Photographs Tell Stories Of A Lifetime

Photographs can hold meanings far beyond the initial glance. They hold and display emotion that words never could. Carmine Galasso knows this. As well as the various individuals photographed and interviewed in Galasso's book, "Crosses -- Portraits Of Clergy Abuse". Galasso traveled the United States photographing "men and women who were betrayed by the very Roman Catholic priests and nuns they had once admired and trusted" (David Gonzalez, NYTimes).

Galasso set out to find survivors of these devastating occruances and give them a medium to share their thoughts and feelings. The book holds some truly emotional stories and photographs.
Galasso's nook can be purchased here.

Links:

Crosses

NYTimes

Concrete Cemetary

Artists are continually pushing boundaries and attempting to create images that society has never seen before. Artist Jason de Caires Taylor accomplishes just this in his work. Taylor creates life-size cement societies and places them in the depths of the ocean -- just off of the coast of South America. As time progresses, the sculptures become one with the sea lining, acting as the reefs do that cover the sea floor. The aquatic life accepts the sculptures as part of the environment, living on and among the statues. Taylor's work can be found in various bodies of water around South America. Experiencing Taylor's work is far different than the typical gallery visit.

Links:

Jason De Caires Taylor

TwoFourFlinching

Tron: Legacy

Disney's Tron will hit theaters this Thursday at midnight. The film has been hyped for months, not because of the actual film, but mainly due to the pair of robots that created the score. Daft Punk is finally back after a three year absence from the music scene. As the popularity of Electronic Dance Music (EDM) is on the rise in America, Daft Punk and Joseph Kosinski have chosen to so something very irregular with the score. Daft Punk's catchy, electronically synth. lines are accompanied by an 86 piece orchestra. Daft Punk & traditional movie scores collide, as TRON offers something that has yet to be heard. As an EDM enthusiast, I am extremely excited to see Daft Punk hit the big screen. The score, paired with some impressive modern day special effects should be more than enough to make this film rediscovery worth while. Disney will have no problem cashing in at the box office Friday. 

Path: The newest way to let everyone know what you are doing with every moment of your day.

Path is one of the newest social networks to pop up on the Internet. The network is mainly based around cell phones. Users take pictures if where they are or what they are doing and post it directly from their phone using Path's phone application. Users are able to give a brief description of the photo and attach location points to where the photograph was taken. Unfortunately, Path currently only works with the Iphone. Path plans on increasing the network to devices that run Android and Windows as well.

Path has taken a page from Twitter's book, keeping the network small and simple. Currently, each Path user is limited to 50 friends to share their photos with. It is a simple social network that is based around cell phone photographs. It seems to be a good way to keep updated with close friends, but does not seem to be useful as a professional networking tool. Below is a video with more information on Path and how it is utilized:

If you would like to know more about path or join the Path social network, visit path.com.

Drinking Green

Glass blower Dean Wolf has found a way for you to get all warm and fuzzy this winter while being environmentally friendly at the same time. Curl up by the fire and warm your insides with Wolf's Recycled Blown Bottle Shot Glass. The glasses are blown from recycled Topo Chico mineral water bottles.

Not only are Wolf's products environmentally friendly, but his studio is as well.

"This glass was blown in an environmentally conscious manner in our low-energy consumption hot-shop powered in part by renewable wind energy of our power company's Green Works program. We ship using recyclable cardboard and Bio-Bubble, a 100% bio-degradable bubble wrap."

Check out Wolf's shot glasses and other work at etsy.com, as well as thousands of other pieces of art.

MetraTrend: OLED Headphones

Personal Sounds with a Personal Lightshow

Designers Min-guk and Hong-joo of Metatrend Institute have released a futuristic design for headphones. The designer duo's Transparent OLED Headphones have a headband that is made from felxible OLED panels. These panels allow the listener to fully customize their headphones. With a few presses of a button, the color and pattern created on the panel can be changed, making each pair of headphones unique to the person using them. The OLED panels display the album artwork and title of the song the user is listening to, as well as creates a visual experience that moves to the music. The heaphones are yet to be released, but would see some great success in a market of consumers that are constantly looking for the most unique and customizable products.

Links:

Yanko Design

MetaTrend

Extraordinary People: Ari Evans

This section is new to this blog. Every few weeks I plan to create a post that pertains to a specific person that I have randomly met over the last year or so that is 'worth knowing'.

