DEGINE

Blue Gold

2010-04-14T12:56:00.010-04:00

I love eye-opening and thought-provoking documentaries. However, the more such films I watch, the more pessimistic I got towards mankind as more and more inconvenient truth is revealed in front of me. Blue Gold is one of such documentaries I watched recently. Based on the book Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water, the film provides a critical examination of the global water privatization.

As stated in the film, water is today’s oil. Water crisis and privatization is simply beyond our imagination. Some shocking facts I learned include: the French water giants Suez, RWE and Vivendi buying water all over the world including many American cities such as Seattle, Chicago and Pittsburgh; the Cochabamba protests in 2000 against privatization of water in Bolivia (even collecting stormwater was against the law!); Bush family buying vast lands in Paraguay which sits atop one of the world's largest fresh-water aquifers…

The title of the film recalls another provocative documentary Black Gold which uncovers the extremely unfair trade in Africa’s coffee planting. Actually Blue Gold also briefly mentions the unfair tea trade which prevents African countries from getting rid of poverty. Both films accuse WTO, World Bank and big corporate firms of rapaciously exploiting resources and labor from developing countries. These agencies are secretly pulling the strings only to ensure the weak always remains weak so that they can always make huge profits. Of course they never forget to play a benevolent role by donating food and money to the poor countries. Without changing the world’s political and economic system, no environmental changes (or any other radical changes) can be made, precisely the key idea conveyed in the film.

The non-profit organization Solutions for a Better Planet has been organizing environmental films and lectures around the world, and Blue Gold is on their list. I’m excited to find out about their China Green Tour -
In June 2010, a month after the official opening of the Shanghai Expo, in eight universities across China we will screen documentaries on the main eco-issues of our current environmental crisis: water, waste, energy, climate change, urbanisation, food, deforestation, desertification..., and present positive examples of pragmatic solutions from all over the world.

I'll be back in

China

at the time, so hopefully I can attend some of the events!

How to Feed the World?

2010-03-15T14:48:00.007-04:00

Directed by Denis van Waerebeke, this amazing infographic video explains the reasons behind the imbalanced global food distribution and suggests solutions to the problem. Although the animation was originally made for kids aged 9-14 at an exhibition, both its illuminating content and innovative graphics are worth checking out for adults as well. I'm also reminded of a relevant documentary Food Inc. which is among the pile of DVDs I haven't found time to watch.

How to feed the world ? from Denis van Waerebeke on Vimeo.

New Acropolis Museum

2010-01-09T11:20:00.015-05:00

Although my trip was dominated by ancient architecture, I still hoped to check out some new buildings. Since Zaha’s MAXXI museum in Rome was not open yet, the New Acropolis Museum by Tschumi became my biggest interest for modern architecture.

The museum came into sight right after I walked out of the metro station. It’s much closer to the Acropolis than I imagined. The building has three articulated levels: the ground level is aligned with the old city grid, while the top level (the Parthenon Gallery) is aligned with the Parthenon. A visual dialogue is created between the museum and the Acropolis: first, the museum is built right above some archeological remains dated back almost 2500 years.

Second, the café terrace on the second floor both overlooks the excavations and embraces the view of the Acropolis. Third, the curtain wall in the Parthenon Gallery also offers a great view of the Parthenon itself.

The glass floors at different levels create a vertical transparency. It exhibits not only the excavations beneath the first floor, but also the people walking on the floor above. Natural light is maximized in exhibition space by the use of skylights and curtain wall. It is amazing to see the sculptures under the constantly changing daylight, quite similar to their original outdoor condition. (the interior pictures are from the internet since photos are forbidden inside the museum)

Tschumi always claims film’s strong influence on his design. Some cinematic effects are quite noticeable in the museum. For instance, in the Parthenon Gallery the marbles of the Parthenon Frieze are oriented in their original locations, with the missing portions left blank. Each framed marble panel reminds me of a single film frame displayed in sequence for storytelling. The Parthenon in direct view also provides the perfect context for appreciating the artwork.

Another filmic infusion is the evening projection of the Erechtheion caryatids on the façade. I missed it as I had to go back to the ship before dark:(

I love the simplicity and elegance of the museum which reflects the essence of Greek architecture. Admission is only 1 EUR, unbelievable for a world-class museum like this!

Art Cards for Baby

2010-01-03T21:35:00.008-05:00

Today I met a new friend who is also a designer from China. She brought Chloe a set of art cards from Wee Gallery. I've never seen such artistic cards designed for baby! Love the fancy black-and-white pattern on each animal. They will be a sweet starter for Chloe's art education:) I couldn't help checking out their other collections. Wow, they are all beautiful!

To Venice

2009-12-31T14:37:00.001-05:00

You are a labyrinth interwoven with water. I don’t even try to find my direction since reading a map is both useless and unnecessary.

I understand the very charm of you is not in those famous landmarks. The best way to appreciate you is by wandering, like in the bookloft.

I can’t explain my fascination with water and anything standing in the water. But I do know why I love the intricate network of narrow alleys - a reminder of the hutongs in Beijing. You happen to obsess me with both. How can I step away from you?

I want to leave my footprints on every street and every bridge of you. Three days seem too short! Wish I can walk in you endlessly, never ever stop. I would lose my way forever, like the protagonists in Last Year at Marienbad…

Surprise in Ancona

2009-12-28T14:37:00.006-05:00

I didn’t expect much of Ancona before the trip, as Google Image only came up with some unattractive photos. However, when I walked deeper and deeper into the city , I discovered some unpretentious but interesting buildings.

One of the surprises is this contemporary apartment building among the classic blocks. It sits on a slope with its roof sloping in the same direction. The form of the building is not uncommon, a popular method of carving into one big block. A balance between individuality and unity is achieved by providing each unit a good amount of character.

Walking along the stepped street in front of the building was interestingly pleasant, as I observed the changing face of each window and various plants along the street or on the balconies. As I walked up the steps, I saw another building with a similar look further up the slope. But I found this one more appealing because of the terraced garden on the back.

The landscape design is so modest but charming, just like Ancona itself. I especially enjoyed the various paths leading to different levels and directions, and the rich texture of the paving bricks...

Thanks to Google Earth, I not only located the building, but also got to see the overall plan. The aerial photo even reveals some interesting designs on the roof terrace.

SMART Parking

2009-12-27T22:25:00.003-05:00

Old Maps

2009-12-10T21:06:00.017-05:00

I love old maps for their richness. They are usually very artistic and narrative instead of being purely technical like most maps today. On our way to the Sistine Chapel inside the Vatican Museum, we passed through the gorgeous Gallery of Maps. Besides the 40 large topographical maps of Italian regions, there are also several graphic maps depicting important cities. I was so excited to find three places I just visited -

The most noticeable one is the map of Venice at the end of the gallery. If you look closely, you will find captivating details of the Piazza San Marco.

The most noticeable one is a map of Ancona. I find it much less successful since the sail boats are too dominant whereas the city itself is hard to read.

The following one doesn’t show the name. My best guess is Lucca, judging primarily from the shape of the city wall. But I'm not sure about the pentagon at the bottom left corner.

I later found out that the maps in the gallery were commissioned in the late 1500s by Pope Gregory XIII. It took friar and geographer Ignazio Danti three years to paint. Although made 500 years ago with ancient instruments such as the Astrolabe, the maps are said to be amazingly accurate. I found an article discussing the accuracy of Danti's maps, very interesting:

http://goeurope.about.com/od/travelphotography/ig/Travel-Pictures/Vatican-map-Garfagnana.htm

Footprints in Eastern Mediterranean

2009-12-06T10:05:00.006-05:00

My first trip to Europe was almost perfect

10 nights on land, 7 nights at sea

Each place has its own charm -

Rome is POWER

Vatican is DIVINITY

Florence is ART

Venice is ROMANCE

Siena is EXQUISITE

Lucca is WARMTH

Pisa is FAME

Ancona is UNPRETENTIOUSNESS

Athens is ELEGANCE

Santorini is SCULPTURE

Mykonos is FESTIVENESS

Corfu is PICTURESQUENESS

Dubrovnik is PERFECTION

I left my heart in Venice, Santorini and Dubrovnik. Will blog them in detail when I have time!

Fellini's Rome

2009-10-24T17:34:00.012-04:00

Being an enthusiastic film location hunter, I was inquiring the possibility of a movie tour of Fellini’s Rome. After reading a little bit the book The sites of Rome: time, space, memory, I found out that his Rome was mainly constructed in studio 5 at Cinecittà, including even landmarks such as St. Peter's dome and the Colosseum. I wasn't aware that he preferred set shooting so much, quite the opposite of Antonioni's situationist style. Even though I'm still gonna see the famous Trevi Fountain in his La Dolce Vita.

As discussed by Elena Theodorakopoulos, Fellini's films may be said to visualize Freud's much-quoted idea that:
Rome is not a human habitation, but a psychical entity with a similarly long and copious past - an entity, that is to say, in which nothing that has once come into existence will have passed away and all the earlier phases of development continue to exist alongside the latest one.

In Fellini's own words: Tramping around from ruin to ruin doesn’t mean anything to me. My Rome is from the movies of my childhood.

If Fellini's Rome is a cinematic spectacle inspred by his collective childhood memory, then Tarkovsky's Italy is a mirror which reflects his deep Russian nostalgia. My favorite scenes in Nostalgia were filmed at Bagno Vignoni, a small village famous for its thermal baths. It's about an hour's bus drive from Siena. But I probably won't have time for it as I have only one day in Siena. Anyway I'll see Michelangelo's Piazza del Campidoglio, another distinct filming location of Nostalgia.

Tetsuya Ishida

2009-10-22T16:32:00.002-04:00

Several douban friends recommended Tetsuya Ishida's paintings. I thus came to know this talented Japanese painter who died in 2005 at the age of 31 (probably a suicide). His surreal self portraits remind me so much of Frida Kahlo. His own body is frequently presented as part of a machine or a built object, tragically trapped in the suffocating urban surroundings. Through his desperate gazes, we sense his deep loss of freedom, identity, emotion, nature, childhood joys...

View his complete works at: http://www.tetsuyaishida.jp/

Foliage Weekend

2009-10-19T22:34:00.006-04:00

Living in Pennsylvania for six years made me a fall-foliage addict. Although Ohio lacks the hilly topography which creates dramatic views, I still found favorite foliage places such as Hocking Hills and Highbanks soon after the move. This year we have to skip the long ride to Hocking Hill and took Chloe to the three beautiful metro parks: Highbanks, Prairie Oaks and Battelle Darby Creek.

Yestersday was actually our first time going to both Prairie Oaks and Battelle Darby Creek and we were really impressed. Prairie Oaks has three adjacent lakes with Big Darby creek running in between. We walked on a beautiful trail with a lake on one side and the creek on the other. Since most trails are pet friendly, we saw many happily walking dogs. Next time we'll bring Rexie for sure despite his car sickness!

Prairie Oaks

Driving south about 15 minutes, we arrived at Battelle Darby Creek. The two parks are linked by the same creek: Big Darby. We found a gorgeous view overlooking the creek as well as more colorful foliages in the woods here which recalls Highbanks.

Battelle Darby Creek

What we explored in either park is only a small portion of the entire land - more to discover in the future!

