iButterfly is a quirky example of the implementation of Augmented Reality, in which Japanese users chase butterflies with their iPhones.
For those of you still getting up to speed with the concept, Augmented Reality is the mash-up of digital imagery and our physical environment which encourages new forms of interactivity. If you want a less whimsical and more educational example – check out the Museum of London’s Streetmuseum app.
From functional to frivolous, Augmented Reality puts a new spin on Picasso’s quip that “everything you imagine is real.”
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Down here in the depths of winter it was heartening to receive pictures of an exhibition of my photography from summer in Italy. DES – An IndusInk Event: Celebrating a Tryst with the Contemporary was held at the Politecnico di Milano last month. Alongside my images Indian snacks were served, bhangra beats spun and folk dance unfurled. The event was devised by Avnish Mehta who is currently engaged in postgraduate study at PdM – designing products, services and systems… and the occasional cultural soirée.
Would’ve loved to have dropped by to catch these guys in action:
All Images: Florian Yzeiraj
Co-curator: Marco Spadafora
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Artist Unknown, Mission School, circa 1849 Image Source
A good friend recently showed me an illustrative version of the Lord’s Prayer in Maori.
I noted that it was credited to the National Library here in Wellington so headed over to see what related items were in their online archive. I came across the piece above – promoting an early mission school.
Thomas Kendall, Nuku Tawiti, 1824 Image Source
Alongside Maori adoption of Christianity, the archive also points to colonial attempts to understand local spiritual belief. Early missionary Thomas Kendall made this sketch of Maori gods – which he observed on carvings in 1824.
K.P.M. South Pacific Line, 1939 Image Source
Carvings feature elsewhere on the site – here on the cover of a promotion for a passenger ship run by major Dutch company, Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij. Framing Mount Cook they gave an exotic spin on the antipodean landscape.
NZ Railways, Auckland to Rotorua – the Thermal Route, circa 1954 Image Source
Switching from sea-faring to land transport, the Railways advertised its once popular route to my home town of Rotorua from Auckland. Rotorua drew tourists with its thermal activity, thriving Maori culture and welcoming hosts. The advertisement features a tiki alongside the train and Maori carving motifs.
Horatio Robely, Arms of Dr TM Hocken, circa 1900 Image Source
The tiki and Maori motifs were used again in this artist’s rendition of the initials of Dr Thomas Moralnd Hocken, who funnily enough headed to New Zealand to escape British winters. I can’t imagine he found much respite in Dunedin. A doctor, avid collector and historian – he donated his sizeable stash of books, maps, manuscripts and ephemera to the citizens of Dunedin in 1910 in the form of the Hocken Library.
Charles Hill & Sons Ltd, Models 27-49, 1897 Image Source
Fittingly, it was the good folk at the Hocken Library who had pointed out the Maori Lord’s Prayer to my friend – which I mentioned in opening as prompting my foray into the National Library Collection in the first place. Back home in Wellington I’ve been having a great time trawling the library archive discovering a wealth of local visual history. Hats off to the National Library – for old times sake:
Christmas Card, Kia Ora. For Old Times Sake, circa 1890-1910 Image source
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A selection of creative endeavors featuring SMS, social media and spam provide artful commentary on digital communication.
SMS Stitching – embroidered text messages track ebb and flow of modern romance.
Wildlife-Social Media Mash-up – blasé bird tweets on life in New York.
Spam One Liners – hand-lettered renderings inspired by junk mail subject lines.
Highlighting aspects of immediacy, attention and privacy – all three artists share a tendency to save what others may delete.
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It was great to be part of the plan hatched by Akshay Mahajan & Kapil Das of the BlindBoys photography collective to expose the streets of Mumbai to expressive perspectives over the weekend. BlowUp Bombay was one part dynamic duo, one part global photographic talent and three parts street cred. It brought together image hunters who’s work was publicly showcased on the back of a number of earlier global BlowUp plots launched from Bangalore to Paris. (Illustration by Ronald Searle)
Image and display by Puneet Rakheja .
