Soundtrack of the day here in the Bangkok studio, Mr Off tells us he has some new music for us to jam too. Little did we know it would involve the sexy (and moaning) vibes of Masami Kawahara & The Exotic Sounds. Hot stuff, in many ways…
We recently got an “offer” to work on a large art show revolved around an alcohol brand which I will leave unnamed and have no desire to call them out. This isn’t about one brand, it is about ALL companies that do this. Sadly, we get offers like this on a semi-regular basis. This is a very common practice for companies (same free pitches), and why shouldn’t it? Designers, artists, etc will GIVE their work away for free. Why pay?
When I started out, I would do free work for anyone and everyone. The internet was very young and so was I. I honestly have nothing against the concept of doing free work for small companies, friends, etc. It is how I got my work to reach people across the globe, it is smart sometimes to do free work as you can reach a large audience by doing one small job. In all fairness though, the work I did normally was for indy sites, portals, etc. Not for companies that pull in dollar amounts that we can’t dream of.
When I went to school, our teachers taught us to NEVER do free work. It was something that I quickly forgot about when I needed work for my portfolio, so I could get a “real job.” I would do free work and the jobs would take forever to complete because of constant changes and other disrespectful acts that I will not delve into. It’s free, so maybe its worth nothing? After I finished the nightmare projects, I sure felt like my work was worth nothing and I would never put the work that I did into my portfolio because the “client” directed the work into something I was embarrassed to show.
I will give an example of what I am talking about. Let’s say you are doing a brochure for a small bed and breakfast. Maybe you even know them. It costs $200 dollars a night to stay there and you charge $800 for a brochure. Then you should get around 4 complimentary visits for your work. Would seem fair to me.
But this rant isn’t about tiny companies that struggle to survive, its about large ones that seduce people into thinking they are doing the artists a favor for showing your work. Like they respect your work enough to be associated with you, but not enough to pay you so you can continue to pay rent and do that work. They are NOT doing you a favor, you are doing a whole campaign for them, for free. It’s time for this devaluing practice to stop.
Found this little gem from over at Motionographer. Its always nice seeing shots from a Phantom camera, even if it does involve some pain on the actors/cast’s parts.
Alex Prager has birds attack his models. He chops off their feet. Or maybe it’s just retouching. Regardless, the work is beautiful. See for yourself and thanks to Notcot for the link.
Friday fun time. There is a director, Fan Programs, aka Chris Thrash, on YouTube doing videos for cash requests. I watched a couple but “Pop Lock and Drop It” really takes the cake in my opinion. Check it out.
Really enjoying the work over at Sacred Mtn. Again another artist emerging in this Folk Art meets Glaser style that seems to be all the rage right now in the illustration grass roots art scene. Also nice collection of photos showing work for their latest exhibit on Flickr.
For all who don’t know, what is D-Fuse? D-Fuse was founded by Michael Faulkner in the mid-1990s, D-Fuse is a group of designers and artists working in a trans-disciplinary method with cutting edge technology. Exploring a wide range of creative media, from mobile media, web and print to art and architecture, live A/V performances, TV and film, D-Fuse encourage their audience to reflect on the key relationship between sound and image. They continuously endeavor explore the possibilities of digital art through their desire to develop a unique language for the needs of the digital world.
D-Fuse’s visual art is screened internationally – at Sonar (Barcelona), onedotzero festivals, The V&A Museum (London), Nokia Labs in St Petersburg and Moscow, Mori Arts Center (Tokyo), Eyebeam (NYC), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Prix Ars Electronica (Linz), and the Lisbon and Valencia biennales. D-Fuse have collaborated with ground breaking musicians Scanner and Beck, as well as contemporary classical composers Steve Reich (performed with The London SymphonyOrchestra) and the Italian ensemble Alter Ego (who work with Salvatore Sciarrino and Philip Glass)
Explain this recent tour you’ve been on, what is the project, and how has it progressed as of yet. Surface originates with our interest in cites and how people relate to their surroundings in the urban environment. East Asia is particularly interesting, because cities are very diverse and have been going through great changes over the past few decades. The collaboration with local artists in each city is a key component of the project – it enables us to engage directly with the experiences and concerns of the people who live there, a bit like seeing the city like a local person but with fresh eyes. At the same time the dialogue with these artists requires us to question our own ideas and approaches. Surface is very ambitious, as we are researching each city and create new material in only a few days before performing the latest version of the piece.
How do the multi faceted aspects of your work come together – do the mediums feel separate or do they all remain fluid and connected? Our team with Michael Faulkner and Barnaby Steel creating video and Matthias Kispert for audio, has been working together for a number of years now and we always create sound and video at the same time, so both feed off each other and develop together. They’re pretty much inseparable.
