The Hardback Henid

Meditation Doodles

2012-01-27T14:53:00.000Z

While on retreat in Lerab Ling this summer, I took notes on meditation. Just some doodley images that came to mind during the teachings. I won't attempt to explain, as that's too much for here. Check out what meditation reallyis.com if you're interested.
Note: 'Shamatha' means 'calm-abiding'... which Sogyal Rinpoche mentioned at one point as being `a balance between spaciousness and watchful awareness'.

Tripping in Surreality – 'Art Lit Feed' on tumblr

2012-01-03T19:33:00.001Z

Bouncing round the Indie Art Lit Feed and grazing on hippy tripped out universes. And then the whole tumblr rabbit-hole for that matter. These images are from there but originally:

Chrissy Angliker (via booooooom)

Pierre Botardo (via 2headedsnake)

James Dawe (via 2headedsnake)

Unknown (via whitemoonstone)

Ms. Neaux Neaux (via feru-leru)

Follow it here @ArtLitFeed

Wild Droppings

2011-12-12T21:05:00.004Z

I'm finding the winter blues can be a bit of a downer. No shots of whiskey though, but slashes of crazed colour inks cheered me up this weekend. Not particularly cool but just the tonic for the bleak greyness.

The results won't win taste awards, but the process is so much fun. Daub some water onto heavy paper in a shape you like (thank you cheap bamboo brushes). Load a syringe or dropper with your psychedelic hues and let gravity take its course. Tilt and swivel for a class of substractive colour theory. If you really get into this, you can start using alcohol inks and glues for some ferral effects.

Oh, and check out this image by Pery Burge on the new scientist site... made by firstly dropping some oil-based gold paint onto water then adding two colours of acrylic inks. Beautiful.

Dublin Contemporary 2011 – Splashy or Splishy?

2011-10-04T01:17:00.001+01:00

Went along to this International Art Fair at the weekend. Heavy rain had finally cleared and a Sunday afternoon's ruckus of children were blotted over the first floor of Earlsfort Terrace, an abandoned university campus. The paraphrased theme is Terrible Beauty—Art, Crisis, Change: Taken from William Butler Yeats’ famous poem “Easter, 1916”... suggesting "art’s underused potential for commenting symbolically on the world’s societal, cultural and economic triumphs and ills".

Walking through, the marie-celesteness of the venue would normally be just my cup of tea, but for some reason, I found it all distracting. Maybe that's because I'm not a nostalgic Dubliner. Rather, I must be a curmudgeon and regressing to white-cube preferences. Anyhow! I kept feeling that I was in a student graduation show, because every piece had it's own dreary little room with sockets and bare-faced concrete. Some were transformed wonderfully and completely, while others weren't, it seemed to depend on something arbitrary.

Attention deficiency led to constant forgetting of the theme... so it's just as well I brought a camera, because otherwise, an unreflective impression might have been misleading.

The stuff I liked in-situ was mainly the video work because "I got it" in terms of something political-social-surreal-challenging-ish. Chen Chieh - Jen's Empire's Borders was a series of interviews with regular Taiwanese people who simply wanted to go on holiday to the States. They were required to go through humiliating interviews at the embassy to get the visa, but were rejected for no known reason. Loved Niamh O'Malley's Quarry – a projection of stoney visuals onto a black canvas... like a painting, but alive.

Alejandro Almanza Pereda – Horror Vacuii

The static spatial pieces that struck me however were the disturbing / textual / strange ones. Floating barbed wire, the terrifying hairy tit, painfully hand-rendered magazines and a giant slimey octopus...

Amanda Coogan's live piece – Spit Spit, Scrub Scrub – featuring herself and two other performers in a room dribbling onto their huge blue satin gowns – for three hours!! Really, no image could do justice to that.

Dan Perjovschi's Dublin Drawings in the Annex were probably the most communicative piece on theme for me: simple social commentary with humour. ah!

Brian Duggan's Ferriss Big Wheel model, is a replica of one in the Russia town of Pripyat which was evacuated during the Chernobyl disaster. Abandoned promises of fun and frolic... that spooky vibe.

Fernando Bryce – Comoedia, Brian Duggan – The Short Term Evacuation, Wilfred Preto, Mark Clare – Democracity

Alan Butler – Painting of a photo from a news report of a suicide at Foxconn, Shenzhen, China, 2010; painted in an oil painting factory in China

Dan Perjovschi – One of countless ditties in The Dublin Drawing

Teresa Margolles – City's Keys

Maarten Vanden Eynde – The Earth seen from the Moon

Siobhan Gibbon – Neoplasm

Mark Cullen – Towards Superconnection, James Deutscher – Oh, na, na, what's my name? Oh, na, na, what's my name?, Dan Perjovschi – The Dublin Drawing, Installation in the medical library (Artist anyone?)

Overall, I left without that furious sinking exhaustion that happens after "Art", maybe because of the lack of text information around the place, or maybe because it was all so cosy and derelict. Hmm.

