this is carbon

2006-10-10T16:25:00.000-07:00

Reich and Convention

I went to see some of the Steve Reich stuff at the Barbican over the weekend (It's his 70th birthday, see) which was lovely as I've always considered him to be one of the truly great minimalists. -His approach to reduction is an inspiration to me across the board.

That said, it seemed like a very new experience to see work contextualised alongside and together over the duration of theweekend. It felt like there had been a suspension of (dis)belief in my understanding of his work before. -The kind one has when attempting to analyse anything out of it's immediate sphere of context I guess.

The Kronos Quartet thing that i saw on sunday was excellent, despite the "day after greyness" gained from time spent in a Hackney Wick Warehouse the night before. From what i remember, Steve would have approved of the music.

Aside from that, i spent much of the weekend think-designing (work based) while listening to the new Hawk & a Hacksaw album and the new Fourcolour "letter of sounds" on 12k. Both unbelievable in their approach for very different reasons.

Inspiration at the moment is coming from these places:
1. Music & words. Not new media design. -Ideas from places other than those where i might expect to find it (nerve wracking but sort of liberating).
2. The others. -Being asked to replicate and re-apply existing design conventions rather than innovate or explore new ones (forces me to look at my role as originator, reactor, aggregator developer, consumer, replicator etc).
3. Internal brain conflict between points 1&2 (an interesting place to be sometimes).

2006-09-17T08:27:00.000-07:00

I like autumn, it's my favourite season.

London, i always think (like Berlin), is best suited to the muted colours and silvery-blue light that autumn affords. I'll admit that i crave the anonymity that the fog and the lights-coming-on-at-3 seems to bring, the misty romance and the mental comfort blanket i get from physically wrapping up when autumn comes around.

London's starting to feel like home again after a long summer holiday away somewhere else.

Stuff around me feels quite exciting at the moment, there's a buzz here again (one that's been lacking for a while) and i keep finding myself poking at the darker, gothic, at times folksy aesthetic which i can feel bubbling under the surface here and there; i've been looking at Alexander McQueen (always a social barometer), the new McQ stuff, even Dior and Prada have gone a bit Camden Market (in a nice sense, not a rat infested filth way). Belted knitwear, fitted but aged black denim, studded leather gilets (an extension of the post-boho perhaps), rich velvets, taffeta, felt cashmere, lace (is it still only for girls?) and of course lots of eyeliner. I must admit i always did have a soft spot for Balenciaga...

Musically, i'm finding some interesting things to draw on too at the moment. I seem to be importing less and am finding creative patterns moving in the same direction. I've had the new Bat For Lashes "Fur and Gold" album on heavy rotation and Piano Magic's "Incurable EP" has been dusted off again. The Collectors "Galapagos", RF's "Views of Distant Towns", Tim Hecker's "Harmony in Ultraviolet" and the always excellent Xela making a welcome return with a jaw droppingly good album for his label Type. Joanna Newsom's new album on Drag City has had more than a few listens, taking on a more openly produced, grandiose and rich orchestral feel than we've heard before from her. I was also lucky enough to get my hands on a copy of Max Richter's new album too, it's his best work to date. I can feel very similar aesthetics and themes in all of these, not something i would have expected at the start of the year.

Yes, so far so good for the new season, looking forward to the lights coming on at 3...

Jody. x

2006-09-05T15:58:00.000-07:00

So the tube broke on my way home from work today and i had time to think again. I was listening to Ryoji Ikeda and pretending to read.

These things we make, these things we strive for, they're no more than points of difference. -I understand that i'm prone to eccentric actions when exposed and that i need to take comfort in the failures and asymmetry that surrounds me.

Strive to be film noir picture perfect in the things i engage with?

I understand that i embrace the beauty in the glitch and the fragmentation, the space afforded to us by the flaw, the slient interjection and the coliding pressure front.

We are the organic in a mechanised society, embrace the glitch.

2006-09-05T03:49:00.000-07:00

So this is my blog.

A place where I can keep track of my thoughts, sketches, musings and general random stuff that I find to be of interest or that I think will be of (I guess referential?) interest in the future.

I’m a freelance new media designer / art director. For the most part i'm engaged more with interface design and human emotional attachment and reaction to media consumption environments rather than tracking the latest web2.0 functionality. -You'll be unlikely to find a page of links to Digg any time soon i don't suppose, there are many places where one can read about opinion on that sort of stuff anyway.

I have serial obsessive compulsive disorders based around music. -It’s my reason for being, therefore I’m likely to ramble on about that too i would have thought.

Anyway, let’s see how it pans out. -No promises that it will be interesting. But then again, interesting is a pretty subjective term…

Jody. x