Sunday, October 5, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
Emergency Festival! @ the annexe central market
Thu 16 to Sun 26 Oct @ the annexe central market.
The project examines and re-presents ideas, narratives, and images from the first Malayan Emergency, from 1948 to 1960.
The project will comprise theatre performances, film screenings, an exhibition, plus an exciting roll of different interactive presentations daily.
Project participants include many of Malaysians’ dynamic creative talent such as Amir Muhammad, Azmyl Yunor, chi too, Chu Chu Yuan, Elaine Pedley, Fahmi Fadzil, Fahmi Reza, Grey Yeoh, Hardesh Singh, Hari Azizan, Jerome Kugan, Leow Puay Tin, Lim Chung Wei, Marion D’Cruz, Mark Teh, Mislina Mustaffa, Norman Teh, Wong Tay Sy, Yee I-Lann and many more.
Black & White Fest @ the annexe central market
Black & White Fest @ the annexe central market
Fri 19 Sep to Mon 5 Oct, 11am - 7pm daily
Admission free and open to the public
featuring:
Diversity ~ a black & white photography exhibition by ten Malaysian photographers including Alex Moh, Bernice Chauly and our own golden boy Pang Khee Teik;
Wayang Kita-Kita ~ an exhibition of posters of film stills from early Malay movies by Amir Muhammad and Liza Manshoor; and
Constitutional Amendments ~ an interactive text installation by the Centre for Independent Journalism about the 600 amendments that have been made to the Malaysian constitution since 1957.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
video of the week
well, this video has been around for some time now but we like it & were impressed by it so, why not feature it anyway so here it is, The Cribs's "Mirror Kisses". Think of the amount of paper xerox-ed & the tedious work involved to produce this wicked video, we've done our research & well ......
Friday, September 5, 2008
siri reminisce -'esg campfire 2005 designs'
we decided to do 'siri reminisce', as the name suggests, to reminisce on our previous works/projects, why not since it'll be interesting & fun. to us, at least, the old days...
we start off with some designs we made for ESG (eagle scout group, from our high school) for their campfire in 2005. it was our first project -
-after graduating from high school the year before
-upon our return from 3 months stint in NS
-while we were working part time as retail assistant (fancy title for sales assistant) & assistant visual merchandizer
-before we started college at least a year later
we struggled a bit with the software and the computer, we did everything on a computer with lower than optimal specs, at a little cyber cafe near our house as we don't have neither a desktop nor a laptop back then so we had to make do with what's available though it was an interesting experience no doubt. moreover, we used the end product of this project as 1 of the submissions for our college application, kill 2 birds with 1 stone.
initial cover (front - right half, back - left half)
finalized cover (front - right half, back - left half)
inside
(right)
(left)flyers
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
DIY pinhole cameras
corbis readymech cameras
Take a break from your computer! Download, print and build your own pinhole camera. Follow the instructions and enjoy (note: requires 'finished art' skills, haha) !
- coming soon
video of the week
for starters, we'll post the video of the week.
this week, we are featuring Beck's Deadweight, directed by the guru & one of our favourite director, Michel Gondry.
we are impressed by the twist of video, the smart play of transitions, the simple DIY special effects & song, of course.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
new blog for college assignments & researches
we're required to set-up a blog to post our assignments & researches, & so we did:-
though it's still pretty empty as we're still compiling our researches & whatnot.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
J. Co Donuts print ads
Yes, J. Co donuts, which people will actually queue up for ages just to get them though they may not necessarily know the difference in terms of the taste compared to other donut chains, or why they join such long queues while there's other donut chains around, or for whatever reasons they might have, could it be the just because of the Brand? or the same reason people buy Starbucks or Coffee Bean instead of teh tarik mamak? or simply because it really taste so good? Haha...
Anyway, last year we once applied for part-time position in a local advertising agency & in addition to our existing portfolio, we are asked to design something for a food product that's available locally. So well, we decided to do J. Co despite that we've only had it once at that moment but it was still new in Malaysia & it will definitely be something fresh to the Malaysian market. Unfortunately, they never even get back to us to inform us whether we're in for an interview or we're not what they are looking for, well, it's courtesy to at least inform the other party whatever the decision maybe, isn't it? Malaysia Boleh! haha..
