comScore Acquires M:Metrics
May 30, 2008
comScore has purchased mobile metrics shop M:Metrics for $44.3 million. With one costly swallow, the buy significantly increases comScore’s stake in the fields of mobile browsing and mobile ad…
Consumer Confidence Index Declines to 16-Year Low
May 30, 2008
The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index, which had declined in April, continued its downward trend in May and now stands at 57.2 (1985=100), down from 62.8 in April - and a 16-year low (Oct….
SheKnows Strikes Again, Swoops Up ChefMom
May 30, 2008
Days after acquiring two pregnancy sites, online network SheKnows has purchased ChefMom.com, a cooking and recipe exchange destination.
ChefMom targets homemakers and new mothers, a current obsession…
Bit by Bit, NYTimes to Surrender Format to the Zeitgeist
May 30, 2008
Following the examples of Facebook, AIM, the iPhone and still others, The New York Times is preparing to release an API.
The API will enable outside developers to manipulate content on NYTimes.com,…
Not so street
May 30, 2008
Street Art at Tate Modern, installation view, © Tate Photography
As Banksy’s forays into the world of the white cube have shown, the meeting of grafitti art and the formal art establishment can be an uneasy one. This is reiterated in the current exhibition at Tate Modern, titled simply Street Art, which sees six international “urban” artists create artworks for the façade of the iconic building. The talent of the artists - who include Faile, JR, Nunca, Os Gemeos, Sixeart and the much-admired Blu - cannot be faulted but the method of display feels lazy, with all the works displayed on one side of the museum (to maximise the view when crossing over the Millennium Bridge presumably) where they compete with one another for attention.
Surely a more interesting use of these talents might have been possible - a more subtle display method perhaps, so that the work would feel more of a discovery? Which is, after all, a significant element of the pleasure of this kind of work. To be fair, the Tate have attempted this, in their own way, with an additional walking tour of works by five Madrid-based street artists in the nearby streets, but the main artists have not been included in this. Or even allowing the artists the opportunity to use the inside of the Tate space? Unfortunately it all feels rather a wasted opportunity by Tate, even though the individual works themselves are impressive.
Detail of Street Art installation at Tate Modern, © Tate Photography
Perhaps to prove the point, in addition to his work at Tate, JR has been busy wallpapering other parts of London, with more impressive results. Alongside another piece on the Truman Brewery, he has covered Partizan’s offices on the corner of Lexington Street, as shown below.
His connection to the production company comes through his work with Al Siddons on a forthcoming breakdance documentary and his ongoing collaboration with Partizan directors LO-DEF, who have been filming his ongoing Women Are Heroes project. His DailyMotion page has footage of his Partizan portrait going up here.
A High Flying Artist
May 30, 2008
For seven days, a giant nest 50 metres up one side of the Weena Tower in Rotterdam has been home for Dutch artist Benjamin Verdonck. He’s recently descended from his lofty abode but as these images reveal, it would have been no mean task getting his nest up there in the first place. And if you’re going to spend a week sitting on a collection of twigs, obviously you’d make sure you had a nice grey suit to wear…
Verdonck apparently built his nest over six weeks using, he says, “the crowns of 23 silver birches, one birch, one willow, two straw bales, one bucket of spit, three bags of sand, 12 buckets of glue and 19 canso polyurethane foam.” That’s a lot of spit by anyones standards.
After making a “risk analysis” and guaranteeing “access for the emergency services” Verdonck attached his new home to the tower and remained there for seven days, occasionally flinging feathers down onto the street. We’re not sure if his droppings went the same way…
Here’s a film of the birdman’s escapades:
More at nest-rotterdam.nl.
Crime: designed by FUEL
May 30, 2008
FUEL is about to publish a new book on the seedier side of life. Crime, by author and documentary maker Alix Lambert, is billed as a series of “extraordinary interviews exposing the world of crime – real and imagined”. Lambert talked to a range of authors, detectives, even murderers, in her investigation into the true nature of criminal acts – the book’s design references the ways that crime has infiltrated our visual culture…
“We’ve always been interested in the crime novels of Chandler, Hammett and Cain and wanted to design a FUEL incarnation of those works,” says FUEL’s Damon Murray. “The elements for the cover [above] were taken from half-remembered 50s and 60s crime novels and films and then constructed into a ‘scene’. We bought a replica gun and then photographed several scenarios before settling on ‘the lady in the gutter’.
“We made the cover illustration using a scraperboard to give it a hand-drawn feel and immediacy,” he continues. “Inside, we chose a stock close to the ‘pulp’ of the early crime novels. For typefaces we looked at newspapers from the 1940s and 50s, like the LA Times. [Quotes are set in Geometric; body copy in Baskerville]. Overall, we wanted to make an object that was seductive in a hard-boiled way.”
Crime is published by FUEL; £22.95 or £20 from their website.
A special edition of 100 copies are available in a clamshell box at £150 each.
More information on FUEL can be found at fuel-design.com.
