Thoughts, Musings and Essays

[mitchellkanemusings-blog]

Creative Reflection

Reflecting on my creative journey - specifically through this first semester of the BCT programme - I note that I am happy to have come leaps and bounds. From spending 2012 breaking free of the 9-5 routine I had been indoctrinated into, and beginning my lifestyle change towards living a more creative, entrepreneurial, and ultimately holistic lifestyle. To spending 2013 free from any indoctrinated routine, focused on writing and creating everyday, with the goal of relearning who I was and what I stood for, through what I made, and sharing what I learnt through what I wrote. Through these years I began to devour copious numbers of books and watch endless keynote speakers on entrepreneurship, design, creativity, education, technology, psychology and philosophy. All of which lead me to begin developing my own creative entrepreneurial practice as well as the values and foundations my personal brand would be built off. There came a point in late 2013 where I began to feel like I had reached the limits of my personal networks and facilities, this is when I found Colab and the BCT, which seemed to offer exactly the structure, the networks, the facilities, and the approach to education I needed to further my creative practice in the direction I wanted to take it.

This put me in a great mind-set coming into the BCT. I had a number of specific projects and research areas I wanted to explore at the intersection of art, design, making, and technology, as well as a broadly open mind to new ideas, concepts, and applications. I feel like I had a pretty good notion of what creative practice entails in the world today, and what it could entail in the future, with our rapidly evolving technological landscape. It was my goal to work with all the technology available to me, in the most explorative manner I could, whilst sticking to the values and foundations I wanted to build my brand off, to achieve my visions of a creative lifestyle and worthwhile creative practice.  The following is a paragraph taken from my Moleskin on 9/08/13:

"Whatever products I inevitable end up designing and making must [address] the current trent problems of corporate ownership, mass-produced, mass-marketed shit, one size fits all, planned obsolescence, non renewable material use, and unethical, unsustainable manufacturing methods and distribution structures."

I feel this contextualises a significant part of my overall approach to what I do, what I make and how I design. I try to take into account every element that may be affected both intrinsically or extrinsically through the design, manufacture and distribution of anything I bring into being. This is where my strong interest in, and visions of the future for design and manufacture come from. And this is the approach I have tried to bring to my creative practice through the first semester.

With many strong ideas and sense of direction coming into the BCT, I wanted to somehow integrate these strong ideas of what I wanted to pursue, with the skills I wanted to learn, the networks I wanted to build, and the technologies I wanted to explore. I am quite pleased with the progress I have made in this direction, as well as with the numerous lessons learned along the way. I have made a great start learning many of the technologies and various applications of things I wanted to explore - specifically this semester with the laser cutter technology - for both artistic investigation, and manufacturing / making. Through writing statements, thinking through project briefs holistically, and pushing to progress my process and development further I have refined my creative practice and holistic approach in many desirable ways throughout this semester of the BCT.

A quick finishing paragraph looking to the future of BCT; I have particular interest in the research and implementation of, natural sustainable materials. Of most significant interest is my investigations into hemp as a material for integration into design on almost every level, at every scale. With it capable of being used to manufacture over 50,000 products to a far higher quality, at a far lower cost - both economically, environmentally and socially - than many current conventional materials. I hope through future creative development to fuse the spectacular natural properties of hemp in a myriad of applications, with the technological advances we are seeing in digital fabrication and additive manufacturing.

[mitchellkanemusings-blog]

Hellicar and Lewis - Interactive Practitioners Meetup: Nov 2013

In November of 2013 I attended the Colab Interactive Practitioners Meet-up held at the Semi Permanent space in Ponsonby. The guest speakers were Peter Hellicar and Joel Lewis of Hellicar&Lewis.

Hellicar&Lewis are interactive, digital practitioners that work with brands, companies and institutions to invent and design new ways of communicating with their audiences in real time. They have done evrything from big corporate works for the likes of Coca-Cola, to educational works for children with physical or mental learning disabilities such as autism.

Their work blends together several different disciplines – from Art Direction and Software Engineering to Interior Design, combining the use of art, technology and design to create future focused experiences that bring people into the present moment with the goal of leaving a lasting impression. Fusing traditional media, digital frameworks and viewer interaction they are able to create feedback loops between the people, the technology and the environment.

At the heart of Hellicar&Lewis is the idea of making all their work open-source. All of the software behind their projects is made available for anybody to use, in any application or for any purpose. For Hellicar&Lewis it wasn’t only an ethical decision but has also turned out to be a great approach in the commercial sense. This is due to the quick development and iteration times achievable when working with open source frameworks and software - allowing faster, more economical development of projects with greater reliability. The open source approach also allows for open collaboration with professional (or amateur) creatives world-wide, which has lead to them gaining international support, as well as allowing the creation of further software that has already been field tested and proven beforehand by the open source community.