These were some of the designs we came up with within a day (will upload higher quality ones soon, they are buried in our archives):
video of the week
as promised, video of the week.
Minus the Bear's video for "Knights", directed by Keith Schofield.
it may seem like mirror images but watch closely, it's not necessarily so. like the visuals & the effects of the video & the song too.
internet deprivation
due to certain circumstances, we endured over a week without internet so we couldn't update the blog. now, from a cyber cafe, we're back. these are the things that we wanted to post but have yet to do so:
thumbsucker review
59 minutes film fest
three
j. co donuts ads
askedwhy? photography @ flickr
new video of the week
so there it is, the list posts that are coming up within the next few days after at least a week of delay. we've posted them up here so it serves as a reminder for us as well, haha, so we have to do it.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Video of the week
For this week's video, we are featuring Phone Tag, a short film by Ruben Fleischer.
It's about a young man's struggle with heartbreak. It's entertaining & quite funny as well.
(we embedded it through YouTube as it loads faster)
birthday card!
(back cover) (front cover)
(inside left) (inside right) 
(the crop mark in the middle serves as a scoring guide,
as this is a card that's to be folded into half)
(click to enlarge)
This a birthday card that we design for Zheng's birthday earlier this month. Initially we thought of doing the typically card with a picture/illustration of a cake with candles on it or a nicely wrapped present but then it's too common, might as well just go buy 1 if that's the design we're doing. We decided to try designing a birthday card that's entirely typographic & above is the outcome, the 1 on top is the cover design & the 1 below is the inside design. The various tones of blue(/cyan) were used for its cool, calming (lighter/softer shades) & engaging, exhilarating (brighter/brilliant shades) properties. We used a lot of 19 as it was her 19th birthday & to emphasize that the 19th chapter of her life is about to begin, as the phrase " a new chapter beckons" suggest. The other numbers in the light tone is to symbolize the previous years that has passed. Whereas the arrows represents the movement/progress in life, life is not stagnant. The phrases used in the inside are self-explainatory, they reflect on what we believe birthdays or birthday celebrations are all about.
Now, we are considering the possibility of designing birthday cards for our friends from now on, with this as the first & starting point. It will be a challenge for us, to come up with different designs for every birthday, it sounds very tempting & fun plus we get to experiment with designs, styles, colours & layouts, so let's us see who's birthday is coming up next, haha.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
of rain, a friend & a dance club
Went out on wednesday to meet up with chevonne, a friend whom we have not seen for long time, we used to be closed before we both started college so we have some catching up to do, haha. And as always, for the past couple of week, it rains every time we went out. to give a sample of how it's like:- on tuesday, it was only drizzling when we got out so we thought we could make it before it rains for real but well, it's not going to be that easy & fortunate for us as the rain started pouring down as we make our to class, with no other choice (we don't have the funds to afford a cab & we don't have an umbrella with us), we walked in the rain using our drawing board as a makeshift umbrella which doesn't really help much actually. When we reach college, our shoes (that include our socks), jeans & tee are all soaking wet plus our bag is slightly wet as well (there's our precious laptop in it! but it survived the trauma).
Going back, as we were saying, it was raining but this time we can afford a cab (sweet) so we got there barely wet. After a brief game of "hide & seek", we finally met her & her new boyfriend, seems like decent, nice looking guy with occasional issues with his 'tone of voice' which he's oblivious to till that day. After not seeing each other for so long, it's good to see her in person again & to know that she's doing good & happy (& pretty as always) so we are happy for her. We did some catching up, she noticed what has happened to our hair & we lost weight it seems (oh dear, we're already thin & we lost weight?! but it was to be expected though, we went through a stretch of difficult time recently) & we all went to her college to hang out with her & her dance club (yes, dance club). A bit on her college, the area that is her college is just 1 particular floor in an office building in PJ (it's that small but as long as they provide sound opportunities for further education, it's no big deal).
