Monday, 28 December 2009
Stockholm romance
Have a peek, its cute.
It's set in Stockholm.
Sunday, 27 December 2009
I'm telling you, video is so definitely an integral part of the future fashion world
Saturday, 26 December 2009
Breaking it in Tehran
Words of Wisdom
Friday, 25 December 2009
Dancing the streets of L.A. - oh youth
The Presets - If I know You (director's cut official music video - HD) from Eva Husson on Vimeo.
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
"Elephant" full of blue skies
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
Music video with visually inspiring beginning
Monday, 28 September 2009
A Shaded View On Fashion Film
Other films were also screened such as three films by Alia Raza, which each carried a deep meaning as they reflected on compulsions and mental sicknesses, which also related to social stigmas such as an actrice obsessing over her beauty (i.e. 28 minute film of Chloe Sevigny obessively washing her face in a long procedure of different cosmetic products, and never reaching satisfaction with the visual result).
The three films screened were part of a longer series.
Another section of dedicated to music videos. There was a wonderful retrospective on Roisin Murphy, and other music videos were screened. Here there are:
More video posts to follow.
And lets not foget the fabulous retrospective on Chicks on Speed. They are truely fabulous!
NOIR STANDARD by Benjamin Seroussi
Here the link: http://www.benjaminseroussi.com/film_noir.html
Saturday, 19 September 2009
Friday, 18 September 2009
Wednesday, 16 September 2009
Paul Rand commenting on the use of the colour black.
Black in the Visual Arts
by Paul Rand
This version of the article was originally published in “Graphic Forms: The Arts as Related to the Book”, 1949. It was revised and reprinted in “A Designer’s Art”, 1985.
TABOOS AND PREJUDICES HAVE LONG CREATED LIMITING barriers to experimentation and to meaningful work in the graphic arts. In this paper I should like to attack one particular prejudice—that against the color black.1
Vowels: black A, white E, red I, green U, blue O, Someday I shall name the birth from which you rise: A, a black furry corset of loud flies Boiling where the cruel stenches flow…*
In these lines the French poet, Rimbaud, uses the word black to describe and symbolize carnality, death, and decay. This traditional association of the color black with death and sin is long standing and has led to the widespread conviction in both art and lay circles that black is depressing and sinister and therefore, if possible, must be avoided. As a result, the power and usefulness of black has been limited or misunderstood. During this century many individual artists, architects, and designers have rebelled against the conventional use and misuse of black. However, the prejudices against this color are still sufficiently strong to require a discussion of the properties of black and a vigorous defense of its many virtues.
In nature, black and its companion color white are dramatically juxtaposed in the contrast between day and night. The monotony of uninterrupted darkness or light would be intolerable. Black in the trunks of trees subtly sets off the brilliance of green or autumn-colored leaves. Throughout nature we find the equivalent of black and white in shadow and light—there are caves and canyons as well as fields and meadows. Man as a rule does the least violence to nature when he uses either natural materials, such as stone or wood, or black and white for the objects he places out of doors. Natural colors are integrated, white participates by reflecting its environmental color, and black modestly provides perfect background for the riotous nature colors. Certainly those people who observed with pleasure the old-fashioned black steam engine wind its way agreeably through green fields and forests, have watched with a kind of horror the orange or blue streamliner that now streaks garishly across the countryside.
1 It should be noted that it is impossible to discuss black without mentioning or implying white, grays, and dark umbers the greater part of the time.
* By permission of the translator, Muriel Rukeyser. Sergei M. Eisenstein, The Film Sense (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1942) p. 90.
The decidedly ambivalent nature of black has been understood in daily use. In the east and southwest of the United States and in Europe black is by far the most popular color for pleasure vehicles, but it is also the color of the hearse. In clothes black is the color of tragedy, mourning. At the same time it is the color of elegance and of sensuous enjoyment in the conventionally “sexy” black lingerie.
If we look further into the psychological significance of black, it is linked with mystery, with death which is unknowable, with night which is full of hidden things—of fear and magic.
In some countries black or near-black has been employed extensively in architecture and interior design, The color pattern of the Japanese house is based on the contrasting use of dark and light materials. Dark wood often delineates the basic structure of the house and separates it aesthetically from the light colored partition walls (fusuma) and floor mats (tatami).
