October 22, 2012 by collabcubed - 4 Comments

Tania Mouraud: Typography Murals

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I wasn’t familiar with Parisian artist Tania Mouraud and her work, but she has been painting since the 1960s. It’s not surprising that Mouraud studied languages before her foray into the art world. Though her work ranges from painting to sculpture and, more recently, video, much of Mouraud’s art reflects her concern with the elusive nature of language. I especially like her typographic wall murals. I’ll confess to not being able to decipher them all on my own — or at least not without my eyes starting to criss-cross in all directions — but I like the fact that they appear to be abstract geometric paintings that upon closer look actually spell out phrases.

So, in case (like me) you need a little help, here are the names of the works from top to bottom, except for the 5th one down, which I couldn’t find or figure out:

WYSIWYG; HowCanYouSee?; I Haven’t Seen a Butterfly Here; Dieu Compte les Larmes des Femmes (God Counts the Tears of Women); ????; I Have a Dream; WYSIWYG; I Have a Dream; and I Had.

Photos courtesy of the artist; HuffingtonPost; and PerezArts

October 17, 2012 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Song Board: Central Saint Martins

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These 2940 yellow and black plastic spheres across a 35m-long wall made up the fun and engaging interactive pop-up installation at London’s King’s Cross station called Song Board. Designed by the students at Central Saint Martins University of the Arts in London, Song Board invited passers-by to rotate the matrix of spheres and create unique patterns, images, and messages. Some came prepared with pre-arranged displays to print on the board and others just rotated them relentlessly, listening to the sound the balls made when rotated.

Song Board was one of the many projects (see also Bus-Tops) put into place by the Mayor’s office throughout the city during the recent Olympic and Paralympic Games.

via eye magazine

October 11, 2012 by collabcubed - 2 Comments

The Public Theater & Shakespeare Machine

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I signed up to see Ben Rubin present his Shakespeare Machine (previously here) at the newly renovated Public Theater last night and was surprised by a number of things: the beautiful lobby; the impressive and perfectly displayed multimedia sculpture in the center; the spectacular collage of Paula Scher-designed Public Theater posters on the wall behind the ticket booths (I’ve been wanting to do something like this at home forever); all this with an amazing party including a open bar and tasty food, to boot!

The Public has created what they describe as a “welcoming piazza” with extended steps out front that lure you in to the new lobby. The bar at the entrance is very striking with the chandelier-like Shakespeare Machine above it. And, in Pentragram partner Paula Scher’s signature style, it’s a typography lover’s delight. The bar, the information booth, the archways, the staff t-shirts all play with the Public’s chunky variants on the Akzidenz Grotesk typeface. Talking with someone at the party, I learned that the sunken type on the arches was particularly challenging. The asymmetric positioning of the signage type adds to the uplifting quality of it all.

Oh, and we can’t forget the Shakespeare Machine, which was the main reason for my visit. A couple of technical glitches in the beginning were quickly ironed out and the sculpture played with the Shakespeare text as humorously and cleverly as the space that surrounds it. Close to a million words are shuffled by statistician Mark Hansen’s algorithms that choreograph the text into situations such as a series of “To be or’s” that are followed by unexpected, alternative, and smile-inducing, Shakespearean text rather than the expected “not to be” which also makes an appearance later. The cycle runs roughly 5 to 10 minutes with variations in visual effects, from inverted type to such high-speed text that it becomes abstract. The Shakespeare Machine will be on full-time during the theater’s hours of operation.

Kudos to all involved in the revitalization: Ennead Architects, Paula Scher and her team at Pentagram, Ben Rubin and Mark Hansen, as well as many, many more, I’m sure.

You can see a snippet of the sculpture in action below. The voices are not part of the sculpture, but, rather, actors for the event:

October 5, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

NYC Culture on the Cheap: Weekend 10/5

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20+ free and cheap things to do this weekend (10/5 to 10/7) in NYC. Cultural events in art, music, dance, theater, food and general fun.

1. Art/Performance – Art in Odd Places: artists’ work & performances take over unexpected public spaces all along 14th Street. All weekend and through 10/15. Opening reception Fri 10/5, 5 to 8pm. See schedule. FREE

2. Film – Bushwick Film Festival at Paperbox. All weekend. $10/day; $25 for full 3-dayPass

3. Art – Affordable Art Fair at the Tunnel in Chelsea. All weekend. $12

4. Design/Typography – Get Out the Vote Poster Project exhibit (see post) at AIGA, 154 5th Ave. Fri 10/5, 11am to 5pm, through 11/30. FREE

5. Dance/Theater – Keith Hennessy/Circo Zero: Turbulence: an experimental hybrid of contemporary dance, improvised happening and political theater at NY Live Arts. Fri 10/5 & Sat 10/6 at 7:30pm. $15 and $20.

