My art of the brick? By chance, Southbank, London, after having a look at this ads, in the tube, some months ago.
Amazing Lego art – London 2017Amazing Lego Art, exhibition in London
10 mins later I was staring at the astonishing DC characters made of Lego bricks, a private collection of work of arts created by Nathan Sawaya, maybe the most popular #brickartist.
It was a private exhibit and I think it’s going all around the world. When I asked to the guy at the entrance, how Lego contributes to this kind of arts event, the answer was that the company doesn’t deal with that. None of a single campaign nor logistics or any support was done by the giant 😳 They do not support those exhibits because they already have a popular brand which is affirmed in the world, hence maybe arts only bother them.. 🙄
By the way, the collection shows a lot of giant and reflective colorful bricks, which are able to show feelings and represent the proper DC characters and also show their movement and shapes:
Lego Art of the brick exhibition – the Joker eating popcorns
Electronic Renaissance is not the name of an event about electro music, but the title of a video art exhibit by Bill Viola – Viola as the violet heart of Florence. Viola as a unique contemporary artist who believes that video is one of the leading arts and uses it in all of its shapes, from videotapes and architectural video installations to performances in rooms and areas completely where the sound and the electronic musics are a total immersive environment.
The exhibit is in Palazzo Strozzi and in the Strozzina – the Centre for Contemporary Culture – two of the most popular places of the city which take their name after an important ancient family based in Florence. This location is the most suitable one, seen that this exhibit is going to compare ancient art with high-tech performing art, the contemporary into the old world.
But let’s see some of the pics that could help us enjoying this sort of spiritual experience that Bill tries to express:
First of all, The Crossing representinga man crossing natural elements, from fire to water: surrounding sounds of the nature, flames all up his body and then the flood who let everything disappear. That’s it, the circle of life which can now start again.
Visitation by Pontormo vs. Visitation by Bill Viola 1995The Path, 2002 inspired by one of the Decameron stories by Boccaccio
Then there is a series dedicated to the depiction of passion:
Surrender, 2011 – reflections of the half body of a women into a man who try to meet…
Four Hands, showing hands of a young boy, a woman, a man and an older woman in their daily gestures…
Pietà, representing the original one by Masolino da Panicale 1424
Then maybe the most amazing one, in a silent room, here it is the fresco by Paolo Uccello, originally located into Santa Maria Novella’s Green Cloister ”The Flood and Receding of the Waters” depicting Noah’s flood. Then suddenly in the back it appears a video showing a contemporary flood, water covering the stairs and people passing by…
The Reflecting Pool– the manifesto of electronic art. A study about mankind, time and world.
After, a representation of Florence in the ’70s, while shooting in some studios, or performing with the most idealistic men at that time: Peter Hutchinson – the Land artist, a conceptual artist, or Takahiko Iimura – a Japanese avant-garde filmmaker – and so on..
Bill Viola pictureTakahiko Iimura, Japanese artist
The exhibit is dedicated to Bill, the artist who once worked for an exclusive and unique video production center based in Florence, the Art/Tapes/22: it is (unfortunately was!) one of the only four Italian centers where videos began to be considered as a way to express arts – now you can have a taste of the Art/Tapes/22, a collection of interviews, documents and pictures at the ‘900 Museum of Florence.
What’s Wattpad? Try to ask it to the new generations and teenagers and you will have all the details you need. It’s about the communication that is changing its way to provide stories to the world. It’s the new social network for the people who love to tell stories and use their mobile to do it. And share them, through the biggest community of readers in the world. Storytelling.
Wattpad – the social network for writers
Through Wattpad people can write, share stories and interact with them. It’s a sort of blogging activity but you’re free to start your unlimited stream of consciousness – as only Virginia Woolf would start…
Stream of consciousness in a sketch 🙂
Its aim? To give users the chance to spread their stories in the world and become an official author or writer, even if not respecting the ordinary rules – as for example to write at least an amount of million’s crap or publish at least 10 novels and so on..