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A
The first of my illustrations (A) shows a building designed by Mies van der Rohe in which black is a crucial aesthetic factor. The structural members of this steel building are exposed and painted black. The effect of this is manifold: the structure is clearly defined, it is placed in dramatic contrast to the pale non-bearing brick walls, the bulk of its members is reduced making them appear light and delicate, great elegance is achieved without the use of expensive materials or decoration, and the restraint and restfulness of black makes the building a welcome oasis in the chaotic heart of the city.
It is, of course, understood that like any color the value of black depends upon the manner in which it is used. Black will be lugubrious or bright and elegant depending on its context and form. Despite the successful use of black in Japan and in modern buildings and interiors there are still many people who deny black categorically.
A doctor writing on the use of color in interiors issues a grim warning against black: “This is the most dismal of all colors—it expresses all that is opposite to white.” 2 Among these opposites he lists the grave, sin, and crime.
This type of blanket denunciation of a color completely ignores the relative nature of any color or form. Eisenstein writing about the film says: “Even within the limitations of a color-range of black and white … one of these tones not only evades being given a single ‘value’ as an absolute image, but can even assume absolutely contradictory meanings, dependent only upon the general system of imagery that has been decided upon for the particular film.” 3 He goes on to illustrate this important point by the reversal of the role of black in relation to white in the two films Old and New and Alexander Nevsky. In the former, black signified things reactionary, outdated, and criminal, while white denoted happiness, life, and progress; whereas in Alexander Nevsky white was the color of cruelty, oppression, and death, and black, identified with the Russian warriors, represented heroism and patriotism. Eisenstein’s response to the surprise and protest of the critics at this reversal of traditional symbolism is to cite Moby Dick’s famous white whale—the reader will recall that the leprous, livid whiteness of this whale symbolized the world’s monstrous and baffling evil.
2 Edward Podolsky, The Doctor Prescribes Colors, p. 48.
3 Eisenstein, The Film Sense, pp. 151-152.
During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, black (with some notable exceptions) was treated as a linear element or was associated with modeling and chiaroscuro. Kahnweiler in The Rise of Cubism says: “Since it was the mission of color to create the form as chiaroscuro, or light that had become perceivable, there was no possibility of rendering local color or color itself.” 4 Although Kahnweiler is referring to color in general, this statement applies very forcibly to black. In the twentieth century the possibilities of rendering color as a thing in itself and not primarily as a description of three dimensionality or “objectivated light,” have been rediscovered and exploited. Coincident with this trend, black has come into its own as a positive “plastic” value.
Among the many artists who have used black as a vital element in their work are Rouault, Braque, Miro, Leger, Arp, and Picasso. Beardsley, Masereel, and Posada, for example, have used it almost exclusively.
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B
Arp, describing his painting reproduced here (B), says:
The black grows deeper and deeper darker and darker before me. It menaces me like a black gullet. I can bear it no longer. It is monstrous. It is unfathomable.
As the thought comes to me to exorcise and. transform this black with a white drawing, it has aheady become a surface. Now I have lost all fear, and begin to draw on the black surface. I draw and dance at once, twisting and winding, a winding, twining soft white flowery round. A round of snakes in a wreath…white shoots this way and that…5
Arp understands that black alone and out of context is frightening, but he also knows its potency once it is formed and related.
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C
Picasso’s “Guernica” (C) is eloquent testimony of the expressive power of black and its natural companions gray and white. Although we do not know the intentions of the artist, we can venture a few statements about the more obvious effects achieved by the substitution of black, white, and gray for the usual colors. The absence of the expected pictorial colors in this mural dramatizes the impact of the work. Furthermore, the lack of color implies all colors and forces the spectator’s imagination into activity by not telling him everything. The use of black, white, and gray is an understatement which makes possible and bearable the horror and violence of the imagery. At the same time, paradoxically, it emphasizes the brutally tragic imagery. It is probably beyond question that in this mural black and white play their ancient, symbolic roles. They are the raw unadulterated colors of the struggle between life and death.
4 Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, The Rise of Cubism (New York, 1949), p. 11.
