Scale of the universal

Alright what a week. I’ve been sleeping very little and working very much, which has produced a quantity of inane babbling in my head, so I hope this post doesn’t end up and the category of ‘what was he thinking!’

Universal. Universe. Univers (ha, just kidding, no more type jokes Aaron). Isn’t it interesting that the word universe can mean everything outside, but universal can mean everything inside. Universal rights, the universe at large, two distinct contexts. Let’s realize that universal things are included within the universe, so we can perhaps set a scale with two very different outcomes before we look at a couple things together.

Jay Sauceda down in Austin at Public School posted something today that caught my eye:

This is called “The Pale Blue Dot”, an image commissioned by Carl Sagan, taken by NASA, of our fair Earth. Caught in a beam of sunlight, Carl’s remarks about our spec of a planet are incredible, which he published in his book Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future In Space. I’d love to post the full 4 paragraphs of relevant text here, (check it if you want it), but the last one is most pertinent:

“It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

Thanks Jay for posting such inspiring content!
Alright so this is our universe context I mentioned before. Now, for the  universal.

Perhaps you are familiar with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for 2015. These goals are eight targets developed by the United Nations to drive global progress in health and development by 2015. Ambitious, right? It’s not just a list, it’s actually working to drastically reduce things like death by Malaria, and other major issues. Enter TEDxChange. And of course, Bill & Melinda Gates, thank goodness.

The purpose of TEDxChange was to celebrate the fact that the MDGs are ten years old, but also to jolt a global audience in realizing that we’ve only 5 years left to complete the 8 goals. This event was simulcast in 40 countries by 80 satellite partners in order to seriously talk about what still needs to be done and how we can move faster in regards to the MDGs.

In a large classroom in Madrid participants explained the history of contraception in Thailand, then developed a way to move forward and apply the same successful principles to other similar nations.

In Chape Hill, North Carolina the community gathered in a fantastic old cimena and talked about the logistics of getting equipment to health workers in the field and better equipping them for their demanding jobs.

In Tedx Dubai we can see the liberated citizens of an Islamic state, a place textbooks still classify as “largely not free.” When I see women with uncovered hair, non-segregated, engaging intellectually in the plan for our future, I realize that my textbook isn’t worth much. I wonder if they consider themselves “largely not free.” I wish I was there, the 4 speakers covered investing in social enterprises, fighting Aids, and renewable energy. Incredible.

TEDx Manhattan, humans have such great expressions when they are empowered & learning at the same time.

TEDx Argentina, such an excellent image realizing the idea behind human development.

At Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C. – notes + scribbles, the foundations of what will become our future. Heading reads “change is possible.”

TEDx Singapore, question time.

At this point I think I am able to grasp the idea of global events + audiences, but global minds tackling common problems is just damn exciting. Dubai to Singapore to Chapel Hill. Universal. Everyone seems to be talking about how we don’t make things that last anymore, you know, like cathedrals. Isn’t it clear that many things we make now don’t have a physical place in the universe? Such as, Wikipedia, Google, UN MDGs, and TED itself? But they are equal to a cathedral, are they not? They require teams of artisans that have aligned their purpose and value!

Even though we don’t know how to make stained glass as a species anymore, we have cathedrals all around us. Which cathedral will I lend my hand to? Can I build more than one, simultaneously? Yes, of course, yes. If you & I can manage it, by the time we get past working age, later in this century, we will have built hundreds of cathedrals. This is alchemy, and it’s going to shimmer for generations. Yeah, it’s still just a pale blue dot in the sucking void of space, but at least we’re concerning ourselves with dot-wide problems and dot-wide goals with people from other sides of the dot, to make the dot better and probably, just probably, last longer.

Urban Exploration

When I was a kid the small logging town I lived in was in decline, or had at least stagnated economically. The once booming timber industry had dried up and only one of the three mills that had once driven the local economy was running full time. This is not to say that I lived in a ghost town, far from it. However all around were markers of times of plenty that had long since passed. The site where the one grocery store now rests was once the train stop, where several trains a day would pause to take on loads of freshly cut lumber to be delivered all over the state. These days the trains only pass through every several days or so and will only stop to drop off or pick up stray boxcars that are waiting for them. As children we would follow the tracks out the south end of town where there was a train tressel that had long since fallen into disrepair. No longer used, the tressel led to a mill that had been closed long ago leaving the structure abandoned. I remember feeling like I was the first person who had ever discovered this rusty, splinter ridden treasure, although the crude graffiti splattered all over the low walled sides was proof that this was not the case. No matter how short the walk from the center of my small town to the bridge, the trip always felt like an adventure.

photo by Jake Ricker use with permission

All this came flooding back to me when I saw this image in my Flickr contact stream recently, captured by the talented Jake Ricker. The subject of the photo is entering Freedom Tunnel an NYC “landmark” previously unknown to me. The tunnel, which has been sporadically used by Amtrak has been a shelter to the homeless and a perfect canvas for graffiti artists for years. In short this easily accessible monument to urbanization is a perfect hike for the urban explorer.

