cldhnd

What Lies Ahead, Chaos?

Postmodernism (or more accurately our "current unnamed time") seems to be an age, making a clean break from history, it seems to hold the potential for something authentic.

History seems to move in circles, swirling convection currents propelled by our human character. For the first time we may be coming aware of this phenomenon en masse. If we interrupt this current what will happen? Will we see chaos, or a new way?

What will happen when our "postmodern" ideas are deployed in full force?

Response to "Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization"

First of all the term "hipster" is as about a descriptive word as is "postmodernism,"
the term "hipster" throws a blanket over the whole movement. The only thing that this movement really successfully rebels against is a neat and tidy name that wraps up what it is. If this essay really did define the "hipster" I would buy the thesis, but the fact is there's more to it, which makes it hard for me to believe the end of our civilization is nigh. It seems to me that this is a movement in need of a direction.

If the "hipster" readers of Adbusters were to be given some sort of motto or manifesto, if the critical voice of Adbusters were used to rally a movement to stroke some ideas into action, we might just see an authentic counterculture movement like this essay pines for.

Also counter to what this essay suggests, history will continue, new ideas will take root, new movements will march forward, this movement marked "hipster" could be the seed of something authentic, or at the very least the fertile soil for a future seed.

this is the original essay im responding to

http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/79/hipster.html#comment-1136

Thursday night at the GAM

I walked to Torino's Contempory Art Gallery called GAM this evening. I understood that on Thursdays the gallery was open until 11pm. It wasn't. Instead I found myself walking straight into a lecture entitled "I Viaggi di Maurizio Levi." I asked one of the staff if it was open to the public, she said "yes."
After I sat down I noticed I was almost certainly the youngest one there, in fact every head for three rows ahead of me was grey. So I waited, feeling totally out of place, expecting to hear a lecture in a language still foreign to me on an unknown subject.
Even though I only understood a few words, I was able to surmise that it was about the travels of Maurizio Levi. Whether the speaker was Maurizio Levi or this was someone recapping the journeys or "viaggi" of the ancient explorer? I wasn't sure. The lecture consisted of a narration of photographs taken in India, China, and Kashmir of their people, their everyday lives, and the geography. It took about 45 minutes for the speaker to cover China, India, and Kashmir, and as I noticed there were still approximately 20 countries listed on the program and as it was already about 10:15pm I decided to call it a night, and walked home.
Although, I didn't actually learn anything about the subject the speaker was talking about I wouldn't call it a waste of time. I was able to understand more Italian than I have before, and it got me out of my apartment to someplace else than the market or the internet cafŽ. I hope next time I go I see some contemporary art.

First week in Italy

I landed on Friday night with my mom. Unfortunately almost everything shuts down on the weekend in Italy, so we couldn't really get down to business on anything until Monday. So we just wandered the streets and ate amazing meals at night and drank cheap but amazing wine. By the time Monday came we were starting to adjust to the timezone. We had only a few things to do before my mom left on Wednesday morning, but they were big ones. Primarily we had to find an apartment for me (something that ought to take a few weeks in most cases) but for us only

we only had two days. Fortunately we had a guide to help us on Tuesday, after we decided that we could not make it happen so quickly by ourselves with out speaking any Italian. Our guide Luisa our new best friend found me a place in only half a day. We went to the notice board at the city University and she pulled a fist full of numbers to call about apartments for rent. After about twenty minutes on a payphone and about 5€ later we had a lead. It was a newly renovated one room apartment in the best neighbourhood in town (zona crocetta) at exactly the price we wanted (very cheap). Our guide Luisa told us once we saw it that it was perfect and
that we couldn't have hoped for anything better. So we took it, we ran down onto the street to a