Anyone else seen it and have thoughts on this?

What is the Technology of Spirituality?

2011-09-21T16:47:00.001+01:00

Living in a monastry slash commune for three months was fascinating and many times overwhelming. From a visual anthropologist's viewpoint, there was a mass of activity. People weren't sitting round on their bums in general, but were carrying out a wide range of practices within and without the temple environment. Here I made a tentative and rough inventory of what I could see, which was complex and subtle.

Drawings by a temple – Lerab Ling

2011-09-21T16:37:00.004+01:00

Some quiet moments illustrated on my trusted A5 notebook. Most of the time, the views were so stunning that I just went for walks. I was refreshing to live in the mountains for 3 months. (To see stunning aerial views of this area taken by Jan Pieters, click here.)

Tibet in France – Lerab Ling

2011-06-27T16:59:00.000+01:00

My summer volunteer experience is in full swing; busy like normal life, but with a massive temple in the back yard and staying in a tent. Not yet enlightened, but maybe another 3 aeons might do the trick. All the same, have been looking and seeing and working on my mindfulness. Here are a few snaps of where I am for you to imagine...

Full photo story here
Location: Lerab Ling

Making baby a present...

2011-05-15T15:34:00.000+01:00

It's that age. If you aren't having your own, your friends are popping theirs. How can giving be a pleasure when plastic and generic sentiments seem unappealing? It's an ongoing mini challenge to give from the real heart, bypassing Hallmark sentimentality. Below are a couple of recent examples of baby stuff that I put together from the box of tricks. Any excuse to use a fountain pen eh.

Loving nerdy typographic stickers and muji origami papers – colour mmm!

A ribbon fetish is put to wholesome use in this easter bonnet set for little Erin's christening. One for the head, and a matching one for her wrist. (Thanks to Kate for helping me with the sewing).

Drink and Draw – Cork

2011-05-12T14:50:00.000+01:00

Had a lovely evening at The Franciscan Well this Tuesday. 'Rebel Red' is one of their home brews and I'll warn you, a little strong, but tasty. Next time I'll try the stout. The event runs twice a month and seems to be going strong. Conversations and drawings ranged from how to cook and egg from a solar contraption, robots, herbal medicine, retinal examinations... I was more prosaic as a newbie and drew what I saw.

facebook group

Johnathan Harris – Personal Geography

2011-04-14T20:09:00.001+01:00

Lovely idea and beautifully executed...

What is it about trains and working?

2011-03-19T22:24:00.000Z

There's something special about simply being on trains. When I have my notebook or laptop, the items that have sat on the long finger, or the work that is a little stuck, seem to unravel…. and flow with the movement of the land passing by. Is it the defined time? Is it the actual motion of the train? Is it the sense of being in an inbetween place: nowhere to go: nothing else to do? the internet connection is too slow to get too distracted…. Being on a train is like having a deadline without the adrenalin. The physical rhythm seems to allow the necessary changes of mind and perceptions to let go: to move forward. Or maybe it's all in my imagination…. maybe it's just me?

Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse

2010-12-24T14:58:00.001Z

Beautiful timelapse sequence from Florida.
Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse from William Castleman on Vimeo.

Wonder Woman

2010-11-28T23:40:00.002Z

Via Linchpins are Everywhere
(If the Ella 'aoao89' would like to reveal herself, please take your limelight!)

Getting with the Web Type

2010-11-22T23:14:00.000Z

Researching pleasing and beautiful web design with a fingertip close to the technical necessities leads one nto the classic alice-in-wonderland spiral of muchness. Without details, I'd like to share with you some rather jolly lovely places. Those of you out there versed in web-stuff will be rolling your eyes: "DUH! We KNOW all of these!" *I shrug*

First is the personal hub of Mr. Simon Collison, A.K.A 'Colly' who is undoubtedly a web-celebrity. He showcases Times New Roman lovingly.

Which brings us to 'The Elements of Typographic Style applied to the Web' a fabulous learning resource of detail for text styling in CSS2 and CSS3, by Richard Rutter elaborating the book by Bringhurst.

The Ministry of Type from Aegir Hallmundur which shows a broad but geekishly gorgeous set of porn-spirations. Old school but within a perfectly measured template.

Lastly, I bow to the HTML5 splendour of Magazin5 on Design Made in Germany. You can smoothly scroll the transparencies on your fancy-pants iPad but then be surprised at the quality content, such as an interview with Antonio Carusone, maker of the really very helpful champion of harmony The Grid System.