The Book Loft

2009-10-15T17:53:00.015-04:00

Reading my friend's negative comments on the Book Loft made me want to write something about this unique bookstore. To me, the Book Loft is more than just a bookstore. It stands as a living example of dynamics in architectural space. Firstly, it blurs the boundary between public and private space and reverses the normal condition: a public bookstore in the setting of a private house. Isn’t the reversal of dining room and bathroom in Buñuel's The Phantom of Liberty an extreme case on this subject?!

One of the bookstore’s charms lies in its linear courtyard as the main entry. This serenely beautiful courtyard immediately turns the street scale into a personal scale, brings one’s mind into a peaceful retreat. Further down the path, the display windows on your right side create another type of storefront which is immersed in the domestic atmosphere rather than a commercial street feeling. Bathed in the warm yellow light at night, one can easily have the sense of going home on a cold winter night.

The linear courtyard reminds me of a charming little community garden I once visited in Philly. It is a water garden on the side of an old building, about the same size and shape as the one at the Book Loft. A ‘beer barrel’ at the corner collects stormwater from the neighboring roof which is reused for irrigating the garden. Three correlative murals depicting water cycles were done by the kids in the community.

Secondly, the Book Loft stands as a proof that getting lost is not necessarily a negative quality of architecture. This old Victorian house is a labyrinth that consists of 32 rooms of books, endless passageways, and staircases leading into new dimensions. However, this place is meant for wondering, exploring and getting lost only if you enjoy such a slow-paced and adventurous shopping experience. Associated with the quest for knowledge, isn’t the labyrinth a perfect metaphor for a bookstore? I still get lost after being there quite a few times, and each time I discover some new territories in both the architectural space and book collection. It is a similar experience every time I revisit a favorite film, picking up some unnoticed details.

Unlike box-shaped chain bookstores where one is always under surveillance, this maze-like space offers a perfect hiding place among the book jungles, which is rarely found in contemporary architecture. The Book Loft is probably a place Mr. Hulot would love! Anyone who is familiar with Tati’s Playtime knows that a large minimal glass cube is no more directional than the Book Loft, needless to say the lack of spatial interest or human attachment people can get out of.

I agree with my friend that their book selection needs to be improved. It would be great to include rare books and used books. Amazon is definitely the best place if you only care about selection and price. Nevertheless I still find Book Loft a hidden gem in this suburban city especially considering the fun experience it provides. Looking forward to my next half-day retreat, Hmmm…

Gallery Hop on Moon Festival

2009-10-04T10:28:00.005-04:00

It was such a coincidence that the monthly Cbus event and the Chinese festival fell on the same day yesterday. We took Chloe to the hop for her first art experience. Carrying a 4-month old, I had no time to ponder upon any artwork this time. I still found the walk very enjoyable when browsing the funky galleries and stores, seeing so many people on the street, feeling the vitality of urban life. The Gallery Hop is one of the few occasions I can truly experience the urban flavor in town. I always find Cbus quite suburban, even the downtown area, compared to most other cities. I think it is all because of the homogeneous density.

Later we had yummy sushi at Kooma. A DJ showed up during our dining, bringing vibrant beats into the atmosphere. Chloe fell asleep amidst the seductive food smell and the exhilarating music!

Our last stop was the Book Loft, my No. 1 favorite spot in Cbus. I was immediately attracted by the beautiful side yard under the lights as I’d never been there at night before. I couldn’t help snapping a couple of pictures with my iPhone. I got lost again this time, and how I enjoy getting lost in this book maze! I brought a list of books I found on their website, unfortunately none of them are in store. Too bad I couldn’t spend money:)

The only imperfection was the lack of the moon due to the heavy clouds. I had to picture a bright full moon in my head…

Such Great Heights

2009-09-30T10:17:00.009-04:00

I had to save this photo when I saw it on NPR this morning. Unbelievable, isn't it?! Found in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, this tree is at least 1500 years old and 300-foot high! The climbers' tiny bodies in the photo give you the best sense of scale. National Geographic photographer Michael Nichols spent a year photographing the giant redwoods in California. The process is quite interesting: he devised a way to do redwoods justice. It involved three cameras, a team of scientists, a robotic dolly, a gyroscope, an 83-photo composite and a lot of patience. The largest tree elevation is thus assembled! (see the video on NPR)

Hopefully I can travel to that State Park someday. My fascination with giant old trees originated from the forest scene in Hitchcock's Vertigo. I've traced the footsteps of Madeleine and Scottie through the redwoods at Muir Woods. The cycle of life and death, the cycle of death and rebirth, the poetic melancholy, the enigmatic beauty, will haunt me forever...

Waiting for the Love Story of Capitalism

2009-09-24T20:35:00.007-04:00

I'm thrilled to hear about Michael Moore's new documentary Capitalism: A Love Story on NPR today. Always attracted by Moore's provocative documentaries, I wonder what controversies this one will stir up in American society. From his previous sensitive subjects such as terrorism and health care system, he makes a further step to investigate the much more substantial and fundamental issue: Capitalism itself.

Placing the yellow crime scene tape around Wall Street is so very Michael Moore, reminds me of the mock funeral he staged outside the HMO's headquarters in Sicko. His confrontational style has a powerful comedy and irony effect which is somewhat reminiscent of Chaplin.

Can't wait to watch Capitalism. Oct 2nd - Yes!!

Jeremy Liebman

2009-09-20T20:49:00.003-04:00

I'm intrigued by the fashion photographs from American photographer Jeremy Liebman. He studied both film and liberal arts in college, no wonder his works exhibit a lot of consideration on the relationship between human body, costume pattern and space. Fashion design is best displayed against the minimal composition of the geometries. I find the first image really stunning, and also love the the sutble expression of light and shadows in all these photographs.

view more of his works at http://www.jeremyliebman.com/

Funky Dishwashing Gloves

2009-09-02T13:31:00.006-04:00

As I need to wash a lot of Chloe's stuff these days, I decided to get a pair of dishwashing gloves to protect my hands. A little bit internet search led me into the world of funky dishwashing gloves. My favorites are the Lushlife sponge gloves (upper image) - so adorable and practical! The Couture series (lower image) are fine too, stylish with a retro and feminine look. Guess I'll get a pair of Lushlife to make everyday washing a fun experience!

Navel Tomato

2009-08-09T17:40:00.006-04:00

It's the harvest time in my organic farm: tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchinis and colored peppers! Today I found this unique tomato and called it 'navel tomato'. Nature is the most fantastic designer and creator with a sense of humor. This tomato just reminds me of the heart-shaped potato in Varda's wonderful documentary The Gleaners and I, the perfect visual metaphor of the film's essence.

Buena Vista Social Club

2009-05-12T17:35:00.004-04:00

I accidentally picked up the DVD Buena Vista Social Club (1999) in the library the other day and was left in awe after watching it. Buena Vista Social Club was the club in Havana where a group of Cuban musicians gathered to play during the 1940s. American guitarist Ry Cooder learned about those long-forgotten brilliant musicians and brought them together almost half a century after the club was closed. To my surprise, the director was Wim Wenders, who was persuaded by his friend Ry Cooder to make this documentary. The film is a combination of concert footages, interviews with each musician, and the shots of streetscape and daily life in Havana.

Already a big fan of Latin jazz, this documentary opened up a whole new horizon of traditional Cuban music in front of me: I got to know quite a few talented musicians whose names I’d never heard of, and learned about the personal side of my favorite musicians whom I only knew from CDs. While watching them in real life and hearing them telling their personal stories, I couldn’t help falling in love with the Rubén González’s elegance, Compay Segundo’s sense of humor, Ibrahim Ferrer’s sincerity….

One unforgettable scene leads the viewer through the empty interior of an old and beautiful colonial building, and then the camera moves towards Rubén González who is playing the piano and starts circling him slowly. Both the decaying interior and the wrinkled face of González are telling the story of aging, yet the music born out of his fingers remains youthful and passionate.

Despite all the political obstacles between US and Cuba, the musicians finally traveled to New York and performed at Carnegie Hall in 1998. The audience were simply overwhelmed by their passionate music and the musicians were left in tears. It was the final legendary show of Buena Vista Social Club considering some the musicians were in their nineties at the time. Today all the prominent musicians have already passed away, but their music never dies and continues to reach the hearts of people all around the world.

Regarding the filmmaking, I’m a bit disappointed with the way Wim Wenders handles the materials. I find the following two things quite disturbing: one is the excessive appearance of Ry Cooder and his son throughout the film. I understand Ry Cooder is a good friend of Wim and the organizer of the club’s reunion, but it makes no sense to give him more spotlight than any of the musician in the film; the other is the musicians’ reactions on touring New York City. They kept remarking on how beautiful the city is, which sounded so corny and destroyed the dignity of the musicians.

With Obama’s new policy, traveling to Cuba will no longer be a mission impossible for US residents in the near future. I can’t wait for the day to walk down the streets of Havana seeking the traces of Buena Vista Social Club, soaked in the enchanting traditional music. That’s another big motivation for my Spanish learning!

Here's the link for Buena Vista Social Club's Chan Chan (1998). I almost cry everytime I watch it -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY95AB8MBXk

Cat Score

2009-04-19T20:58:00.003-04:00

The Sound of Painting is a fascinating and informative book I read recently. It explores the mutual inspiration between early modern art and early modern music by examining numerous artists’ works inspired by music.

In the chapter of Graphic Music, I was intrigued by several pieces of work which innovatively visualized music. The wittiest one is this Cat Symphony by Austrian painter Moritz won Schwind (1804-1871). He dedicated the score to Joseph Joachim (1831-1907), a renowned Hungarian violinist and composer. He described his idea of reforming the linear notation system as ‘this darling attempt to put a more expressive, spiritualized notation system in the place of this outmoded, obsolete, pedantic, and dry-as-dust copycat business.’

Tativille, Paris!

2009-04-08T12:43:00.007-04:00

Just saw on Criterion's website a large-scale retrospective of Tati's work opening today in Paris! -

Paris is turning into Tativille starting tomorrow, April 8, until August 2, with the Cinémathèque française’s appropriately large-scale retrospective of the famously ambitious French filmmaking legend’s work, “Jacques Tati, deux temps, trois movements.” Curated by Stéphane Goudet and Macha Makeïeff, the exposition is in honor of the director’s 102nd birthday (“just in time for an homage divorced from obligatory celebrations, which he was not keen on,” the curators tease), and will feature not only screenings of Tati’s films (including a new print of M. Hulot’s Holiday) but also exhibitions of props, costumes, screenplays, outtakes, and drawings and paintings by his friend and art director Jacques Lagrange. Add to all that guided walking tours of Tati-related architectural landmarks, screenings of a new six-part documentary on Tati called The 6 Lessons of Professor Goudet, and interviews about Tati with contemporary directors (including Michel Gondry, Wes Anderson, David Lynch, Otar Iosseliani, and Olivier Assayas) on view around the exhibit, and you have one seriously tantalizing Tati traffic jam. (source)

The exposition is held in the Cinema Museum designed by Gehry. I'm so attracted by the miniature model of Villa Arpel from Mon Oncle. I also can't wait to find out how much the real Paris overlaps with Tativille by walking down the streets. Being a super Tati fan, I wanna be there so badly!! Maybe the best I can do now is to revisit his great films.

