Her synopsis states:
"Recipes are designed to facilitate immediate success, they rarely document the ways in which it can fail. Based on Aleksandra's personal history of cooking disasters, the project invited 1000 people from all around the world to offer advice of how NOT to cook. "
I like this projects as the artist engaged with a range of people in order to learn from them and subsequently there are examples of 'what not to do' from all around the world including entries from: Brazil, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, France, Italy, the UK and the US. The book is also split up into a range of unconventional cookbook chapters, from dating to drugs and everything in between!
The link is to an article in the New York Times that was posted on the 17th July: Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others.
The article discusses the case of the Amazon Kindle users who found that ebooks they had purchased had been deleted from their digital readers & what made a rather interesting twist to the tail was that some of the books were by the Author George Orwell. I think this article highlights many issues relating to digital user ownership. It created a stir due to the named texts that were removed and also due to the issue that the book texts had been bought and paid for by the users, who wrongly assumed they then had full rights of ownership of the books. However, ownership is a tricky word in the age of web 2.0, as we begin to 'own' many items in different ways.
I have just visited my local library and it reminded me how much I love libraries: these amazing houses for books. I love that there is a whole building dedicated to people that want to read, to learn and to think. Yes, the internet is a hive of information, but a library is so much more. It is a place where you don't always manage to find exactly the book that you were looking for, but you have the opportunity to look, to flick and to discover.
Image: The house of books has no windows by canadian art duo Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller
I recently attended the 2009 Degree show at the Art School in Glasgow and it was enjoyable as I was able to take a step back to reflect on the work on display, (as this year I was not in it!)
There were a few pieces of work that struck a cord with me in some way and I will discuss most of these after the jump. However, here is one to start:
Visual Communication is always impressive and unfortunately I did not have the time to give it true credit this year. However, I was impressed by the piece of work titled Hoedown from Rodeo from Eleanor Stewart . This delightful little animation is a joy to watch. The idea that the music has inspired not only the theme of the animation, but also the method of the production is just beautiful.
This happened Edinburgh #2
Originally uploaded by MK I attended the second This Happened event in Edinburgh on the 4th May. A great event that displays that there are a multitude of exciting things going on in the world of interaction design and art.
The free event gathers a collection of speakers to present work that they are currently working on/ have recently completed and then opens up for discussion. When booking the ticket the event was sold out within 2 hours of opening... which is quite incredible for such something like this. I managed to get on the waiting list and later was pleased to receive an email stating that I had a ticket.
There was a good range of speakers which included:
Possibly my favourite of the night, Jen Southern and Running Stitch. This project is an incredible mixture of gps technology that captures information and physical artistry that translates this into a real world piece of art. There are many applications that currently use gps technology to track user movements and create interesting mappings. However, this is the first piece of work I have seen that effectively translates this into the physical world. Her installation works with a beamer that traces participants movements in real time on a large canvas, whilst behind the canvas somebody works away at stitching this trace into the canvas. Creating a truly original and beautiful piece of art.
I have just discovered the somewhat unassuming website titledthe gallery of graphic design, which behind its simple interface, is host to a feast of advertising gems (some not so shining) from the period between 1930 and 1969. There is the possibility to search by magazine, year, advertiser, product, keyword or issue.
I attended the event "This happened.... in Edinburgh." Picture above - Jamie Allen (Unfortunately I missed the first two speakers. As I was organising an event for work that was happening the next day and I didn't manage to leave work in Perth until 5:45pm and this was starting in Edinburgh at 6.00pm! I did actually manage to get to Edinburgh by about 6:30, although I then took about 30 mins to cross town and find a parking space, alas I arrived and I was glad I made the effort)
However, There were talks by a diverse group of people:
I must admit that it was the talk from Yann Seznec, aka "the amazing rolo" that really caught my imagination...his energy was infectious! The development of his software is through a great story, which he told with a true passion and enthusiasm. As a musician he saw a possibility with the current technology on the the market (the wii remote) and set about designing a software to allow him to mix using though movement.
It just begins to show the endless amount of possibilities there are by cultivating existing technology and transferring its use into an akternative business area. I think the great thing about this Yann's product, as it allows the Dj's, to mix great music, whilst enjoying their environment through dancing and movement... a real innovation.
Another inspirational interactive and viral piece of design that I discovered tonight.
"Appeel is a virus spreading through interacting individuals. Surfaces are covered by thousands of coloured stickers laid out in a grid."
"Appeel inherits basic principles of interactivity and generativity applied to purely analogous means. Its immanent potential of penetrating regulated public and private space counterpoints its apparent plainness. The dot spreads with the promise to ironically mark its carrier as a symbol of sale and possession."
This is the work of the greeneyl + segewald. Simply a group of guys whom like to explore unconventional interactions.
This discovery has just made my evening, or rather morning,as it is now 00:21