Discovery Science Festival 2010, Cork

2010-11-18T17:33:00.004Z

It was a pleasure to help out with the Discovery 2010 Science Exhibition at City Hall, Cork for a few days. (2008 Video) The energy and enthusiasm was amazing. I met serial volunteers, community wardens for the council, pharmachemical researchers, sciences educators, software and mechanical engineers and researchers around Cork and Ireland, et al. I also met bundles of children who were trying out all the gadgets, devices, slime-making schemes, liquid nitrogen ice-cream, molecule-building, force-field twiddling, sound-wave crashing, sensor-music-playing, energy-bulb-generating, robot toy and circuit-board constructing... The future's bright I'm sure, despite this week's economic calamities. Up in Dublin, The Global Forum is wrapping up. - Twitter @CorkDiscovery

Volunteer Dáithí stands in front of BuckministerFullerene Molecule

Irish Army's Impact Protection suit for bomb disposal

Techniquest's interactive demo of energy consumption differences

'Relax'... Let your Alpha and Theta waves moves the ball!

Sound wave Canon

'Make It Molecular' provided many large sculptural pieces

'How will you change the world?'

Make your own circuit, no soldering hassles.

Lead Pencil Studio – Empty Billboard

2010-11-03T15:06:00.003Z

This is so beautiful on every level: crafted, smart, mysterious and monumental. Lying on the US-Canadian border, this is high-art publicly funded(!?) Lead Pencil's Daniel Mihalyo explains:

Borrowing the effectiveness of billboards to redirect attention away from the landscape... this permanently open aperture between nations works to frame nothing more than a clear view of the changing atmospheric conditions beyond.

Via Suzanna Labarre at Co. Design

Halloween – New England

2010-10-31T23:51:00.001Z

Spider webs

Sedate selection

Back garden extravagnaza, Salem

Actual original "witches" house in Salem town.

Cosmetic's Store adds glitz

For sure

Same Room – Oh So Different Room

2010-10-16T00:56:00.002+01:00

New York Times Interactive piece here. Fascinating how people live so differently with the same starting point. Photography by Corine Vermeulen.
Via G.

Sunflowers a No-Go

2010-10-15T13:01:00.000+01:00

Oops. Too much fun was being had by visitors to the Ai Wei Wei exhibition. (See entry below). The dust was deemed unhealthy. When I was there, people were really gouging into the 100million seeds. Pity though. It's off limits now. So much for interactive art for the masses.
Guardian article here.

Ai Wei Wei - Sunflower

2010-10-11T17:48:00.004+01:00

"I always think art is a tool to set up new questions"

'Sunflowers' officially opens today in the turbine hall, Tate Modern. I loved the simplicity. You can just hang out on the millions of porcelain hand-made sunflower seeds, make angels, play with the seeds, watch the world go by... The documentary is worth seeing - Chinese production in a small traditional town with long heritage of hand crafted ceramics. Sunflowers are symbols of the chinese during the Cultural Revolution, Mao was the sun.

Article on ME magazine

Julie Gough – Time and Space and Memory

2010-10-02T00:19:00.000+01:00

At the moment she's in Ireland researching her roots and no doubt making something... Here are some images from Tasmania

Cork Culture Night 2010

2010-09-26T17:03:00.001+01:00

The whole city threw open its doors. Artists' studios, churches, archives, city hall, galleries, even the synagogue. I guess it was Ireland's version of the White Night, but not for the whole night. So I took myself and my push bike across one side of town and dropped into a few places.

Festivities on the River Lee to kick off Culture Night

Billy Foley explains his paintings, in The Cork Artist's Collective

Figuring out Julie Gough's work in The National Sculpture Factory

Sean McCarty (Sculptor), Happy Man, Miriam (my art teacher from back in the day) and Eilís O'Connell (Sculptor)

Rory Tangney's work in progress sketches in The Golden Section Studios

Helena O'Donnell's space in The Golden Section Studio

Trad session in Sin É.

USA - Ways of Getting Around

2010-09-25T20:20:00.002+01:00

Hang on: did you see Rodin's Thinker tucked away behind the jews? What's he doing??

New England Houses

2010-09-18T22:04:00.001+01:00

It's been pretty quiet on this blog lately. No doubt about it. I've been Stateside catching up with family. So in that spirit of homes from home, here are a few little New England houses.

West Cork, Ireland – A Day Out

2010-08-14T22:08:00.000+01:00

Rasmus Engelhardt Gundersen – Alfabetisk

2010-08-13T18:04:00.001+01:00

I revisited Danish designer Rasmus Engelhardt the other week – (I know him from the MA in London College of Communication, where he was one of those with a sensitive typographic touch and unassuming manner). His work is grounded in a strong sense of playful modernity and rich heritage, which when applied to a museum environment or a city such as London, works wonderfully.

www.alfabetisk.dk

Richard Florida – Who's Your City?

2010-07-20T15:59:00.002+01:00

I really did say to myself in 2004 " It doesn't matter where I do my MA, it's more about what I do and what I want from it". Well, ahem, I discovered that I got that so wrong. It did matter, and it does matter where I live. A friend of mine, who was also on that course was fascinated by how the city environment affects us, and did an amazing project on psychogeography. Anyhows, I also realise the power of place when I check out the hits to one of my sites and see that there's something about California, Texas and New York that seems to return to it. I like the Monocle 'Top 25 Most Liveable Cities', because I like the magazine. So, when I came across this book I immediately ordered it:

It’s a mantra of the age of globalization that where you live doesn’t matter ... According to Richard Florida, this is wrong. Place is not only important, it’s more important than ever... Globalization is not flattening the world; on the contrary, the world is spiky. Place is becoming more relevant to the global economy and our individual lives. The choice of where to live, therefore, is not an arbitrary one. It is arguably the most important decision we make, as important as choosing a spouse or a career. In fact, place exerts powerful influence over the jobs and careers we have access to, the people meet and our “mating markets” and our ability to lead happy and fulfilled lives.

