Ben Neal's Blog

Lip-Sync Video Art

2009-11-26T23:43:00.006Z

I've been working with the rather loveley Caitlin Griffiths (artist) recently who is delving into the realms of Cuckooing once again. She is obviously quite mental as she's the practice coach for Birmingham Blitz Dames Roller Derby Team and doing a Masters and PhD at the same time. We've been working with George, who has Foreign Accent Syndrome. George is from East London. One day he had a stroke, and now he speaks a little like he's from Italy.

We've also had the pleasure of an old friend of Caitlin's, Martin Gooch, who has worked on loadsa good stuff. And directed Hollyoaks. He makes dodgy B-movies by the looks of things, and has made a selection of dirty films which apparently Christian Slater is resisting. He has a little site here which I like very much.

The project revolves around a lip-sync video based on 2 into 1 by artist Gillian Wearing. As seen below. I won't give much more away, as Caitlin may smash me into a barrier, but keep your eyes peeled for an exhibition around Birmingham in the not-too-distant-future showing the piece. I'm tipped it may be a Trove show curated by Charlie Levine.

In the meantime enjoy the original 2 into 1, which I do believe I still have on VHS myself somewhere, probably from when it was on TV as this version must have been. It's strangely troubling...

Twitter

2009-11-17T00:03:00.023Z

Twitter - I mean, really... They got the name right: it includes the word 'Twit'; inspires the word 'Twat'; and gives the impression - it's what timewasting old biddies do to comprise their day.

I get the impression that Twitterers are of the same ilk (but a differn't brand) of the folk who would watch Big Brother's 24hr footage while everyone is sleeping... with one major difference - they're not interested in others sleeping, just themselves.

Why I would want to know this???

"Just woke up from a bomb ass nap...lol.."
"Just woke up, still sleepy. "
"Jus woke up from a good nap on my gramas couch."
"im tired! i woke up"
"I feel so proud of myself, woke up late by 30mins. Yet i can get ready in 10mins and leave home as scheduled."
"woke up from a terrible nap ... how lovely. "
"Did a very crazy thing yesterday. Woke up happy but scred this morning."
"iono ugh.i woke up this way doe"
"Just woke up from a nap. Yes, a nap. "
"just woke up from an all day nap, lol."
"It was good, I just woke up. "
"Dreamt that I woke up with a gap between my front teeth. I was wk"

And yes, they are all real 'Tweets'.

I know! I know!! Stephen Fry uses Twitter - so let's see what he has to say then:

"No. Yes. Mm. Agree completely. That fellow in the M&S advert does look amazingly like me. Astonishingly really."
- Stephen Fry on Twitter

Well fuck me.

Let's face it: if you can say it in 140 characters or less 14 times a day, it really can't be worth saying now can it?

http://twitter.com/misskatieprice - a twat (recommended Twitterer)

Jordan recently mentioned me in her Tweets here

Top free software I've been using a lot lateley

2009-10-31T23:52:00.012Z

Mostly it's for web design or audio/video so excuse my if it's all a little techy.

DONT WORRY! : I'll add in a few cheap jokes to keep the non-techy amongst you entertained.

General stuff:

OpenOffice
Better than Microsoft Office! You can create Office Docs with it, works with docx files (I've had to convert them online recently with docx-converter.com), it's crossplatform and more stable than the juddering old granny that is Word. Apart from a small confusion I had over where the hell the Page Setup bit was in the Word Processor (format>page which actually makes more sense) I've found it to be great!

Dropbox
Free 2GB of online datastorage (a virtual USB stick) - and works just like a folder on your machine, where you can copy stuff to - you can make it accessible to anyone online too (share photos, files etc). Charming little site, easy install, really useful!

Nero 9 - free version
I'm sick of vista fullstop and the annoying default dialogue wastes my CDROMs. Not actually used this Nero freeware, but Nero is always good. Statistically... 9 out of 10 people enjoy gang rape.

Creative stuff:

Pixlr
Online Image Editing - works just like Photoshop and it a bit more comfy than the other free Photoshop-but-not-actually-Photoshop freebie Gimp.

Blender
Full on 3D studio!!! Free!! Scary! Albino... You can't say fairer than that.

Aviary
Online audio editing! Really! Import, export, trim, fade, reverse. All your basic audio editing features online.

Virtual Dub
Digital video editor (AVI's no Quicktime though). Magic little toolkit for trimming and batch converting video files.

vvvv
Mindbendingly-powerful and totally intuitive AV programming environment. Once you learn it's little quirks you'll fall in love with it's beautiful interface and be building samplers, 3D worlds and videofx in no time.

Web designer stuff, noone else will be interested in:

Mozilla's - web developer plugin
Great little Add-on for Mozilla that does nifty jobs you'll use every day as a web designer to test pages. A man goes into a library and asks for a book on suicide. The librarian says; "Fuck off, you won't bring it back."