In the Eyes of Annie Leibovitz

2009-04-02T16:25:00.001-04:00

When talking about Annie Leibovitz, the two images one would associate with are probably: the Rolling Stone cover of John and Yoko lying together, the last photo of John taken a few hours before his was shot, and the controversial Vanity Fair cover of Demi Moore’s nude pregnant body.

After watching a documentary on Annie and reading her book Annie Leibovitz at Work, I got more insights into her life and photography. Besides the famous celebrity photos for the magazines, her works also touch upon broader themes such as social and political events and natural landscapes. In the book she reveals how each well-known photograph was made. She is not only good at staging the characters in a symbolic setting relevant to ones’ artistic identity, but also has a sharp eye in capturing the very charm in one’s natural state.

One appealing photo from the documentary is the surrealistic portrait of Isabella Rossellini and David Lynch, both my favorite characters. The photo stands as a perfect metaphor of the uninterpretable and dreamlike quality of Lynch’s films. Lynch's face is hidden behind the black mask, which seems to imply the fact that he has always resisted interpreting his works.

When browsing the book, I was excited to find a photo of 94-year-old Philip Johnson in his Glass House. Interested in architecture, Annie went to photograph the Glass House one day and Johnson happened to be there. The photo thus came by accident, which captured a meditative quality in the architectural space, surrounding landscape and the person.

Sun House in Haiti

2009-03-18T15:06:00.004-04:00

I'm working on a rendering for a building in Haiti this week, which makes me wonder about the architecture there. What kind of building should we propose for the people and environment there as Haiti remains the poorest Caribbean country?

I found The Sun House, an earthbag building project at Pwoje Espwa in Southern Haiti. Father Marc Boisvert, the founder and director of Pwoje Espwa (http://www.freethekids.org/), has dedicated his life to serving and helping suffering children. This project not only houses over 700 children, but has an agricultural project, three schools, carpentry and masonry facilities, and an arts and crafts program.

The finished building is quite charming especially after the local artists' decoration. What a perfect fusion of the sustainable building techniques and the unique Haitian art and culture! More process photos can be found here: http://earthbagbuilding.com/projects/haiti.htm

The website EarthBuilding.com offers comprehensive information on earthbag construction, and I learned a lot about the advantages of this building technique. First, earthbag building is very low-cost and easy to build. Second, earthbags function well as either thermal mass or insulation, depending on what the bags are filled with. Third, earthbag structure can be fairly strong if properly constructed. Fourth, earthbag technique works better with non-rectilinear shapes, thus becomes a great tool for creating unique sculptural forms. I'm so tempted to build one myself!

As my Haitian dream continues, I watched Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti, an unfinished documentary made by Maya Deren filming the voodoo rituals in Haiti. It's remniscent of Eisenstein's unfinished masterpiece ¡Que viva Mexico! which captures the soul of Mexican culture and its tragic history.

Tara Dononvan @ CAC

2009-03-08T15:30:00.005-04:00

I’ve always been impressed with Tara Donovan’s vision of transforming ordinary everyday materials (such as styrofoam cups, paper, scotch tape, pins, toothpicks) into extraordinary artwork. Her sculptures invent a world between artificial compositions and natural landscapes. So when I learned that her works are on exhibition at CAC, I was thrilled and went with Ian yesterday. Perhaps I shouldn’t have taken such a long ride at this moment, but I just couldn’t resist the opportunity and hopefully this experience would spark some artistic cells in my little darling’s growing brain ^_^

It was at least my third time in Zaha’s building. This time the lobby ceiling becomes part of the exhibition with Tara’s famous cloud-like hanging piece. Before then, I only saw photos of this piece hanging in an empty minimalist space where the sculpture exhibits a pure and overwhelming gesture. But here it quietly integrates with Zaha’s dynamic interior, which reflects Tara’s idea of making the sculptures grow out of architectural space.

The magical part of seeing the real works lies in the shift of scale. It offers the viewer a fascinating process of discovery as you move around the sculptures. One of my favorites is a wall piece called ‘Haze’. At the first sight, it appears to be an icy and spongy surface with naturally formed bumps. When you walk closer, it seems softer and more translucent. The reflection of your moving body also makes the surface alive. When you get real close, you are amazed that the material is nothing more than clear plastic drinking straws – thousands of them! Another phenomenal piece is made of tiny metallic film tape rings which form huge organic patterns filling up three consecutive walls. I looked at a small portion and then looked up at the large pattern, the rings suddenly appeared to be shiny water bubbles glowing and expanding endlessly in front of my eyes.

Most of the sculptures are so large, which makes me wonder how they are shipped and assembled for each exhibition. My best guess is that each piece is kept in several parts in which the units are glued together. These parts are then put together on site, and necessary adjustments are made to make the piece fit into the specific exhibition space. Even like that, it still requires a huge amount of time to prepare for the show.

Unfortunately, photos are only allowed in few areas. But this unique experience Tara brought to me was permanently imprinted in my head. When we walked down the fancy stair to the first floor, we found the lobby was fully packed due to a performance. We watched for a while, soaked in the festival atmosphere rarely found in downtown Cincy, and then headed for IKEA for some baby stuff. It was a gorgeous feel-like-summer day filled with satisfaction…

Encounters at the End of the World

2009-03-05T10:21:00.005-05:00

Werner Herzog's latest documentary Encounters at the End of the World is one of the most impressive films I watched lately. From the wilderness of Alaska in his Grizzly Man, he traveled to an even remoter area this time, Antarctica! The most visually compelling part of the film is absolutely the miraculous views beneath the vast Antarctic ice land. The underworld surprisingly resembles the outer space with divers moving slowly like floating astronauts.

The film is far more than a scientific documentary showing the exotic sceneries and wildlife in Antarctica, it touches me all the more with its human dimension. Herzog did many interviews with the people who live and work there. Besides scientists such as glaciologists, physicists and vocanologists, there are a very interesting group including a philosopher + forklift driver, a filmmaker + cook, a musician + expert diver and a linguist + computer expert. These ‘professional dreamers’ came to the end of the world to fulfill their dreams. They contribute to the research base by providing the needed skills while maintaining their poetic and idealistic mindset rooted in their professions. How can you not love them?!

I’m starting to dream about Antarctica and imagine a life like the professional dreamers’…

Garden of Hope

2009-02-23T13:27:00.004-05:00

I'm reading an interesting and thought-provoking book China Road by NPR correspondent Rob Gifford about his 3000-mile road trip along Route 312 from Shanghai to the Chinese border with Kazakhstan. The author is quite knowledgable about Chinese history as well as the current Chinese society. The book combines his personal accounts of all sorts of people he encountered on the road with his critical opinions as well as some historical backgrounds. After watching several documentary series about China (such as China from the Inside and China Rises), I found the social phenomenon portrayed in this book not unfamiliar at all. However, I was still intrigued by Rob’s writing since the power of words offers more sensitivity in story-telling and more depth of thinking.

At the end of the chapter on Nanjing, he described an unexpected sight of a nice garden for the blind people located inside the Nanjing Botanical Garden. He was quite amazed at this humanized design in China as he had never seen anything like that even in the US or Europe. To me, such an ordinary garden is truly extraordinary, especially considering the weak in China today still has no voice in the society.

I became very curious about this garden and found some info from this online article: http://www.bgci.org/resources/article/0140/. The garden opened to the public in 1998, with an area of 12,000 m². Here are some details -

Over 150 species of plants have been planted within the Garden for blind people to touch, smell and feel ... Sixty species of plant in the Garden have labels in braille. Thirty of these also have a small speaker attached to the label and a recorded message with detailed information about that species' name, features and usage can be heard when a button is pressed.

Special design features include: using gentle natural slopes without steps, placing cobbles in the footpaths in front of plants that are meant to be touched, including a 400 m long stainless steel railing, building toilets specially designed for blind people and having corridor pillars with smooth edges.

I tried to get some images of the garden, but found only one picture showing the entry. When I get a chance to visit Nanjing, I'll make sure to stop by this heart-warming place. And hopefully I can take a road trip across China someday to get my first hand stories.

Zizek on Children of Men

2009-02-19T09:33:00.002-05:00

I saw Children of Men a year ago, but didn't give much thought on it. Until recently, I watched Zizek's brief commentary (as part of the DVD special features) and realized I'd overlooked a key element in the movie. Zizek points out the importance of reading the background which reveals the oppressive social dimension. This is very true, since if we erased all the messages conveyed by the background, the film would become a superficial sci-fi like most Hollywood sci-fi movies.

I can't help recalling Terry Gilliam's classic Brazil, a combo of sci-fi, comedy and political satire. The difference is that: in Brazil the social/political struggle is demonstrated in the foreground together with story-telling, whereas in Children of Men most of the political events and details are placed in the background.

Art of the Modern Movie Poster 3 - Saul Bass

2009-01-19T22:00:00.002-05:00

I came to know this famous American graphic designer through my favorite movie Vertigo. The the eye of a vortex perfectly catches the essence of the film. This books presents more of his wonderful designs. I'm really impressed with his extraordinary visual thinking and sense of humor. He definitely created a whole new language for movie poster which has a strong influence on today's design such as the Burn After Reading poster.

Saul Bass is also well known for making the title sequences for many great films including works by Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese.

Art of the Modern Movie Poster 2 - Hans Hillmann

2009-01-18T14:39:00.004-05:00

One of my favorite European designer in the book is Hans Hillman from Garmany. His version of Bresson's masterpiece Pickpocket is the best I've seen. His works presents different styles based on the theme of each film, for instance, the enigmatic image for Buñuel's surrealism and the comic abstraction for Lubitsch's satire To Be or Not To Be. His recent work has focused on book illustrations.

Cake of the Day!

2009-01-15T14:49:00.002-05:00

Rexie's favorite all-natural ice cream cake reached its largest size today!!

Meredith Monk

2009-01-14T12:47:00.001-05:00

I'm listening to the CD Volcano Songs these days and was intrigued by the minimalist and haunting quality of the music. Then I found out more about the musician Meredith Monk: a composer, performer, director, vocalist, film-maker, and choreographer. I always admire people who have multi-talents and blur the boundaries between different art forms. In her own words: I work in between the cracks, where the voice starts dancing, where the body starts singing, where theater becomes cinema. Many of her vocal works are very innovative: pure voices rather than lyrics or instrument construct a complex and emotional music peice.

I'd like to check out more of her works including the two films made by her: Ellis Island and Book of Days. There's a documentary about her on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_Xj3ID-ybw
I also found an interview with her on NPR last year - Meredith Monk: Of Posterity and 'Impermanence'

Art of the Modern Movie Poster 1 - Roman Cieslewicz

2009-01-06T14:23:00.007-05:00

The book Art of the Modern Movie Poster is a remarkable collection of post-WWII movie posters from all of the world. It introduces to me many great poster designers esp. those from Eastern Europe. Since most posters were designed for art films, I also found many interesting movies to check out.

The book starts with Polish movie posters, also in my opinion the most riveting part. The Polish style was so avant-garde at that time, reminiscent of Russian Constructivism. My favorite designer is Roman Cieslewicz (1930-1996). Born in Lvov, Poland, he spent most his life in France where he worked as art director of Vogue, Elle and Mafia. Rather than using movie scenes or star portraits, he developed a unique movie poster language which is abstract, metaphorical and emotional.

No More Plastic Water Bottles on Penn State Campus?