5 Jean Arp, On My Way (New York, 1948), p. 52.
For many centuries Chinese and Japanese painters have revered black as a color. In Japanese painting, black (sumi) is often the only color employed. The Japanese artist feels that “colors can cheat the eye but sumi never can; it proclaims the master and exposes the tyro.” 6 One famous Japanese painter, Kubota, frequently expressed the wish that he might live long enough to be able to discard color altogether and use “sumi alone for any and all effects in paintings.” 7
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D
In 1860 Chevreul wrote: “I do not know whether the use of black for mourning prevents the use of it, in numberless cases, where it would produce most excellent effects.” 8 This quotation is as pertinent today as it was in the nineteenth century. Most graphic artists still shy away from black. When they are confronted with no alternative other than black, as in newspaper advertising or typography, they often accept it grudgingly and make little effort to discover or develop its potentialities. However, the psychological and physical qualities of black which have been discussed so far in relation to architecture and painting are equally significant for the graphic arts: advertising, cover design, and typography. I should like to illustrate this with several examples of the use of black in my own work.
The first illustration (D) is that of a photogram 9 for a cover design. Although this photogram is technically a light and shadow picture of an abacus, it is primarily a pattern of light and dark forms that seem to move vertically across the surface. Because the photogram is an abstraction the plastic qualities of the object become more important than its literal ones.
6 Henry P. Bowie, On the Laws of Japanese Painting (San Francisco, 1911), p. 39.
7 Ibid., p. 43.
8 M. E. Chevreul, The Laws of the Contrast of Color (London, 1883), p.54.
9 The photogram attained the status of a legitimate art form as a result of the pioneering work done by such people as Man Ray and Moholy-Nagy. Since then it has become increasingly popular in the graphic field.
One of the prime sources of the visual power of the photogram lies in its black, white, and gray tonality. The photogram portrays a world of light, shadow, and darkness peopled by mysterious suggestive forms. The ability of these forms to stimulate varied and imaginative associations in the mind of the observer is menaced when the photogram is rendered in color. It may still be an effective work of art, but its peculiar evocative power may be destroyed.
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E
The typographic example (E) is the cover of a catalogue for the Arensberg Collection which I recently designed for the Art Institute of Chicago. This cover is composed of a series of contrasts, the most important of which is that of black and white. Together black and white act in a certain sense as complementary colors. Chevreul described them as such because when they are juxtaposed each becomes more vivid. This, he says, is due to the fact that the bright light reflected by the white area nullifies the reflected light from the black area. This makes the black seem blacker and the white more brilliant.
The tension between black and white in the cover is heightened by opposing a large area of black to a small area of white. The contrast theme is carried out further by the drastic variation in the size of the letters. The roughness of the edges of the large A emphasizes the sharpness of those of the smaller A’s, and the extreme diagonals of the letters are counteracted by the right angles of the book itself. But the most dramatic element of contrast lies in the use of black and white. Black and white lend dignity and elegance to the book cover, yet the vigorous contrast between the two gives it a poster-like quality.
Thomas B. Stanley in The Technique of Advertising Production 10 says: “While color has high attention value on short exposure, psychological tests indicate that the longer the time during which advertisements are examined, the more a black and white treatment tends to regain the attention lost at first glance to a color competitor.”
10 New York (1947).
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F
Many advertisers and advertising artists feel that an advertisement becomes more colorful in proportion to the amount of color used in it. This is often untrue. Limited color when combined with black and white, which provide a brilliant but neutral background, is often far more effective than the use of many colors. Furthermore, the tendency of black and white to brighten and enliven other colors often makes any color used more articulate than when it is employed alone or combined with other primary or secondary colors. This is especially important in the case of dark colors.
In the advertisement for the Kaufman store reproduced here (F), I chose black and white combined with a strong light pink (shown in this reproduction as gray) for the reasons indicated in the above paragraph as well as others which I shall discuss.
Black was used for the large Easter egg primarily because of its ambivalent qualities. The combination of the egg form, which is a literal symbol of life and also suggests life by its swelling breathing shape, with black, the color of death, has shock value. A black egg is a paradox. Because of this the egg symbol is far more striking in black than if it were presented in its natural hue or in any other color.
Light pink which is a gay and playful color becomes increasingly effective when juxtaposed with black, again because of the associative paradox which their combination produces and because of the brightening action of black. Also the thin white lettering becomes livelier when set on a heavy contrasting background.