On his creative class website, are interesting data maps and a nice questionnaire to help you compare your own choice of top cities. Below, a global map of innovation locations, and personality areas in the States.

KHUAN + KTRON – Weekend Knack Magazine

2010-07-20T15:29:00.000+01:00

By Khuan + Ktron
Via Grainedit

Hans Rosling - Population Growth

2010-07-12T18:54:00.001+01:00

When I learnt about the arithmetric involved in population growth, I was gobsmacked. It seemed like there was no hope for the world to sustain itself once the global headcount would inevitably double. Hans Rosling offers a pragmatic solution, one that involves a positive approach to human welfare.
Via TED

The Professional Walker

2010-06-30T00:57:00.001+01:00

My Dad spent his working life walking farms, talking to farmers, looking at the land. For many years he was part of the Irish State's project to divide common lands amoung locals, and once that was done he helped oversee grant allocations from the EU. Despite being part of bureacracies, at the core of what he did best was to walk, look, listen and interact with land and the people on it. I think that's amazing, don't you agree Richard Long?

Matthias Heiderich – Colour Berlin

2010-06-13T00:15:00.003+01:00

Behance
via grainedit

RSA Animate - The Secret Powers of Time

2010-06-08T18:41:00.003+01:00

Professor Philip Zimbardo conveys how our individual perspectives of time affect our work, health and well-being. Time influences who we are as a person, how we view relationships and how we act in the world.
Lots more of these videos here. Super engrossing.

And, following up from a recent post about mirror neurons and the scientific validity of empathy, here is an appropriate video from the series expanding on this. It is based on a lecture by Jeremy Rifkin.

Life Remembered – The Vicon Revue

2010-05-23T18:43:00.003+01:00

This gadget is pretty interesting. It just sits around your neck and takes photos all by itself. Either on timer or in response to sensing things happening by changes of location, heat, movement and more. There is no screen or viewfinder. It costs £500 ex VAT. Why?? Well, for people with Alzheimers who want to remember events in their lives. But also for research and arty stuff.

Developed by Microsoft Research Cambridge, via Infostethics ... Reminds me of Jean Luc Godard's latest flick 'Film Socialisme'. The trailer makes my mind spin.

Ramachandran – What you see is what you feel

2010-05-09T22:05:00.002+01:00

Alex Ostrowski – Look Up

2010-04-29T17:21:00.003+01:00

www.alexostrowski.com

A Daily Practice

2010-04-22T22:11:00.015+01:00

Google: 'a drawing a day' and you'll come to the site of Lauren Nassef. Beautiful drawings, the kind that people look at and decide they want to be able to draw too. Like watching Whitney back in the day and deciding you'll be a singer. That kind of amazingness of technique and pizz-azz.

So what else comes up online under daily sketching? Well, not as as many swirly notes (but let me know what you find). The exhaustive A Drawing a Day has been going like clockwork since 2004 and is mind boggling for its tenacity. A professional illustrator's blog, with countless faces drawn on the subway, is impressive for its doggedness. Photographer Thomas Hawk is aiming to take a million photos. The image below is from his $2 Portraits project.

Where does daily discipline end and OCD begin?

Stephen Gardner – Niagara Falls

2010-04-22T21:38:00.004+01:00

Tripping across the site Urban Sketchers, I spotted a beautiful pair of sketches of that legendary Canadian destination by Brooklyn illustrator Stephen Gardner (who has a serious habit of sketching). Niagara: So many stories! So many visits! I always imagine kids screaming in the back seat on the long drive flinging ice-cream at each other. The documented memory is more often held onto while the grisly reality forgotten.

A Ransacked Country House - Co. Tipperary

2010-04-10T20:36:00.007+01:00

A distant relative had lived here for 86 years before reluctantly giving into the nursing home. Sure enough the property has been continuously raided by burglars (my parents use a different word). It's so sad to see a grand house crumble; a life plundered. Check out David Creedon's shots of similar houses around Ireland.

Baedeker – the first travel guides?

2010-04-10T18:58:00.000+01:00

Victorian era guides by Karl Baedeker were characterised by their famous red covers. Exquisite maps and intense details for the discerning tourist.

Prior to World War I, Baedeker's guides were famous enough that baedekering became an English-language term for the process of travelling a country for the purpose of writing a travel guide or travelogue about it (Wiki)

Map Envelope

2010-04-09T23:52:00.003+01:00

Remember that great idea for a google maps envelope from Beste Miray? Well I'm delighted to see a site built around that very idea – you can now generate your own map envelope by simply inputting any location that google maps generates, and a template is generated for you to make your own li'l envelope. Now isn't that very neat?! Check out mapenvelope.com, built by tweevio.