Bancomat to withdraw enough for a deposit on the place, we then went over to the landlords house to sign the contract. Anyways to make a long story short, a few trips to Ikea and the local market and its almost home.
-=joseph

thoughts on Andrea Zittel

I went back to the art gallery again today. I managed to catch a tour on Andrea Zittel. She is really amazing, I would call her neo-contructivist. She redesigns life. She tries to question every way we organize it, in a way that seems to transcend social commentary and speak to a more basic human nature not yet discovered. Is the eight hour work day reasonable or is it just arbitrary? Where we work and where we live why do they have to be separate? Why do we wear something different every day? I like the way she thinks, as it seems that she is not compelled by a social or political agenda but only her own curiosity. I am also very fond of the directness of her works, nothing seems to be a metaphor, but instead a very direct simile. Each piece amounts to a statement or an essay.

Andrea Zittel -----"These things I know for sure"

1. It is a human trait to organize things into categories. Inventing categories creates an illusion that there is an overriding rationale in the way that the word works.

2. Surfaces that are "easy to clean" also show dirt more. In reality a surface that camouflages dirt is much more practical than one that is easy to clean.

3. Maintenance takes time and energy that can sometimes impede other forms or progress such as learning about new things.

4. All materials ultimately deteriorate and show signs of wear. It is therefore important to create designs that will look better after years of distress.

5. A perfect filling system can sometimes decrease efficiency. For instance, when letters and bills are filed away too quickly, it is easy to forget to respond to them.

6. Many "progressive" designs actually hark back towards a lost idea of nature or a more "original form."

7. Ambiguity in visual design ultimately leads to a greater variety of functions than designs that are functionally fixed.

8. No matter how many options there are, it is human nature to always narrow things down to two polar, yet inextricably linked choices.

9. The creation of rules is more creative than the destruction of them. Creation demands a higher level of reasoning and draws connections between cause and effect. The best rules are never stable or permanent, but evolve, naturally according to content or need.

10. What makes us feel liberated is not total freedom, but rather living in a set of limitations that we have created and prescribed for ourselves.

11. Things that we think are liberating can ultimately become restrictive, and things that we initially think are controlling can sometimes give us a sense of comfort and security.

12. Ideas seem to gestate best in a void--- when that void is filled, it is more difficult to access them. In our consumption-driven society, almost all voids are filled, blocking moments of greater clarity and creativity. Things that block voids are called "avoids."

13. Sometimes if you can't change a situation, you just have to change the way you think about the situation.

14. People are most happy when they are moving towards something not quite yet attained (I also wonder if this extends as well to the sensation of physical motion in space. I believe that I am happier when I am in a plane or car because I am moving towards an identifiable and attainable goal.)

15. What you own, owns you.

16. Personal truths are often perceived as universal truths. For instance it is easy to imagine that a system or design works well for oneself will work for everyone else.

-----Andrea Zittel

who needs sleep

Well its almost midnight and i have to get up at 5am. Do I care? Not so much really, Ive done with less. What does sleep matter really as long as your functional enough to get through the day, you can really sleep as little as you like. Besides the only time I really like to think and write and read and draw is this time. Between 10pm and 3am. And I dont think that Im that unique in this way, I think that most "creative" people do the same. I dont think that my health is suffering from it, Im happy and content to be a little sleepy during the day, after all Im working that time, there isnt much to enjoy anyways. I always perk up in the evenings no matter how tired I was during the day so why change things, I have energy when I want it.

I should be working right now but there isn't anything much to do. All I do is react to situations, there is little need to be proactive. I hate this kinda of work, but then again its good for me because it allows me the mind space to blog or just think. So I guess as long as I'm not bored then I'm happy. And having that freedom to do what you like when there is no work to do feels great. Ive had those kind of jobs with long dead spaces and nothing to do because if it its not working then its forbidden, and all you end up doing is starring at the wall for hours on end.
-=joseph