It is impossible to define cold without contrasting it with heat. It is impossible to comprehend life if death is ignored. Black is the color of death, but by virtue of this very psychological fact it is the color of life it defines, contrasts, and enhances life, light, and color. It is through the artist’s awareness of black as a polar element and consequently of its paradoxical nature that black as a color can be appreciated and effectively used. Nor must he forget that the neutrality of black makes it the common denominator of a multicolored world.
The necessity for the artist to free himself of traditional and conventional thought patterns if he is to create freely is obvious. Prejudices must be broken down, ruts avoided, and new paths or old forgotten ones explored if the artist is to perform one of his most important functions, that of broadening our visual world.
Published in “Graphic Forms: The Arts as Related to the Book”, Harvard University Press, (1949)
Source: http://www.paul-rand.com/thoughts_black.shtml
Saturday, 12 September 2009
Movement vs. Stillness
Presenting fashion in video just makes so much sense to me! Actually more than photography (but not to talk that down, hardly anything as beautiful and electrifying as a superb fashion shoot!). But just think about it...
For example, when your in a store trying on that AMAZING dress you saw on the rack, and your adjusting it in the mirror, pulling it down ehre, and pulling it up there, and it just looks sooo cute! So you buy it, and already now your going to wear it to that dinner tonight for sure. Okay, so you get home, take a shower, pull over the dress, put on your make-up, leave your home......and after fucking 10 steps on the street you notice how you have to pull down the dress every 5 seconds as it keeps slipping off! Okay, of course this is figure and material based mostly, but what my point is, is that when you present fashion in video, the models moving around, you can get a much better feel for how the cloths interact with the human body wearing it when moving around. Its just such a more logical approach! Don't you think?
Well, anyways, in the link I posted the fashion is unfortunately portrayed on more or less still standing models, but still, its one step closer to what I would wish to see. Presenting fashion in movement instead of stillness just so much more sense! I mean, at the end of the day, we DO want to WEAR the cloths be buy and for that we need to know that they are wearable!
http://www.thecorner.com/areas/corners/landing.asp?tskay=46A7A276&cornername=NICK_KNIGHT_VIDEO&TP=18726&utm_source=press_all&utm_medium=press&utm_campaign=press_all
Wednesday, 9 September 2009
Tuesday, 8 September 2009
Thursday, 3 September 2009
Saturday, 15 August 2009
More GEIL editorial images
Nothing more beautiful than someone dear thinking of you
I made a GEIL new discovery
Here some delightful visuals from the editorials:
Friday, 14 August 2009
Brandhorst - Munich's new museum temple
A short while ago I went to go see the Brandhorst Museum in Munich a few days after its opening. Before entering, your eyes already encounter a playful interaction with the thin vertical lines of all various colours that run down the tall sleek outer walls.
Instead, an immediate relaxation kicks in when you walk over the smooth wooden floor and notice how its interplay with the light floods the whole museum with a warm atmosphere. Once inside, walking with your audio guide which is included in the entry price, you immediately are standing next to an Andy Warhol. This encounter pretty much sums up everything else you are going to see. The Classic Stars of Contemporary Art - Sigmar Polke, Alex Katz, Damien Hirst, David LaChapelle, Gerhard Richter, many works of Andy Warhol, and a beautifully extensive show of Cy Twombly. Walking through the museum was definitely a visual pleasure, but nevertheless I was disappointed. Everything was so predictable...overly predictable. Nothing somehow stuck out. Apparently every room was designed according to the works presented in it (museum will always keep this permanent collection), and as a visitor I felt this attribute. I guess having so much Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst in other museums, one wishes to at least encounter a more playful and innovative presentation of such art, an art that in itself broke norms.
But that did not seem to be the aim of this museum. Either way, it is still a place worth going to, especially on a rainy day. It perfection and warm atmosphere will relax you and raise your spirit...but it won't evoke any passionate inspiration.
Thursday, 13 August 2009
Saturday, 8 August 2009
Lady Gaga's awesomeness
It gets really juicy after second 41. Really interesting what Lady Gaga had to say towards the end of the interview, she really does rock!
