Exclusive interview with French skateboard artist, Space Invader: Were you an arcade game fanatic as a kid? ‘Not a fanatic, but I remember that I spent many times playing on Atari 2600 with my friends’. What is your highest score on space invaders? ‘Thousands of mosaics put up in the streets of 35 cities around the world’. As a creative medium, do you find the size offered by a skate deck to be a challenge to fill successfully or is it a great size ‘canvas’ to work with? ‘The point for me was to cover the decks with mosaics because the deck becomes a surealistic object. I mean you cannot skate with it anymore, it is too heavy and too fragile. Then it makes it either a useless object or a real art piece!’ What are your thoughts on the actual design of the space invaders characters and what attracted you to them? ‘I was attracted by the fact that they are made with big pixels. Therefore they are easy to be made with tiles. There other thing which attracted me was their name ‘space invaders’ which is an exact definition of my project. I am a Space Invader’. Do you skate? ‘I don’t’.
Also by ZOLTON
Maths explains the origin of superhero characters
I love the colours and simple reasoning in this clever series by Scottish illustrator Matt Cowen, which uses basic maths equations to explain how certain pop culture icons came to be. Read more
Star Wars Uncut: a fully crowdsourced version of Episode IV
The project of creative technologist, Casey Pugh, this full length version of the George Lucas masterpiece was created from multiple 15 second segments recreated from the original movie and submitted by thousands of Star Wars fans, which were then spliced together by editor Aaron Valdez to form the final product. Genius, as both a commentary on contemporary pop culture trends (there are references to LEGO, stop motion, memes and the like) and on the power of tapping your audience for quality material.
Filmmaker creates LEGO stop motion to propose to girlfriend
Now, this is one for the ages: back in 2010, Atlanta film-maker Walter Thompson created a jaw-dropping LEGO stop motion to propose to Nealey Dozier, his girlfriend of four years. The video took 22 hours of shooting and some 2,600 pictures to splice together, a small sacrifice to pay for years of happiness together. Right? Right! Oh, and she said yes. Bonus.
YOU'RE SAYING (2)
- lostateminor.com said | 18 November, 2006
[...] Exclusive interview with skateboard designer and all-round artistic juggernaut, Don Pendleton. Do you generally design decks specifically to a brief or do you have a complete free reign? ‘It depends. Normally I have free reign but I work with the owner of Element when he has ideas to make those happen. I also work with Matt Irving who is a great designer. We collaborate on some decks and then others are just free reign. So it depends’. Are there some colours and shapes that tend to work better than others? ‘You’re working within the confines of a deck shape, so that can be pretty limiting at times if you allow it to be. I try to work with the shape of the board to add to the overall design so it looks like it belongs on a deck. As far as colours, there’s no formula so whatever looks good works for me. I try to switch up the colours to make them interesting but I’m always just trying to have fun with them’. As a creative medium, do you find the unusual size offered by a skate deck to be a challenge to fill successfully or is it a great size ‘canvas’ to work with? ‘I’ve come to accept those limitations of working within the shape of the deck since I’ve been doing it for about nine years now. It comes naturally. Personally, I love it. It’s nice to get out a square canvas once in a while for a change but as far as design goes, I’ve gotten used to making it work for me. I no longer see it as an obstacle, I guess you could say’. Are you a fanatical skater and which deck do you use? ‘I don’t skate nearly as much as I used to but I still do it pretty regularly. I have an Element board with a more mellow concave 8″ X 31.5″ with a little longer wheelbase. I also have a cruiser board for downhill adventures. I was never very good at mini ramp but I like to ride one when I get the chance. I’m just always cautious of hurting my wrists. If I blow a wrist, I’m out of work for a while and I can’t have that’. [see also Space Invader] [...]
HAVE YOUR SAY
Kent Williams is one of my favorite artists and his new show at Merry Karnkowsky in Los Angeles does not disappoint. He’s ballsy as hell with his brushwork and the movement and color and textures all blow me away. Read more
Fans of the 2005 film Serenity will be doing the pee-pee dance for this amazing replica of the spaceship from the movie.
Lasse Gjertsen is the future of cut and paste music. He’s just arrived ten years too early and with a really bad haircut.
Ok, we’re all for clever and quirky signage, but sometimes things just go horribly wrong. This collection of bizarre restaurant signs are either brilliant business ploys (free advertising through the blogosphere?) or total Fails. Read more
This is an amazing international contemporary art website. It’s kinda like a long list of images and videos that’s updated daily.
I have known Hayden for almost twenty years. He has always released quality music and that is why he can wait four years between releases and his fans are still there. His latest album — In Field & Town — went straight into heavy rotation in our home and I think will extend his fan base further than even he might like.
The new Melbourne-based football themed t-shirt collection — GFUNK&BATZ — is a lot of fun. Driven by the designers’ passion for the game, the shirts will have you leaping around like Kewell or Beckham (if that’s what you want) in no time. Read more
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
Never ever, ever, ever, ever park here
Some friendly advice for the neighbours, who simply don’t get it, or street art? You decide which one it is.
Pencils made from recycled newspaper
The problem with awesome things like these pencils made out of recycled newspaper is that you almost don’t want to use them.
Pitched as ‘Ulterior Motives in Contemporary Art’, Disorder Disorder is running until November 14 at Penrith Regional Gallery. It’ll be well worth the trip out west of Sydney: the Australian, Japanese, American and European cast reads like a warriors of street art roundup and includes Mike Giant, Ed Templeton, Anthony Lister [artwork above], Ozzie Wright, and Jonathan Zawada. Read more
Benjamin Edminston’s psychedelic heads seem to have some fearful wisdom behind their blissed-out eyes. Read more
Francoise Nielly’s Yellow series
Parisian visual artist Francoise Nielly brings technicolour to the forefront in her latest series, Yellow. Featuring thick impasto palette knife strokes and trippy neon hues, Nielly captures the vulnerable expressions of her muses to a tee. Read more
Using Kyoko Hashimoto’s popular design, these acrylic earrings are made with unique hand formed sterling silver sleepers that make them light enough for everyday wear. Part of Kyoko’s collection, I Blame the Uni, (pronounced ‘oo-nee’, the Japanese name for sea urchin) and inspired by her experiences in the underground club scene of Tokyo. Read more
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chapolito said | 11 November, 2006
space invader is the shit.
i have a friend who thinks he’s from our hometown because she saw some there, also there are some at my school, ucsd, i sure hope it’s not imitation!!!