The first person featured on this blog is Ari Evans. I met Ari Evans not too long ago at Webster Hall in NYC. We were both at Webster to see one Justice, a rather large name in the electronic music world. We happened to bump into each other early in the night and began talking. The relationship has held ever since. We have run into each other several other times at various different shows. The biggest question is: What makes Ari so interesting?

Over  the  time  that  I  met  Ari,  he  has  worked  with  several  other friends  to  create  one  of  the  more  successful  electronic  music  blogs found on the Internet today: Less  Than  Three. The  blog  has  been  rapidly  growing  and  gaining  recognition  in  the  electronic  music  world. Being  a  film  student  striving  to  break  into  the  media  world,  Ari's success  intrigued  me  and  I felt  that  everyone  could  learn  from  his experiences.  I  decided  to  ask  Ari  to  answer  several  questions  about his  blog  and  his  life.

What do you do outside of Less Than 3?

Ari: I'm currently attending Stanford University going for a master's in management science and engineering with a concentration in entrepreneurship. Between school and LT3,  most of my time is occupied, but when I do get some free time I travel and enjoy getting to know the world better through unique experiences. I think when you can see the world through other perspectives, you gain the ability to understand it in a whole new way. 

How did Less Than 3 get started?

Ari: The initial conception was back in February of this year, when we first came up with the name. It was actually a good friend of mine who had suggested using LessThan3 as the name for a DJ group. When I heard the name I immediately thought it should be used for something bigger, so I got to brainstorming, and what we have now is at least one or two evolutions on the original concept. The work to get here now has been pretty substantial, but it has been really enjoyable. Mostly due to the team that is behind it. It's truly composed of an all-star group of individuals who share energy and inspiration to push forward and realize our dreams.

What about electronic music caused you to base a blog around it?

Ari: My favorite part of EDM culture are the vibes. A vibe is a difficult thing to describe, but has to do with the feeling and impression you get from an experience and group of people-- the emotions that are invoked by the environment. In my experience, dance music culture attracts a forward-thinking, open minded group of individuals -- The kind of environment where I'm very likely to form strong friendships with people. In fact, many of my best friends were found at these kinds of events. (This is where Ari and I met).

There were several reasons why I started the site, but there is one simple idea that has pushed the whole thing forward. My whole life I have seen how easy it is to avoid being exposed to what is out there. It's not just about music, really--in general, your exposure to various kinds of experiences gives you more chances. More chances to explore and thus more chances to fall in love with something. And aren't we all looking for something to fall in love with? If happiness is what we're all searching for as humans (my personal belief), then we should do what we can to attain it. Sadly; however, humans are lazy. Since entropy rules, and it's too easy to just go about our lives, we just end up getting sucked into routine and monotony. LessThan3 is an opportunity for me and my team to provide a totally simple way for people to get pulled into this incredible life stream of creativity and wonder. So that's really what it's all about--helping people find something to fall in love with, just like I have.


How has Less Than 3 grown since its creation?
The site has been seeing some extremely healthy growth, having grown by 50%+ (traffic-wise) every 30 days. We've redesigned the site once, adding the persistent player at the bottom of the page, and we've added special new articles and features to the site which have provided the community with a way to get more involved as we grow. We're constantly working on new methods to increase our reach and exposure, but the great thing is that since people love our product, they freely and avidly promote it themselves. That's exactly what I wanted to have happen. 

How have you & Less Than 3 found success?

Ari: Finding success is all about networking and determination. I seek advice from colleagues, mentors, and friends all the time. The goal for me is to build something that people really love using. The only way to do that is to talk to the users to tweak things to their liking. The main thing that has separated us from the competition thus far, has been our strong branding, professionalism, and attention to detail. Artists and their PR agencies willingly do business with us because they feel and see the benefits of our collaboration. For example, our interview pages put the spotlight on artists and show to be the perfect piece of media to blast out through social media networks. From there everything is just a huge snowball as more artists see us as an emerging authoritative source for Electronic Dance Music(EDM) in the US.

What do you see for the future of Less Than 3?

Ari: My team and I have evaluated many areas of the music industry that are ripe for entrepreneurial attention. We have some pretty game-changing ideas that are currently in development. Our goal is to build a fun, useful, and engaging tool that can help artists get exposure and help users find new music and connect with each other. To give you a sneak peak, we plan on adding some big personalization features to the site and finding alternate forms of compensation models for artists out there. Stay tuned!

