Edumacate

As the name Aldous Huxley was once again brought up, this time in the discussion regarding art/design theory in modernism, I dug out my copy of Brave New World, which I regrettably never "truly read". Not surprisingly, the book is 100 times more intriguing, entertaining, understandable, and pretty much better in every way than I remember it from my high school years. There were a number of passages that I truly resonated with including a detailed description of a failed attempt at Hypnopaedia:

A small boy asleep on his right side, the right arm stuck out, the right hand hanging limp over the edge of the bed. Through a round grating in the side of a box a voice speaks softly.

"The Nile is the longest river in Africa and the second in length of all the rivers of the globe. Although falling short of the length of the Mississippi-Missouri, the Nile is at the head of all rivers as regards the length of its basin, which extends through 35 degrees of latitude..."

At breakfast the next morning, "Tommy," some one says, "do you know which is the longest river in Africa?" A shaking of the head. "But don't you remember something that begins: The Nile is the..."

"The-Nile-is-the-longest-river-in-Africa-and-the-second-in-length-of-all-the-rivers-of-the-globe..." The words come rushing out. "Although-falling-short-of..."

"Well now, which is the longest river in Africa?"

The eyes are blank. "I don't know."

"But the Nile, Tommy."

"The-Nile-is-the-longest-river-in-Africa-and-second..."

"Then which river is the longest, Tommy?"

Tommy burst into tears. "I don't know," he howls.

I must admit, this was exactly the case when it came to my relationship with mathematics. Quite appalling really. But just as hilarious.

Now Reading

Knowledge

I see a lot of people wearing these Stussy t-shirts that say "knowledge is king". Sorry guys, knowledge is not king. Just thought I'd get that out there and set the record straight. No offense to Shawn and Paul and the other guys over at Stussy though.

Here is a picture of the crowd from N*E*R*D's performance from last friday in San Diego. I found it on the BBC blog. I will buy whoever finds me in this picture a vitamin water.

Downturn

In the midst of this economic crisis, where sales are down almost everywhere in the commodity market, its interesting to see how the older companies keep them up. We all know what the deal is with Chrysler and Gottschalks etc. But lets take a look at a few of esteemed European timepiece makers and their responses, featured in Basel, Switzerlands annual watch fair, covered by Monocle magazine.

Francoise Bezzola, Director of Communications for TAG Heuer
"We don't think now is the time to be at a standstill. Being Innovative is the real answer to the crisis."

Stephen Urquhart, President, Omega
"It's more a confidence issue today. People want to be reassured. We haven't changed our strategy and we see customers willing to come and shop."

Marc Michel-Amadry, President, Ebel
"Today it's all about getting back to soberness, the pure and chic - the classics."

Three companies taking three different approaches. I guess we will see. Like I always say, good design will always be in demand, no matter what time it is. However, you will always appeal more to one type of customer more than another. That is another thing that won't change.
Well speaking of downturn, I found that the timing was right for a short visit to the south. The Sungod Festival is an annual attraction at the University of California in San Diego, offering entertainment and musical performances of various of genres. The headliner for this year?

I have to say, the most brutal contact sport in the world is a rock concert. It's hard enough trying to stand still during the music, but even harder when the whole crowd turns into a mosh pit. I must've left covered in sweat from over a hundred people and seven stds. Girls were being trampled on left and right and there wasn't anything I could do because I had a persons armpit in my face and another person's hair in my mouth. And if I remember correctly i got slapped by a few boobs too. This is perhaps also the only place where you will catch me doing remotely dirty dancing. I won't go into any further details with that. It's also one of few times when I'll yell "f*ck you" because Pharrell told me to. The first time I saw an N*E*R*D performance was during Kanye West's Glow in the Dark Tour last spring. It was a good show, but I honestly wasn't as impressed as I was this time around (despite the absence of Chad Hugo). This is new music. Perhaps being 5 feet away changes things. And not even they could ignore the economy, provoking a middle finger out of everybody for Bernie Madoff.

Besides that, it was nice seeing my boys in the sad excuse of a city in Irvine and waking them up at 5 in the AM. It felt like home.

Midday

I'm at one of the design labs here on campus, and they just got these brand new Imacs. The screen is like 2 feet across. And the keyboard is like half a centimeter thick. Everything looks so fresh. I'm gonna be here for a while.

