coolness blog

Sesame Street, Style & Semiotics

nobody@vox.com(erikadalya) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 12:59:25 -0800

Christian Louboutin's Alpaca Lamb Clutch

The fashion set has named this sea green clutch “Oscar the Grouch”. How apropos! Too much fun to see a few of my favorite things—Christian Louboutin and vintage Sesame Street—converge in faddism. Anyone who recalls the classic Sesame Street segment and song “Me and my llama” (about a Manhattan girl who takes her pet llama for a dental cleaning) can concur how alluringly absurd this alpaca bag is. It’s so deliciously unbeautiful. It’s so wrong its right. And with a little wear and tear it will most assuredly become classically tacky and look more like a Yip Yip than Oscar the Grouch.

Yip Yips

Oscar the Grouch

Fashion will always be enthralled with the unconventional and I particularly adore items that have a distinctive harmony and charm. Look closely and you’ll see the double mini heel clasp. Clever! Objects like this beg for a semiology of the ugly. The Lithuanian linguist Algirdas Julius Greimas (a buddy of Roland Barthes) contributed to the theory of semiotics. He introduced the “semiotic square” as a means of mapping the key semantic oppositions in a text or practice.

The semiotic square

Visual semiotician Daniel Chandler offers an apt description of Greimas’ semiotic square that can be applied to jolie laide moments in fashion. If we begin by drawing horizontal lines pairing the terms “beautiful” and “ugly”, we can turn this into a “semiotic square” by designating the lower corners of the square “not ugly” and “not beautiful”. Hence, according to Chandler (as he understands Greimas), the semiotic square reminds us that this is not simply a binary opposition because something which is not beautiful is not necessarily ugly and something which is not ugly is not necessarily beautiful. Whew. Maybe I’ll teach a class on that someday.

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Kashmere Stage Band

nobody@vox.com(erikadalya) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 11:30:32 -0800

Kashmere stage band promotional poster

Kashmere by the Kashmere Stage Band

Arguably the best high school musicians and composers of their time, the Kashmere Stage Band, from the mid 1960s through the 70s, set the bar for student music groups across the country. Kashmere High School is located in Kashmere Gardens, a predominantly black neighborhood in the north end of Houston, Texas. In an effort to sustain his music program and create opportunities for his students, bandleader and Professor Conrad O. Johnson sought to build not just the best high school stage band in Texas, but the best high school stage band in the world. The rhythmic sophistication and earthy quality of KSB’s music is evident in the reproach of the arrangements written by Johnson and his band members. Grooving onstage in platforms and crushed velvet suits to popular audiences, between 1968 and 1978 KSB recorded eight studio albums of original funk fused with jazz accompaniment. And, despite a changing roster of students, KSB came to be considered one of the best funk bands ever. I’ve always been drawn to the jazzy atmospheric chic characteristic of 1960s and 70s film scores. KSB’s music anchors the breeziness that I prefer with complex soul influences to produce smoother rhythms that transcend the party beats with which popular funk is primarily associated. The band’s unique funk idiom remains impossible to imitate and the group’s peerless sound is popular among producers and deejays today.

The band in Osaka

An auditorium crowd

Professor Conrad O. Johnson

A KSB drummer

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Film Review: Helvetica

nobody@vox.com(erikadalya) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 15:55:02 -0800

helvetica noun

1. a typeface in which characters have no serifs [syn: sans serif]

Helvetica (2007), directed by Gary Hustwit.

For me, Ray Gun magazine (1992-2000) was an addiction. Through its experimentation with typographic design, this alternative music publication wasn’t always readable, but I loved its individual, frenzied, abstract style. It was a magazine that flew in the face of the employment of monotonal types like the omnipresent helvetica that millions of people see and use everyday. I’m sure you’ve seen it a couple of times today already: on the subway, on a restaurant menu, and in those cheeky American Apparel ads.

Helvetica featured in American Apparel ad

The documentary Helvetica dissects the visual world through the history of this pervasive font. Directed by Gary Hustwit, the film studies the proliferation of the Helvetica typeface (which celebrated its 50th birthday this year) in a discursive manner. Hustwit examines typography, graphic design, and illustration culture as part of a larger conversation about the manner in which graphic design and type affect our lives.