Xampp
Free install for servers - installs PHP, MySQL and Apache server in a click. Perfect! Saves all the hassle, easy to install and use - even comes with an Apache-ON/OFF control panel. I'm using it for testing out PHP parsing offline.

FileMenuTools
Little context menu tool for pc that gives you new options like quick advanced find and replace and folder syncronisation. Simple, but I find myself using it a lot.

Crimson Editor
Nice lil Notepad replacement source code editor for windows. Includes FTP. Why doesn't Viagra work on chavs? Cos they only get hard when they've got ten mates behind them.

Browsershots
Handy cross-platform browser compatibilty screenshot creator for Web Designers to check their pages dont go AWOL on the iPhone or OSX.

Filezilla
Great FTP client does the job well, no fuss. Connect to mutiple servers at once. My sister talks about sex online with people she doesn't know. She thinks ;)

Digital Picasso

2009-10-31T23:49:00.002Z

Just made this little fella at Mr Picasso Head. (www.mrpicassohead.com).

Or you could go all Jackson Pollock at www.jacksonpollock.org

Enjoy

Social networking for Creative People : Good? or Bad?

2009-10-06T00:30:00.013+01:00

Thanks to Elizabeth Short (of Crowd 6, Birmingham Blitz Derby Dames and, at the inspired Tea Stained) here's a few questions I answered for her on social networking for creative people... I'm also wondering if MySpace will threaten me, so it's a bit of an experiment... ;)

1. Please tell me a little about yourself. What you do (artistic practice or/and job) and where you do it.

I like to think of myself as an artist, although I spend most of my time helping others as a freelance multimedia specialist and teacher. Officially I’m a sole trader trading as Psicon Lab (www.PsiconLab.co.uk) and have been since 2004, although I’ve worked freelance since 2001 and been active in the midlands arts and music scene since 1998.

Commercially I supply services in art and design, multimedia and web, software and interactivity, education and events; usually for the arts, music industry, education and business. As an artist I work in a range of media (mostly digital) with a preference for live performance and draw a lot. I used to VJ (mix video clips live at clubs/events) and would love to be more involved in audio-visual performance.

2. Do you use social networking sites? If so which ones and why? (if not why?)

Recently I use them a lot. I have accounts on many, but mainly use Facebook. MySpace sends me into an intolerable rage at the log-in screen, as I dodge adverts, and it is a disaster of design and user-friendliness. It fails miserably to do the most basic task efficiently. Furthermore I am convinced that they sweep the Internet for any bad press said about them and try to destroy it – there MUST be a million complaints – but can you find any online?? I’ve looked for answers to a selection of problems and found nothing but cheery chit-chat. It is good for discovering great music though and contacting bands, labels and organisers. Given the choice I would remove myself from MySpace altogether if it wasn’t so popular and useful for music – it is THE worst website I have ever had to use, and I wish I never had to use it ever again.

Facebook on the other hand I have found to be an invaluable tool and have recently bought advertising on (ironically!) which is actually looking to pay off quickly – mainly due to a good system of targeted adverts and non-invasive display. What really sets Facebook apart though is the way you can manage the content – It has a selection of filters/lists/hiding options and privacy settings that you can use to set who sees what, and what I want to read, and when – essential tools which are vital for avoiding information overload, which MySpace lacks: contributing to the failing and pointless spam-fest it has become.

3. Do you use them for personal or as a creative practitioner for promotional use? (if not why?)

I use the sites to contact with friends and family and keep in touch with what’s going on – almost as an email replacement these days. I also have my bands on there, and groups and pages for my business. It is great for keeping in contact with people in an easy and social, and more personal way. People can also subscribe to RSS news feeds and keep up with what I’m doing/what my business is offering. I can also embed parts of it into other sites and people can help promote you with cute little tools like ‘liking’ it, tagging it, sharing it and other open communications.

I used to use Facebook exclusively for close friends and deny anyone else, but it’s become so widespread I see no point in fighting it. I also trust it to deal with changes and introduce new tools to deal with them – again as MySpace failed to do.

I do feel it is very important to treat yourself and your business as separate things though – this is a traditional business model which is actually challenged by modern thinking that ‘personal’ business blogs and networking are great for business – which they can be. The key thing I feel is choice – you may just want to buy a sandwich from the shop and not speak to the woman behind the counter, or you may want to chat and eventually become friends, but business and personal life should be 2 distinct roles, even if they do over-lap and cross-filter. Some people care about you being a person, and others just want a job done. Some people want to know what Beyonce had for breakfast, others just want to hear the song. But either way I feel creative people should communicate with each other and find new audiences, and this type of networking encourages relevant people to discover you.

4. How do you feel that they help promote you as a creative practitioner? (If at all).

They make you accessible in terms of seeing what you do, but also in terms of being to communicate with you directly – it used to be the case that people used managers and agents as middle men, now you don’t need to. Also everyone is into it and online networking sites are like an interactive directory - and you’ve got a better chance of getting business in and meeting people if your on there. Another gripe with MySpace here – the search was always completely useless – imagine if you got the Yellow Pages and it didn’t actually tell you page the plumbers were on, so you just had to stumble through it trying to find one..!

