Altered Book States: Last week, we posted about Guy Laramee’s amazing book landscapes. This week, take a look at the gorgeous altered book art made by Rachael Ashe, who is one of many artists and craftmakers exhibiting at this weekend’s Vancouver Mini Maker Faire. Ashe, who also works with photography and collage, uses recycled and found materials to create these fascinating, delicate pieces. The pictured piece, Forgotten Knowledge, combines items found in nature – including a crow’s foot and animal bones – with a set of encyclopedias. Read up on other artists appearing at the fair here, and check out more of Rachael’s work here.
Record love: One of the pitfalls of ordering art and music online is that often the relationship between the consumer and the artist/owner/producer ends after the transaction. Not so with the folks behind Amour & Discipline, a fundraising collective/webzine/non-profit DIY organization from France. When the record label Atelier Ciseaux released Mount Eerie’s latest 7″ To The Ground via Amour and Discipline, the organization asked those who bought the record to send a photo of it – some “news” of the work’s progress and continuing existence in daily life. Their reasoning for this request was borne from curiosity: “We often wondered what had become of (the records) — where are they stored?” they mused in a web post. “When are they played, between daytime and night-time?” Photos have poured in from all over the world. They are cute, weird, artsy and charming, and their existence gives this little record a larger sense of permanency.
Phone booths, transformed: We loved this Torontoist article about artists re-invigorating the city’s phone booths with artistic projects – from hanging up stained-glass window style panels to an interactive booth where people could step inside and record ideas about social change in a notebook. These works raise so many questions and provoke different ideas – about neighbourhoods, about technology, about a changing culture of interactivity. You can see more of these installations here.
Reading Rainbow redux: This is a little less indie than our usual fodder, but we felt a cool little thrill upon hearing that the classic PBS children’s program Reading Rainbow was being re-booted – as an iPad app. Host Levar Burton says the app will create the “multi-dimensional experience” that many of these books deserve, and the app will accordingly host not only episodes of the TV show, but games, puzzles, music, voice actor readings and more. It appears to be a cool way to encourage kids to continue reading and purchasing books and learning interactive, exciting new technologies at the same time. You can see a video of Burton’s interview with VentureBeat about the app (and hear a snippet of the old-school Reading Rainbow theme) here.
Last but not least…Thanks to the folks at the Toronto Zine Library for tipping us off on this incredible (and highly in-depth) interview with one of our rock n’ roll heroes, Japanther drummer Ian Vanek, and his philosophies on DIY culture, experimentation, independent music and doing art for the sake of art. Whether you’re an artist, a musician, a zine-maker or an activist, you’ll get something out of this interview, we guarantee. Until next time….