BirLeeen sparkles

Last week I was working at Transmediale in Berlin. And I tried to make friends with the city really hard this time. Our relationship got better, but dear Berlin, I'm still not convinced that you can be as charming and complex as my old cham London. Yes, I am biased, but what can I do.

Luckily this time I had more time to discover exciting sides of Berlin, and the weather allowed it too! I really loved the underground stations:

  

 And now for something completely different...

 

a family-run Turkish fish restaurant

London-style cafes

 

The veggiest D

---

Where I am and what I'm doing

Here are some subtle clues:

@темы: Exhibition, Goldsmiths, Media Art, Arts

---

Life is a cabaret

Two days, 17 hours of work, several film shoots taking place in the same building with constant shouts: "Quiet please! Rolling!... Cut!", people running up and down, and huge fun. I thought drawing a mural would be quite a lonely matter, but I had the best company I can imagine! With my beloved Beddow 'n Battini mates (thank you so much Wumi, Tatiana and Adeeb!) helping me out and supporting me, and with wonderful Scarlett and Rosy who run the 47-49 Tanner street venue. It was so much fun to work with them! They are doing an incredible job, supporting the local and creative community! Thank you for a joyful and intense time!

 

  

  

pic by Tatiana Alisova

 

pic by Wumi 

 

  

pic by Wumi 

 

 

 

@темы: Illustration, street art, Arts

---

Cabaret mural - work in progress

Working on my first mural and having a lot of fun! 

 

 

@темы: Illustration, Geekery, street art, Arts

---

Mural

Next week I'll be flying over to London to paint a mural commissioned by the 47-49 Tanner street, a Victorian warehouse used for BBC productions, film shoots and all sorts of exhibitions and public events.  

Here a sneak peek into sketches. Guess which theme I'm working on...

 

Mood: ultra excited

@темы: Illustration, Exploring London, Arts, Scribbles

---

New Beginnings

Goodbye London -

 

  hello Munich!

 

A new beginning in the new year. New flat and new jobs to come, and hopefully a new city to rediscover. Until then: lots of food.

This year was a special one, taking place in a vibrant extraordinary city which became part of myself. 

In numbers: 

- took part in two exhibitions, one performance and one workshop

- became a Master of Art and a fan of media archaeology and glitch art.

- became obsessed with wearable electronics, conductive ink, arduino and makey-makey

- became a street art fanatic

- met fantastic media artists, illustrators, glitch artist, animators and other crazy people

- visited three Secret Cinema events and one Future Cinema

- traveled to Berlin, Bristol, Brighton, Bath, etc. Spring in Ireland and autumn in Wales. WARM SUN! I MISS U!

 - learned to bake scones and perfected the art of cupcakes

- hosted 25 people in a studio flat

Wish everyone a happy, peaceful and warm year!! And a lot of creative energy!

@темы: Exploring London

---

100 Word documentation

The video documenting the exhibition is out!

The #100WordPilgrimage at 4749 :: Beddow 'n' Battini Studios from Lorenzo Strappelli on Vimeo.

Thank you Lorenzo, Wumi, Adeeb, Tatiana and all the others for the hard work!

запись создана: 11.12.2012 в 19:26

@темы: Exploring London, Arts

---

100 Word Pilgrimage - Impressions

The exhibition in the beautiful space near Tower Bridge is over and I can take a short breath before moving on with other big things.

As I mentioned before, we exhibited 100 word texts dedicated to different locations in London next to their illustrations, and embedded animations which were accessible through the augmented reality app Aurasma.

 

 

 This is my illustration of Croydon (Southern suburb of London).

 And Aurasma in action: each animation is layered on top of the actual illustration.

 

 

And here is the animation I made:

By the way, all the pictures are taken by my dear friend Anna Kartasi.

I am sooo happy to have met all the people from the collective through this wonderful project! Huge fun to work with the team!!! Looking forward for more to come!

 

 

 

запись создана: 07.12.2012 в 16:29

@темы: Exploring London, Arts

---

100 Word Pilgrimage - Exhibition coming up!

Tomorrow is the opening of the 100 Words Pilgrimage, my first exhibition with the collective Beddow 'n' Battini! It will be on until the 4th of December. Come and see what our team of writers and illustrators has been working on! And download this app for an augmented reality experience at the venue.

  

There will be music on Saturday (at 6 pm and 8.30 pm) and there will be stand-up comedy on Sunday. And lots of fun throughout! Here is the project website.

запись создана: 01.12.2012 в 01:33

@темы: Illustration, Exploring London, Arts, Scribbles

---

A litte bit of kitsch

Love you when the sun comes out! 

 

 

The other day I cycled to the centre for the first time, instead of taking the tube. Before that I only had the courage to cycle to the college all the way through parks and quiet roads. And I must say, I discovered a convincing number of cycle lanes (even though they're part of the busy roads) and met many cyclists on my way, which was reassuring.