The movement towards creative businesses being founded on the open source ethos and principles is growing fast and attending this talk from Hellicar&Lewis really reinforced that for myself, proving what could be achieved with such an approach. Prior to hearing Pete and Joel speak I had begun to look at how open-source could be applied economically in the creative sector - having read books such as Makers from the editor of Wired Chris Anderson - and how the future of our economy could be based partially around the idea of a gift economy but being able to hear them talk and have a conversation with them at the end of the presentation about the future of things really opened my eyes further.

The presentation from Hellicar&Lewis also identified a new creative area for me to explore - digital interactive art and installations - which I had not been made overly privy to before hearing Pete and Joel. My focus primarily lay mainly in still forms of art (illustration, print-making, sculpture etc) and the ‘making’ of physical goods - combining the traditions of craft and hand-made goods with new digital fabrication technologies. Seeing what kind of art could be achieved with code got me quite excited about the future of art-making.

Breaking a number of engrained forms of status quo, Pete and Joel were extremely inspirational and motivational but in the most humble and approachable way. Their approach to both their work, their life, and the balance between the two was really on par with myself, and their entire presentation was full of points that really resonated and reinforced ideas of my own about living a creative lifestyle, as well as opening me up to a vast number of new references in the digital interactive and installation art realm.

I will finish with a quote from John Lassester which inspired Hellicar&Lewis and speaks volumes to myself in terms of moving forward with my creative endeavours.

“The art challenges the technology, and the technology inspires the art.”

http://www.hellicarandlewis.com/

[mitchellkanemusings-blog]

Jess Johnson - Ivan Anthony 2014

On the last evening of April this year I attended the opening of Jess Johnson’s show ‘Ratholes in the Babylon of Information’ at Ivan Anthony Gallery in Newton, Auckland.

Jess is an Illustrator and installation artist, originally from Tauranga, but now working and residing in Melbourne. She is currently undertaking a 2 year residency at the Melbourne Gallery. Her drawing and installation practice draws inspiration from science fiction, cosmology and shifting notions of reality.

This series of works combines patterning, objects and figures within very architectural settings. There is a very strong sense of perspective in the images, along with a large number of varied yogic references - adding to the spiritual feel of this series. Finally, a very limited pastel colour palette - heavy in blues and pinks - has been employed for these images.

This exhibition was made multi-disciplinary with the installation of the video work Mnemonic Pulse. This exceptional video work - animated by fellow kiwi video artist and animator Simon Ward - works to bring the “astral planes and shattered fragments of reality [within the images] to life.”

Mnemonic Pulse was an immersive video piece that captivates you as a viewer and draws you into Jess’s world. A pseudo 3D, post-2D production that is looped for continuous play and works somewhat like a never ending, narrative heavy ‘fly-through’ journey of all the illustrated images you see on the wall, as well as a few extras. The slow and purposeful animation creates an engaging experience and uses the strong perspective of the work to bring focus and light to specific details within the moving image. The hypnotic synthesised soundtrack is a mesmerising accompaniment to the symbolic, spiritual experience that it is watching the video, and the combination of moving image and mesmerising soundtrack seem to effectively transport you to another transcendental realm for a period of time.

Though not a permanent multi-media artist, this still image and video installation crossed media disciplines and combined the strengths of each discipline to create an effective, immersive experience, expanding on and furthering the understanding of the work. This show represents the growing desire to bring viewers into the artists world, or just into the here-and-now, causing viewers to pause, be immersed, and finally reflect. The exhibition of moving image and still images allows for connections and associations to be made that would never have been possible with still images alone.

Leaving this show I had a lot to take away. As a keen illustrator myself, and an artist beginning to look at digital media - specifically moving image, and image mapping installations - seeing the impeccable attention to detail in Jess’ one-off Copic-marker works, and how that could be successfully transferred to a digital medium in a progressive, immersive way was really inspiring. I hope to take from this example and look to how I can cross my analogous art into the digital realm, exploring a number of technologies and showing the work in a variety of different manners.

http://jessjohnson.org/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZXDl6X8-gA

[mitchellkanemusings-blog]

Golan Levin - Semi-Permanent 2014

Attending Semi-Permanent this year was a (creative) life changing event, full of inspiration and amazing approaches to the creative industries as a whole. The first day was full of amazing speakers, but there was one speaker I was very much looking forward to hearing and that was the trans-media digital artist, engineer, and Associate Professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh; Golan Levin.

I had first been made aware of Golan’s work at the Interactive Practitioners meet-up with Hellicar&Lewis, after which I began looking at his vast portfolio of work online.