How about the architecture projects? At the moment we’re working on a few public art projects, we’re always interested in redefining spaces. This is also something that happens with our Vjing, working with layers of transparent screens we create temporary architecture.
How do the collaborative projects work? Specifically with Beck? D-Fuse has always been about collaboration, sharing and moulding ideas together. Beck was an interesting project because there was only small amount of collaboration involved, it took us a little while to realize we were going to be left to our own devices with no interference from the record label. Beck was the only person who had input and that was pretty laid back. I only wish we had more time to develop the project, it was a pretty intense deadline. This and the VJ book wiped me out energy-wise.
Do you ever feel that technology limits what you’re trying to do? No but often the machine always wants more RAM or hard drive space. When we started over 10 years ago, you were lucky to make something move on screen, now there are almost too many choices and maybe too many people trying.
What would the work be without limits? What are some technologies that you’d like to see pushed father? I guess our limits are creative time, energy and render time. Funnily enough, I got quite used to those render moments they gave you time to reconsider the edit. Also the good thing about technology is cost is always coming down so you can wait a little while and still have the best set up at a fraction of the cost to high end film industry. We have just brought a Sony EX-1 XDCam tapeless camera. A few years ago that sort of thing would have cost $200,000 today it costs $6000.
VJing has come a long way since its start two decades ago. Where is it going? VJ culture has really spread into different areas in recent years – people who just used to play in clubs now work on art installations, interactive pieces, live cinema, remixes of films for Hollywood studios, or motion graphics and events for the commercial world. The scene is maturing with sub categories – DVJs, A/V, VJs who sample, narrative VJs, Live Cinema/sonic Cinema. Almost like how punk music evolved, a whole variety of music was named ‘punk’, but then you had new genres evolving new wave, Raggae/ska, and early electronica. I think the great thing is it is getting to be known in the public domain, people are now creating music and video on an equal paring.
Will it become consistently more prevalent? Yes, I am surprised considering how much screen based hardware there is out there. I am surprised it has not been more. This is probably because, most of it has been used for advertising and peoples general lack of understanding of VJ culture. Hopefully this is changing.
What is the significance of live video editing… what are its capabilities? Live Video editing is really interesting and more suited to a long VJ club set, where the whole performance is amorphous and evolving. We enjoy these, however our set for Surface is a live cinema (Sonic Cinema), so it has to be based on a timeline that we mix over, in order to cue and combine the audio, which is played with Ableton Live. The video is a mixture of edited clips that are either tempo controlled on a Pioneer DVJ1000 and video clips on Macbook Pro using modl8 or VDMX.
What are the downfalls of the medium? Endless back ups and Filling. Mike Figgis says in his book on digital filmmaking “with the digital age, he has become a filling clerk/ film maker.”
What are you most afraid of? Realizing no one is really in control of the planet, just lots of power struggles and maybe we’re f*cked environmentally.
Have you seen Alien Vs. Predator Requiem (AVPR) and would you suggest watching it? No, but my friend went to see it instead of Beowulf (which is a terrible film). He said the feeling in the cinema was how bad it is, the first one was surprisingly ok.
Advice for life? Do some shit jobs first, then try not sucked into the money break away and you’ll appreciate creative freedom later on in life. Also everyone should visit a third world country to put your life in perspective and see how lucky you are.
Favorite Websites? http://www.globalrichlist.com/
Is there anything else you would like say, what have you been thinking about? Tax avoidance of the super rich, I heard a program on the radio about this, (the UK is a tax heaven) they mentioned if they paid their proper percentage this would be enough cash to resolve global warming! Not sure how they worked this cost out but still interesting.
Have you ever had a reptile as a pet? Yes, a terrapin.
This collection of graphic design by Bonifacio Pontonio is all kinds of exciting.
Tis is a pretty dope little system for the RSS of MSNBC called Spectra. While I don’t think it quite works yet (each article, new window) its a unique and enjoyable experience (for some?) for gathering your news. I think its great for the iPhone generation who enjoy transitions, some life like attitude to their data interactions. But on the other hand, theres an audience who just wants to get to the raw basic (Google?), skip all the bells and whistles who would find this system extremely annoying. Either way, nice progressive idea to loading RSS visually and interactive. Now lets make it where I can add my own RSS so I can see YouWorkForThem rock out in it.
Our buddy Steve has a show coming up at the Lazy Dog in Paris starting in June. It will then travel onto other cities this year (Berlin, Milan & Barcelona). Sounds like a nice one, details here.