2008-12-17T21:33:00.008-05:00

I learned about this encouraging news today. I would have joined the protest if I were still in school! -

Members of the newly formed Penn State Environment, Ecology and Education in the College of Education (3E-COE) group and other environmental activists gathered to protest the sale and use of plastic water bottles at Penn State. The activists also delivered a letter to Penn State President Graham Spanier's office asking him to ban the sale of disposable water bottles on campus.

"Eliminating water bottles on campus isn't without precedent," said Alexandra D'Urso, co-founding member of 3E-COE, citing Washington University in St. Louis as a university that prohibits the sale of plastic water bottles on campus. "We're not asking people to make huge cultural changes."

The letter to Spanier spelled out the environmental and health concerns 3E-COE says are associated with the use of plastic water bottles and gave examples of their negative effects, particularly the amount of discarded plastic polluting the oceans.
(full report)

Instead of creating mountains of landfill out of plastic bottles, why can't we carry water in an eco-friendly and artful bottle such as SIGG's product? A simple change in our daily habits can make a huge difference on our planet!

Fish in Forest

2008-12-06T15:41:00.001-05:00

Is it a dream that fish can swim in the forest? No, it does exist in reality! During the rainy season in the Amazon, the water level of the rivers can rise 10m or more. Thus the rainforest is transformed into part of the river where fish and dolphins swim through the tree trunks. The flooded forest becomes fish's paradise, for they have more places to hide from predators. The trees can also stand in the water for 6 months or more. I learned all this from BBC's Wild South America, another amazing natural world series.

I'm so fascinated with this magic transformation of space in nature. I can't help thinking that even the natural world possesses such flexibility and possibility, what about architecture? Shouldn't there be more wonders to be created?

Greener Xmas Tree

2008-12-04T14:49:00.008-05:00

What a great idea to make a Xmas tree out of recycled cardboards! The tree was designed and developed by Cloud Gate Design LLC, a Chicago based design house. Cloud Gate Design was founded in 2006 by two designer friends, Nick Ng and Dan Greene, as a way to bring environmentally conscious alternatives to market.

In addition to taking the pressure off existing tree farms, a portion of the profits from the Cardboard Christmas Tree sales are donated to the Arbor Day Foundation’s Trees for America Program. For every one dollar donated to the program, one tree will be planted in a damaged forest.

source: Inhabitat

Wegman Dogs

2008-11-30T19:59:00.010-05:00

Dogs 101, a fun series on dog breeds, is airing on Animal Planet. When introduing Weimaraner, it features William Wegman, the artist whose favorite subjects are Weimaraners. I remember seeing the famous Wegman dog on the introduction of an Art: 21 episode.

These Weimaraners (especially the one named Man Ray) almost became icons in contemporary photography. They are supermodels who pose well in front of the camera. Their noble and mysterious appearances have made them particularly charming.

With the current economic crisis, more and more dogs and cats have been abandoned by owners after foreclosure. Animal shelters like Humane Society are desperate for help. Usually it is the best season for adoption, but this winter feels extraordinarily cold and sad. God bless...

Holiday Taste - Italian Soda!

2008-11-26T11:03:00.003-05:00

Almost everytime I go to Whole Foods, I pick up something new, something irresistable. Last weekend was the Pomegranate Italian Soda. The taste is far from American soda, but rather like a mix of champagne and juice, just so wonderful! It's all natural as well :)

I've already become addicted, and found that Trader Joe's and World Market also carry the product. Ian just bought me new flavors to try: Blood Orange and Orange Passion Mango. Hmmm, it's gonna be a delicious Thanksgiving!

Casapueblo

2008-11-18T15:35:00.008-05:00

Today on Travel Channel Samantha Brown: Passport to Latin America features Montevideo, Uruguay. My favorite spot there is Casapueblo, a hotel+museum+gallery designed by well-known artist Carlos Paez Vilaró. Sitting on the cliffs, this 13-story building embraces the extraordinary view of the ocean. No straight lines but only organic forms are found throughout the space. He actually built up the walls with his own hands and a simple shovel, just like working on a huge piece of sculpture.

To me, Casapueblo is a combination of the white buildings of Oia Santorini and Gaudi's free forms exemplified in Casa Mila. I'll have to check out all these places in my life!

Wild China

2008-11-07T16:35:00.006-05:00

I was totally blown away by BBC’s documentary series Wild China. It’s not only the best documentary in terms of presenting China’s most breathtaking landscapes and wildlife, but also an ecologically conscious journey rethinking the balance between man and nature in the midst of China’s booming economy.

Everyone would be impressed with all the extraordinary views captured by the film crew. They traveled to the most remote yet otherworldly areas to get the first-hand images - wild giant pandas’ copulation was filmed first time ever in history. As a Chinese, I was so touched by all the sacred landscapes and exotic wildlife which are unknown to most of us. At the same time I was deeply concerned about many endangered species out there under human threats. I hope every Chinese can watch this documentary and make efforts to protect the remaining beauty which could be lost forever.

Unique lifestyles of various minorities in China are explored with an emphasis on the use of natural resources. Some Chinese traditions associated with animals and landscapes are also integrated into the depiction of natural environment. The soundtrack is outstanding as well, which results in a perfect fusion between Chinese traditional music and the poetic dimension of the landscapes. Obviously a good amount of research on Chinese culture was accomplished when making the series. I wonder why we Chinese can’t make such high-quality and meaningful shows about our own natural heritages.

No-Name Jersey vs Helmet Stickers

2008-10-26T16:01:00.007-04:00

Last night’s PSU vs OSU was a close game between two football teams with strong traditions. As a Penn Stater living in the Buckeye nation, I found the following fact even more interesting: PSU’s quarterback is from Ohio; OSU’s quarterback is from Pennsylvania. I’m not gonna comment on the game here, just want to point out the big contrast in their jersey styles which reflects the fundamental differences in their football cultures.

The blue-and-white Penn State jersey is probably the plainest among all college teams. More distinctive is the "no-name" feature: only the player’s number is shown on the jersey. This classic and modest look is well in tune with Joe Pa’s coaching style: teamwork rather than individualism is more heavily emphasized. Ohio State jersey, on the opposite, is much fancier especially with the eye-catching buckeye-leaf stickers on each player’s helmet. The stickers have been a long time tradition at OSU to reward superior performance. They serve as a key incentive among football players. It reminds me of the “red flower system” I experienced in my grade school in China, which was manifested in the film Little Red Flowers. Today many colleges are the adopters of helmet sticker system, but it’s certainly not for Joe Pa - "I've never been for that stuff, that's why we've never had names on uniforms because nobody achieves anything without the others.”

It’s hard to say which approach works better, since both PSU and OSU have had excellent performance over the years, and different approach makes each team a unique one. Maybe they should learn more from each other to balance teamwork with individualism.

Gaudi's Architecture in Films

2008-10-20T13:28:00.004-04:00

The Passenger is another fascinating film about alienation from Antonioni. The stunning cinematography presents quite a journey from North Africa to London and finally to Barcelona. The female protagonist is an architecture student who accidentally meets the male protagonist (Jack Nickolson) in Barcelona. My favorite scene depicts Gaudi’s Casa Mila where the two meet each other on the rooftop. The following is a Youtube clip in which the original soundtrack was replaced -

Gaudi’s fantastic Sagrada Familia is featured in the film L’auberge Espagnole. The camera reveals the tour of climbing up this exotic church and getting a panoramic view of the city.

For a panoramic view of Gaudi’s works, you can't miss Antonio Gaudi, a documentary by Japanese director Hiroshi Teshigahara. Without voice-overs or commentaries, this unique documentary offers a pure visual presentation of Gaudi's expressive architecture, as if the spaces speak for themselves. The crafted soundtrack adds another layer to the haunting beauty of architecture.

The Wrong House: The Architecture of Alfred Hitchcock

2008-10-13T11:14:00.006-04:00

I just finished reading this fascinating book about the architecture in Hitchcock's films. The book gives in-depth discussions on Hitchcock’s unique way of set design and filming techniques based on his profound understanding of space and visual way of thinking. The first two parts of the book focus on an overall account of Hitchcock’s set design, conspicuous architectural motifs, his interests in tourism and so forth. The third part provides detailed analysis of 26 houses from 22 Hitchcock films. Drawings including floor plans, sections and site plans were presented to facilitate the understanding of architectural space.

In order to gain full control of a scene, Hitchcock preferred set shooting over location shooting all his life. From the book, I discovered that some of the most memorable shots were actually made from matte paintings or miniature models. For instance, in Rebecca all the exterior shots of the mansion Manderley were made from different-sized miniatures combined with studio effects, while all the rooms were studio sets. In Vertigo, the tower where the two deaths happen was set up solely for the film. The bird’s-eye view of the tower was just a matte painting. I was amazed at how well those special effects fooled the eyes of contemporary viewers considering some were made 70 years ago.

The chapter on Hitchcock’s preference in domestic setting is also intriguing. The typical Hitchcockian horror exists in a hidden dimension, a horrific dimension underlying our most familiar environments, especially houses. Many of the most terrifying scenes happen in either a house or a motel room, which is best exemplified in Psycho and The Birds. However, Hitchcock did sometimes take strong interests in the tourist gaze. Quite a few dramatic scenes were shot at national monuments such as Mt. Rushmore in North by Northwest and Statue of Liberty in Saboteur. The landmarks shown in Vertigo also make San Francisco even more irresistible to fans like me - I visited most filmming locations of Vertigo the first time I was in San Francisco.

As discussed in the book, the objects in Hitchcock’s films are “never mere props”, but “the very substance of his cinema”. The objects often associate with symbolic meanings, link with tensions and terrors, or even seem alive. Many of these objects are architectural elements, such as a door, a window or a staircase, which have formed some famous Hitchcockian motifs. After reading the insightful analysis on many key objects, I came to realize how many visual details I’ve overlooked during previous viewings. I will go back to those films again for new discoveries.

In short, this book offers a comprehensive examination on architecture’s role in Hitchcock’s films. Despite its theoretical quality, the book is graphically alluring by blending original frames, behind-the-scene photos and architectural drawings. The author also wittily rephrased some Hitchcock’s film names into his key titles, from the book title to some of the chapter names. If you are a Hitchcock fan, you are gonna love this book!

Saving Galápagos

2008-10-01T20:34:00.008-04:00

Last week I watched a PBS show on Galápagos Islands, which reveals how the booming tourism is threatening the endemic species. Tonight ABC News took a similar look at the issue -

Today, the Galapagos face a different kind of threat: tourism. While the Galapagos hosted 10,000 visitors 30 years ago, last year there were 161,000 visitors. They brought in approximately $350 million, a vast sum for this struggling country.

To support tourism, the local population has grown from a modest 5,000 to 30,000.

Unbeknownst to many tourists, the island does not have a sewage system. Sewage is left to seep into the ground and the sea. With the spike in tourism, the Galapagos' pristine landscape is in danger of being transformed.

(full article)

These facts are really frightening. If tourism and development continue to grow, this "living laboratory of evolution" would eventually be destroyed. My Ecuadorian friend Cristina, a scientist, has been to the islands twice. She told me how amazing the wildlifes were, but at the same time lamented on the negative impacts of tourism. I definitely want to go there to see the species, but I can't accept the fact that my presence will do any harm to the islands.