Anyways, a lot of people ask me what my favorite shoe/clothing brand is and I usually have a lot of answers that all meet a specific need. Usually I go on to explain the type of products and concepts I like rather than the manufacturer. Something all my answers have in common is their approach in minimalistic branding; Reebok is the one exception. But one I cannot admire enough is Hiroki Nakamura's Visvim, by Cubism and Free International Laboratories (F.I.L). I won't go into any details about their design philosphy, branding, or marketing/business approach, but they are what I hope to carry out for my own endeavors in the future. Here is a feature of Visvim showcasing in Paris put up by honeyee.com. It comes with a rare english translation. Enjoy.

http://www.honeyee.com/feature/2009/visvim/

Metropolitan

I believe the city to be an integral piece to the unity and coherence of the world first and foremost. Globalization and all other motives are secondary. Seattle to Toronto, Berlin to Tokyo, the world is like a giant interactive dot to dot picture. Each is completely different offering its own unique atmosphere, attractions, and sensibilities, yet at the same time completely the same. I don't mean this in the sense that you are no longer aware of your location, e.g. Lounging in a Starbucks in New Orleans one day and lounging in a Starbucks in Melbourne days later and wondering, "Where the f*ck am I?". That is a major consequence I will try to overlook for now. Given that each city has its financial districts, ghettos, city centres, educational institutions, art scenes, and other subculture communities, we can see the metropolitan city as the quickest and most efficient distributor of information, whether it is news, ideas, art, music. It does this to a degree in which the internet could not possibly match up to...for now...gawd. It cannot imitate the experience of space, true social interaction, and just the act of traveling to that spot and being there. The main point actually has nothing to do with the internet. It is what the urban setting has that the rural and suburban lack. It is the convenience in the accessibility of everything that forces you out of your small apartment into going out into the world. There is plenty of potential space for discomfort. Ironically, more room to grow than on a farm in Idaho.
I've traveled quite a lot in the past 365 days. San Francisco, Seattle, Taipei, Sacramento, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Chicago. It was on my trip to Chicago that I added up these thoughts that I've had for quite a while. Unlike my parents, I was meant for the city, with room for the mountains and the seaside on the weekends. Living in Taiwan showed me this. Suburbs might as well be deserts. I find it hard to breathe. It leaves me longing for the city, leading to quarterly visits to Berkeley which I took just 2 weeks ago to get my fix. Simon I envy you.


Simon's apartment.


The view form the window.


I have a thing for store fronts.


I love this kid.

Modern

Today's Modern Art Museum

Honestly, I have not been to as many as I'd have liked to, but there is something about today's Modern/Contemporary Art museums worth commenting on in a blog entry. Of course I'm not talking about the museum itself, which I am unusually fond of, but the variety of patrons you observe and encounter. And these realizations could not have been made during one's first experience, well perhaps they could just not in my situation, but rather the fourth at the SF MOMA. My preceding visits made at LA's MOCA, Seattles COCA, and the MCA chicago, have all been liesurely and casual and of course I had no idea what I was looking at half the time. This most recent visit having been made for academic purposes might have been what changed my outlook. That and having taken upper division courses on Art after modernism and James Housefields history of Modern Design. I was a little less interested in the exhibits than I was in taking photographs and watching the people. Here are a few categories of them.

The Cool kids. Late teens, early to mid 20s young adults who makes their quarterly visit simply because it is the cool, hip, and modern thing to do. They make a noticeable effort to cram as much information as possible in order to relay it to other members of their other pseudo-bohemian clique in order to seem refined in the arts. They wear skinny jeans, thick rimmed glasses and drink 5 dollar lattes.

The Critical Thief. ( I am vainly guilty of dipping my toes in this category) Actual artists and art critics who come to bash what they feel is trash and bull, and appreciate and draw inspiration from what they find ingenious. The museum works as sort of a guideline of what to do and what not to do. Lastly, they look down on other visitors they find to be ignorant.

The Elitist. Our most valued member of society, the bourgeoise consumer of high culture (please note my frequent sarcasm, sometimes it is lost in writing). These people come to these museums simply because it is what they are supposed to do, in between expensive meals, sailing on a boat, and buying houses. These are the people you want to impress and coax into paying thousands for your canvas splattered with acrylics. Rarely do they know anything about art besides its cultural capital that will bring envy from their friends who run in the same circles, and just as importanly, how it would match the furniture and upholstery in their living room.

I accused this man, who is scrutinizing a print by Andy Warhol, of stealing his outfit from a Neiman Marcus mannequin.

That is all for now. There are many more, for example the touring family of four, the man who preys on women who are suckers for this creative stuff, and people who think modern art is just straight up retarded. I'm not saying that these kinds of people are bad. They are most certainly not. One should never judge a person based on their intentions for visiting an art museum. Come to think of it, I have no idea why I wrote about this at all. But lets not forget the old asian security guards. What would a modern art museum be without them?