Analog and Digital Collide in a Burst of Text and LEDs at the ITP Spring 2009 Show

by Josh Rubin

Twice each year students from NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) exhibit their final projects. Ranging between artistic and commercial, conceptual and pragmatic, the work is always inspirational. With every show there seems to be an emergent theme—this year's collision of analog and digital isn't unprecedented, but does deliver new interpretations to get excited about.

AL-gorithm, by Alex Kauffmann
Alex Kauffmann, the artist behind AL-gorithm, wanted to wrap his head around the Unix search command: grep. To do this he started with a passage from All the King's Men and then systematically cut out all but one letter from the printed page, leaving it behind wherever it appeared. He then repeated this with the same passage across many more pages for each letter and symbol, a process which he said completely abstracted the text from the meaning and made him feel a little more like a computer. The pages are suspended such that they can be stacked closely or with distance lending a range of ways to view this incredible piece.

Check out this video Alex made of himself working on the piece (click on the image below to play).

8 Light ASCII Display Terminal Terminal, by Taylor Levy

For her thesis, designer and technologist Taylor Levy created this sculpture to be the most basic computer display possible. Attached via USB to a keyboard, the neon tubes illuminate with each key-press to show the binary equivalent of the ASCII code for that letter. Though quite simple in concept, it's her precise form and methodical construction that make this piece stand out.

Her process photos are also amazing. Selections below.

Firefly 870, by Jason Krugman
In an 8 foot by 8 foot grid Jason Krugman connected 870 LEDs to wind switches he constructed by hand. Looking at this piece in still-form it resembles a close-up view of sequins as the base of each wind switch is a clear, round disc. As soon as you blow or otherwise move the air around the piece, however, the LEDs spring to action and elegantly reflect the pattern of the breeze.

Here's a video Jason made to show the piece in action.

Flittr, by Vikram Tank
Somewhere between Twitter, Flickr, Haiku and old-school MMS is Vikram Tank's project, Flittr. Enabling short-form multimedia, Flittr is an iPhone app (still in beta) that allows you to sequence three images and provide a 15 second voiceover. These slideshows can be sent to other Flittr users or posted to your favorite social sharing service.

Streetforms, by Mitch Said
Enabling a sort of virtual graffiti, Mitch Said's Street Forms allows users to write on the Google Street View images for any available address. I've always wanted an Invader to call our own so I drew one next to the front door of CH HQ.

Top Films of Tribeca Film Festival 2009

by CH Contributor

by Ariston Anderson

An unusually solid year for the Tribeca Film Festival, the post-9/11 creation formed by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff fared a much more manageable list of 85 features compared to the unwieldy slate of years past, resulting in a wealth of high quality films and events around lower Manhattan.

The smaller list didn't necessarily make it that much easier to narrow down, but we finally managed to conquer the task and, without further ado, here are a few of our favorites from the event.

Black Dynamite
Most film festivals tend to draw more from independent dramas than from independent comedies, which unfortunately overlooks a wealth of fresh new material. Scott Sanders' "Black Dynamite," which originally premiered at Sundance, had us rolling throughout the entire film. Both a spoof and an homage to '70s blaxploitation films, the flick nails the language, over-the-top plots and kung fu sequences of this bygone genre.

The plot borrows heavily from Melvin Van Peebles' "Three the Hard Way," and footage from films like Chuck Norris' "Missing in Action" and TV series "Charlie's Angels" shows up too. With the help of costume designer—and Spike Lee—favorite Ruth Carter, along with original and collected music from Adrian Younge, it's clear the filmmakers had a whole lot of fun putting the film together. Black Dynamite is out in theaters 4 September 2009.

Con Artist
The most intriguing documentary we saw this year was Michael Sládek’s biography on artist Mark Kostabi. Rising to prominence throughout the '80s, Kostabi proclaimed to the art world that he was in it solely for money and fame, saying, "Modert Art is a con, and I am the world's greatest con artist." While many artists rely on assistants to execute their ideas, Kostabi took it a step further and set up a Warholian factory of people to think up ideas and paint the finished projects, using his faceless motifs.

Panned in the art world for creating "emotionless" work, Sládek’s portrait delves deeper into this image of the artist, revealing Kostabi to be a lonely man who thought he'd only find love in fame. Also noteworthy is the archive footage of Kostabi's hilarious public access game show, "Name That Painting," where he awards an audience of downtown celebs $50 for doling out titles to his work.

