Brigitte Schuster

Colin Low presents some of his movies

2008-04-12T23:22:30-05:00

Colin Low presents some of his movies

Colin Low, was invited to talk and present some of his movies at Concordia, Communications department at Loyola Campus in the occasion of class by Dr. Dennis Murphy.

Colin Low showed the documentarty "Moving pictures", a documentary, in collaboration with National Film Board Canada, reflecting his own biography. This movie faesture also his experiences with war. Horses and etching have also always been part of his life.

Further, he talks about the movie, "Circle of the Sun", that thought him most about ethics. It talks about the Indian culture that is more than 7000 years old. He explained that he needed 7 years to prepare the movie and get approvals.

He suggested to keep objectiveness, when looking at things. "You should create self-awareness, something you can only achieve from looking at yourself from the outside."

Now, at the age of 81, Colin is still very active and keen on finishing up a few of his projects: One of them has to do with stereoscopy, the other with 4-dimensinol, animated model of "Periodic Table of the Elements".

Concluding he talks about what he learned in his 50 years of movie making career: Being with people, learning not only about problems, but also values of society, and about the individual itself. And also to know what patience means.

Gordon Martin, retired now, but active in film education at the NFB, commented on this: "Patience for learning also, because the person the one who makes the film, is the one who learns most." Gordon Martin mentioned Lotte Reiniger, a know German animation movie maker using silhouettes in her animations.

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Continued Letterpress Workshop with Martin Dufour

2008-04-06T10:22:22-05:00

Handset Letterpress Metal type Workshop with an experienced typographer in Montreal

After completing the layout for letterpress text and woodblock illustrations I printed in collaboration with Martin Dufour, an experienced letterpress typographer. I spent a couple of days in his letterpress studio to compose the letters, cut my woodblocks for illustrations, print the five layers (blue type, black metal type, black woodblocks, blue woodblocks, black woodtype), and eventually end up with an edition of 16 beautiful prints. I also spent half a day redistributing the composed letters back into the drawers.

Letterpress typography is a craft that demands real patience and time. A virtue that gets almost lost in our computer-driven world where we try to work faster and always more efficient. Martin Dufour's letterpress studio gives the impression to go back in time where time has another dimension and stress does not exist.

The text is set in 3 sizes I composed in Sans Serif. It is a Sans Serif of an American typerfoundry.: In 14 pt Sans Serif, 18 pt Sans Serif, 36 pt Sans Serif Bold metal type and woodletters. Sans Serif was a lot used in the 1920ies and 30ies. It looks similar to Kabel, a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by German typeface designer Rudolf Koch

Em et en Spaces in a box that fill the spaces in between the letters:

1 em is a unit of measurement in the field of typography. It is applied to all letter sizes, in this case to 14pt. An em is the height of the metal body from which the letter rises.1 em devided in half is called 1 en. Taken 2 en make 1 em. There is also ‘3 on em’, which means three of these measurements make 1 em. And there is '4 on em', taken four of them eqals 1 em. There is also '5 on em', taken five of them eqals 1 em.

1 em:

Cat named "Bouillotte" (hot-water bottle) in the letterpress studio:

36pt Sans Serif Bold, in drawer:

Letter blocks of the text set in 18 pt Sans serif:

Line height is 12 pt for the 36pt Sans Serif Bold text:

Pantone Reflex Blue Printing Inc:

To obtain the right blue inc, 4 parts of blue and 12 parts of white are mixed:

Pantone Color book:

Vandercook Universal 3 Press:

Blue text on printing press:

Positioning of letter blocks on the press through printing on the same sheet of paper. To be able to distinguish to new from the old version, the first letters are highlighted with a pencil:

Positioning of letter blocks on press:

Metal that helps to position the letter blocks on the press in the size 40 x 10 pica. (Or 40 x12 pt by 10 times 12pt) It is used to fill the space on the press:

Letter blocks on press:

On the light table original layout and print are compared and the type can be positioned accordingly:

The later printed xylography prints on transparent paper are positioned on top of the print to help to decide if the type is on the right spot:

Linden woodblocks that are cut:

Linden woodblocks with illustrations on press:

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Dr. David Suzuki at Concordia University Montreal

2008-04-06T10:12:04-05:00

Environmental activist. Dr. David Suzuki gives a talk at Concordia University, Montreal

On April 3, 2008, I attended Dr. David Suzuki's talk at Concordia University, Montreal.The talk was introduced by speakers who promoted the following projects: Sustainable Concordia and Generations Pact.

