The Filter^

Reversing Album Sleeves

Here's a tip: take a CD album and reverse the sleeve.

I've done this for years, and feel that it improves the aesthetic balance of the cover - for some reason the secondary image is more enticing than the primary. Perhaps it's purely because it's new, but I do feel that the dictated cover is more impartial and less visual than what lurkes beneath.
Penguin Books has been nominated as Designer of the Year proving quite sensibly that you should judge a book by it's cover. In the 'Great Ideas' series the cover incorporates text from the book, and feels as if the cover has been replaced by a page from inside - just as is the case with the "album sleeve reverse". The result is that the cover image and the written pages appear in harmony - the visual aesthetic is a creative interaction with the novel itself.

So reverse the sleeve of your CDs, nominate Penguin Books as the Design of the Year, and introduce some playful creativity to little treasures.

Vienna Arts Society

Utilising her free time, Faith has been working on the website for the Vienna Arts Society. This month she is displaying a few of her paintings on the web exhibition - and it seems like I've gone up for sale. A bargain, at $90.

Faith's personal website is faithspictures.com

Piet Mondriaan

AUX HOMMES FUTURS

Play the stupendous Pac Mondrian

Superlambanana

According to BBC News:

Superlambanana is being put on a low-loader and moved from the Wapping area of [Liverpool] to Tithebarn Street.

Superlambana was the fourth post on The Filter^, and is my favourite public sculpture in the world.

Caravaggio

23rd Feb - 22nd May, National Gallery London.

To celebrate, Jonathan Jones has a long, juicy article in the Guardian.

Get Closer

When you have about 5 minutes to spare, I recommend Eye of Science:

Our aim as a two-person team of photographer and biologist is to combine scientific exactness with aesthetic appearances thereby helping to bridge the gap between the world of science and the world of art. Our commitment is to the evidence of scientific investigation but also to the use of colour as a creative and harmonious tool to achieve beauty. In the combination of the aesthetics and the science we hope to inspire the public. Day by day, in a world beyond human vision, we explore fascinating forms and structures.

Highlights include the coral-like microphotography of Velcro, an contaminated apple with mould fungi and yeast and a Little Shop of Horrors-like bladderwort (contrast the micro-version with the innocent flowering plant).

Modern Art is Rubbish

A German museum is offering art appreciation lessons to Frankfurt's sanitation workers, after garbage collectors lugged away a public art sculpture recently and sent it to the incinerator.

From the CBC, more here.

Reusing the Big Box

When a large store of a retail chain closes down, what is left is a big vacant, empty space. The retailer in question generally doesn't resell or lease the property to its competitors. So what happens to these "big boxes"?

Julia Christensen began investigating how Communities are Re-Using the Big Box in January of 2004. Throughout the spring and summer of 2004, she traveled over 17,000 miles around the country in her car, visiting the sites and meeting the people who are making these transformations possible.

Highlights include the Spam Musem (a renovated K-Mart) in Austin, the RPM Indoor Raceway (a renovated Wal-Mart) in Round Rock, Nelson County Justice Center (ex-Wal-Mart Lot) in Bardstown, KY, TX and the Jen Library of Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, GA. Check out How Communities are Re-Using the Big Box - a well-designed presentation of an interesting research.

A Christmas Card Design Suggestion

Max Ernst
The Virgin Spanking the Christ Child before Three Witnesses: Andre Breton, Paul Eluard, and the Painter
1926
Oil on canvas
196 x 130 cm
Museum Ludwig, Cologne

Dada in MoMA

Once more, you can try to find Dada in MoMA

ooh matron.