Slash #0

8

UNCOMMON MAGAZINE

8 th Issue 2012 / 5 $

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Title of the article

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THE CREW

Editor

Art Director

Jamie O'Shea

Valentino Borghesi

Photography Director

Managing Editor

Curator

Cr Steyk III

Annie Tucker

Greg Escalante

Editorial Assistant Brigid Morris Production Assistants Dwayne Carter, Trenton Temple, Dan Whitely Creative Consultant Suzanne Williams Website Ert O'Hara Contributing Writers Shephard Fairey, KAWS, Brigid Morris, Pushead, Kenny Scharf, Silver Silverstein III, CR Stecyk III, Ed Templeton Staff Photographers Stash, Randy Dodson, Michael Evans, Michael Farr, Bill Farroux, Erik Foss, Jesse Hernandez, David Perry Contributing Photographers Luke Barber-Smith, Ayca Cakmakli, Greg Escalante, Quang Le, Susanne Melanie, Silvin Morgan, Patrick Mulligan, Grove Pashley, Stash

President Eric Swenson

Advertising Sales Eben Sterling

Circulation Executive Kelly Ma

Mail Order Jenny O'Brien, Tina Yamagata

Publisher Edward H. Riggins

Ad Trafficking Mike Breslin

Circulation Manager Debbie Dexter

Hospitality Deena Yahiro

Assistant Publisher Jeff Rafnson

Product Sales Rick Rotsaert (415) 671 4282

General Counsel James M. Barrett

SLASH is published by High Speed Productions, Inc. (415) 822 3083

Marketing Director Lindsey Byrnes (415) 671 2415 lindsey@slashthemagazine.com

Advertising Director William Haugh (415) 671 2418 william@slashthemagazine.com

Subscriptions Ana Quezada (888) 520 9099 Ext 1

Email to: editor@slashthemagazine.com www.slashthemagazine.com

"Parting is all we know of heaven and all we need of hell."

- E. Dickinson -

CONTENTS 8 Issue th

~ Featured ~

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arctic monkeys

LOMOGRAPHY

Interview by Peter Slayer

Hipster Trends

054

STREETS OF MUMBAY A week in India

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044

076

122

Preface.

It wasn’t me, it was Bennett Arron.

Divided.

Love has to be earned.

An essay by Bennett Arron

An essay by Neil Dowling with photography by Nils Clauss

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092

The means by which we find our way.

Child’s play.

An Explanation by Kevin Finn

010 Understanding identity Introduction by Kevin Finn

024 Branding is the greatest gift that commerce has given to culture.

A conversation between Wally Olins and Kevin Finn

040 The ‘O’ in Obama.

A conversation between Sol Sender and Steven Heller

An essay by Andrea Wilkinson

060 Design Myths: The Freelancer’s Identity Crisis, with Fifteen Footnotes.

An essay by Jason Tselentis

068 Foreign interests.

A conversation between Simon Hong and Kevin Finn

An essay by Andy Chen

An essay by Paula Scher

126 Nine Vignettes of identity.

An essay by Stephen Banham

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132

Without a trace.

People are strange.

A conversation between Larry J. Kolb and Kevin Finn

108 Crossing the identity line.

A conversation between Rudy Vanderlans and Kevin Finn

Drawings by Paul Davis

146 The mask behind the mask.

A conversation between Master Legend and Kevin Finn

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Interview with eva Creative genius?

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Identity, Identiteit, Identidad.

Identity.

Identity crisis.

Letters.

An essay by Russell Kerr

162 Language and Identity.

A conversation between Dr. Knut J. Olawasky and Kevin Finn

170 Not my garden.

An essay by Jonathan Kimberley

178 Around the clock identity design.

An essay by Tanner Woodford

An exercise by Nick Bell

By Kevin Finn

Inviting correspondence

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250

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Collaboration, identity and design: backstage with U2.

A sensitive issue, right down to the letter.

Contributing biographies.

A conversation between Steve Averill and Kevin Finn

216 V&A buys Rolling Stones ‘Tongue’ logo for $92,500.

An essay by Patrick Burgoyne

220 Patterns that connect.

A visual essay by Paul Hughes

By Andrew Ashton

The people behind this issue

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286

The end of ‘bland’ guidelines.