6. Art/Massage –The Massage Performances with Sergei Tcherepnin, premieres a new six-channel composition to be played through your body. Fri 10/5 at 6:30pm. The Issue Project Room, Brooklyn. FREE ($10 suggested donation)

Alternatively: Past Futures, Present Futures Exhibit opening at Storefront for Art & Architecture. 7 to 9pm. FREE.

7. Film – Haika Mutil & Miel de Naranjas by Imanol Uribe, Fri 10/5 at Instituto Cervantes 6pm to 8pm. FREE

8. Theater/Performance – Prelude NYC Theater & Performance. Multiple events at various venues. Fri 10/5. See schedule. FREE (first come first served)

9. Dance/Music –Rob List: Play By Ear features anti-conceptual movement, dance, and song. Fri 10/5 & Sat 10/6. 8pm at The Chocolate Factory, Long Island City. $15

10. Art/Music/Food – The Feast Pavilion: a modern day World’s Fair features immersive art installations, food trucks, music, and community booths that honor the work of today’s most remarkable innovators. Sat 10/6, 12 to 6pm. Followed by Dance Party 8pm to 1am. FREE

11. Music/Art – The Autumn Bowl: live music by various musicians paired with live visuals in a stunning, immersive environment. Sat 10/6 at 8pm. Greenpoint. $12 tickets.

12. Architecture/Tours –OHNY (Open House New York), Sat 10/6 & Sun 10/7. Various locations and times. Check site for details. FREE

13. Music – Restoration Rocks! Music Festival. A day-long music concert of some of the most dynamic emerging and established artists performing on the Brooklyn stage. Sat 10/6, 12 to 5pm. Fulton Street, Bed Stuy. FREE

14. Art/Talk/Reception – BEYONSENSE: An Evening with Dr. John Perry, Hosted by Slavs and Tatars at MoMA. Sat 10/6, 8 to 11pm. Admission includes conversation, exhibition viewing, and cocktail reception. Plus a limited-edition print. $14 in advance; $18 at door.

Alternatively: Brooklyn Museum’s Target First Saturdays. Sat 10/6 from 5 to 11pm. Various performances, music, talks. See site. FREE

15. Music – The Lisps: FUTURITY Album Release. Sat 10/6, 8:30 pm 92Y Tribeca Mainstage at 200 Hudson Street. $15.00 tickets

16. Performance/General Craziness – Electrified with David Blaine at Hudson River Park, Pier 54 (near 14th St). All weekend. FREE

17. Theater – Disgraced: a new play by Ayad Akhtar, directed by Kimberly Senior. Previews begin Sun 10/7 at 7pm. Claire Tow Theater. $20.

18. Stories/Performance – The Moth GrandSLAM Championship at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Sun 10/7. Doors 6:30; Show 7:30. $20.

UPDATES: Film – The New York Film Festival has Discounted Rush Tickets available for some of their screenings announced daily on their website and go on sale 1 hour before showtime. All weekend and through 10/14.

Art – First Fridays at the Noguchi Museum in LIC. Fri 10/5, 10am to 5pm. Pay-what-you-wish.

Music: The Vespers and The Deadly Gentlemen play in Madison Sq. Park, Sat 10/6, 3 to 5pm. FREE

Art: BYOB: Bring Your Own Beamer at Knockdown Center in Queens. Sat 10/6 at 8pm. Artists bring their projectors and project their art, initially an idea by Rafaël Rozendaal (see our post). FREE

Film – My Brooklyn with Kelly Anderson at UnionDocs in Williamsburg. Sun 10/7, 7:30pm. Thoughtful documentary on the issues of neighborhood gentrification. $9 suggested donation.

Film – Goodfellas at Habana Outpost‘s movie night in Brooklyn. Sun 10/7 at 8pm. FREE

Check back for updates and take a look at our previous Culture on the Cheap posts for some ongoing suggestions. Happy Fall weekend.

October 3, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

AIGA: Get Out the Vote Project

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AIGA’s (American Institute of Graphic Arts) Get Out the Vote project invites designers to create nonpartisan posters and videos that inspire the American public to participate in the electoral process and vote in the 2012 general election.