It's such a beautiful way to explore the city with all it's beauties and "uglies". I saw so many beautiful corners, churches, parks and quiet streets South from the Thames, still waiting to be introduced to me. And on my way back I saw... well... Bermondsey. South Bermondsey. Never realised how huge it is. It's a pity I don't have any pictures, as it was already getting dark.

Oh yes, I was complaining that there is no "golden" autumn over here. Well, I just had to be a bit patient. 

Upd.: How cynical is that. Here I am, writing my first post on cycling ever, just to discover 20 minutes later that my bike was stolen...

запись создана: 16.11.2012 в 16:48

@темы: Bicycle, Exploring London

---

100 Words Pilgrimage - A sneak peek

A small preview of what I've been working throughout the last week: literally last minute I got involved in a brilliant project, which will culminate in an exhibition on the 1st of December.
The 100 Words Pilgrimage is about exploring the hidden corners of London with eyes wide open. Creative writers were sent out to put down their impressions about a specific spot compressed in 100 words. Afterwards it was the task of visual artists to re-interpret the writings into picturesque narratives.

I got on board through a truly wonderful illustrator Tatiana, who invited me to one of the group's  meetings. So for the first time in ages I've been drawing intensively. A little sneak peek sketch:

If you are in London, do come along and sign up for the 100 Words Pilgrimage event on facebook! Here is a the tumblr of the project. More details coming soon, stay tuned!

запись создана: 13.11.2012 в 00:41

@темы: Illustration, Exploring London, Arts, Scribbles

---

MakeyMakey

And now for a little bit of geeky joy.

This year I got a very unusual birthday present. And it's called MaKey MaKey.

What?!

MaKey MaKey is an Arduino based board, which works as a keyboard, once connected to computer through a usb-cable. Hence, you can use it as an input method for every possible application, website, etc. With the help of crocodile clips you can easily connect it to anything at least a bit conductive, creating your own buttons. As it uses high resistance switching, unexpected things can be used as switches: fruits, veggies, skin, literally anything wet, aluminum foil, etc.

The design is very simple:

 

Source  

To get an idea, check out this promo video showing ways 

to experiment with different materials and applications:

 

Needless to say, we started playing around with it straight away, 

clipping every possible fruit or human to the electronic board. 

Here is a selection of things we tried out:

 

Wet food worked really well! Another nice idea was to close the circuit 

by drinking coke out of a metal can. Everything's conductive!

 

 skin, bien s

запись создана: 12.11.2012 в 02:22

@темы: Geekery, Media Art, Arts

---

(((:


Upd.: Reposting this hilarious video made by friends in Graz!!!
Daring masters of public intervention )))

запись создана: 31.10.2012 в 15:35

---

Teaching

 

 

Two weeks ago I went down to Munich to do an introductory session for the course I'll be teaching in February at my home uni (LMU). I've got 21 students, most of them are in their second year of BA Art and Multimedia, but some are doing their MA in Media Computer Science. 

The course itself is called "Facets of Media Art", which means that we'll be talking about different categories, artists, projects and methodologies. And on the last day of the course we will go to the ZKM in Karlsruhe which will hopefully be lots of fun!

PS: Just had this idea... Maybe I should do a series of posts on projects which we will be discussing on the course. I think I like it.

-----------And now for something completely different: the weather ----------------

 

Beautiful Indian summer on a Thursday...

 

...and then two days later this: 

 

запись создана: 09.11.2012 в 04:03

@темы: Teaching, LMU, Media Art

---

Six moths and spring in da city

I have been walking around the blank blog entry for a while now, trying to organise and put down the whole range of new feeling, thoughts and events in my head... Of course, it is impossible, there are always too many things going on. But at the same time nothing seems to be as new as six months ago when I met this non-touristic London for the first time. Now everything became more mundane, somewhere between "Ah, I like that good old place" and "Oh no, we've been through this before". 

Shamelessly stealing Ilya's pictures...

... following the channel from Haggerston to Limehouse

 

I must confess that after a period of tiredness from this city's constant busyness, crowdedness, noisiness and pollution I recovered and fell in love again. Not so much with the city itself though, but rather with the culture. 

Seriously, you must agree that the British just have style. Look at those good old pubs with scratchy wooden tables and charred fire places, at Oxbridge colleges where nothing seems to have changed since their construction, neither their architecture nor their traditions, or even at the majestic, wildly growing ancient trees you'll find in almost every single park, coming straight out of fairy-tales from your childhood. 

Another source of inspiration which should be mentioned here is a brilliant BBC series - a modern version of Shelock Holmes and Dr. Watson. It  combines the beloved Victorian London with the present-day metropolis in a most charming way. No doubt, these fetishised images of modern London introduced a second wave of excitement about my life here.

Goldsmiths loo (note: I am not responsible for any of those!)

