Filed under: film
Fantastic Planet is a French sci-fi animation (1973) directed by Rene Laloux. Humans are called “Oms” and, newly imported, are kept as pets for giant blue humanoid aliens called “Traags”. I had to watch it twice because it’s short and incredibly beautiful. The sound design is unique and the environment of the film is incredibly imaginative, with a wide array of surreal creatures and plants.
My favorite thing about Fantastic Planet, besides the music and visual beauty, is simply the economy with which animation is actually used. Most of the film consists of edited drawings that are quite static, with multiple layers moving in the foreground and background. The drawings are rich, colorful and sketchy. Besides being aesthetically wonderful, the story is really a pleasant allegory about coexistence and growth through knowledge and collaboration.
I highly recommend! It’s one of those animations that makes you think Damn, maybe I should start doing animation..
Filed under: books
Just finished reading Maeda’s new book, The Laws of Simplicity. It was a quick, easy read and very enjoyable. Basically, the book is about life, organization, design and business, and the ways that simplicity (and often even complexity) can be adopted into working methodologies to make life easier and better. It’s full of funny and charming anecdotes from Maeda’s career and personal life; the whole time you’re reading it, you really feel like your sitting in an armchair, reflecting on (sometimes commiserating) the ways that technology has made life easier but simultaneously much more difficult. One of my favorite anecdotes of his, is when Negroponte tells him to be a “lightbulb” instead of a “lazer beam”, and illuminate more rather than specify too much. I also really appreciated how Maeda goes into deatail about becoming a student again and how that affected his approach to teaching. The other thing I really like, is the meta-discoursive nature of the text, and how Maeda applies his own laws to his own book, often times even criticizing parts of it.
The book is split into 10 “laws” of simplicity and three “keys”. You can read about them here, where the book topics continue in a dynamic discussion, or hell, just read the book. I’d recommend it to anybody who cares about technology, efficiency, emotion in design, and discussions about work methodologies and practices.
I hope everybody had a safe and happy New Year celebration, and is enjoying the first week of 2008!
I’ve spent the past week here at Tammy’s apartment in the Mission. The experience has been different from the usual visit, because much of the beginning of it involved moving/cleaning. But overall it’s been really enjoyable. Seeing some of my other friends has also been an added bonus.
Out of the many things we’ve done, a couple have stood out. Haight/Ashberry was interesting and certainly charming, but damn, did I ever feel totally un-hip after attempting to shop there. It’s my own damn fault for refusing to spend $100 on some allover print hoodie and neon pink sunglasses. Which way is the GAP? There’s an Amoeba Music there too, which was huge and awesome.
JapanTown was excellent as usual. I’d say it’s even better than LA’s Little Tokyo. Much bigger and cleaner with more stores. The inside of the mall areas reminded me alot of the winding hallways of many of Tokyo’s larger subway stations (ramen shops, etc.). Okay, Art stuff:
Amisha gave me a VIP tour of The Exploratorium, which was really fun, but somewhat stressful at the same time. The space is really large and was packed to the rafters with screaming children on field trips. I felt bad wanting to shove them out of the way to play with the exhibits because they’re sort of the primary audience. . . But the exhibits were very cool. How could they not be? One great thing about the space is that the woodshop where some of the exhibits are made features very prominently as part of the museum, with clear walls to observe how things get made.
The Olafur Eliasson show at SFMOMA was as great as everybody told me it was. I don’t really intend to write a detailed review of the show, but suffice it to say that it was simply delightful. His work is always really impressive, fun and experiential. One highlight, was a room full of models, tests and experiments made of various cheap/raw materials. It was a bit like peaking into his studio. Seeing this sort of process work featured as a major part of the exhibition was great because it emphasized the importance of testing, iteration and failure, in my opinion. It was a good reminder to myself never forget how important process is. Then, there was an ice sculpture/car piece that I didn’t quite understand. I mean to say, I read the description and understand the political significance of doing it…But admittedly, it seems a bit “bloated” when compared to the other pieces which as you can imagine, are very simple, elegant and beautiful.
I got to meet Craig Baldwin, which was an unexpected surprise. One of my classmates and former student of his, took me to his studio/exhibition space (ATA) on Valencia to meet him. Having watched his films in college, I was nerding out a little bit and didn’t talk much. But I didn’t really need to because Baldwin was already quite excitable and talkative. He went into detail about the new film he’s working on (all about Scientology myths and scandals, and much much more!) and showed us around his crazy, messy studio space (which made perfect sense to him), including his massive, massive film archive, which is modestly crammed into a room in his basement. AMAZING. He’ll be lecturing at D|MA this fall as part of our grad “curated” lecture series. I’ll report on that when it comes!
That’s all that comes to mind for now. Now i’ll just blurt out some other great stuff; mostly places i’ve eaten. “Mission Pie” makes great…pie. We had a lovely breakfast there on New Years Day. Dogeared Books, Needles and Pens (DIY goods) and Aquarius Records on Valencia are all awesome establishments. David showed me an awesome alley full of wall paintings (Clarion Alley) that I would never have found on my own. Philz Coffee is my new favorite place to get coffee. I bought a pound of one of their many delicious handmade blends to take back to LA. Oh, and don’t ride on the rails. Dangerous!
San Francisco is a great city; You can get around without a car, people are interesting, Mexican food is amazing, and so on and so on. And now my girlfriend and best friends live here! What more could a guy ask for?
I’ll add pictures after I upload them.
