New Blu and David Ellis Combo!

COMBO a collaborative animation by Blu and David Ellis (2 times loop) from blu on Vimeo.

New Urbanism - Scratching the Surface

Constructive destruction, vividly captured:


We got to build to last. Here's a fantastic short and straight-forward wake-up call against sprawl:

Twitter hits the streets

I like this clever graff tweet seen on the streets via Questionmarc.

If that's not a sign of Twitter being top of pop culture mind virtually everywhere right now, then this awesome "Flutter" mocumentary surely is...yep, it's the nano-blogging movement:



via Laughing Squid (great blog from sf)

Venice Beach Mural Sightings

Chase's colorful creatures and floating eyes inspire self-awareness:

R. Cronk's stunning 1990 homage to Van Gogh's Starry Night:

Everything is Illuminated

via Lost At E Minor, I came across Orange County artist Kristian Olson today. I love the outer-worldly subjects and mysterious organic themes, the often muted color palette, the detailed ornamentation influenced by cultural motifs and the skillfully crafted combination of mixed-media (designed digital artwork, giclée printing, acrylic paint) with illustration.

"Kristian Olson’s illustrations look like Magic Eye posters that have come to life as marauding, fractal-shooting creatures from Technicolor hell."

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The photo below captures a new interactive Dobpler LED wall in Sandnes Sentrum, Norway that transforms shadows into light as people walk through a pedestrian subway tunnel. Perhaps this is the kind of multifunctional ingenuity we need here to encourage more public transit riders.

via Inhabitat:

"The Strømer is an interactive wall that weaves a wonderful mixture of art, energy-efficiency and play into the fabric of daily existence."

Watercolours, the project website for the installation in Sandnes states:

Sandnes’ city centre is split in two parts by the railway line. A new, creative illumination of our railway station subways will give us safer traffic and walkways. The subways become lighted portals, pleasant to use, mirroring the users who can observe themselves and others as active elements of the township.

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A less useful but rather amusing LED tech gadget is USB powered Tengu, who's facial expressions and mouth lip-syncs with the sounds in the room - whether it be you or your music. This little buddy keeps you company when you're on the comp and he even sings Seu Jorge in the video below! Awesome.

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WTF?! Disgusting full-blown desperation...

A West Plains, Missouri billboard via SLOG

"I've been thinking about this McCain-Palin Obama "palling around with terrorist" idea more lately. The saddest thing about many Republicans isn't just that they disagree with liberals on race--it's they are largely ignorant on race. When the McCain campaign cast the spell of diabolical jingoism, they have no idea of the forces they are toying with. We remember Martin Luther King's murder as a sad and tragic event. Less remembered is the fact that ground-work for King's murder was seeded, not simply by rank white supremacy, but by people who slandered King as a communist."
-Ta-Nehisi Coates

This gotcha clip reveals how McCain's "straight talk" is going hate talk express. The Nation's Ari Melber on pathetically injecting baseless hate:

Banksy's Village Pet Store and Grill

"This revolution is for display purposes only"
-Banksy

Graffiti genius Banksy just opened his "Village Pet Store and Grill" a few days ago in NYC, at 89 West 7th Avenue. You may not recognize his work though because there's no writing on the wall here...

Using animatronics for his first time, Banksy has created an eye-opening and chilling world where "there are no puppies or kittens in the windows". Instead, "McDonald's Chicken McNuggets sip barbecue sauce. A rabbit puts on her makeup. A CCTV camera nurtures its young." Banksy's groundbreaking social commentary confronting the way we live and intelligently raising questions about where animals go, runs through Halloween and might be recreated elsewhere later. Hopefully, the West Coast!

via Wooster Collective:

Lifeless leopard coat

Hot dogs trapped

Nuggets in a coop

Bunny testing make-up

Fishsticks in a fish bowl

Live sneak peak:

From Banksy:

“New Yorkers don’t care about art, they care about pets. So I’m exhibiting them instead. I wanted to make art that questioned our relationship with animals and the ethics and sustainability of factory farming, but it ended up as chicken nuggets singing. I took all the money I made exploiting an animal in my last show and used it to fund a new show about the exploitation of animals. If its art and you can see it from the street, I guess it could still be considered street art."

Do-it-yourself Pixelator in NYC

Turning plasma ads to pixel art.

"Since 2003, the MTA has made available for exhibition purposes 80 LED screens located at subway entrances across New York City. Unfortunately, the high cost of exhibiting (an estimated $274,000 per month per screen) prevents most artists from having access to these facilities. While the MTA's effort to create more opportunities for video art exhibition in public spaces is to be commended, selected works remain wholly fixated on commercial goods and media conglomerate events, a short-sighted curatorial choice that regrettably ignores the full potential of these promising exhibition spaces.

In an attempt to broaden the scope of MTA's video art series, Pixelator takes video pieces currently on display and diffuses them into a pleasant array of 45 blinking, color-changing squares. Since the project is an anonymous collaboration, the resulting video is almost entirely unplanned and unanticipated, with the original artists helping to create new works of art without any knowledge of their participation."

DIY!
via A Life Less Mediated

Los Angeles may be going Blade Runner too, with "roughly 900 billboards across the city that could soon be converted from conventional to digital, lighting up your street or bedroom with a 50,000-watt flash," says Steve Lopez of the Los Angeles Times. He urges Mayor Villaraigosa to adopt restrictions on what will be distracting saftey hazards and a "congested constellation of 900 drive-in movie theaters."

We The People Festival (9.27.08 -9.28.08)

We The People Festival -- I couldn't have imagined a better way to enjoy my birthday in this historical, "tipping point" moment in our lives. It was an empowering day through night event celebrating social consciousness, community activism, and urban youth and culture via raw uncensored music and art - the way I love it.

The live performances we caught included Dilated Peoples, RZA of Wu-Tang Clan, DJ Z-Trip (dedicated his turntablin' set to Barack Obama and mobilizing voters), Flying Lotus (my favorite show), Bassnectar and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine (the way I remember him, at least). It's a shame we missed roots reggae classic Barrington Levy and bassist extraordinaire Les Claypool though, since there were too many solid stages to choose from.

Here's a taste of what we appreciated -- click to enlarge images (not pictured but definitely devoured: raucous, rhythmic, truly fertile electric music embracing a backdrop of the downtown LA skyline and passing metrolinks, endless Blue Moons, endless sunshine, amazing baked yam with cinnamon/brown sugar/butter, baked potato with the works, and grilled seasoned corn. bliss.).