Back issues & Next issues.

By Kevin Finn

260 Published Art.

A book review of ‘Design Factory: On the edge of Europe’ by Kevin Finn

Information on previous and upcoming issues

292 Thanks.

Acknowledgments by Kevin Finn

editor letter

When I first started going to the shows in Paris, we had to send couriers (usually fashion interns) to collect the film from the photographer, and they would then fly back to the office where it was processed in a dark room, and then the transparencies were edited. That was way back, imagine no digital, no iPhones, no Blackberry, no ipads. It was a race against time and technology. It was really big deal to be there. Now it’s all instant, but make the most of it because there is a growing backlash against all the easy fashion access and a yearning for a return to elitism – where only a small, hand picked audience accesses the shows. And no images are released. Bye-bye bloggers, they won’t be invited. Bye-bye backstage photographers. And bye-bye the hordes of style snappers out front who who wait for the fashion crowd and feed off them like demented piranhas.

So what can O tell you that you don’t already know? Somethings personal, perhaps? Chanel made me cry, it was that good. But you had to be there; fashion students, please apply. Paris the final city setting the agenda for next season. I’s shaping up to be brilliant, bright, easy and light – but heavy on the bankbalance. Save now.

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Title of the article

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an interview with

Words Z a c B ay ly

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Title of the article

Photos S t e ph a n e Ga u t r o n n e a u

~ An interview with Eva ~

As the dust settles post GFC,

the publishing industry has been faced with a Darwinian ultimatum: adapt or perish.

Canadian art-zine BAD DAY has clearly risen to the challenge.

Copies of the limited edition zine are selling like hotcakes, thought the concept is a simple one: an interview-based publication printed using single-colour ink on coloured paper stock.

Are founders Eva Michon and Colin Bergh creative geniuses, academics with a taste for the subversive, or both?

To find out, I interviewed Eva using a pop-science quiz published by a magazine that habitually uses longer words than Welsh road signs.

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~ An interview with Eva ~

Zac Bayly: So how old are you Eva? Eva Michon: I’m 25, actually. I turn 26 in about two weeks.

Happy Birthday!

Thanks.

Did you work in publishing before starting Bad Day? Not at all. Basically, my background is in film. I’m even working on a film right now for my husbands band, Death from Above 1979. Bad Day began because my friend Colin and I had wanted to work on something together. I had always loved zines, so it was definitely a labour of love to begin with. W had no idea that it might become what we do, you know?

No, no, no… Maybe. Basically, the theory is that the more creative you are, the less barriers in your brain that block out weird and wonderful ideas.

Zac, are you reading this out of a magazine? Is this Marie Claire?

No! God, no. It’s Scientific American Mind.

Nice, Maybe you should do that in the future though. Sealed-selection sex quiz!

Sorry! I got distracted. Do you often think or speak using metaphors?

Hmm… no. And Marks and Spencer Gold Tea. +0C +0C

Totally! So, each question is designed to say something about either your creativity (C) or your eccentricity (E), and in the end the two scores should correlate. Are you ready?

Sure.

Do you have a braod range of interests?

Well, no, honestly. I mean, I’m interested in film, art, music and fashion… So I guess not, because ‘broad’ to me would mean that I was interested in astrophysics and the arts, right? +0C

Question one: do you often have ideas without knowing where they come from?

Yes. Definitely. +1C

Do you have trouble spending time alone without turning on the TV or other electronic devices?

No. +0C

Are you aware that I could be trying to do that to you now?

(Laughs) Yes!

Do you consider yourself to be a highly logical person?

Yes, I do, actually. +0C

Do you believe in telepathic communication?

Yes, I do. +1E

So, I mentioned in my email that I wanted to administer a personality test.

Oh God. Is this going to get me committed or something?

What kind of tea were you drinking when we started skype-ing?

What does that have to do with anything?

Have you ever felt the presence of someone in the room with you when you knew you were alone?

Yes, I’ve had ghost encounters. +1E

Hmm, what’s my question… Is this a really disorganised interview, by the way?

No. I like how conversational it is.

That’s good. You favour that style in your magazine, don’t you?

Yeah. I think, that way, it’s easier to catch people off guard. They might end up saying things that are more interesting than they might have planned.

