Category: Art & Culture

Learning Clothes, at Fashion Camp NY 2009

Get your Fashion Camp 2009 poster
Fashion Camp Poster

I’ve been thinking about having my own sewing machine for a few years now. I guess I never bought one (that worked properly) because I keep moving around the country too much. Anyway, I think now’s the time. I used a sewing machine occasionally in college, but since then I haven’t had the chance to try again. However, I’m really excited about the chance to try to make my own clothes, and find myself coming up with ideas all the time.

I wasn’t sure how I’d really learn how to make something until…ta-da! I learned about Fashion Camp NY 2009 to be held at ITP this weekend! Oh, joy!

Apparently, Fashion Camp is “Mainstream Fashion, Indie Fashion, and Wearable Technology come together for a weekend of open workshops, presentations, and networking.” So, using a sewing machine is pretty basic, compared to, say, wearable technology? But, still, it’s a weekend of free classes about how to make clothes, or how to think about clothes, or envisioning new fashions, or whatever…. It’s free!

I doubt Anna Wintour will be coming, but if just in case she does, maybe I should think about shining my shoes? If you want to attend and probably not see Anna Wintour, RSVP on the FashionCamp website.

On the the New York City Dance and Technology Meetup

I was reading the feeds on my iGoogle page, and I came across this post on Danciti. The author seems to have taken offense at the new “DanceTech” Meetup group by Doug Fox of Great Dance.

In this particular post, the Danciti author comments on of the suggested meetup topics, ‘How dancers can create professional websites without any technical training or background, and do this very inexpensively’: “It’s just the hight of conceit to believe that you can create professional results in my field [web design] without training.” After I read that, I was offended. However, the owner of Danciti does not have a comment section, so I’ll write it here.


To the Danciti author:

I do not think that the topic “How dancers can create professional websites without any technical training or background, and do this very inexpensively” is implying that an individual with no technical or web design training can create “professional” quality web designs that are on par with what an actual web developer could provide.

In my opinion, that is such an extremely obvious point, I do not see how anyone could be offended. I think Doug’s mission with this workshop is to help dance companies generate more income using internet marketing techniques, by lowering the barrier of entry to the web. Perhaps if professional web development firm offered to design slick websites, pro bono, for dance companies with limited budgets and outdated technology he wouldn’t feel the need to do this workshop. You and I know that building good websites is not that easy and takes plenty of resources which, as far as I know, is  probably why that is not the current situation.

In fact, I think that the Danciti author should go ahead and create a workshop for fat web developers who want to put on a full-length ballet. Dance is for everyone. Why deny them the opportunity to perform? If there was such a workshop, I would seriously doubt the professionalism of any dancer that was actually offended by such a workshop. Why? Because it’s OBVIOUS that web developers would not be as good as ballet as someone who spent 8 hours dancing everyday, nor would the performance be as good as what you would get if you paid $100+ for a ticket to a see a professional dance company perform.

Sorry, Doug. Apparently, it is true that no good deed goes unpunished.

BBC News on UseIt.com

Today’s new UseIt.com article, “World’s Best Headlines: BBC News” is an article after my own heart: a glowing review of BBC News. More specifically, it’s about the concisely written, yet richly explanatory headlines on the BBC News website.

I am so excited to see this wonderful review because for a few years, I was absolutely obsessed with getting a job at the BBC. To be honest, I guess I still am. I started listened to the BBC News World Report on NPR a few years ago when I didn’t have a cable (and had THE worst TV reception) and therefore no T.V. I was so impressed with the quality of their reporting and how much I learned about news from around the world as opposed to the very US-centric news reporting that I tend to get even from NPR or other US news sources. They easily could’ve focused on British news and just tossed in tidbits of world affairs, but it really was “fair and balanced” reporting from around the world.

I was also very impressed with the aggressiveness of the BBC reporters in their interviews who don’t let anyone get away with ambiguity – even when they speak to British, US or other Western officials. I loved how they would just call people out and tell them point blank how whatever rap they were supposed to give to reporters was just a load of bull. Wonderful.

I even tried to apply to the BBC after gradschool. Unfortunately, it never worked out, but even in the job rejections I was so impressed with the their class. They would send hand-signed rejection letters. Typically, the standard response is no response, or when I was lucky I would sometimes get a dry, automated email message telling me that there were no jobs for me but my resume would be kept on file for a year. So, yeah. I guess I am still a bit in love with the BBC. 🙂

So, I was so happy to see this article about their online news source. It’s really great to see props given to a deserving news site. I do have one qualm about the article: Nielsen says that using “4” instead of “four” in the headline would provide more space. That may be true for many other non-journalism websites, but here it would just be bad grammar. In this case, I think it’s better to stick with news writing convention – which is to write out numbers from 0-9, and use numerals for 10 and above – than with website convention. (I am writing a blog, so who cares!? ;P)

I also thought Nielsen’s explanation of BBC’s excellence as originating from their days as a radio broadcaster was also interesting.