Do you have any advice for those who are trying to break into the media/design world?

Ari:The most important aspect is making sure you define your brand carefully, decide how it is you want to be perceived to your users, and what your core competencies will be--that is, what it is you are really good at. Be prepared to try a variety of promotional techniques and make sure to utilize the social networking edge that we now have to help you get as much exposure as possible. Remember that people are more likely to spread the word about something that they enjoy and think their friends would also enjoy. So before you start promoting anything, make sure your product is as solid as it can be. Or at least solid enough to start spreading it around.

Ari's story is truly great and inspiring. It shows that if you are truly passionate. talented, and determined anything is possible. Ari shared a great amount of knowledge and I thank him for that. Head over to http://lessthan3.com/ and see what Ari has helped create. Keep your eyes and mind open, and continued to strive toward your passion.

Self Presentation

Being a creative person I'm constantly exploring different concepts and ideas about the world around me. Trying to figure out my place in the world and the overall goals of my time here on Earth. From time to time, I turn this idea in on myself, expressing who I am and exploring the the ways I can contort my human figure to create art. Over the past few months I have compiled a few different self portraits, all with different concepts.

Two of the self portraits began with this picture:

Film Still
The concept of my first self portrait was to re-create a film still. This was inspired by the work of Cindy Sherman. For more information on Cindy Sherman's work, refer to my previous blog post. For this film still, I started with an image from Rawshon Marshall Thurber's comedy, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. The image came from the scene where Chuck Norris made his cameo:

My goal for this project was to completely re-create the film still, inserting myself into the scene. The first step was to take to the above picture. After this I needed to make myself resemble Chuck Norris as much as possible. I started by darkening my hair and the overall picture to match that of the film still.
Once this one done, I needed to give myself a beard. Through several brush alterations and color corrections, I was able to create a brush tool that very much resembled facial hair. I further tweaked the beard until I got it the way I wanted.

The next and most difficult step was creating the background. The process consisted of countless hours of scouring the Internet for similar background and foreground images (pepsi cup, people in the background, the other judges shoulder, etc.). Some I was forced to recreate myself in photoshop (the desk and name tag). I couldn't find some of the background materials, so I was forced to recreate the image, take a picture, balance the color levels, and place it into the background (the man on the far right). Finally, after countless hours of photo taking, google searching, and photoshop filters, I came away with a relatively close final product:

EXPERIMENTAL SELF PORTRAIT
For the second portrait, I took the same starting image of myself and altered it in a way that would give the image a completely different emotion than the film still. My film still recreation has a humorous, jovial feel, making it very lighthearted and funny.
I set out to create a very bizarre, unrealistic, and dark photograph. At first, the photograph start as pure experimentation. I played with filters, darkened the image, and attempted to change my facial expression.   This resulted in many failed attempts. My results were not meeting the emotion that I was attempting to create.

I changed my initial approach and began to focus on the parts of the photograph that jumped out the most. These parts were my right arm, eyes, and background. I decided to completely remove the background and replace it with a dark color and texture. In order to give it a darker feeling, I pulled out the bright whites in my eyes. After this, the only thing that drew the viewers eyes straight to it was my hand giving the thumbs up. I chose to copy this piece of the image and recreate it through out the image. This gave the image a surreal, bizarre feeling, while pulling attention away from the one hand since the piece was repeated through the overall image. My final product is below:

OTHER SELF PORTRAITS
Over time I have compiled a descent amount of photographs of myself, many of which I just don't enjoy to look at; however, there are a few that I took recently that I have really enjoyed. These photos hold great composition, great color, and really pull an emotion from the viewer. The two photographs are very different in their use of colors: one very dark, and the other very bright and slightly overexposed. I felt like both photographs were worth sharing.

Sprocket Rocket

Bringing back the old and nostalgic looks of previous years has been a concept that has worked in design for some time. The Lomography Sprocket Rocket is no exception, but goes far behind it's retro body. The camera shoots on 35mm, but in a way that no camera has before. The Sprocket Rocket uses the entire height of the roll, actually using the area of the film where the sprocket holes are. This allows you to take extremely wide photos that you can't accomplish in any other way. The camera also allows you to rewind the film in the camera and take multiple exposures.