As the American economy transitions from it’s industrial roots to a more service based model our landscape is changing. Behemoths of industry that once dominated skylines in major cities are moving their workforce overseas or out of urban areas where the cost of labor is high. The most striking example as of late being Detroit. When presented with such a landscape some urbanites are not satisfied to leave these areas fenced up and rusting but dive deep into the dirty, splintered, and dilapidated corners of their surrounding in order that they might find beauty there, and there’s plenty to be found.

above photos by Rob Dobi use with permission

My first exposure to any art concerning urban exploration it was the work of Rob Dobi and his ongoing photo essay, New England Ruins. His photography is ominous, playful, and sometimes just plain creepy but always beautiful.

In many ways the built environments that we call home become one large concrete blur as we move from place to place, day after day. However it is the most mundane of these environments that quite often yield the most unexpected and joyful bits of life. Now get out there.

Desktop Wallpaper, Whales of Oregon

Whales, medium ones, that live in Oregon. This is what the new desktop screenspace from FORTPORT looks like. 3 friendly medium-sized giants, categorized for your desktop! Actually there are quite a few whales that call Oregon home, but these three spoke to me in particular. They’re almost all exactly the same size, and also happened to fit nicely together on screen. I’ve got several sizes for you, including iPad & iPhone, just in case you want to get mobile with your Cetacea.

Make sure you keep our oceans clean and don’t clutter your desktop with junk! These fragile behemoths hate polluted waters, and will totally swim off your desktop if it gets dirty. These are for the discerning desktop user. No garbage!

1900 x 1200 |  1680 x 1050 |  1440 x 900 |  1280 x 800 |  iPad | iPhone

What started all this business was the Oregon Coast Chart (below). Originally I wanted to include all of these fine specimens but it just didn’t seem right so I decided to focus on the sedan-like Cetaceans. I didn’t realize we had so many giants swimming in our coastal waters! Blue whales freak me right out, their tongues alone are 20 feet long. All the dolphins & porpoises surprised me as well, I’ve yet to see one of these shiny little beasts out there in the waves.

Bringing these guys to life was a nice learning experience. I now know more than I ever expected about whale anatomy. Since I wrote a post recently about sharing process, I thought I’d do the same! Here’s a peek behind the curtain for these guys:

I started out searching for the right image and then just started making basic shapes in Illustrator. Then, I brought them over piece by piece to their new home in Photoshop, where slowly these 3 friends came to be. Specifically, the Humpback Whale offered the most visual interest with its extremely long pectoral fins and barnacled nose.

In the end some textured layers helped round out the whale to the look I wanted. This was also a great way to help blend some of those darker areas with the lighter ones. There were a few other whales that didn’t make it that got to this stage, like the Minke and the Blue, but they now rest quietly in file folder land, on a long, extended nap. Don’t worry, I feed them krill.

The Answer, lightning equals life

It starts as just another rather unassuming Vimeo HD short film until you hear this man speak. Ray Winstone was in his yard in Hammersmith as a young man when he was struck by lightning. He survived, and this film literally explodes within his description of how incredible living is now that he’s been spared. It will knock your socks off, shoot through you, and infect your brains. And in just six minutes!

Just things that happen, you know. I was a teenage kid, 1974, 17 years of age. I was in my dads yard, I was soaking wet, you know I’d been out in the rain. The transformer on the carriage exploded, and uh, I had this incredible sense of a bright light. A flash.

It makes you think how beautiful and wonderful life is. That’s why every day to me is a very special day. When I look at my kids and I look in the garden and I see the rabbits running around…I like travelling and seeing the world.

Acclaimed film director John Hillcoat, whose last major motion picture feature was the critically heralded ‘The Road’, directs the first video for UNKLE’s ‘The Answer’. His vision begins with Ray Winstone (The Departed, Sexy Beast, Cold Mountain) relaying a memory from years past.