Wattpad – social network for authors
By the way, now there’s a new way to let your story be popular and meet millions of readers who can directly comment and share opinions with you. Just to give an example, Anna Todd has literally became one of the most popular author of the last years:
FROM WATTPAD SENSATION TO BEST-SELLING BOOK SERIES is written at the beginning of her website: she has been able to find the community she wanted, ‘a home really, with these people who were writing in the hours off of work, school, parenting, life, and I loved every second of it’ she wrote. And now she has hundreds of millions of reads!
The community of Wattpad has spread faster than you can imagine thanks to a new feature that wouldn’t be underestimated: the mobility. People can write while they’re on the bus, in the gym, on the sofa or while falling asleep: you can take your story with you everywhere and add pieces to a story little by little.
Firstly said, colors and lines are going to be the protagonists since they are the special guests of the paintings we’re going to see. They drew my attention since some years ago, when I firstly heard about Professor Bad Trip by looking at some cover books by an Italian write – Niccolò Ammaniti – and still are the very core of his saucerful work of arts I was lucky to see:
Prof. Bad Trip, lesson n.2 exhibit in RomeArte Mutante
The paintings and multiple installations tell the story of his life: you can see his capability to experiment with several supports and materials, as well as using combination of colors which livens up his works and make them even more psychedelic than they could be: Indian ink drawings, comics, illustrations and collages, they always present the same icons as eyes, skulls, semi-human robots, hallucinogenic views, rich and popular people, mutant organisms, meteors and alien creatures…
Prof. Bad Trip
The entrance of Palazzo Velli Expo:
Bad eye by Prof bad Trip
Then, his experimental works with several types of support as screen prints, sculptures, ink on paper and drawings:
Robota II by Prof Bad Trip
Lego Robot 2004
Robot is smiling too, Prof. Bad Trip
Robota by Prof. Bad Trip
Then the series dedicated to #flowerpower 🌺🌻🌸..where the colour contrasts empower the illustrations and pictorial works:
Acid flowers, by Prof. Bad Trip
Gianluca Lerici – the actual name of Prof. Bad Trip – was – and still is – also one of the representative of Mail art, that kind of art communication which was popular in the early 60s when the ‘mail’ channelwas considered a prominent way to promote arts and social values to spread one own’s work of art by challenging the regular channels – that is to say, the art the was able to propagate despite the fact that an artist was able to find a good gallery or available spaces to exhibit their arts:
Mail art, postcards by Prof. Bad Trip
collage by Prof. Bad TripGianluca Lerici, Prof. Bad Trip
Series of works of art by Prof. Bad Trip
A commemorative stamp for Prof. Bad Trip
Triptych – first painting
Triptych – second painting
Triptych – third painting
‘Trittico Space‘ – These are one of his most important work: the triptych, the bas space, which ends the exhibit. You can choose to stare at it or live it thanks to the virtual reality app that has been developed in order to engage the audience and let them fell free to swim in it, surf it, catch all the meteors or just enjoy the trip offered by the Professor..
sculpture in the space
If you want to enjoy more of his works, Teké Gallery did a complete study and tries to introduce Prof. Bad Trip as his actual nature of avant-garde punk artist. Here you can find a digital catalogue, you can leaf through the pages of this book…
Weird-Wired Next Fest 1st edition in Florence has been one of the most interesting initiative among the most recent events.
It can be considered as the Italian version of TEDx, the worldwide independent event whose acronym stands for technology, entertainment and design… Well, maybe Wired is trying to do the same, but dealing with the territory, rooted in the local network.
Projections and Pacman at Wired Next Fest, Florence
By the way, here we are with some weird-wired moments and protagonists of the weekend:
Pian de Giullari, opening event of Wired Next Fest
…this is the HDR 75, analog hybrid computer that was developed in DDR in Dresda.