Twenty odd photographers were selected for the Mumbai event with locals invited to come along on the day and add their own work. The format was the humble A3 digital copy, the space sprawled across a few derelict blocks of Bandra and the audience ranged from residents to street sellers, photography fans to roadside romeos. Local children joined in to help put up the images and amusingly took on self appointed roles in protecting the displays.
Delhi BlowUp, 2009 (Photo by Kapil Das)
“As any artist will attest, street art is best made when unpredictable, subversive and not entirely legal… The Blowup events, where an ad-hoc public photo gallery is created using building walls and shop fronts as hanging space, have slowly accrued a devoted following.” – Mumbai Boss
Amongst the core group of exhibitors were prominent names like Bharat Sikka who lives between Europe and India and has shot for Vogue, Marie Claire, Wallpaper and the New Yorker. Adrian Fisk’s work has appeared in National Geographic, Vanity Fair, Paris Match and the Economist and I’m a particular fan of his documentation of the Indian Hair Trade (above: top). Central insurgent Kapil Das was joined by his partner in crime Akshay Mahanjan who’s images (above: bottom) have featured in Wired, Le Monde and the Wall Street Journal.
And then there was little old me who’s shots have appeared in the Guardian, CNN + Design Observer and who managed to be part of the whole conspiracy from way down here in New Zealand. Included in my submission was the series Jewelled for Life which was mainly taken amongst the desert tribes of Kutch where it’s said that tattoos are a permanent kind of jewellery that one takes to one’s death. Here’s a selection:
Lower image by Puneet Rakheja. Check out more of his coverage of the event.
“Life is on display on the street — people walk, sit, stand, sleep, drive, drink, eat, piss, talk, mingle, fight, and love. The street is where groups collide and where people live and die and where all of society mixes with trash, smog, sewage, and the pulsating sounds of traffic. We put together a bunch of our pictures there to bring them to you – where you’re standing, on the street.” – Blindboys
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Berlin-based artist, Jan Vormann, diverts our architectural attention with his global Dispatchwork series. While shining a light on urban histories he celebrates the spirit of repair through his vibrantly incongruous restorations.
Still in his 20s, his artwork has taken him from cities as varied as Tel Aviv and New York (both above) to countries as diverse as Ecuador and Serbia with sponsors including the Amsterdam Centre for Architecture. Some works seek to merely mend weathered decay while others fill scars left by war, such as in Berlin’s Mitte neighbourhood.
Lego has produced more than 400 billion units since the 1930’s, deriving its name from the Danish phrase to “play well.” Relevantly Jan often employs an inclusive approach – enlisting the help of passers-by and even encouraging others to take up his approach and send him photos of their creations from across the globe. Other times he works alone though admits that this can be demanding as in the case at a South American heritage church where he had to dodge thugs, nuns and security officers.
Jan’s streetscape interruptions playfully direct us to spaces-between, hidden-histories and untold-tales. And fittingly he uses a medium that we associate with unhindered childhood imaginings with which to fill the gaps.
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New York-based photographer Kate Orne has focused her lens on Pakitsani prostitution over a number of years in an effort to expose the denial, modesty, pretense and cultural oppression which envelope it.
Young women from rural villages and refugee camps are sold to the brothels by human-traffickers, while others are born into the trade.
Prostitution is forbidden under Islamic law, but with the increasing influence of extremist groups, the women risk severe punishment under Sharia Law through beheadings and stoning to death.
The laws – both secular and sacred – seem to disregard the context in which women
have entered the profession while paying negligible attention to the men who engage
their services.
The women practice modesty according to Islam. For a woman not to cover her chest… is considered daring – even among prostitutes.
Proceeds from Orne’s print sales from the series May You Never Be Uncovered:
The Victims of Pakistan’s Sex Trade support education of the children of Pakistani prostitutes via the Sheed Foundation – “a small but highly efficient community-based organization addressing the social problems faced in particular by the local female sex workers and their children who suffer from oppression, poverty, illiteracy and abuse.”
