Mix Tape Portable DJ Mixer

This portable DJ mixer

looks like an old style cassette tape, and it can be used with iPod’s, iPhone’s and MP3 players.

Movie Color Palette Pie Charts

Alan Woo wrote a program in Processing, which captures each frame of each movie and essentially creates a ‘pie chart’ of the colours contained within each film producing a simplistic and abstracted representation.

The three in a row are the pie charts for The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation & Marie Antoinette by Sofia Coppola.

The last one is for Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange.

Age 10 to 60 - through Make-up & Photography

Vogue Paris had a very interesting editorial featuring a series of photographs of the 20-years-old model Eniko Mihalik portrayed in the age of 10, 20, … 50, 60 respectively. It’s quite amazing how the overall look can be so malleable, achieved (perhaps not so) simply with tricks of the trade like hairdo, facial expression, make-up, photography angles, etc.

adidas Originals Stan Smith Weave

Adidas’ Stan Smith is seen here as a clean white colorway & awesome new weave pattern. Look for these at adidas Originals now.

Takashi Murakami: The Superflat Market’s Risks and Possibilities

As part of Christie’s talk series, prolific Japanese artist Takashi Murakami made a guest appearance lecture at the Convention and Exhibition Center in Hong Kong.

Asia’s Contemporary Market: The Superflat Market’s Risks and Possibilities
Takashi Murakami, Artist
Friday 28 November 2008, 5:30pm - 7:00pm
Venue: Grand Hall, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre

Language: Japanese with English and Putonghua simultaneous interpretation

SYNOPSIS

“Now, we’re seeing cracks develop in the global economic structure. A structure built by rich people for the benefit of rich people.

For many years, art has been thought of mainly as a luxury for these same privileged few. Those who seek to understand the history of museums would do best to look at the Louvre Museum as a guide. In other words, during the French Revolution, the conventional hierarchy of rich and privileged people on the top and less privileged people on the bottom was overturned, and forms of entertainment once thought of only as a luxury for royal consumption became open for all people to enjoy.

I, too, as a Japanese, began my work as an artist with the belief that making works accessible to the general public was an idea at the very core of art itself. But the fact is that my work as well has largely served as a luxury for those who find themselves ahead in our capitalist system, for the rich.

In Japan, it is very difficult for artists to grow and thrive. The reason lies in the country’s post-war tax system. Before WW II, a great number of our wealthy could be relied on as collectors of Japanese art but after the war, the powerful conglomerates were broken up and it became nearly impossible to retain expensive works for more than a generation. Foundations, as well, began to lose their merit and it became harder and harder for them to function. It was under these circumstances that Manga, Anime, Games and the entire Otaku world that surrounds them came to be.

Not a luxury made for the consumption of those who can afford it, but something made for everyone. That’s otaku culture. The Superflat concept that I refer to is simply the setting aside of economic considerations in order to preserve the context provided by that culture.

But now, even Superflat has gradually become a luxury. However, I would remind you of the example that the Louvre provides. Art may travel a long road but it always returns eventually to the hands of the people.

Now I would like to explain a little bit more about Otaku-culture, in the hopes that it will help you understand what the Superflat concept is all about.”

Takashi Murakami

OriginalFake x Visvim Logan Low

A teaser pic of the OriginalFake x Visvim collaboration shoes can now be seen on the front of the OF website. The OriginalFake x Visvim Logan Low’s will be available soon at the OriginalFake flagship store.

via hypebeast.

App Store Almost Reaches 10,000 Apps

"While several sites have reported that 10,000 iPhone Apps have been released into the App Store, the actual number of active iPhone apps that can be downloaded is about 9,676 as of today's count. The discrepancy comes from the fact that many apps have been removed from the App Store for various reasons (trademark infringement, discontinued apps, pulled and released).

Still, the 10,000 active app mark should also be broken in the next few days. Games continue to dominate the App Store with 24% of all apps, followed by Entertainment (11.6%) and Utilities (10.9%). Games also seem to dominate the Top 100 Paid and Top 100 Free apps.

Apple originally launched the App Store on July 11th with only 500 apps. Due to its success, several competitors have plans for their own version of the App Store."

via macrumors.

Peskimo – Monster Burp Out Now

This original edition is limited to 800 pcs, stands 6” tall, comes in a window box and has a suggested retail of $29.00.

Paper Bottles

Brandimage came up with a brilliant idea that could possibly make a dent in the 60 million plastic bottles tossed each day in the U.S. The company received an IDEA (International Design Excellence Award) for this design.