A dance club, haha, it's been a long time since our last involvement in a dance production (now, we dance?! yes, we used to, back in high school) so seeing a group of people working together, practicing & helping each other on the moves & choreography does get rather nostalgic for us, we feel like getting into dance again. haha. 1 of them even asked if we want to show some of our moves but we declined, we were shy & it's really been a while (phew). They were supposed to come up with a new choreography for a college event coming soon so it's really interesting to observe them as they work on it, some passionately. We hoped that we could've help by contributing ideas but we know zilch about hiphop/street dance, we are more into contemporary/free movement; but then again, next time around perhaps, why not fuse the dance forms & make a fusion, it'll be interesting, haha. And while they were busy doing their stuff, we took some time & did some life/gesture drawing of them, good practice & they turn out not too bad despite that they're moving around so much. And oh yeah, we met new people as well, some really interesting (& pretty) indeed.
Review : the orphanage
The debut feature by young spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona, produced by Guillermo delToro (of Pan's Labyrinth) telling the tale of Laura, a woman who returns to the orphanage where she stayed for a period as a child. She purchases the house, with plans to turn it into a home for disabled children. Everything seems to be going well for Laura, her husband Carlos and their son Simón. However, the horror begins to unfold.
First off, this film somehow reminded of us "The Others" (yeah, the one with nicole kidman), go watch it & figure out why. It's an atmospheric drama of love, loss, sorrow, guilt & the fragility of life that's suspenseful & rather emotional but it's not that horrifying (it's categorized as a horror/suspense/drama movie though), with a few scares now & then. Plus, to us the plot was quite predictable, we just saw them coming for most parts of it but that's just for us, don't take our word for it.
In conclusion, The Orphanage is not bad & it's worth watching.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Review : Once
Once is an academy award winning 2007 Irish musical film, starring professional musicians Glen Hansard (of popular Irish rock band The Frames) & Markéta Irglová as struggling musicians. Set in (a modest)Dublin, although being a musical, it's unlike the showstopping Hollywood's version with people bursting in songs, it's a naturalistic, charming, witty, honest, captivating, inspirational & lyrical tale love, music & friendship; with the great chemistry & sheer songwriting genius of the 2 leads who wrote & performed all but 1 of the original songs in the film (1 of the song "falling slowly" won an 2008 Academy Award & the soundtrack was also a Grammy nominee), we got the soundtrack album immediately after we finished watching the film. Also, Once is ultra low budget production unlike the mega budget musicals like Moulin Rouge; but we have to say if we are to choose 1, we would definitely go for Once, it's simply charming, captivating, inspirational, uplifting & memorable.
a must watch for all, especially those who loves music & romance (simple, innocent & touching). Once is not enough!
of hunting for the homeless & playing 'emo'
well, yes we went hunting for the homeless (with cameras) & played 'emo' around the KL's Golden Triangle on Friday with Rin & Ting Wei for their Photography finals. Ting Wei needed shots of homeless people while Rin needed 'emo' shot with us as the models (haha, it's not as easy as it sounds) plus we are the assistants, guides & bodyguards (just in case we pissed any of the homeless people off, haha & not to forget that KL's golden triangle can be a dangerous place). we took the LRT to KL & first stop is Yut Kee Restaurant for lunch (the famed kopitiam style pork chop & chicken chop) & we're off hunting.
the weather wasn't kind to us as it rained again & again throughout the day which was really troublesome but anyway, the first few hotspots for the homeless were vacant (it was noon so it's to be expected) so we move on. And there he was, walking in the rain barefooted & topless, Malaysia's James Blunt, Ting Wei stalked him for a distance but just can't manage to get a good shot of him without startling him but just then, we found another homeless guy sleeping by the corridor so we get him instead, when we're done, we noticed that we have lost James Blunt & he's no where to be found. Next up, it's our turn to play 'emo', we admit we feel kinda awkward initially but well, we did the best we can at the moment so we hope the shots turn out good (bryan'-' was very enthusiastic about being 'emo'). we found a guy who was talking to the wall while inhaling something in a plastic bag down by the river while the girls are taking shots of Masjid Jamek, we tried to take shots of him but we couldn't get a good one (oh well).
