heysusy

Whoa...Diczko

I once saw a piece of art/design that floored me. Emotionally, Intellectually. It was at the Massaging Media conference here in Boston. I always wanted to see that piece again...and now I can. Thanks to the wonders of PBS.

The work I am talking about is Kryzysztof Wodiczko's 'Dis-Armor'. A brilliant, if Blade-Runner-esque piece of work which attempts to create an environment of 'Seamless Transmission' for the user, and for those the user encounters.

Seamless Transmission is basically the idea of communication without emotional boundaries. The Dis-Armor uses video and audio to enable the wearer to turn away from the person they are talking to, while their emotional cues (eyes, mouth and voice) are broadcast from monitors and speakers on their backs-- so the device faces their audience.

The effect is amazing. People who could not talk to each other with honesty prior, communicate openly, and actually....access their emotions MORE readily, since they do not have the pressure of maintaining a state of emotional stability. The emotions clearly come through, giving meaning to the words they are speaking...giving a more honed quality to what they are talking about.

The device, along with video footage of it's usage can be seen on PBS...on the ART:21 website. And also, on the show of the same name.

A bevy of other artists are also featured on the show and site. What a treasure-trove. When I think about it, it's sort of odd that yesterday I wrote about emoticons; and today, I'm writing about this piece, which follows a similar thread....revealing emotions through technology, and using them to change communication for the better.

> Convert <

I have always been staunchly opposed to the use of emoticons. But, today, as I wrote back to my office-manager, a little note to say thank you for filling out my expense report for me....I realized that the only way to end the message was with a : ) . So I did. I realized that emoticons...aside from being blood-curdling-ly cute, are also, in a way, facillitating communication in emails.

I have heard many times about someone 'not understanding the tone of an email', and it's actually happened to me. It's easy to take a short email as a little stab, tonewise. But, that can all be solved with an emoticon.

Take, for example:

When will they be ready????

and

When will they be ready???? : )

or, I went to Mary's house. : )

and, I went to Mary's house. : (

That is POWERFUL!

Honestly, there has to be some way of studying this, or some thesis that needs to be written....I mean, we have punctuation for EVERYTHING. Except, our emotions. I wonder what books would be like if, instead of adjectives, we had emoticons. It would be so interesting....but I wonder if it would seem more surface, more robotic.

I guess in a way, emoticons are moving arabic based languages into the realm of pictograms....but not exactly, since emoticons are purely to convey the idea of HOW something is said. So...what are they? Are they punctuation, or something more....evolved or devolved?

Warrants further study. Stay tuned.

Above, my own personal favorite emoticon...which, I have realized when I made this image, looks a lot cuter on it's side. Upright, with the eyes at the top, it really looks sour!

Oh, and just for the record. I will ALWAYS be staunchly opposed to emails written in all lower case. Seriously...the little i, unless you are ee cummings, is a sign of a dearth in self-respect! ; /

Fatties

Okeh. It's true...once again writing about shoes/footwear. Perhaps I AM obsessed. But, still, I am picky...which counts for something. My closet isn't filled with shoes. But yes, I spend alot of time analyzing shoes, looking at other people's shoes, and going to shoe-stores in search of the perfectly proportioned kick. Yes.

Yesterday I had a revelation. I love fat shoelaces! How retro can you get. I don't know if it's possible to declare coolness in a cheaper way..ok, other than a great personality, of course....thanks mom...but seriously, fat shoelaces are the way to go. I have done research: and there are not a lot of places online to buy the fatties.

But: if you are brave enough to receive a box from Hot Topic (the cheesy mall punk adolescent store) then the world of fat shoelaces can lay open on your plate like a giant oyster because you can order some pretty cool fatties online from them....for like 2 bucks. Pink and black striped, black checkers....some others I can't recall.... However, I'm still partial to the old skool argyle....very breakdancer. Very 80s. I I used to have the argyles in yellow and pink flourescent. So cute.

Anyhoo...a couple of props to the skinny shoelace...there are lots of varieties of those out there, too. And they can add just as much pop to a sad ol pair of kicks. Hot Topic also features an extremely rad pair of black skinny laces with green stars....understated. mmm.