MCHAEL LAU - CRAZY MICHAEL COLOR VINYL TOY COLLECTION

As a part of the Nike x Michael Lau 1World Air Force 1 collaboration effort, Michael created a new vinyl toy dubbed “Crazy Michael” to coincide with the release of his “Air Crazy Force 1? that was released at his Hong Kong gallery.

via: freshnessmag.

Damien Hirst | Cornucopia Video

English contemporary artist Damien Hirst gives some insight on the significance of skull imagery which is often associated with his masterpieces.

Disney x The Hundreds Preview

The Hundreds have released a preview of their upcoming project with Disney. The front window of their San Francisco store features a new display featuring "urbanized" Disney characters.

More on Murakami's new animation studio

"The company has leased a building on North Highland Avenue, to be adapted to the studio's needs. With 6,220 square feet of space on the first floor and 2,760 square feet on the second level, the facility is expected to accommodate about 30 employees, said Daniel Rappaport of Management 360, Kaikai Kiki's talent management firm in Los Angeles.

The studio's first project will be a feature-length animated film based on "Planting the Seeds," the shorts that premiered at Murakami's mid-career retrospective at MOCA, Rappaport said. It also created the Kanye West video for "Good Morning." The shorts also appeared last spring at the Brooklyn Museum's version of the exhibition and, more recently, at the 2008 CineVegas Film Festival in Las Vegas. The digitally animated works feature Kaikai and Kiki, the company's cartoon-character namesakes, traveling the world in a spaceship and learning to grow watermelons with the help of fertilizer, or "poop" as they gleefully call it."

via latimes.

THE ART OF PARTYING IN MIAMI

November 28, 2008 --

THE art market is in a recession, like most other industries, but collectors are still expected in Miami in droves next week for the Art Basel convention - and despite tighter budgets, big parties are planned. On Tuesday, hotelier Andre Balazs and artist Ambra Medda are hosting a soirée at the Raleigh, while Cartier fetes artist Anri Sala at the Miami Beach Botanical Center. A day later, Rolling Stone salutes Takashi Murakami at French-electro lounge Louis at the Gansevoort, while Kelly Klein celebrates her new book, "Horses," at the Raleigh and the Deitch Gallery hosts a concert by the Gossip at Casa Tua. On Friday, Steven Soderbergh and Benicio Del Toro will hawk their epic movie, "Che," at the Raleigh, while Cartier has a dinner for David Lynch at the Botanical Center. Finally, on Dec. 5, Estelle is performing at the Fontainebleau.

via nypost.

OPEN EDITION UNTITLED (NUMBERS) LED CLOCK

Designed in 2006 by Jonas Damon.

TRAPEZOID WATCH

Trapezoid, a watch designed for fashion brand Issey Miyake by Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa, has gone on sale.

The sloping bezel displays numbers that are stretched like road markings so that they appear normally when seen straight-on.

MURAKAMI TO OPEN HOLLYWOOD ANIMATION STUDIO

TAKASHI MURAKAMI announced this week that he’s poised to set up a new animation studio in LA in summer 2009.

Operating under the umbrella of KAI KAI KIKI, his artist management & personal production company, the studio will be located on North Highland Ave in close proximity to the nexus of Hollywood studio activity.

Having proved his studio’s formidable animation chops with the Kai Kai Kiki-produced video for Kanye West’s “Good Morning,” and the “Superflat Monogram” short for Louis Vuitton, the company’s first pursuit will be the expansion of Murakami’s playfully fecal-friendly “Planting the Seeds” shorts starring his signature characters Kai Kai and Kiki that debuted at his “© Murakami” show in LA and Brooklyn last year into a feature-length film. Said Murakami about his new move into cartoons, “Animation and film have always been among my greatest influences, ever since I first saw ‘Star Wars’ and Hayao Miyazaki’s films. This studio represents a great step in the evolution of Kai Kai Kiki and gives me a closer proximity to the community of artists with whom I hope to collaborate as I continue my explorations of animated and live-action film.”

via supertouchart.

Kaws at Gering & Lopez Gallery

Kaws has his first solo show on display at Gering & López Gallery in New York. Works in the show range from geometric acrylics on canvas to bronze sculptures of the artist's head and a life size rendition of one of his better-known toy figures.

KAWS
Through 23 December 2008
Gering & López Gallery
730 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10019 map
tel. +1 646 336 7183

NightTalk: an interview with gallerist Mary Boone

click here!

BBC|ICE CREAM NYC FLAGSHIP 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

From the BBC blog:

Time flies… It’s been a year already in New York since our store opened and we have a few special releases coming out including this Billionaire Boys Club NYC T-Shirt(Moon Print) only available at the New York Flagship store this Friday(November 28th) at 11AM.

via BBC.