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~ An interview with Eva ~

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~ An interview with Eva ~

Eva's score was 3/6 creativity 6/6 eccentricity

I’m scared.

One time, (when) I was asleep on a friend’s couch in Vancouver, I woke up and there was someone with me in the room, in the corner. It wasn’t like, “There’s a ghost in the room,” it was like, “There’s a person in the room!” That’s what it feels like when theres a ghost: it’s a physical presence. I freaked out!

We turned on the light and it was gone.

Holy Shit.

I know.

I ‘m not going to be able to sleep now.

You shouldn’t. You should be in fear.

Do you believe that dreams can sometimes be previews of future events?

Yes, I do. +1E Do you believe that certain events or objects are signs that may have been provided to help you make important decisions?

Yes! Definitely. +1E

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Do you believe that there may be forces in the world that cannot be detected with scientific instruments?

Yes, I guess so. I’m not convinced that girl would have shown up on camera. +1E Let’s not talk of her.

Are you really that scared?

Final question! Do you often feel like a square peg in a round hole?

Yes sure I do! Everyone in (any of) the creative industries does at some point in their life. In saying that, I would probably say that I’m a round peg in a square hole! +1E, +1C You know I was kidding before? You don’t have to be afraid.

Im fine. I’m so fine. I’m fine…

Like most things trendy and alternative, these cameras were once a throwaway item. But plastic cams have slowly climbed the cool ladder, reminding us that all you really need to take a photograph is light. They may look like toys, but Lomos are more than capable of producing seriously atmospheric pictures.

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W o r d s Z a c B ay ly P h o t o s M a r k r a n s o n

Lomography

~ Lomography ~

~ Lomography ~

The term “Lomography” refers to the art of using a simple analogue camera with a plastic lens. Viennese students Matthias Fiegl and Wolfgang Stranzinger coined the term in 1991, after falling in love with an early model Lomo camera they found in a thrift store in St Petersburg. They started the Lomographic Society as a bit of a joke, but it has since developed into a powerful worldwide distributor. A community of free-spirited photographers now exists just under the surface of mainstream photography.

Living by a “don’t think, just shoot” mantra, they have magazines and websites devoted to the art form. Detroit rock duo The White Stripes have lent their style and name to limited edition Diana and Holga cameras, there are exhibitions celebrating plastic photography popping up all over the place and camera sales have increased between five and 10 per cent every year for the past five years. The Lomo has well and truly arrived.

Sydney photographer Tim Hixson bought his first Diana for $1 while on an art scholarship at the University of Southern Illinois in 1968. The following year, one of Hixson’s Holga pictures was bought by the New York Museum of Modern Art for their student works collection. Tim is characteristically modest about the purchase but thinks it was probably “the first plastic camera image collected by a gallery”.

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~ Lomography ~

“It’s an effect, it makes every shot memorable, you can see the camera in the photograph”

The simple structure of the camera is what’s responsible for its unmistakable style. Unlike a regular camera that has a number of glass elements in the lens, Lomos have only one concave plastic lens. When the light comes through, it scatters and falls away before reaching the edges of the film, giving the photograph a tunnel-like look, brightest and clearest in the middle and dark and blurry around the edges. “It’s an effect, it makes every shot memorable, you can see the camera in the photograph,” Hixson says.

When Hixson returned to Sydney with his Holga in the early 1970s, “no one really got it.” It wasn’t until 20 years later that he started to work extensively with plastic cameras again. “There was only so much you could do with film that hadn’t been done before,” he says. Then, during the 1990’s, photographers began degrading their images to make them more raw and interesting, breaking basic photographic rules to get effects. Art directors started asking or looks that reminded Hixson of his early Holga pictures. When digital photography became the norm and so many new options appeared, he continued using his Holga and Diana.

“My work is interesting as soon as I pick up the camera because the camera makes it interesting... I have made that my style I guess,” he says. “It’s all in the camera

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while you are taking the shot rather than working on the computer after you have taken the image, to make it more interesting. There is a different creative process.”

The creative process is very much a lucky dip.

“I am not in charge, I just have this idea that I want to explore. I want to see what the camera, the environment, the subject and I come up with,” Tim says. His camera choice is a Holga, which is one of the most basic of plastic cams. It has two rudimentary buttons and uses 120 film, which produces square photos. The results are unpredictable and unreliable but this is half the attraction.

