me studio

my friend nathalie and i were in the dungeons of the city archives early yesterday, putting the finishing touches to our mini exhibition (all hung at kid height) with the ‘amsterdam things’ pictures and ‘moveable words’ on little stands, which we put together this week, the glue & paint was barely dry before the space was invaded by a hoard of kids who unwittingly became a consumer test-panel… it seemed to go down well, although kids are always a fickle audience… go have a see for yourself (open daily till late july & free)

i’ve just completed a poster & flyer/invite for my friends at the ‘suikerdepot’ who are opening a temporary pop-up shop in the studio space during the coming months selling ‘organic’ clothing… time to break out the brown sugar cubes, the picture was shot by my misses ‘femke’, thanks mop x

this installation & video entitled four letter words caught my eye, as described here by the maker himself:

Four Letter Words consists of four units, each capable of displaying all 26 letters of the alphabet with an arrangement of fluorescent lights. The piece displays an algorithmically generated word sequence derived from a word association database developed by the University of South Florida between 1973 and 1998. The algorithms take into account word meaning, rhyme, letter sequencing, and association. The algorithm’s tendency towards scatological or "dark" subject matter is influenced by a variety of language and perception studies, especially Elliot McGinnies’ 1949 study "Emotionality and Perceptual Defense."

err right… he also has kept a detailed blog documenting the whole process with more terms that are way out of my comprehension scope:

…english-like letter ordering. I made it by modifying a Markov-chain ruby script…a processing app on the bus-ride back from Boston. It places 4-letter words adjacently à la Christopher Wool…

london’s notorious ‘east-end’ is nowadays a place for gentrified design firms and wine bars, but in the seventies and early eighties, it was still a poverty stricken area with a lot of violence and a hot-bed of racial tension

this fascinating black & white archive by photographer paul trevor documents those uncertain times and the many colourful characters who populated the streets

…a multi-user installation for immersion in the history of electronic music…an interface where users can view all the connections between the main styles of electronic music through visual and audible feedback…

why does complexity often look so damn interesting?