Archive
Saul Bass’s Birthday Video
A very quick one today, as I’ve simply borrowed the video from Google’s search page.
I’m a huge fan of Saul Bass’s graphic style (having written about him on these pages before) and although the thought of Google appropriating his effortless style by association sits a tad uncomfortably with me, I’m a realist and know that’s how it all works…
And besides, the video is a pretty clever summation of some of his best work. I’m even quite liking Dave Brubeck’s jazz tune this morning (but don’t tell my And)
And don’t bother sending Saul your best wishes either… he died in 1996.
Delia Derbyshire & the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
Last Saturday (May 5th) would have been the 76th birthday of the pioneering electronic musician Delia Derbyshire, a name that may be unfamiliar if you are not my side of 40, British or a bit of a geek.
There is however at least one of her tunes that you will recognise, as Delia was responsible for generating the futuristic bleeps, whooshes and synthetic sounds that combined to make the original Dr. Who Theme, which despite being made 50 years ago in 1963, is well worth a quick listen now, to remind yourself how good it still sounds…
Although credited to Ron Grainer, who wrote the basic melody, it was Delia who after three weeks of hard work recording noises and splicing together bits of magnetic tape, created the sounds and atmosphere that continue to make the tune as memorable today as it was then…
Delia (who sadly died in 2001 of alcoholism related problems, just as renewed interest in her work was beginning to pick up) was a key member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, a name synonymous with the sonic and musical experimentation of the 1960′s and 70′s.
Formed in 1958 the Workshop’s original brief was to provide incidental sounds for radio and TV shows although this was quickly expanded and the team (which included Daphne Oram, Brian Hodgson and Paddy Kingsland) was soon creating theme tunes and other impressively futuristic sounds not only for The Doctor but also for The Goon Show, Quatermass & the Pit, Blakes 7 and The Hitchhikers Guide to name just a few.
Each of the members was also a composer in their own right and Delia wrote and recorded many original compositions, one of her most well known (and strangest) of which is Ziwzih Ziwzih OO-OO-OO-OO from 1967. If you think it sounds odd today, imagine what it sounded like back when everyone looked this….
Delia was also involved in two offshoot groups in the mid 1960′s: the brilliantly named Unit Delta Plus (with Peter Zinovieff, inventor of the first British portable synthesizer the EMS VCS 3) and Kaleidophon (with David Vorhaus), neither of which had great musical success at the time, but both of which have since been the subject of much reassessment by musicians who see in their experimental electronic recordings, the beginnings of today’s digital soundscapes…
There a number of videos on YouTube about Delia & the Radiophonic Workshop, and the ones below I think are the most interesting. It’s fascinating to watch how sounds were created by speeding up and slowing down tapes, playing them backwards and then chopping everything up and making loops…. It must have taken hours and hours to do what any self respecting sampler can do in seconds today…
(I’ve no idea what the ghostly chap in the background is all about…)
There’s also an excellent 1 hour audio mix here put together by Soundhog, which through a mix of spoken word and music, gives a pretty good oversight of what they got up to over in their Maida Vale studio…
As a final aside and if you’re interested in this kind of music like me, I’ve also come across this BBC TV programme from 1979. Called The New Sound of Music and presented by Michael Rodd, it’s a wonder of optimism, science and massively complex technology. I especially enjoyed seeing David Vorhaus in the last section (Part 4) who at about 7.40 mins seemingly invents Goa Trance at least 15 years before anyone knew what to call it…
Truly Impressive…
One final excellent BBC TV programme of related interest can also be found here… (noted more for my records than anything else)
Build your own Richard Neutra House…
Now that’s a blog post title to grab the attention of architects with a love for Modernism..
Richard Neutra, one of the best American architects of last century gained a reputation for designing beautiful and elegant houses, mostly on the West Coast, mostly with large overhanging flat roofs and azure blue swimming pools but always with an enviable style and conviction.