The Paintings at Terence Koh’s New Show Are Possibly Edible

By: Andrew Goldstein and Jada Yuan

At last night's blowout opening party for Terence Koh's new show, "Flowers for Baudelaire," questions of taste predominated. Not about whether Koh — who created a scandal in England earlier this year by showing a statue of Jesus with a huge erection — had gone too far, but about whether people had actually tasted the art. The show, which rising 23-year-old dealer Vito Schnabel (son of Julian) curated in the seamless, immaculately white photography studio of the late Richard Avedon's East 75th Street townhouse, featured an ethereal array of 51 white granulated canvases that were hypnotically blurred by the haze of a fog machine. Viewers were encouraged to remove their shoes before entering the space, where Koh, dressed in a black suit and bright white sneakers, was inviting guests to eat little flecks from the paintings. "You can lick them — let me show you, it's very sweet," he said. "I was just trying to make the simplest paintings possible. It's just plain canvases, corn syrup, and powdered sugar."

While one reporter followed his lead, not everyone was so eager to trust the artist, who has been known to use his own bodily fluids and other unpleasant materials in his work. The art dealer Jeffrey Deitch, who deemed the show "magical," wasn't biting. "The question is we don't know if it's powdered sugar or crystal meth," he said. "I travel with an official taster, so I have to wait for my taster to come." Artist Agathe Snow balked too. "I don't taste paintings," she said. "Did it taste like cocaine?" (No, it tasted like sugar.) Schnabel — who had set up the show through his friend Olivier Sarkozy, the half-brother of the French president and the owner of Avedon's finely appointed house — showed his faith in the artist by sampling the work but warned against overindulging. "I just imagine that titanium pigment wouldn't be good to swallow," he said, adding, "There might be some semen in there, I don't know. Who knows."

Upstairs at the party, an art-world crowd featuring Alanna Heiss, Klaus Biesenbach, Kembra Phaler, and Todd Eberle were joined by glossy figures like Anna Wintour and Salman Rushdie, with people spilling out onto a two-story patio. Sarkozy had installed two of Koh's paintings in his living room, and as the night progressed, the jostling of the revelers created a minor snowstorm of powder. Ann Dexter-Jones was wearing a black coat, but the entire back of it was white. "I bought a painting," she said. "I talked to Terence, and I said I needed to have one. And then I accidentally leaned on one and this happened. Now I'm a little worried." Lyor Cohen's black coat was similarly whitened, but only on the sleeves. He said he hadn't gotten near a painting; he'd just run into a lot of powder-covered friends who kept grabbing his arms, saying, "Lyor, how you doing?" Indeed, the paintings were shedding all over Sarkozy's bookshelves, which lined the floor of the room and an entire wall by the bathroom. (The shelves by the bathroom contained dozens of diet books: Digestive Wellness, Marion Nestle's What to Eat, The Omnivore's Dilemna, etc., as well as Connect Four and a DVD titled Scientology: An Overview.) At some point, guests noticed all the powder on the shelves and started making lines, then took turns scampering about the room with a lampshade on their heads. Whatever was in the paintings, they provided fuel for a memorable night, and an excellent show.

via nymag.

Plus Salt And Pepper Grinders.

LORI HERSBERGER

Lori is an artist from Switzerland who utilizes neon light in her work. Really great stuff!

KRIS VAN ASSCHE HIGH TOPS

ANDY WARHOL COLORING BOOK

The National Gallery of Scotland has a great assortment of coloring books for all ages, including this one from the famous Andy Warhol. “The large format 24 page book of Andy Warhol’s drawings of animals and various other pictures for colouring. Suitable for children and adults.”

BAPE x ISETAN SPECIAL ITEMS

Bape has produced a number of limited edition items, that will only be available in the pop-up store. The store opens tomorrow and will stay open until December 2nd. The series includes Panda-, Shark- and Tiger full zip hoodies, as well as a new Cow full zip hoodie, that also comes with a cow pattern on the front pockets.

Redefining "Bullet Time"

Timesculpture commercial by Toshiba was shot using 200 Toshiba Gigashot camcorders and is presented as an evolution to the famous "Bullet Time" introduced by the Matrix.

"Rather than showing a 3-D rotation of a still moment, this groundbreaking new filming process manipulates moving snapshots of time using Toshiba technology, redefining cinematic human movement". No CGI imagery was used on the commercial.

Make sure to watch The Making of Video!