Orne highlights cultural complexity through her portraits and studies which are both intimate yet modest. Her images don’t provide us with answers but rather confront us to question deeper the paradoxes at play surrounding prostitution. And I’d hasten to add that they are not limited to Pakistan nor Islam.
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The latest Bollywood box-office hit 3 Idiots takes a light-hearted but relevant stab at stereotypical Indian attitudes of education, status and success. The endearing comedy has become the highest grossing national film to date while breaking records for an Indian cinema release in the US, Australia, South Africa and beyond. Noteworthy has been its sustained national marketing strategy which has included online gaming, social media engagement, collaboration with prominent retail chain Pantaloon and the use of its
All is Well theme song by insurance giant Reliance.
I was intrigued by the less lofty and more streetwise use of advertising space on the back of rickshaws across the country – in the form of a sticker which promoted the film while playfully affirming the taxis’ legal capacity of three passengers.
Those who have watched the film already will know that its lead trio are far from idiots. And neither were its marketers who had their workers apply the stickers at petrol pumps – the only place where rickshaws come together between serving the far reaches of urban locales. The drivers had no idea of the nature of the upcoming film but the one pictured above told me that when they mentioned it featured Amir Khan in a comic role that he knew it would be a winner.
Given its spirited celebration of improvised ingenuity, challenging authority and following one’s passions – all packaged in an accessible format for mainstream Indian audiences –
the film definitely fires at full capacity.
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I first photographed the work of French street artist C215 in Paris in 2007. This week here in Delhi I hit the streets of Karol Bagh to see if I could find any remaining examples of the works he produced in the vicinity late in 2008. It proved to be an ambitious task which led to many alley-way adventures.
Christian Guémy (aka C215: self portrait above in Delhi) resides in Paris where he has developed his distinctive street-art style. Armed with a Masters in Art History from Sorbonne and an arsenal of aerosols plus painting paraphernalia, he hits the streets with persistent zeal. He has taken his skills further afield to Casablanca, Dakar, Jerusalem, Sao Paulo and beyond, alongside gallery showings in Paris and London. He has collaborated with the Norwegian Children at Risk Foundation (CARF) to raise money for their projects in Brazil – where he also visited to give workshops to local youth and make his mark in surrounding favelas.
Back here in Delhi I located a handful of C215’s works which have survived. One old woman in a poor neighbourhood recalls “They brought so much energy to our area with children all crowding round to watch this strange foreign-type painting just for the love of it.”
Guémy gifted some works on paper to various locals plus stencilled t-shirts for young onlookers and boxes for shoe-shine boys. He fondly remembers one shy girl whom he gave a framed work – indeed she was too shy to be photographed by me with the piece but was happy to take it down from it’s proud perch in her tiny home and let me capture it being held by a neighbour. [below left]
Along the way I encountered frequent examples of Indian vernacular flair – from rickshaw decorations to juice stall signs – showing that creativity is alive and well in this crowded corner of Delhi… both local and imported.
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My partner in crime from Hong Kong days, Oriana Reich, has curated an exhibition Cultural Confectionery for the week long Detour festival. New York-raised Oriana is a creative visionary who works globally and is currently back in Hong Kong dishing up a wealth of delectable treats from graphic design to culinary arts. Her imminent show brings together such passions and exemplifies her multidisciplinary approach.
“Cultural Confectionery aims to convey the fundamental notion that food is a cultural expression. Through exploring the relationship of Chinese confectionery to identity and culture, our exhibit will include a classification of Chinese confectionery, highlighting types local to Hong Kong and those that are part of a confectionery diaspora. The exhibition is a record of sweet memories: the stories, memories and traditions that surround our relationship with sweets. A series of photographs by Grischa Rüschendorf will explore local bakery and cha chaan teng culture, sharing a vital part of Hong Kong’s urban landscape.”
Acknowledging the reliance of our food experiences on smell, Oriana has indulged in a spot of olfactory alchemy to enhance the sensory and nostalgic qualities of the exhibition. She sought the input of San Francisco-based scent sorceress, Julie Elliot who dispatched a selection of nine scents for Oriana to blend for the show.
Get it while it’s fresh – between November 27 and December 9, 2009.
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