Marker

Miniature

I love how these models depict the 'post-human' phase of environments. No people are present in the scenes but every imprint of our messy little existences is left behind. Our spaces are our afterthoughts, the wax imposed on our personal histories. Our cities the accumulated cells of civilisation.

If only urban spaces could be created so easily as these miniature sculptures by Alan Wolfson. Only who am I kidding, these tiny replicas of real looking places are an intense operation in its own right. What I mean, of course, is a relative thing. The creation of the urban spaces depicted by these sculptures in real life takes a whole evolution of growth pains and red tape whereas here, the artist has skipped all of that with a healthy dose of imagination, experience and skill. 'Urban design' is most certainly not 'sculpture' process.

If we were given the chance to bring forth the realm of 'sculpture' into real cities? The reverse of the 3D photographic process that has occurred in these works? Someday we might be able to find out.

Resilience

I haven't posted for quite a while because I've been working on the Christchurch campaign with Architecture for Humanity. It was pretty intense. Flew down there on Saturday, back up on Sunday; 29 hours of getting into the situation, catching the prominent 5.3 aftershock as a sampler of what the Cantabrians have been going through these past months.

We did a Pecha Kucha presentation on what AFH has been doing to Christchurch, and watching the other presentations opened my eyes to the resilience of the community down there. The highlight of my trip was going to New Brighton and doing a basic mapping exercise with the kids there. It was a fantastic way to interact with the kids and we managed to capture a bit of what they have gone through. For example, getting to school is now a lot harder for many, having to bus for ages just to go there for half a day of lessons. Still, we felt the potential of these kids and we know that we can help them bounce back from this disaster through our work.

Quaked

Watch the skating video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2bvozq-KK8

The city, bludgeoned by the earth from below, with debris scattered = awesomely creative skate park. Danger seeking yes, but through this video, see how the constrained environment we make as a society is so different from this disturbed playground for willing skaters. Humans are so bound to this false pretence of absolute order - someday we might need to let go and create a usable chaos to counter chaos.

Soap

Meekyoung Shin is an artificer of sorts - this Korean sculptor creates convincing 'translations' of actual artifacts. The only difference to that of a replicating craftsman (which is a whole industry in its own right) is that she uses soap instead of fine ceramics and burly stones.

The visual illusion created by this art is also a feast to be seen. Flawlessly created, including the rustic details that one might think only time can forge. Perhaps what this work suggests is the distinction between the permanence we instil within such objects - antiques that last for ages - and that which could melt away with a splash of water.

But without having felt and even crushed such an object, it is hard even to peruse a simple concept such as this; in this case, seeing is not believing.

Fallen

A few months after the first main set of earthquakes in Christchurch, I went down to document the damage to the architecture around the region. On one of my breaks, I took a photo of this smart looking statue that overlooked a gardened square. There were quite a few sculptures like this around.

In the news today, I saw the same sculpture and it's ill fate after the earthquake. And this can be said for a lot of the creative legacy in Christchurch - objects and places that make Christchurch what it is. We can only hope that the damaged is treated with respect and care.

Engorged

A while back there was an exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery which was all about food. It seemed like a bit of a frivolous topic, but then who is to judge art for it's frivolities? Can it not be a powerful medium? Lee Price uses the most charming of desserts to highlight over-indulgence and the sheer gluttony of human existence, with a more minimalistic approach compared to Jacquey Fahey.

Drama

The other day I was talking with some people about drama llamas (and how they stalk us). Then I saw Philip-Lorca diCorcia's photography. It fit.

Box

A little while ago I went to see the joint exhibition by Kentaro Taki and Ko Nakajima at AUT's St Paul Street Gallery. They work with the digital media along with installations. I was initially looking forward to seeing Bild:Muell (2008) but upon getting to the gallery, I couldn't find it. I still wonder if it is there in the gallery somewhere but seeing that work on the promotional material reminded of me of a graphic explosion of the video culture presented in Rauschenberg's Retroactive I.