Subway in New York

The film features interviews with numerous design icons who consider the prospect of helvetica playing a major role in the apparent globalization of our visual culture. David Carson, the former graphic designer of Ray Gun who currently helms dcd studio, feels that typography should be expressive. However Massimo Vignelli, who has designed corporate identity programs for American Airlines, Bloomingdales, Knoll, and Xerox (among others) feels that typeface design should be legible—that its not about the notes, but the space in between. Vignelli believes typeface should be legible and discharges those who, “feel that when they write dog it should bark.” Information architect Erik Spiekermann calls himself a typomaniac and indicts helvetica as, “a ubiquitous default, its air, you have to breathe so you have to use it.” The thing that makes helvetica unique is that the font invites open interpretation and can wear any association attached to it—similar to the manner in which a mannequin dons a new dress.

Helvetica
2007, UK, 80 minutes
Produced and Directed by Gary Hustwit
Swiss Dots, in association with Veer
High-Definition Digital Video

Poster commemorating Helvetica's 50th anniversary

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THE FINE ART OF VJing – PART TWO (microambience)

nobody@vox.com(erikadalya) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 12:06:35 -0800

Still from Benton-C's DarkStar

Emerging trends in visual ambience have always intrigued me. As a child I was titillated by light and sound shows that were the mainstay of any planetarium experience. Experimental in their technique and narrative, music and light immersions continue to excite because they render subjectivity uncertain. When one experiences an AV set at a concert, the experience is thoroughly communal.

Bronx-based artist/designer/educator Benton-C Bainbridge is one of the world's better-known VJs. His work can be seen in the current Beastie Boys tour at a stadium near you or in galleries, festivals, and museums as Benton-C and Bobby Previte tour their audiovisual duo "Dialed In.”

An early innovator of the emergent 'visuals' movement, Benton-C uses custom digital, analog, and optical systems. He has performed, screened, streamed, broadcast, and installed video all over the world and co-founded the visual performance collaboratives The Poool, 77 Hz, NNeng (as 'Valued Cu$tomer'), Lord Knows Compost, and Stackable Thumb.

As Eyebeam Atelier's inaugural Education Fellow, Benton-C is co-piloting "VJ-U," a program to teach visual performance.

Name: Benton-C Bainbridge

Profession: video artist/designer/educator (aka VJ)

City of Birth: Cleveland, OH

Tell us about your current project: "Dialed In" is a live video and music duo with Bobby Previte. Bobby plays all the music on an electronic drum kit, in real time. He makes his music out of samples from his extensive CD releases, of animal cries, his young daughter, or phone calls to his doctor... all played live, without loops or overdubbing. It all comes out sounding like alien rock, if you can imagine the Cantina house band gone hardcore. I make the video live in a similar style, 'collaging' with samples grabbed from my archives (often warped beyond recognition) which I play with VDMX and layer with my custom video system. We performed at the Lincoln Center SCANNERS Festival and we showed Dance Hall Mécanique at the Dallas Video Festival. Our DVD of 14 music movie 'songs' will come out in 2008. Check it out at: http://www.benton-c.com/dialedin.htm

Veteran VJ Benton-C Bainbridge (l) and composer Bobby Previte (r)

Benton-C and Previte live at the Issue Project Room, NYC

Where do you find your inspiration? Everywhere! I just open my eyes and ears. These days I'm most inspired by The Bronx, just walking around and taking in all the people and places. And, I'm fed up with the Bush/Cheney fear regime, so I'm feeling inspired to make some angry video.

What's the one thing that everyone must know about you? I'm best known for my live visual performances, but these days I spend more time making work for exhibition - in installations, single channel works, or to be performed by someone else (as with the current Beastie Boys tour visuals).

What is your most treasured possession? My body (including, and especially, my mind).

What is your morning routine? My alarm, or my son, or the sun awakes me. I make myself a quadruple espresso and add milk if I have it in the fridge.

Passion or permanence? There are no permanent passions. Although, once I really feel strongly about something, the passion sticks with me for a very, very long time...

Are you addicted to anything? Anyone? I have a weakness for nicotine, although parenthood has made it much easier for me to keep it under control.

What was your biggest break? I was grateful when The Poool had the Whitney Museum at Altria's best-attended show ever. I suppose the largest audiences I've enjoyed have been for the Beastie Boys.

What is your favorite junk food? Chocolate anything.

What's on your iPod? When video iPods finally came out, I bought two and loaded them up with video for shows (and pictures of my son). I used them for a couple months and wasn't happy with the image quality or clumsy playback control so I sold them. Mainly I miss iPods cuz’ I don't have any wallet-size prints of my kid. However, I do have a huge collection of mp3s of all genres. But I can narrow it all down to just one song for my Deserted Island exile: "A Rainbow In Curved Air" by Terry Riley.