Well I’ve just read on Architizer, that thanks to a new partnership between the Neutra Architectural Office, Richard Neutra’s son Dion (who took over the office after his father’s death in 1970) and the California Architecture Conservancy, it’s now possible to buy a licence that allows you to build a brand new house from the original plans of 12 of Richard Neutra’s finest designs, including the Lovell Heath House, The Richard Bailey House and the Kaufmann House (click on the document to the left to find out more…)
I’ve been thinking about this rather intriguing offer, and I can’t work out who I think it’s aimed at.. Will a 60+ year old Neutra house designed for a specific site in California, work as well (or at all) in contemporary Dubai, Coventry, Moscow or Buenos Aires? Surely local constraints would make an exact replica impossible, and arguably inadvisable: flat roofs in Oslo, swimming pools in Reykjavik…
At college we talked much about the Genius Loci of a place, the spirit or uniqueness of a location that should inform any development proposed there. Despite the usual lazy criticisms of Modernist architecture being a universal solution and non site specific, Neutra’s version of Modernism was most definitely a tailored response. Not only to the immediate landscape and the client brief, but also to the technical innovations available at the time, and you only have to look at the Case Study Houses programme to appreciate the variety and quality that Neutra brought to his designs and which can be seen in these images below of the Kaufmann House from 1946.
Maybe this project is more about taking the essence of the original design (the key moves if you like: flat planes, rectilinear geometries, lots of glass) and then using them to make another building, which by definition won’t be the first building, which takes us back to the beginning of the conundrum (who is this aimed at) and which then begs the question, why don’t the design office of Dion & Richard Neutra use their skill, knowledge and experience to, wait for it… create a brand new house designed specifically to fit the clients requirements…
Still it would be pretty cool to own a Richard Neutra House, and if you were fortunate to own a site overlooking the sea, in a warm sunny climate (and this is no longer available) then why not…
Jacob Epstein: Portrait Sculpture @ NPG
A couple of weekends ago we went to the National Portrait Gallery to see the recently opened exhibition of Jacob Epstein sculptures. Regular visitors to these pages will know that I’m a bit of a fan of Mr. Epstein and his amazing ability to create wondrous shapes from stone, and this small but perfectly formed display of sculptured heads does not disappoint.
It took me a while to get past the large photo of Epstein near the entrance to be honest. Depicting a man who doesn’t look like he’s enjoying the photography experience in the slightest, what caught my attention (apart from being strangely reminiscent of Picasso) was his left hand.. A huge and slightly misshapen thing, presumably the result of thousands and thousands of hours of holding chisels and stone cutting tools..
The heads here however were all made firstly by being modeled in clay and then cast in bronze. Rather than produce a faithfully realistic image, Epstein aimed to capture the psychological and physical presence of the subject, which when you see the works collected together here, is undoubtedly what he did, as despite all of the subjects being long dead, the heads seem very much alive…
There are maybe 12 or 15 sculptures on show, each of a contemporary of Epstein including George Bernard Shaw, Joseph Conrad, Vaughan Williams and Epstein himself, and each is accompanied by a photo and in some cases a short story about the sitter and the sitting..
My favorite quote is actually about someone I wasn’t aware of. As Epstein wrote later in his autobiography… “Imagine Don Quixote walking about your studio and sitting for his portrait! This was R.B. Cunninghame Graham. In the head I modeled he seems to sniff the air blowing in from the Sierras, and his hair is swept by a breeze from afar”. Look at the photo to the right and tell me you can’t see what he means….
As an aside, C-Graham was on the commissioning panel for the so called “Atrocity in Hyde Park” that was Rima, a monument to W.H. Hudson that Epstein completed in 1924 (a year after this portrait sculpture) and which C-Graham expended much energy defending against a largely hostile press, due in no small part I would like to think, to his appreciation for this portrait. And as a further aside, looking at Rima now (below) it’s difficult to see what the all fuss was about…
I’ll leave you with a selection of some of the other portrait sculptures on show.. all of them magical, and all well worth going to see…
Chuck Close at The White Cube Gallery, Bermondsey.
Last weekend we met Wong at the rather fine and spacious White Cube Gallery in Bermondsey to see the Chuck Close exhibition of Prints & Portraits.
To say it’s the best art exhibition I’ve seen in ages would be an understatement. I’ve written about Chuck before here, about how he started out as a hyper realist portrait painter in the 1960′s, until a collapsed spinal artery in the late 1980′s severely restricted his movement and left him wheelchair bound, after which he had to reassess how he could continue and modified his techniques to suit his new condition.
