Ged Carroll

Category: culture | 文明 | 미디어와 예술 | 人文

Culture was the central point of my reason to start this blog. I thought that there was so much to explore in Asian culture to try and understand the future.

Initially my interest was focused very much on Japan and Hong Kong. It’s ironic that before the Japanese government’s ‘Cool Japan’ initiative there was much more content out there about what was happening in Japan. Great and really missed publications like the Japan Trends blog and Ping magazine.

Hong Kong’s film industry had past its peak in the mid 1990s, but was still doing interesting stuff and the city was a great place to synthesise both eastern and western ideas to make them its own. Hong Kong because its so densely populated has served as a laboratory of sorts for the mobile industry.

Way before there was Uber Eats or Food Panda, Hong Kongers would send their order over WhatsApp before going over to pay for and pick up their food. Even my local McDonalds used to have a WhatsApp number that they gave out to regular customers. All of this worked because Hong Kong was a higher trust society than the UK or China. In many respects in terms of trust, its more like Japan.

Korea quickly became a country of interest as I caught the ‘Korean wave’ or hallyu on its way up. I also have discussed Chinese culture and how it has synthesised other cultures.

More recently, aspect of Chinese culture that I have covered has taken a darker turn due to a number of factors.

  • Dreadzone at Under The Bridge, Stamford Bridge

    It has become a tradition that my friend Simon and I meet up to catch Dreadzone on their annual tour last Friday. Simon had come in from Saudi Arabia so its a pretty big deal for us. This was the first time I had been to a gig at Under The Bridge. The space is a purpose-built live venue under the stadium where Chelsea play.
    Dreadzone at Under The Bridge, Stamford Bridge

    It is the most comfortable venue that I have been to. Molton Brown products in the toilet, spotless facilities, comfortable seats and a stand-up area in front of the stage. There are screens all around the venue to allow you to follow the gig and a great sound system.

    Dreadzone put on a great gig, lower energy then previous gigs I had seen them at, but still a great performance. The location of the venue brought out a really mixed audience. Friends and family of the band, long-time Dreadzone fans, middle class professionals with fading celtic tattoos, elderly punks and older mods. I suspect that there were some locals as well, nice young things who looked rah.

    The gig seemed to be supporting the reissue of Dreadzone’s album Sound, which is due to be repressed on vinyl. It is interesting that Sound isn’t snared up with a record label. I presume that the band own the masters and are consequently in control of their own releases. Sound was released in 2001, six years after their breakthrough album Second Light. It is designed more as a record to be taken as its whole, rather than a series of more accessible songs. Different genres flow through the album and it works as a live playlist. Although they did make sure to put in some crowd pleasers as well. More events here.

  • Laura Branigan & things from last week

    Laura Branigan

    Laura Branigan and a remix of her 1984 hit Self Control was my soundtrack of this week. It’s available as a free download. Laura Branigan was covering an Italian record recorded earlier in the year by Raffaele ‘RAF’ Riefoli. The RAF version had a heavier baseline to it than the Laura Branigan version. It was remade by Harold Faltermeyer, who had worked with Giorgio Moroder on Donna Summer’s Bad Girls. Both the RAF and Laura Branigan versions were popular songs as part of the Balearic scene.

    Modern dance and digital art

    I love this modern dance performance that integrates with a digital experiential artwork

    UNION

    I have been working long hours on a new business pitch over the past couple of weeks and this video by Canadian agency UNION resonated more than it probably normally would

    John Lewis

    The John Lewis ad sparked a discussion in our team today, was it just excessively twee or really bad? I am inclined to go with really bad. John Lewis don’t seem to have learned from their previous years adverts that get picked apart for some form of offence.  Previous years were accused of animal cruelty – with the family dog left in the kennel, despite harsh winter conditions. This year you have a child that largely seems neglected by his mother. If you’re a certain age being a latch key kid was a way of life. But nowadays it would be enough to spark an intervention by child services that may result in the child being taken into care. This article by the BBC shows how latch key kids are frowned upon, despite acknowledging that a good deal of this down to a ‘moral panic’.

    CBS News

    Finally CBS News new 24-hour streaming news channel is the closest manifestation to TV advertising on the net I have seen. There is no clickthroughs or interactivity. However with the rise of the likes of the Apple TV may make this a more sensible option.

