Friday, November 25, 2005

Art: Skateboarding, B-Boying, Rodney Mullen, David Bernal

With my limited amount of insight into B-Boying and Skateboarding, I think there are similar discussions going on in both disciplines. Discussions that are also generalizable to art in general, it doesn't matter which modality of expression is chosen.
To turn the claim upside down: Important (and controversial) points in the general discussion about art and aesthetics can be discovered in the debate within the disciplines of b-boying and skateboarding. However, in a less theoretical and (seemingly) less intellectual way.

At the heart, there is the dichotomy of minimalism versus grandiosity with contributions of the discussion about the relation between skill and popularity.
In B-Boying it seems to be implemented in the debate about powermoves (fancy and very athletic movements) against simpler moves that are in closer symbiosis with the rhythm of the music.
In Skateboarding there are e.g. fancy 720 degree flips and turns over high obstacles versus rather delicate and more sophisticated freestyle moves that mainly involve the board and the skater.

In the historic development usually the "higher, faster, wider" paradigm is observable, with regular interruptions that revert to older virtues.

To make a long story short: Check out Rodney Mullen's skills in this video. He is almost 40 years old and perfectly combines the two extremes mentioned above in skateboarding, yielding sophisticated, yet pompous performances.

And then there are artists who are in a league and a discussion of their own. An example in b-boying is David Bernal, called Elsewhere. Check out the incredible collaboration videos at the kollaboration festival 2003 and also in 2001.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

History of Media, Media of History

I discovered this media archive of CBC, Canadian Television. It covers loads of interesting topics from categories like "People", "Conflicts&War", "Arts&Entertainment", "Politics&Economy", "Life&Society", "Science&Technology", and "Sports".
It is huge and handy, fascinating and fancy.
In my opinion, the best gadget is the clearly arranged, flash animated timeline (click on the left "Explore the Archives Timeline").

Once again, once again-gain

I really really dig and recommend Bluejake.
The photos and the commentaries are terrific.
Check out the MomoMetaStyle.

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Nostalgic Style (a link by mo)



For anyone who remembers Audiotapes (i.e. was born before 1990), and used to buy blank ones in order to make stop-button mixtapes or record the charts from the radio - check out this website which hosts the biggest virtual collection of blank tapes imaginable: http://hanazuc02.ld.infoseek.co.jp/cassettes/cassettes.htm

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Things you already know

There is a nice small internet platform where you can sell and buy used stuff. It goes by the strange name of ebay.com... Check it out.
Just kidding.

But there is another site you should already know (because I mentioned it earlier):
bluejake.com, the best daily photoblog on the web. There is no way I could over-emphasize its beauty.
Especially check out his recent Top of the Rock series part 1 and part 2, consisting of gorgeous NYC pictures shot from the top of the Rockefeller center.

Even if your interest in photography is small, your sense of aesthetics is hard-wired.