Swishing?

So recently I been hearing all about these "swishing parties" and I wondered what all the fuss was about!

Glamour says:

"Can't be bothered to ebay it? Then Swishing is the answer.

Each person brings along 5 unwanted items in good condition.
Then you have half an hour to browse before the official swap begins."

I think this is a fab idea, because someone's junk is another persons treasure. So I decided to see if there were any in Manchester and I found a really trendy one going on in the Northern Quarter. Although I didn't actually take any clothes with me I just had a look round to see how it all worked.

 

The only rules were:

+Please keep the clothes that you bring over either high street or designer, no tat, anything dirty or with holes in.

+Please note, however many items you bring in, the maximum amount you can swap for is 10 garments.  

It was so good I definitely think this idea will catch on,  not only was the evening great the after party was amazing too. If you have never been to one, you absolutely should go!

If you want to find a swishing event near you, I found this great website:

http://www.swishing.org/events/

eTeam - Second Life Dumpster

eTeam is a creative duo from Easton, PA and Ilmenau, Germany, but they live and work in Queens, New York and Mannheim.

I don’t particularly find this type of installation art that interesting, but the theories behind some of their work is, they focus their attentions onto land use issues and “socio-spatial interventions.”

They buy plots of land and then compose structures made out of useable things people throw out, old televisions, tennis rackets, chairs etc. These structures although visually interesting are not my cup of tea, but after reading more about them I found out that 2 years ago they decided to expand this idea; by buying a 4096sqm plot of land on SecondLife: a 3D visual world. They then created code that would be used to add “trash” to their site. When the avatars on SecondLife delete rubbish it all is dumped into a folder and like most computer applications if this trash is not deleted the avatars performance could be compromised, so eTeam developed a public dumpster for the duration of one year using a decay script.

Looking at space restrictions and the record of activities has been logged at: www.meineigenheim.org/dumpster_log/doku.php

The most interesting aspect to this part of their work is that from time to time random trash heaps appear from the Second Life into the First life, reminding us that “objects and lives in worlds that copy each other are often just searching for lost originals.”

Climbing the Greasy Pole.

I saw this fabulous photograph in the Times; it is the skyline scattered with poles that are topped with the national flag, bicycles and other toys to celebrate Indonesia’s 64th Independence anniversary. The photograph shows a man greasing the poles, on the day competitors have to climb up the poles to claim the prizes.

The composition is really intriguing; the repetition of the bicycle wheels, the white and orange flags, also the selective use of colours makes you want to study the photography and look at each individual segment of the photograph. The composition complements the actual subject perfectly, this would make a really interesting piece of mixed media art.

This is a photo I found on Google, I will scan the original photo I found and put it on here asap.

Zen Garden -The Beauty in CSS Design?

I came across this website as part of my research when completing my web module and although the homepage is not the most aesthetically pleasing thing I've ever seen, it is when you begin to read through that you realise the potential the site has; to not only inspire but also to develop your own skills as a graphic designer.

The Zen Garden is all about different graphic designers developing the same page but with their own take on the basic style sheet. After looking through all the different designs I have picked 4 I found most interesting.









These are just 4 designs of many and I'd encourage you to go and have a look for yourself, because its amazing the difference between each one. Even from just the 4 that I have chosen; they are all very diverse and so far removed from the original page which, was designed by Dave Shea, a web designer from Vancouver, Canada.

The first image by Eric Roge from France : Retro Theatre, is so intriguing and different from the original page although maybe not as relevant as some of the other designs but as a page itself is quite interesting and original.

The original website idea is such a fun and useful way of developing your css skills and from finding this website I hope to find more like it and I would also like to try my hand at modifying the page, but we will have to see!

Have a look or go yourself: http://csszengarden.com/