Transport China Part V – Stationary

2010-04-06T10:28:00.000+01:00

Daniel Kahneman - The riddle of experience vs. memory

2010-04-06T00:07:00.002+01:00

Video on TED.com

Jody Barton – Illustrations

2010-03-27T23:42:00.007Z

Strangely pleasing, witty, to the point, poetic...
Main website
Blog

Transport China Part IV – Four Wheeling

2010-03-26T12:00:00.000Z

Mary Oliver – The Journey

2010-03-23T00:27:00.001Z

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late enough,
and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world, determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.

Via The Art of Non-Conformity

Transport China Part III – Walking

2010-03-16T23:20:00.000Z

Lehel Kovács – Google Street View Illustrations

2010-03-14T17:39:00.003Z

Full A-Z Flickr Album
Via Coolhunter

How to Feed the World?

2010-03-12T18:25:00.001Z

How to feed the world ? from Denis van Waerebeke on Vimeo.

Via Infosthetics

Transport China Part II – Two Wheeling

2010-03-11T20:18:00.000Z

Cautious Cartography - Keep Out of Ireland!

2010-03-07T22:36:00.001Z

Problem: it's WW2 and countries are being invaded left right and centre. Cause: over-zealous nationalistic bragging. Solution: a map showing your country as the most smelly, disease ridden and toxic as possible. Worth reading the background to this at Strangemaps

Sven Völkner – Go faster

2010-03-06T17:42:00.007Z

Fascinating new book merging history, car and graphic design.

On Gestalten

Via Grainedit

Blog title

2010-03-05T00:17:00.001Z

Original is best.

Holiday in Portugal

2010-03-04T21:11:00.000Z

Some sketches from the little moleskine copy book I had with me on an easy-going holiday last year. I decided that I would take the "slow-travel" approach and do less, i.e. not take hundreds of photos.

Transport China Part I – Three Wheeling

2010-03-02T21:50:00.000Z

Introducing a series on how people get around, or don't, in China from my visit there... Shanghai, Beijing and the Yunnan province.

Goodbye "Hardback Henid" – Hello "Life's a Journey"

2010-02-28T11:38:00.000Z

What the hell did it mean anyway? A Henid is "an unclarified, sub-conscious "feeling". A vague, unformed, foggy or confused idea. A disorganized, undifferentiated thought. A proto-thought". It was coined by Otto Weininger. More here. . For me, it's like the tip-of-the-tongue syndrome, or the way we all have lots of ideas but they are unformed. This was the perfect approach to begin a blog, like a kind of sketchbook of unformed ideas and links. "Hardback" was the organised covering.

Over time, this blog has grown to be more of a definite idea, not too tight or defined, but nevertheless, it does have a theme that I'm interested in, and which I'd like to explore more. "Life's a Journey" is a simple name. This blog is now a mix of links I find and personal stuff around the topic of literal and personal journeys. I'm mainly interested in the representation of places, travel, memories and change. We can move through time and life in so many different ways. The idea is still very sketchy, but I hope to use this space to keep up the sketchbook on that topic, so to speak.

A train journey from then and now.

2010-02-27T20:58:00.006Z

I came across this sketch of mine the other day, from when I existed in the nineties. I had recently discovered this thing called "Photoshop Layers' and was still enthusiastic about my new scanner. Alas, since it didn't have a USB port, it has been consigned a death.

So anyway, loving trains and all as I do, when I came back to Ireland recently, I was amused at the new reservation system on Irish Rail. They put your name about the seat, just so that stalker can get a head start. Or, more realistically, if feeling an existential malaise and ask "who am I?", the answer is a foot above your skull.

Travel Posters

2010-02-27T20:44:00.003Z

Via BibliOdyssey

Alice Guillier - Pop-ups

2010-02-27T19:42:00.004Z

via heystudio

Nerd – Maths Dance

2010-02-25T13:53:00.004Z

This has brightened up my otherwise frustrated day. Ah the joys of being both a nerd and an enthusiastic dancer. My friends will tell you that as a "youngster" (and not-so-young), I like to do the ol' improvised routine based on themes such as basketball, shopping, DIY etc. Gladly, these children's-presenter discotheque moves have been out done by one American youth, Amelia Downs, but a fan of maths. And dance. Scatter! Scatter!

Via infosthetics

Julie Michel - My Way

2010-02-23T18:02:00.004Z

Before I first moved to London, I went to my local library and photocopied all the pages of the area around where I would go to college, and taped them all together into a kind of monster wall hanging. Fluorescent filled areas for parks and bits of interest, and village areas ringed. Staring at the areas and getting familiar with the names was essential for beginning the trawl through rental adverts. So when I came across these maps from Julie Michel, it all came back to me. the personalisation of an area to visit with stickers and interventions. She has found some neat ways of folding the maps too.... so check out the rest of the site as well.

