If you feel like your favorite artists have sold out, there are still a select few within the music world who continue to craft an incendiary message. They are known as poster artists, and they are as punk as ever. Died Young, Stayed Pretty, a new film by Eileen Yaghoobian, is a fascinating glance at the cultural insurrection being staged by these flyer rebels. The film features masters like the Ames Brothers, Print Mafia, Art Chantry, Tom Hazelmyer, and several others, offering a behind-the-scenes peek as they plumb the depths of American consumerism, tackle political issues, and make fun of the mainstream while making themselves laugh. For those heading to SXSW, you can catch the film twice at the festival. The first screening is at The Alamo Lamar 3 on March 14th at noon, and the second takes place Austin Convention Center March 18th at 2:00 p.m. Otherwise you’ll have to wait until the film is available on DVD in April.
Behance believes there are too many ideas in the world, and not enough action. The name is inspired by Thomas Edison’s famous quote, “genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” The conference is for people that already have great ideas, but need to make them happen. The speakers are all people that have a track record of executing their ideas again and again, successfully. Seth Godin, our Threadless friends, Michael Bierut from Pentagram, Scott Thomas, the director of new media for Obama’s campaign, our friend Ji Lee and a few other very impressive folks. Perhaps the 99% Conference will be the kick in the ass that people with great ideas sometimes need?
Get your tickets now. Seriously. April 16th and 17th. Use the code 99EARLY09 and get $100 off the regular ticket prices. This looks like it’s going to be an amazing event, and probably the first of many to come.
Startling, arresting and full of emotional quality, French photographer Florent Demarchez shows reality in high contrast. His talented eye has gotten him the Jury Prize at the International Environment Picture Festival for Nights on Earth, his series that shows industrial landscapes in all their futuristic-like glowing glory. His latest work is launching this Friday at Favela Chic gallery in London. Novo Mundo(s) documents his time spent with the Veja team in the Amazon and the northern Brazilian state of Ceara. This time he tackles animated subjects: rubber trappers and the organic cotton producers that contribute to the makeup of Veja’s shoes. If the photos are anywhere near as spectacular as the one advertising the event (what you see here), expect a provocative and awe-inspiring look at these people, their lives and jobs. The show runs through March 30.
Chameleons, commandos, Transformers, and high school freshmen all blend in with their surroundings for survival. In Germany the idea of Urban Camouflage deals with our relationship to urban space. Inspired by the ghillie suit — the military camouflage that makes you look like Swamp Thing — the artist stalked a local Ikea in suits made from paper, cardboard boxes, and those crappy yellow bags that you have no option but to buy, even though your home closet is full of them. Check out the video to see what it looks like when hidden camera prank show meets performance art meets low, low prices.
Hoards of people are currently using Twitter to say nothing, so it isn’t surprising there are more than a few who are anti-tweet. One of my favorite visual Twitter kiss-offs comes from Josh Holland via JoyEngine. Josh “cannot wait until Twitter goes the way of the slap bracelet and they’re talking about it on VH1’s I Love the 2000s.” (I’d say, “oh snap!” if I didn’t think that would get me on VH1 too.) If you share the sentiment, you can download the graphic above. Meanwhile Cypher13, aka the JoyEngine crew, set up an experimental micro-site for their own micro-blogging (in macro-font). But, there are some good uses for the technology. Like Shaq.
Editors Note:I don’t dislike twitter– in fact, I find it to be quite a powerful tool. You just need to fine tune it to hear the signal, not the noise. And I definitely don’t think it will go the way of the slap bracelet, we just thought it was a funny post. From time to time we like to open up a bit of a debate here, jump in and enjoy.