The man is without doubt an inspiration and his work is truly stunning. Large in scale and varied in media, it focuses solely on the human face, how it’s made up, how it can be divided up and yet still retain its identity. Close is a master of colour, understanding how different, and often surprising combinations can create tones that we can easily recognise and organise in our minds as a face.
That this whole exhibition of over 150 works is comprised of maybe less than 10 different faces, is I would suggest to miss the point of what Chuck Close does. The image of Close himself in a rather fetching yellow anorak above, is offered as a photograph, a tapestry, and two or three other different styles of painting, and they all offer a unique visual experience, as in this close up of the dot version of the painting…
The tapestries especially are unbelievably lovely. There is a black and white image of crazy haired and bearded man (Lucas) that once transformed into a tapestry, becomes a riotous celebration of colour, as can seen on the images below, the second of which is a close up of his beard believe it or not…
The things that Chuck does with paper mulch are also very impressive, creating layers of tone and depth that defy description. And as for the carved timber panels created to get the colour separation for the screen prints of the baby’s face, mesmerising (apparently it took a Japanese woodblock carving master the best part of three years to complete)..
As a big fan of the craft in art, I really enjoyed seeing all these constituent parts to the works, such as wire frames, square grids and hand drawn divided sheets marked up to show tones of grey. It’s always good to see a bit of process, as personally I think this gives the work more weight.
And whilst it could never be argued that Close makes all his own stuff (he’s wheelchair bound for a start don’t forget) it certainly comes across that his involvement at all stages of the work is intrinsic to its finished state. Unlike say the Hirst’s, Koon’s and Quinn’s of this world, who you get the impression just think of something sitting at their desk, commission someone else to make it and then sign it when it’s delivered to their studio.
Sadly the exhibition finishes this weekend, but if you can make it along, I would urge you in the strongest terms to do so, it’s a revelation and you will not be disappointed…
William Mitchell’s Autobiography – availaible very soon…
My friends Bill and Joy Mitchell have just emailed to let me know that the autobiography they have been working on for the last few years, has finally been given a publication date at the end of July and is now available for pre-order on Amazon…
This is most excellent news indeed. I’ve played a very small part in helping them in the final stages of the project and Bill has done me the HUGE honor of using one of my photographs for the front cover… (it’s a detail from the doors of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral)
Bill has produced a whole series of beautiful new drawings to illustrate the various chapters of his life… from childhood illness to service in the Navy, from Art School to his pioneering sculptural work for the GLC, from regular appearances on TV and hobnobbing with royalty, to his work abroad and long time Directorship at Harrods…
Without doubt, the man has had a pretty eventful life and produced some truly stunning and timeless art along the way. I’ve written about William Mitchell in these pages a number of times before (here and here for starters) and what’s more I shan’t stop until more people are aware of his name and the huge contribution he has made to our artistic, social and cultural heritage.
I’m happy to report that there is evidence that this is indeed starting to happen, as over the last year or so, several Flickr pages (here and here) and numerous write ups on personal blogs have started to appear and this autobiography is another exciting step towards the recognition that I believe Bill so rightly deserves.
If you are interested in his work, Bill’s own website is here, but keep your eye on these pages, as we are currently looking into the possibility of organising a number of supporting events later on in the year…
Margaret Thatcher: A Different Sort of Legacy…
Celebrating the death of another human being will never be the right thing to do. Regardless of your own personal politics, most people are mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, wives and husbands and presumably were loved by at least some of these people at some time in their life…
I will start by stating for the record that I am no fan of Mrs. Thatcher. I’ve always seen her as a destroyer of things, much more than she was ever a creator, and someone who placed too much importance on the individual over the community.
Anyway, coming into work this morning I read an excellent piece by John Harris in the Guardian. Entitled Singing Songs of Rage, Harris eloquently examines one aspect of Thatcher that has always fascinated me. You can (and should) read the full piece here, but to summarise, it’s the conundrum that a woman who famously didn’t have a cultural or artistic bone in her body, and in many cases actively moved to weaken and diminish our cultural heritage and creativity, was responsible nevertheless for a huge “cultural earthquake” in the fields of arts and music, one that still reverberates to this day.