Do you recycle? And if so, what? I constantly recycle my own work. I'm big into 'reduce' and 'reuse' too. New York is still a great place for dumpster diving and sidewalk treasures.

What's your favorite website? www.operator11.com

Discretion or disclosure? I'm honest to a fault, but others secrets are safe with me.

When and where are you happiest? Creating, everywhere.

I would love to work with: A fulltime a/v 'big band' that rehearses three times a week. Everyone would play little parts that would mesh together to make polyrhythmic audiovisuals. This seems impossible to do in New York these days... everyone's too busy trying to make money.

You'll be shocked to find out I've never: ...watched much TV, seen many movies, or played many video games as a consumer. I like music and books much better than motion pictures.

The last book I read was: Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson.

Do you have a side hustle? And if so, what is it? Nope! I'm a one-trick pony; it's all about the pixels with me. However, I manage to do a lot of very different projects so I'm never bored.

Historical figure you'd like to have met? Hmm, may I please just time-travel back to watch some of my favorite art being made? If I had to pick only one session... perhaps John and Yoko making “Revolution 9”.

If I weren't an artist, I'd probably be: Rumspringa or Anabaptist.

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CHINA: Sustainable Development

nobody@vox.com(erikadalya) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 09:59:37 -0800

Lisa at a project site

My current civic work involves the planning and design of a multimedia center devoted to the urban arts whose programmatic curriculum focuses on new technologies, workforce development, and social entrepreneurship.
Hence, I am seriously invested in sustainable development projects for underserved communities. To this end, I’m introducing into my blog people and subjects that traverse my research interests in urban policy and design, the arts, and government/community relations. One of my fellow colleagues, Lisa Norton, is engaged in designing common programs that impact economies—the flows of people, traffic, and goods. A member of the faculty at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago since 1992, Norton teaches in the Departments of Architecture, Interior Architecture and Designed Objects, and the Department of Sculpture. Norton’s work in public design focuses on creating traditional and local markets for local resources and she currently has a project underway in Cleveland, Ohio. Additionally her development, Systems for Slow(er) Structures, is a research base for collaborations between sustainable architectural practices and unique indigenous knowledge.

Neighborhood in Fujian Province

Development Project in Fujian Province #2

Development Project in Fujian Province #1

Locally, this project aims to promote economic and social well being of families in Southeastern Fujian Province, China, within the larger objective of environmental sustainability.

Globally, Norton’s community collaborations aim to make available endangered systems of knowledge and integrate crafts, regional livelihoods, and technologies that relate to local economies and migration.

Local residents in Fujian Province

Artisan Projects

Learning from China

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Backstage @ Oscar de la Renta, Spring 2008

nobody@vox.com(erikadalya) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 15:23:08 -0700

Agyness Backstage

The backstage scene during fashion week is a remarkably dynamic experience. Preparations for the spectacle of a designer as revered as de la Renta requires the succinct organization and the work of hundreds of people including design assistants, hair stylists, makeup artists, dressers, models, manicurists, pedicurists, and musicians. The Polyphonic Spree rock choir was apt accompaniment for the location of the show: the famed 583 Park Avenue, home of the former Third Church of Christ, Scientist at 63rd Street.

Featured today is my personal photo diary of the elegant behind-the-scenes mêlée of Oscar de la Renta’s somewhat safari-inspired Spring 2008 collection.

Mr. de la Renta’s collection for next spring featured:

• Accessories in alligator, python, and lizard skins.

• In terms of color, intoxicating tones of cognac, shiny patents, and gold and bronze metallics were balanced by neutral pigments in olive, beige, ecru, white, and anthracite.

• Texture abounded throughout the collection and perforation and natural straw were featured on footwear. Additionally, there were also crocheted suits, hand-knit silk cardigans, and navy and crimson boucles.

• The designer’s customary formality and gloss was featured in his use of satin, silk shantung, faille, chiffon, organza, and chine taffeta.

