Monday, October 27, 2008

Tagging Music

So i've spend the entire saturday fixing the ID3v2 Tags of my MP3. I couldn't finish all (the 50GBs) of my 'YET_TO_TAG' folder. But i managed to do half, on the easiest, of course. (Using ID3-Tagit for Windows).

Today i tried to run into the big problems: Classical and Electronic (DJ Remixes).

And there is no ONE way to tag a song, no formal rule...

So after checking out some forums, i liked the idea of Kerensky97 on this post:
when it comes to:
Classical music I use the composer as the artist.
Pop music the performer as the artist.
And DJ remixes is a gray area but usually the DJ as artist.

Hopefully i'll remember this and 'fix' all my music...

Next part of my winter will be images with their IPTC Tags...

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Bebum Collage


ac_Bebum, originally uploaded by iurikothe. Made on 081023, size: 22.5x14.5 cm.

On my last post i was struggling because i couldn't see any relationship between the images i had (newest National Geographics).

So today, there i go again trying to use only the November 2008 edition of the Nat.Geo. but the collage was getting very very cliche: using monkey and chimps and making a 'human's destroy nature' collage, which i got really tired of doing. I want something new...

So while trying to make a collage these two images where together on the side, the drunk mexican and the primate (yes, i like primates). So i played a little with both and there we had a nice connection.

enjoy...

Monday, October 20, 2008

Enferrujado

Always when i stay for some weeks (or even months) without making (or trying to make) a collage, the first hours (or days) are REALLY frustrating...

I just can't see any connections between the images...

Its ruff, feeling that you might have lost all your creativity and won't ever be able to make an artwork again.

Well, let me get back to my magazines, hopefully the first idea will still come today...

Winter is almost arriving here in seattle, and today i got a scanner working, so i'll probably try to get back to my smaller (<A4) collages...

Hope so...

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

My first and second collages made in USA

As you all know, keeping yourself organized is still a pain. I made two collages in Seattle in this 3 months that i was there (now i'm in Brazil, but monday i'm back there). And after finishing comes the pain of documenting them: taking photo (at least i stopped scanning them), tagging, adding to my collages excel with sizes and sources, editing on photoshop, uploading to flickr, and finally posting them on this blog...

Enough sad, here they are (click on the images to see them bigger in flickr - click All Sizes above the image there):

ac_fire_water_dog_080808
"FIRE WATER DOG"
Size: 28x36 cm.
Date: 080808.
Source: Nat Geos US: 0808, 0807, 0505

And:

ac_Path_080901
"PATH"
Size: 48x68.5 cm.
Date: 080901.
Source: Nat Geos US: 0305, 0807, 0208, 0402, 0601, 0401, 0405.

Hopefully i'll show you some more collages in the upcoming seattle rainy winter months : )

Friday, September 19, 2008

Things i miss in Brazil

Saturday i'll be back in Brazil and here's a list (i wanted to post 3 months ago) about which things i miss from Brazil:

  • Human connections: girlfriend, friends...

  • Food (Feijoada, Pamonha, Arroz/Feijao/Carne, Salgados, Serve-serve...)

  • Drinks (Juices and Pinga)

  • Great Weather

  • Waterfalls with warm water

  • Being able to communicate easily easier (i'm still struggling a lot with my english here)

  • Ducha higienica

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Experiencing Art

Last saturday i went to see Hariprasad Chaurasia at Seattle's Town Hall. The concert was nice, but could be better. I mean, how can i appreciate indian music sitting on a wood bench with 300 people while 4 musicians are playing and i'm listening through microphones and loudspeakers???

The whole way we are experiencing art today is bugging me.

On museums and art galleries its the same sickness, or worse, it must the prepared for so many people, that the whole experience is fucked up.

Last year i was in Madrid, went to Reina Sofia to see Dali, Picasso, Braque and company, and, for example, getting to the famous Guernica, what do i see?

madrid07nov_067.jpg

People, confusion, talkings, no sofa, no place to chill...

Seeing Giacometi at Metropolitan NY (last year):

newyork2007oct_020.jpg

I mean, how can you appreciate an artwork that way?

Getting back to music... watching Radiohead at Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco last month, i had a similar feeling sometimes during the show. Seeing them 500 meters (no, i don't want to learn US non-metric system!) away, with crazy sound and many people around. Of course i liked it, beeing with my friends there and all. I had a great time, but as far as 'experiencing the music'? The real cool thing would be seeing them (and Chaurasia, McFerrin, Riley etc) closer without the whole electrical paraphernalia and crowd.

This is what i loved the first times on raves i went in Brazil, going to the chillout area at night in the woods with bonfire and listening a DJ playing a live jazz trio recording. That was a completely different feeling, even not being live.

The ambience is part of the experience!