Fortunately, Ecuador has started exploring clean energy to deal with the air pollution. For instance, wind turbines were installed earlier this year. The government proposed to declare the islands fossil fuel free by 2015. They also made regulations to limit the number of tourists. Hopefully this exotic place on earth will return to a more peaceful time.

Mexico Trip - Palenque

2008-09-22T14:51:00.008-04:00

All of four Maya ruins we visited are impressive. The huge pyramids make Teotihuacán the most spectacular; the small-scale ruins against the turquoise Caribbean sea make Tulum the most charming; the various architectural styles make Chichen Itza the most architecturally striking. But my #1 favorite is Palenque, a Maya city built between the 7th C and 10th C located in the state of Chiapas. Palenque gained its name from the village Santo Domingo de Palenque 9km away, since its original name was lost in time. Palenque seems more breathtaking due to its dramatic geographic setting. The morning mists in the mountains add an otherworldly atmosphere to the ruins.

First discovered in 1773, Palenque has been photographed and documented a few times by European expeditions. The first professional excavation took place 1949-1952 led by Mexican archaeologists. The excavation still continues today, and archaeologists estimate that only 5% of the whole city has been uncovered so far! Since Palenque was deeply buried in the jungles for centuries, the process of revealing it was exactly the opposite of creating a new park: instead of building everything out of nothing, Palenque was unveiled by removing everything around it, a method of subtraction rather than addition.

Of all the visible structures in Palenque, the palace is the most fascinating to me. The whole palace is a maze: as you walk, you pass through different corridors, courtyards and rooms, while the tall tower always forms a visual center and implies the directions. Beautiful carvings are found on huge stone slabs in some courtyards. The palace is at once architecturally sophisticated and spatially interesting.

East of Palenque in Guatemala stands the larger Maya ruin Tikal. Hopefully I can get there someday!

Cool Interiors from Paul van Dyk's MV

2008-09-20T11:40:00.006-04:00

I watched Paul van Dyk's DVD Global, a MV collection filmed in several cities around the world. I was fascinated with the cool interiors shown in this MV Tell Me Why, hoping to find more info on the design.

Sarah Palin's glasses

2008-09-18T18:22:00.006-04:00

Sarah Palin is starting a new eyewear trend these days. Her rimless glasses with titanium frames were designed by Japanese designer Kazuo Kawasaki. I do love the design and hope to get a pair if I could afford the price of $375.

Kawasaki was shocked by this soaring demand for his design under Palin's influence. But he asked American voters to pay attention to her positions on the issues, and not vote on image or his glasses. I hope for the same!

Mexico City - José Vasconcelos Library

2008-09-16T15:20:00.002-04:00

Before my trip, I saw the above interior photos of José Vasconcelos Library, a huge and modern library in Mexico City. But when I really got there, I was disappointed to find it has been closed for a while. The newly updated wiki page gives the following account -

The Library had to be closed down in March 2007 because of defects of construction. The Superior Auditor of the Federation detected 36 irregularities in its construction and issued 13 motions of responsibility for public servants of the federal government. Among the irregularities found was the misplacement of marble blocks at a cost of 15 million pesos (roughly 1.4 million dollars).

What a shame such a good design didn't get built well and so much money was wasted! I happened to find someone's blog with many pics of this library when it was still in use -

http://wideopencode.blogspot.com/2006/06/jose-vasconceloss-library.html

Mexico City - Luis Barragán

2008-09-13T16:51:00.004-04:00

Luis Barragán is the most important figure in Mexican modern architecture. Visiting his house and studio naturally became a priority for our 2-day in Mexico City. Trained as an engineer, he practiced as a designer in not only architecture, but also furniture and gardens.

The solid surface at the entrance separates the house completely from the street. The interior presents a totally different world filled with light and colors. The main space is double-height, and divided by low walls. The huge window opening to the garden blurs the boundary between inside and outside. The nicely designed garden forms a mini jungle in the courtyard.

Barragán widely traveled in his earlier life, so a good collection of books and crafts from various nations are found throughout his house. Inspired by Le Corbusier and Mies, Barragán's design shows a pefect fusion between European modernism and indigenous cultures of Mexico.

Light and shadow was a major interest in his design, for instance, the play with light and shadow by adjustable shutters, the use of windows and skylights to embrace views and natural light. The subtle use of light and shadow simply adds a phenomenal quality to his minimalist style, which also had a strong influence on Tadao Ando.

The house is an introvert space speaking of its own language inside the bustling city, a space of poetry written in light, texture and color. Unfortunately, we didn't have time for Francisco Gilardi House and Tlalpan Chapel, two of his excellent works in Mexico City.

(Note: Photos are only allowed at the roof terrace, so I had to use internet pics for other areas)

Mexico City - Blue House

2008-09-10T11:55:00.004-04:00

My travel motivation often comes from film. I had been dreaming about Mexico City since I watched the film Frida (2002). The images in the film are just unforgettable: the vibrant colors of Mexican architecture, the spectacular pyramids of Teotihuacan, and of course the imaginative paintings by Frida...I became more eager to see Mexico after seeing Sergei Eisenstein's fabulous documentary Que Viva Mexico! (1932) in which he captured the Mexican charm at its purest.

The 'blue house' where Frida grew up has become today's Frida Kahlo Museum. It's located in Coyoacán, a cultural neighborhood in the south of the city. Eisenstein was actually a friend of Frida and her husband Rivera, and visited them in this house before.

Before stepping into the exhibition rooms, I was already overwhelmed by the beauty of the courtyard: the bright blue stucco walls against textured grey stones, surrounded by evergreen tropical plants and primitive sculptures. A video of Frida dressed in traditional costume dancing around the courtyard was being played at one corner. The more I walked around, the more alive Frida appeared to be.

The interior houses her paintings, artifacts, photos and letters. The large and bright studio on the second floor offers perfect views into the courtyard. The dried oil colors were still lying on the table...

Wherever you go, the space is full of art, life, beauty and modesty. It was the first time I was so moved by vernacular architecture instead of a starchitect's works.

Paths in Mexico

2008-09-09T20:15:00.011-04:00

Our past Mexico trip was unbelievable - We took seven flights and over 20-hr bus rides to get to nine places during the eleven days. Above is a map showing our itinerary inside Mexico (blue line for flight, red line for bus tour; click on the image for a better view).

The places we visited have different characters: from the global city Mexico City to traditional towns like Merida, from beautiful carribean beaches to lush tropical rainforests, and three major maya ruins with different charm...We had to skip places like Puebla and Oaxaca due to time constraint.

Mexicans are very friendly and happy people. Wherever we went, there were locals offering us help even though they don't speak a word of English. I really fell in love with Mexico and hope to return someday.

Salar de Uyuni

2008-08-25T10:49:00.004-04:00

When planning my upcoming Mexico trip, I happened to see these amazing pics of Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat in southwest Bolivia.

The salt mounds reminds me of Andy Goldsworthy's "ice cone". When covered with shallow water, Salar de Uyuni becomes extremely reflective. The human figure in the middle recalls the atmosphere in Antony Gormley's work Another Place (1997).

Bolivia is already on my travel wish list!

Coca-Cola "Bird's Nest" Commercial

2008-08-10T13:31:00.004-04:00

This is the CUTEST Olympic-themed commercial I've seen recently. Can't help watching it over and over again :)

China Doll Club Beijing

2008-08-07T11:38:00.004-04:00

It's the final countdown for the Beijing Olympic Games. I happened to see these eye-catching images at Coolhunter: a cool night club named China Doll in Beijing, owned by Chinese-american actress Ai Wan and designed by her studio E.P.I.C. Design. The interior is so sexy, mysterious and futuristic. Will check it out next time I go back!

Radiohead LED Stage Lighting

2008-08-05T11:08:00.006-04:00

Last night's Radiohead concert was truly amazing! After so many years, they still remain the most innovative British rock band. The performance was certainly fantastic, but something else got me even more excited: the cutting-edge LED stage lighting!! Radiohead is the first band ever to tour with only LED lighting. By hanging strips of lights over the stage, seemingly infinite patterns and colors were produced which were constantly transforming like auroras.

How great such an influential band is going GREEN. The dazzling visual effects of their show prove that LED is really the future!

Here are some videos showing the lighting -

Mowercycle!

2008-07-22T14:44:00.003-04:00

I was chatting with a friend about redesigning everyday objects a moment ago, and then I saw this mowercycle photo at Inhabitat. What a bright idea to transform the tedious yardwork into personal workout! Needless to say, you can stay away from the air pollution produced by gas-powered lawn mowers. I hope such mowercycles can be manufactured.

Shopping Cart Chair

2008-07-11T10:26:00.007-04:00

When I looked at the shopping carts at a supermarket last night, I suddenly noticed the proportion of the shopping cart resembles that of a chair. Why not design a shopping cart chair or convert a shopping cart into a chair? Would that be fun?

Later I did an internet search and found someone already had this idea. The following are ANNIE shopping cart chairs by UK designer Max McMurdo. He turned old unwanted shopping carts into beautiful and functional chairs. I wonder if they offer the option with wheels, 'cause some people may want an exhilarating ride:)

Eames Stamps!

2008-07-09T11:24:00.005-04:00

My husband bought me the last 2 sheets of the newly released Eames Stamps from a downtown post office. These stamps are gorgeous!! If you wanna collect them, hurry up 'cause only some post offices carry them.

Toronto Arch Tour

2008-07-08T12:15:00.005-04:00

As a water-front metropolis, Toronto is not as appealing as New York, Chicago or Seattle. My initial purpose of the trip was to see several new buildings in town and to visit the spectacular Niagrara Falls the 4th time.

Our first stop was the Royal Ontario Museum by Libeskind. I was so eager to see a Libeskind’s building, but felt a bit disappointed when I got there. Maybe I’m no longer strongly attracted by striking forms. The play of form here didn’t invent a new model for exhibition or offer the visitors a new way to experience a museum, almost the same feeling I had when visiting Akron Art Museum by Coop Himmelblau. To me, the only interesting space is the Stair of Wonders which combines the sculptural form with fascinating object display at each level. However, I still want to visit Berlin Jewish Museum since the spatial sequence generates deeper meaning.

Gehry’s new addition to the Art Gallery of Ontario is under construction right now. Unlike his signature sculptural exterior, this building has a simple linear transparent skin while the crazy forms are kept inside.

Ontario College of Art & Design by Will Alsop is such a playful and structurally challenging building. I really hoped to get to the top, unfortunately it closed during the weekend.

Later we walked by the Graduate House by Morphosis and Leslie L. Dan Pharmacy Building by Norman Foster on Univeristy of Toronto campus, the last two stops of my architectural tour.

From the Ground Up

2008-07-08T10:38:00.004-04:00

The latest Architectural Record is titled Beijing Transformed which focuses on the Olympic projects and reflections on the speedy changes. They even included an interior shot of BNCC which we worked on, but didn’t mention NBBJ’s name.

After seeing the pictures of all the famous buildings again and again, what caught my eyes are the ‘behind the scenes’ photographs: those captured the construction workers taken by photographer Iwan Baan. These migrant workers should not be forgotten, for they are the people who are building the new Beijing under heavy workload and low wages.

more info: http://archrecord.construction.com/features/beijing/fromthegroundup/default.asp

Jail Hotel VS Restroom Castle

2008-07-02T09:25:00.001-04:00

Michael Moore’s documentaries always reveal some shocking facts, such as the “prison hotel” in Roger & Me (1989). As a response to the increasing criminal rate in the abandoned automobile city Flint, a large brand-new jail was built. On the night before it opened, a big party was held there and a couple could pay $100 to stay overnight. Many people paid to stay because they wanted to have the experience of living in jail. Ironically, the most luxury hotel Hyatt went bankrupt due to lack of visitors.