Here and There
Director Darko Lungulov paints an intriguing portrait of two chaotic cities, Belgrade and New York, full of young people with creative ambitions. Robert, a down-and-out saxophone player, meets Serbian immigrant Branko while he moves him out of his apartment. With nothing else to do, Robert, agrees to travel to Belgrade to marry Branko's girlfriend for $5000. He ends up at the house of Branko's mother Olga, and while Branko tries to scrape together the cash in the U.S., Robert finds a new sense of himself with Olga.

The outcome is an incredibly honest and funny film that examines both people desperately trying to get out of Serbia and also the phenomenon of people moving to New York to pursue their artistic dreams—but who remain stuck in an unfulfilling lifestyle. Plus lead actor David Thornton even commissioned his wife, Cyndi Lauper, to compose a song and act in the film, making it all the more entertaining.

Karen Walker Eyewear 2009

by Karen Day

Sucking the seriousness from fashion, Karen Walker's 2009 eyewear, dubbed "celebrate the sun," is a playful collection of both thoroughly modern and vintage-inspired specs.

The New Zealand-based designer's unpretentious attitude is a common thread in all of her designs, since they began gracing the major runways a few years ago. An astute mix of nostalgia, luxury and street, her stylized but casual clothing is an easy way to have fun with fashion without trying too hard.

A playful lookbook features youthful guys and girls sporting vampire fangs and the appropriately-named glasses like "Helter Skelter," "Voodoo" and "Jonestown." The eyewear itself is anything but eerie; with innovative nods to the past the feeling is fresh and lively, if not even a bit silly—perfect for summertime fun.

Shot by Derek Kettela, known for his clean and elegant style of photography, the images of the fang-filled figures mirrored by the exposed image's matching negative make for a keepsake-worthy publication.

Karen Walker eyewear is available online and in stores around the world, check the list of stockists for a location near you.

Cochon Butcher

by Brian Fichtner

On a recent trip to New Orleans, I had the mouth-watering pleasure of grabbing an early lunch at Cochon Butcher, the meat shop and wine bar opened in January by Cochon chef Donald Link and partner-chefs Stephen Stryjewski and Warren Stephens. Located in the still-burgeoning Warehouse District—home to hotels, galleries and museums—Cochon Butcher makes for an ideal snack stop while exploring the neighborhood's hotspots.

Though its steel and glass facade and contemporary interior suggests a cool atmosphere, Butcher is anything but. The staff, while busy prepping, were friendly and informative, taking the time to discuss in house Cajun specialties such as boudin, andouille and tasso, along with house-made artisan meats and sausages, all prepared and cured on site by the salumi maestro Kris Doll.

Apart from procuring a variety of meats and homemade pickles, visitors can cozy up to the rear bar for one of the best sandwiches in New Orleans. After downing the delicious mufaletta, Stephens led me on a lightning tour of Butcher's back-of-house. Following a stop in Butcher's curing room, I was so inspired that (despite my greatest efforts) I couldn't resist purchasing $50 in sausages for the flight home.

Cochon Butcher
930 Tchoupitoulas Street
New Orleans, LA 70130 map
tel. +1 504 588 PORK

Check out more photos after the jump .

Avedon Fashion: 1944-2000

by Karen Day

Of the many insights to be gleaned from the upcoming exhibition at the International Center of Photography featuring the work of Richard Avedon's work from 1944-2000, I found it particularly fascinating that the photographer would forge such intense connections with his subjects that he would often leave sittings feeling embarrassed over what they shared. The show explores these intimate relationships and his many contributions to fashion photography over the course of more than a half-century.

In 1944, at a mere 21 years-old, Avedon began his prolific career at Harper's Bazaar, working as a staff photographer. At the time, the fashion world, accustomed to seeing magazine pages full of women dispensing static, motionless poses, was ripe for a force like the young lensman to enter the scene.

Avedon, under the guide of Bazaar's art director Alexey Brodovitch, broke the norm and brought the models to life, transporting them from the studio to the street and using the city as his canvas for more youthful, energetic photos.

By pushing the boundaries of fashion photography—most notably his cinematic narrative of the couture collections in 1950s Paris which transformed the dull postwar city into a glamorous fashion meccamdash;Avedon's work became one of the most recognizable and oft-imitated styles to date.

Forward-thinking and sophisticated, Avedon encouraged his models to embrace and express themselves, beginning with the newfound power women gained during the mid-twentieth century to the sexual revolution of the late '60s. It was around then when he took candid snapshots of models sprinting and playing leapfrog, first introducing the trademarked "Avedon blur."

The massive collection of photographs he left behind is a true testament to his complete dedication to his work. Legend has it that if a day passed without doing something related to photography, Avedon felt as though he had forgotten to wake up.

Avedon Fashion 1944-2000
15 May-6 September 2009
International Center of Photography
1133 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036 map
tel. +1 212 857 0000