IBM tape storageMeda 42 TA Hybrid computer: digital + analog
And now let’s go to the main topic of Wired Next Fest: the new beauty, how the digital world is changing our perception of beauty…
War, beauty and erotism of the art of Milo Manero, one of the most ccontroversi al contemporary weird artist in critics.
…and then The Bumbys, the American unidentified duo who is trying to keep and compare our personalities by their perception and their sensitive skills trasformed into an app:
The Bumbys performing their app
The Bumbys, revelation app of Wired Next Fest
Some more speeches and event slots focused on new movies coming soon – as ‘Login’ which is about the Internet rise in Italy – and on the augmented reality games like the one sponsored by Enel:
Wired event in Sala D’arme- Palazzo VecchioInteractive area in the augmented reality sponsored by EnelWired Next Fest 2016 Florence edition
Korean festival in Florence – Hanbok, the traditional Korean dress
Korean mood has always been so cute and interesting, maybe because of their hilarious way of being, colorful dresses, colorful faces, colorful dishes, smiles and quiteness. It happened some days ago, while walking down the street, that two supercolorful Korean girls were inviting people to enjoy their festival… and so it was.
Here we go, let’s have a taste of their culture. The first thing to do was to choose a Korean name – kkoch was mine, which means flower – and then enjoy a tour in their arts, discovering their writing style, paintings and origamis. Needless to say, the hanboks were the top, the traditional Korean clothing often made by silk and original fantasy, flowers, flags or abstracts design.
Korean writing and arts at Korean Festival in FlorenceKorean writing arts at Korean Festival in FlorenceKorean writing artarts at Korean Festival in Florence – Korean flagshipKorean girl 🍥Korean writing and arts at Korean Festival in FlorenceKorean writing and arts at Korean Festival in FlorenceSay kkoch! Flower in Korean – paintful life
It’s a lovely and funny people, hope to know more about them 🍥🍙🍡
James Corden, an English actor, writer, producer, comedian and TV show man, is that kind of guy that draw attention because is incredibly theatrical and charismatic and he always choose the right way to communicate with the world. He’s very popular in UK and USA too and he’s becoming even more known in Europe.
He’s able to do his own communication through new perspectives and methods, using his worldwide popular show as a way to get in touch with vips and stars and make them talking frankly, during a fast car pooling trip while listening to some great music – and we know, it always helps.
It’s the Carpool Karaoke, and it’s about sharing news – not only cars – with superstars, super singers, politics people, influencers of the world.. driving and singing all together, how fun is that?
..what I’m thinking is just that this is a brilliant idea: (quite) real time interviews and shows are becoming part of the most viewed videos, they are a new kind of web contents that is really appreciated because is more spontaneous than you can suppose, and obviously, it’s not the ordinary content that people can look at while blogging or surfing the Internet.
Hope to share even more Carpool karaoke – that’s great Mr James and it’s interesting spend some minutes listening to the singers and people you chose and make fun of some life moments.
Have you heard the latest? Pokémon are coming back! Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Greninjam and them all are still alive and they’re coming back to influence our life, as they already did some years ago.
Pokémon
But this time is different, they are more than a cartoon on TV, they are around you and you can enjoy the ordinary life by looking at them and interacting with them, in a totally immersive environment. Yes, Pokémon hit the augmented reality game thanks to a new and totally captivating and fascinating app named Pokémon Go.
Pokémon GO, the new trend
It is the only app that in a few days is already in the top chart of the App Store (it’s not on the top chart of Google Play, just because it will be available in the next days): it’s completely beating the porno market contents, Twitter, Candy Crush, Ingress and is now becoming a giant if compared to Snapchat.
Ingress – Augmented reality
Augmented reality (or AR) is used to describe the mix of reality and Internet elements, that is to say when virtual elements start to be part of the reality. AR has not to be confused with ARG, or alternate reality game, which is used to describe an interactive narrative game on multimedia platforms (have a look at Stories in between to find out more!).
