Canal Mills: contributions

A short piece I've written for Canal Mills, which is a warehouse club back up in Leeds

http://canalmills.com/art/unicorn-paris

My contributions to their blog will cover arts and music.

Tapping into the context of a CAD-reliant world of fluro snakeskin and trippy renaissance gifs, French design team UNICORN create some pretty awesome visuals.With projects ranging from shop-front installations and data mapping, right through to fashion show animations and beat-match visualisations, their tumblr portfolio makes for both an impressive and a really interesting scroll. UNICORN infuse a critical technological element into their work. Their use of 3D scanning (employing the mega-successful kinect sensor) takes the physicality of the body/sculpture and slots it into the surreal, digital environment of the Internet animation

The graphic aesthetic is that of early-days myspace embellishment, whilst the soundtrack ranges anywhere from an electro-synth organ symphony to a glitchy techno clickbeat - and this experimental, musical aspect of their work is particularly interesting. Under the impact of generative design and digital imagery, UNICORN explores contemporary music visualisation in a tangible way. Such a playful approach to matching moving images with live track mixing not only looks really effective, but really fun, and could certainly provide some creative performance possibilities for live DJ sets and shows in the future.

For more examples of their work, including their video projects, visit the Unicorn Paris tumblr page

Additionally, this mentioned work reminded me of this: Rhizomatiks

Tokyo Hands: Exotic Fantasy

Feeling miserable about the grey London drizzle? As we slowly slump back into the disheartening routine of winter, some of us tend to look for that tropical summer feeling in all the wrong places. Fake tan won't help you here ladies. And you'd better replace that 5-panel snapback for a beanie my friend. If you're sitting in your bedroom reminiscing over Croatian cliff-diving or Thai-white beaches, then perhaps easing into an online exotic fantasy might help you forget about tomorrow morning's wet walk into uni. 

https://soundcloud.com/dismagazine/tokyo-hands-exotic-fantasy/s-ay4WH

Tokoyo Hands (via DIS Magazine) present to you an excellent half-hour mix of nostalgic summer vibes combined with some trancy jungle beats. It's the sound of running water and parrot-song that will really take you elsewhere - either that, or the hyper-real, neon rainforest themed artwork that accompanies the mix.

ze illest skejdaz

Quick link to the ski blog I keep:

http://zeillestskejdaz.tumblr.com/

Skiing is a real personal, separate passion of mine, and this blog is a great way for me to keep involved even when I'm out of the scene (which I have been for too long!).
Get in touch if you're interested in contributions to anything from me.

Denmark

Digital Humanities: Russia

I was invited to Russia for a few days to take part in a Digital Humanities conference hosted by The Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia. It was an incredible experience, and my research (my BA dissertation) was received much better than I had expected by the Russian guests, speakers and organisers. I was even asked to sign the books in which my work was published for them!

Despite St. Petersberg being a particularly European city in the Russian Federation, being there for a few days was amazing. The architecture and layout of the city was very formal, and it was absolutely freezing. I was thrilled to get time to wander around the Hermitage for a few hours before climbing to the top of St. Isaac's Cathedral to watch the sun set over the skyline.

A write up for the event can be found on aqnb.com soon.

(here)

aqnb.com: The Space between Art and Technology - Algorithms

here

I've written a piece which investigates algorithm, coding, API and how these technological techniques can be interpreted (via particualr software) to create a visual output.

3D print aesthetic: High Fashion developments

I'm not saying that these pieces are 3D printed, but Dior's collection at Paris Fashion Week a few days ago certainly seems to be picking up on a similar kind of aesthetic. Which is pretty cool.

images via WGSN