Some tips

Hey!
Dear readers of all ages, I thought I should step out of my own limited surroundings for once and bring you some tips on things cultural that I consider worth checking out.
First off, on some rap shit, a guy who calls himself Thump has done a complete remix album of rapper Aesop Rocks latest full length release, None Shall Pass. The remix album is titled None Shall Proceed and can be accessed here on Youtube, though I'm sure there is a torrent version of the Mp3:s available aswell.
I really like this. The new beats bring out new aspects of the vocals, and the juxtaposition of the generally slow- paced beats and Aesops rapid raps sounds great to me. Maybe this is just non- musical- person- talk for slightly out of sync, though. The samples used are very creative aswell. I really dig the use of birdcalls on the remix of Bring back Pluto and how Thump sometimes reuses samples from older Aesop Rock tracks. Also worth mentioning is the orchestrated insanity of the remixes of 39 Thieves and getaway car. So, check it out.
In other Aesop related news, he has recently released a collaboration with artist Jeremy Fish. It can be downloaded for free right here. The inspiration for the project comes, as I understand it, from a part of San Fransisco called the Barbary Coast and it's inhabitants.
The downloadable folder contains quite alot of goodies. A great track by Aes Rock and the lyrics in pdf- format to go along with it (with his usual vivid and bewildering imagery), aswell as a video file showcasing Jeremy Fish's art. I'm not exactly a fan of Jeremy Fish, but I think this project as a whole is really interesting. And good. And free!

Recently, I saw an exhibition at the gallery of Malmö Art College (Malmö Konsthögskola). The last-year student Johan Furåker showed paintings and a roll of drawings based on the story of one Albert Dadas. Dadas was a mine worker who at several points in his life felt an uncontrollable urge to leave his bleak everyday life behinf him and roam Europe. In the psychiatric environment of the 19-th century he was given the slightly weird prognosis of Pathological Tourism, as I understand it kind of the male equivalent of female hysteria.
It was a really great exhibition, which unfortunately has now closed. Some of it can be seen here though. What I really liked was the genuine interest the artist had in the fate of this single person, and how he had spent several years working around his story. A fascinating story too, with many different levels to it, personal and social.

There is, until February 21st, an exhibition of artist Mattias Härenstams videos at Skånes Konstförening, also in Malmö. The videos, to me, seem centered around themes of depression and the longing for, or perhaps fear of, surprise and wonder in day- to day life. Definately worth checking out.

That's all for now, I hope you're all doing well!

/Theo

William asked me to do the design for the logo for the club he will be arranging this spring together with Josef and Fredrik. I came up with some ideas. The name isn't sure yet, but I hope they are satisfied with my effort and stick to "Black Lodge". I started out with the ones featuring pencil. I wanted the letters to have a scary feeling to them, that's how I came up with the childish, runelike ones. It seems to me our ancient alphabet, despite its use in nazi designs, have a rustic, supernatural feeling to them.

Searching the web for inspiration, I came across some nice typefaces. My other intention was for the letters to bring forth images of 19th century circus posters and early 20th century movie posters (so I stole the letters from a couple). The zigzag on the circus one is off course the carpeting from the original Black Lodge. The bug I though might be an imaginary inhabitant of a place like the Black Lodge. Bugs are never wrong... I like them all, and I feel I have a great affection for designing logos. A monochrome kingdom is where I dwell at the moment.

I am thinking about the SweTech flyers/stickers. Thought I might do something in the same hundred, but with more colour to it. But I like the sparse, raw imagery. I hope it works out well with colours, too. Some intense, bright colour. Give me ideas of what colours I should use. After all, the decision will affect us all; since the flyers/stickers will be spread over Europe we have to think a bit about the design.

Frans

1 st dikt

Stressad av den enorma aktivitet som alla andra bidrar med känner jag att jag själv inte kan vara sämre, och lägger därför dumdristigt upp en dikt i ett alldeles för tidigt skede. Mycket arbete återstår med den, men så här ser den i alla fall ut just nu:

Bruten fuga

Musiken har kristalliserats,
ett frosttäcke över landskapet.

Kylan är sin egen harmoni,
djupa vibrationer längst inuti.

Tystnad. Tystnad och ljus fyller mig.
Ett berg reser sig, tungt, trött. Uppåt.

Tankarna är blottade kadaver,
döda och vackra i det vita.

En bruten varelses sista skri
stelnar till tystnad i luften.

Koagulerad snö fyller isbergets hjärna,
men de avskärmade synapserna förblöder.

Stavar av is bryter tystnaden.
En ocean av dissonanser

forsar fram som rent renaste källvatten:
kristallerna musicerar.