5. How do you feel about social networking sites and the use of them to promote creative practitioners?

I think MySpace did wonders for musicians and has been the source of many of my contacts on there in the industry. My music videos get plenty of play on YouTube too and have had viewers reaching into the hundred thousands, which would never have happened without major TV coverage any other way. I think artists should definitely be using them – everyone else is, why exclude yourself? I do feel that artists are cautious though – because they care about how their work is displayed and to who – but Facebook’s privacy settings actually give you control over this – person by person – you can even preview your own profile from someone else’s view just to check what’s being seen. Comments and criticisms are much more likely to be problematic but can open up debate which surely is what it’s all about anyway? Again, I think control is needed – my YouTube videos get occasional idiots leaving non-sensical or stupid comments – I delete them.

6. Do you feel that online social networking sites have community focus?

Yes, of course! That’s what it’s all about.

7. Do you think that online social networking sites will replace the use of flyers for events?

No. Online is one thing and real world another. But, I do think that ‘perishable media’ (ie, stuff that’s only needed or relevant to a specific time, or that goes out of date quickly) is better suited to the web. Better for the environment too! Flyers – as little card leaflets - may die out I suppose, but there will be some other offline promotional stuff instead.

8. As you are based in the West Midlands how do you feel that artist-led groups within the Midlands promote themselves to those within and outside the region?

Not sure quite what your getting at here, but I hope they are keeping up with things and doing everything that they can to make themselves known and progress – in fact, with networking sites they should be actively seeking to bring-in people from outside the region – it’s just too easy to reach the right people now. One of the best things about networking online is that I get fed a massive amount of events that I’m interested in attending – I’m almost spoilt for choice, I even have them fed straight into my online calendar, so am never out of touch.

Again Facebook, blogs and RSS feeds keeps me in touch. It’s actually been very valuable - as I’ve missed shows before - they just forgot to tell me about it, or I never saw a flyer or listing, if I'd have known I would have turned up.

A Feast of Meat

2009-09-26T23:18:00.007+01:00

Screamed my balls off at the debut gig of the newly born musical beast that is Meat Feast at The Gifford Arms in Wolverhampton, which turned out to be a cute little rock venue complete with gothic red curtains, satanic insignia and even The Chair of Doom. We played alongside Faith No More tribute (The weirdly titled) Faith No Man.

Drummer uITgs Thetroll in 'The Chair of Doom' - Gifford Arms

If you were unaware, before I did a disappearing act, I was playing bass in Brummy experimental metal band Jazz Thrash Assassin (newly renamed Meat Feast) and to cut a long story short, while I was away they fired screamer Splakoph (now in Contorted Hazel) and shortly after, screaming keyboard player Anna Krusis left. So guess who's filling in?? Yep... dickhead here.

Not only am I spitting blood and grunting, I'm trying to sort out some keyboard parts by sequencing them using a laptop. The screaming is going well, but the keyboard and samples etc are not, as of yet. We've tried click tracks, but as of yet have not found a good way to get the parts back in...

We're playing some of the old stuff with a few new twists, and some new. We have also been joined by The Baron (also in Viking Metal band Haerken) on 2nd guitar and of course Adam (my replacement bass player) is still with us. We have a dirty new website here and are looking to play some serious gigs in the Midlands between now and Christmas. Next on the calendar is what has been dubbed A Secret Backroom Butchery on our MySpace - it's actually a triple 30th Birthday party at which we intend to go a little mental. Also DJing at the event will be ex-JB's (Dudley) DJ (and ex-Wasted Race drummer) Jimmy Darko and Paul from TeeT Shirts who it turns out has incredible taste in hilariously cheesy electro - such as Chromeo. Apparently they do all their interviews through a vocoder! Magic... Enjoy.

Haerken play the Black Horse in Aston, Birmingham on the 16th of October.

Licking the floor - Kira O'Reilly - performance excerpt

2009-09-25T15:04:00.011+01:00

A while back I went to VIVID to see performance art by William Hunt and Kira O’Reilly.

Just found this little bit of video from Kira's performance on the VIVID YouTube channel.

Read my original post here.

VIVID also have some great stuff ogin on at present the next of which is a focus on The Act of Drawing containing works by Stuart Brisley and Valie Export, among others.

The Act of Drawing runs Thurs 01 Oct - Sat 31 Oct 2009, open Thu-Sat, 12-5 PM, admission FREE, Launch event Wed 30 Sep from 6-8 PM.

Drawings (9)

2009-09-16T16:33:00.002+01:00

Some lovable chaps and chapesses from the sketchbook...

Blah (The Redux of Redux)

2009-09-03T00:16:00.015+01:00

Hmmm.... I'm finding it hard to blog right now (full stop), as my wireless router doesn't seem to want to know my computer... but that's enough of excuses... and poetry...

