Subodh Gupta

I first heard about Subodh Gupta via the amazingness that is TED. He was mentioned in Ravin Agrawal's talk entitled "10 Young Indian Artists to Watch", and spoken quite highly of as he is described the "Alphamale of contemporary Indian art". He "celebrates local and mundane objects globally and on a grander and grander scale by incorporating that into ever more colossal sculptures and installations." His works caught my eye, to say the least. I immediately had to Google him and see the pictures in a larger format than my iTouch's small screen. I quite love what he does and how he creates such a grandiose metaphor out of such seemingly unimportant everyday items. The messages he portrays about the health of his people and of the world are sent out via these glimmering sculptures and paintings that seems to be representative of both hope and despair. Recyclable genious.

Song of the day: The Aston Shuffle - I Wanna See You

Tom Shannon

Tom Shannon is an American artist who combines science and art to create some exquisitely unique sculptures and paintings. I'm a fan.

I also watched the TED video/interview in which he describes his invention that created the above and below: the pendulum. It's a giant rotating metal rod with paint at the bottom that is mechanically engineered to dispense specific amounts of different color paints at the touch of a button. It creates these intricate circular patterns that collide in the most interesting of ways. From far away, the circles overlap seamlessly. Close up, however, is the Monet-effect - they are drops of multicolor paint that flow around eachother randomly but somehow together. Tom Shannon explains in the video that these seemingly random drops frequently resemble the shapes of several animals and other recognizable imagery, to which he concludes that perhaps there are parts of these designs that could predict future discoveries. I find these paintings to be striking from both far away and up close - and what an ingenius way to create that! Science and art coexisting together, recipe for success (sometimes...).

Song of the day: Fever Ray - Seven (The Twelves Remix)

An Advertological Note

When I first saw the Diamond Shreddies commercial (above) back in 2008, I thought it was ingenious and hilarious and definitely memorable - three aspects of advertising I find imperative. Interestingly enough, this campaign won the 2008 Grand Clio Award for Integrated Campaign. Then I watched Rory Sutherland's TED talk about advertising (below), wherein he explained that this campaign was created by Hunter Somerville (an intern at the time) for Ogilvy and Mather Canada.

As he explains in the video, this is the perfect case of "creating intangible added value without changing the product in the slightest. [...] All it requires is photons, neutrons, and a great idea." I completely agree - what an inventive idea and so simple, too!

However I cannot bore you with my appraisal of advertising ingenuity and will continue on with the complainathon.

Recently, Cottonelle released a very similar ad campaign (below) called the Roll Poll, in which they ask everyday people to contact them (internet, text message etc...) and tell them which way they roll their toilet paper - over or under? They are renewing the brand without changing a thing about it - another great idea with less cost. Now, I can't seem to put my finger on whether or not I like this campaign - and it very well could have to do with my being faithful to the original Diamond Shreddies, but I can't seem to make up my mind. Is is funny and a good debate or is it illegitimate and silly?

Great minds think alike?

Song of the day: Alizee - Limelight