Noisy horizon

I was trying to crack open a weird file format and the best I could extrapolate was a half-noisy image file. I rotated it 180 degrees and got what I thought looked like waves coming in on a beach. To help illustrate this point, I have coloured the "waves" with a blue gradient. I also added some low-resolution stars for some extra mood.

Wonky floor text...

... Is "wonky".

In the meantime, this:

I only noticed this recently, but it's been on YouTube for a couple of years. It's from a Japanese TV show called 'Ugo Ugo Ru-Ga'. Worthy.

The Importance of Being Updated

I got a text today telling me that the iPhone software update to 3.0 had arrived - a day early! There's some nice changes/updates/additions. Now I can (among other things) send and receive MMS messages, which is good, but I'll be watching for any additional charges for these. Interestingly enough, I updated my phone and it downloaded all my latest emails (quite a number of) without being asked. I'm pretty sure I've turned this function off now, but it's nowhere near as transparent as the previous version of the OS. This is an important consideration in the bandwidth-starved mobile hinterland of the antipodes.

Note that my first MMS (above) was not successfully sent at first attempt (thus the exclamation marks). It did eventually get there, assisting me in contributing yet another baby picture to the tiny particles of Wonkavision-esque static flying over our heads at any given moment. I doubt I will send many more, but who knows. I'd like to consider myself some kind of futurist, but I can remember when text messaging first came out thinking to myself: 'That's never going to catch on'. Here we are. :P LMAO, etc.

THEY'RE BACK

The $1 donuts [sic] have slunk back into The World. Be mindful and alert, as they may mean to do you harm. They have changed the colour of the speech balloon, but the shape remains as does the typeface - Helvetica Rounded. They've streamlined the aesthetic a bit, but probably used the same working files.


The image above reminds me of something that happened to me in the recent past. I was heading to a friends house and thought to buy some chips. The convenience store had a deal where you could buy two packets for $3.60, one pack cost $2. I picked up a pack and took it to the counter to pay. The clerk said to me: "You don't want to get another packet? Two packets are only $3.60." I said no thanks, and he asked me again, his tone escalating slightly, "Are you sure? It's a saving of 40¢." "Thanks, but I'll be fine with the one" I said politely. At that point, the point where he realised that I wasn't prepared to spend an extra $1.60 in order to save 40¢ and that I had sufficient chips, he gave me a funny look like I was some kind of lost cause. He may be right.

The word 'reminds' is not in my spell-checker.

Cultural artifact

At the second-hand market I bought myself of a copy of Mortal Kombat for the Sega Megadrive for two Australian dollars. I found this duo-toned flyer behind the paper sleeve insert.

It hearkens back to another age: the latter decades of the previous millennia. Searching for 'Mister Gees Video' came up with nothing. Chances are, all that is left of it today (apart from the odd flyer) are desiccated VHS remnants encased in the mire a few feet below the floor of what's now a Blockbuster Video store. Remember, people once looked like this. Vampires once looked like this. Typefaces once looked like this, and chances are they will again.

Your body is a factory

Here are some scans from a book I bought in Japan in the past. It's called 'Uncocoro for Natural Unco Life' by Bunpei Yorifuji and Koichiro Fujita. Its subject is intestinal health and focuses on giving the reader techniques and advice to help achieve healthy and regular poo. It's in Japanese with very clear illustrations presented beautifully using mostly brown and yellow spot-colours. Appropriate.

It seems that the term 'Unco' covers human and animal waste.


As well as general waste.


Your body and it's functions are part of a larger system.


Your diet and it's influence on your internal bacterium and flora.




When I was a kid, I had a picture book called 'How Your Body Works'. It used factories or castles under siege as analogies for bodily functions and helped me understand the mechanical nature of our bodies. I was obsessed with that book. 'Uncocoro for Natural Unco Life' has a similar approach, but is a bit more... specific.

Anything you don't have to do

"Can you turn the house-lights up, please? That's better, I can see people's hair-styles now".

Brian Eno, paraphrased.

I just got back from Sydney where a friend and I made a cultural pilgrimage to see Brian Eno give a Keynote as well as to take in other aspects of the Luminous festival and some other things.