Nendo – Minimal Globe

2010-02-14T20:32:00.002Z

via M.E magazine

www.nendo.jp

Beste Miray Dogan — Mapenvelop

2010-02-08T22:35:00.006Z

Oh I do love an indexhibit site. I do I do. There's always something wonderful to discover in a template place, that is filled lovingly. So, via something called 'radar' in tumblr, I stumbled onto this beautiful and witty envelope. Neat idea!

Beste Miray Dogan

Remed Art

2010-02-06T18:36:00.009Z

Happy murals
Remed Art on flickr another one via Grainedit

Live Now – A community of happiness

2010-02-06T18:12:00.006Z

www.welivenow.org via grainedit

Irishships.com

2010-02-01T18:58:00.006Z

Those guys sure were adventurers. Thanks to J for this link: it's a beauty.

Cork Docklands

2010-01-31T21:09:00.005Z

The docklands of Cork are so beautiful. The day I took a walk around was eerie under a heavy fog. A while later I came across this book which anticipates a redevelopment of the whole area. Happily, two years later, nothing has changed.

Getting to a good place – changing the world.

2010-01-27T17:13:00.004Z

Came across some good titles today that make sense. Seth Godin's Linchpin and Hugh MacLeod's Ignore Everybody. Here is the bones of the latter:

1. Ignore everybody.

2. The idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be yours.

3. Put the hours in.

4. If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being “discovered” by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.

5. You are responsible for your own experience.

6. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.

7. Keep your day job.

8. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.

9. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.

10. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.

11. Don’t try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.

12. If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.

13. Never compare your inside with somebody else’s outside.

14. Dying young is overrated.

15. The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not.

16. The world is changing.

17. Merit can be bought. Passion can’t.

18. Avoid the Watercooler Gang.

19. Sing in your own voice.

20. The choice of media is irrelevant.

21. Selling out is harder than it looks.

22. Nobody cares. Do it for yourself.

23. Worrying about “Commercial vs. Artistic” is a complete waste of time.

24. Don’t worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually.

25. You have to find your own schtick.

26. Write from the heart.

27. The best way to get approval is not to need it.

28. Power is never given. Power is taken.

29. Whatever choice you make, The Devil gets his due eventually.

30. The hardest part of being creative is getting used to it.

32. Allow your work to age with you.

33. Being Poor Sucks.

34. Beware of turning hobbies into jobs.

35. Savor obscurity while it lasts.

36. Start blogging.

37. Meaning Scales, People Don’t.

37. When your dreams become reality, they are no longer your dreams.

Emotionally}Vague in Porto

2010-01-13T17:15:00.010Z

A portion of my Emotionally}Vague project is currently on show in Porto until the end of March. The Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, in collaboration with the Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis, exhibits on the theme of Darwinism and emotions. There's an interestingly wide ranging mix of antique and contemporary work, with floating brains and neuroscans included. I'm dead chuffed that E}V is making an appearance at such a large scale in an elegant venue. Alas, I couldn't be there for the artwork installation or opening night. One must let go... If anyone does pop along, let me know what you think.

www.emotionallyvague.com

On Raisins and Chocolate

2010-01-12T14:41:00.005Z

Yesterday evening I tried an experiment whilst sitting in front of the fire. If you didn't know what I was doing, you would be excused in thinking there was a complete basket case in front of you. A raisin sat on the palm of the hand, each crease and line and wrinkle studied carefully. It was then placed between thumb and index finger and squashed and rolled a little. It was then smelled very carefully and was surprisingly similar to fresh tobacco. Finally, after rolling it around inside the mouth, it was tasted and eventually swallowed. This was 'mindfulness eating', and is a kind of meditation of sorts. I can tell you that raisins are much tastier than I previously thought. The process is time consuming, but revealing. I'd like to call this diet the 'M-Diet', you can eat anything at all, as long as you go through the whole procedure of each sense, tasting each bite as if it were the last. It's a tough one. This is a lovely little booklet showing a willy-wonka-esque chocolate bar being eaten.

www.carmenvela.com

Frost

2010-01-08T19:41:00.003Z

Cork was hit badly by apocalyptic floods earlier this year, but has been spared of the snowy chaos across Ireland and Europe. Here is more like a deep coating of crystals; a special effects extravaganza, slightly manufactured like a christmas card. Coming back from the dentist this morning, I couldn't help stop and painfully extract the camera every other minute.

Hint.fm

2010-01-07T18:41:00.004Z

Fernanda Viegas and Martin Wattenberg

http://hint.fm/

Perception and Truth

2010-01-06T16:22:00.002Z

On the New Year's retreat, the Buddhists discussed the relationship between perception, appearances and reality. How real is real? And so on. How does this impact on everyday life and statistics? We've all heard the "lies, lies and statistics" phrase, but how exactly can our perceptions, or apparently objective data be skewed in that way? Below is a great presentation by Alex Lundry on politics and data visualisation linked from information aesthetics.

