think demux

A lovely photoblog post over at Fubiz triggered this spot of digging.

Ryan Cashman shot his light-paint piano player in San Diego. High five to Ryan!

This was a live performance by AntiVJ Lab in Bridwell Prison, Bristol, earlier this year.

And the best I’ve found so far are Japanese crew PIKAPIKA. Unfortunately, all their most high-res work is on Revver and I’ve not cracked the embedding yet.

If you’ve got time, you should really check it out here.

Alexander Kosolapov, now based in New York, was born in Moscow.

His assaults on icons and commodity fetishism straddle these two axes with great intelligence and provocation.

(More on Alexander Kosolapov at Designboom.)

The twin dolls in this photographic series by German artist Monica Menez are heading to a picture postcard Russia.

(Via the beautiful blog We Make Money Not Art.)

From 1992 to 1994, Alexey Titarenko shot City of Shadows in St. Petersburg. His long black and white exposures dislodge time and the results are truly moving (via).

So - from Russia, to Russia, of Russia. A country that inspires, agitates and haunts, casting its spectral shadow over the 20th century.

I’d love to visit. And I hope these artists set you off on a journey of your own.

What are the Olympics?

Even in this age of media splintering, they’re a festival of global hypnosis. Each one, in time, becomes a cultural artefact.

Without resorting to a Google, I can’t tell you anything about Mexico ‘68. Apart from the fact it had a great logo.

Beijing 2008 is already crafting its legacy. PR disaster leads the pack. After events in Paris and London (to name just two of the incidents), it’s going to take a spectacular recovery to turn things around. And that’s before we’ve even heard a starter’s gun.

But whatever the political obstacles, for an Olympics to get off on the B of the BANG it needs well-honed branding. Here, notoriously, London 2012 false-started.

You can check out 100 years of high-performance Olympic design if you’re in London this weekend. And wherever you are in the world, events in Beijing this summer will eventually find their place in your cultural memory.

Recommended: What is the World Cup? Eric Hobsbawn’s thoughts on ‘Nations and Nationalism in the New Century’.

ROJO®tv is now switched on. Broadcasting via internet from an HQ in Catalonia.

The “consortium” run visual rackets from Milan, São Paulo and Barcelona.

And with the quality coming out of Spain and Brazil in particular, you could almost shrug at this site for being excellent all over.

But it’s a hot day on the beach.

The video content is beautiful. The sun’s out. It’s worth having a bask. Warmed up a few ideas for me. 

No one cares that Superman’s dead. Did you spot him in Chris Ware’s illustration?

Foot on the ground in big city, there are millions of things you don’t notice. Most are banal. Some incidental. A few, tragic.

But you keep on keeping on. As long as it’s not your tragedy. Tough luck for Icarus (he’s kissing the fishes, bottom right).

No doubt cursing himself on a design oversight. Wax for wings? To the sun?

That’s not the style of a Renaissance man. Gotta see outside the grid to plough on in the big city.

These little outfits are, in order, Structurosa Script, Xtrude, Letra Libre and Brikd.

All are fonts designed by real-life, non-naked people using FontStruct. A real doll of a site. (via Slashdot.)

I’m prettying up a beautiful Q for the new Chester Draws typeface. Anyone else had a crack at making their own font?

Want to share?

It’s September 1973, in Paris. You’re on a connection to catch the Orient Express.

What sound does that train make?

Paul Theroux described it as frseeeeeefronnnng.

Not “woosh”. Not “choo-choo!” It’s 1973. Real trains are noisy. But peer into print and it’s a quiet affair. The letters sit in orderly lines in their allocated pages. Not a boo to a goose. Just the odd capital, hat jutting above the crowd.

BOO! Three types of print noise.

1. The Sneak  

Typical of advertising, because he knows he’s unpopular. He’s probably intruding on your conversation, so he has to do it with finesse or you’ll like him even less. As this sneak looks Brazilian it’s unsurprising that he delivers a fun ”BOO!”

2. The Group BOO!

A book cover chorus here - created by Larry Guess using designs by Barnbrook. There are good nights to be had late at the V&A. And when groups worked together they could bring the noise. Ampliflied.

3. ASBOO!

The anti-social BOO! Disturbs you so much you can’t remember what you were thinking, let alone make sense of the words on the page.

Not fun for you. Maybe a photo opp for someone else.

But that’s not what you want. You want a pleasant surprise. And typographers can give you that whenever they get the the sound, and the timing, just right.

On the same train of thought - The Godfather of Sans: James Brown; Test Your Type Knowledge: The Serif; Expert Ear on Wrong Noise: Leland Maschmeyer.

Caffeinated coffee is a stimulant. But look around you the next time you’re in a chain cafe. Listen to the elevator jazz. You’d think they were peddling morphine.

Homestead is a cafe that won’t slip an anaesthetic into your hot cup of joe. Thankfully, it reclaimed its place in Farringdon a few weeks ago. Although it won’t be around for long - and they might sell the chair from under you before you drain your mug.

All the lovingly-curated curios are for sale. Doesn’t that make you stop and think?

The big chain cafes, much like global chains of hotels, strive to give you the feeling that wherever you go you’re in the same place. However fresh and different the world outside, the interior will be familiar. As far as possible, identical.

For the international businessman, jet-lagged with malaise and dizzy with PowerPoints, that’s probably perfect. For everyone else, it’s got all the kick of a glass of Evian.

Homestead will stay on St John’s Street for the next two months. Come and stimulate yourself.