other people's stuff

Gotye- Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra)- official...

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 08:00:05 -0100

Gotye- Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra)- official film clip (HD) (by gotyemusic)

Kimbra - “Settle Down” [Official Music Video] (by...

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 01:10:20 -0100

Kimbra - “Settle Down” [Official Music Video] (by Forum5Recordings)

On Facebook: Teaching Data to Speak Humanely

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:17:28 -0100

On Facebook: Teaching Data to Speak Humanely:

dbreunig:

Yesterday, Facebook unveiled their new “Timeline” design. Largely imagined by Sam Lessin and Nicholas Feltron, the design coaxes personal actions recorded by Facebook into a humane, emotional, interface for a given history¹. Users can delve into their content not as images, notes, and…

"I wrote a song that I never recorded, where I sing, “We will fly over tune-yards in our dreams.”..."

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 10:25:33 -0100

“I wrote a song that I never recorded, where I sing, “We will fly over tune-yards in our dreams.” I’ve become enamored with the thought that songs and inspirations don’t come from a person or an artist, they come from outside of you. When I was sitting down in that creation period and editing a piece of music, it wasn’t feeling like I’m controlling it—it felt like I could access something else. I don’t mean to say that I feel like the hand of God or anything, but definitely being more of a channel than a creator. A lot of people call you things and blow smoke up your ass. Sure, I feel like I’m a good person, but I don’t feel like I’m a brilliant genius [and] that no one else is. I just feel like I’m lucky. The name “Tune-Yards” keeps it outside of myself—that this is a place where music is created.”

- Merrill Garbus, on the name of her project, Tune-Yards.

The idea of talent and inspiration as a gift, something beyond and outside of the maker, is an evergreen topic, but it seems to be an idea that has been coming up with greater frequency since Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED talk hit the web in 2009. It’s reminiscent of a part of D.H. Lawrence’s Song of a Man Who Has Come Through:

Not I, not I, but the wind that blows through me!
A fine wind is blowing the new direction of Time.
If only I let it bear me, carry me, if only it carry me!
If only I am sensitive, subtle, oh, delicate, a winged gift!
If only, most lovely of all, I yield myself and am borrowed
By the fine, fine wind that takes its course through the chaos of the world
Like a fine, an exquisite chisel, a wedge-blade inserted;
If only I am keen and hard like the sheer tip of a wedge
Driven by invisible blows,
The rock will split, we shall come at the wonder, we shall find the Hesperides.

The independent source of inspiration may be from a divine attendant like the Greeks’ daemon as Gilbert explains, the wind as Lawrence writes, or as a place like the tune yard that Gerbil describes. The crucial aspect of this externality is that the insight and inspiration provided by these things is a gift to the artist; it becomes the duty of the maker to pass on these gifts by making their work. Lewis Hyde, in his book The Gift, calls this obligation a “labor of gratitude.” Hyde states:

When I speak of labor, then, I intend to refer to something dictated by the course of life rather than by society, something that is often urgent but that nevertheless has its own interior rhythm, something more bound up with feeling, more interior, than work. The labor of gratitude is the middle term in the passage of a gift. It is wholly different from the ‘obligation’ we feel when we accept something we don’t really want. (An obligation may be discharged by an act of will.) A gift that has the power to change us awakens a part of the soul. But we cannot receive the gift until we can meet it as an equal. We therefore submit ourselves to the labor of becoming like the gift. Giving a return gift is the final act in the labor of gratitude, and it is also, therefore, the true acceptance of the original gift. … The shoemaker finally gives away some shoes. The twelfth step in AA gives away what was received; the man who wanted to teach so as to ‘pass it on to the younger men’ gives away what he received. In each case there is an interim period during which the person labors to become sufficiently empowered to hold and to give the gift.

Needless to say, as one who has taught, worked for free, and tried my best to document many of the successes and failures in the early stages of a career, I believe in passing on the goodwill, wisdom, and inspiration I’ve gained through the efforts of others. So perhaps it’s fitting that I’m attaching these thoughts as a reblog. As Hyde says, “the gift must move.”

—

Suggested further reading:
The Gift by Lewis Hyde
Form-Giving by Rob Giampietro

Garbus quote via Austin Kleon

(via viafrank)

"Our time is a time of erasing the lines that divided things neatly. Today we find all the..."

Wed, 25 May 2011 00:14:56 -0100

“Our time is a time of erasing the lines that divided things neatly. Today we find all the superlatives and the infinite fulfillment man hungers for portrayed not only in fairy stories or poems but also in billboards and magazine ads and TV commercials. We are doing an age-old thing in new media. But when we learn (or teach) how to take fairy stories and myths and parables we must also learn (or teach) how to take billboards and magazine ads and TV commercials. In a sense this is simply to take signs as signs.”

- Sister Corita Kent (via viafrank)

iwdrm: “What are you gonna do today, Napoleon? … Whatever I...

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 14:17:56 -0100

iwdrm:

“What are you gonna do today, Napoleon? … Whatever I feel like I wanna do. Gosh!”

Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

“Typographer, graphic designer and businessman Erik...

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 16:00:06 -0100

“Typographer, graphic designer and businessman Erik Spiekermann has created timeless, influential and, yes, Meta-physical work over the past three decades.” (via gestalten tv)

Umbra (HD - 2010) (by Malcolm Sutherland)

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 10:05:34 -0100

Umbra (HD - 2010) (by Malcolm Sutherland)

tylergalpin: (via tmblg, danmeth) Yep.

Sun, 30 Jan 2011 21:42:54 -0100

tylergalpin:

(via tmblg, danmeth)

Yep.

It never seems to stop to amaze me when people take something...

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 23:36:00 -0100

It never seems to stop to amaze me when people take something that belongs inside a computer and try to portray it with analog things. It is a tradition at Google to do that. Results vary, but this German ~~stop-motion~~ mixed media ad for Google Street View had got my full attention.

Video

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 17:32:48 -0100

Why designers should learn programming.

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 15:32:06 -0100

Why designers should learn programming.

Subheadings the right way. A very good lesson in setting type...

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 03:46:19 -0100

Subheadings the right way. A very good lesson in setting type the right way.

Photo

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 01:57:22 -0100

rakel: Tíhí, Björk er að faðma múmínálf.

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 02:11:27 -0100

rakel:

Tíhí, Björk er að faðma múmínálf.

The Art of Hermann Zapf I got interested in typography many...

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 02:08:43 -0100

The Art of Hermann Zapf

I got interested in typography many years ago but learning about calligraphy really gives you a new and improved view on type. Here is an extraordinary piece of history where Hermann Zapf demonstrates the purpose and techniques of calligraphy.

“What do you do when you’re a red-haired teenage loser...

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:53:25 -0100

“What do you do when you’re a red-haired teenage loser with no friends except for an older guy, your shrink? When everyone hates you, especially your family? When all your peers make fun of you and kick you around? The answer: you and your loser buddy blow all the cash you can get your hands on to buy a sportscar, you dress smart and you head for the land of redheads, Ireland. But what starts off as a search for an ideal, gradually escalates into a rampage of hate, violence and self-destruction.”

French Director Romain Gavras has made some kick-ass music videos like to Stress by Justice and Born Free by M.I.A. Coming up this fall is his very promising first feature film called Notre Jour Viendra or Our Day Will Come. Trailer is cool, but NSFW.

Photo

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:50:17 -0100

(via baubauhaus)

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 20:31:53 -0100

(via baubauhaus)

RUBIKS (by Tom Bunker)

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 22:05:23 -0100

RUBIKS (by Tom Bunker)