If you happen to be in The Hague or in Holland, pop by the GEM museum for ‘Les Beaux et Les plus Beaux’, what looks to be a fantastic exhibition by Dutch artist/sculptor Silvia B. 

I once had the pleasure of visiting her studio in Rotterdam and was immediately sucked into her wonderful world of hybrid creatures and thought-provoking esthetics. You have to love someone who creates a series of gloves like this Skinover series.

In the previous Japan post, I mentioned the Japanese tendency to experiment a lot with design and their obsession with it. When we went to visit the 21-21 Design Sight pavillion (made by Tadao Ando), we stumbled upon an exhibition called ‘Second Nature’, curated by a designer called Tokujin Yoshioka, which confirmed that thought. 

Apart from very interesting art/design pieces, like human/tree hybrids and chairs made of crystals whose growth is influenced by playing different kinds of music, the setting was amazing. The ceiling of the gallery was covered in 360,000 plastic straws, which made you feel like you were walking in another eerie, beautiful universe. 

We weren’t allowed to take pictures (an interesting habit in most of Japanese galleries), but Wallpaper has a nice collection of stills, plus a Q&A with the designer/curator. 

A very clever and creative piece of advertising/awareness raising for Transport For London. It was created by agency WCRS and directed by Chris Palmer at Gorgeous Films, who also did this similar TFL film a while ago.

I just wonder if there shouldn’t have been more of a digital side to the campaign. Some kind of interactive quiz or game element that allows people to pass on the film without actually giving away the answer. Something that builds up over time. There is a website for the campaign, but it doesn’t really add that much, does it. 
Still, very enjoyable piece of communication.

Apologies for the shocking lack of posting activity recently, but I’ve been on holiday in Japan. And guess what: the internet access there is surprisingly limited. Wireless: forget it. Internet cafés: if you ask, they look at you like they’ve seen a ghost. Because wifi is sooooo 2004-5-6, sir. Everybody over there is on their mobiles, surfing the worldwide wap web. Interesting. 

Anyway, Japan is a crazy, beautiful, funny place with lots going on. And they have good beer. So I’ll try to filter the creative info in my head into a few posts over the next few days. 

The first pleasant surprise came straight when we arrived. 

[Read more]

The header of this blog contains a few words that consist of more than 2 syllables, but the guys from design studio Zeitguised know how to describe things properly. Check out the title and explanation to their new piece ‘Peripetics’. More importantly: check out the film itself. It’s weird and wonderful and even though I’m not always a fan of abstract work, this is amazing to look at. 
A few years ago, I had the chance to work with Zeitguised on this mobile content project for which they created some ‘visual haikus’ and since then I’ve always followed their work. They’re one of the most intriguing design/animation units around; very technical, but there’s always this enthralling element of humanity and outlandishness in there. 
And if you describe yourself with ‘Breaks stuff, puts it back together and sells it for less’, you can do no wrong.  

We recently moved studio and one of the guys that I bump into every now and again in the kitchen is Noah Harris, who just finished this rather lovely ad for Ford Fiesta - This Is Now. It took him a good 7 months to finish, but it’s well worth it.
In good Web2.0-open-collaboration style, he got a bunch of designers/animators on board to create all the gorgeous visuals that show in the screens. Very now indeed. 
Now, I would have thought that Ford would include all the individual pieces on some microsite, get people to comment etc etc, but nope. They seem to have a microsite for this car, but no films. Instead they’re all on YouTube and you can watch them here.

Another rather talented director that sits in spitting distance from me is Tom Haines, who made this lovely music video for crazy Texan band White Denim. It has just been picked as video of the week on 6Music and it was criminally ignored for a nomination in the category Best Indie/Alternative video at the UK MVAs.

One of the most intriguing artists that has used, abused and appropriated the www with freshness and creativity is Han Hoogerbrugge. Artist, animator, designer, interactivist, call him what you want, but he’s always been intriguing, if only for his constant consistent attire of pin-striped suit.

And this week seems to be Hoogerbrugge’s week.

If you happen to be in Rotterdam, go check out his interactive installation ‘What You Say Is What You Get’, commissioned by the Boymans van Beuningen museum. He’s been developing a keen interest in installations recently and this is a next step. 

And then there’s the release of ‘Modern Living’, a book-cum-DVD all about Han and his wide range of work. A monograph as they say. It’s been a while in the making, but it’s all yours now. Check out Submarine Channel for more info.

And if you like the darker side of Han’s work, you should visit his new project, Prostress 2.0, an intriguing series of  ”Daily fresh servings of professional stress”. Different, as they say. 

I like the man. 

I’ve always floated around the music industry in some shape or form and I’ve always been surprised how un-creative the environment (and its output) is; despite the fact that there are so many talented people involved.

When I was commissioning music videos (I still do the odd one), I always felt there were quite a few other ways of translating music into moving image or into a (dirty word coming up) ‘campaign’. But there weren’t many examples and everyone kept making music videos; some great ones, lots of disposable ones.
But it seems the music industry is coming round and is no longer completely averse to exploring non-traditional routes. [Read more]

I was asked to be on the judging panel for the UK Music Video Awards, so I’ve been watching a lot of music videos lately. Always fun.
Because while I totally believe the genre of music video needs a re-think and we should (also) be looking at other ways of promoting music through moving image, there were still a lot of great films in the selection. Most of them you can find on video blog Antville and I’ll post a few links when the UKMVA shortlist is announced, but one I’d forgotten about and was happy to see again was ‘Work It Out’ by RJD2, directed by Joey Garfield for New York outfit Ghost Robot. 

And when I was making friends in our new studio (we moved!) and the guys from Bad Idea magazine gave me a DVD that included this little docu/short, I thought it was time to read up on the Crutch man called Bill Shannon. Talk about creative communication. This guy’s taking dancing/skating/body language to a whole new level. And do read the Artist’s Statement on his website.