Those are examples of augmented reality, the place in which you go thorugh your mobile device and you can discover more about what you see, discovering the details about the surrounding:
Thus, Pokémon Go is an AR game and it allows you to discover more about the place where you are and live in, augmenting the information about possible museums, streets, institutions, buildings, shops and parks in which you can go during your walks, together with your app:
Pokémon in your kitchenPokémon on the pavement
…among the latest augmented reality games, it seem to be the winner, and still many countries do not yet have access. GO and catch them all 🙂
It was supposed to be a day as tourist in Bologna, with things that tourists generally do going up and down the city center and eating tortellini, tagliatelle or what ever… But then something drew my attention: Palazzo Pepoli – Street Art exhibit: Banksy & Co. 😲 And soon I realized that Co. meant Keith Haring from UK, Blu from Italy, Lady Pink from Ecuador, Lee Quinones from NYC, Fekner, lots of works of art coming from Martin Wong Collection in US and so on, unbelievable. Unbelievable was also that this kind of exhibition was into an historical museum and it’s interesting to know how the street art is becoming part of the history, at least in Bologna.
Street Art Banksy & Co., Palazzo Pepoli, Bologna
Let’s start with the basic first stencils and works, here you are a series dedicated to the rat, the animal that was chosen to be a symbol of the art diffusion everywhere in the city – as rats generally are everywhere. Then, rat is also a word that can be the anagram of ART:
The rat in the street art by Bansky and the French writer Blek Le RatThe rat in the street art by Bansky and the French The RatThe rat in the street art by BanskyThe rat – series by BanksyBrasilian artists – showing the mix between positive and negative things in the streets
Then Mickey Mouse crashed on the backdoor of a train – why the train? Because it was one of the first mean used to spread the word by the street artists:
Mickey Mouse – maybe by DeckBanksy and other artists artworks
Here you are one of the most popular by Banksy: Rage, Flower Thrower, representing a man wearing a kerchief and baseball cap throwing a bouquet of flowers, with flowers and stemma as the only things in color:
Heavy Weaponry by BanksyElephant carrying weapons by Banksy
Kill people by Banksy, 2003:Kill people by Banksy
Recently, there has been a very deep argument between the Museum and one of the artists that is part of the exhibit – I’m talking about Blu, the most important one from Bologna: he has not accepted to take part in the exhibition, so he has been stolen of the artworks we can see here. After this, Blu decided to cover all of his works, so now it’s impossible see and enjoy them, none of them is still on the wall of the city.
It’s the first signal we got during last days, while we heard that Facebook’s Latin America vice-president, Diego Dzodan, was arrested and now it’s free again.
The reason seems to be related to the unwillingness to give information in order to help security, he was accused of not helping in drug crime investigation, due to some WhatsApp conversation that would have been helpful if provided (as you may know WhatsApp is part of Facebook propriety). But there are 2 sides of the same coins:
Facebook did it to preserve its business based on privacy of accounts?
Facebook did it to preserve its business (and that’s all)?
Obviously, it’s hard to think that if it had collaborated with government, it also would have had a lot of controversial positions in terms of privacy laws, and maybe people would have started to think twice before creating new accounts and socializing.
Anyway, why do you think the government and Institutions in general fear so much the ‘social platforms increase’? Maybe because they can’t control them?
Do you think it’s possible to let people decide in which way they can communicate with the world? Try to be in Diego Dzodan shoes and find a correct reason to provide the government with the information they requested. People should rely on the channels they use to communicate with their friends, families, lovers and all the kind of persons, hence also criminals are included in those kind of ‘recipients’.
Well, I also think that if a social platform can help laws against criminals and drug crime investigation, maybe it’s worth to consider to create a specific ‘law’ for it? But that’s another kettle of fish.
The most important thing to notice is that both in this case and in the Cupertino similar case happened some weeks ago – when Apple did not provide any further info to the authorities because it was supposed to unblock the iPhone and give some private info – the Right to freedom of speech and expression had the best, but it also means that illicit trafficking – of organs, children, women, drug, weapons, and also words that help them are not ruled, limited and totally free.