The Sprocket Rocket retails at $89 and cann be picked up here. It's a great addition to any photography arsenal. 

Shoes With a Bounce

Trying to dunk, but you're only 5'8"? APL (Athletic Propulsion Lab) may have just what you need. APL had created a pair of shoes that actually help you jump higher (about 3.5 inches to be exact). APL was founded by twin brothers Adam and Ryan Goldston. The two brothers are former basketball and football players from USC (University of Southern California). Searching for a way to help increase athlete performance, the brothers founded APL.

The APL Concept 1 shoes work off of a relatively simple design. There is a unique device implanted into the front of the shoe near the ball of your foot. When the athlete plants on the front of their foot to jump, the device is compressed and then released when the athlete projects themselves into the air. APL calls this the "launch and load process".

Unfortunately if you are professional player you can't take advantage of the APL technology since the product has been banned in all professional sports. However, if you're just looking for the extra edge at the local court and have $300.00 to burn, APL is here to help.

Design Tweets Thus Far

Visual Self-Presentation in Social Life

Anna Akbari, visual sociologist & Co-founder of Splice (a social media tool that organizes your 'friends' by strength of relationship) recently gave a lecture at Hofstra University. I took the time to read some of her PhD thesis, Fashioning Power. In her thesis, Akbari "focuses on fashion's modern manifestation in [NYC], an urban globalized setting." Akbari goes on further explaining that "fashion is more of a cultural issue, a politically charged tool for negotiating one's social capital." The majority of her thesis explains the importance of style and fashion in the human culture and it's relation to social status.

The chapter that intrigued me most was Commodified Flesh. Akbari talks about how we "commodify our own flesh in exchange for ease in visual correctness." We as humans, are constantly trying to find
ways to look younger and more attractive. Our society is plagued with diet pills, anti-aging creams, and plastic surgery. The human society dwells so much on physical appearance. Akbari takes this obsession and relates it to "We manipulate our appearances with the attention of a paid employee eager to move up the corporate ranks." We believe our physical upkeep directly relates to our professional success. 

But what says that this belief is wrong? It's not very often that a man with head of dreads leads a business meeting. In many cases, the correlation between success and physical appearance holds true, is because we allow it to. Our society focuses so much on physical appearance that it has become factor in deciding who holds a certain job position.

Akbari's thesis is a very interesting one that I briefly touched upon. I would greatly recommend reading over some of what Akbari writes. You may come to realize alot about the human race you never noticed before.

Internet Power Tackles TV

Google has officially announced it's newest media creation: Google TV. Google TV is a product that will integrate your television with the rest of your technical gadgets. With internet access, an open source platform with applications, and the coveted google search tool, your TV will work more like a computer than a television. Google tv also includes picture in picture, easier DVR navigation for dish users, and the ability to use your smartphone as a controller. You'll never have to dig through the cushions of your couch for you remote again, but for your phone instead!

Google TV will be available sometime this fall. Google TV can be purchased in all new Sony HDTV's ($TBA) or as a Logitech router ($300).

I personally do not see this product catching on very quickly. Internet TV has been attempted before and failed miserably. In order for this product to be successul, the price mus drop dramatically.  Buying a new television or spending 300 dollars is quite alot of money to spend on mere integration and convenience. I have a 2000 dollar laptop to watch youtube and launch applications on. If I want it on my tv, I'll spend 20 dollars and get a HDMI cable.

Google is taking the step in changing the way viewers watch TV, but need to drop the price tag or offer their own DVR system.

Experimental Portraits

As I work on creating an experimental portrait, I thought I would share a few of my favorite experimental portraits created by various other artists.

Acid Rain by ViaMoi

Virgin by Rossina Bossio Bossa

One Day I Tried toSnort Coke by Andres Castaneda

Pocket-Sized Professional Photography

Photography has come a long way since we discovered how to catch a moment in time. High quality SLR cameras have made the transition from film to digital over the last decade, allowing the every day soccer mom to catch her baby scoring the winning goal with ease. The only thing wrong with present day SLR cameras is the size. I have been waiting for a sleeker alternative with similar quality since I have picked up a camera.