Som sagt, mycket arbete återstår, men kanske kan det ändå bli något.

/Aron

An idea I've been having for some four months: Let's get in touch with a bostadsbolag of some sort, and find out if it's possible for us to rent some premises! I'm thinking run-down factories or warehouses, maybe in Malmö. Through my ventilation work, I've visited huge rooms inhabited by photographs and other artists, all in Helsingborg. The idea of a monstrous space in the outskirts of a town, with a disapearingly small rent, isn't that the perfect playground for people of our guild? Imagine a forum where the SweTechs can practice what they're best at: making art! We could be making movies, paint, rehearse, record, throw parties, host performances, have concerts... Of course, for me, this wouldn't be possible until I'm back in Skåne, but my intention is to plant a seed into your minds. Fuck the financial crisis, this is a thing that actually CAN be done. OK, maybe I'm hyping our abilities a bit to much now, seeing that we will soon be scattered all over Europe. Maybe this plan of mine can't be actualized during 2009... But if we all finally end up in the same city, (either in Sweden or not) this is what I want to do with YOU. And I'm fucking serious!

/Frans

Thinkig about how a good sticker or flyer would look, I came across the idea of morphing together all of the people contributing to SweTech. When I find a decent morphprogram, perhaps I'll get some results. Here's a little morph I did using a crappy application. enjoy!


/Frans

Munka motherfucking Ljungby lately

Hey. Great to see some postings from you again, my ninjas!
Frans and Aron, when it comes to our mutual creative project I haven't gotten very busy yet. I plan to though, starting by re- reading the poems in their updated shape. I felt like we had alot of interesting ideas going in our little brainstorm though, Frans. An idea that came to my mind after thinking about using projections was somehow distorting these using shadows cast by other objects in the room. Perhaps using a kind of rotating apparatus where small cut-outs pass in front of the lenses of the projectors, generating an image of the sparse passers- by in the desolate setting Frans mentioned. Following me?
Also, this distortion could be achieved by placing sculptures ( I'm thinking "gips") in the room. I've made a few sketches of how these could look:





I was trying to make them symbols of longing, or searching. Something like that. I'm thinking that clothing could be incorporated in them by simply making casts of real pieces of cloting.

In other news, I was bored the other day, so I played around with a couple of images I found on my computer, making these two:




The bottom one is based on the graphics for a boss in the SNES- version of Zelda. That's the kind of stuff you just end up downloading and saving on your computer. I quite like them, I'm using the Zelda- one as my desktop picture.

Also, I've painted a portrait of Aron, based on a photo from our trip this summer:



I've been making a few of these lately, portraits mainly focusing on the shape of the head. What I've been trying to get at is a feeling of solidity or integrity, weight perhaps. I'm thinking that the gaze, which I guess generally is one of the things you're supposed to get right in traditional portrature, shouldn't have so much emphasis. I don't know.
A funny thing is that Kristin thought that my portrait looked computer generated. Similar to Tors comment. Maybe you have some facts to face up to Aron.

Before the winter break we we're given a photo assignment, to take three self portraits a day, using a so called onetimes- camera. Because said type of cameras kind of suck, not many of my photos ended up developed. Here are a few though, taken at the time where I turned of my alarmclock in the morning:






Tortured!

I really like the beats that this guy Killaper from our native Lund is making. If I'm not mistaken he used to make streetart back in the so called day, too.

That's all from me at the moment, I hope you're all doing well!

mvh Theo

Hej kära Läsarkrets! (Hello dear Circle of Readers!)

Tänkte bara informera Er om att två nya låtar hamnat på min myspace.
(Only thought of informing You that two new songs have appeared on my myspace)

http://www.myspace.com/fransswahn

Desutom tycker jag att vi måste diskutera en mer aggressiv metod att marknadsföra denna blogg, som det ser ut nu är metoden mer eller mindre lika med noll. Tänkte vi kunde bomba andra inflytelserika bloggar som typ bellas eller kenzas. Eller sådana som är mer åt SweTechs håll, kanske.

Kommentarer nu!

Frans

En uppsats, en dikt och lite musik.