New Year Retreat

2010-01-05T17:26:00.006Z

All is now revealed: it is I! The girl by the cliff in her woolie-wacky hat. Breaking with the conventions of this humble blog, I introduce an element of biography. New Year's Eve 09/10 was spent in West Cork with my two sisters, on a buddhist retreat in Dzogchen Beara. This is built in a truly spectacular location. The days running up to the turn of the calendar were windy, rainy and muddy... the one hundred or so participants gathered into a room with an unobscured sea view to the south east. Reflecting on the year past and to come, we stayed in the shrine room for a movie and banquet till midnight. A blue moon eclipse marked the night. A blazing and clear sunrise was waiting for us the next morning, to the collective delight of all.

So here are my wishes to all of you for a very peaceful, joyous, present and abundant 2010. I have changed my circumstances lately, and am looking forward to new ideas, new experiences and new appreciations for all the gifts of life already given. May your today be bright, and the next and the next.

Katy Scott - Travelogues

2009-12-28T00:18:00.006Z

"Her idea was to allow the natural landscape, the weather, and the movement of tide to determine the path to take, and along the way, she took a diary recording what she saw, drew maps and also collected small items washed up along the banks. Katy also produced a 'zine with a synopsis of the the story to which she attached a walk 'souvenir'." Via MeDesignMag
Katy Scott's SIte Her Blog

Web Typography and HTML5

2009-12-25T00:37:00.002Z

"For a Beautiful Web"
HTML5 Showcase
Sushi Monstr

The xx

2009-12-23T18:35:00.004Z

The xx "Basic Space" from Jean Hürxkens on Vimeo.

The xx

Le Cool – London

2009-12-23T18:28:00.002Z

le cool guides – london

Debbie Godsell

2009-12-23T18:17:00.005Z

debbiegodsell.com

AFOM

2009-12-23T18:08:00.007Z

afom.com.au

NASA Workspaces

2009-11-16T20:47:00.004Z

From the 'GRIN' (Great Images in NASA) image collection.

The Workspace

2009-11-16T16:23:00.007Z

A new exhibition in the Photofusion gallery, Brixton features work by Richard Nicholsen. In the transition to digital photography, the professional darkroom is a dying and disappearing space. These beautifully captured mechanics of the darkroom initially drew me in, but then also the ordered sense of continued use and metallic, analogue sheen of production.

The current issue of Cabinet, themed 'Dust' features Perry Ogden's by now famous images of Francis Bacon's catatrophic looking studio in 7 Reece Mews. It is particularly iconic, as no-one can understand how he managed to do anything in here at all. I love images of workspaces, and recent years have seen a fascination with voyeuristic images of 'other people's desks'. Like this, this, and well, you know the kind.... Chaos, on one hand suggests that crazy lateral madness of original thinking, but on the other, it reveals frenzied dis-organisation and a lack of meta-aesthetic skills. I just made up that term, but think 'systems', think 'strategic thinking'. Naturally, when we work in the digital realm, out contact with the tools is mediated by the technology. So it's is not possible to compare lush, tactile work spaces to what we now take as quotidien like the ever evolving mac interface.

What is considered normal and utilitarian, becomes fetishised when obsolete. Nostalgia is a cosy hot water bottle. But to what extent is tactility as an index of work patterns and human processes part of this nostalgia to creative times past? Will we look back on mac/pc interfaces with the same cosy perspectives?

On blogging

2009-11-10T12:02:00.005Z

There are blogs and there are blogs. How many blogs are there? Of course we can't really know because there is no way of counting accurately. When asking Google to respond, it linked me to this article in the blogherald from last year which gave an out-dated number of 112.8million not including the 72.82million at least in China. I can only surmise that the vast majority of these blogs have readership levels approximate to my own. (I'm speaking to myself here!) On the other hand, there is popularity: in the range of 500,000+ readers, e.g Zen Habits. That's more than the 327,937 daily sold circulation of the Guardian. I've done a quick search to find the established list of 'Most Read Blogs in the World 2009' but there is no list I can find so far. (Anyone know?). It's a fascinating idea of course, that something so personal and immediate can, by dint of simple 'word-of-links' and consistent quality entries build to what is equivalent to a national paper.

For the rest of us however, we can be happy to use our blogettes for purposes more humble and utilitarian. The students I work with in LCC have started their own and some of them have already built up a series of great entries which has set me thinking about my own. How can I make the most use of this space? What does it do for me? What do I say? For me, it's about finding a voice by building a series of tagged and articulated 'thoughts' (entries). It's a way of remembering out loud... of not just liking or bookmarking something, but committing it to one's own space. I'm guessing here, but maybe blogs are the contemporary version of songs, jokes, doodles, photo albums and letter-writing. We don't have that direct contact with family/friends/colleagues and community as before, but we are of course the same creatures. We can get to know ourselves and each other in different ways now, and maybe blogs are one of them?