may 3rd

10:30am
Well I'm starting to count down the weeks until I leave for Italy, its almost asurred now, now that I'm working full time. Its not going to be easy to sort everything out before then, now that I'm occupied monday to friday during business hours, and on top of that I also have to run my business. I hope I can turn over all the logistic stuff to min and vlad, so that I can be the remote owner/designer and still reap the benefits from Torino. I think what I have to do is look for more ways to streamline my whole operation, which means outsourcing all of the printing and getting the company to also print the size and the name of my brand on the inside of each shirt. The one thing that I want to keep doing by hand myself is the labels. I think that they communicate a lot about my brand. I don't want to give even and inch of to anybody on that cause with a little imagination I think that I can do alot with that small amount of space. One thing that ive done is number a run of shirts I recently did by writing by hand the edition and individual number on each tag and signed beside it. This way I can reclaim the feel of a "hands on touch" even if no part is done by hand except the tags. I imagine that they would be pretty easy to send to Canada when I'm in Italy too. I wonder if I'm going to be able to sell many shirts in Italy. I can see that there is a demand for the type of shirts I'm selling but that there isn't an abundant supply of quality designs. I saw a bunch of shirts with "Angel Demon" written on the front as if this is some clever english phrase that everybody is wearing in "the States." But nothing else half decent. Now I'm not implying that Italians have no style because we all know that would be a lie, but they're definetly not on the cutting edge in the niche of designer tees. I just dont know if my vancouver style will be congruent with the Pietmontese look. Well no mattter if it isn't cause it seems that min and vlad might be able to get me ditribution across America and Canada. 10:30am

I dont blog nearly often enough.

8:30
So I figure that I need some sort of creative outlet that I can access whenever I want, even when I'm working. My job is boring but it certainly isn't "soul sucking," what is does is really just occupy me, it uses up all my mental energy. If I can skim a little of that energy thats being wasted whenever I have nothing better to do than "look busy" with this then I think I can get something meaningful done. Well at least meaningful to me, maybe to you as well if you relate to me.

What I intend to do here is document my thoughts while I work (the ones between calls) where I have free rein of my thoughts.

Now I warn you, in my writing I often find myself able to only write about the writing process itself or why I write, why I don't write about anything else, and so on like that. I don't know how interesting this will be, but I'm certain that this is still much prefered to a detailed account of my day's events, as I find it hard to be dishonest with those type of entries, and they almost always end up being to accurate, to the dull truth, or too consise for a decent distraction from your boring day. But then again, I don't think really that I'm writing this for you anyways, it'd be nice if you were interested but not problem if you're not. 8:30am

Snatched Away! Part 2

I decided to investigate what the hell was going on with this mister Jim Cummins or ---- "I Braineater." So went back to "Kits" and talked to Mrs Cofflin (my old high school art teacher). She didn't know him personally and she certainly didn't give him my number, but she knew who he was. She said that he played in DOA, an 80's punk band from here in Vancouver.
When I got home I did some of my own research online and found this out: He's from Vancouver and lives here now, he's a big part of the vancouver art scene right now, and he did album covers and poster art for a lot punk bands in the 80's on the west coast. I couldn't find much other than that yet, but now that I know who he is, how did he get my number?!

Snatched Away!!

What the hell just happened!? a Mr.Jim Cunningham just called out of the blue, he seemed to be an art dealer or agent or gallery dealer I don't know. He said that he was very interested in my art and that he had seen my art at my school. I assumed that Mrs Cofflin my old art teacher from my high school arranged this, and now he was interested in buying some of my art and selling it, as he explained he was. He asked if i would sell him one of my larger paintings for 10 grand so he could take a sample to Toronto. I described the largest one i have. He said "wow" a few times, he seemed genuinely interested as I described it. He wanted to meet me at red robins the next day to talk business. Now keep in mind though that throughout this whole conversation i was stuttering and stammering (unlike me entirely). It just that I was just so blown away by the surprise of being offered a career in art so abruptly.


And then I asked for his number as it was a private call, and he gave it to me.
After the call I was beside myself, totally overwhelmed with joy; and that seemed to be it. I was to be a working artist. But... mere minutes later i get a call back from "Jim". And he says that it was his mistake and that he was sorry for getting my hopes up and that he called the wrong person. And that was it!

