Robert Broner

[Sorry for no posts from me in over a week. I promise to catch up on the blogging in the next few days.]


"Turret II": intaglio print, 1971
Collection of Museum of Modern Art, New York

I recently came across this fantastic interview with artist Robert Broner.

Broner was born on the east side of Detroit, on the same street I lived on when I was little. The interview is a fascinating window on life and making art in Detroit during the early and mid-20th century.

Trunk show at Naka in Ferndale

See new work from:
Cyberoptix TieLab & their new BSD luxe-line
Phantom Limb: The Stuff You're Missing

+ food! drink!
+ brand new designs!
+ door prizes and discounts!
+ friends are welcome.

Naka is located at 9 Mile and Woodward
171 W. 9 Mile, Ferndale, MI.
Thursday, May 29 from 6:00pm - 9:00pm.
248.582.9113

See more at Toybreaker blog.

nospectacle live at demf

nospectacle, an electronic music/video group made up of sound/film producer Chris McNamara (Thinkbox), and Jennifer A. Paull and Walter Wasacz of Paris '68 DJs, will open the VitaminWater Main Stage Saturday, May 24 at 2008's Movement: Detroit's Electronic Music Festival. The live audio/visual-DJ hybridized performance is 2-4 p.m. and is directly followed by the highly anticipated Detroit debut of Deepchord presents Echospace. nospectacle was founded in Detroit in 2008 and debuted in March at the Cranbrook Art Museum during the exhibition, Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future. Drones, dubs, subsonic bass immersion and video projections all come alive in nospectacle's dream machine discotheque.

We're throwing a party this Saturday with some friends. You should come.

Saturday, 5.24.08

TOO FAR GONE [presented by Dethab]
9PM-12AM: Adult. + Perspects + Cowboy Mark + Dethlab [mega-tag-team DJ set]
12AM-1AM: MOTOR [DJ set]

NO WAY BACK [presented by Interdimensional Transmissions]
1AM-9AM: Derek Plaslaiko, Mike Servito, BMG of Ectomorph, Patrick Russell and Carlos Souffront

The Atlas Building at 1440 Gratiot, Detroit MI
[park and enter at the rear of the building]
9PM-9AM | 21+ | $10 Intredimesional Membership

This is the official unofficial DEMF anti-afterparty.

Set design by Infinite Dimensions.
Master carpentry by Ersatz Adam.
Ninja services by Ninja Owen.
Charm and wit by notary public David Blunk II.

Catching up with Pruned

Alexander Trevi's landscape architecture journal Pruned has had a plethora of fascinating posts over the past few weeks. As is so often the case, the truth is stranger than fiction. A few highlights below:

London as Venice

Heavy Load-Exerting Concrete Body and Other Structural Near-Analogues

A Little Columbarium Forest in the Arctic

The Machinic Landscape of Tulips

Matt Blake

Detroit artist Matt Blake passed away this past Friday of a heart attack. [I just learned of this about an hour ago, so I'm still rather rattled and shocked.]

Matt was an extraordinarily tallented young artist and a much loved and highly active member of the community. To describe him in the most basic terms: I don't think I've ever seen Matt without a smile on his face.

Matt was a member of the Propeller Collective, which put Detroit on the international design and art world map in the early 1990s by leading the resurgence of craftsmanship and metaphor in industrial design.

There will be a memorial at 4PM on Thursday, May 15 at the Piquette Model T Complex (3rd floor), 461 Piquette Ave. (betw. Brush & John R)

On Wednesday, May 14, an exhibition of Matt's artwork will be on display from 7 p.m. to midnight at the Motor City Brewing Works (470 W. Canfield St., Detroit)

Metro Times arts editor Rebecca Mazzei has an article here: Detroit Loses a Great

Detroit News article here: Detroit artist Matt Blake remembered





This is not okay.

X

X is performing this Thursday at the Majestic Theater in Detroit.

I wore out my Ain't Love Grand cassette in high school, but never had the chance to see them in '80s. We'll expect to see anyone worth their sideburns and combat boots at the show.


X - Nausea [from The Decline of Western Civilization, 1981]


X - Johnny Hit And Run Paulene [from The Decline of Western Civilization, 1981]


X - Burning House of Love [1984]

The Long Now Foundation Mechanicrawl

One of my favorite organizations, The Long Now Foundation presents Mechanicrawl July 12th, 02008.