Here's the link to The Hot Topic Shoelaces Page Seriously, you might want to reconsider before checking out the other HT pages....they have an ABHORRENT selection of gothy platform shoes and those weird big pants with all the zippers....honestly, I didn't even know they made that stuff anymore. gah.

Too Cool For School (Or Bills)

Ohhhh, jeez. Look at this shirt. One thing that will always strike me as trés cool is the clever t-shirt....not funny, mind you, but clever. This little t-shirt is so perfect...from the vernacular type, to the defiantly NY phrase...it's just so esoteric, so cute and so New York...It's so 1980s New Wave. I can just see Blondie walking down the street in this back in the day.

Solemn Vow: I will heretofor make more tshirts.

This shirt is by Robot Arms. Her work can be found on CUT + PASTE

Pin Ups

Beautiful jewelry by artist Sarah Marie Huhn and sold by Jill Bliss of Blissen. These little pins are made by pouring acrylic paint into molds, similar to making a parfail dessert. What gorgeous, organic forms derive from that process!

These remind me of tze beads...which were like the 'evil eye' beads from Turkey. tze beads are said to have magical powers and protect the wearer. I bet these pins protect like crazy! I love the combination of pins on a shirt in the different sizes.

Jill Bliss herself is a creative powerhouse. She does artwork, crafts and makes great handmade goods with a style all her own. Recently, I saw her calendars for sale at Urban Outfitters...a great little printed piece with each page different. So, I guess Jill has hit the big time!! But, you can check out her current creative projects- jewelry, t-shirts, papergoods... on blissen.com

Toast with the Most

Yes, yes, I know. Portsmouth NH doesn't seem like a very interesting place to spend the day. I thought the same thing. But, give it a chance! A chance....that involves brunch. Now, as my significant other knows, I am not the world's biggest brunch lover. I mean, I am a morning person, and if I fill up on eggs and bacon and other yummys, I don't move for the rest of the day and it makes me feel all pent up and weird.

But. Not only is the brunch at Portsmouth's 'Friendly Toast' restaurant amazing...fresh avocado, need I say more....It's affordable and INSPIRING.

This spacious fuscia-painted eatery is chock full of quirky finds from the 40's and 50's. It's like eating in a work of installation art. Vintage art pieces, beer promotions and signage combine to create an atmosphere that makes you want to get your behind to every yard-sale from here to the Rio Grande ASAP.

Now, I am not a huge vintage lover, nor a huge kitsch lover...that's so passé!! But, what is great about this place is the humor and eclecticism in which the pieces are shown....a nun's portrait hangs next to a couple of dancing tribesmen, plastic Miller bottles glow nearby a giant bottle of detergent, mallard ducks and porcelain stags cavort on tabletops. An assortment of vintage kitchen tables becomes seating for large groups....

If I hadn't been so busy craning my head to see all the gorgeous specimins of American insanity in this place, I would have been able to eat my yummy breakfast burrito much faster! Olé!

The Friendly Toast is located at 121 Congress St. in Portsmouth NH. While you're there, take a stroll to Market St. and check out the vintage jewelry store on the corner. A HUGE selection of vintage jewelry awaits there...from 60's enamel pins to delicate pieces from the 20's. Very unique.

Hyperbolic Crafts

One of my favorite combinations is math and art. When you look closely, the two are so interconnected, it's not even funny. I always found it interesting that as a kid who leaned more towards the artistic, and had a bit of trouble with math, that once something was explained to me visually, I could grasp it a whole lot better.

That's why I love the website for the Institute for Figuring. Not only do they deal in complex physical and mathematical ideas, they have the common sense to explain it by drawing, or sculpting it out. The piece of work above is actually a croched example of Hyperbolic Space. From what I gather, (in layman's terms) Hyperbolic space is an expansion of space which operates almost like the cloning of one idea. The more you clone the original shape within, the more space you get on the fringes. And doesn't this little croched ball explain that beautifully?

The Institute for Figuring website includes several pages for 'online exhibitions'. Interesting from not only a visual, but a conceptual standpoint. Current topics include: Curved Origami (recently written up in the NYTimes) and a new interpretation of the Periodic Table of Elements....Incredible information graphics there...They also offer lectures and have their own publishing arm, which seems to offer short-run printings of some of their members' newest theories. Just beautiful.