Golan works in the realm of expressive computation, developing artefacts and experiences through computational methods. His work places a focus on designing systems to create, manipulate and perform works. The majority of his work has an over reaching goal of inquiry into interactivity and non verbal communications. With various collaborators, Golan has created and developed performances, digital artefacts, physical artefacts and virtual environments - all with a creative twist to question our relationship with technology, highlight the ways in which we interact with each other, and explore such technologies and interaction.

Golan is currently particularly interested in work that is in a sense ‘too big’ for 2D representation and therefore required further visual representation in 3 dimensions by means of zooming, panning and virtual fly throughs.  I liken this to the approach taken by Jess Johnson in her ‘Ratholes in the Babylon of Information’ show. The visual representation of what she was trying to achieve was far more eloquently illustrated through 3D moving visuals in conjunction with the 2D still imagery.

During the course of his 50 minute presentation at Semi Permanent, Golan touched on a number of his past projects, as well as identifying a number of new technologies to change the way we approach technology and creativity moving forward into the future. 

For me, the most intriguing of his topics was the advances we are now looking at in 3D printing - from “solar-centres” that use the abundance of sand (as material) and solar energy (as power) to 3D print things in the middle of the desert, to the “Filabot” which takes recycled bottles - or (bio)plastic pellets - and melts them down to be extruded as filament spool suitable for 3D printing.

The Filabot was particularly exciting for me as over the past 3 months I have been researching and looking to develop such a unit myself. My goal with these kinds of technologies is to soon be able to manufacture 3D printable filament made from bio-plastics - such as that achievable from hemp - for a much more reasonable price than standard filament and at a much lesser cost to our environment. With technologies like the Filabot, the opportunities to explore the future of 3D printing filament are really starting to open up.

The bio-plastic industry is already fast growing and there is currently injection mouldable hemp-plastic available in pellets. Over the past few months I have begun research into the mechanical and physical properties of hemp-plastics with the goal of determining whether or not it can be successfully heated and extruded into filament, then re-heated and extruded in the 3D printer head without any thermodynamic effects or loss of physical strength properties.

Having heard Golan speak on the realistic future of these technologies and the possibilities of their application, it has really reinforced in my own mind, the vision of natural, digital fabrication in the future.

http://www.flong.com/blog/2012/radically-local-presentation-at-the-world-economic-forum/

http://www.flong.com/

http://www.filabot.com/

[mitchellkanemusings-blog]

Nat Cheshire - SP2014

Returning to Semi-Permanent on day two, I was most looking forward to Nat Cheshire's talk. After having heard him speak in our BCT class only a few weeks earlier I thought his approach to Architecture in the most holistic sense, is the way forward in creative disciplines and I was excited to hear what he would present on a platform such as Semi-Permanent.

I have chosen to include Nat in this trans-media reflection because I believe the approach he takes to Architecture is one that crosses boundaries and chasms that have not been crossed in Architecture in a long time - making him in my eyes a very multi-faceted and multi-media designer.

It is Nat's attitude towards Architecture (in a holistic manner, as I would term design) and specifically his passion for building Auckland into the city it is begging to become that attracts me to his work. His development of Britomart in Auckland City's downtown area is truly raising the bar of Auckland to a high international standard. The approach he has taken to achieve such results is the polar opposite to Aucklands status quo approach of designing and building a city, and the results of his work speak for themselves. 

In my opinion, everything that Nat Cheshire touches at the moment is moving Auckland up in the world. He has fast tracked a number of very expensive, very time consuming legalities in order to deliver the very best experience possible - proving the value in such an approach, and proving the limiting and detracting factors that certain legalities can have, hindering the future focussed approach to building cities that we have come to find ourselves so desperately needing. As Nat himself said "We are building Auckland faster than they [Auckland City Council] can plan it." High speed, small steps and organic growth is the model Nat has used to develop Britomart, and it has been proven to work very, very, effectively.

With a focus on quality of experience over everything else, Nat does not purely work in architecture designing houses or buildings. He works across all design disciplines in order to provide the desired experience. (Reference note: much like Framestore working in whatever media, medium or technology is required in order to deliver their desired experience or final product.) 

Nat's work has moved far from architecture in the purest sense of designing buildings, and into the realm of architecture and design that is all encompassing, holistic, perfectly detailed, and creates a delightful experience within each establishment, and more importantly, a relationship with all the surrounding buildings and operations. This illustrates how projects could operate when a holistic approach to design permeates the whole process. From sketch, to manufacture and distribution of everything we surround ourselves with. To the approach we take to designing and building the urban landscape and environment in which we all inhabit.

