Siddharth Pico Raghavan Iyer (born 11 February 1957), known as Pico Iyer, is a British-born essayist and novelist of Indian origin, best known for his travel writing. He is the author of numerous books on crossing cultures including Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk and The Global Soul. An essayist for Time since 1986, he also publishes regularly in Harper’s, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, and many other publications. Continue reading PICO IYER :: THE BEAUTY OF WHAT WE’LL NEVER KNOW, TED, 10 min.→
Godspeed You! Black Emperor is a Canadian experimental music collective which originated in Montreal, Quebec in 1994. They release its recordings through Constellation, an independent record label also located in Montreal. Film loop projections are an important aspect of the group’s live show, explained by Efrim Menuck as “[putting] the whole into context”.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor was formed in 1994 in Montreal, Quebec, by Efrim Menuck (guitar), Mike Moya (guitar), and Mauro Pezzente (bass), taking its name from God Speed You! Black Emperor, a 1976 Japanese black-and-white documentary by director Mitsuo Yanagimachi, which follows the exploits of a Japanese biker gang, the Black Emperors. The band initially assembled after being offered a supporting act for another local band named Steak 72. Thereafter, the trio performed live on a few separate occasions, before ultimately deciding to produce an album. The cassette, All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling, was self-released in December 1994 and limited to thirty-three copies.
After the limited release of the cassette, the band quickly expanded and continued to perform live periodically. According to Menuck, joining the group was quite simple: “It was like if anyone knew anybody who played an instrument and seemed like an okay person, they would sort of join up.” In short order, the group’s numbers ebbed and flowed. Local musicians would often join the band for a handful of performances, then depart. The revolving door nature of the group’s membership frequently caused it strain before the release of F♯ A♯ ∞. After that release, the group stabilized around a nine-person lineup with Menuck, Moya and David Bryant on guitars, Pezzente and Thierry Amar on bass guitars, Aidan Girt and Bruce Cawdron on drums, and Sophie Trudeau and Norsola Johnson on violin and cello respectively. Moya would depart in 1998 to focus on HṚṢṬA, being replaced by Roger Tellier-Craig of Fly Pan Am.
Although various members of the band are often pinned down as anarchists, for a rather long time no one in the band explicitly subscribed to this label; however, as of 2014, Menuck was calling himself an anarchist. In any case, there is a strong political component to the band’s music.For example, the liner notes to Yanqui U.X.O. describe the song “09-15-00” as “Ariel Sharon surrounded by 1,000 Israeli soldiers marching on al-Haram Ash-Sharif & provoking another Intifada,” and the back cover of that album depicts the relationships of several major record labels to the military-industrial complex. Several of its songs also incorporate voice samples which express political sentiments, most notably “The Dead Flag Blues” (on F♯A♯∞) and “BBF3” (on Slow Riot for New Zerø Kanada).
Members of the group have formed a number of side projects, including Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, Fly Pan Am, HṚṢṬA, Esmerine, and Set Fire to Flames.
-wikipedia, GSYBE, edited
Images: Ian Cameron, Mathieu Lavoie, Scott Thiessen, Yuani Fragata, Alex Leclerc
Sound: Saaela Abrams, Alex Leclerc, Scott Thiessen, James Parker
“A PHOTOGRAPHER LOOKS AT EVERYTHING, WHICH IS WHY HE MUST LOOK FROM BEGINNING TO END. FACE THE SUBJECT HEAD-ON, STARE FIXEDLY, TURN THE ENTIRE BODY INTO AN EYE AND FACE THE WORLD”
– Shomei Tomatsu
“TOMATSU IS THE PIVOTAL FIGURE OF RECENT JAPANESE PHOTOGRAPHY, HIS IMAGES ARE AN INTUITIVE RESPONSE TO THE EXPERIENCE OF LIFE ITSELF.” – John Szarkowski
Franz Ackermann is a multimedia artist whose practice is entwined with the action and implications of travel and tourism. His works encompass painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, and, perhaps most famously, immersive installations. In his installations, Ackermann is known for incorporating the architecture of a space, at times making use of the ceiling, floors, and hallways of a gallery space. His works are made in part during his own excursions, and in part in his studio, based on memories of experiences. One of his first major series, “Mental Maps” (begun 1996) is a series of watercolors created around the world, which mixes factually precise maps of a city along with his own interpretations. Other works address themes of globalization, and the glamor and waste of commercialization.
As part of The Mistake Room series on Contemporary Art and Thought,TMR Director and Chief Curator Cesar Garcia interviews artist Oscar Murillo. Los Angeles, 2014. 62 minutes.
The Mike Wallace Interview
Frank Lloyd Wright
9/1/57 and 9/28/57
This interview was recorded in two parts. Frank Lloyd Wright, one of the greatest architects of the 20th century, talks to Wallace about religion, war, mercy killing, art, critics, his mile-high skyscraper, America’s youth, sex, morality, politics, nature, and death.
“In 1957, when Frank Lloyd Wright was 90 years old and in New York to supervise construction of his final masterpiece, the Guggenheim Museum, Mike Wallace invited him to be a guest on the television show “The Mike Wallace Interview.” Their conversation was so compelling that Wallace invited Wright back for a second appearance.
Rarely has a figure of such historic importance been so admiringly yet revealingly captured. In these two free-wheeling interviews, Wright speaks out about his own work and about architecture in general–topics one might expect him to cover. Then he goes on to express his iconoclastic views on a wide range of social and cultural topics. Guided by Wallace’s questioning, America’s greatest architect emerges as a wise, idealistic, nonconformist, and uniquely self-confident man.”-liner notes, The Mike Wallace Interviews
Ways of Seeing is a 1972 BBC four-part television series of 30-minute films created by writer John Berger and producer Mike Dibb. Berger’s scripts were also adapted into a book of the same name. The series and book criticize traditional Western cultural aesthetics by raising questions about hidden ideologies in visual images. The series is partially a response to Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation series, which represents a more traditionalist view of the Western artistic and cultural canon.~1 Continue reading JOHN BERGER: WAYS OF SEEING – considering the hidden ideologies of art, complete BBC series, episodes 1-4→
Working Title/Artist: Cafe, Avenue de la Grande-Armee Department: Photographs Culture/Period/Location: HB/TOA Date Code: Working Date: 1924-25 mma digital photo #PH9138
“…I have assembled photographic glass negatives… in all the old streets of Old Paris, artistic documents showing the beautiful civil architecture from the 16th to the 19th century. The old mansions, historic or interesting houses, beautiful façades, lovely doors, beautiful panelling, door knockers, old fountains, stylish staircases (wrought iron and wood) and interiors of all the churches in Paris… This enormous documentary and artistic collection is now finished. I can say that I possess the whole of Old Paris.” -Eugène Atget, 1920
“The first time I saw photographs by Eugène Atget was in 1925 in the studio of Man Ray in Paris. Their impact was immediate and tremendous. There was a sudden flash of recognition – the shock of realism unadorned. The subjects were not sensational, but nevertheless shocking in their very familiarity. The real world, seen with wonderment and surprise, was mirrored in each print.”-Berenice Abbott, 1964
Karel Teige (13 December 1900- 1 October 1951) was a Czech modernist avant-garde artist, writer, critic and one of the most important figures of the 1920s and 1930s movement. He was a member of the Devětsil (Butterbur) movement in the 1920s and also worked as an editor and graphic designer for Devětsil’s monthly magazine ReD (Revue Devětsilu). One of his major works on architecture theory is The Minimum Dwelling (1932).
-wikipedia, Karel Teige
kneeling to the god of eclecticism and allergic to the commonplace
The Incubator 