Even movies [of course, there's no 'live movie' to compare], but is it really so much better going to the movies than watching at home?

Regarding music i'm sure there's no big way to improve the experience, but museums and art galleries?? Please!

Friday, September 12, 2008

Print my collages for 'free'

I just enabled the 'Print & More' option on all my images (photos and collages) for all flickr members.

So if you want to print and frame, make a book or calendar out of my collages, just:

  • login/register into flickr.com

  • select one/some of my collages

  • and order the prints


Note: I won't receive anything from flickr (that reason for the 'free' on the title).

So if you happen to do it, just drop me an nice email: iuri.art.br (at) gmail.com

Example: My favorite collages and the print option:
flickr print collages

Monday, September 8, 2008

GTD: Post it from bedside to laptop

Most of my 'good' ideas and tomorrow's to-dos just happen to come into mind in bed (before and/or during sleep/dream).


A few weeks ago i started a new GTD method:



  1. Get some Post its and Pen on your Bedside table
    gtd post it 1 bedside table

  2. Write all ideas and to-dos down

  3. In the morning, (physically) attach the post it to you laptop
    gtd post it 2 laptop

  4. Keep adding stuff and/or strike what you've done (most things on this lists needs to be done online).

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Flying

My most beloved sports (or should i say 'the only ones i like') are Cycling and Climbing. In Rio i just cycled, mostly to work:







Here in Seattle i'm starting with both again (check this riding video). Hopefully i can manage them in rainy winter!

Now a new sport is coming into mind, flying. Yesterday i came across a basejumping video, which was (of course) an accident video (no, I won't link to it). I never found basejumping something very special. So much work and risk for just some seconds 'flying' didn't make sense. But the accidented guy (who broke a leg only) had a wingsuit, which gives you so more control to glide around. This wingsuit is something to consider!

Check this and tell me you won't like to fly:





Run On to the originals

On my collages, i'm always trying (managing this is a pain) to credit the source i used, not because of copyright problems, but mostly to show everyone (and myself) where the original cut up came from. It gives much more information about creativity and resources to make other remixes.

And here's an music example i run onto this week:

I always loved Moby's Play album. Specially 'Run On' (see the music video). I knew it was a remix of some other song, but always forgot to go after the original. Remember, 1998/2000 it was MUCH harder (and fun) to chase this info.

So i came across this great slow motion video featuring Johnny Cash's version:







(see the Original Site)

After one google/wikipedia search i saw that both are based on a folk song called: God's Gonna Cut You Down.

Hopefully with semantic web this will all be done automatically.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

In Seattle now...

Since end of june i 'moved' to Seattle. Probably my biggest excuse why i didn't posted anything here...

Here i already made 2 collages, which i'll post on flickr soon. Now i don't want to scan the images before glueing, so i'm trying to set a little studio (tripod & lights) to take great quality pictures of them.

I also had some trouble with materials, but Johnny (www.corridorsofmind.com) told me about Half Priced books which have LOTS of great books and National Geographic Magazines (Yes, i still use them a lot). Here is my first trip result to the store:

080807 first collage materials in US

Another big thing is that my old PHP blog and site will disappear soon, so i moved my blog to wordpress and the site, which was mainly the collages browsing will be done only at Flickr. Someday i might personalize my site again, but meanwhile i moved to google sites (http://sites.google.com/site/iuri/). I'm also adding a Photos section there...

Monday, May 26, 2008

Jojo’s article about my collages

Last week my friend Joana Coccarelli interviewed me about my collages.
It just went online in the O Grito Magazine (in portuguese). Enjoy:

Joana Coccarelli: A arte-colagem de Iuri Kothe
[link to O Grito!'s post]

O corte da tesoura no papel da revista: prazer próximo à crocância palatável. Colagem, a princípio uma atividade tão jardim da infância, é na verdade uma técnica criada na China em 200 A.C. Chegou ao Ocidente no século XIII; passou a fazer parte definitiva das artes visuais no começo do século XX, com Picasso e Georges Braque; e mais recentemente, no final dos anos 70, entrou para o offstream ao ser abraçado pelo punk.

Para mim começou na pré-adolescência, quando eu mutilava Elles de mamãe atrás de imagens que pudessem ilustrar os fatos pueris que eu relatava na minha agenda (o blog de então). Após um largo hiato, comecei a criar situações com fotografias de amigos e pendurá-las na minha própria casa. E, então, houve a retumbância da arte-colagem perfeita: uma visita ao apartamento de um amigo me fez plasmar diante de cada uma de suas colagens, emolduradas por toda parte. “Preciso levar essa“, pensei. Hoje, “Ilha de Lesbos” é o eixo de meu muro de colagens - a relíquia, a peça primordial.

