Book Art

In honor of our December birthdays, my Dad recently brought me to a new - to me - art gallery space in Williamsburg, BK:

The Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, on Broadway (in Brooklyn).  The gallery exists within the  Kings County Savings Bank building, built in 1867, which is beautiful but somewhat in need of a touch up.  The founder and curator is Yuko Nii, with whom I was able to speak briefly - as it turns out she is a graduate of Pratt as well, and was extremely gracious and interested in making a connection.

Ironically, the topic of the main gallery space was book art.  This tied in beautifully with my already piqued interest in that new realm of art/design.  In fact I'd posted about it in August and even in July.  The show, of course, pushed the boundaries far past the fairly utilitarian or vaguely decorative examples I'd discussed back then.  The works are intricate and complex, and certainly set my creative wheels in motion.  Perhaps over this winter break I will be able to explore this area a bit more aggressively. 

In the meantime, images from the collection:

These images are taken directly from the gallery's website ...

X Rays: Choosing Your Level of Transparency

As a result of the new TSA XRay capabilities, we all know that there has been a major backlash of public discomfort regarding our privacy and its relationship with our security. 

In reaction, a few new products have sprung up which both poke fun at the controversy and bring further attention to the tension at its root:  Where does our 4th Amendment right come into play within this new realm of intrusive technology?

One company, Flying Pasties, offers adhesive body stickers which block the machines from visual access to a person's private parts while sending messages which range from benign tongue in cheek ("Private" or "Only My Husband Sees Me Naked") to anti-establishment (depicting the middle finger, etc):

Another company, 4th Amendment Wear, has put out products with more demure graphics, but a similar message.  They have a line of underwear for men, women and children, all emblazoned with simple text - either a transcription of the 4th Amendment itself or an admonishment to any 'perverts' who would scan the wearer:

The issue is, of course, a highly charged one.

But even so, I can't help but be inspired by the potential it brings to the design world.  The role of art and design as the champions of human rights seems well rooted in history, and I believe that at least some of this conflict will be played within those fields.

All 'issues' aside, XRay images are just plain cool, and I'm nearly as excited about this new branch of design as I was a few years ago, when black light tattoos began to spring up ...

Invisible in the day but luminescent under black light, the new medium has already been applied in some very cool ways:

There's a transient, privileged nature to both the XRay and black light mediums. 

We Feel Fine

Recently I discovered this astonishing online animated data project called We Feel Fine.


We Feel Fine is a research project by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar. They automated a system that searches blogs globally for the phrase "I feel ..." and then categorizes the emotions or moods represented in that sentence. You can refine the search by gender, age, geography, date, mood -- even by the weather at the time the post was written. Many include images.

It's a jaw-dropping emotional thermometer on a global scale. I find it moving, and often quite funny.

On the We Feel Fine website, you can actually click on the phrases, and it will lead you directly to the poster's blog. It's a wonderful concept in terms of connecting across the world, but it kind of gives me the heebie-jeebies ...



Some of my favorite finds:














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Norway Foray

Two years ago I took a trip to Norway to do some amazing sight-seeing.

This year I get to go again, this time with the focus on meeting up with my Norwegian family.


So I'll be away from the 18th - 29th!


In my place, I leave a collection of some images from the last vacay ...

A sampling of cool Scandinavian design ...

This kids' playground was really awesome; the best part, though, was this station, where there's a free book-sharing system in place!

A bar ... made out of ice ... :)

Some cool graffiti in Bergen ...

And something only I find interesting; the different designs for manhole covers in every city!

Oooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I'll be sure to take zillions more pics on this trip (with possibly less emphasis on the surface beneath my feet).

Plunderin' Books!

As I've mentioned, I have a new obsession with upcycling books -- and I've been ravaging my shelves for fresh victims.

On the carving block (literally) recently was a lovely blue hardcover I knew I'd never read again.
I decided to make my own story ... about sailing on the high seas.

And I used my sharpest knife to tell the tale.

I grabbed small sections of paper at a time, sketched the idea on their back, and carved away...

I liked the sculpted effect, but it still wasn't popping. So I figured it needed a bit of color.

I'm pleased with the blue, but it's still not finished ...

The next questions are: How on Earth am I gonna make a clean cut through that cover? And stick the pages together?

And possibly the hardest part: What the heck am I gonna do with this thing, anyway??

PS: If anyone out there in internet-land takes on this sort of thing, I'd recommend orienting it with the pages down, not up like I did ... then they'd hang down obediently, and I wouldn't be faced with the prospect of glueing (or stapling?) them up individually!

Art From the Future

The institution at which I am a graduate student happens to be home to a
Super Spizzy Neutromatic Space-Age Machine From the Future!




Aka a LASER cutter!
(Link here for a video example!)




Basically, you draw something out on the computer, and then the machine cuts or scores your drawing onto all kinds of stuff; paper, plastic, wood ...

For us school kids, it's meant for making architectural models.

But I'm obsessed with it, and I sneak in and cut allllll kinds of wondrous things ...
(I've even got a mini Etsy page to prove it!)


But recently I was feeling more artsy.

I decided to draw a Chinese painting inspired design and just burn it onto some lovely bass wood I had lying around:

Then I gave 'er a bit of color ...

I really like the way it's looking, and I've already got zillions of ideas for other designs I'd like to do.

Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to hang/frame it yet!