Look–A–Like

Back In 1987 Swiss contemporary artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss constructed a large and precarious artwork more than 30 metres long. The structure was made out of everyday materials. They artists used fire, water, gravity, and chemistry to create an amazing chain reaction called The Way Things Go.

The whole video of the chain reaction is actually 30 minutes long. I really like this segment where fire is the main feature:

If you don't know of these artists' work, but the work seems quite familiar to you, it's probably because a very similar concept was used in this well known Honda Accord Commercial, Cog.

What do you think of advertising that borrows so heavily from contemporary art like this, or any other field of creativity for that matter? Do you think this is okay, or only if it's done in collaboration with the original creators? In this case, I don't know whether it was done with the consent of the artists or not.

Teenage Mutant Hardcore Turtles

Here's an excellent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Throwdown mashup.

via The Slippery Truffle

L.A.S.E.R Tag

The Graffiti Research Lab has posted this impressive video of the new GRL L.A.S.E.R. Tagging System in action. They are offering a download of the open source code built in C++, and this is how the system works.

Tomato in Sydney

On Thursday night I'm going to hear Tomas Roope from Tomato speak about how advertising is affected by the transitional phase of entertainment migrating from broadcast to a consumer controlled model. The talk is being hosted by AWARD. Roope is a well awarded guy, being the "the joint most successful entrant into D&AD's interactive awards".

It should be well worth attending. Tomato has been responsible for some great work over the years including for '90s film Trainspotting, the Design Strategy for Federation Square in Melbourne, Sony Branding, collaborations with great electro band Underworld, and much, much more.

UPDATE: Campaign Brief blog is reporting that Tomas Roope is going to join The Rumpus Room, a subsidiary of The Sweet Shop, to head up the company's UK office. Roope has been with Tomato for 10 years.

LineRider Animation

A serious amount of work and planning has gone into this animation, Discarded by techdawg.

The Daily Monster Channel

Here's a unique YouTube project. Stefan G Bucher has been drawing a different monster every day, videoing the drawing process and posting it on YouTube (and his blog dailymonster.com) He's up to monster no. 88.

Rubikcubism

Here's some brilliant new work (in progress) by Invader. These are portraits of Florence Rey from the new series Rubikcubist, seen on VVORK.

Secret Valentines

The new Valentine's Day crop of PostSecrets is up.

I love the PostSecret project. It has inspired some real gems in its time, and this series is no exception.

Centre Pompidou Video Art

Today I went to see the Centre Pompidou Video Art 1965-2005 exhibition at the MCA. It's well worth a look before if finishes on 25 Feb.

Video art is already over 40 years old, and this show takes you through a sample of some of the best from the great collection of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. I remember seeing a few of the works when I visited Paris way back in the early '90s. The show blew me away back then. I was at art school in New Zealand at the time, and when I got back it inspired me to start making my own video installation work, which eventually lead to me working in interactive media.

I can't help but think that the YouTube (especially videos like this) phenomenon has helped to make video art just a little more acceptable and understandable to the general public. There were certainly a lot of people there today anyway.

If you live in Barcelona, Taipei or Miami (or of course Paris) you might already have seen this work, but If you live in Sydney, definitely go and see it before it closes!

The show features work from artists such as Isaac Julien, Stan Douglas, Douglas Gordan, Jean Luc Goddard, Samuel Beckett, Bill Viola, Bruce Nauman, Pierre Huyghe and Tony Oursler.

Ad Mashups

The name admashup.com is pretty self-explanatory. The above "mashup of the month" was originally an ad for glass cleaner, now it's for viagra.

Earth Wallpapers

Earthwallpapers.org is a growing series of desktop wallpapers created from Google Maps images. I like this idea. I've always loved aerial photographs and now the possibilities are endless and accessible, thanks to Google Maps and Google Earth.

Notice the disclaimer (or rather plea) at the bottom of the site though: "This site claims no ownership of any of the images used. We are just trying to share. Please don't shut me down Google".

The above image is of a New Zealand volcano, Mt Egmont. Even though I've lived in Sydney for many years, I was born and raised in NZ, so images like this are close to my heart.

Secret Wall Tattoos

Here's an interesting art project called Secret Wall Tattoos. The project involves creating artworks behind the existing prints and paintings in hotel rooms and offices. I can't say that I actually like many of the paintings behind the paintings, but it's an intriguing concept all the same.

Next time you're staying at a hotel chain, don't forget to check behind those mundane prints for something a little more interesting.

Thanks to Joseph Jaffe for pointing this out.

Human Space Invaders

I don't want to fill my blog up with YouTube videos, but you have to respect the human effort that has gone into this stop-motion animation. It's not a bad creative idea either.

I'm happy that I wasn't one of the people running from seat to seat for the length of the shoot though. I can just sit back and enjoy the the aliens.

Hot with the Chance of a Late Storm

It's been a real scorcher in Sydney today. The temperature nudged 40 degrees this afternoon (that's over 100 for those using the other measurement), so this sculpture by the creative sniffers at The Glue Society has been on my mind.

"Hot with the chance of a late storm" was created for the Sculpture by the Sea exhibition back in November. There is obviously an environmental message in this work, although I do wonder how environmentally friendly the production process was, not to mention the materials used. Let's just say this paradox adds to the power of this work for now.

This piece won the People's Choice prize for the year. The show is staged along Sydney's short Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk, and attracts over 400,000 visitors.

jjprojects Enters the Blogosphere

Pool: jjprojects

After long deliberation I've finally decided to plunge jjprojects into the blogosphere. Given the demands of my agency job and some of my other creative activities, I wasn't sure I'd have the time to post as frequently as I'd like, but I'll certainly do my best to make time.

After all, as a person fully involved in thinking about and creating digital media on a daily basis, I really feel it should be part of my life to keep a blog. I hope you find my future posts engaging. I plan to have fun writing them.