AIGA is hosting an exhibition in New York City from October 3–November 30, 2012 featuring the 2012 Get Out the Vote project, at the AIGA National Design Center. But have no fear, if you can’t make the show you can see the complete virtual gallery here.

September 28, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

NYC Culture on the Cheap: Weekend 9/28

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Ay yay yay! So many free and cheap things to do in NYC this weekend and so little time. Here are over a dozen free and/or affordable cultural events in art, music, dance, theater, food and general fun for the weekend of 9/28/2012 to 9/30/2012.

1. Art/Design/Classes – From Photoshop and Dreamweaver to Economics. Trade School a self-organized learning space that runs on barter. Opens Friday 9/28 through 10/28. FREE (with barter items or services) Sign up here.

2. Art – Dev Harlan Untitled (Wave) at Christopher Henry Gallery All weekend. 11am to 6pm. 127 Elizabeth St. FREE

3. Theater/Installation – Habit (see post) directed by David Levine. All weekend, continuously loops from 1 to 9pm, FREE.

4. Design/Typography – Concrete Poetry to Feed My Mind, post-World War II experiments in literature that looked beyond the simple signification of words and meanings to a new mode of visual and linguistic communication. At NYU Open House Gallery, 528 LaGuardia Pl., All weekend, 1pm to 4pm. FREE

5. Art/Design/Books – NY Art Book Fair, at PS1. World’s premier event for international artists’ books, catalogs, monographs, periodicals, and zines. All weekend, see website for hours and listing of events. FREE

6. Theater – Gilbert & Sullivan Players I’ve Got a Little Twist at Calhoun Theater, Friday 9/28, 7pm. $10 adults; $5 students & seniors.

7. Art – Saga Sites exhibit, Landscapes of the Icelandic Sagas. Saturday 9/29 and Sunday, 9/30 at Scandinavia Housethrough 1/12/2013. FREE

8. Art/Fun/Food/Music – Dumbo Arts Festival, All weekend starting Friday 9/28 night with Immersive Surfaces projection mapping show from 6pm to 9pm, continuing with vast number of events All weekend. Check site for event listings. FREE

9. Film – 5th Russian Documentary Film Festival, at Tribeca Cinemas. All weekend. Check site for schedule. $14.

10. Art/Performance – SkowheganPERFORMS at Socrates Sculpture Park, Saturday, 9/29, 1:30–5:00pm. FREE

11. Food/Fun – 10th Annual Oyster Frenzy at the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Terminal. Includes Oyster-eating contest and Oyster-shucking contest. A variety of oysters, shooters and more. Saturday 9/29, 12 to 6pm. FREE entry. (Oysters are a la carte.)

12. Conference/Speakers/Art/Music – RUCKUS NYC is a one-day conference and concert on art and the web. Saturday 9/29 at Cooper Union, 10am to 6pm, (Registration starts at 9:30). $65 (Hey, that’s cheap for a conference.) $25 for just evening concert.

13. Food/Fun/Fair – Chile Pepper Fiesta, at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, Saturday 9/29, 11am to 6pm. 20th anniversary with a full roster of sizzling music and dance from spice-loving regions around the world. Sample dozens of award-winning hot sauces, spicy pickles, salsas and chile-chocolates. $15 adults; $10 Students over 12 and Seniors.

14. Food/Music/Fun – The Atlantic Antic Street Festival, Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn. Sunday 9/30, 12 to 6pm. FREE

Alternatively: DayLife Festival, Sunday 9/30. Orchard Street in full effect as a 3-block special event with food, fashion, a full line-up of top-tier DJs, and games such as Twister, badminton and urban croquet. FREE

15. Film – Two awe-inspiring, informative, and entertaining documentaries, What’s For Dinner? and Vegucated, Saturday 9/29, 1-4pm at Anthology Film Archives. Part of Climate Week NYC. FREE with eticket.

16. Art/Classes – Figure Drawing classes at Brooklyn Art Space. Saturdays & Sundays, 3-hour sessions open to all. $12. See site for times.

17. Music – Global Festival Central Park Great Lawn w/ Neil Young, Foo Fighters, The Black Keys, Band of Horses, K’Naan, Saturday 9/29 at 5pm. All ages. FREE, register.