On Phones...
After a row with phone company 3 (who assured me that I could 'freeze' my account (and pay nothing) while I was abroad until I came back - I found out (when I called them at Heathrow airport) that their staff lied to me (and that I would be paying line rental until I returned) and that 'freezing an account is impossible'. I cancelled my account and switched to 02 (pay as you go) who have since given me 50 free digital photos courtesy of Snapfish and some other goodies... Fuck 3, I say, whose staff are obviously incompetent lying idiots.

Receive random automated phone calls for crap you don't want? My house is attacked every day by an immense number of stupid calls by random recorded messages. Opt out of them here, at the Telephone Preference Service.

On Music...
I am loving Sigur Ros at the moment with occasional bouts of Radiohead, The Cardigans, Carcass, Type O Negative, System of a Down (who I recently discovered) and P.J. Harvey.

The Cardigans are curious. A lot of people don't 'get' them. The Cardigans entertain me endlessly because their songs seem so sickly sweet and still manage to contain the occassional subversive lyric that undermines the whole meaning - swiftly changing what is so painfully nice to... eek.. an abusive relationship. I am having difficultly finding a good example, but can't help the feeling that they are intrinsically cynical and their lyrics are sly, clever, little pins under your skin. What I like more is the disgust with which most people puke at them!

Type O Negative are genius! I had always suspected that their second album "Origin of the Feces" was never really a live album - but I found out yesterday, when Roadrunner gave them the cash to make it, they went out and spent it all on cheap vodka, then recorded it in the drummers basement and added in crowd noises after, including a fake police bombscare in the middle of the set. Genius... and completely hilarious. Here's some negativity for you:

Recent Drawings (8)

2009-08-07T08:49:00.001+01:00

Drawings (7)

2009-08-01T14:50:00.010+01:00

These are pretty old now, possibly 10 years in fact, but I just found them on my computer. I'm desparate to actually get some of my drawings shown soon, as I seem to have half a forests-worth of them spread across the house. If you can help me out in exhibiting them, want to use them or want to own any please get in touch!

Tori Amos suckling a pig from the Boys for Pele album inlay.

Played a live Gabba Techno set at Kidderminster College years ago with Adam 'Funkagenda' Walder and used some great samples from Roald Dahl audio books, one which said "And Now for the Monkeys!".

Madonna just got home apparently..

Artwork for a comic made with Dexstah of Dexstah & Babs fame, back in collage.

Many moons ago I ran a night in Stourbridge called Breadfan with Ad Walder. This is an illustration for the flyer. Can't remember if we used it - I don't think we did, but I kinda like the fork stabbing anyway. Oh - we toasted bread behind the DJ booth by the way and threw it into the crowd... fun times.

Journeys by Swarming Pattern

2009-07-22T16:58:00.011+01:00

Kim Rugg - a solitary red balloon drifting skywards

I recently got to quickly visit The City Gallery in Leicester for the Pattern Recognition show, which turned out to be a good oportunity to see works by Bridget Riley, Victor Vasarely and Roy Lichtenstein, among other more contemporary works. I've never been there before and was pleased to have found the place - the gallery is extremely well curated with a well balanced selection of work. I would have left a little note in their comments box saying how much I'd liked it but couldn't find a pen...

Among the posters and prints there was a nice interactive piece, by Boredomresearch called Ornamental Bug Garden, made up of small elements with different behaviours, such as jumping and spinning. It was kind of like an animated painting. Another inspiring piece was by Kim Rugg in which she'd cut out every letter from a Newspaper cover and placed it back, but with each letter now in alphabetical order, and even cut the images into 'pixels' and re-arranged them piece by piece. It made me consider the automation and sorting done by computer programs or the garbled info you get when they crash. What I liked was the fact that it made evident the 'components' of the text - the number of e's used, which letters were bold, etc. and that it was a task usually done by computers but meticulously done by hand. Strangely the essence of what was written was somehow carried through the other design elements despite the disruption of the text.. Genius.

I'm sad I can't go to this years Supersonic Festival, but I can't really afford it right now. Damn all you lucky people who will be spending 3 days listening to some of the world's best new music! But...

As part of the festival Capsule have collaborated with Germination and Fierce! to produce a treat for travellers at Birmingham's Moor Street Station. There Are No Others, There Is Only Us is a video installation of "an aerial dance of half a million swarming birds" by Marc Silver, with music by Ben Frost (who's worked with Bjork among others).

It opens this friday and I'm off to lend a hand tomorrow with it's installation - it may be as close as I get to the action :( Still, it's better to be a tiny part, than nothing at all, and I'm eager to hear some of the alternative soundtracks to the video - submitted through Capsule's website. These days I seem to spend a lot of time at Moor Street and it will be good to have something to muse over next time I'm there.

Pattern Recognition at The City Gallery, Leicester, runs until 24 October.

"There Are No Others, There Is Only Us", is at Moor Street Station, Birmingham : Friday 24th – Sunday 26th July. 10 am – 6pm daily. Free Entry.

