Darth Vader - Luke's Father AND Whistler's Mother

Get yourself over to Worth1000.com to take a look at their challenge to get people to drop Star Wars characters into famous works of art. Some aren't too great, to put it mildly - but some are truly excellent.

"Light Rain" A Film By Neil Horner

This is a short film called "Light Rain" by a lovely and rather talented friend of mine, Neil Horner - entered in the Virgin Media Shorts competition.
Please do go vote if you like it...

Luke Jackson - "Goodbye London" Video

I'm indebted to British-Canadian singer/songwriter Luke Jackson for dropping me a line about his new video "Goodbye London" which features not only a cracking song about the place where I live, but also a top piece of animation, mixing time lapse and stop-motion of London scenes with drawn characters and graffiti. The result is a belter of a video; charming but unsentimental, and completely evocative of the city.
Do pass it on, and if you want to find out more about Luke and his work, including "Goodbye London" and his new album "...And Then Some" you can do so here...

You can buy "...And Then Some" on iTunes by clicking here...

Deadline

Post-its... one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century. Stop-motion... sublime in the right hands (Ray Harryhausen, Vision-On, Sledgehammer, Creature Comforts...)
Put them together - in the form of a senior Art & Design School project by Bang-​yao Liu and you have "Deadline", a wonderfully playful and imaginative take on procrastination and pressure.
Triffick :-)

Light Fantastic

Apologies for nicking the Guardian's headline - it's not laziness, it's just I couldn't think of anything better to describe this.It *is* fantastic.
Artist Michael Bosanko makes these pictures using coloured torches at night... His digital camera stays on a long exposure, ranging from 10 seconds to one hour to create the images against the backdrop of Cardiff, Newport and the Brecon Beacons in south Wales.
There's a set of 11 shots here on the Guardian website...

Scintillation

Not entirely sure what to say about this film - SCINTILLATION - by Xavier Chassaing, except "bloody hell that's cool..."

Watch it, it's beautiful.

Has Brian Eno Made The Coolest iPhone App To Date?

Er... well, Yes actually.
Superb piece of work - and as creative, refreshing and innovative as you'd expect from Britain's national treasure in charge of brainiac music.
Bloom is not merely a music generator - a very clever ambient music generator - it's also an experience to be enjoyed passively or interactively. Probably why it's described as "part instrument, part composition and part artwork."
And it *is* pretty much a work of art in its own right.
Having set a basic "Mood" - which defines tone and colour, a drone starts up and you tap / press the screen wherever you want to create musical notes, which repeat in looping patterns and drive blossoming and fading 'dot' visuals across the colour gradients of the screen.
The application will even evolve and develop the 'music' if you leave it alone.
Then in the best traditions of Etch-a-Sketch you simply shake your phone around to clear the composition.

It's beautiful, and strangely addictive - and the fact that it's done with such a non-musical interface (just coloured washes, with no need for keyboards or buttons or anything) makes it a genuinely enjoyable and non-technical experience.
It's only a couple of quid and it's worth every single penny.
Awesome.

Here's the iTunes link to the Bloom application...

World War 1 As You've Never Seen It Before

(*Above: Vimy Ridge - One of hundreds of stunning and personal sketches and notes)


"The Pictures And Diary Of A Wartime Artist" is a phenomenal insight into the First World War by war artist Len Smith... A diary packed with more than 360 illustrations - many of them watercolors and sketches that had only previously been seen by his immediate family.
For someone like me whose grandad was in the Battle of the Somme and who has taken something of an interest in WW1 for that reason, it's quite something to see such a personal record laid bare, and adds so much to comprehending and visualising the human side.
It's beautifully rendered and delivered in a Flash-based online format and costs under a tenner.
Click here for full info and purchase...

As If The Turner Prize Isn't Bad Enough...

Along with the current outbreaks of mutilated cattle, howling dogs and walls starting to bleed, another sure sign of a forthcoming demonic apocalypse must be the unveiling of a solid gold statue of Kate Moss at the British Museum; said to be the largest gold statue to be made since ancient Egyptian times.
Although, given the presence of Damien Hirst and some 200 'specially created skulls' it could I suppose just be a sign of a load of old shite being dumped in the British Museum.

The iPhone Camera: Not Shit After All, Apparently...

Although I'd be the first to admit that the iPhone's camera isn't the best (kind of galling for such an Apple fanboy - but really, it *is* a bit pants), it's still phenomenal what you can do with one, given a bit of imagination and presumably a shedload of patience...
Look at these amazing, almost Hockney-esque montages by p0psharlow posted on Flickr...
Tremendous.

Spotted on Cult of Mac by Chris. Thanks :)

Kill Me Now, It's The Turner Prize Again

Check out the BBC website to see this year's Turner Prize Hopefuls.
I was also shortlisted in error, when I left a hoover, some pans and an old set of nested tables out in the front yard for the council to collect - and a fox shat on them.

And why is it that so many journos and commentators will still insist on saying things like "controversial works" when it's abundantly clear the words they're actually looking for are "a load of old toss".
I wanted to upload a picture to go with this post, but merely looking at the choices almost gave me a full-on bloody Anger-Stroke, so you can do without.

Rothko Now On At Tate Modern

The Tate Modern's Rothko Exhibition has opened; it's on till the beginning of February 2009.

100 Artists Celebrate 100 Years Of The Roundel

More info here...