Night Photos, Summer, Kitsilano 2006

Satuday Oct 21st jam

Saturday Oct 21st jam continued

Day Three tuesday 12th

Well today we started out early, well earlier (around nine). Our hotel offers an American style breakfast which is actually really nasty. The bacon is extremely thick and super super salty, we barely choked it down.
But it didn't matter at all as we were certain that the next few meals would make up by far for the poor one we just had. By the time that we had finished our breakfast it was already about noon, so the entire city except the resturants and the hospitals were shut down until 2:30 (for their lunch).

After a nap we set out to the second school (Istituto d'Arte Applicata e Design). My very first impression wasn't so great, they only occupied the second floor of a building that was a little run down on the inside, but to be fair the building was under restoration. The size was really the only putoff as I was thourghly impressed the rest of the time I was there. (I'll have to provide a somewhat detailed account of what the school looks like because I didn't take any pictures of it at all). The entire interior of the
school was painted white, floor to cealing and every bit of trim and piece of furniture was bright red, which I liked a lot. Next the receptionist spoke english and welcomed us warmly unlike the one at IED who spoke none at all although her school welcomed international students and

acted as if we were very rudely interupting her day with our presence. She (I can't remember her name) apologized that she was the only one there that day, as the school was still in the process of moving to a larger location just down the street. None the less she said that she could look at my portfolio if I like as she had herself just graduated from the school herself and had a sense of what the school was looking for in a student. I don't like to brag much but she was impressed, at one point she actually said, "mama mia!" She told me that she was sure that I would be accepted as soon as she had the chance to show my portfolio to the school director.

-=more to come=-

Day Two Monday the 11th

Well today dwarfed the last, there was no trekking around airports and train stations burdened with luggage, just amazing sights and smells but mostly the best food I've ever eaten. We had a late morning which meant that we missed breakfast, which doesn't matter much because Italians don't really "do" breakfast. We walked down the street a bit to a restaurant serving lunch.

We tried really hard to read the menu but failed, I just took a wild guess and picked something at random whereas my Dad just chose the one thing he recognized (spaghetti). The spaghetti was good but what I got I think was much better, a plate of this spiced lunch type meat served with Parmesan and tomatoes. The meat was very thick and probably chicken or turkey and incredibly delicious just for being well what we thought looked like "lunch meat."


After lunch we decided to try and find the first design school I was to apply to (IED). We found after a bit of searching some directions online and headed out. Navigating the streets of Torino is difficult because many of the streets don't run in straight lines but also because we had no clue how to read addresses in Italy. It took about twice as long as it should have but we found it, they were happy to talk to me that day so I ran back to the hotel and grabbed my laptop so that I could show them my portfolio. Issabella the school corordinator said that I could if I liked get into their photo or drawing courses instead of car design but that I couldn't do two at the same time (unfortunately), but everything sounded very positive and I'm hoping that I'll get a email or call saying that I'm in.
But there is another school, one that we're checking out today actually I hope its just as good as the first one we visited maybe better.



But as for the evening, we wandered the streets for a few hours looking at statues and monuments and all the while looking for the second school. We found it, it took us until about 10pm but we did. We then realized that we hadn't eaten dinner yet, so the search for a restaurant that was open after ten was on. We had to search far and wide for one, as most of them started closing at around 9. Everywhere we went we found them clearing tables and packing it in, that is until we came across "Le Petit Hotel" which still at about 11:30pm was full of people and showed no signs of closing.

We sat down and had an amazing meal, Linguini with seafood. There was prawns, shrimp, clams, squid, and octopus all heaped on the best tasting pasta Iv'e ever had, along with some extremely cheap and really good white wine. After the pasta we got two slices of tiramisu like Iv'e never had before with cappacinos that were also amazing. We finished up there at about 1:30am and made it back to the hotel to be in bed by about 2am.