This phenomenon reminds me of the world’s largest restroom, as one of the main structures of a theme park in Chongqing. The building looks like a cheap amusement park castle with 1000 toilets inside. Some of the urinals have fancy shapes such as a crocodile mouth and Virgin Mary. It was the mayor’s decision to make a new attraction or a “culture” out of the toilet. To their satisfaction, the huge restroom entered the Guinness World Record. But I doubt what kind of attraction or culture it will bring to people simply considering the smell of that place.

In the realm of profit-driven capitalism, either the form or function of a familiar space can be replaced. In this case, prison and restroom are transformed into festal space. The degree of being public or private in such space also gets shifted: the jail hotel becomes publicly private; the restroom castle becomes privately public. Is it a new type of heterotopia?

More satirically, the restroom is made of all recycled materials. Perhaps it’ll get LEED certified? Remember the 60-story single-family home being built for the Indian rich is also a green building? Does the idea of sustainability not offer a convenient excuse to build socially controversial buildings today?

Stunning Opening Credits

2008-06-30T09:36:00.003-04:00

The Kite Runner (2007) is one of the great movies I watched recently. Like Persepolis (2007), it is also based on a bestselling book. Both films recall childhood memories and reveal the political horrors. From a design perspective, what impressed me most about The Kite Runner are the opening credits: a beautiful and dynamic fusion of the Arabic and English characters.

It reminds me of another wonderful film, The Namesake (2006), whose opening credits is similarly stunning. The letters transform from Bengali into English with abstract paintings in the background. The blending of the two languages reflects the notion of cutural transition in the movie.

Chasing through a Favela

2008-06-15T14:37:00.003-04:00

The Incredible Hulk is just another blockbuster movie. One thing that caught my attention is the mountain favela of Rio de Janiero in the opening sequence. The apartments are so densely packed together like piles and piles of containers. The place just looks UNREAL! I can’t imagine how people could live in such density with minimum room for trees and natural light. Apparently such a site is exotic enough for a Hollywood chase scene: the connected up-and-down rooftops, the dark and narrow alleys….

It’s not surprising that Hollywood action movies are exploring some of the poorest areas in Africa, Asia and South Africa, just to offer the viewers a fresh and different look. It instantly raises the controversial question between tourism and poorism. As a matter of fact, the favela shown in Hulk has been a tourist spot for 16 years. Is it really exciting to watch a chase in a favela like this? Will the movie bring more tourists to the slums? Or will it bring some positive attention or changes to the living environment of the residents?

Here's a related article Slum visits: Tourism or voyeurism?

Home Cherry-picking

2008-06-15T12:11:00.003-04:00

It's the cherry harvesting time in my backyard. We got more cherries this year and they are sweet!

GTF on Show

2008-06-11T09:15:00.004-04:00

I learned about GTF (Graphic Thought Facility) from Metropolis magazine earlier this year and fell in love with their innovative and playful design. I just found out their works are on show at the Art Institute of Chicago until Aug 17!

Graphic Thought Facility: Resourceful Design

March 27–August 17, 2008Gallery 24

Overview: Graphic Thought Facility (GTF) is the first exhibition at the Art Institute devoted solely to graphic design. Established in 1990, the studio led by Huw Morgan, Paul Neale, and Andy Stevens has emerged as one of the most progressive and creative design firms working in both two and three dimensions. The firm is well known in Britain for creating the brand identities of some of the bastions of British design, including Habitat, a furnishings and interior design retailer launched in 1964 by Terence Conran; the Design Museum in London; and Frieze, London’s major annual contemporary art fair. Also active in book design, GTF designed monographs on the work of Ron Arad and Tord Boonjte as well as the exhibition catalogue for the 54th Carnegie International in 2003, all of which are presented in the exhibition.

(more info: http://www.artic.edu/aic/exhibitions/exhibition/graphicthought)

2 Great Art TV Series

2008-06-06T11:59:00.009-04:00

I recently watched Simon Schama’s The Power of Art. It’s an excellent TV series on 8 genius artists in history, written and presented by Prof. Schama. I have to admit that BBC makes the most refined educational documentaries, since the quality of storytelling, photography, music and visual effects are almost perfect. The story of each painter is told in an adequately visual way: the important events and characters are acted out, others are illustrated with metaphorical images. The part of storytelling, painting presentation and Schama’s insightful comments are well integrated.

At a few times, a painting made me cry. I would not have been so touched without the profound background and analysis given by Schama. I gained a much more comprehensive knowledge about those artists. For instance, I knew Turner as merely a romantic landscape painter before. After watching the show, I realized I overlooked the most powerful aspect of his works - those depict the devastating disasters in human history, esp. Slave Ship as an emotional representation of the shockingly inhumane event happened in 1781.

Compared to the high-cost BBC series, PBS makes intriguing and informative documentaries at low budgets. A good TV series I watched recently is Art:21 which offers a great introduction into contemporary visual art. The show covers 72 influential artists living is US, including my familiar ones like James Turrell, Richard Sara, Cai Guoqiang, Maya Lin and Krzysztof Wodiczko, as well as many others I didn’t know of. The best part is seeing the work process of each artist, accompanied with the artist’s own interpretation. Each episode presents a theme by introducing 4 related artists. I can understand the advantages of doing that. But often times I found the artists’ works don’t fit into just one category. By sorting them out, it simplifies the broadness and complexity of the artist’s approach. That’s my only criticism of the show.

Ensemble Film

2008-05-29T10:45:00.008-04:00

Most films have a single storyline focused on one or two leading characters. Ensemble film, however, provides us a broader spectacle by presenting multiple storylines with a group of equally important characters. These characters are interconnected directly or indirectly. Time becomes parallel, and our vision becomes panoramic as we move from one event/group to another.

The earliest ensemble film I’ve seen is Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing (1989). It pictures the daily life and racial conflicts within a black neighborhood in Brooklyn on a sizzling summer day. The switch between different characters feels so natural, as if we are walking down the street encountering the real life of the neighborhood. It’s very funny, satirical, at the same time realistic. The famous “fuck all” rant in his later film 25th Hour is actually a condensed version of the themes in Do the Right Thing.

Two years later, Richard Linklater made Slacker. I don’t much he was influenced by Lee, but Slacker appears to be an extreme case of ensemble film: we follow one group of people down the street, then another group pass by and we start following them instead. Thus the whole film flows between all the different characters who don’t know each other but only pass by each other by pure chance. The common thing among these people is that they are all slackers on the street.

Robert Altman’s The Player came out one year after. The opening sequence uses the same continuous flow as seen in Slacker. Then Altman made his exemplar ensemble film Short Cuts which palpably presents the everyday lives of typical families in LA. This film probably influenced many famous ensemble films later, such as Magnolia (1999), Crash (2004) and Babel (2006).

Nature & Design - Jellyfish

2008-05-22T15:52:00.007-04:00

Nature has always been a powerful source for design inspiration. Jellyfish is one miraculous design by mother nature: it is attractive for its exotic beauty, at the same time it's repulsive due to its poison. My favorite jellyfish images come from BBC's classic Blue Planet (above).

The unique form, color and texture of jellyfish has inspired so many designs, including product, architecture and art.

Jellyfish light fixtures

Jellyfish Sonic water speakers by Kota Nezu

Jellyfish House by IwamotoScott Architecture

Ceramic Jellyfish by artists Alissa Coe and Carly Waito

Feeling of Loss

2008-05-21T11:25:00.009-04:00

It's been over a week since the deadly earthquake occurred. Too many touching stories emerged from the ongoing rescues, donations and mournings... I wondered what else I could do except donating some money at this moment? So I did this poster.

There are tons of questions and problems need to be dealt with, such as the building code, rebuilding or relocation, orphan adoption. Hopefully we'll grow stronger and smarter each time.

Black Monday

2008-05-13T13:59:00.008-04:00

Earthquake, by Stack (source)

I had to replace the earthquake photo with an abtract painting, 'cause it's too painful to look at such photos everywhere these days. The death poll has hit almost 15,000 by now with over 25,000 people still buried in debris....

I can't helping thinking that even with all the science and technology we have mastered today, we are still not able to accurately predict earthquake or other natural disasters. When facing disasters, we are much more vulnerable and ignorant than animals who can sense changes in the environment way ahead of us.

P.S. reliable and convenient donation sites for people in US -

Mercy Corps: http://www.mercycorps.org/

Global Giving: http://www.globalgiving.com/

I Want You To Want Me

2008-05-12T16:44:00.000-04:00

One of the ongoing exhibitions in MoMA is a brilliant 3D visualization project called I Want You To Want Me by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar -

website: http://iwantyoutowantme.org/

Touch the Sound

2008-05-12T14:33:00.001-04:00

I watched this wonderful documentary Touch the Sound: a sound journey of Everlyn Glennie, from the same director of Rivers and Tides. It introduces to me the life and work of Evelyn Glennie, an amazingly talented percussionist in spite of her deafness. Her success proves to us again the meaning of hearing is not limited to the ear, but rather the ability of touching and feeling sound with your body and other senses.

The film offers a fascinating sight-and-sound experience by blending in Evelyn’s various trips and performances with interviews on her own interpretation of music. In the film, we travel with Evelyn around the world, watching her spontaneous performances at Grand Central Station and Guggenheim in New York; improvising several pieces with musician Fred Frith in Cologne; playing with Japanese taiko drummers while experiencing Japanese culture in Tokyo; visiting her hometown in Scotland…Everywhere she went, she was sensitive enough to put together a playful musical piece out of any available materials around her.

Besides portraying the world of Evelyn, the camera also captures and enlarges much of the everyday sound surrounding us: from the infinite noises on the streets of big cities and construction sites, to the quietness of a Japanese garden and the natural symphony of the Scottish landscape. These banal sounds suddenly became more palpable to me. The life of each sound gets buried by our neglect, however, is understood and reanimated by Evelyn.

Mini Bird's Nest

2008-05-07T11:08:00.008-04:00

I was shocked at seeing these photos: mini bird's nests surrounding the big bird's nest. I wonder who came up with this idea? If we follow this logic, then landscape/lighting design would be much simpler: just copy the architecture! ?

Recycled Magazine Mirror

2008-04-24T15:58:00.003-04:00

Like the idea! There's a lot we can do with recycled material. You can buy the mirror from UrbanOutfitters.

source: BetterLivingThroughDesign

Earth Day special

2008-04-22T10:46:00.004-04:00

This morning I got this special photo from my friend Linda in Pittsburgh. She was reading a book when camping early April, then this spider showed up. She snapped a quick shot and the framed words accidentally formed a magical message: Nature's Talking! What a special gift for the Earth Day:)

千树万树梨花开

2008-04-21T10:01:00.004-04:00

Marble Cliff must be the prettiest area in Columbus at this time of the year for its heavenly beautiful pear blossoms!

