style on Details.com. Total classic.

Jak & Jill has an absolutely gorgeous (vaguely pornographic) look at Louis Vuitton's F/W 2010 Accessories

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January 28, 2010

Images

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