Duty

A year or so back, Bangkok artist Jim Brewer explained to me a video installation concept he had and that I liked the idea of immediately. I'd touched on the subject myself back here though I had no idea when I wrote it how thematically integral it would be to maintaining the facade of cognitive integrity that is possibly holding together as well as holding back the entire Kingdom. (Sorry about that mouthful I'm spoon-feeding you but anything less elliptical is asking for trouble under censorship rules in Thailand). 

I saw Jim's piece in the WTF gallery a week or so ago and was absolutely super fucking jubilant when I learned that the some of the Thai visitors found the work so provocative and distressing they asked, nay 'demanded' to know more about the farang who made the piece. Artistically, the timing couldn't have been better with the recent color-coded massacres in the Kingdom, including the repugnant use of state-sanctioned snipers against Thai citizens (and foreign reporters) seeking refuge and safety in the temple Wat Pathum Wanaram  วัดปทุมวนาราม closest to the Red protest site.

Yellow shirts are hardly worn on Mondays as they used to be. 

I believe it was  Ian Curtis of Joy Division who wrote the song "Love will tear us apart".

Duty from The Human Eye Corporation on Vimeo.

Characterising The Internet

14 characters that live on the Internet

View more presentations from The Kaiser.

A few moons ago, but not so many that it's a distant galaxy, I met Marcus Brown at The George on D'arblay Street in Soho London where he made a special trip to come and see us from his home in Munich, Germany. One of his comments that rang out then and applies even more so, to this day whether it's transmedia, digital or otherwise was 'it's all storytelling'.

I don't think anyone does it better than Marcus including his latest offering Jack The Twitter. In any case, he's gone and done a presentation of his portfolio in the last couple of years for us and I don't think there's a better example of character-development versatility on the internet. Take a look and see if you know someone in your marketing department who is looking for something fresh that stands out. He's the champ.

Alexander McQueen, Gen-X, Post Futurism & Star Wars (Help me Obi Wan Kenobi)

One of my probably duller-than-I-think, and self important (dinner party) pieces I'm prone to doing now and again (usually if there's a good red to hand) is how surreal it is to be a Gen X'er. 

Don't misunderstand me. I know Baby Boomers and older who have more life in them, than many Millennials and so on and so forth but allow me a Gen X tale.

Below is the first taste of hologram technology I witnessed at the age of 8, living in West Germany watching Star Wars.

I don't remember the opening sequence being so special that I had to duck my head but that doesn't mean Star Wars didn't leave a massive impression on me; lots of things did at that age. However the Princess Leia hologram scene was unforgettable. The idea of not writing down a plea-for-help-message on a piece of paper (this was pre-internet) and instead using a plenipotentiary (of sorts) droid to project an hologram was sensational and yet plausible. The tonality projected through this medium imploring help, felt so much richer than any typewriter or pencil could achieve.

Here it is:

Yet Victor & Rolf's work in the Dutch Pavillion at the Shanghai Expo is just as, if not more seductive; and yet somehow while my experience of it is no more or less than any other person's enjoyment, there's just something delicious about the uniquely Gen X experience of overtaking the future. It happens a fair bit and I haven't even gone into the how amazing it is to juxtapose pre and post internet cultures alongside each other, though I will attempt to some day.

Hopefully here.

It was of course the late (and truly great) Alexander McQueen who did it best with Kate Moss. It's a pity that so much incredible creativity in the fashion industry get's ignored, I guess because, by and large, the egos in fashion leave advertising standing in the dust.

That doesn't mean advertising doesn't plunder fashion's inexhaustible creativity time and again. Above is my favourite piece by Alexander McQueen in 1999. 

Anybody know which brand ripped this idea off? It might be creativity but it is also definitely art. Something our lot could learn something from.