With the belief that we are in a time of improvisation, where we have been empowered to make the changes we would all like to see, we have to do away with the archaic frameworks that remain in place within society today. We have to stop being afraid to make these changes that are so desperately needed. We have to step up to the plate and start delivering holistic design solutions that tell a story, while connecting people, technology and their environment.

http://cheshirearchitects.com/

https://vimeo.com/95263704

[mitchellkanemusings-blog]

Framestore - SP2014

Speaking on day two of Semi-Permanent, Framestore were an amazingly talented, extremely prolific, multi-media, multi-platform creative agency with one of the most impressive trans-media portfolio's I have ever seen.

Having won every major industry award, they are global leaders in visual effects. They make moving images, content, design, and digital effects for the advertising, entertainment and film industries. They provide integrated advertising, digital imaging, production & direction and visual development. Considering themselves 'creative problem solvers' they would collaborate right from the conception of a project. Bringing a creative and technological problem-solving approach to the brief while doing it in their own signature creative style.

Through combining award-winning craft and relentless creativity with the technologies of tomorrow they create extraordinary experiences, engaging people through groundbreaking visual experiences driven by insight and innovation. The breadth and depth of their project portfolio was genuinely astonishing - you could see how much they loved to make really good work, and how much they work to achieve such impressive results across so many platforms.

The most impressive of their vast portfolio shown at Semi-Permanent was their Game of Thrones Ascend The Wall Virtual Reality project at this years SXSW (South by South West) festival. Working with HBO they had created a never before seen immersive virtual reality experience in an enthralling new method of storytelling. The project utilised Oculus Rift VR headsets, the Unity game engine, VFX pipelines, wind machines, elevators and rumble packs to take the user right into the world of Game of Thrones. Once inside the elevator, users begin to virtually ascend all 700ft of "The Wall" before stopping at the top to 'walk-out' and look over "The North". The near photoreal CGI achievable in todays game engines is what continues to motivate the digital team at Framestore. They believe the surface of where such linear and non-linear storytelling could go next has hardly been scratched.

What I took from hearing the Framestore Senior Design Director Marc Smith and Head of CG in NYC David Mellor speak, only enforced my current out-look on the future of creative work and building a brand for yourself. Do the projects you want to do in order to build the portfolio that defines your brand, and the work you want to be known for. Keep pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved with the technologies of today and tomorrow, learning how they can be applied individually and linked together in a complimentary fashion and when an opportunity to put your hand to something new comes along, embrace the challenge, learn any requisite technical knowledge, and get to work. There is no end to what can be achieved in the creative industries now-a-days.

http://www.framestore.com/

http://www.framestore.com/work/game-thrones-ascend-wall-vr-experience

[mitchellkanemusings-blog]

Mike Mizrahi: Inside Out Productions - SP2014

Mike Mizrahi, along with Marie Adams, run the spectacular theatre and production company that is Inside Out Productions. Their work is rooted in the techniques and philosophies of visual theatre, however, due to their broad and extensive project portfolio, they have developed a multi-media platform and gained expertise over a range of disciplines; from design, to curation, to creative direction, to production and project management. 

[They] are storytellers that specialize in sophisticated, visual, high impact work that utilizes cutting edge technology to capture a live audience.

The thing that really ties all their projects together, and the focus of their work, is the desire to connect, to communicate, and to transform audiences. Connection is absolutely key. "You must always keep one foot firmly planted in the audience" - Mike Mizrahi. Whether the project is a stage show, a digital event, or an interactive installation, there must always be an element of story telling - as should permeate all design; the desire to tell a story and connect with people through the designed object, installation, space, or experience.

At Semi-Permanent, a wide range of their projects were shown and discussed, all with a strong sense of where this small production company started from very humble beginnings in London in the 80's. Their work ranges from purely theatrical shows, to state of the art, mind blowing, image mapped light installations and interactive audience art. Working with clients ranging from Team New Zealand and Telecom, to BMW and Louis Vuitton.

Having their roots in theatre, they have a great feeling for reading people - specifically a live audience - keeping them engaged and entertained. For me this is a key take away that can be applied to the whole realm of art and design. Both artistic works and objects/systems of design should provide an experience. They should portray a desire to connect to the viewer or user through the powerful medium of story-telling.

It should be noted from companies like Inside Out Productions and their directors like Mike Mizrahi that the most effective method of connecting, telling a story, providing a point of view, and maintaining viewer interest and immersion is through a multi-media platform - maximising the benefits of each medium and utilising them together in a complimentary fashion. Taking this approach to art, design and interactivity with the future technologies we now have available today is an exciting prospect and I relish in the challenge of developing multi-media storytelling techniques that connect with people.

“Never settle for mediocrity.”

“Say yes - say yes, then figure out what the fuck you’re going to do next.”

“End well.”

- Mike Mizrahi

http://www.iop.co.nz/