Something in the Air

Ok, so. I don't know why I started thinking about airbrush art the other day, but I did. Perhaps it had something to do with something I was thinking about vans, (the cars, not the shoes) or perhaps it had something to do with something I was thinking about portraiture, but I'm just not sure....OH, Wait. I know what it was, I was thinking about some inspiration for a packaging project I am working on, and I wanted to do a little research into surrealist photography, which lead me to think about the work of David LaChappelle...which I adore!

Anyway, his work at times reminds me of something you might see on the side of a van. It has that very weird, otherworldly, perfect, but perfect-in-only-one-person's-mind, psychological quality, that I think really crazy airbrush art has. Either way, I thought I'd take a brief survey of airbrush. And jot down a few thoughts...

Airbrushing seems to have it's own set of rules. It's pretty interesting. Common themes seem to be cars, portraits, patriotism, birds, horses, sunsets, skulls, flames, wild animals, and women and little girls. I found the portraits of real people to be the most interesting of all of the subject matter.

One of the things that is fascinating about this type of portraiture is that it hovers between painting and photography. Many of the airbrushed images that I found online almost had effigy-like quaility...similar to the photos people used to take of their dead dressed up as if they were still alive-- to remember them by. Airbrushed portraits seem to have this same thing going on...most often of children and women...sort of like the person who has painted it or commissioned it wants to freeze that person in a perfect, fantasy moment. It's interesting really, because airbrush is typically a pretty 'low-class' type of art. It's pretty fascinating to look at it as a way that a segment of society memorializes people- such attention to detail, such fantasy, such hyper-realism or surrealism....everything so stylized...almost tied-in with themes (sunsets, flags, wild animals)...reminds me of old gravestones...the urns, cypress trees, skulls, hearts, etc. It's like an unwritten language of symbols.

Anyway, thought it was interesting, and maybe worth note.

Taking Things Personally.

Lately, I've had this weird curiosity about personalized items, or items with names imprinted on them for any reason. I think it started when I passed a kiosk in the Prudential Center that was selling all this personalized paraphernalia. I started thinking about it....I remembered things I had been given that were personalized...actually, I think I was only given one personalized item in my whole life....a set of tie-died motif pencils with my name on them. But, you know what, I got them in 3rd grade, and they were from....a BOY!

I think back about that now...I used to think about it with this weird feeling of embarassment for him...but now I can just imagine it...he was in Driscolls Gifts, he saw the pencils, and saw my name, thought of me, and bought them. With his 3rd grade boy money. Now, I wonder. Do you think he made a separate trip back with his mom? Or do you think he had to buy them in front of his friends???

Oh god, I almost can't think about this...my head is going to blow up!

Anyway...then he gave them to me. And yes. I will admit. To this day, I love those pencils. I mean, there weren't any other Susans in the class...or in any grade near ours....they were just for me. That was gutsy!

I guess that's one of the interesting facets of personalized objects. While they represent the height of kitsch, they also call forth a moment, even if it's a hokey one, where someone took time to pick out your name....to commemorate you in a way. No one else. I always thought that was weird. And sort of poignant. And sort of sad. And sort of beautiful. Like saying you deserve something special. Something all your own.

Makes me wanna Draw!

Not too sure who this illustrator is, but I came across her site today, which is called 'Jujus Delivery Service' and her work is just beautiful. Little pictures of children, animals, and random creatures....so lovely. She also makes T-Shirts which are absolutely dreamy (and, longer than regular T's, which I love.)

You can find the site at http://www.jujus-delivery.com/

What a nice little way to refresh yourself during the day....So far, my favorite one is a character drawing of a little whale wearing a sailor's hat. It also seems that Juju does amazing, pastel-toned murals, and is also part of a great 2006 calendar which features her own work, as well as the work of other European illustrators. What fun!

I am feeling extra-sensitive today, and it's all I can do not to just break down in tears while I look at these sweet little doodlings....ah, to be home with a cup of tea and a pen and paper...Maybe later...But I'm feeling inspired NOW.