Next on the list is Central Market Annexe for the 2 exhibitions currently held there, "out of berlin, passthepicture" & "seeking to connect: soe naing's line expressions" but before that, Rin's obsession with the Dayabumi building nearby while we donated our legs to be used as framing for 1 of Ting Wei's photo (main-main, i guess). The exhibitions were nice & interesting, we were impressed by the simplicity & expressions of the line works/brush strokes in soe naing's artworks & the photos in the other exhibition, interesting with some of them being really nice shots. On our way out, we found these:
(photos courtesy of Rin)
Rin, Ting Wei & us are interested in going for "three", we have not decided when for sure but let us know if you're interested as well. Rin & us are also interested of going for the 59 seconds film fest this coming wednesday, so if anyone's interested, give us the heads up. and there the 3rd one, with Akira Kurosawa's Ran being the pick of the lot, it's a day before the new semester starts so hey, why not?
we then put ourselves into confinement in the annexe's antique elevator, with the girls taking photos incessantly in that small confined space plus we get to play 'emo' again inside & it's warm inside. next, the girls are fatigued & in desperate need of rest so after several failed attempt in finding a place to rest & grab a bite, we finally settled down at mc' ds, along the way we found another homeless man so Ting Wei gets working (it's the same man, that zheng & i met when we went photo shooting last month, still wearing the same clothes he wore the last time). Rest, eat, drink & chat.
the sky darkens & we are out for night shots. Apparently, Rin is still obsessed with the Dayabumi building so there she goes again while Ting Wei takes her shots & so did we, a few. When Rin's done with her obsession, we played 'emo' again under a bridge. it rained heavily again so we walked in the rain to a subterranean walkway, the one near Masjid Negara where a MGS student was raped & killed sometime ago, our next location for 'emo' shots. After, that we're off to Puduraya (where we were said to have tried killing ourselves by getting hit by a bus, well, we don't intend of dying just yet) but the night was still young & no homeless people were found. We decided to go back to first location that we went earlier to wrap things up, on the way we found another homeless man sleeping on the bench on a bus stop, took some shots with the people around wondering what we're doing. we walked our way to the first location which by now, is a dark quiet alley but to no avail, there were no one there, not yet at least but it's late so we have to make our move going back home.
it's was a fun, interesting, tiring, wet & 'emo' day for us. we never knew that it can rain so many times in a day & the homeless people that we can find in KL, the capital of malaysia, plus our first 'emo' photoshoot (haha). thanks to Rin & Ting Wei, all the best to you 2 & we hope that the photos will turn out well. That's all, signing out.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far, a new book by Stefan Sagmeister
darn, after watching this video (just watch it, , looks very interesting, you'll understand), we really do want that book! but let's see if we can find it here in malaysia (but then again, could we afford it at the moment? we'll have to see)
and here's another video (with stefan himself + other designers) -
http://www.hillmancurtis.com/hc_web/film_video/source/fof/sagmeister08.php
A new series of artworks is coming soon!
well, we were bored & then an idea struck us so we decided to work on the idea to come up with a series of artworks since we have the time to spare anyway.
tentatively, the new series is entitled :
"thus the big (&small)(bad?) wolves feast on the (naive & unsuspecting?) tomatoes". yeah, we know it sounds rather bedtime story-ish & all we can say is that it's somewhat related but it's not, you be the judge.
so far, we've researched, let our imagination go wild & worked out some of the contents but we've yet to decide on the execution & the direction as we want focus on first getting our assignments done in these remaining 2 weeks of the semester, then we can go full swing on this project.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Video of the week
well, this the first video feature for this blog. There'll be a new one featured every week & at the moment in our archive, we have at least around 250 videos & it's growing so we should do fine. haha.
first off, a music video for
" fourtet's and then patterns"
we like the visual outcome of video, the stutter-ish effect that went well with the song & the different people living in those little confined spaces, plus we had a good laugh when we saw the chubby dude with his inflatable "partner". check out the part where it's dark right at the beginning, it got us interested from then on & went on to do so right to the end.
