☆ 008 ; graphic explosion

Here's what I'm really digging this week [click for websites]:





It comes to no surprise to myself that these are the sorts of things that break communication expectations, that transcend whatever people can take them for at face value. An artist, a band, a project. I think all three challenge us in ways that make us rethink what we see and how we interact with people and our environment.

BANKSY

Banksy is a British street artist who works mainly with graffiti-based graphics. What's really important about his work is scale, in the sense that there are street-level works that are viewable to everyone, there's no discernment in who can and can't see the works and interpret it for whatever they want to take from it. The environment that we created for ourselves [streets, tunnels, building walls] becomes the museum. I would say there's been a revolution, and you see a lot more street art lately than you used to, especially in big cities.


not a Banksy work, but one of the many images I stumbled upon in Seoul

BIG BANG

Big Bang is a Korean pop band, but my appreciation for them goes far deeper than that! They must have the best graphic design team, I think, because all the products and promotional things they put out are always so well-designed and innovative. They really take advantage of the graphic aspects of the music industry to further cement what their image is, and makes it easier as a consumer to read and understand who they are, and more entertaining as well.


images from Big Bang's latest concert dvd release

POSTCROSSING

Before I got bogged down with work, I used to like participating in the Postcrossing project. It's simple, really, people receive your address and you receive other people's addresses and send them postcards, usually depicting where you're from. I got postcards from France, Finland, Hong Kong... just, all over. In this age when I can just email someone and get a response in a few minutes, there still survives this sense of scale [oh, scale again?], a human scale, of postcards crossing the earth, of time and space. And the fact that these are complete strangers you're writing to? I don't know if I feel more or less isolated, but it's an interesting concept.

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While I'm on things I enjoy let me just show you a little something I found on my blog around. I have a thing for maps. Maps of any kinds. Informational maps like this one, or locational maps like this one, or your regular old map. Word maps. Image maps. You get it. So I found this map and about had a fit:


Obama Wikipedia page edits from Jamie Dubs on Vimeo

NEAT.

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And on a final, non-serious note, this is what my bed looks like after I've been journalling:



The cat is always included [she is always within a ten foot radius of me when I'm home]. I like making messes. Update on what's going on in my paper journal later.