Seeing Eno talk was fantastic. He was humble, erudite and covered a vast range of topics including: Art and society, what art is ("anything you don't have to do"), writing about art (and his scorn towards it), climate change, hair-styles, screwdrivers, jokes, evolution and the goodness of the un-categorised. Some absolutely inspiring material that's still got me thinking.

We arrived at the ambitiously illuminated Opera House to be greeted by what was perhaps the most gentle protest I've ever seen. A number of bike riders (as part of the the Gloom festival as I understand it) protesting the funding of large-scale international arts programs where monies would potentially be better spent locally. Eno addressed this, and I agree with the protesters approach, but was still glad the festival was happening. With luck, governments will take note and distribute funds intelligently among local (and emerging local) artists, international artists so everybody wins.


The Opera House looked incredible with projections on both sides of Eno's work. I was, in fact, also interested in the logistics of projecting at such a large scale across the harbour. Interestingly Eno mentioned climate change quite a bit in his keynote, yet this aspect of the Luminous festival would certainly have been pulling down the watts. No doubt there's been consideration given to offset this. You can see some better photos of the projections here.

Eno's 77 Million Paintings were on display and were absolutely profound - almost religious. There were a group of us in a darkened room with ambient music washing throughout the space, while a configuration of illuminated shapes blend and shift. On the floor, a couple of illuminated cones cycle through various colours. We spent about a half-hour in this space and the effect was incredible. Entering the space with us was a family with a rabble of kids. As soon as they sat down the kids went completely silent and stayed for ages without a trace of restlessness. It was something.

Here's a video with Eno talking about the 77 Million Paintings:


Before we saw the keynote, we visited the MCA where Yayoi Kusama has a show, and it was an absolute cracker. Experiencing her installations suitably warps your mind and there were some screen-prints of obsessively developed texta-based works (which I never knew existed) that were hung together in a room making for a powerful overall experience. I got told off for taking a photo, as did most everyone else in the exhibition as there was no signage saying you shouldn't, but managed this:


Other highlights included: My favourite Sydney book store, Gould's Book Arcade. I bought a 1973 edition of 'God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater' with blue edging. There aren't enough book arcades these days.


An empty space, Newtown:


Spending time in a place called 'Green Square' (which is another blog post):


This LED sign:


And finally, a luggage store at the Airport called 'Carrion'. Seriously.


If you can catch any of the above while in Sydney, I thoroughly endorse!

Lessons in Art, number 47:

Landscape while on a moving train. From Top Secret! (1984).

Accidental Live-Trace Face

First the surface of Mars, then this. PURELY UNINTENTIONAL.

So does anyone else "Tweet"? See my input into the current ornithologically-based social phenomenon here.

Introduction

In response to William Gibson, an introduction to a short story, novella or something:

"The sky above the port was the colour of television, tuned to 'Video 1'".

This just in ...

Balaclava, Australia: Sesame baguette placed anonymously on 7-11 sign. Authorities notified. Nearby institutions alerted. General sense of ambient panic increasing. Mass text messages sent out. Reporters milling around the scene, while maintaining a safe distance. Links to current flu-trends yet to be confirmed.

Looking up while looking up

I enjoy "looking up" in Google Street View on my iPhone. While searching for a business recently I looked up and noticed that almost always a kind of lens-flare effect appears in the sky - must be something to do with the cameras the Street View vehicles use. Sometimes it looks quite beautiful. Here is a selection of the flares over various Melbourne locations:










The last image is the "Sky" over my "Studio". I may yet do something with these, or this idea. Large-scale canvases complete with Google logo and location circle maybe...

This Saturday...

... Don't pay for free comic books! It's Free Comic Book Day. OBSERVE IT.

[Image by Jose Ryp, who isn't contributing any FCBD stuff this year to my knowledge, but he does excellent explosions.]

Comparing people with people

In the future, people will have screen-based social-networked headstones. I'm serious! You've heard of the Egyptian Book of the Dead and the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Coming up next, the Facebook of the Dead.

The above strengths and weaknesses are actually from the 'Compare People' Facebook application. Apparently, my friends think I'm useful and creative, but also rude and unfashionable. Unless being well mannered and fashionable are seen as weaknesses. I try to be polite, but I'm not very fashionable.