Atelier, Provocateur, lost talent

Before his death I wrote a little post on Alexander Mcqueen & his (tragically, final) womenswear show called Plato’s Atlantis. Still, I believe it was the best show I’ve ever seen in my life for a variety of reasons, but I never really mentioned him after he died. Lee Alexander Mcqueen has been an inspiration of mine since I first heard of him when Gianni Versace was murdered outside his Miami home in 1997. He mentioned that he thought a house should die with its creator, something that I respected and admired. For his relatively short career, Lee packed everything he did with the pure vision of someone who aligned his work with his purpose. What purpose that was we are still trying to figure out.

But oh mighty, was it a beautiful world he crafted.

Early on I hadn’t realized that it was Mcqueen who designed & art directed the famous Homogenic album cover for Bjork in 1997. Around a similar time he and his muse/discoverer/tragic admirer Isabella Blow took this photograph together which was prophetic of what he was later to do to the world of fashion. Madly burn it down, with a touch of death, humor, and theatre.

Both he and Isabella are now deceased, both lead lives with extreme highs and lows, Lee in the end just couldn’t cope with his mothers death and made the decision to follow Isabella’s lead and end it. Sadly, it seems, the most sensitive artists are also the most prolific and brilliant. Perhaps we need small army’s to protect the living treasures among us that struggle with the varying traumas of living.

In the post I wrote about Lee just before his death I mentioned I’d love to work with him at some point in my career. Perhaps instead I can shift my focus and work like him, crafting, making, and creating the world I’d like to see. Tall orders, but it seems worthwhile to take a second and reflect on the extreme craft and talent that one man produced.

Here, Natalia Vodianova represents the iconic Oyster Dress from the Spring/Summer 2003 collection. Despite labeling his shows as ready to wear, McQueen regularly applied haute couture needlework, fabrics, and concepts into this off-the-rack clothing. This dress, in particular, now resides in a museum for its relevance, iconoclastic quality, and sheer beauty. This has also been referred to as The Shipwreck Dress.

In 1999 Mcqueen presented an entire collection in a winter playland that was inspired by Stanly Kubrick’s The Shining. Models entered the runway on ice skates, snow flakes drifted from the rafters, and an odd, haunting arctic wind blew throughout the show. Lee’s runways were never just a catwalk. They were stories, played out by alien-like characters from worlds that never really existed. Kindof like a dream of a dream of a bad memory, set perhaps by an orchestra lead by Marilyn Manson.

I remember when these ads came out in 2002. That is Lee on the top floating like Damien Hirst’s tiger shark in what we are to believe is a tank of formaldehyde. When flipping through a GQ or Vogue these ads will stop your heart, and nothing in the rest of the magazine will be as subversive, perverted, or stunning.

For the fall/winter 2006 collection McQueen famously set Kate Moss inside a glass pyramid as a hologram at the end of the show (bottom right image, above), which appeared out of the darkness right as the audience reached a point of frenzied applause after the last model marched around the wood-planked stage. Kate began as a small blur and blossomed into a life-size ethereal woman, perhaps drowned in her dress strikingly similar to the Shipwreck Dress from 3 years earlier. Floating in front of the spellbound buyers, she slowly disappeared into a sparkle revealing everyone’s jaws on the floor. No one really asked how he did it, it was just McQueen, and it was astounding. Watch here.

And as astounding as any of his previous work, his last show was an incredible moment in history to remember him by. Plato’s Atlantis opened with what my Grandfather would call a Satanic video sequence. My grandchildren though, will call it remarkable. The runway itself appears to be Lee’s most conventional, except that it is flanked on both sides by enormous robotic cameras that record each model & the audience and project it on an ENORMOUS screen behind the stage. Lee mentioned to Tim Blanks that the entire production cost around $1M. Did he have any inkling of what was about to happen in his life?

Whatever his mental health state was at the time, he was clearly singular in his point of view for his last collection. He created a fantasy, as he did for each of his shows, but in this instance Lee crafted a layered story that influenced every one of the 17 minutes the show lasted. It could be described in many ways. Daphne Guinness called it “Queen Victoria, but in space, underwater.” Certainly, it was set in the future, in a world governed by women slowly evolving into creatures at home underwater, on stilt-like shoes, and probably, part reptile. Lee successfully worked in Orca & Humpback songs into the woven framework of sound the show is set to. OK enough with descriptions, watch the full show here.

For my purposes, I’d love to share two video recaps of his career and let you find the Atlantis show on your own (or just click the link I just mentioned). Rest easy, sir, you sure lef the bar higher than most of us could ever reach.

And, Lee working, behind the curtain, on some of his incredible worlds: