Help Save Defenestration, A Piece of San Francisco

Filed Under Art, SF Bay Area | 2010-02-22, 17:29

When I first moved to San Francisco, it wasn’t long before I found myself in front of Defenestration, admiring the flying furniture. It was one of those things that made me go “wow, there’s some really cool stuff in San Francisco, this city is great!” It wasn’t until recently that I truly realized the size of the impact this piece had on the community of San Francisco when it was built 13 years ago. Simone Davalos has a great write up on Laughing Squid about the piece and many of the people involved. I highly recommend a read.

That said, Defenestration is in danger. Many of the pieces had to be removed due to safety issues and repairing and replacing these pieces to restore the awesomeness of Defenestration is going to cost money. There’s a drive right now to raise the necessary $75,000 in order to save the piece. Donations are tax-deductible as they are sponsored by the Black Rock Arts Foundation. I urge you to donate whatever you can to help save this piece.

There is also going to be a fundraising/exhibit opening on Friday, March 5th from 6-10pm at the 1:AM Gallery. If you miss the party, you can still catch the exhibit on Defenestration through April 2nd, 2010. Please donate to help preserve some of the art that makes San Francisco what it is.

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Check out Zivity – 30 days for free

Filed Under Art, Photography, Websites | 2010-02-22, 15:56


The internet is awash in adult content, we all know that. And there’s a lot of just plain crap out there that was made to make a buck. But occasionally the adult content mixes with art and something great comes out of it. Zivity is one of those examples.

For those not familiar, Zivity is a site where photographers and models get together and shoot some amazing photos. The site is decidedly Not Safe For Work (NSFW), so go check it out when you’re at home. Just to be clear, you’re not going to find your run of the mill porn there. Zivity encourages “photographs of women that promote their beuaty, show them respect, and meet [their] standards of tastefulness”. One of my favorite things about Zivity is the way their revenue is handled. Rather than paying a flat fee to photographers and models and then making bank off of their shoots indefinitely, they pay the photographers and models based on votes. As a user of the site, you buy votes for $1 a piece and you can then vote on your favorite models and photographers. For me personally, it’s a small way that I can help friends make a little bit of money making the art that they enjoy. The pretty pictures are an added bonus!

So enough of the sales pitch type talk. For the record I don’t currently receive any commission on anything from Zivity (other than an account on the site), but I recommend it to people who are into this sort of thing. Cyan, the founder of Zivity, was kind enough to offer free 30 day trial accounts to readers. All you have to do is email geeked@zivity.com and ask nicely for an invite.

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A Brief History of Pretty Much Everything (in Stop Motion)

Filed Under Art, Video | 2010-02-11, 14:13

For his final piece in an art course, Jamie Bell (an art student from the UK) made a flipbook video titled “A Brief History of Pretty Much Everything”. It’s comprised of 2100 pages of pen doodles and took roughly 3 weeks to complete. It chronicles several key moments in the history of the universe, including an important one at 1:35.

via Giannii

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Call the Mayor Day – Feb 9th, 2010

Filed Under Art, Events, SF Bay Area | 2010-02-09, 14:41

I moved to San Francisco because of the art scene and the amount of all around fun you can have in this city. I now call SF my home for both me and my business. Unfortunately there is currently a “War on Fun” that is attacking the venues and events in our city. It is slowly chipping away at what makes San Francisco unique.

On Tuesday, February 8th you are invited to make your voice heard and help stop the tearing apart of the essence of San Francisco. From the Facebook event:

Before you say no, read this article.
http://sfappeal.com/culture/2010/01/whats-shaking-down-sf-venues-call-the-mayor-day-thats-what.php

Call Gavin Newsom and tell him we do not want our clubs and venues raided by the police department, and we seek better solutions to preserve SF Venues, Arts & Culture. Be sure to remind him you are a registered voter in the city of San Francisco.

Telephone: (415) 554-6141
Fax: (415) 554-6160
Email: gavin.newsom@sfgov.org

Many thanks to Debra Walker, candidate for dist 6 Supervisor for this idea, presented at Flux Summit on Jan 21, 2010 at the “What’s Shaking Down SF Venues” panel.

In addition to encouraging people to call from home, my friend Ani Niow is also a temporary phone booth being setup in front of City Hall that you can use to call Gavin from his doorstep.

If you’re not sure what to say, metaphorge has a good list of talking points.

image via SFAppeal

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The Matrix Bullet Scene In Lego Stop Motion

Filed Under Art, Movies and Music, Video | 2009-11-25, 13:46

I love stop motion and I love Legos. LegoMatrix put them together to recreate the classic roof-top bullet-time scene from The Matrix. The accuracy with which they’ve recreated this defining scene is amazing. They took each frame of the 44 seconds of this scene and recreated it with as much accuracy as Legos would allow, and then some. While the video itself is amazing, even more impressive is the “behind the scenes” of how they actually put it all together. Building camera rigs, figuring out all the tricks they’d have to do to make it accurate, let alone what Lego pieces to choose!

scene12_4f

By the way, you can check their accuracy below:

Well done guys!!

via Great White Snark via Geekologie

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In Bb 2.0: A YouTube Collaboration

Filed Under Art, Websites | 2009-05-14, 11:43

In Bb 2.0

Want to make your own ambient Kutiman mixes? Thanks to the work of Darren Solomon of Science For Girls and several YouTube contributors you can (as long as you like Bb). The project is called “In Bb 2.0″ and can be found at www.inbflat.net.

Darren put out a call for people to post YouTube videos of them playing instruments (or singing) in Bb major. He gave some guidelines on what works best, but left it open for people to be creative. The result is incredibly fun. You can play all of the videos at once, or just a few. Try playing a couple, and then bring in a few more, adjust the volume, start/stop, etc. The resulting sound has an incredibly pleasant ambient quality. Rather than a mash up where things were forced together, it flows incredibly well regardless of which video you play and when you start playing it. I’m also very fond of the spoken word video.

If you want to contribute to the video, Darren outlines the guidelines on the site. He’s not putting every video up because he wants to maintain the feel of the project. I agree with his choice as I’m not sure Rap Chop would really work.

via Jaku

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Zenta’s A-Pod Hexapod Robot

Filed Under Art, Geek, Video | 2009-04-08, 12:35

After seeing the video of Zenta’s hexapod in action I just had to share it. It’s design, fluid movement, and lifelike qualities make it absolutely beautiful. The video just had me saying “wow” every few seconds whether it was picking up a can of soda and not getting thrown off balance, or being dexterous enough to pour a glass of water. As my friend Neil put it, “This robot is so lifelike, it will either have you cooing with delight or running away screaming.”

The creator, Zenta, is no stranger to hexapods or robots, having quite the robot family. If you’re more interested in the construction and parts of the A-Pod, check out his post which is chock full of great photos and how-to info.

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YouTube Remixed Into Awesome by Kutiman

Filed Under Art, Movies and Music, Video | 2009-03-04, 13:27

Thru-You

Sorry for the reblog, but I had to share this. DocPop guest posted this over on Laughing Squid:

Thru-You is the new album by Israeli funk musician Kutiman. All of the album’s sounds were painstakingly culled from YouTube videos and masterfully mixed into 7 fantastic tracks. It’s like the “Entroducing…” of the internet! Hurry over to Thru-You.com to watch these amazing videos where you can also find the original links to all the sampled tracks by clicking the “credits” button.

Excuse me while I pick up my jaw from the floor. Absolutely amazing stuff! Go check it out

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Timescale: A Call For Artists

Filed Under Art, Burning Man | 2009-02-28, 14:06

Timescale

Timescale is an art project of great magnitude. A mile long, with 27 concrete columns over 6′ high, and a variety of artwork, this piece will be a scaled representation of the history of the Earth. It’s being created by Ardent Heavy Industries, the not-fire-art parent group to Interpretive Arson, which means the people that brought you Dance Dance Immolation and 2pir are working on it. I’m very much involved with this project (guess who did the website?) and highly recommend anyone that wants their art to be on display at Burning Man (and who knows where else) to submit a proposal. You only have until March 18th to get your proposal submitted, so don’t wait! Here’s the official “Call for Artists”:

We are now accepting proposals for all 27 Timescale chapter columns!

Timescale is a journey through 4.57 billion years of planet Earth’s geological and biological evolution, extended across one mile (5280 feet) of open playa. Beginning with the formation of the Earth from a cloud of gas and dust, participants will traverse through time — advancing two million years with each footstep, culminating at the present day.

Twenty-seven chapters in Earth’s growth are highlighted along the way, allowing participants to appreciate the transformation of our planet and the exponential complexity of living things. Each chapter will be marked by an 8-inch square column rising from the playa surface. The 6.5-foot tall column holds a clear box that contains a sculptural representation pertaining to that period of time.

We are actively looking for artists to create column sculptures. Pieces should evoke an event, creature or other aspect of the chosen chapter’s unique story. We will provide a well-lit clear display box eight inches wide and deep, and twelve inches tall. Electricity will be available for your installation if coordinated in advance.

For more information about this Burning Man art project, including display details, a list of chapters, and an artist proposal submission form, please visit the Timescale web site at: http://www.timescaleproject.com

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Dracul: Prince of Fire, a Fire Ballet

Filed Under Art, Fire Art, SF Bay Area | 2009-01-09, 16:44

Last night we gathered with a large number of friends for the second performance of “Dracul: Prince of Fire” at The Crucible. We’ve been to several of the previous fire ballets and knew that the tickets were worth every penny. Apparently so did the rest of the Bay Area as the performance quickly sold out.

For those that aren’t familiar, The Crucible is an Oakland based non-profit organization that encourages collaboration of Arts, Industry and Community through training in the fine and industrial arts. You can take classes there on topics such as welding, neon, jewelry making, wood carving, fire dancing, and more. This fire ballet is a celebration/fund-raiser for their 10th year in existence. With your ticket purchase you will get a wonderful show, plus you’ll be helping a great organization.

The show itself was amazing from start to finish. I’m not a fan of ballet personally, but as readers know, I love me some fire. And there was plenty of fire for the evening. I don’t want to give away any parts of the show, but it had me applauding both the performers as well as the people behind the fabrication. In addition there was a lot of amazing aerial performances as well as humorous nods to popular culture.

I highly recommend going if you get the chance. I would recommend wearing warm clothes however, as it is held inside The Crucible’s warehouse, which is not know for its warmth. People will give you envious looks (rather than weird ones) should you bring a warm blanket. The show runs Jan 7th-10th and Jan 14th-17th. There are still several nights left at varying ticket prices, but they will sell out. For more info, check out the page on The Crucible.

The following trailer for Dracul uses footage from previous performances to give you an idea of what to expect:

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