The atmosphere that Thatcherism generated, feelings of mistrust, betrayal and fear, galvanised a generation of musicians and artists alike to focus their anger on something tangible, a proper enemy. In so doing they created a culture that was alive with energy, intelligence and power. Sharp tunes, clever words, and above all a conviction in the things they were singing about.
Today we’re living through the toughest times I’ve experience in my adult life, and where is the protest music? Where is this generation’s Billy Bragg, Paul Weller or Pauline Black? Where can we experience feelings of alienation and struggle and hear tales of strength through adversity…
Not on BBC 2 for a start, where a recent Radio 2 Top 100 albums poll (find it here) asked listeners to vote for their favourites. I’m still finding it hard to come to terms with the Top 5 to be honest, which included 2 of the most contemptible bands of all time Coldplay and Keane along with that insightful commentator on contemporary life and love, Dido. Anodyne, derivative, lowest common denominator schlop for people with obviously no interest in music.
Similarly (if not more so) with comedy. I mean John Bishop, Michael MacIntyre and Alan Carr? Give me strength, sub standard comedy for apathetic punters. It’s no wonder there’s such a huge resurgence of interest in Eighties bands and culture at the moment, when today’s offerings are so weak and pathetic in comparison…
And whilst I’m not saying that Thatcher is directly responsible for all the great bands of the late 70′s and the 80′s, and all the alternative comedians, I do think that in her divisive policies and her apparent revelling in the role of figurehead, she was someone onto who feelings of hatred and anger could be focused. Unlike the wishy-washy and grey, middle of the road politicians that seem to be in charge at the moment (and I include my lot in that as well sadly. I quite like Ed Balls, but he’s no leader in waiting…)
So after all that, maybe I should also be more appreciative of her, as most of this mornings obituaries seem to be. It would appear that her formidable strength, singular vision and iron grip on politics during her reign, not only destroyed our industries and communities, but also gave birth to some of the best and most enduring aspects of contemporary music and culture…
The Art of Seeing (a Friend’s work…)
A friend of ours has been doing an art foundation course at the City Lit over the last year or so, and we all popped along to her end of year show at the weekend.
I’ve been to many of these kinds of events over the years, mostly architecture shows admittedly, but there’s been a fair spattering (and I use the word advisedly) of fine art ones.
They are on the whole, an odd thing. There’s usually such a huge and disparate range of work, style and ability crammed into every available space, that it’s hard to take it all in. Some of the offerings can be dismissed with a single look, with others being far more deserving of your time..
I thought my friends work looked good. It was thoughtful and considered, with all the elements working together well. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to talk to her much about it on the night, so I didn’t really get her explanation of the work she had put on show.
To me though it seemed to be about eyes, vision and the act of seeing. I liked the way she had created it from such a wide range of materials, echoing possibly, the huge variety of visual inputs we receive constantly and have to make unending decisions on as a consequence.
I was also impressed with how she had put the pieces together. Craft to me is such an important and intrinsic part of any art offering, that it’s usually the first thing I look at in detail after the initial impression has sunk in…
So good luck to Michelle, and I look forward to next years show to see where she can develop these strong these ideas to.
Blade Runner in 60 seconds (and some very bad news for fans…)
Every Year Empire Magazine hold a competition open to all amateur film makers. The premise is simple; remake an existing film in less than one minute…
This years very worthy winner was Philip Askins, who with this rather fine black and white, animated version of one of my very favorite films, the timeless Bladerunner, beat off 15 other competitors, to take the trophy home…
Out of interest, I’ve just looked online for an update on the Blade Runner prequel that Ridley Scott was supposed to be directing, and I am utterly shocked, disappointed and dismayed to read some of the names now connected to the project : Will Smith, Chris Tucker, Michael Bay (Directing) and the final insult, the name that ruins virtually every film he’s been in, Nicholas F**king Cage…
No, no, no… how can it be anything other than total shite, full of macho posing, pointless explosions, over the top CGI and characters with as much depth as my dining table… What a shame, I was quite looking forward to that.
Oh well, I’ll just have to make do with watching Philip’s excellent interpretation a couple of times more, knowing full well that it will be infinitely better than anything the bunch of tossers above will ever come up with…