Killing Birmingham : Birmingham City Council

2009-07-08T19:08:00.002+01:00

I've been following this for a while and am disgraced by the threat to - in my humble opinion - Birmingham's best clubs and pubs and festivals by The City Council.

Just thought I'd share this video (found thanks to Created in Birmingham) and hope that this whole series of events will go away with minimal loss to some of the places that made Digbeth great in the first place.

Coming up is the 'Raise the Roof' event on August 1st - designed to raise money to sound proof The Rainbow Warehouse and save The Rainbow. Join the Facebook Group to campaign against it's closure and the 'Friends of The Rainbow' group here.

Honey! I'm Home!!

2009-06-23T17:38:00.003+01:00

After spending 7 months drifting around the world. I am back! If you were wondering why it had all gone quiet, then now you know!

If you'd like to see what I've been upto, you can read all about my adventures through Japan, New Zealand and South America here. I aim to add some more pictures some time and tidy up a bit, but you can read the basics!

Since I'm back in Blighty expect a few more posts soon, possibly along the lines of exactly why England is so strange once you've been away for a bit...

Martin Creed is Sick

2008-10-02T14:16:00.026+01:00

The new Martin Creed solo show at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham is slightly disturbing. I love it.

On entering the first floor gallery the first thing that hits you is the splattering sounds of vomiting. As you round the corner you see an unending, uninterrupted video of sex - a penis rhythmically bumping in and out... (just in case you needed a description of what's involved) Set in front of this projection (!) almost as a physical distraction from the visual and auditory assault (or maybe as evidence of it's potentially anxiety-inducing content) was a piece of white paper, screwed up into a ball, neatly housed on a plastic covered plinth.

The sounds of sick mentioned above are part of a video work (Work No.583 - 2007) consisting of 4 TV's on which 4 people - 2 girls, 2 guys - step on screen and simultaneously make themselves puke. They continue for (presumably) as long as they can stomach, creating a trail or pool of sick where they stand, then leave. The videos are edited together so that each initial splattering hits the ground at the same time. They finish at different points, leaving the larger of the 2 girls to continue spewing berry-red vomit in a neat line a short time after the others have gone.

What I liked about this piece was that although it's a pretty straight forward process - they all stuck two fingers down their throat and hey presto - the style for each person was different. The bigger girl made a line, taking a step back after each heave. A thinner girl wandered on screen and stood on the spot, hair over her face, head down and made a neat pile at her feet; actions I guess that had not been preconceived probably as they were more concerned at the prospect of throwing up over and over again. And anyway how do you decide where to puke should you be given a nice empty white space like this one?

Other exhibits in the space included cacti or nails, arranged in a line from smaller to larger sizes, dictated either by nature or industry, and I soon realised that not only did each piece have a depth of consideration independently, but the combination of them came to form parallels and new dialogs - a dizzying experience in the space (in which a neon sign in the corner reads 'Dont Worry') and one that the gallery's invigilators we're notably distressed by. I spoke to an invigilator (who was not enjoying listening to the sound of sick for hours on end) who commented that mostly it was younger people that we're shocked at the work, and in their embarrassment tended to shuffle on quickly. Older people, it seems, have already experienced their fare share of sex, dealing with sick and comparing cacti.

Upstairs you have to dodge through a door that continually opens and closes, only to find that the sound of puke is replaced by the unnerving clatter of a line of metronomes, each set at a different and decreasing tempo. Twin TV's show video footage of a ferry coming into dock, one slightly delayed, so you are given two simultaneous windows in time for the same event. Sheets of paper are covered with short, singular non-overlapping strokes, which create a jostling, textured selection of drawings; every stroke evident.

'Work 160:The Lights Going On and Off (1996)' is housed in the tower room, and consists of... yes... the lights going on and off. I worked in clubs as a VJ for a few years and am well aware of the impact that lighting has on an audience; although standing quietly watching the world pass by through the windows, listening to the regular click of the automated on/off switch of these lights is perhaps more akin to the passing of days and nights, than the noise, disorientating flashes and momentary glimpses found at a club.

Martin Creed it seems likes to make the most of simple ideas. One of ideas is repetition, another is variation, he also likes a performance. Creed's talent seems to be to present minimum stimulus to maximum effect; something very simple which resonates across your psyche. The thinking space around each piece emboldens the concept, enhancing exponentially possible applications and greater considerations of it's reading and purpose. The clarity and simplicity of his work allows you to make your own associations and ponder your own applications of the basic processes.

I got stuck a few years ago creating my own art. One piece I created and repeated recently at the sadly deceased Crowd 6 Gallery is a series called 'If in doubt repeat' in which I didn't know what to do, so I just repeated the same thing over and over. It was amazing how much was revealed through repetition and variation. Maybe I'm sick, but Martin Creed has given me new inspiration in my doubt about what life's about.

You can see an extended version of the sick video along with Martin's Band live at The Electric Cinema on Saturday Oct 4th. Can't make it? Buy the DVD here. Cant wait??? Here's a taster from a similar piece 'Sick Film', Work No. 610.