Drawing into Film

2008-04-14T14:48:00.011-04:00

The book Drawing into Film is a terrific collection of drawings from 13 renowned filmmakers. Again, I feel the strong similarities between a film director and an architect: they both sketch a lot, they both deal with time, space and movement, they both go through the process of production/construction, they both face the challenge of budget, they both are involved in substantial leadership and collaboration...

It was my first time seeing the drawings or sketches from several of my favorite filmmakers. I was quite amazed by their imaginative thinking process as well as visualization skills. The following are the ones I love the most -

Once was a cartoonist, Fellini took advantage of his drawing skills in filmmaking. These cartoonish sketches were made for Amarcord (1974) and Città delle donne, La (1980).

I've seen Orson Welles' paintings in the documentary One Man Band before and was deeply impressed with his versatility. His paintings are as free and powerful as his mind. These are the sketches for Macbeth (1948).

David Lynch really surprised me with his classic style pencil sketches. You would think his drawings are as wild as his films! The following sketches are for Eraserhead (1978) and Dune (1984).

Of all the filmmakers included in this book, the most audacious in using colors is Akira Kurosawa. His color choices remind me of Van Gogh. These are a couple of drawings for Dreams (1990).

Martha Graham

2008-04-08T11:28:00.003-04:00

I would have missed the wonderful DVD Martha Graham Dance on Film if it were not a Criterion Collection. I was led into the amazing dance world of Martha Graham, the American pioneer dancer and choreographer. The DVD includes three short films: a documentary about her dance company with her own, Appalachian Spring and Night Journey, two complete ballets performed and choreographed by her. What struck me was the depth of human emotions expressed by her body movements. Unlike classic ballet’s soft and elegant feel, Martha’s dance is much more emotional and dramatic. As a result, the characters in her dance became lively and distinctive.

Besides the dance itself, I was also attracted by the abstract and sculptural stage design in her dances. Later I learned nearly 20 of the sets were designed by Isamu Noguchi, a famous Japanese American artist and landscape architect.

My favorite quotes from Martha -

● Dance is the hidden language of the soul.
● Every dance is a kind of fever chart, a graph of the heart.

● There is a vitality, a life-force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost.
● I am absorbed in the magic of movement and light. Movement never lies. It is the magic of what I call the outer space of the imagination. There is a great deal of outer space, distant from our daily lives, where I feel our imagination wanders sometimes. It will find a planet or it will not find a planet, and that is what a dancer does.

Robert Jaso's Fashion World

2008-04-01T16:38:00.005-04:00

Once was France's highest-paid male model, Robert Jaso is a hot fashion photographer today. He really got extraordinary vision in fashion. Love the following three images, and the last one is very architectural!

source: thecoolhunter.net

The Color of Pomegranates

2008-03-28T15:58:00.007-04:00

Sergei Parajanov’s The Color of Pomegranates (1968) is one of the most beautiful and unique films I’ve ever seen. It tells about the life of 18th Century Armenian poet Savat Nova, which recalls Andrei Tarkovsky’s Andrey Rublyov, a film about the life of this 15th Century Russian icon painter. Both films bear a heavy religious and cultural theme, but in different poetic forms: Parajanov’s compact and abstract poem v.s. Tarkovsky’s long and slow-paced chaptered essay.

The narrative of The Color of Pomegranates is highly symbolic, metaphorical, fragmentary and surreal. Rather than acting in the conventional sense, the characters simply repeat slow moves against minimal background to represent an event or an inner expression, almost like a stage performance in an extremely abstract form.

There is no dialogue, only text from the poet’s writings in combination with images. The colors and compositions of each frame possess an unspeakable beauty. It definitely requires a genius mind to envision such images. After learning that Parajanov was influenced by Pasolini, I can’t wait to explore Pasolini’s works.

In the Realms of the Unreal

2008-03-25T15:17:00.002-04:00

I just watched this awesome documentary on Henry Darger, recommended by Renee (again!). It tells the true story of this poor and solitary janitor in Chicago who did a 15,000 page novel named The Realms of the Unreal together with 300 paintings in his life. All his works were only discovered by his landlady after his death.

The film presents to us two pictures of Henry Darger: his social picture which is very limited and almost invisible; his inner picture, his private art world, which is in contrast so overwhelming and rich. His isolated way of living left the world little evidence of his physical existence, except three photos of himself, one friend and a few acquaintances. Instead of trying to create an objective biography, the film rather explores Henry’s mysterious inner world by blending in a large amount of his paintings, writings and autobiography with limited source of interviews and photographs. Through his works, we see his constant inner struggle with God, his eccentric vision of kids, his expression for peace and freedom… The strangely beautiful art world Henry created is the ultimate world he lived in.

From a presentation perspective, the animation of Henry’s original paintings is quite appealing and innovative. The juxtaposition of the blooming time images of Chicago with Henry’s fantasy characters makes sharp contrast between two different time and atmosphere which paradoxically coexisted. These imaginative techniques employed in the film simply accord with the incredible imagination inside Henry.

Worth mentioning, director Jessica Yu spent five years in making this film including extensive research on Henry’s works. I appreciate her efforts to show us the work and life of such a hidden genius.

Plastic Bottle Flowers

2008-03-22T19:58:00.004-04:00

This is the outcome of my surgery to a plastic bottle -

The Art of Vision

2008-03-21T17:09:00.004-04:00

My friend Renee introduced me to the amazing world of Stan Brakhage, one of the American avant-garde filmmakers. Influenced by Eisenstein's montage theory, Brakhage developed his own language of montage in almost pure visual sense. He explored different ways to make a movie, such as hand painting directly on film, filmming paintings and collages. Most of his films are silent, however, the dense montage of images creates a rhythm. After watching a few of his works, I found an interesting thing happened to me: a vague music score started forming in my head as the images flew in front of my eyes!

Besides all the new techniques and perceptions Brakhage brought to filmmaking, what I found very inspiring is that he proved the possibility of doing great films with low budget. His projects were low budget indeed, ranging from tens to hundreds of dollars. His subjects are either everyday domestic life or monther nature. His extraordinary vision led us to a whole new dimension of seeing the world.

My favorites include Mothlight, The Garden of Earthly Delights, Black Ice, Commingled Containers, Cat's Cradle...You can find most of his important works from Criterion Collection DVD By Brakhage: An Anthology.

The Garden of Earthly Delights (1981)

Commingled Containrs (1997)

World's Largest Ferris Wheel in Beijing

2008-03-14T12:00:00.002-04:00

As the world's tallest building gets higher and higher, the largest Ferris wheel is catching up. The Great Wheel in Beijing will be completed in a year -

At 208 metres tall, the Great Wheel will be the world's largest ferris wheel — higher and bigger than both the London Eye and the Singapore Flyer which opens in March next year. The giant ferris wheel will have 48 air conditioned observation capsules, each of which can carry up to 40 passengers,...

(source: Shanghaiist.com)

Before spending so much money on this giant wheel, why can't they first spend money on reducing the terrible air pollution? What do you expect to see on that wheel with the heavy smog above Beijing?

The Triplets of Belleville

2008-03-10T12:46:00.008-04:00

The Triplets of Belleville (2003) is the best animated feature I’ve seen after Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (2001). It is directed by Sylvain Chomet, my favorite French filmmaker who did segment ‘Tour Eiffel’ in Paris, je t'aime (2006).

Chomet must be a huge fan of Jacques Tati since quite a few references to Tati’s film can be found in The Triplets of Belleville. The idea of the cyclist has a direct link to Tati’s Holiday (1949) which tells about a postman’s funny bicycle journey on a holiday at a village. Footage from the film is shown on the triplets’ TV as their enjoyable evening entertainment. A poster of Tati’s Mr. Hulot’s Holiday (1953) also appears on the wall of the triplets’ apartment (see image below).

Like Tati’s films, this animation has little dialogue, while image and expressive sound do it all. Compared to Ratatouille which is a good animation in the Hollywood sense, The Triplets of Belleville presents unique charm through its idiosyncratic style and incredible imagination. The contrast between a peaceful and cozy village and an alienated metropolis is well achieved through the exaggerated building heights and camera angles.

To me, the most charming character is the dog Bruno. His typical behavior just reminds me of Rexie. The black-and-white dream sequences are graphically stunning, full of visual gags and psychological humors.

Finally I’m impressed with the jazzy soundtrack, sometimes delightful and amusing, sometimes dreamy and haunting. The theme song Belleville Rendez-Vous is simply unforgettable. Now I'm waiting for Chomet’s new animation The Illusionist (2009) based on Tati’s unpublished script.

Capturing the Fleeting Moments

2008-03-08T11:23:00.008-05:00

I first saw South African artist William Kentridge's animation Felix in Exile at MOMA 7 years ago and was totally blown away. I got to revisit it on YouTube, although the video quality is not good.

William Kentridge's works are at once poetic, political and personal. He has a unique technique of making animation: he simply films a charcoal drawing as a key frame, then makes erasures and changes on the same drawing as the next frame. It's a process of constantly rewriting each existing moment, just like the evolution of history and memory. In Kentridge's own words: In the same way that there is a human act of dismembering the past there is a natural process in the terrain through erosion, growth, dilapidation that also seeks to blot out events. In South Africa this process has other dimensions. The very term ‘new South Africa’ has within it the idea of a painting over the old, the natural process of dismembering, the naturalization of things new.

Compared to Marker's La jetée which is composed of frozen moments, Kentridge's work presents a different time and space that are shivering and elusive, evoking the fading memory in an hypnotically poetic way. Another artist using paintings to make experimental animation is Jeff Scher, whose work is playful and apolitical. My favorite is You Won’t Remember This: http://scher.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/23/you-wont-remember-this/

Thames Town in Shanghai

2008-03-07T12:46:00.007-05:00

A friend in China just sent me these images: a Thames town in Shanghai. After learning about Orange County and Hollywood in Beijing, this is no longer surprising to me. Somehow it reminds me of a joke when working on a Russian project. We had a Chinese firm to do the renderings. When they sent us the semi-final works, we found all the people they photoshoped in were Chinese! The sense of place is replaced by the hot pursuit of money.

When can they stop building more and more "Disney world" in China? Or, is it a new type of colonized town in the 21st century? Can they build something meaningful instead of such luxury trash?

Orson Welles' The Trial - my favorite Zizek quotes 2

2008-03-06T18:22:00.002-05:00

In his movie version of Kafka’s The Trial, Orson Welles accomplished an exemplary anti-obscuranist operation by way of reinterpreting the place and the function of the famous parable on ‘the door of the law’.
...

In the Welles version, the reason K. is killed is therefore the exact opposite of the reason implied in the novel – he presents a threat to power the moment he unmasks, ‘see through’, the fiction upon which the social link of the existing power structure is founded.
...

Welles’ reading of The Trial thus differs from both predominant approaches to Kafka, the obscurantist-religious as well as the naïve, enlightened humanist.
...

Although it may seem that Welles aligns himself with the second reading, things are by no means so unequivocal: he as it were adds another turn of the screw by raising ‘conspiracy’ to the power of two – as K. puts it in the Welles version of his final outburst, the true conspiracy of Power resides in the very notion of conspiracy, in the notion of some mysterious Agency that ‘pulls the strings’ and effectively runs the show, that is to say, in the notion that, behind the visible, public Power, there is another obscene, invisible, ‘crazy’ power structure. This other, hidden Law acts the part of the ‘Other of the Other’ in the Lacanian sense, the part of the mega-guarantee of the consistency of the big Other (the symbolic order that regulates social life).
...