As for my studies, there were many up and downs this term. I guess there were various reasons. Less directions from tutors gave, on the one hand, more freedom, but, on the other hand, more possibilities to get lost. Additionally, working in a group of three turned out to be very challenging and less flexible than I assumed. Naturally, getting used to the philosophy of the course made everything seem more monotonous. And even though I feel that I achieved less than in the first term, plus having a smaller work load, I am running out of steam currently. 

Luckily, we'll escape to Ireland next week. Until then I need to write one and a half essays...

But yes, cheer up, we also did many fun projects and almost got arrested in Hyde Park... I will try to share some of them at some point. So stay tuned

запись создана: 30.03.2012 в 18:54

@темы: Exploring London, Goldsmiths, street art

---

V&A Digital Design Weekend

 

source

Last weekend Victoria and Albert Museum had a Digital Design Weekend and I was very lucky to be part of it. There was a huge exhibition showcasing exciting projects, surrounded by crowds of visitors. Meanwhile, I was assisting a MzTEK workshop, where we made soft-circuit robots with participants, or short: softbots. We had two sessions, 3 hours each, with participants of different ages and backgrounds.

The aim of these workshops is always to get people interested in creative electronics, demonstrate how accessible it is and provide an initial motivation to explore this world independently.

 

Some pictures from our pre-production meeting with Emily.

 

Android family?

 

Insert the battery, connect the right switch aand...

 

  

look into his eyes, kid!

 

 

And an entire s0ftbot family here!

Emily and myself were explaining the basic principles of electrical circuits and showing ways to make robot's eyes light up, and to create various switches. I was a bit nervous in the beginning, but I think it got better over time. To my relief, almost everything worked straightaway, so that all participants were excited about their success. And so was I! And what really surprised me, was how easy it was to share the techniques of soft circuitry and how fast the participants adopted them in their robots. All of them worked so concentrated and so fast! I was very impressed indeed.

 

This guy ended up having four eyes!

       

 Her heart is a switch! If you press it, the circuit is closed and the current can flow!

 

Having a break, fixing my little guy. 

Some conductive stitches were torn after a massive hug attack.

 

A lizard!

 

Emily sharing crochet techniques with Charlotte.

 

A ghost

 

And a cute bird

 

Looking forward to learning and teaching moooore

запись создана: 28.09.2012 в 16:07

@темы: Design, Arts

---

Pretty ugly. Did you know?

 

Source

Ever since we are in London I've been wondering about these rotating red and white cylinders attached to the front of some shops. So subconsciously I associated them with candies

запись создана: 03.10.2012 в 15:05

@темы: Exploring London

---

Foodie post

I've been tempted to post this for a long time... Not sure if it's interesting, but it definitely makes me hungry. Eat something before you look through it. Or you'll end up eating afterwards

Breakfast

 

Lunch

 

My first plov

  

And sweet stuff

запись создана: 01.10.2012 в 16:12

@темы: Food

---

Riot in Pussy Notting Hill. Free.

This post is a documentation of my day, because everything which should be said, has already been said elsewhere.

First I thought whether to go or not for a while because actually I wanted to finish writing my MA thesis this week...

 But then I though I already missed all the demos in April, so I grabbed the two beloved fellow-students of mine and went straight to the Russian Embassy close to Notting Hill this noon.

Anila and Anna

It was a fun atmosphere, with at least as many photographers and journalist as demonstrants. And police...

On the spot I ran into some Russian friends ))

With Mahin

There were all kinds of people of all ages, speaking different languages.
There was also a guy making stencils for free on the spot )

And lunch!

...and 2 years.

запись создана: 18.08.2012 в 01:36

---

Early steps of public intervention

I just realised I never posted my first term project documentation here. Well, it's never too late! This documentation actually covers just the social part of the project. 

This project is all about the Olympic games, which are, by the way, coming to London just in one week. Aaaah! Yes, it's about the Olympics and all those trees which had to be cut down to give way to this two-week madness. So my idea was to bring the trees "back to their roots" and symbolically let them run a marathon to eventually replant themselves.

Now, trees are generally not very mobile, so I went for flowers for a start. Remote controlled flowers, to be precise.

The technical part of this project was to design an alternative way of controlling these "trees". Initially I wanted to build a pipe, which would move the trees if you blew into it. But because we were not allowed to finish anything after the first term, I stopped when all the hacking and coding was done and I knew how I could have finished. 

Tree Marathon from Anna B on Vimeo.

What turned out to be much more important was the social part. This was the first time ever I went out in public to test a project. And to change my vision of artistic research for ever. This is what the video is actually about. 

What was completely unexpected but turned out to be hilarious, was the fact that all my rc cars operated on the same frequency. Which means that you can move all these cars using just one remote control! Thus, firstly, you cannot identify YOUR car because you don't understand which one you are actually controlling and, secondly, you can never win this marathon.

Long live the accident! Hip-hip!

@темы: Goldsmiths, Arts