shape+colour + tumblr + vimeo.

Hey everyone. I don’t post about myself personally very often here, so first off a big thanks to everyone who’s reading shape+colour and to everyone who sends me their stuff, post ideas, or videos. You have no idea how much it means to me. The best part of all of this is when people share with me things I wouldn’t have found on my own.

I want to let you know about (and invite you to) some new facets to shape+colour: a Tumblr and a Vimeo. Why? Here’s why…

1. shape+colour on Tumblr.

Tumblr has been called a lot of things: microblogging, multi-media blogging, micro-media blogging, whatever. On shape+colour I try to curate my favourtie videos and artists and actually write about them. I think of it as an online gallery magazine; I want to share my thoughts about the work and the artists, and not just namelessly, wordlessly post.

Sometimes, though, I do find videos, images, or work that I think is rad but I don’t have much to say other than that. shape+colour on Tumblr is where I’ve started posting random shots, quotes, inspiration tidbits, and images that I’m into but that don’t warrant (for me) a full post on shape+colour. I also talk about what I’m up to personally. Or sometimes I just bitch and moan. I also swear more there. So, if you’re on Tumblr come tumbl with me.

2. shape+colour video on Vimeo

Vimeo is my favourite site on the net. I live for motion art (as you might’ve guessed) and so I started a shape+colour video channel on Vimeo. My hope here is to loop in more closely and share contacts/likes with other Vimeo users. I’ll be linking to all the videos that I post from Vimeo on shape+colour, but, like Tumblr, I’ll also be adding tons of videos that I like but that I don’t post here. I’m hoping this will create a quicky, sleek, easily searchable portal for all my fave vids on my fave site. So, again, if you’re on Vimeo let’s be contacts. If you’re a film-maker on Vimeo, or someone I’ve posted on before, please let me know so that I can subscribe to your updates.

etsuko ichikawa: traces of the molten state.

To create her works, which she calls glass pyrographs, Tokyo-born, Seattle-based artist Etsuko Ichikawa trails streams of molten glass, Jackson Pollock-like, across paper.

The resulting tendrils of ash, lacy yet fire-scarred, are both jagged and flowing. Like lightning piercing a very dry forest,  the organic reaction between fire, air, and earth is elemental. Cycles of existence tracing each other – both earth that grew wood to become paper and earth that was hewn into sand and then melted into glass. It’s a molecular home-coming; the lost long relatives of stone and arbour reunited, lifetimes later, evolved into higher states, through fire.

The resulting burnt etches, smoky (literally) and lithe, are described by Ichikawa as a “continuing investigation of what lies between the ephemeral and the eternal.”

Via Today and Tomorrow

adam joy: dreamf focus.

Obviously, any exploration into the connection between colour, memory, emotion, and imagination is right up my alley. I could watch this all day long.

“DreamF Focus” is part of an on-going visual investigation into dreams by Adam Joy:

“Color is as much a symbol as is the imagery in a dream. Color appears to represent the emotional conditions that stimulated a dream or dream image. As with any other symbol, color combines with the imagery to form a more complete “meaning” for the dream image.”

Vodpod videos no longer available.

fool’s gold + matthew lessner: surprise hotel.

Sometimes the only thing left to do to beat the heat is to squirt orange soda pop at your dog. Yes? Yes.

Food fights, awesome. Water fights, awesome. Soda fights, awesomer. Matthew Lessner’s vid for Fool’s Gold’s “Surprise Hotel”, awesomest.

Lessner also directed the recent kickass vid for Dirty Projector’s “Stillness Is The Move.”

Vodpod videos no longer available.

sally shapiro + will joines: miracle.

Again, my love for all things Japanese rears its head. If only I could find something Japanese that sucks, but I can’t, because everything Japanese is awesome.

Again, the sleek but empty urban digital Japanese-vibe fills this epic but intimate vid for Sally Shapiro’s ‘Miracle”, directed by Will Joines. In big cities we can live our lives so closely grouped together that it makes our loneliness feel even more cavernous for the lack of actually being physically alone.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

francisca valenzuela + smog.tv: peces.

Crazy cool vid for Francisca Valenzuela’s “Peces.” Not a clue what she’s saying, but the stylization and animation in this vid is incredible.

Google tells me “peces” translates as “clay wetted for making mud walls.” Which doesn’t sound quite as incendiary as I was imagining from the cold frenzy of the vid. So maybe it’s wrong.  Any Spanish speakers out there; can you let me know in the comments what the song is all about? Would love to know.

UPDATE: So thanks to some Spanish-savvy readers, it turns out “peces” actually means “fish” (I’m guessing it’s a Latin-based connection with “Pisces”, which is interesting to me because my star sign is Pisces). Thankfully, that’s way more interesting that wet clay walls. Thanks to everyone for their info on this and to “the other Francisca” (coincidence? maybe, maybe not) for her translation down in the comments!

kelpe: microscope contents.

Besides thumping some bass you can feel in your rib cage, the self-directed vid for Kelpe’s “Microscope Contents” takes it a step further by actually diving into your rib cage. It’s like an electro-version of “Inner Space.”

home video: you will know what to do.

I love so much about this. First, I’ve been listening to this tune all day long. Besides being an incredible song, New Orleans-based trio Home Video created an intriguing (and inexpensive) video for their track “You Will Know What To Do” by re-editing and re-imagining archival footage from NASA.

Second, there’s something so simple and poignant to me about people hurtling themselves into space, the most important aspect of their journey being the confidence that they will somehow know what to do. Humans are so fragile, yet our dreams can be so unjustifiably strong and our hopes as clean and clear as faith in ourselves.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

andreas iversen: ladybird, ladybird.

This fucked me up. It also brings up some of the questions of where ethics and art converge. For me, that argument always brings up the incredibly controversial and possibly borderline psychotic work of Marco Evarissti. Here, it’s examined again by Danish filmmaker Andreas Iversen.

Via Antville

psyop + mtv mhd: crow.

Psyop is the shit. One of my top three animation shops in the world, Psyop constantly turns out innovative, beautiful, purposeful, integrated work. They’re bad ass.  Case closed.

Apparently “Crow” is a few years old but it just went up on their Vimeo a few days ago. Directed by Marie Hyon and Marco Spier for MTV MHD, is a tight, light, black, white, and all around stunning piece of work. Behold it in all its glory:

Vodpod videos no longer available.