"Spend a summer day exploring the mechanical marvels along San Francisco's North Shore! See giant running steam engines, turn of the century automata, mechanical computers, an 8 foot high mechanical planetarium and more..."

[via Bruce Sterling / previously on Burnlab: Mad About Orreries]

East Coast Recap

Ms. Toybreaker and and I are [reluctantly] back in Detroit from a four and a half day jaunt around the east coast - playing records and visiting family, friends and museums.

Wednesday night's edition of Kiss & Tell was a total blast. [For Detroiters' reference, Kiss & Tell is more or less to Bunker what Les Infants Terribles was to Untitled.] Huge thanks to Seze for inviting us to play records, and huge thanks to Bryan Black for being an integral part of the chaos and totally shaming us with an amazing set. It was great to see Gorrell, Sneak, Plaslaiko, Brian Jackson, Pheonix Perry, Atomly, Bryan Kasenic, Cowboy Mark, Lisa Hsu, Lauren Hill, Mike Schroff, and so many of our good friends there. Official photos from the night can be found here.

Thursday we took advantage of the Megalopolis' excellent rail system and headed down to Philadelphia. Nor'easter-be-damned, we had a spectacular meal at Amada Thursday night, followed by cheesesteaks at Pat's and visits to the Mütter Museum and Philadelphia Museum of Art on Friday.

This was my 2nd and [incredibly] Bethany's first time at the Mütter. [19th century vitrines full of human skulls, surgical instruments and wax models of medical anomalies never ever get tired.] This was the first time for both of seeing the Duchamp collection, including The Large Glass and Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas at the Philly museum of art. Wow. I can die now. I remember when I was eight or so [I was really into Dali and Magritte and Escher at the time - I think surrealism appeals to most young boys in the same way sci-fi does] my dad told me how Duchamp's last work took 20 years to complete, and compared it to one of those big sugar easter eggs you peek into to view a diorama. He didn't think that conversation through too hard ahead of time, because when I asked what the diorama was, he uncomfortably skirted the question. Even at 36, I felt dirty looking at it in person - which is impressive after almost three decades of anticipation! [If I believed in an afterlife, the very first person I'd like to meet is Marcel Duchamp. I'm not terribly good at chess, but still... I'd like to think we could have a good conversation about subversion.]

High Line Progress

Curbed has a photo gallery and update on everyone's favorite park in the sky. Phase 1 is looking good, and just about ready for soil and landscaping. There are also some interesting new views of the Standard Hotel NY, which is also coming along nicely.

Curbed promises three High Line updates with galleries today, so check back soon.

Lush Louis Vuitton Visuals

This 2008 LV clip has it all. Rich, layered, mise en scene, photographed by (a Doyle no less) Wong Kar-wai collaborator Christopher Doyle. The dramatic tones and melodies of Oscar-winner, Gustavo Santaolalla (soundtrack composer of films like "Babel"). All directed by French commercial auteur, Bruno Aveillan (Thermasilk, Nintendo, Lexus). It's a gorgeous commercial, even if you can't really see the clothes.

[ via The Playlist ]

More info soon...

Detroit: 5/24/08

Mount Fear: crime statistics visualized as sculpture

Here's one for all my fellow documentation, cartography and data visualization fetishists:

The terrain of Mount Fear is generated by data sets relating to the frequency and position of urban crimes. Precise statistics are provided by the police. Each individual incident adds to the height of the model, forming a mountainous terrain.

All Mount Fear models are built on the same principals. The imaginative fantasy space seemingly proposed by the sculpture is subverted by the hard facts and logic of the criteria that shape it. The object does not describe an ideal other-worldly space separated from lived reality, but conversely describes in relentless detail the actuality of life on the city streets.


Mount Fear East London by Abigail Reynolds


Mount Fear Eindhoven by Abigail Reynolds

[via Information Aesthetics]

Kahn/Esherick House follow-up

Eames has posted another batch of photos from the Louis Kahn designed Margaret Esherick House.



Two unique details illustrated here are how the chimney is set away from the house, behind a huge plane of glass, and how the ceilings are often lower than the tops of the windows - both tricking the eye in a way that blurs interior and exterior space.


In both contrast and harmony with Kahn's seemingly formal rigidity, the very organic kitchen was created by Margaret's sculptor uncle Wharton Esherick. [I love the carved run-off channels in the countertop above. It makes me think of the sink in Bill Massie's Big Belt House.]

Quote of the day

"The revolution of will be art directed."