Thursday, 6 August 2009
The little events in the everyday
Walking down the Zeil in Frankfurt I cam across this interesting duo. Their collaborated music seemed like an acoustic version of electronic beats to me. It definitely was damn cool. All the other people who gathered round felt the same.
Wednesday, 5 August 2009
Marina's words
...Artist must be Beautiful"
Marina Abramovic, internationally known performance artist
Tuesday, 4 August 2009
Graffiti Mania
Saturday, 1 August 2009
Rad Hourani
Have the feeling I won't be posting up too much in the future, but heres something I definitely want to share. Found a new fashion designer, Rad Hourani, who's current Spring '09 Collection I am quite fond of. I like how he plays with the cut of cloths while maintaining a clean and serene look. And, of course, I also like the minimal statement with the black, white and grey. Preferably the jackets, and the black and white.
Heres an image off Jak and Jil.
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And two more from his website.
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Best,
Nadia
Friday, 10 July 2009
The end of one and a half months
In two days I'm heading back to Germany, and to be honest, I'm quite excited to leave this heat!
The last two weeks have been partially spent travelling up to the hills in Himalcha Pradesh, which was amazing, and the rest of the week I've spent absorbing more of the Delhi life.
I'm happy to leave this weekend, but I'm sure once back in Europe, I'll miss India.
I'm coming back, thats for sure.
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
Monday, 8 June 2009
Wednesday, 3 June 2009
Let there be light
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Tuesday, 2 June 2009
Monday, 1 June 2009
Killing Time...and this is what I found!
Sunday, 31 May 2009
First Impressions
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First thing we did after relaxing a bit was walk around the area Green Park in which we’re living. After asking several people for directions, we ended up in the local market place. There, we had dinner in Costa Coffee. I know, not very original when being in India, but we’ve got to be cautious with our health. Plus point was that we bumped into three American girls of which the one I talked to had just finished college and is travelling India for 6 months and learning Hindi at the moment. Most surely we should be seeing each other again soon.
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Hello, I'm here!
Namaste!
The second flight from Dubai to Delhi weirdly enough was not as well organized and nice as the one from Frankfurt to Delhi although both were Emirates Economy flights. I found this very peculiar. Anyways, I’ve arrived well, was picked up from the airport by the Meena, the wife of my “boss” as I believe, and was brought in a wonderfully air-conditioned land rover to an apartment in Gurgaon. There, Rosalind, a friend from uni who is also interning at Quicksand, welcomed me to an apartment we are both meant to live in during this first week. We’re pretty glad to have each other here!
Saturday, 30 May 2009
Fascination
As I researched for the gate for my transfer flight, I was immediately distracted by the duty free paradise that stretches out in an aisle, centering between the gates on either side. Although it was around 6am local time, people were flooding the stores. The first thing that caught my eye was the parfumerie duty free store of course. There, I tried out multiple perfumes, and after having already filled me nose with thousand of different essences, young advising ladies would come up to me and offer new scents to try. Very friendly girls, and there were also surprisingly many men working at the parfuemrie, something one practically never sees in Europe. Maybe has something to due with the gender issues here. Men presence needed in perfumeries. But maybe Im just over interpreting. Anyways, what fascinated me most was the diversity in nationality between all the women working at the parfumerie. I was expecting solely Arabian women but instead probably only a tenth of the women there were from Arabian origin, while the rest seemed to be dominantly Asian and I also noticed an East European women. I heard more Chinese spoken then Arabic between the workers there. But, of course, English was the dominant language. It was also fun the watch all the people walking around in the store. One observation was particulary funny, when there was a man probably in his 40s with cargo pants till his knees and those trekking sandals, who asked in broken English (probably German) if he could leave something at the counter and come back alter to pick it up. The women at the counter naturally obliged. When I observe such situations I always have to laugh when I think about how the communication between eboth of these individuals reaches the other end. What thoughts crossed their minds about the other during this encounter. Till these day I am still fascinated by the fact that two people can have an encounter that only lasts 10 seconds and never see each other again in their life. I just find this crazy.
While roaming between the perfume aisles, a women of oriental background with perfect English asked me whether she could show me some Arabian perfumes. Curious as I am, I willingly smelled some of them. Very strong scents. But quite nice actually.
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