12ozProphet

This incredibly fascinating and encouraging to our collective future. If it succeeds as it has thus far one can only imagine what benefits await the world at large..

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Right now Rio de Janeiro is the most exciting place on the planet bar none. It is the most creative and colorful time of the year during Carnival. NYC has nothing on Rio, period, this from a die hard New Yorican, the huge and most distinct difference is how they celebrate life and art as one and as part of the cultural fabric that binds them where as here in NYC and the US it is a far cry from such celebrations of self expression without it being motivated by self serving interests or money or posturing for a position etc. Its suffice to say that after the birth of Hip Hop the US even Europe has not produced any relevant culture or original idea, this is something I will address at length in the future, this is why we need to look outside of ourselves to renew our enthusiasm for what the purpose of creativity can serve as a collective cultural movement and celebration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH1ihQbKNIs

Ive been posting up some of the new and available technologies that we can use and will be using in the future for a reason, there is tremendous opportunity for application as an art form and equally as a form of communication. There is reason for trepidation as all these technologies will be used against you and in your favor, I personally try to sort out how it applies to my life and proceed with caution and enthusiasm. We all saw Minority Report with Tom Cruise and said WOW to the visual technology that was proposed, well it now it is a reality and here is a video link demonstrating it.

via New York Times online-

John Underkoffler, who led the team that came up with the interface that Tom Cruise’s character used in the 2002 movie “Minority Report,” co-founded a company, Oblong Industries, to make the gesture-activated interface a reality.

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

Critically acclaimed graffiti-feature film “WHOLETRAIN” by Florian Gaag will be shown in:

New York:

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 7:00 pm at:

Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building
5 East 3rd Street (at Bowery)
New York, NY 10003
Tel.: +1 (212) 439-8700
Free admission
http://www.goethe.de/wyomingbuilding

Director Florian Gaag in Person
Special Guest: PURE (NYC)

“ideas last forever—and are the real drivers of history.”- Chris Anderson

2010 TED Conferenced- Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos augmented-reality maps which is amazing. If you notice Bling allows you to map where graffiti pieces are and allows you to post them. That is so next level my friends, make use of it.

San Francisco Printmaker/Social Activist Faviana Rodriguez will exhibit her beautiful prints on the East Coast for the first time, peep the video to get her profile.

COUNTERTHEORY - Works by Favianna Rodriguez

Exhibit Opening Night //
Friday, March 12, 2010, 7-11 PM
Global beats & local organic veggie refreshments

Closing Event //
Saturday, April 3, 2010, 7-11 PM
58 COLES STREET, JERSEY CITY, NJ 07302

DIRECTIONS: 58 Gallery is easily accessible from NYC by PATH train. Enter the PATH station on 6th Ave. at 33rd, 23rd, 14th, 9th, Christopher St., or World Trade in Manhattan and exit at Grove St. in Jersey City. Take a short walk up Newark Ave., make a right onto Coles St. The gallery is between 3rd and 4th. 58 Coles Street.

For more info, visit: Fifty8.com

Remi just posted flicks from his recent trip to SF where he showed at White Walls Gallery- Peep the set - http://www.flickr.com/photos/remirough1/sets/72157623227427707/ Although a graff writer his work extends beyond the structure of letters and focuses on color as structures.

Nike Elementos - Brazil 2010 from Project 2050 on Vimeo.

http://www.stylewars.com

Many of you are fans of or have seen Style Wars the documentary filmed by Director Tony Silver and co-Produced by Henry Chalfant. Its been many years and so many changes have taken place with the advent of new technologies and media that it has become increasingly urgent to preserve the film for future generations. Public Arts Film has relaunched the website http://www.stylewars.com to raise funds to help preserve and digitize the film and outtakes. This is important work that needs to be done in an effort to save the film from erosion and other damages. I would ask of all my friends and fellow bloggers to donate anything they can, there are special incentives for donors as well, spread the word too. Any amount will help save the film and its legacy. Read more below—-

In the early 1980s, Mayor Koch, enraged about graffiti, began buffing the city’s colorful, painted trains. In the end, he may have succeeded, but not before Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant captured the magnificent first wave of graffiti in their pioneering documentary, Style Wars. The film is seen around the world as an important footnote in hip hop culture and New York City history. Today, that history, too, is threatened. The original footage is damaged and fading. A new kind of buffing is taking place – a “celluloid buff” – that threatens to eradicate the record of the first brave and indomitable writers who took the world by storm.

You can help preserve that history!

Public Art Films is currently on a fund-raising mission to restore the original print, and to create a new high definition master which will preserve the record of the first painted trains to its original vivid colors. We’re inviting you to take part in this historic enterprise.

The Restoration Project

Twenty five years after its initial release there is still a strong, global demand for the film. In an effort to keep up with this demand we must be able to offer the film in the the most up-to-date formats. We are embarking on a project to restore STYLE WARS and bring it up to the highest technical standards available today in order to create a High Definition edition of the film. We will be transferring the original 16 mm negativeinto full HD 1080p while cleaning and restoring the film during the process. The HD master will be better, sharper and more brilliant than the original. From it we can strike new prints, author new DVDs and participate in the digital economy.

We have looked at the original negative and discovered that it was damaged during the many years it has been in storage. Fortunately, it will be possible to repair it, using digital technology, painstakingly working on each damaged frame. The restored film will have unprecedented sharpness and clarity and the vibrant colors of the painted trains will be revealed in their original intensity.

Outtakes

One of the questions people always ask us is, “What’s in the outtakes?”
STYLE WARS was originally edited to its 69 minute length from about 30 hours of 16 mm film that we shot in 1981 and 1982. We have been able to visit the storage facility at the Academy Film Archives in order to look through some of the outtakes. It was very exciting to see wonderful scenes in the extra footage that didn’t make it into the finished film. There are many shots of trains and some surprising masterpieces rescued from oblivion. There are more scenes from the B boy battle at United Skates of America between the Rock Steady Crew and the Dynamic Rockers and there are interviews with Skeme and his mom, Dez, Kase 2, Shy, Seen, Dondi and all the other kings and characters that people have grown to love.

http://www.stylewars.com

Eric Deal who along with his brother Spar run the famed http://www.at149st.com website was just interviewed for the New York Times about Graff. His book Graffiti New York can be found at most major book sellers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/nyregion/05graffiti.html

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/02/05/nyregion/20100205GRAFFITI_index.html