If you’ve been in the borough of Hackney in the last couple of weeks, you would’ve seen “Land of Kings” posters shrewn across walls and cafe and shop windows. During Bank Holiday weekend, the multi-arts festival took place in 15 venues across Dalston with appearances and input from the likes of Red Bull Music Academy, Kwes, NTS, Speech Debelle, London Fields Radio and the W.I. group, the Dalston Darlings. Having been a Hackney resident over 30 years ago, my Mum expressed an interest in wanting to attend some of the daytime events so we headed to the BBQ at the Curve Garden, followed by the screening of the ‘Legacy in the Dust’ docufilm at Arcola. I was down for a good old MEATwagon burger, some decent reggae and a film screening, but never did I expect our visit to be so educational. Hit the jump for a brief insight into Hackney’s history and a trailer for the brilliant “Legacy in the Dust”.
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AH this is my DREAM holiday/job right here. Getting a big ass cheque from a MNC to travel the world and create footage. Film maker Max Joseph was commissioned by the Swoosh folks to create a commercial and do just that for the Nike FuelBand launch featuring their new campaign slogan ‘Make It Count‘. This was the film maker’s third commission from the brand so he thought to himself, if he could do anything in the world to make it count – what would it be? Him and Neistat chose to use Nike’s cash to travel 34,000 miles, visiting 16 cities in 13 countries across 3 continents in the space of 10 DAYS. The result is the film after the cut, pretty damn inspiring if I say so. I know being a skeptic, I can’t help but think this was the original advert plan but hey, who cares? I don’t care where the inspiration comes from, the end result is dope and that is all.
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Michael Jackson. Ray Charles. Stevie Wonder. These names often come to one’s mind when thinking of musical greats. Bob Marley is another musical legend who has earned his place in that distinguished pantheon, his many hits still easy listening 30 years after his untimely death. Though there have been many pieces of Marley’s life and music documented since, there are still more than one or two blanks that have not yet been filled. It has fallen to Kevin MacDonald (The Last King of Scotland) to deliver the definitive documentary Marley so richly deserves, and it is a monumental success.
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Just like how I said Jeff Staple’s article on collaboration was a must read, this documentary by creative agency Radon is a MUST WATCH. It’s an insightful video that captures the essence of the current digital revolution and how creativity has been unleashed because of it. The documentary starts off with a powerful quote from Moby surprisingly, I had to replay it 3 times so I could note it down for next week’s dope quote. This documentary suggests that with all the technology on offer right now that creating ‘art’ is as easier than ever, maybe a little too easy as we’re able to create albums, films and more just from our bedroom. Does that ability have a damaging effect on our creative output? Watch the documentary and see the likes of Christopher Weingarten, Amy Phillips (Pitchfork), Seth Godin and more discuss both sides of the argument.
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I know this has been circulating the interweb for the past day or two and I’m sure most of you have already seen it but I just had to share those of you who haven’t come across it. I spent most of my day relaxing and getting reacquainted with my ps3 before watching this Tom Ford documentary. Remember Oprah’s Masterclass? This a spin-off on that series. This episode features renowned fashion designer, film director and creative genius Tom Ford – the documentary takes us back to his humble beginnings in Texas, NYU days and how he went from there to impacting the fashion worldwide. Tom’s never let anyone into his studio before so this was quite intriguing to see the man at work, his perfectionist ways were inspiring to watch. He’s a workaholic ‘if I’m awake, I’m working’…jeez. Must work harder! doc on the reverse.
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VOYR is our all access pass into the behind the scenes happening at Kanye and his big brother, Jay-Z‘s Watch The Throne tour. The daily video series will give us an insight into the hard work that goes into living life as Kanye West. Yes, they still work even after earning millions. Ye drops a plethora of quotables in this short first episode: ‘It’s a pursuit and responsibility. If people have done things before, you should be able to surpass them. I’m on a pursuit of awesomeness, excellence is the bare minimum’. BOOM. Inspiring, watch it on the reverse! Right off to bed I go..
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Heard of Aurasma? It’s the world’s first visual browser. Bet that doesn’t mean anything to you guys – it’s a piece of software that utilises your smartphone camera, GPS, bluetooth, WiFi/3g and combines this with image recognition technology which helps create a conceptual understanding of the 3D World to recognise objects which can seamlessly augmented reality actions into the scene. My friend and his co-workers over at Billington Cartmell have exploited this innovative technology and incorporated Aurasma’s interface so that it recognises the 3D surface of the bottle and plays back exclusive video content from artists Plan B, Tinie Tempah, Yasmin and more. Each of the artists designed their own limited edition bottles and the Aurasma ability gives the smartphone user the option to watch the ‘making of’ documentary with a simple touch of the screen. Watch the video on the reverse.
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