Lucienne Cole and Friends present Here & Now & The Future (Do you want to dance and blow your mind? on 31 October 2008 @ Ikon Eastside. 7.30pm–late.

Fantasy.Fashion.Sex -: Go Tokyo

2008-09-13T13:53:00.019+01:00

I've had a minor obsession with Japan since I was about 18 and went mad on Manga. Obviously I was a prime example of a teenager being into Manga and Metal, and moody. So anyway when I think of Tokyo, I think of Akira, but alongside imaginary Kanada's & Tetsuo's blazing around on motorcycles and the place being destroyed by dark forces, mutants and Godzilla... I've found there are equally fantastic but real people and places there...

In Harajuku district the Cosplay-zuko (Costume Play Gang) turn up most weekend's at Jingu-bashi bridge. These moody teens find escape in dressing up, and dress as Anime characters or other stylised alter-ego's from music, film, games and fantasy; bloody nurses, Goth's, Lolita's and cyberpunks all gather and hang out. Tourist's turn up in droves to snap them apparently and here's why...

More here: http://www.japanforum.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=2

In Shibuya you get Ganguro Fashion which consists of Manba & Yamanba girls who get tanned to the max, then go seriously blonde. Apparently this all goes totally against traditional Japanese concepts of beauty and the girls are generally seen as well... probably what girls who dress like these Barbie's from Hell (complete with worldly treasures and scorching) would be seen as over here; slappers...

Victory V's seem to be the thing to do when being snapped in Tokyo it seems

Back in the day, when Japanese families all lived together (inc. Nan, Grandad and Great Uncle Rodney) it was tricky for Mom & Dad to find space to get jiggy and add another member to the family. So they used to go and find a quiet room in a Love Hotel where questions are not asked and you can hire the room by the hour. Now this doesn't sound too unusual does it? Until you find out that many Love Hotels are themed... and in true Japanese style you can bonk your missus (or anyone else you care to lure) in a room decorated as... well... a clinic, a forest, a school room or subway car. Or perhaps you'd prefer inside a boiler? or as an alien in a spaceship, or on a Carousel horse?? or even as Wallace & Gromit, in a room complete with oversized TV and furniture..?!?

Read the full Wired mag feature here: http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/multimedia/2006/12/wiredphotos9

Oh did I mention, I'm in Tokyo this Halloween?? hehe. Lucky me. Here's my fave scene from Akira...

Wisdom from Disabled World (TM)

2008-09-02T21:31:00.005+01:00

This gave me much amusement on it's discovery, and I feel that the wisdom given herein from this Disability and Seniors Information and Community site should be passed on to others.

Enjoy.

I Went to the Woods at Walsall

2008-08-29T16:12:00.014+01:00

Phew.. we made it... I just spent a couple of busy days putting together an interactive album for Juneau/Projects/ an artist duo I've worked with on many projects over the last few years. The piece entitled "I Went to the Woods" has been an ongoing project at Walsall Art Gallery for a while now and consists of the general public writing and recording music with the artists, at their studio there. August 28th was the album release, complete with performances of the tracks and the chance to buy the DVDROM album (each disk mounted on a small forked branch).

The concert started with the Juneau lads dressed in painted suits playing wonderfully weird wooden bug shaped guitar type things, producing synthesized sounds. A selection of people involved were asked to come and join them and ranged from a young girl reading poetry to an older man playing guitar to two men on piano and cello. These amateur performances reminded me of Outsider Music or the oddness of Captain Beefheart. The aesthetic is it's clumsiness and unconventional nature; a lack of knowledge and experience overlooked and a sincerely found beneath. You can imagine what it would sound like conventionally, but you are also given it's short-fallings; mistakes and imperfections become exemplified, but acceptable, resulting in moments usually carefully removed or avoided by professionals - missed notes, forgotten and mumbled words, over-long pauses, odd lyrics, unusual technique.

Ben Sadler - half of Juneau/Projects/ in painted suit

The Album itself is a cross platform, multi-track interactive piece, with which you can add and subtract different instruments parts and effects as you listen, even recording your own mix or arrangement and playing it back. Not sure how you'd get your hands on a copy but you could try contacting them at juneau.projects@virgin.net if your interested. They have some mp3 downloads from older projects here.

Also at residence at the gallery has been Milee (Feng-Ru Lee) who has been grazing as a sheep in small grass pens in the space, bringing the outside inside. She told me she liked the fact that you are never sure when you'll bump into a sheep out in the country, and had relocated this experience, in a way, to the gallery. As Milee the Sheep she had been living on, tending to and growing (real) grass.

On Life, Science & Art

2008-08-22T18:23:00.019+01:00

Generally I have little or no interest in Science or Nature, two things my parent's are both keen on. Neither of my parent's are musical or artistic, which strangely is exactly what my brother and I became involved in respectively. Perhaps there's some relevance in that somewhere...