Jag har varit inaktiv här på den senaste tiden mycket beroende på arbetet med min c-uppsats i musikvetenskap. Uppsatsen börjar nu närma sig sitt slut och jag ska bara stavningskontrollera den innan jag mailar den till mina lärare ikväll. Min musik har fått ligga ganska mycket på is på grund av uppsatsen men en del grejer har jag börjat arbeta på. Bland annat har jag börjat spela in en kassett helt utan dator med improvisationsmusik med den utrustning jag har liggandes hemma, än så länge har det blivit min sampler, mp3-spelare med ljudupptagningar och en lp spelare med diverse skivor kopplad till en distpedal. Resultatet läggs väll upp här om det blir en fullständig kassett någon gång i framtiden. I övrigt har jag börjat skriva en del musik i en mer konstmusik anda då jag känner att jag vill vidga mina vyer från den dansmusik jag sysslat med innan. Jag har två stycken på gång men det kommer dock dröja några månader innan nån av dom är färdiga då mina kunskaper inom kontrapunkt och harmonisering leder till ett ganska långsamt arbetande. I övrigt har jag börjat lyssna mer på samtida konstmusik och även försöka hålla mig mer uppdaterad om vad som händer inom konstmusiken idag. Jag kan rekommendera tidningen Nutida Musik och även redaktören Andreas Engströms blog http://nutidamusik.blogspot.com/ . Jag har även börjat läsa mer böcker och poesi och försökt sätta mig in lite i den samtida poesin också. Är intresserad av den så kallade språk materialistiska poesin, vet dock inte vad jag egentligen tycker om det här försöket till abstraktion inom just poesin det kan tyckas för att citera Adorno som ett "pseudomorphosiskt" försök där man försöker efterlikna rörelser inom bildkonst och musik som inte passar inom poesin. Jag rekommenderar dock för dom som är intresserade av modern poesi att kolla in http://english.utah.edu/eclipse/projects/LANGUAGE/language.html där alla 13 nummer av tidningen L=a=n=g=u=a=g=e finns att läsa. Jag har själv skrivit en dikt som är inspirerad av språk materialism men som blir en aning mer konkret än vad L=a=n=g=u=a=g=e brukar vara. I dikten är all text hämtad från mina vänners Facebook status, och idén blir att visa hur lika folks liv egentligen är.

Meh
Kollar på Narnia Trött
Pallar inte är bakis och hungrig
slacking Vill ingenting hej tristess
Efter timmar av schopping Öl
På tåg till lund
Är i lund call me
Är hemma
Åker nog söderut imorgon
respeppen/resfebern
Är i Berlin
Snabbare än du hinner säga
Alexanderplatz
Viva la vida
Is off to africa
Semestrar ensam

Once again, me (Frans) and Theo have begun going through ideas concerning Aron's collection of poems, "Hägringar i en blomstrande öken" ("Mirages in a blossoming desert" or something like that). It's been a while since we relfected actively on the co-op, but as Aron, just efore his return to GB, whiped the dust from the project by issuing a wish the painter and musician woke up, we realised it simply had to be done. The evening before Theos departure back to Munka-Ljungby we met up to see what had changed in our minds since we last discussed the subject.

I realized that my musical vision of the poems hadn't really changed that much, I still interpreted the themes into drones, both in the bass and treble registers. I get these late 60's early 70's sci-fi and Magrittesque images in my head, something I against my will tried to pass on to Theo. I aim to imitate that space sound of sci-fi movie soundtracks but also incorporate more oriental elements, seeing that the scenery is a desert (I hope you don't consider me too much of a narrowminded exotist).

Theo's ideas, however, had changed dramatically. Initially he sketched on paintings, but upon seeing the old sketches again he now rejected the thought of a classical two-dimensional rendering. We both suggested the use of movie projectors in a small, cubical room, a vision apparantly Theo and me had had before even discussing this. The projections would recreate the atmosphere of a truly desolate place, maybe an empty worker's town in the south of Sweden (during nighttime).

I came with the suggestion we use a main theme, built around a massive bass drone that nearly drenches the entire environment. Splitting the collection of poems into perhaps five or more parts, we could place loudspeakers of some form close to every slice of of the collection. Every slice would then be represented by its own theme, in the middle and upper frequencies. These themes could revolve around simple rhythms on bells, string instruments, maybe even voices. If everything works out as it should, the experience of the music will change, depending on where in the room the participants have their location. A more advanced way of presenting the music would be motion sensors enabling interaction between the sounds of the room and the visitors. Perhaps the wall projections could also be interactive...

We have come up with more, and it will be great to publish reports on the progress of the project here on the blog. Hopefully, our non-existent readers would like to comment thoughts on our enormous performance.

And as a little conclusion, I am happy to inform you that I have started drawing again. Here are two portraits of Klara and a self-portrait. You haven't seen the end of this temporary seizure of mine! There's more where this came from. I am very satisfied with the second portrait of Klara as I succeeded in synthesizing her straight hair into a simple pattern. I don't really know what to say, I have never been the master at evaluating my own work, neither music nor drawings.




Cheers! /Frans