(video courtesy of youtube & domino's record)
(we couldn't find this video on youtube anymore though)
review : the lives of others
This political thriller and human drama involves the monitoring of the cultural scene of East Berlin, with the goal of knowing everything about the lives of others via a ruthless system of control and surveillance by agents of the Stasi, the GDR's (German Democratic Republic) secret police,begins in East Berlin in 1984, five years before Glasnost and the fall of the Berlin Wall and ultimately to 1991, in what is now the reunited Germany. And it traces the gradual disillusionment of Captain Gerd Wiesler on a mission to spy on a celebrated writer/playwright & actress couple, collecting evidence against the famous writer/playwright for the sake of 'national security'.
A very good film we must agree and it deserved the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film & the numerous other awards it won. A dramatic, poignant, tense & unsettling thriller about spying (voyeurism), choices, fear, distrust, betrayal, idealism, disillusionment & defiance with a subtle yet dramatic & tense build up of details & the intelligent plot. Despite being a thriller/drama with powerful but subtle depiction of corruption, it's more of a study of the characters & their development throughout the plot. and kudos to the late Ulrich Muhe, for his brilliant portrayal of Captain Gerd Wiesler & director/screenwriter, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck on his debut.
A very good film that's certainly a must watch, to wrap things up. And, it's in german by the way, with english subtitles.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Shoot & Win
Short Short Film competition by Apostrophe
If film making is your passion then check out the Short Short Film competition by Apostrophe.It starts from 10th March till 18th April. All you have to do is tell a story within 160 seconds (not less than 90 seconds though) and relate it to the theme of Makan. Interestingly, Makan manifest itself in so many ways in our lifes that it can be anything from 'cari makan', 'makan angin', to 'dog eat dog', anything as long as it's makan! So just let your creativity run wild, get a camera, shoot a short film & you'll be in the running to win the grand prize of an all-expenses paid trip to Hanoi and also a Mini DV camcorder.
For more information & also videos by Apostrophe mentors, check out http://www.apostrophegallery.com.
on a personal note, we would love to shoot a short film (it'll b a great experience!) & see how it'll fare in the competition but the part about finding a camera, might be rather difficult at the moment so oh well, we'll see what we can come up with first.
Events In April !
* - our picks
Arts
Out of Berlin...passthepicture! *
The Annexe @ Central Market
11:00AM - 06:00PM 19 Mar 2008 - 06 Apr 2008
The Annexe @ Central Market
11:00AM - 06:00PM 19 Mar 2008 - 06 Apr 2008
Chang Fee Ming (Mekong : Exploring The Source) *
Valentine Willie Fine Art
12:00PM - 08:00PM 05 Mar 2008 - 05 Apr 2008
Valentine Willie Fine Art
12:00PM - 08:00PM 05 Mar 2008 - 05 Apr 2008
SEEKING TO CONNECT: Soe Naing's Line Expressions *
The Annexe @ Central Market
11:00AM - 07:00PM 19 Mar 2008 - 06 Apr 2008
The Annexe @ Central Market
11:00AM - 07:00PM 19 Mar 2008 - 06 Apr 2008
Animalia
Pelita Hati House Of Art
10:00AM - 06:00PM 03 Apr 2008 - 22 Apr 2008
Pelita Hati House Of Art
10:00AM - 06:00PM 03 Apr 2008 - 22 Apr 2008
"Super Fiction" Exhibition *
Japan Foundation Kuala Lumpur
10:00AM - 06:30PM 11 Mar 2008 - 03 May 2008
Japan Foundation Kuala Lumpur
10:00AM - 06:30PM 11 Mar 2008 - 03 May 2008
Films
Turtles are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers
Malaysia Tourism Centre
04:30PM - 06:30PM 05 Apr 2008 - 05 Apr 2008
Malaysia Tourism Centre
04:30PM - 06:30PM 05 Apr 2008 - 05 Apr 2008
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