Monday, August 30, 2010

How easy is an art project?

Last year at Kiwiburn I decided I was going to get an art grant and build something. What I wanted to build wasn't relevant at that point - what was important was that something was going to be made, and Kiwiburn were going to give me some money to help pay for it. It was like an epiphany, and was indeed a beautiful moment. But gosh, little did I know it was to get better. This is the tale of a table; the story of a surface.

A moment of inspiration not long after deciding to do an art project: something surreal and out of place would be the theme. With Kiwiburn being in a fairly mundane paddock, this wasn't going to be too hard. But something surreal and interesting, maybe something like this...



Well maybe not.

What about something menial? Something everyday? Something you wouldn't ecpect to see in a paddock? Something like a dinner table?

That was it. A dinner table. Whipping up a quick proposal to send to the art grants committee, I entitled it "Tomorrow Never Dines". That was probably due to being somewhat stained at the moment of typing. Anyhooooo there were only a few steps necessary. First, find some chairs. Trademe. Then sand them back, and stain them with timber stain. This took about an hour per chair, and I got it done on a hungover sunday. $60 all up I think. Next task was finding fabrics to make a flash-looking tablecloth. A store called Ned's (???) Fabrics on Dominion Road has this covered. Cost was about $7 for all the fabric needed. A table frame was generously donated to the cause, so that was it. On site, I scavenged a square of plywood, and set about putting it together. Time count - probably about 5-6 hours to do EVERYTHING.



Next step was further decoration. This came in the way of cheap lights, plastic plates, cups, knives and forks, and the centrepiece of hilarity - condoms and packets of lube donated by somebody who had loads. For some reason.



Placement was key, and because the installation was fairly small, I got to put it where I wanted. This was somewhere close to camp (because I was hungover when it was put together, and I was lazy) but fortunately in an area of high traffic. Happy coincidence. Anyway, this is the finished product: The Screwed Plate. Ridiculously easy.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Skweeeeeeeeeeeee

I first heard of this sub-genre of a sub-genre (possibly of a sub-genre) in late 2008/early 2009 on what has now become the ego mess that is dubstepforum. Without really pursuing it, Skweee kept peeking around the metaphorical corner and winking at me. When Rusko released a Skweee remix of Kotchy, I honestly dismissed the style fairly quickly.



not so into that one to be fair...

However, recently I have been watching skweee pop up in my internet meanderings again, and I thought it only fair to give it a real digital whirl. To my happy surprise, skweee is really fucking awesome. Everything I like about fruitbeat is in it, and in addition, some nordic funky analogue sounding synthesizer shit that sounds like dam funk wrapped up in several giant jackets sitting cosily by a fire in fucking Scandinavia or something similar. (NB : Czech dis shit out)

Well, after that little jaunt down adjective avenue, here comes the kicker.

Listen to the shit out of this badboy...if gypsies made funk it would sound something like this I think. Best of all, that wee package is utterly free. Who new post-dubstep could be so enlightening!

More linkies and information come from 'ere and old uncle google too.

For a lovely introduction piece, have a read of this little morsel from The Guardian.

And now for something not completely off topic - it is about Scandinavia - but what may be the newest low for reality TV...



Yours sporadically,

*(())*^^^^^^^*(())*

(I don't know what that is meant to be.)