Anyway, soon I'm off to New Zealand and South America to see just about how exotic and wild Nature can get. There is of course plenty of other things to see and do, personally I'm looking forward to being lowered into shark infested waters in a cage, but I thought I'd better do a little ground work on my weak spots first, so aside from fixing cars, swimming and speaking Spanish, I've been reading Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, and actually enjoying it. OK so it's an audio-book and I tend to listen to it late at night in bed, or just as I wake up, and yes sometimes it has come dangerously close to sending me back to sleep, but on the whole it has been pretty enlightening.

Just to REALLY rub it in, here's a picture of Bolivia's Altiplano salt plains

Bryson's premise is that it must be possible to understand science, even if basically, without being in-the-know, and for this information to be digestible by the average reader without a coma ensuing. So from the planets to chemical compounds, evolution, quantum physics, plate tectonics and everything else since the dawn of time, Bryson guides you through all the stuff you forgot, or never got, or were never bothered about, and it's actually accessible. Well done him.

One thing mentioned in the section about how life started on Earth was Stromatalites - a name that rung a bell. These weird living rocks are apparently the World's Oldest Living Thing - "the original source of oxygen in the earths atmosphere and hence one of the most important steps in evolution."*Now it takes a lot to impress me with anything nature related, but surviving 3.5 billion years is pretty good going, even if you are just a race of breathing rocks. Sadly they have yet to evolve mouths to chat to us about it all.

Report any weird science you may encounter here

Well, a few years ago on Australia's West Coast at Shark Bay I stood and took a few photo's of these things. I was of course told at the time that they we're really, really important and very, very, very old etc. but to me they were weird and pretty, and I was glad to be in the middle of nowhere, in the sun, amongst a semi-submersed alien landscape.

When I met the Stromatalites - a bunch of old Rockers - hahardyfuckingha

One of my insights from the book was that much of the time Scientist's don't know, which was kind of comforting. I suppose this is why they experiment. Hysterically, many of them are mad, weird, anti-social, maniacal or just plain thrill seekers with an unusual medium. They reminded me of a few famous artists with similar tendencies.

If your bored at this point, here's a list of unusual deaths and here's one of people killed by their own inventions courtesy of the wonderful wikipedia.

What appealed was the idea that they were exploring concepts and exploring, sometimes with only an inkling of what they would end up with. I've always though that the beauty in art was rarely the product, and more likely the process of creating, experiencing or conceptualising the work. But then that's why I like performance art - it's an experience, which is perhaps what you should get with most of the arts (inc. music, theater, literature etc.), but performance is always a touch more more real and confrontational - essential in a world now dominated by media and society's sway towards non-physicality. I suppose that when the product becomes the focus of the process, it feels a little too close to manufacture - work for robots to do, painting by numbers... and evolution I suppose is also a process of adaptation to explore an unknown future.

* http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Oceania/Australia/photo868281.htm

The Magician of New Street

2008-08-12T16:01:00.013+01:00

The other day I got to New Street station only to find that all trains to Coventry were cancelled and had been replaced by buses. 'Balls' thought I, 'I suppose I'll have to get a coffee and wait then'. I looked at the coffee shop, and figured I'd just save my money.

So I trundle out the back of the building to discover the loitering place. On my way out of the doors, I get a "'scuse me, mate". "Sorry" I say, delivering my usual leave-me-alone-i-am-not going-to-give-you-money line with half effort and blindly walk on. "I'll do you a trick." he says.

So I stop, and turn around to see a guy in a floppy hat and shorts with a bag. He looks like he's just fell off the Oasis tourbus, complete with hangover and mild concussion. 'Fuck it.' I thought. 'I've got 30 mins and if this guy can amuse me for a few, what do I care? I'll just keep my hand on my wallet, and an eye out for his accomplice (should this be one of the Distraction category scams)'.

So he offers me a deck of cards and and after narrowing down my choices to next to nothing, he says 'think of a card'. I say "11 of hearts" in my post-party, only just woke-up, slightly bruised state. "Hmmm.. that'll be a Jack then?" he says. "Err.. yeah, that'll be a Jack" I say. So anyway, up turns my Jack from the deck, as if by magic, and he reveals that all the other cards are blank. It must be magic. I start to form a slight grin. "Feel free to go 'Woooo!' and show your excitement!" he says. So he shows me a few other tricks that look mostly like they've come from a kids magic set and have been dragged through the garden a few times.

Up wanders an old Afro-Caribbean guy to watch. 'Maybe this is the accomplice' I wonder... the pair are such a mismatch, it would be a perfect cover. The old man loves it as the magician transforms 3 ropes of varying lengths (with my help) into 3 ropes of the same length, and laughs sporadically, patting his hands together. "That's wicked!" I say, genuinely impressed with his slight of hand, "Your best trick yet!". "Yeah? Can you spare me a little change?". I dig out a pound, and he offers some more really, really good tricks for another small donation. "Next time" I tell him and shake hands.

So my bus turns up and I get on.. now with a curious grin, thinking that the money I would have spent drinking coffee i didn't want, sitting at a wobbly metal chair, at a sticky Costa table, got spent on being amused by a magician.