Iuri Kothe, o amigo artista, teve um começo casual, uma trajetória recente e uma evolução muito rápida - mas não a ponto de obscurecer suas primeiras colagens, já que seu avançado olhar estético sempre esteve ali, desde o princípio. A primeira peça, feita em 2003, aproveitou recortes usados para decorar uma festa e já continha a alfinetada ardida e a surpresa imagética que tornaria os trabalhos seguintes tão especificamente seus.

Iuri tira recortes quase que exclusivamente de National Geographic. O fato em si representaria uma limitação crassa ao artista comum, mas praticamente define o conjunto da obra do artista, seletíssimo. Seu interesse recai basicamente em pessoas, animais e paisagens, e em criar uma relação entre eles. “Muita gente simplesmente cola as imagens sem visualizar uma possível ligação entre elas”, diz Iuri. “É difícil fazer uma boa colagem sem que o artista tenha interiorizado aqueles elementos. Perde-se uma dinâmica que poderia ter sido inventada”.

Essa é a questão com as encomendas. Aconteceu de Iuri receber o pedido de um americano. A colagem precisava ter a ver com baseball, o cara mandou três caixas de revistas sobre o tema. “Provavelmente tenho mais revistas sobre baseball do que qualquer aficcionado brasileiro, mas foi difícil montar porque não tenho nenhuma experiência com o esporte”.

Com mais de 100 obras realizadas, grande parte delas “espalhadas por aí”, entre amigos e conhecidos, Iuri deixa escapar alguma saudade dos tempos em que sua técnica se limitava às revistas, tesoura, cola e papel cartão – estágio em que me encontro hoje. Com o passar do tempo, começou a usar computador para acertar dimensões e detalhes da montagem que ia fazer no papel; e logo entraria, também, pra turma das colagens digitais.

Em seu gordo networking, encontrei artistas puramente photoshops, com trabalhos magníficos, “mas não sei… fica tão parecido com pintura surrealista… perde aquela textura original de colagem”, argumentei. “Perde aquele tosco, né? Fica menos realista”, concorda ele. O contorno do recorte, o brilho do papel-revista, as pequenas imperfeições da cola entregam: um artista meteu o mãozão aqui. Na paixão e no risco, sem intermediários.

O que não significa que colagem digital seja menos arte. Talvez seja apenas mais recorrente na era da internet. “Dubroko 3”, realizada por Iuri mais outros dois de seus contatos virtuais, é totalmente eletrônica – e de cair o queixo. Cada um aplicava uma imagem e enviava para o outro, que não só aplicava sua imagem como eventualmente alterava as dos demais. Nesta animação, feita pelo próprio Iuri, tem-se uma idéia de como a peça foi feita.

Ainda assim, ele prefere a presença de espírito do artesanal, do feito à mão: o desafio de contar apenas com o que se tem, do tamanho que é, sem efeito especial, sem visualizações prévias. Também passou a preferir menos elementos. Sem dúvida, é bem mais viajante. Não só porque a integração de sujeitos se destaca como também as paisagens em segundo plano, que dão uma profundidade impressionante à cena.

Para realizar o desejo de fazer uma enorme colagem analógica, no entanto, ele talvez tenha que juntar mais imagens do que gostaria: mesmo páginas inteiras de revistas são relativamente pequenas para uma área mais extensa. Seria preciso um pouco de tecnologia – escanear as fotos e imprimi-las grande, por exemplo – e muito mais… cola.

Porque de resto Iuri tem muito. Até senso de humor para rir quando eu o chamo de avatar.

Joana Coccarelli é jornalista, autora do blog Narghee-La e idealizadora do Coccarelli.art, coletivo de artistas, blogueiros e escritores. Escreve nesta coluna sobre estética, design e moda.joana@revistaogrito.com.

Monday, April 28, 2008

DuBroKo3




DuBroKo3

This is the 3rd Digital Collage Collaboration between: Bernard Dumaine, Willem den Broeder and Iuri Kothe. Made (sending JPGs via email) from 080217 until 080422.

The all 12 parts in DuBroKo3 Flickr set.

We did also 2 videos of this collaboration:







Monday, February 11, 2008

some 2008 news until now

Some news i want to share:

- I've received a wonderful 40.00 USD Donation from England! Thanks a lot!!!

- My song noTV was used in Slava Barouline's short film named A.M (see it on Vimeo)

- I'm trying to set some art milestones for me: X analog, Y digital collages, Z songs, V videos per 6 months. No luck on the right minimum numbers yet...

- I'm FINALLY adding a Collages / Collaborations page here. Just need to update with all my collaborations now...

- I've made 3 new analog collages: Curves, Owlephant and FaunaFlora:

"Owlephant"

"Curves"

"FaunaFlora"