Upgrade

I am looking into upgrading my toolset for future works. The intent is to expand the creative possibilities and generate new work which will allow my imagination to further break through the boundaries of expression. I am doing work with large scale presence in mind such as Fog City I, which is meant to be a large canvas print or long poster. I want art big and overbearing. It should be intimidating sometimes by the sheer enormity of it.

 

Review

Depeche Mode: Playing the Angel: CD

This is the album they should have done after Ultra. Not that I disliked Exciter, but the album was a bit lacking in the catchy rhythms afforded its predecessor. PtA should be considered another stand out CD in the band’s long body of work. David Gahan’s voice still sounds great and the band’s ability to create atmospheres and moods set within a synth-pop framework still delight the imagination. The Mode continues to make music that is hip and emotional.

 

 

Test

 

 

Testing 1 – 2 – 3

 

City in Fog I.

Click image to enlarge.

Part of a study for final product for transfer to t-shirt.

Blogger is giving me upload errors on images. Otherwise there would be a new image in this space. Perhaps I will try later...

On Graffiti...

There is a certain machismo associated with graffiti in that taggers are always trying to outdo one another by posting their art in more and more precarious urban spaces. All the while they're watching out for the police. They are using technology as a means to implement their constructs. Watchers keep post in strategic areas armed with walkie talkie and cellphones to alert for oncoming authorities. Spots are scoped out and analyzed with digital camera revealing best times to tag a certain area with a large scale mural. Graffiti has transcended the realm of the gangbangers and has become a legitimate rebellious international art movement. Taggers are competing with counterparts in other cities. They keep track of their latest work by accessing websites. Major art publishing houses have taken note and have published several books on the subject. However, taggers moving into the mainstream art world seems to be an idea further away from reality more than ever. Gone evidentially is the era of SAMO hanging out with the Warhol crowd and dating Madonna. Today's taggers are more like a secret society competing and collaborating with each other on a global level. And now it is apparent that elements of street art have moved into the graphic design world or vice versa. The proliferation of images enabled by technology continues to spread widely across visual channels, including the t-shirt. Nay, because of the rapid development and transference of a conceptual image on the fly, the t-shirt has indeed become the new graffiti.

If anything there are too many opportunities. Too many ideas to pursue. There is no lacking of vision but a loss of focus so that it makes dedication to one pursuit difficult. In the course of one adventure in capitalism, another presents itself. The mind reels from the ambition to pursue all options against the staggering rapid loss of time. Confusion can set in, or worse, lack of imperative decision making. Technology has empowered the individual who wishes to insert himself into the opportunity stream. There are perils and benefits as there are with any endeavour. One must choose to jump into the stream or sit on the banks and watch the currents wash by...

Record Companies Need to Get Real.

Cut and paste has come to music. Remix is a hobby. And it is legitimate art. Technology empowers the bedroom mixer to create mass market quality music. But there are limits. Extensive sampling of old school music has led to a dearth of hit tunes being cranked out of the R&B/hip hop community. Is there more artistic integrity in remixing say NIN's "Only" than there is in lifting a riff from an old pop tune and building a song around it? There is if you don't take credit for it as this article from Roger Friedman indicates. The record industry would do well to police the theft of intellectual property from artist to artist rather crack down on some college kids swapping sub-par quality MP3s in their dorm room.

The Era of the Starving Artist is Over.

Let us be clear. The era of the "starving artist" is over. The stratification of the art markets has given artists the option to find a niche segment and exploit it for financial gain. At least the ones who know what they're doing. The artist that buys into the anti-capitalist, profit is evil mentality is a fool. The bleeding heart artist, so concerned about social ills, therefore has a moral imperative placed before him to make as much money as possible and then donate some or all of the proceeds to charity if he chooses to do so. This is much more effective than using one's art to complain about the situation. Activist art is waste of time if there is no motive to gain profit from it. With the many channels available to us today, there is no reason one cannot push one's art before the masses. Let the market decide. And let the market pay for art.

Fight the anti-creator with all your will.
Slowly claw your way out of the net.
Escape entanglement.
Struggle for sacrifice.
Dawn of time...can you remember?
Dawn of time...since then it started.
Sensless thought drone in your head.
Prisoner of mind.
Lucidity lies dead.

What am I to say?

That dreams are preferable to reality?

Why speak words when no one can listen?

Why write this when no one can read?

Google's Wi-fi Plan for San Francisco.

Google has plans to offer free wireless Internet access for free to the city of San Francisco. This is a roll out which threatens the current hold on this market space by the telecom industry. Google Wi-fi would be hi-speed and give the company a direct line into consumer’s homes. The bid underscores the threat to traditional telecom companies as their industry is bring restructured to move from land line based to technologies to the Internet. “Free Voice”, as termed by News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch, can achieve ubiquity within 3 years radically changing the competitive field for telecom and cable companies. At this time one-third of U.S. households have broadband connections and more then 50% of homes with Internet connections are high speed. Control of this “last mile” with the right mixture of content, application and safety features would mean large sums of revenue and possibly upending companies who currently transmit voice and data. I believe the usage of wi-fi in this manner has a great potential for success because Google can use their ad revenue and other investing sources to fund the implementation. Local government is open to the plan as it provides free to low cost Internet access to the economically disadvantaged and elevates the city’s usage and the resultant economic and educational benefits.
The telecom business as we know it today is doomed to failure. Phone companies have recently lobbied several legislatures to prevent wireless network plans like the one offered to San Francisco from being pursued by other cities. When companies appeal to government for competitive help it is usually a sign of pending loss of market share due to an upheaval of the industry business model. Wi-fi supplants the land based wire and cable structure which is the mainstay for transmission of voice and data.

Splat!

This is wallpaper...