I am absolutely in love with this concept! Lëkki is a French company that refurbishes and gives makeovers to classic phones from the 90’s, the idea being that phones have become so over-weighed with new technologies that they advocate a return to the basic functions of a telephone: phone calls and texts. The message sent is one of sustainability through reusing existing resources. And the phones actually look good!
“By customizing those second-hand mobile phones, Lëkki promotes a “back to basics” philosophy (phone+text) and makes a commitment to sustainable development and recycling, through putting iconic objects from the past back into service.”
Cliché! is an animation that sheds light on the various stereotypes attributed to French people and France in general. Whether you agree or not that these clichés are true, you have to admit that the retro illustration is cute and well-done. It’s a funny take on the matter and it’s very ironic, worth watching through till the end.
The video is by Cédric Villain, artist’s statement here.
Jill Greenberg, the Manipulator, has an upcoming show in New York. It showcases her Glass Ceiling series which addresses the social “setup” of being a woman and of femininity. There’s a sort of struggle for control and power at play in these works, the poses of the models seem to show an effort to look elegant while being pushed back by the water, and sometimes they look awkward because of the whole setting. It really illustrates the performance aspect of being a woman, and the level or amount of performance expected from a woman.
Casualties of War are little plastic figurines by the collective Dorothy that focus on showing the psychological hell awaiting soldiers after they return from the Iraq war. These are the casualties that are not as talked about in the media, we tend to focus more on the political aspect of the issue and on medals and decorated soldiers, and forget about the human beings stuck in difficult and tormenting mental states due to the atrocities they saw or took part of. I love how they used the toy soldier medium to convey their idea, it shows how the depiction of the military (and of combats) is usually beautified and at a distance from the realities of war.
“The hell of war comes home. In July 2009 Colorado Springs Gazettea published a two-part series entitled “Casualties of War”. The articles focused on a single battalion based at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, who since returning from duty in Iraq had been involved in brawls, beatings, rapes, drunk driving, drug deals, domestic violence, shootings, stabbings, kidnapping and suicides. Returning soldiers were committing murder at a rate 20 times greater than other young American males. A seperate investiagtion into the high suicide rate among veterans published in the New York Times in October 2010 revealed that three times as many California veterans and active service members were dying soon after returning home than those being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. We hear little about the personal hell soldiers live through after returning home.”
Very interesting undertaking by the Berghs School of Communication, who invited a number of prominent figures to talk about the fear of failure. The point of this was to promote their yearly graduation exhibition. Student Louise Ljungberg explains the thought process behind the idea:
“Courage is very much associated with fear. We students (including me) are constantly flanked by the biggest creativity blocker of them all – the fear of failure. Therefore we’ve decided that this year’s exhibition theme will be – the fear of failure. The purpose of having this theme is to equip the students (and the Swedish communication industry) with a new perspective on failure.”
I think it’s an amazing idea, and it is true that students, and individuals in general, find ways to limit themselves by themselves. We create our own restrictions by being afraid of taking risks and doing things differently, ultimately because we’re afraid of failing at it and of the embarrassment that brings.
Below is the video by Milton Glaser, in my opinion, one of the greatest inspiring figures in the world of design. But you can check out the rest of the videos here.
On re-appropriating public space through graffiti, famous street artist Ben Eine takes on a street in Westminster to protest the city’s position against street art. Oranges and Lemons is the prolific artist’s first piece in the UK in 2011.
“This doc follows street artist Ben Eine as he paints the side of The London Graphics Centre (londongraphics.co.uk/) in Covent Garden, London with his trademark brightly coloured typography.
In an area dominated by “two Prets, a Gap and a Starbucks” on every high street, Ben set out with the aim of stirring up debate with Westminster Council, who currently have a zero tolerance policy on graffiti and street art.
Ben’s a man on a mission this year, having painted all round the world in all sorts of places with all sorts of people, but this is his first piece in the UK in 2011. So far this year he’s had a show in White Walls Gallery, San Francisco, painted in Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, designed the 50th anniversary poster for Amnesty International and painted in a street art exhibition in Germany (streetart-wuppertal.com/).
Also featured in the video are artists Skinner and Hugh Leeman. Check out their work and support Hugh Leeman’s amazing t-shirt project (hughleeman.com/)”
This explains why I regularly check Don’t Panic, they have a very eclectic mix of articles. This nicely written, and funny, piece explores the racist connotations and prejudice in early Disney works. Obviously, since then, the company has made many efforts including a Black American princess in the Princess and the Frog. My two favorite bits from the article:
In a book published in 1948, Mickey gets acquainted with West African culture. The character in question is called Thursday.
“Thursday wreaks so much barbaric havoc in Mickey’s life that he decides to sell him (“a real wild man!”) to the circus for free. Ah, of course: that cornerstone of childhood happiness also dabbles in a little human trafficking.”
Disney amended the theme of Aladdin in 1994, which shows that there was something not quite right about it in the first place.
“The original version alluded to ‘barbaric’ Arab legal practices: you know, “where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face”. Since 1994 the film’s theme now replaces that line with something about the intense heat and immense flat landscape – it still holds onto the line about barbarism, which I think is rather bold. The questionable nature of Aladdin’s ethnicity also raises a few flags on racial stereotyping. In typical Disney form, he speaks in an American accent (he’s a hero, after all) but also has a skin tone several shades lighter than his thickly-accented and purposefully ‘ethnic’ (read unattractive) rival, Jafar.”
wondercan 