Suzuki explained why the world’s environmental situation became so problematic. He started off 150.000 years ago, when we were just a few human beings in this world. In 1900 we were already 1.5 billion and today we reached over 6,6 billion. We represent more than any other creature in this world, more than mice, rabbits or rats.

Another factor is that we changed from a rural style of living to a life in the city, which is an artificial environment that is totally disconnected from nature.

Furthermore, especially after world war second, we started getting more and more involved into consumerism and left our technological footprint on this earth with clothes, air travels, products, etc.

Suzuki also claims that the Media doesn’t bother about environmental issues. Already in 1992, important writings had been accomplished to make people aware of upcoming environmental issues, but all of that had not been considered as news worthy and was reported by not any newspaper.

Economists also seem not ignore the importance of the biosphere and environment. Once, it will be distorted the economy will be worthless either. Suzuki predicts that the expontentionally growing economy won't increase infinitely.

Susuki compares the earth with a basket ball surrounded by the biosphere which is thin and sensitive like a varnish.

The book "The Sacred Balance: A Visual Celebration of Our Place in Nature" explains what we can do to meet our basic needs and create a way of life that is ecologically sustainable.

His book "God news for a change" features solutions on how we can change our lifestyle to prevent a biological catastrophe.

In the talk Susuki encourages our generation to take on and do the change, a step that his generation failed to do. Suzuki invited people to sign a petition at the Suzuki Foundation web site.

Bill Buxton lecture at SAT and at UdM in Montreal

2008-03-26T12:12:09-05:00

Bill Buxton in Montreal

Buxton talks at SAT

As a grad student I was invited to a special talk by Bill Buxton at SAT on March 25th, 2008. He is a designer and researcher with a music background. The event was an open talk with the opportunity for the audience to come up with questions. It was based in the product design field, but can easily be applied to other design branches as graphic design or architecture. Buxton is a good speaker with sometimes provoking arguments. Daily life examples make his arguments very understandable.

Buxton talked about fundamentals of becoming a good designer: One of them is experience. Sketching ideas can help us in the process of getting experienced in a fast and efficient way. Instead of spending time on meticulous, detailed drawings, sketchings allow to move fast on to the next idea. Buxton says that we should forget about 99.9 percent of our ideas. The more ideas the garbage can is filled with at night the most productive employees are.

Another important point is collaboration. He brought up the example of the bike company Trekbikes. Employed product designers there are encouraged to use bikes before and during work to be able to experience the client's role and eventually better understand the product's needs and requirements.

For a team it is most useful to construct a pool of different experiences. Buxton gave the example that he would never accept a student who would have the same skills as he has. Instead, he would take on a student who has a skill he is unfamiliar with himself.

Buxton encouraged students to pick up ideas that are already out in the market and market them. They are not supposed to come up with something totally new. However, if they do so, he warns them to think that an invention is totally their own thing: It still has references in a context of history or culture or environment.

It was an encouraging talk based on Buxton's examples from his large authentic professional and private experiences.

Buxton conference at UdM

The university talk was entitled 'The Design Eco-System'. The purpose of his talk was to show how designers think differently.and how they should shape the culture we are in. Buxton himself, Principal Researcher Microsoft Research gave many examples on Apple's designers and their products. According to Buxton the example of Steve Jobs' inventions ot the mac cube show that designers sometimes screw up badly before they come up with a good product.

Again, he mentionned the importance of sketching and gave some more details: ''Sketches are like Swiss cheese: They need holes form imagination."

An insteresting point was also the type of conversation that should be normal in a design environment: Open and honest constructive critique.

Again, this was a great talk with an extended question period.

I am curious to get Buxton's book: "Sketching User Experiences - Getting the Design Right and the Right Design" now.

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Exposition of Geoffrey Farmer, Yannick Pouliot and Arnaud Maggs

2008-03-26T12:03:03-05:00

Geoffrey Farmer, Yannick Pouliot and Arnaud Maggs exhibit in Montreal's Museum of contemporary art.

Vancouver artist Geoffrey Farmer has a show at Montreal's Museum of contemporary art.

Geoffrey's work is mostly installation-based. I like the art piece 'Notes for Strangers' (1990), for which he wrote letters about strangers he met on a bus trip using his miniature typewriter. These letters can be considered as poems signed by 'A Stranger'.

Yannick Pouliot, a young artist from Quebec, shows modified royal furniture.

Montreal-born Arnaud Maggs, a former graphic designer and professional commercial photographer, decided at some point in his life to become an artist. He is an important Canadian conceptual photographer. The exhibited work shows some of his photography work that consists in archival photography.

The museum has a the Mediatheque, a place to do research in contemporary art.

