wabi-sabi

The 100 club is unique, this is down to its age and its history, its value lies in its past.  All of the artists to of played their have left their unique mark on the place, this history has been transferred to the venue physically in its imperfections.

"It always was a sweaty basement but, even by those standards, it is starting to look bad. There are broken chairs, the pictures need replacing and there are holes in the dance floor.

Jeff Horton, 100 Club Manager

Having decided to base my project on the 100 clubs imperfections and 'dated charm' if you like i came across the Japanese world view called 'Wabi-Sabi.' Wabi-sabi can be described as the  beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It is a beauty of things modest and humble. It is a beauty of things unconventional...

Wabi-Sabi is:

The cracks in the bark of trees that lets us know it is a mature and healthy tree.

The lines in a persons face that lets us know how much they have laughed, thought carefully and grimaced in their lifetime. 

I definitely feel that the 100 Club has Wabi-Sabi, I've always been interested in the beauty of imperfections and how places and objects can develop a personality or soul, so I'm going to push this idea further. Having looked further into the idea of wabi-sabi Ive found that it is linked to the Japanese art of woodblock printing. Because of this and also my love of the iconic wooden stage and backdrop at the 100 club I have started to experiment with woodblock printing and am considering producing a series of woodblock prints as my final outcome.

RANDOM FLAWS AND IRREGULARITIES

The exquisite transient beauty to be found in all things impermanent

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There's a crack in everything

That's how the light gets in.

9/1/2011

100 Club

Having given the 100 club brief a lot of thought, I have come to a few conclusions.  Firstly it seems that the brief has changed slightly, initially the purpose of the brief was to create, 'A graphic urban intervention to secure a future for London's legendary 100 Club,' owing to recent events (McCartney showing his ugly face) it seems that the 100 club has secured a future at least for the short term.  This poses a question, how do you secure a future for a club, that seemingly already has one ? With this in mind I've started thinking along the lines, of raising awareness of the 100 club , and getting new people through the doors.

Through my research I have identified two areas which I believe represent the 100 Clubs true value. The first is obvious but undeniable, the musicians that have played there, make the place what it is, make it special.  As a development of this I have been looking at the opinions of the musicians who have played there, here are a couple:

"I get a feeling from the walls and the chairs, they tell me of the things that've always been there."

Paul Weller

"keep the bunker open..."

Jonnny Borrell

The second area I would describe as the 100 club's imperfection. As a venue the 100 club has a list of faults as long as your arm, but ultimately the music is the glue that holds it all together, the result is a unique music driven venue.  The 100 Club is like a favourite jumper or pair of shoes, broken and falling apart, but still your favourite, it has soul. 

I realise atmosphere and soul are hard to quantify, but they are words we use regularly to describe something a bit special.  I want to explore the beauty of the 100 club's imperfection.

Strangely when thinking about this brief so far I've found myself coming up with written rather than visual responses:

'The 100 Club is like a crackle on a record, the beauty lies within the imperfection.'

The Hundred Club - Reassuringly dated

The 100 Club, chipped glasses since 1942

Its like London's musical Time Capsule

100 Club - it gets better with age

They say you never realise what you have until its gone

I feel that these tag-lines/observations I've written about the club, are the foundations for what will develop into a visual piece, of which the form I've yet to decide.

I feel like this post is a little incoherent but I needed to get my thoughts down somewhere and this seemed the best place.

6/1/2011

Blog neglect

Blog has been neglected lately, its 2011, this will change.

I have been reading about wabi-sabi and human architecture, will post soon.


Happy New Year, its gonna be a big one !

4/1/2011

Progress

At the end of last term at college we were asked to start thinking about subjects we would like to look at for our self initiated study, rather than a fixed subject at this stage, I have a set of themes that seem to group into two areas.

As well as working on this i've also got another college brief to work on, '100 Oxford Street.' 

'A graphic urban intervention to secure a future for London's legendary 100 Club.'

I've got a few ideas for this, I plan to get to a gig there as I havn't been for a while, I'm also thinking of maybe turning the brief on its head and argue that maybe the club should close with dignity and be remembered for what it was, im still unsure but will be working on it over the next few days.

