I just stumbled across Matthew Cusick. He creates stunning visuals from re-appropriated sources. For instance, here are some collages he’s made from maps:
And here are some beautiful flowering car crashes from magazine clippings:
You can see more of his work at his website: www.mattcusick.com
Been thinking about flying a lot. And this made my day:
Which comes from this video, opening the Pictoplasma Festival 2011 in Berlin:
Which reminded me of this video that I did a few years ago:
Paper Rival - “Bluebird”; dir: Isaac Ravishankara
Listening to Nouvelle Vague today.
[Nouvelle Vague is a French musical collective led by musicians Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux. Their name is a play on words, meaning “new wave” in French, and “bossa nova” (new trend) in Portuguese. This refers simultaneously to their “Frenchness” and “artiness” (the ’60s new wave of cult French cinema), the source of their songs (all covers of punk rock, post-punk, and New Wave songs), and their use of ’60s bossa nova-style arrangements.] - from Wikipedia
And remembered this scene from the classic French nouvelle vague film Bande à part:
Because of this clip - where Nouvelle Vague had covered The Lords of the New Church’s song “Dance With Me” and set it to the scene:
And then there is this “remixed” version of this scene for a Diesel campaign a little while ago:
Which reminded me of why I love Nouvelle Vague so much in the first place - in the way they take dated music, in a dated style, and make it new.
“Transfinite” by Ryoji Ikeda at the Park Avenue Armory.
This installation was amazing.
Another addition to my post about GIF-based videos:
Wiley - “Numbers in Action”; dir: Us
I feel like the “one shot video” is something most people should only really do once. Unless you’re Gondry of course. Me, I’m saving mine - one shot, one light, camera doesn’t move, and the whole thing is edited. Stay tuned…
Here’s a big post about GIF’s. (pronounced “jiff”, although fellow music video director Keith Schofield half-disagrees).
Anyway, here’s a link to some commercial spots he just did.
But what interests me in GIF culture (is that a thing?) is the repetitive forward-backness, and how it makes you feel as animation. Here are two examples:
One, based on live footage:
Thee Oh Sees - “Meat Step Lively”; dir: Brian Lee Hughes and Ada Bligaard SØby
And another that I like a whole heckuva lot more by new friend Bryan Schlam:
Kitten - “Chinatown”; dir: Bryan Schlam
What’s really cool is Bryan went ahead and MADE a bunch of GIF’s from his video for people to post. So I’m doing that too: 
See them all over at Bryan’s BLOG.
See also: http://gifsofpopularrappers.tumblr.com/
These photos are from a campaign that photographer Dustin Humphrey did for the company Insight called “Dopamine”. I found out about this from another surf photographer (I forget his name) who I sat next to on a plane once flying out of LA. He knew Humphrey, and was looking at some prints of this series.
Reminded of these by a really great visual/narrative idea that Bonnie had the other day. So crazy. So good. Hot damn.
The work that Kagen Schaefer is creating in Denver is some of the most beautiful ever. An amazing combination of art and craft. Look at this desk! Unbelievable.
Each pipe on the back is “played” by opening and closing one of these drawers on the front:
When a specific sequence is played, a secret compartment unlocks. And that sequence is programmable. And the kicker: every single element of desk - from the logic board to each screw - is made entirely of wood. I’m floored.
Read more about the project here.
The Perry Bible Fellowship by Nicholas Gurewitch is one of my favorite comics ever. So clever and funny, but also the artwork is beautiful. These were a few of my favorites.
