Greetings colleagues and prospective members. Any time is a good
time to explore the somewhat contentious nature of beauty and the
importance of seeking it out in our aesthetic endeavours, but since
it is the month of St. Valentine too, now is an even better time to
connect ideals with action and understand just what it is that
gives meaning and importance to beauty. While the world is burning
around us and ever more 'depressed', what better time to look
deeper within ourselves at what can inspire us to be as Radiohead
said, "fitter, happier, more productive...", Yes! Beauty. So as we
button down to what seems to be an intractable global recession, we
build off our previous issue,
APOCALYPSE...JUST
NOW, and proffer a return to the basics of creativity from a
motivational perspective. What makes us get out of bed? Beauty of
course! We all know that money makes the world go round, but so of
course does love, and much of love is based on beauty, and
hopefully, truth? And just what is beauty? Is it an individual,
cultural or universal construct? After all, we all smile the same
way, and laugh in the same language. Perhaps the construct of
beauty is not that illusive after all? But does beauty stand up to
post-modern, post-anthropological and even neo-modern critique?
These and many questions are posed by our members this month and
while we may not have all the answers, we would like to know your
views and establish a debate around the subject as we believe it is
central to the philosophy that binds fashion, music, art,
architecture and design, the very lifeblood of our creative
community. Order, balance, chaos, symmetry, functionality,
rationality, decoration, collage, colour, contrast, texture,
pattern... they are all up for grabs as we delve beneath the skin
of a topic that has kept intellectuals scratching their heads for
millennia. Enjoy! - Ed.
IN
PRAISE OF SHADOWS Master of the performing arts and many things
mysterious, VINCENT TRUTER begins the first in a series of three
essays examining a seminal text by Japanese architect JUNCHIRO
TANIZAKI in Praise of Shadows. Vincent, whose eccentric career has
taken him on esoteric sabbaticals in Japan and Northern Europe
reveals the crucial function of shadows in Japanese Kabuki and
painting. THE FUNCTION OF BEAUTY Information design theorist BRUCE
GOURLEY presents an argument for the construct of beauty as a
function of humankind’s capacity to instinctively recognize the
correct order of things. Systems, nature and mathematics come under
the spotlight in a short and somewhat classical take on beauty, but
essential reading to underpin the debate around aesthetics that
follows.
ALL EYES ON KELE – BLOC PARTY IGNITE CROWD IN STUNNING BLITZ
Editor-in-chief DON ALBERT reports from the trenches of Middle
England’s Wolverhampton Civic Hall on the final live show of the
current UK tour by London’s indie-rock band BLOC PARTY. Albert
argues Bloc Party’s resonance with an increasingly disenchanted,
dysfunctional and disenfranchised British youth - and the dystopia
that spawns them, is reminiscent of THE SMITHS during the 1980’s,
but with some key differences.
LOOKING ELSEWHERE: MAGPIE METHODS OF CREATIVITY IN DESIGN In
the first of series of recorded on-line chats, recent University of
Pretoria architecture graduates ANNEMIE VAN DEN HEEVER and
CHRISTIAAN VAN ASWEGEN discuss ‘collage’ approaches to creativity
and design research. Always entertaining, Annemie and Christiaan’a
sparring is lighthearted yet informative – and offers
trans-discursive insights into architecture, fashion and design.
STARTING WITH THE UNIVERSE - PRESCIENT PROJECTIONS London based
architect and urbanist ELENA PASCOLO reviews the latest BUCKMINSTER
FULLER exhibition at the Witney Museum in New York and returns to
the chaos that is recession London calling for a reappraisal of the
holistic and interdisciplinary approach to design and science that
Buckminster Fuller championed. A great primer for further
information on one of the 20th Century’s greatest environmentalist
thinkers.
DUTY TO
BOOTY In a tongue-in-cheek article, Durban based electronic
music artist RICHARD SMITH examines the phenomenal rise of “Booty”
as a cultural force in R&B and pop music, and the lengths to
which some artists will alter their bodies in order to capture
market attention. Arguing a ‘cultural’ basis for the appreciation
of this kind of beauty, Richard maps out where Booty has been, and
where its going.
HER WORD IS HER WEAPON Cape Town writer and arts critic
Rafaella Della Donna interviews FAITH 47 on her unique graffiti
styled street art that is emerging within the ‘townships’, her
context and the mythology around her subject matter.
ON
IRONY, KITSCH AND UGLY PAINTING: in conversation with Georgina
Gratrix Art critic ROBERT SLOON chats to GEORGINA GRATRIX about her
recent work Master Copy and tries to get to the bottom of what
contemporary painting is about.
HUSSEIN CHALAYAN : From fashion and back. Few fashion designers
exemplify the PY-TV ethos of intellectual 'mash-up' quite like
Cypriot born and London based emerging superstar Hussein Chalayan.
DON ALBERT reviews his most comprehensive exhibition to date.
