Toch Studio’s opening titles for MadInSpain, an annual design conference in Madrid that took place at the beginning of this month. Taking the theme of madness, the team created an unnerving animation featuring tumorous protrusions erupting from the back of their subject’s head. Balloon-like, they float in mid-air, connected by gnarled and knotted cords. Creepy and clinical, it’s a clever, if unsettling, representation of creativity.
Thanks, John!
This summer’s surprise feelgood literary hit for exhausted parents has now been narrated by Samuel Fuckin’ Jackson (you can download it for free from Audible right now). And, if that’s not enough for ya, word has it Werner Fuckin’ Herzog is going recording an official rendition as well. EPIC WIN.
Click here to listen to the official Jackson narration. Below, a very recent live recording of Herzog:
PAPER BUTTERFLY by secretsaunasirens
“…scientists say melancholics are better lovers” /” ..happy people are forgetful suckers”/ “…Roget created his thesaurus to combat the funk”
Melancholy Maaret, enigmatic contemporary visual & performance artist, and founder of Secret Sauna Sirens – a pseudonymous, experimental collaborative of multi-disciplinary artists – has some interesting insight into the subject of sadness. In her poem “Paper Butterflies”, she solemnly urges us inward, in lilting, bird-like tones and delicately rolling Finnish accent, to examine our melancholia and embrace these hermetic, suffocating feelings.
image via secretsaunasirens
Stop trying to be happy, she warbles. After all, “…mental acuity flourishes in despair” and”…blue betties make fewer tactical errors”. “I’m not making this shit up,” she insists. Well…is she? Perhaps not. In Scientific American’s 2009 article regarding a study of depression’s evolutionary roots, it is suggested that depression is not a disorder at all, but a mental adaptation with some useful cognitive benefits.
Depressed people often think intensely about their problems. These thoughts are called ruminations; they are persistent and depressed people have difficulty thinking about anything else. Numerous studies have also shown that this thinking style is often highly analytical. They dwell on a complex problem, breaking it down into smaller components, which are considered one at a time.
This analytical style of thought, of course, can be very productive. Each component is not as difficult, so the problem becomes more tractable. Indeed, when you are faced with a difficult problem, such as a math problem, feeling depressed is often a useful response that may help you analyze and solve it. For instance, in some of our research, we have found evidence that people who get more depressed while they are working on complex problems in an intelligence test tend to score higher on the test.
Thank you, Melancholy Maaret, for validating us saddies. Viva melancholia! Ditch the Wellbutrin. Stay sad and homely, indeed.
More:
Featuring an inventive use of mixed media, Gregory Euclide’s work centers around the seemingly simple premise of making a a traditional painting three dimensional. His solution is fairly ingenious — twisting and shaping the canvas and blending it into the sculptural additions. Fashioned from man-made and natural material they help complete the illusion of a landscape painting spilling over the frame and back to life. His most recent work is for the upcoming album from Bon Iver.
A choice cut of trippy hippie spiritual subvertising:
via Gammacounter
This clip aired on USA Network’s classic gonzo variety show Night Flight at some point in the 80s or 90s. Scripture is from The Book of John, 3:16. Original source of the clip/name of “reader” unknown… but it has a faint whiff of proselytization to it, eh?
Those first days after returning from vacation are always the worst, aren’t they? Everything seems bizarre and alien. Your desk is cluttered with strange objects you’ve forgotten how to operate. One of them keeps making horrible noises and placing it to your ear only reveals another person making other, horrible noises. Most of the day is spent slapping at your keyboard trying to get your computer to do anything. It’s terrible.
Luckily the internet is always there to keep you distracted from your nigh complete ineptitude. Take, for instance, this spectacular bit of time-lapse photography by Terje Sorgjerd, filmed on Lofoten, an archipelago in Norway. Set to a beautiful piece of music by Marika Takeuchi, it’s three minutes of blissful peace — after which I really should get back to relearning how to uncap a pen.
via Bioephemera
Another mystifying, gorgeous, crumbling artifact found on Tumblr [via bloodmilk].
The source and context of the image sadly remain a mystery, but, as with Deirdre Aislinn MacCarthy and Athanasius Scrimshaw and his good lady, Jerboa, this photo invites the telling of tales.
What happens when this traveling show comes to town? What’s the relationship between the well-dressed lady standing on the stairs and the man beside her? Do those carved gargoyles and angels ever talk? Are people who see this show ever really the same after the see it?
Plazm Magazine is nearing their 20th year anniversary. In the past two decades, the Portland-based alternative art and design periodical has listed contributors including David Byrne, Trent Reznor, Yoko Ono, David Carson, R. U. Sirius, Sonic Youth, and many others.
To celebrate 20 years in print, the Plazm team is releasing Issue 30, a glossy affair that will feature David Lynch, Bruce Sterling, Wangechi Mutu, Raymond Pettibon, Corin Tucker from Sleater-Kinney, Erik Davis, Kevin Kelly, Sherry Turkle, and Douglas Rushkoff. And to offset half the costs of printing that issue, Plazm recently set up a Kickstarter fund. Like Coilhouse, Plazm is very passionate about staying in print:
Plazm magazine is found on coffee tables and on book shelves with the art books and the limited edition, silkscreened album covers. It isn’t something you look at for thirty seconds and then get distracted by a cat video on YouTube. It presents art, and according to some critics, it *is* art.
Being able to download a cheap publication for $1.99 does not and cannot replace the unique, tactile sensation of print and the ability to reproduce amazing art beautifully. A backlit, monitor-colored screen JPG of a painting doesn’t do the work justice.
Plazm already reached its goal of $7500, but there are six hours left to go on Kickstarter, and the non-profit magazine needs help. Because, take it from us: it always costs more to print a magazine than you think it’s going to cost. These things always run overbudget. There is always one more set of proofs that need to be printed, one more unexpected, last-minute piece of text that must slip into the magazine before it’s rushed off to print, one more revision fee from the printer, one more weird anomaly that takes time and money to solve.
There are many wonderful rewards available for supporters of Plazm, including copies of the issues, books, art and more. Looking forward to Plazm #30!
Via EnglishRussia:
It seems that some couples find their wedding moments not vivid enough. They believe that photo editing can make the memories of the wedding day even much more impressive and close the boring gaps with the help of the powerful Photoshop. It’s not recommended for people with highly sensitive nature to look at the pictures.
Damn, hospital Russia… damn. More horrifying wedding photos after the jump, pharm and even more over here.
