To create his "Sun Machine" photo series, James Geoffrey Nunn first collected vintage nature photography. He then processed and reinterpreted the photos digitally, distorting the color and forms into far-from-natural hues, which oddly resemble analog film errors. According to the artist, the series examines the common impulse to work with visual material from the past.
See more of Nunn's work online.
Inspired by the specs worn by shy-but-sexy newspaperman Clark Kent, Warby Parker has teamed up with his alter-ego Superman for the release of the new Man of Steel film. The Warby Parker x Man of Steel collaboration features two different styles, avaiable for both men and women: the Chamberlain and Percey. The prescription frames run at $95 each, and $15 of each purchase is donated to 826NYC, a nonprofit group which works to support students ages 6-18 with their writing skills.
Warby Parker X Man of Steel is now avaiable on warbyparker.com.
David Horvitz's new book How to Shoplift Books falls somewhere between poetry and a more conceptual artist's book. The instructional text, variations on the simple mission of getting a book out of a book shop without paying, offers solutions like, "Tie the book to a dog, and walk out the dog out of the store," or, "Steal the book one page at a time from different stores." Despite a hardcover binding, Risograph printing, and the limited run of 100 copies, the publisher Automatic Books has kept the price of the book intentionally low. Automatic says it likes its releases to "remain affordable in order to facilitate the diffusion of artists’ works." [via Manystuff]
Last week at the Yoko Ono curated Meltdown Festival in London, Rough Trade officially launched the new book, Let's Start a Pussy Riot. The book features contributions and tributes from a long list of supporters including Marissa Paternoster from Screaming Females, Robyn, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo, and Antony Hegarty. Starting this Monday, June 24, Let's Start a Pussy Riot will be available directly from Rough Trade, with all proceeds going to Pussy Riot.
Check out some images from the book below, and head to Rough Trade's online store to pick up a copy.
by Mary Beth Edelson
'Statement IN Slashes - Sketch-Life' by Lee Ranaldo
'Patti Smith' by Marissa Paternoster
'Bjork' by Martha Rich
We recently heard of a new line of bags under the name Sons of Trade that sounded a little bit different from what we've seen before. The SOT line has some tech-friendly features, comes in large sizes to accomodate those with active, multi-faceted lifestyles, and in short, they're the kind of rugged bags built for guys who get out there and do stuff, not just post on street corners. We caught up with Sons founder Braden Jones by email to find out more.
Sons of Trade is a very new brand, where did it come from?
We started by creating something for ourselves—for the way we live here in California. We might sometimes have unruly beards, and we aren’t the type to wear suits to the office, but we still appreciate looking sharp. That means carrying gear with a good design aesthetic. So we tried to build a line of products that would be flexible enough for our own lifestyle, which is sometimes living out of a van for a week, surfing up the coast and sometimes boarding a flight for a meeting on the other side of the globe. We are not the only guys who need gear to accommodate everyday life, no matter what that may consist of.
Braden Jones
Who is Braden Jones?
I’m a 5th generation Californian; that’s something I’m pretty proud of. What else? A traveler, a businessman, a father, a husband. A fan of good Scotch. I like making art and being in the water or out on the open road. I still don’t really think of myself as defined, but I know that someday I will be—as we all will be—so I try to be aware of what kind of legacy I’m going to leave behind. But right now I guess I’m living this life I’ve been given, trying to keep it real in the digital age.
Where does the name Sons of Trade come from?
We’re paying tribute to those who came before us: the workers, writers, thinkers, innovators, and tradesmen. And to the time when a man was a man—when creating and innovating was an art form instead of a formula. We are the sons of those men, and we’re exploring what it means to live a life of adventure and hard work. A life that’s anything but dull.
You're making bags, what makes SOT bags different from the rest?
The best bags that I have used, bought, or seen in passing have all come from past generations. The Military, the U.S. Postal Service, old backpacking, and sportsman gear. They’re durable, purposeful, and built to last. We can’t go back, but we can build bags and accessories for today’s man that will stand the same test of time, built with old world character and materials yet featuring modern tech features. My goal is that in decades to come, a Sons of Trade rucksack, tote, or knapsack will be that bag your son will find in your closet, steal, and take with him to college.
You've got some tech friendly accessories. Where did the inspiration for those come from?
We designed the line to work easily with gadgets because they’re so much a part of life. So it just made sense to build tech gear into the collection so that if you’re on your bike wearing a Satellite Sling, or if you throw an Index Sleeve into your bag, you’re not thinking about your headphone wires getting tangled or your iPad getting scratched. You’re just living.
The Tactical Tote is a big bag—who do you see using that and for what?
It’s actually my daily bag. I’m looking at it right now and it’s holding a couple big notebooks, a camera, my iPad and some smaller stuff like pens, wallet, shades, phone, and keys. And there’s still room for a random roadside find when I wander out. I also use it all the time as my carry on for quick trips to Seattle and New York.
Since it’s pretty roomy and made from coated canvas that you don’t care about getting wet, a lot of guys around here are also using it as a surf bag.
Was it a challenge designing for surfers, travelers, and urbanites alike?
We tend to think that could be three different guys or three parts of one guy. I’m not alone in being a bit of each: I travel a lot, I surf and I find myself in cities all over the world—each time needing a way to carry my stuff. So we designed the collection for guys who want a versatile bag that works to fit their lifestyle. It’s a bag that’s made to be used; it’s the real deal.
A space in a busy Brooklyn subway station previously reserved for candy and magazines is now in the art book business. The Newsstand, a collaborative project from ALLDAYEVERYDAY and the 8-Ball Zine Fair will carry a curated selection of zines, records, and other independent publications in a small storefront right in the Lorimer Street/Metropolitan Avenue subway station. The store boasts an impressive list of local curators including McNally Jackson, Desert Island, and Co-op 87. [via Time Out]
The Newsstand is open weekdays from 9AM-8PM, and weekends from noon-5PM, until July 20.
Kantor Records, a German record label, couldn't get music supervisors to pay attention to its music. They quickly realized the problem might lie in the format they were sending. The label replaced the thousands of ignored promo CDs with a package they called "The Office Turntable," which included a bright orange vinyl LP and a special QR code that lets the user hear the music directly from a smartphone. While the device is meant as a foot in the door for the label, the QR codes offered some positive analytics: 71% of the turntables Kantor sent out were activated.
The xx and Grizzly Bear toured the U.S. and Canada together and Manchester's Dr. Me designed a very handsome poster available only at the shows. Some superfans couldn't make the gigs, however, and petitioned for their own posters. So the designer has wisely made the posters available to the rest of us.
Stalk desktop speakers are actually designed to stand next to a crowded desk, rather than take up valuable desktop real estate. The two models (taller or shorter) are built with colored steel legs and a 3D-printed dome, both meant to be chosen by the owner to personalize the set. The designer, New Zealand-based Ella Bates-Hermans, developed the cone patterns by experimenting with 3D printing textures, and drew inspiration for the speaker's form by studying the shape of speaker drivers. [via NOTCOT]
At one point in time, we took them for granted. Payphones were a must—if you were running late, lost, or traveling and needed to make reservations—or perhaps didn't have a home phone. The eventual affordability and popularity of mobile phones wiped them out, destroying the market for their use and making payphones, it seems, not worth the time or money to maintain. Some still exist, sometimes in the oddest of places, and we're sure that some of us still need them in a pinch. By now, their increasing rarity makes them ripe as a photographic subject. #payphoneography is a bit like a chronicle of the last days of a connected, cheap public communication network—with the occassional shot of an exotic callbox from a far-flung locale. Particularly sad, we think, are the "carcasses" of ripped-out phones.
