Casper Franken

WE'RE SUPPORTING

Alison Brady presents the human form as if it were either a strange plant or a plastic toy uncovered in a middle-American backyard. At once disturbing and whimsical, Brady’s images depict bodies ill-fitted to their environments, as if they were discarded, forgotten, or malfunctioning. Read more

WE'RE TRAVELLING TO

Formed in New York and now based in Rotterdam and Berlin, SMAQ is a collaborative studio for architecture and urbanism by architects Sabine Müller and Andreas Quednau. Here they have created an interesting installation called Bad (bath) in the Solitude Palace Gardens in Stuttgart with the premise of creating a usable sculpture which entwines a 1000 metre long garden hose throughout a timber structure. Read more

WE'RE WEARING

If you’ve ever wanted to work your alter ego’s dark side without looking like a total emo, now’s your chance. New kid on the block Ben Pollitt is shaking things up with his label Friedrich Gray. And the best part about it? Pollitt’s androgynous range has a little something something for everyone. Read more

WE'RE THINKING

Don’t Shoot the Puppy is one of the more difficult flash games out there, sure to engage you for hours. Strategy is the key, but quick reflexes and a photographic memory don’t hurt either. It’s rare that a computer game challenges the intellect and hand-eye coordination to this extent.

WE'RE READING

Artist Bill Zeman has an ruthless, hard-nosed art director giving him orders — his four-year-old daughter. He posts the products of their stormy collaboration along with her devastating critiques on his blog, Tiny Art Director, where you can also purchase the book version. Read more

I spent the formative first six years of my life in Wellington, New Zealand, a beautiful windswept city framed by a magnificent harbour in one direction and a stunning collection of green, rolling hills in the other. It was here, on a return visit many years later and deep amongst the clipped accents and ruddy faces of the weather-beaten locals, that I stumbled upon the vast catalogue of the then Dunedin based record label Flying Nun. And what a roster of acts they housed — The Chills, The Bats, The Clean, Tall Dwarfs, The Verlaines, and my favourite guitar-pop band, Straitjacket Fits. Read more

WE'RE LISTENING TO

Days Off is an incredibly catchy but smart punk band from Chicago. While they’re the best of what pop music through the ages has to offer, they’re by no means pop-punk. As infectious as their hooks and choruses are, there are enough off-kilter rhythms and complex guitar work to give their music a layered feel, putting them into a category all their own.