That day has finally come! Over the last few months, companies such as Panasonic, Sony, & Olympus have released pocket sized SLR cameras, adding an entire new line to the camera world. These cameras all have interchangeable lenses and impecable quality. The photography enthusiast can finally get point and shoot and quality of an SLR in the size of a point and shoot. The current market prices look very similar to the regular SLR lines ($500 - 6300).

The only downfall to these cameras are that they are not 'true SLR' cameras. While SLR cameras allow the photographer to look straight through the lens, composing the shot perfectly, these compact SLR's do not.

Although not perfect, these last few months have been a huge step in downsizing SLR cameras. 

Current compact SLR cameras on the market:

Panasonic Lumix LX5

Sony Alpha NEX-5

FujiFilm FinePix X100

Olympus E-P1

Leica M8

Cindy Sherman: The art of the Film Still

As I take these next few weeks to recreate a film still, it is only fitting to include Cindy Sherman in my blog. Cindy Sherman is photographer, film director, and actress that is best known for her collection of untitled film stills.

                  Sherman Film Still #3                                           Sherman Film Still #5

The collection consists of 69 black and white film stills, which were acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in 1995. The first six pictures of the collection were taken in 1977 with one premise in mind: "fan-magazine glimpses into the life (or roles) of an imaginary blonde actress, played by Sherman herself" (Museum of Modern Art). The photographs closely resemble many of the paparazzi publicity shots society drools over today. Sherman based her stills around the celebrity persona that society had created. Sherman finished the collection in 1980 when she ran out of cliches.

                         Sherman Film Still #35                    Sherman Film Still #14

Resources:
MoMa

A History of Celebrities

Celebrities have been a major part of culture for thousands of years, but the celebrity image has drastically changed. Long ago, the biggest celebrities were monarchs or war heroes. A political accomplishment was the easiest way of gain fame.

The earliest celebrities that come the closest to those of today were those of the Greek times. Olympic athletes were given the star treatment. According to Dr. Hans van Wees, a professor at University College London, athletes "were not only widely talked about, but were given the equivalent of red-carpet treatment.
These athletes were given life-long free meals and hymns of praise performed by famous poets in their honor. This type of treatment is very similar to the pampering many celebrities are given today.

Celebrities have been given the "star treatment" since the beginning; however, it has only been recently where society has exploited them. Over the last few decades, society has not only built up celebrities, but torn them down as well. One of the most recent examples is Britney Spears.

A celebrity that had everything, slowly broke under the constant watchful eye of the public. Celebrities have become figures that we all look up to, but at the same time, love to see fail. The way we see celebrities has come a long way since the time of the Romans and Greeks, but their god-like treatment still continues.
Sources:
BBC

The Beer that Sings

Tuned Pale Ale (TPA) is one of the most impressive package designs that I have seen in recent memory.



Each bottle is labeled with music notes. This allow you to drink down to the desired note and play it by blowing into the top of the bottle. Even the box can be used as an instrument. The bottom of the box is labeled with six different squares, each of which produce a different tone when hit.

This musical beer has yet to be produced and distributed. TPA is currently searching for a larger beer distributor to take on the product. Hopefully, this product will be making it's way to shelves soon. This innovative packaging will flood through colleges sometime in the near future.

If you would like anymore information about Tuned Pale Ale or the creator, visit the website above.

Crocs Get Classy

I have been the biggest croc boycotter since the rubber gardening shoes were created. They are extremely useful, but I could never get past their atrocious styling and design. However, the day has come where I may slip my feet into a shoe very similar to crocs. 

Native Shoes has just released a fall line of shoes that are made out of a similar material as crocs. The one difference is that these shoes are shaped like some of the most iconic shoes in recent memory. You can finally rock your chuck taylor's or vans in the rain without worrying that they'l be ruined. Native's Shoe's Fall line consists of four styles and almost any color imaginable.

Native Shoes can be found at most Journeys shoe stores. 

Day One: Intro to Design

What better way to start a blog about design than with a little background information?

Although design started thousands of years ago with early egyptian and roman architecture, Design has only been a profession for about 100 years. Design was given it's birth as an occupation through the German fine arts school, Bauhaus.

Design can be broken up into three categories:

Product Design (computers, cars, packaging, etc.)

Architecture (the oldest type of design.)

Fashion Design (clothing, jewelry, shoes, etc.)

Over the next few months, I'll be keeping reader's informed about the most interesting design news that I come across through my research and every day life.