Even if a basic one.

Guardian says Digbeth has 2nd & 3rd best outdoor dancefloors in UK

2008-08-08T15:35:00.005+01:00

Well it finally happened. Birmingham is ace, and Digbeth is better.

The Guardian voted The Rainbow 2nd best outdoor dancefloor in the UK, and swiftly followed it with The Custard Factory's Factory Club (Medicine Bar) as 3rd.

Birmingham you fuckin' rule..!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/aug/07/uk.bars?page=all

More Flummoxed with my Flickbook Anim!

2008-07-29T18:01:00.004+01:00

After reporting on the Flummoxed event a while back here, I wondered whether I'd ever get to see my animation played and am delighted that the flickbooks have made it online! Yay! Mines even first to play, done in black playschool crayon...

mmmm.... crayon taste good.

It seems Trevor Woolery was responsible, and there's more to follow as this is just part 1. Thanks to CiB for blogging it here.

Here's the animations, in there full glory :) :)

Flummoxed Flipbook Workshop part 1 from Lonomi Productions on Vimeo.

Secret Garden [P?]arty

2008-07-26T12:03:00.018+01:00

Well it's not over yet, but I went down to Cambridgeshire to check out the Secret Garden Party, which, all told, was strangely very quiet and mis-organised.!? I went down on wednesday to help artist Will Parker set-up the video installation we had been working on. Will's exhibit consisted of a time delayed video feed, one side of which was slightly delayed so you could, in theory, interact with yourself, a bit like this;

The first day was spent... waiting... for a carpenter, scaffolder, electrician, organiser - in fact anyone of any use to turn up and help us set the space. Lots of promises and no show from anyone. A team were building an entire bar in the same tent with food serving facilities and they too were waiting... and being delayed.. in fact they had to stay up the entire night building it ready for the 12 o'clock opening the next day with little help or contact from anyone from the festival. Will's install never got made while I was there due to structural concerns, a complete lack of three wooden walls and no electricity. We were promised that it would happen, but be relocated. I don't know if it ever did.

I've never been to the Secret Garden Party before and well, it was curious. It looked great - there were trees of shoes, random doorways, houses of straw and wood, random nan's living rooms, a dance-off boxing ring, mud pits, a boat and more props, flags, circus tents, surreal scenery and curious clothing than you can imagine, but behind this attractive frontage was a distinct lack of... well.. Party!

On wednesday the workers on site had to trek to Tesco, 4 miles away, to get food and drink as pretty much nothing was available on site - no drinks, no alcohol, no food! The dance-off boxing ring, which was the only place pumping music late and being rawkus were told to stop at 10pm and a topless girl was asked to put her shirt on. Hmmm... I went back to my tent at 10.30 bored out of my mind to relax for 5 mins and fell asleep, missing, I'm guessing, very little.

Grandma's living room in a field

So along came Thursday and the crowds started arriving - hooray! - but it turned out that the production of the festival was so far behind that the main stage wasn't even built for the thursday evening and, despite the increase in numbers, the place started to feel more like a theme park that was closing for the night than the first day of a festival. I overheard one conversation discussing how with only 3 people in the que in front of them, it took someone an hour to get through the festival gate as they were searching peoples bags so thoroughly.

Thursday night however was a vast improvement on wednesday, not that that was hard. So it's going better - I'm getting pissed on the alcohol I brought in yesterday from Tesco - a can of Red Stripe being £3.30 here (thats £13.20 for a 4 pack of lager!! Not exactly the reasonably priced selection of food and drink available mentioned on their website). Anyway I find a dance tent and get lost in a small crowd of zebra women, dandys' and deranged farmers. My minimal techno hit out of the way, I venture off and find that a Teddy Bear house is pumping - great methinks, only for them to announce 5 minutes later that they only have an 11pm license and are closing... so I find another tent with techno playing, and the power cuts out twice on the DJ who is working from a computer, by which time the crowd has begun to dissipate.. and they announce they too only have an 11pm license and are now closing........!! fucking hell.

Wrongness was on the menu at the Teddy Bear's house

I wander off to buy a drink at a little Honeymoon lodge, only to find they have run out of everything except Mead, which I except in desperation. Very little is going on. Fuck it thinks I, I've got better things to do than wallow in disappointment. I try to buy some food from a chinese shop, of which they have none left. "What can I buy with £2?" I ask. "2 Springrolls??" replies the guy behind the counter. So off I walk bemused with a single springroll wondering what the hell happened to my festival experience?

I can only hope for all those who are there now and paid £125 a ticket that Friday and Saturday were fucking amazing!?!

How to be a Rivethead

2008-07-19T11:29:00.005+01:00

Need advice on how to be Rivethead?
Need to name your Industrial band?
Seeking advice on how to date a non-Rivethead?
Wondering how to express your post-apocalyptic-ness at work?

Don't worry help is here... http://www.sonic-boom.com/industrial/

Recent Drawings (6)

2008-07-15T20:08:00.007+01:00