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Installation and Performance Festival at Usine-C entitled 'Temps d'images'

2008-03-04T11:10:23-05:00

Performances by Jan Fabre and Kubilai Khan Investigations and Et Ludica

Koko Doko dance performance

Usine-c in Montreal presented the festival 'Temps d'images' on February 21 to March 1st, 2008 .

I first saw the dance installation 'Koko Doko' Kubilai Khan Investigations, France, and Et Ludica, Germany. Performers created an interesting play of shadows. Nevertheless, I found that the performers didn't really fit together: A raster man and two Japanese girls. My judgement might be exaggerated, after seeing this phantastic piece by 'FASE' at Usine-c by Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker a couple of weeks before.

L'ange de la Mort' installation

I also expected more when seeing 'L'ange de la Mort' by Jan Fabre from Belgium and Ivana Jozic from Croatia. The set up was interesting: The performer Ivana Jozic was placed on a stage in the middle of the space surrounded by the public sitting on the ground. There were video projections featuring William Forsythe on all of the four walls who was supposed to represent Andy Warhol of whom he was reciting texts. While I enjoyed the first part of the installation with parts of mysterious silence, I found it towards the end somehow repetitive.

Exhibit entitled 'Reenactments' at DHC/Art Foundation

2008-03-01T12:40:12-05:00

Installations by Nancy Davenport, Stan Douglas, Harun Farocki, Ann Lislegaard, Paul Pfeiffer, and Kerry Tribe

DHC/Art Foundationin Old Montreal presents until May 25, 2008 the exhibit entitled 'Reenactments'. International contemporary artists like Nancy Davenport, Stan Douglas, Harun Farocki, Ann Lislegaard, Paul Pfeiffer, and Kerry Tribe show installation works.

Video installation by Kerry Tribe: Here and Elsewhere, 2002

Martin Dufour is teaching handset typography and letterpress printing

2008-02-19T20:51:00-05:00

Handset typography and letterpress workshop with Martin Dufour

In February 2008, I started the handset typography and letterpress workshop offered at Atelier Circulaire that is one of Montreal's collective intaglio centres besides Graff, the Zocalo, Concordia University's printing department and UQAM's printing department.

I did my first attempts and exercised myself in composing letter by letter. This is a quite patience-demanding mission. It enables us to accomplish our personal project that is part of the workshop. More information about that will be posted in a few weeks...

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Belgian choreographer De Keersmaeker and Tale Dolven perform at Usine-C

2008-02-01T12:12:30-05:00

'FASE, four movements to the music of Steve Reich'at Usine-C

On January 29, 2008 I went to see the choreography show ‘Fase, four movements to the music of Steve Reich’ at usine-c, premiered in 1982.

Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker performed with Tale Dolven to composer Steve Reich's music. Tale Dolven is part of Keersmaeker's dancing company Rosas, one of the world’s most wanted contemporary dancing companies. The music named Piano Phase (1967), Come Out (1966), Violin Phase (1967), Clapping Music (1972) were accompanied by the performer's cyclical repetitions and patterns and their beautiful shadows and silhouettes.

Theo Jansen and his large-scale kinetic sculptures

2008-01-28T23:02:54-05:00

Theo Jansen lectures at Concordia University about his large-scale kinetic sculptures

In occasion to 'The Defiant Imagination Lecture Series 2008' Concordia University's Faculty of Fine Arts presented Theo Jansen on January 23.

Dutch born Theo Jansen creates large-scale kinetic sculptures, which he calls 'Strandbeests' or 'beach animals'. Having a background in science and fine arts, Jansen is interested in creating something new by trying to forget the existing. The animals are made out of plastic tubes, but Jansen experiments with all sorts of material, such as wood or steel.

About 17 years ago Jansen found out the so-called 'twelve holy numbers' that determine the proportions of the animals’ legs, explained in Jansen's book ‘The Great Pretender'. These legs function basically as a reinvention of the wheel. Perfectly equipped, they have the ability to be able to go forward on the uneven beach sand without resistance.

The animals use also special advices, like air filters that correspond to nerves, an invention, which makes them pup air in themselves to be able to walk even if there is no wind. Or the hammer advice, which makes them automatically hammer them in the sand once a storm comes up. Powered by the wind, these creatures live their lives on beaches, until they die.

Theo Jansen's lecture has been video taped. It was fun to see this humorous and interesting speech of the artist in person. I liked his explication to one of the public’s questions of why he became an artist. He said, after his physics studies he traveled through Europe for a while and became a hippie. Back in the Netherlands he started his painting studies, because he couldn’t imagine to work in the sciences…

Theo Jansen's continuous work process can be followed throughout his web cam.

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