18. Music – Get tickets for Of Monsters and Men at Terminal 5, November 21, 2012. $25. (Oops! Sorry, sold out)

UPDATES:

Art – Museum Day! Saturday 9/29, Free entry to a list of Smithsonian-affiliated museums (see map): includes Morgan Library, Museo del Barrio, Museum of Folk Art, The Asia Society, Studio Museum in Harlem and many, many more nationwide. Sign up for a pass for two. FREE.

Art – Lucas Samaras: XYZ opens at Pace (W. 25th St) Friday 9/28 and Saturday 9/29 through 10/27. FREE

Fun/Music/Performance – Bushwig! Festival of Drag at Special Project Robot in Bushwick. Saturday 9/29, 3 to 11pm. FREE.

Check back for updates and take a look at our previous Culture on the Cheap posts for some ongoing suggestions. Enjoy.

September 11, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Typography Bird Houses: Living Typography

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Typography and industrial design combine in these fun typographic bird houses. Designer Nishant Jethi of Mumbai created these hollow wooden 3D letters (the complete alphabet) that double as bird houses. Living Typography, as the project is titled, can be used as nameplates and/or house numbers while providing shelter to the many sparrows that have lost their homes with the recent construction of new high-rises and malls. If those sparrows enjoy type even half as much as I do, they’ll be happy to call one of these letters or numbers their home!

via behance

September 5, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

NEON: La materia luminosa dell’arte

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Oh, I certainly hope someone brings this exhibit to New York. Neon: La materia luminosa dell’arte, currently at MACRO (Museo d’arte contemporanea Roma) includes works of more than fifty international artists who have made this simple artificial light source (neon)—typically used for signage—into the contemporary luminous art matter that it has become. Some of the artists represented are: Stefan Brüggemann, Bruce Nauman, Maurizio Cattelan, Dan Flavin, Claire Fontane, and, of course, at least forty-five more spanning almost sixty years, from the 1960s to the present.

The exhibit will be on view in Rome through November 11, 2012.

Photos courtesy of MACRO, artribune, and esoarte.

August 22, 2012 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

David Byrne’s Typographic Bike Racks

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David Byrne is at it again. The well-known musician, who is often seen cycling around town, was invited by BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) to design new bike racks to replace their old utilitarian ones. Byrne, having designed a series of fun bike racks for NYC in 2008 with shapes ranging from dogs and cars to high heels and guitars, decided to go typographic this time around. Realizing that with a semi circle, line and ‘v’ shape he could create most of the letters of the alphabet, he designed racks that create different words. The racks installed yesterday spell out “Pink Crown” and “micro lip” both chosen by designer Byrne. The bike rack words will change periodically, and BAM may be soliciting suggestions from its audiences in the future for new words.

Top two photos by Dino Perrucci. Third photo by G.R. Christmas and bottom by Jason Accime.

via Brokelyn via BAM’s facebook

August 14, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Topographic Tweets

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English designer Richard Wolfstrome partnered up with Chalk Architects to create Topographic Tweets, an installation in the Chalk studio window for the Welcome Trail as part of the Love Architecture Festival 2012 in Brighton, UK. This ‘pop-up’ installation took 10 days from concept to finished execution.

Topographic Tweets invited tweeters to express an opinion, a view, an idea, contentious or otherwise, about architecture, which were designed into a typographic urban landscape. Strips of texts rising up the window in different shades of white, grey and frost give the impression of a skyline where the lettering, absent their counters (spaces in letters), ‘light’ up the architectural form. Fabrication and installation by Nik the Brush.

August 13, 2012 by collabcubed - 2 Comments

Piracy: Musician Mosaics from CDs

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These are impressive. Italian artists/designers Mirco Pagano and Moreno De Turco created these cd mosaics of seven classic deceased musicians for an ad campaign by U.S. ad agency TBWA and also an exhibition. The idea behind the project, titled Piracy, is that musicians are being brought down by internet piracy. The cds used in each portrait are that of each individual musician’s music. The musical artists include: Jim Morrison, Bob Marley, Jimmy Hendrix, James Brown, Elvis, and Michael Jackson. The typographic sculptures of the title are also well done.

Here is an animated video clip as well:

via visual news

July 26, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Rob & Nick Carter: Neon Postcards

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London based artistic couple Rob and Nick Carter create art that revolves around light, color and form in mediums that range from painting and photography, to installations and film. Their series titled Postcards from Las Vegas originates from a mutual love and collecting of postcards throughout their childhoods. They have enlarged some of their favorites and interjected contrasting retro-style Las Vegas neon signs from motels, strip clubs and diners. I love the results!

Photos courtesy of the artists.