Spring 2008 Collection

Mr. de la Renta backstage

Makeup by Pat McGrath

Dresser channels Chanel

Dresser in pouf skirt

Makeup prep

Turquoise Silk Shantung Gown

The girls line up backstage

A Final Look

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THE FINE ART OF VJing – PART ONE

nobody@vox.com(erikadalya) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 18:46:16 -0700

Art Jones

Art Jones

I met Art Jones back when I was a baby curator in the mid-90s and he was part of the progressive video collective Not Channel Zero. It might serve to mention that the essay I penned on this collective of guerilla documentarians of the African Diaspora experience got me admitted into the Ph.D. program in Cinema Studies at New York University. In the Q&A below, you can see that Art refers to himself as a sometime Professor, but I have always been struck by the vivid intellectualism he articulates not only in conversation (I always leave the dialogue feeling smarter), but in his expert video mixing which I’ve experienced on many an occasion. First, lets cover the basics: What is a VJ? A VJ is a performance artist. And, if we were to define it in less superlative, layman’s terms, it refers to a live performer of visuals in clubs, music festivals, and arts events. Employing video mixers, they are the guys mixing and scratching and improvising the cool visuals (via projected light) on screens in the background—in much the same way the DJ mixes music. Coolness. I’ve always been a film junkie, I love everything about screen culture—its all about the retina and immersion for me. The cool thing about Art is that he works in a variety of old and new media interfaces and video mixes in the US and abroad. He works in film, digital video, and hybrid media and, as VJ, he has performed with Soundlab, DJ Spooky (That Subliminal Kid), Amiri Baraka, Femmes with Fatal Breaks, and the Anti-Pop Consortium. Currently he is working on an installation project titled SELECTOR, which adopts the concept of the “selector,” so named in Jamaica, beginning in the 1960s, as the careful chooser of music. The selector held the most important role at public and private parties with his/her continuity of rhythm and the ebb and flow of the party at his/her control.

The Fine Art of VJing

Name: Art Jones
Profession: Media Artist, and sometime Professor
City of Birth: New York City
Tell us about your current project: I'm shooting and coding for an installation project called SELECTOR.
Where do you find your inspiration? I get inspired through obsessive media watching and people-engaging. and music of course.
What’s the one thing that everyone must know about you? I've been told that I'm smooth on the virtual turntables.
What is your most treasured possession? Only one most treasured possession? OK, my original copy of Subway Art by Martha Cooper.
What is your morning routine? Wake Up (alas!). Shower. Grab breakfast and eat in the park. Check email and news. Exciting!
Passion or permanence? I have a lot of passion FOR performance! I guess I will have to say passion.
Are you addicted to anything? Anyone? Image-making and diasporic music scenes. Hmmm...
What was your biggest break? Interviewing hip-hop activist and media assassin Harry Allen.
What is your favorite junk food? Those Japanese chewy fruit candies. You know the ones that are ten times better than starbursts?
What’s on your iPod? My last subway ride I listened to: Big Audio Dynamite’s “Medicine Show,” “Mind Playin' Tricks On Me,” by the Geto Boys, Lee Scratch Perry’s “SDI,” Gil Scott-Heron’s “Who'll Pay Reparations On My Soul,” Dawn Penn’s classic “No, No, No (You Don’t Love Me),” “The Magnificent Seven” by The Clash, “Native Yard #133345” by Teleseen, and I watched some Democracy Now podcast.
Do you recycle? And if so, what? I recycle the images and sounds I encounter.
What’s your favorite website? Today its flickr.com and livesinfocus.org/prison/
Discretion or disclosure? I will disclose if you are discreet.
When and where are you happiest? When I feel balance in my life and I taste freedom.
I would love to work with: All of my past collaborators, MF Doom, Kool Keith, M.I.A., Bad Brains, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Don Letts, Phase 2, Hybrid Groove Project, Spank Rock, Princess Superstar, and for the many who are no longer with us, R.I.P.
The last book I read was: A Portrait of the Artist as a DJ. Notes on Ina Wudtke.
Do you have a side hustle? And if so, what is it? I sometimes freelance as a photographer and cinematographer.
Historical figure you’d like to have met? Walter Rodney
If I weren’t an artist, I’d probably be a(n): A version of my former troubled youth!

A select from SELECTOR

A select from SELECTOR-2

A select from SELECTOR-3

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GLAMOUR Magazine's Top 10 College Women in America

nobody@vox.com(erikadalya) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 12:54:29 -0700

In 1993, Erika became a Glamour Magazine Top 10 College Women honoree. This year Glamour celebrated the 50th anniversary of the college women competition with a luncheon presented by L’ORÈAL PARIS. As a distinguished alum, Erika was featured in a video to commemorate the competition’s past history.

Erika's GLAMOUR Video, 2007

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