20/12/2010

Paris

Ive spent the last few days in Paris which has been really great. Paris was fun for lots of reasons, great company, tequila, snails, sushi, snow and Stefan Sagmeister. Sagmeister was giving a free talk at the Pompidou centre, he made a lot of interesting points, about how design should be a calling and not just a job. He also spoke about how you can integrate your interests into your work and that your interests are valid and valuable ideas. Lastly he said you should, 'HAVE GUTS!'

I also went to Pere Lachaise which was really interesting, the sheer scale of the cemetery and some of the monuments is quite hard to take in, I went back to Notre Dame too which just seems more amazing every time I see it.

The one thing I did miss in Paris, was a gig I'd hoped to see, a band called Caandides. Check these boys out, they play good music, CAANDIDES.

now I'm home and all I see is this...

18/12/2010

INFLUENCERS

This short documentary was mentioned at college today, having watched it I can see why people were saying good things. Its only about 15 minutes long but it raises some really interesting points about style and creativity, its also beautifully shot against a New York backdrop.

"The places where people assemble, based on passion, I think, are usually the places you see the most influence."
                                                                                                                                                                        
Jon Cohen

This particular quote taken from the film, struck a chord with me, I felt it was relevant to my work and interests. Its a good film, check it out here.

9/12/10

"I'm an All-rounder"

Kevin Pietersen   

7/12/10

SWEET DECEMBER

Christmas is coming, the tree's up and the stars on top, I made this playlist when I was putting the tree up earlier to get me in the festive spirit, its a gooden !

Sweet December

Click the link above to play

5/12/10

WORKSHOP

IDEA GENERATION FOR SELF INITIATED WORK

THE WORKSHOP INVOLVED A SERIES OF SIMPLE TASKS AIMED AT NARROWING INTERESTS AND FOCUSING IDEAS

JOURNEY

EXPERIMENTATION + CRAFT + SOCIAL INTERACTION + RESEARCH + TIMEKEEPING + IDEAS

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

STRENGTHS

IDEA GENERATION + COMPOSITION + CRAFTSMANSHIP/FINISH + VARIED INTERESTS + TIME MANAGEMENT + RESEARCH

WEAKNESSES

 CONFIDENCE + COMING OUT OF COMFORT ZONE + EXPERIMENTATION + TYPOGRAPHY/PHOTOGRAPHY + CURRENT AFFAIRS

INTERESTS

SPORT

MUSIC

SUBCULTURE

STYLE

PHOTOGRAPHY

CINEMA

TRAVEL

DESIGN

FINDING + MAKING THINGS

PEOPLE

The workshop was very simple, but it was helpful, in the sense, that until you start to consider your interests and put them down on paper you almost take them for granted.  The session was revealing personally because it highlighted sport as a core interest of mine.  Something which was picked up on by friends in the session.  We began to discuss football as a line of study for me to consider. At first I was reluctant to consider this, but everyone was adamant that I should look at it. I was encouraged that it was it was a rich an interesting subject, that has real potential. Inspired by this I generated the brainstorm below. Im keen to look at football closely and see where it goes.

5/12/10

SNOWED UNDER

Just a quick post to keep up to date. December is here and so is the snow, which is always nice... Was at Uni today for  a 'Unit 10 Workshop' which was basically a brainstorming session to point us in the right direction for our self initiated study. It was a good session, a lot of ideas came out of it and I think I'm closer to knowing which direction my work is going in. Ill post some of the the outcomes of the session soon.
Also, was flicking through Nude Magazine today and was reading an interview with Gasper Noé, who, I didn't realise has a directed a new film 'Enter the Void.' Irreversible another Noé film is one of, if not the, most horrific film I've ever seen. Having said this it is also an amazing, emotional roller-coaster of a film that had a lasting effect on me. I feel like Enter the Void will be just as intense, its already been compared to an acid trip, so should expand the mind a bit. I think the opening credits give you an idea of what to expect.

Watch It Here

2/12/10