“The news organization originated as a radio station, where word count is at a premium and you must communicate clearly to immediately grab listeners. In a spoken medium, each word is gone as soon as it’s uttered…”

That is very true for the performing arts as well. Dance and music are both art forms that exist only the present (videos and recordings aside) and the art is gone as soon as it has been danced or played. For instance, one of my dance teachers once said to me that it’s important to be fully committed to your technique even in class and not just on stage because you only get the one chance to do that pirouette or that arabesque as best you can. You can try it again, but it’s won’t be the same step. I guess it’s the same as saying you never step in the same river twice. That type of attitude, that is doing your best even for mundane things, is a bit of a perfectionist attitude, but over time it can lead to excellence.

Ha! Yet again I’ve managed to connect dance and technology! Yay for me! 🙂

Cities that shape

Last Friday I saw the movie Tokyo!, directed by Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, and Bong Joon-Ho. It asks the question, do we define our cities, or do they define us?

Today, while checking my RSS feeds, I eventually saw something related to this idea. “Theory of the Dérive”, by Guy Debord:

One of the basic situationist practices is the dérive [literally: “driftingî], a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances. Dérives involve playful-constructive behavior and awareness of psychogeographical effects, and are thus quite different from the classic notions of journey or stroll.

He also writes:

In his study Paris et líagglomération parisienne (BibliothËque de Sociologie Contemporaine, P.U.F., 1952) Chombart de Lauwe notes that “an urban neighborhood is determined not only by geographical and economic factors, but also by the image that its inhabitants and those of other neighborhoods have of it.î In the same work, in order to illustrate “the narrowness of the real Paris in which each individual lives . . . within a geographical area whose radius is extremely small,î he diagrams all the movements made in the space of one year by a student living in the 16th Arrondissement. Her itinerary forms a small triangle with no significant deviations, the three apexes of which are the School of Political Sciences, her residence and that of her piano teacher.

It’s basically mapping someone’s movements over a course of time, and displaying this information graphically. I disagree with the quote on MoonRiver’s blog describing “the narrowness of the real Paris in which each individual lives and which, according to Debord, ought to provoke outrage at the fact that anyone’s life can be so pathetically limited.”

Pathetic seems unfair. This is just a map of someone’s movements for a year. It’s not a determination of the quality of those movements and interactions. Let’s not forget, the map is of Paris; I’m sure there are many who would have loved to trade places with this student for that year. I guess perhaps it depends on what de Lauwe means by “image”, above. To be less serious, here’s another example from a dad mapping the movements of himself, his 2 kids, and their cat for 1 hour in front of the TV, on Flickr. Interesting stuff.

To answer the question, do our cities shape us, or us them, I think it’s a little of both, but perhaps as much as we make it so. In any case, the movie was quite entertaining and quirky to say the least.

Tokyo! is playing at the Landmark Sunshine Theaters, in NYC.

ARCH DL V hosted by LVHRD

Last month I attended ARCH DL V, hosted by LVHRD, in Brooklyn. The event pitted two architecture teams against each other to create a moon-based, landing site/jail at Coney Island, using only the materials available in 5 boxes of Monopoly games.

I left before the end because it was a Tuesday and it was in Brooklyn (where I don’t live).

Then, right after that I came across this mixtape on FlavorPill on the 10 Best Architecture songs.

This weekend I will be attending another LVHRD event, WRK/PLY. Check it out and get your ticket. http://www.lvhrd.org/

Little Red Riding Hood, with design twist

I’ve been posting this on all my accounts today. As was said on Flowing Data, this video is totally worth 3 minutes of your life. What a fun take on a classic fairytale. Apparently, it was based on this Röyksopp video, which you can catch on YouTube.

I really like the way all of the parts of the story are presented so matter-of-factly, especially Grandma’s calorie count of 10,000 kcal. Actually, after watching this video I was reminded of one key fact/mishap of the story. Even after Grandma and Little Red Riding Hood are saved, Grandma’s still sick. What about that part of the story? I’m sure it doesn’t end well. Well, at least I found the next song I’m gonna get on iTunes.