Karen O'Leary – Handcut Maps

2009-11-05T22:59:00.007Z

Completely and meticulously cut by hand, she has also done a Paris and London versions.
via infosthetics

Johnathan Harris – World Building Manifesto

2009-11-03T13:54:00.010Z

Life/work can be lonely, a struggle, and very confusing at times. But then someone comes along and in their own way they speak a truth that inspires and resonates. You realise that many others battle with similar issues but some have verbalised it eloquently. Take a read of this presentation given last week. Thanks Mr. Harris.

Charles Bukowski – The Aliens

2009-11-02T14:03:00.001Z

you may not believe it
but there are people
who go through life with
very little
friction or
distress.
they dress well, eat
well, sleep well.
they are contented with
their family
life.
they have moments of
grief
but all in all
they are undisturbed
and often feel
very good.
and when they die
it is an easy
death, usually in their
sleep.
you may not believe
it
but such people do
exist.
but I am not one of
them.
oh no, I am not one
of them,
I am not even near
to being
one of
them
but they are
there
and I am
here.

Roxane Borujerdi

2009-11-01T11:05:00.006Z

website featuring work from current exhibition in covent garden, via lecool

What do we do?

2009-10-28T17:18:00.004Z

via damnintellectuals

Sleeeep!

2009-09-23T10:22:00.003+01:00

Christoph Niemann's NY Times Blog

Tom Messenger

2009-09-20T16:59:00.004+01:00

http://www.tommessenger.com/
via grainedit

500 Pencils

2009-09-16T21:58:00.005+01:00

Felissimo has designed this range of pencils for social designer. Each one is named individually. You can't buy the whole 500 in one go: but over 20 months. Like my old Quest magazines, or your favourite subscription magazines.... well, kind of.

via designboom

Watermarks Project

2009-09-16T21:42:00.006+01:00

Sea levels are rising due to climate change… this was a public project in Bristol earlier this year that visualised the projected rise of sea levels onto buildings across the city. It's a grand sweep of a statement that brings reality to those otherwise abstract numbers. The difference between scientists' prediction of future water level rises will be taken into account when the project moves to other cities in the UK.

David Bowen - Drawing growth

2009-08-17T18:01:00.004+01:00

This guy is the best one in the life-drawing class! He's made a machine that consists of a plant, a scanning device and an inkjet printer, all mounted onto a long paper sheet on a wall. Every day, the machine 'sees' the plant and prints out the silhoette, then moves four inches along, awaiting the next day's growth. Can I adopt a little kitten and attach it to the device??? Watch the movie here. via infothestics.

Ten Thousand Cent

2009-08-12T17:52:00.003+01:00

A collaboration between Aaron Koblin and Takashi Kawashima

Ten Thousand Cents from Ten Thousand Cents on Vimeo.

Rainbows and Moonbows

2009-08-10T14:28:00.005+01:00

This illuminating capture is from NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day. Just as rainbows are lit by the sun, moonbows are lit by the moon...

David Klein Travel Posters

2009-08-07T11:59:00.003+01:00

David Klein's TWA travel posters are classics. The New York one can be found in MOMA. Check out the full site of his work >

Via Grain Edit

Vincent Fournier

2009-08-06T09:54:00.006+01:00

"The work of Vincent Fournier is offering a journey in some 20th century utopianism. Fro the global village (Tour Operator), to the space oddyssey (Space Project) and more recently to the underworld project, his photos are allegories and criticism for our dream of a science fiction utopia". I find these images exciting; the space and breadth, quality of composure, light nad hyper real-fantasy seem to spark something off... and reading the rationale, I come to see that the vision of perfection of tourism and space exploration is strangely closely entwined. Other worlds and dreams of new territories mash themselves up between future and past, retro fictions of space. website>

Campaign for local food

2009-08-03T10:12:00.002+01:00

It's a common trend to campaign for local food produce. Eat British is pretty ubiquitous. The recent Blood, Sweat and Takeaways on BBC shed a different light, one where the value of our imports to low-cost producers in countries like Thailand and Indonesia is all too real. It's a topic far more complex than jingoistic slogans may appear to present. This video from Crush is such an example, but done convincingly. For me, the endorsement by Unilever and Hellmann's packs a sharp needly punch right at the end.

Hellmann’s - It’s Time for Real from CRUSH on Vimeo.

Cargo Collective

2009-07-30T16:11:00.004+01:00

Cargo is a web publishing (CMS) and community-building platform currently in development. It powers a variety of creative communities in the fields of Education, Design, Research, and Conceptual Art.

Snappy little typeface

2009-07-30T14:03:00.001+01:00

iQ font - When driving becomes writing / Full making of from wireless on Vimeo.

Ben Fry – All Streets

2009-07-08T16:24:00.006+01:00

Fry has mapped all of the streets in the lower 48 United States: an image of 26 million individual road segments. No other features (such as outlines or geographic features) have been added to this image, however they emerge as roads avoid mountains, and sparse areas convey low population.