It was a strange exhibition. It felt messy, and although this may be the artist's hand at play, I couldn't help but feel it was a bit of a post-explosion zone. It even made it hard to appreciate the great moments of the exhibition. One segment (amidst shattered CRT screens and bits of banal bush) that I did like was Living in a Box (pictured) which was truly enrapturing. In the video projection, bits of body writhed around in what looked like a white bento box. In particular, the hand was creepy visually and aurally (the nails clicked on the sides of it's compartment), and even the gestures were charged with some cryptic emotion.

There was a great range of work, prints and Japanese calligraphy too, but it didn't seem to completely mesh together. Instead I found myself making trivial links between pieces and media. Upon leaving the exhibition, I caught the last act of Living in a Box, the orderly bento box being bashed to smithereens by a mallet-wielding female. Well, that says something at least.

Culinary

Watching Masterchef is one of my favourite reality TV past times since it is the competitive cut throat of any on-screen competition without the bitchy over-drama that often plagues the genre. And it is creative cooking.

Fine cuisine no less, the painstaking kitchen of the likes of Euro come to keen New Zealand eyes. It leaves me, the foodie that I am, pondering what that tiny droplet which, reportedly, was a sugar shell encasing a drop of olive oil, would taste, feel and be like. Who ever thought that up as the ultimate garnish had something creative going on. And it's always the mysteries of the world which affords curiosity.

Recently I was invited to dinner at Soul, which is possibly the closest I will be to super fine dining in the nearish future. My four ravioli (I regret not ordering six!) sat at the bottom of an interesting visual delight of salad. Prying open the forest of roasted herbs, a bed of cress was revealed. Undoubtedly, the combination of flavours was superb. What got to me was how the dish was designed, so almost unsimple about the way it was formed and given as an experience. After having wrestled with the idea since Creative Collision's conception, I decided that the culinary should take a proud spot on this blog.

Notice the new category 'Culinary' appear on the menu at Creative Collision. Foodie adventures, travels and experiences - only the deliciously creative shall make it to this blog.

Data

Corporates are fast catching onto the idea of using creative mapping and tracking techniques to essentially 'brand' their product. Nike, an innovator of the sports industry, shows us with their GRID programme that technology can act to gather data on the trivialities of life. How far did you run? How fast did you jog? How does this data even get used without seeming silly?

A while ago I tried Nokia's Sports Tracker application which was a bit half baked. Subsequently it closed down. It looks like the technology has now been applied to snowboarding, which is very cool sport in its own right. So data is being used to brand their product, or support the brand. Being able to capture the essence of kinetic energy in creative graphics is a leap in not only the technology, but the way people can read into their own actions and how that affects the way we think about them.

The same way old school branding, such as logo design, a full set of stationery and a colour scheme, can influence the way we perceive an organisation, this method of incorporating the true heartbeat of the people into the branding/campaign goes that much further.

Anime

I recently read a book that explained (in a really American cultural domination sort of way) the significance of manga in Japan. Manga, which is sort of like comics without the Western comic stereotype, serves as a form of wider social communication in Japanese society with a kick of entertainment value.

Anime, what the Japanese call cartoons, is just as large a world in all its variations. Dark, humorous, cutesy, pretty, deep and shallow... you can find it. This brilliant montage of all those different styles pokes fun at the range that mere animation has over our understanding of the world. And it's really awesome.

Constrain2

Carrying on from the themes of Constrain, here is an interesting project that tries to draw out the invisible Wifi landscape. Immaterials: light painting WiFi uses a rod of pulsating LEDs with long exposure photography to detect and map Wifi presence. This concept is obviously a mere budding technology, but imagine the practical/aesthetic based awareness-of-Wifi systems such a technology could develop into. In an age where the net is inevitably important, I can see this indicator being applied all over our urban lands in the future.