Although film processing is not inexpensive, the cameras are cheap and pretty much indestructible. They look like toys (so no one would bother to steal them), weigh nothing and they have no battery to run out. Users shoot from the hip without further thought and invite serendipity by modifying their cameras – plugging holes, removing parts, taping up light leaks and even baking them in the oven to give pictures a warped and unique look.

Tim Hixson and many Lomography enthusiasts embrace the freedom that comes with using these cameras and the honesty of the images they create. While a big complicated camera can intimidate people, a plastic camera is a simple way to get beautifully intimate pictures.

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HOW TO get started

If

you are thinking woot (want one of them), then either go to lomography.com.au or visit the Just Shoot Shop at the Blender gallery in Paddington. You can hook yourself up for under $90, but if you want a better deal and you speak the language, jump on eBay and buy from the UK, China or Russia.

If

you’re after a more authentic journey, you can still find old toy cameras in op shops and markets. Most plastic cameras can be used with 35mm film, but you really can’t go past the look of 120mm square film.

If

you are into Lomo effects but just cant drag yourself away from your digital camera then you can try Lensbaby, digital to Lomo converter, available from the Lomo Society, along with hundreds of other plastic products. You can also ‘Lomofy’ existing digital pictures online at pixenate.com or picnic.com without having to sign up for anything. These are great fun and produce interesting images but be careful… plastic photography is supposed to be about real moments in time, burned into film, not hours spent in front of a computer.

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~ Music Selection ~

music selection

Top of the Month BLACK KEYS El Camino

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Over 10 years and seven albums, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney have turned their basement blues project into one of Amer-

ica's mightiest bands.

Weaned on Stax 45s and Wu-Tang loops, the Black Keys smeared the lines between blues, rock, R&B and soul, with Auerbach's horny Howlin Wolf yowl bouncing off garagey slashing and nasty

body-rocking grooves.

Like that other guitar and drums duo from the Rust Belt, the Akron, Ohio, guys brought raw, riffed-out power back to pop's lexicon.

On 2010's Brothers, they found a perfect balance between juke-

joint formalism and modern bangzoom.

The result was a few Grammys and so many TV ad placements, The Colbert Report did a sketch about it.

KEY TRACKS

L on e ly Bo y, Ru n Rig ht Ba c k

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GOTYE Making Mirrors

ADELE 21

MUMFORD AND SONS Sigh No More

NAKED AND FAMOUS Passive me, aggressive you

M83 Hurry up, we're dreaming

You know when there is SO much hype about a song or an album or a movie or whatever, that you instantly think it’s going to be shit, maybe that’s just me but anyway, when Gotye released Making Mirrors I publicly said ‘Oh this will be some album that only musicians will like, something like a Mars Volta album’.

I’m just not feeling the love that this record has engendered in so many people. It starts off fine with “Rolling in the Deep” and the hook of “Rumour Has It” is catchy and I really like “Turning Tables” and “Don’t You Remember” has some impressive vocals, but it just took me a while to get into it.

The London quartet’s debut Sigh No More was produced by E! and opens harmoniously with its inspiring title track. “The Cave” pulses with driving bluegrass banjo and the kind of honed lyrical wit that can only come from a true Englishman, while the drunken, brassy horns in “Winter Winds” will warm the heart’s cockles like an aged rye on a cold night.

If you were judging by the name, you’d be forgiven for thinking we’d given Katie Price’s first band the Philip Hall Radar Award, or that the BBC Sound Of 2011 poll had given a nod to a tongue-in-cheek Lady Gaga spin-off act. But no, The Naked And Famous are the latest dash of New Zealand’s music out of the choking black shadow of Crowded House.

The music of synthy dream-pop band M83 could be considered something to listen to while multitasking as a sort of background soundtrack. It’s perfect for studying and writing. In most cases, once a band is determined to be “great sleeping music,” it can’t detour too far from the label. Their latest album, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming (2011), does just that.

KEY TRACK: Lonely boy

KEY TRACK: Someone like you

KEY TRACK: The Cave

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KEY TRACK: Young Blood

KEY TRACK: Midnight City

If

you want to see Black Keys live in Australia check out their website: www.black-keys.com

THE black keys