July 25, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Kendell Geers: Neon Type Play

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South African-born artist Kendell Geers, presently lives and works in Brussels. He gained international notoriety when he urinated in Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain in Venice, and previously had publicly refused to serve in the South African Defense Force, along with 142 others, and was consequently exiled. Clearly, a force to be reckoned with. Geers is known for work that takes aim at both the art establishment and society in general as well as for questioning our existing moral codes. Working in a wide variety of media, he uses and subverts familiar signs from art history and pop culture.

Above are some of his typographic neon sculptures.

Photos: Yvonne Lambert Gallery, Stephen Friedman Gallery, Goodman Gallery

July 11, 2012 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Leeds Street Tree Grates: HeineJones

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HeineJones, an interdisciplinary design consultancy based in Melbourne, was approached by the city council of Footscray to design an interpretive solution describing the function and intent of a new “rain garden” installed as part of a streetscape redevelopment for Leeds Street. HeineJones’ solution presented the function and intent of a water garden as a piece of poetry, laser cut though the 10mm steel plate of the tree grates. Presented in different scales and languages, the urban poems include large words that form abstract snippets of information about the rain garden, with the poem in its entirety reproduced in smaller type.

The intent of the design is to engage the public in an emotive and legible way, whereby the passage and movement of the water into the system is through the information itself.

via segd

July 10, 2012 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Cildo Meireles: Fontes (Fountains/Sources)

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Brazilian artist Cildo Meireles wasn’t always a fan of conceptual art, but in the 1970s he started to create works in protest of Brazil’s military dictatorship. These interactive/performance works carried political messages in a poetic way.

Meireles reflects:

…When a work of art kidnaps you for a fraction of a second, it takes you to another time …I realized that, of all the movements that I had studied, conceptual art was the only one that didn’t use any of the things linked to art: inks, brushes, canvases. It could be made from anything. It gave complete freedom. It is the most democratic way to produce art that has come up. That is something that deserves credit.

Meireles’s works typically revolve around space, dimension, and time. His installation Fontes (Fountains/Sources) is a perfect example. Using 6,000 rulers, 1,000 clocks, and 500,000 vinyl numbers, along with a soundtrack, Meireles invites spectators to interact with the work, circulating through the paths created by the hanging rulers.

Here’s a video from a first person perspective:

Photos: Ihall’s flickr; Jock303’s flickr; Penny Jones’ flickr; and the artist.

via arte al limite

July 9, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Jonas Etter: Ephemeral Burnt Sugar Art

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Swiss artist Jonas Etter, based in Zurich, works in many mediums, including burnt sugar. These typographic sculptures and framed wallpieces are all made using the aforementioned substance. The burnt sugar melts due to heat and air moisture, turning the pieces into a sort of performance. The typographic sculptures are their own self-defining captions. As they melt and spread over the base, the works transform and invade the viewer’s space with their sticky puddles. The Wallpiece I-III are put on the wall immediately before the opening reception and the content slowly starts to flow out onto the ground.

via eye

June 27, 2012 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

A Memorial Bowing: Snarkitecture

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Last month when I was on Snarkitecture’s website getting information on their recent Odin Pop-Up Shop project, I noticed this project earlier in 2012. Alex Mustonen and Daniel Arsham, the Snarkitecture duo, reconstructed the 10-foot letters from the old Miami Orange Bowl and whimsically scattered around the east plaza of the new Marlins Ballpark. Created as a sort of memorial to the stadium that was demolished in 2008, A Memorial Bowing feels like a mix of ruins and renewal, with some of the letters submerged and others standing tall.

The alignments of the letters spell out new words and are a nice complement to the new stadium, which can be viewed through the type at different points.. Really, you can’t go wrong with monster-large type.

Photos by Noah Kalina

June 26, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Sean Hart: Street Poetry

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French street artist Sean Hart considers himself a poet (among many other things) and his poetry “is a weapon loaded with the future.” He paints large, existential-style statements in a condensed typeface on surfaces all over the world. His most recent series Shine (the blue and white photos at top) have an anamorphic quality, allowing his phrases to be read despite right angles and open doors in the center of the image. According to Hart all his works consist of paint, a camera, time and himself. No photoshop. No special effects. The works below Shine are from his series Yes Future from 2011, and the bottom image of a stabbed Tintin is from his series Parce Que!

UPDATE: One of Sean Hart’s recent interventions spotted on the streets of Madrid is over here on Escrito en la Pared.

via vandalog