K.’s lawyer offers him, as a desperate last resort, this role of the martyr-victim of a hidden conspiracy; K., however, turns it down, being well aware that by accepting it he would walk into the most perfidious trap of Power.

- Slavoj Zizek, Interrogating the Real, p229-231

SprayMania

2008-02-27T15:19:00.006-05:00

Two months ago I was spraypainting a lot of "treasures" I collected during some previous trips until I was completely repelled by the toxic smell of the paints. Those treasures include the unknown fruits I picked over a year ago in South Carolina. I finally found out the name of the plant: liquidambar styraciflua (American Sweetgum, Redgum) and its lovely fruit's nicknamed "space bug", "monkey ball", etc. A more exciting discovery was that there are actually such trees in my neighborhood, so I can collect more this year!

Being a North America native, sweetgum has been introduced to many parts of the world. In Gus van Sant's My Own Private Idaho, sweetgum ball is seen at a farm in Rome, where a native girl holds it in her hand and speaks out its beautiful Italian name.

Pine cone, is the other major "victim" of my spraypaint. I love these small-sized cones gathering on a branch - just like dried flowers after being colored!

Now I need to find "greener" ways to color them :)

The Double Life of Veronique - my favorite Zizek quotes 1

2008-02-24T14:57:00.010-05:00

The perception of our reality as one of the possible, often even not the most probable, outcomes of an open situation, this notion that other possible outcomes are not simply canceled out but continue to haunt our reality as a specter of what might have happened, conferring on our reality the status of extreme fragility and contingency, implicitly clashes with the predominant linear narrative forms of our literature and cinema.
…

This unfinished character of reality grounds our freedom of choice: it depends on us which version will prevail. For Kieslowski, this choice is ultimately the choice between “calm life” and “vocation.” In The Double Life of Veronique, the Polish Weronika chooses her vocation, that of a singer, ignoring her heart failure, and meets early death as the result of it, while the French Veronique betrays her vocation and chooses a quiet, satisfied life. Veronique is thus melancholic and reflective, in contrast to Weronika’s direct enthusiasm for the Cause; to put it in Friedrich Schiller’s terms, she is sentimental, in contrast to Weronika’s naivete.

...

So in The Double Life of Veronique, perhaps, we are not dealing with the “mystery” of the communication between two Veroniques but with one and the same Veronique who travels back and forth in time. In these terms, the key scene in the film is the near encounter of the two Veroniques in the large square in Krakow, where a Solidarity demonstration is taking place. This episode is rendered in a vertiginous circular shot reminiscent of the famous 360-degree shot from Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Afterward, when the French Veronique is introduced, we can understand Polish Weronika’s perplexity as arising from an obscure awareness that she was about to have an impossible encounter with her double. The camera’s circular movement, then, can be read as signaling the danger of the “end of the world,” like the standard scene from science-fiction films about alternative realities, in which the passage from one to another universe takes the shape of a terrifying primordial vortex threatening to swallow all consistent reality.
…

After her puppeteer lover stages for her the (unconscious) choice that structured her life, in the guise of the two marionettes. So what is Veronique retreating from when she abandons her lover? She perceives this staging of her ultimate, unbearable FREEDOM. In other words, what is so traumatic for her in the puppeteer’s performance is not that she sees herself reduced to a puppet whose strings are pulled by the hidden hand of Destiny but that she is confronted with the fundamental unconscious choice by means of which every one of us has to choose her or his existential project. Her escape from the puppeteer, back to the safe haven under the wings of her father, is her escape from freedom.

- Slavoj Zizek, "The Forced Choice of Freedom," essay from The Double Life of Veronique Criterion Collection DVD booklet

Today's Ice Sculptures

2008-02-22T19:07:00.007-05:00

artworks in my backyard from today's freezing rain!!

Jamaican Hummingbirds

2008-02-22T17:46:00.003-05:00

One of our Caribbean cruise stops was Montego Bay, the second largest city in Jamaica. Jamaica was among my dream destinations mainly because of reggae. But this short visit didn’t give me the opportunity to explore the music, except the Bob Marley songs played by our tour guide on the bus.

Compared to most Cribbean islands which are flat, the mountainous topography makes Jamaica especially beautiful. With its lushly covered mountains and waterfalls, it reminds me a lot of Hawaii. Besides the gorgeous natural beauty, my unexpected amazing experience was feeding hummingbirds at Rocklands Bird Sanctuary, established by nature-lover Lisa Salmon in 1954 and was opened to the public 8 years later.

This place is located in the secluded hills of Anchovy, overlooking Montego Bay. The courtyard is just a mini emerald city, where time slows down for a deep breath. We sat there holding honey-water bottles the caretaker gave us, waiting for the beautiful creatures to come. A few minutes later, they started gathering. The moment the first brave hummingbird stood on my finger sucking the honey-water, I held my breath.

I only sighted female ruby-throated hummingbirds occasionally in my backyard before, but nothing compared to the hummingbirds here at Rocklands. Jamaican Streamertail (Red-billed Streamertail) is the most widespread hummingbird in Jamaica, also Jamaica’s national bird. The fluorescent green colors on their bodies are just as vibrant as the surrounding tropical leaves under the sunlight. The males have the longest tails of all hummingbirds, extremely elegant. Jamaican Mango is another common species in Jamaica with purple red heads. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of battery five minutes after we arrived at Rocklands, so most pictures here are from low-resolution video captures.

Casting: 1 in 2 or 2 in 1?

2008-02-17T18:05:00.004-05:00

Talking about casting, we are quite familiar with the situation of 1 in 2, that is, one actor playing two (or more) characters in a movie. However, the reverse situation 2 in 1 (two or more actors playing one character) seems rather unfamiliar to us. I think the reason lies in our approval of the unique identity of each individual. Thus any multi-representation of one individual can be confusing.

When watching Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There (2007) three months ago, I thought to myself: wow, it’s so original by having six actors including a female to play Bob Dylan but all with different names. This unconventional story-telling technique is well justified by Dylan’s disconnected stages of life and constantly changing inner state. Compared with a literally realistic biography, this seemingly chaotic and fragmented portrait of Dylan is even more powerful and comprehensive.

Two days ago I watched Luis Buñuel’s That Obscure Object of Desire (1977) and realized this 2 in 1 casting was already exercised 30 years before Todd Haynes. In this Buñuel film, two actresses played the same character Conchita in alternate appearances. According to an interview with screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere on Criterion DVD, Buñuel had this idea before shooting the movie, but gave it up when he really started. Yet the performance of one actress didn’t satisfy him, he finally went back to his original idea of using two actresses. As a result, Conchita’s capricious and obscure attitude and behavior is more effectively captured. I also get the sense that conceptually Conchita is not real, she only exists as a projection of the male character’s desire which is obscure in itself.

The Big Animal

2008-02-14T15:26:00.009-05:00

The Big Animal (Duze Zwierze) is a modest and witty Polish film directed by Jerzy Stuhr, from a script written by Krzysztof Kieslowski. The little story goes like this - One night a camel miraculously appears in a couple’s front year and then becomes their beloved pet. However, this big animal is seen differently by people in town as a dangerous beast, a fancy attraction, a means for making money…The couple start getting all kinds of pressures from their community and town government, until the camel disappears one night. Missing their friend, the couple take the train to Warsaw zoo to see camels. In the final shot, they are smiling at three beautiful creatures who return sweet kisses on a peaceful snowy winter day.

Kieslowski created a fable criticizing not only the Polish society but also society and humanity in general. The camel exists as a mirror: as we look into this “monstrous” beast, what we really see is the very monster inside man: society’s intolerance on anything alien, as well as man’s greed to exploit animals in every possible way. This perspective recalls Robert Bresson’s masterpiece Au hasard Balthazar which observes human conditions through the tragic life and death of a donkey. Lynch’s The Elephant Man is an extreme case examining society’s level of intolerance.

Happy Mouse Year!

2008-02-05T11:42:00.000-05:00

Chinese new year is around the corner. I realized I've spent 8 new years in a row in US, really miss the holiday atmosphere in Beijing! Since mouse appears first among the 12 zodiac animals, a whole new cycle will soon begin!

Although in real life mice/rats have been strongly repelled by human, they are usually the shining stars in cartoons and animations. Let's take a look -

Mickey Mouse as Disney icon

the genius mouse chef in Ratatouille

cutie Jerry in Tom & Jerry, the never-ending story between Cat and Mouse

Mouse becomes an adorable pet in Stuart Little

Mouse even made it to the Mars in this German cartoon

Sisyphus in Superbowl Ad

2008-02-04T14:18:00.000-05:00

I had two surprises from last night's superbowl. The first was definitely Giants' victory over Patriots, the second wild card to win a Superbowl. The other surprise was to see Marcell Jankovics' terrific animation Sisyphus (see below) in GMC Yukon hybrid ad, the first time I saw a serious art being used for TV commercial. The ironic part is that: since the story of Sisyphus refers to tasks that are pointless and unrewarding, does it suggest the effort of making SUV a green vehicle is pointless and unrewarding?

Love Ovation TV!

2008-01-16T10:41:00.002-05:00

Besides my favorite discovery-natured channels such as Discovery, History, National Geography, Travel and Animal Planet, and my two favorite movie channels IFC and Sundance, now I'm adding one more to my all-time favorite TV channel list - Ovation TV. That's the only channel dedicated to art, performance, music and film. It introduces to me unique artists of all kinds and musicians of various genres. The film part is also exciting: it presents in-depth profiles of great filmmakers as well as masterpieces from Janus Films!

Life After People

2008-01-16T10:01:00.000-05:00

Last night I watched the trailer of an upcoming show called Life After People on History channel. It depicts to us a world after all humans disappear where plants and animals take control again. The images remind me of some scenes from sci-fi movies like 12 Monkeys and Children of Men. I also wonder how much it is based on Alan Weisman's book The World Without Us. It seems to be a very fascinating and thought-provoking show.

This show will be on History channel on Jan 21. I will miss it due to my trip, but hopefully can catch up later!
more info: http://www.history.com/minisites/life_after_people/

Carl Warner's Foodscapes

2008-01-15T14:31:00.000-05:00

How can you resist the broccoli forest, bread moutains, fruit balloons and smoked salmon sea? These amazing Foodscapes were created by London based artist Carl Warner. I wanna live in such delicious and healthy wonderlands!!
source: http://www.carlwarner.com/

Georges Schwizgebel

2008-01-10T12:05:00.000-05:00

I recently discovered this Swiss animation film director. His works are very sensitive in terms of form, space and movement, thus pretty architectural. The graphic reminds of me so many painters, esp. Chirico, Escher, Hopper and Matisse. It is like a merge of all these masters’ works and made 4-dimensional. There are noticeable repetitive themes in his animations, including the 9-second(from figure 11 to 3) countdown, pause in the middle of movement, quick rewind at the end, long shadows, linear forms, images of staircases, ripples and windows (as a vent, an interface, a threshold in space). The art of morphing is palpably presented through the interchangeability in shape and scale and constantly shifting perspectives.

Many of his works can be found on YouTube. My top favorites include Fugue (1998) and the following L'Hommes sans ombre (2004).

L'Hommes sans ombre (The Man With No Shadow)