  • Mr Switch & things that made last week

    The winning set by Mr Switch from the 2014 DMC mixing championship. What becomes apparent from the Mr Switch performance is how much digital changes turntablism as an art form and skill. Mr Switch uses a Churchill speech before cutting into hip hop standards. In the past there would be people each side to feed the records in. There is no stickered vinyl to mark cut and start points. Instead these seem to be preset on the laptop using Serato Scratch Live.

    There was much more of a focus on cutting rather than ‘musical scratches’ a la DJ Supreme.

    But a good number of skills remain, look at Mr Switch cutting from one to another record. This would be familiar to someone who had seen Chad Jackson, Cash Money or DJ Cheese win their crown. The behind the back cross fader flick is a flourish popular from when I started DJing.

    Tai Ping Advertising Co. Limited’s advert for Audi is as much an advertisement for the city of Hong Kong as much as it is for the car

    There is also a ‘making of’ film as well. The execution is right for Hong Kong, but isn’t necessarily on brand for Audi. Also the sound effects are very overdone for the pedestrian driving manoeuvres being undertaken. It makes a refreshing change from the usual Audi marketing, sponsoring society parties in showrooms

    Carli Davidson shake puppies video is just too awesome. The slow motion video captures the amount of force going on. Look at the torque steer as the front and rear paws slide in opposite direction with  each shake. Secondly the fluid nature of biology is obviously looking at the shakes themselves. You can see a similar effect when you see boxers hitting each other, but this is much cuter. 

    Ice Cube on Sesame Street. I can’t believe I just wrote that, but this is for real. It shows how hip hop has moved from underground culture that those in power tried to crush, to the mainstream. So what is it like? Ice Cube and Elmo is really, really good. 

    And finally for more serious content, a great article in Advertisng Age about Kraft getting real about online advertising, I am curious to know what took them so long and how this will impact online advertising around the world. Agencies have known about this for years, Unilever and Procter & Gamble have been trying to get change for a few years. Kraft is very behind the curve with this realisation. 

  • Dorothy & things that made last week

    Dorothy

    Dorothy by iStrategy Labs is a really interesting use of haptic for discrete navigation information. Glanceable interfaces are important for smartphone devices and wearables to work in the next world. Haptics allow this to be taken to the next level, encouraging glances only when needed, or not at all in some circumstances. Technology mediated behaviour would become much more fluid, indistinguishable from a human with no technology, but perfect contextual knowledge.

    A very simple example of this would be the Jæger-LeCoultre Memovox alarm watch from 1950, that relied on a mechanical self-winding (automatic) watch movement.

    Kovert Designs

    Kovert Designs seem to be taking a similar approach with their jewellery; as does Casio with their BlueTooth G-shocks. BlueTooth LE (low energy) dramatically changes how the technology can be used, making wearables to wireless tags a much more practical proposition.

    William Gibson

    I am really looking forward to William Gibson’s new book and this interview with American magazine Mother Jones shows that he has not lost his edge in telling truths from the future. The scope of his   William Gibson: The Future Will View Us “As a Joke” | Mother Jones

    Porter Tokyo collaboration with Isaora

    Porter’s collaboration with Isaora are always interesting, but I have really fallen for the Filo pack, with its digital smoke print. Porter Tokyo have built the bag out of Cordura to create the kind of burley design you’d expect from more tactical vendors. The digital smoke pattern is ideal for urban living including hiding the grime of everyday commutes. Unfortunately I can’t justify buying it because I have a perfectly good Mystery Ranch bag.

    Physical interface design

    I really like this physical interface designed for use on iPads. The pictures under glass interface has its limitations which this design draws attention to.

    This design takes the best of software and physical design and melds them together. Of course, how this can be commercialised is another matter of finding the killer application.

  • Ontheroof & things that made last week

    Russian crew ontheroof took their skills to Hong Kong, hacking one of the city’s iconic electronic billboards mounted on the top of an unfeasibly tall building. Ontheroof have attracted sponsorship from large corporates despite the illegal nature of their work. They’ve worked with brands like Huawei and Canon cameras.

    Their risk profile would preclude many western brands from collaborating with them. I was surprised that Canon did a deal with them.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if they were weren’t demonetised on YouTube due to their risky and illegal behaviour. Even if landlords were open-minded, their insurance company certainly wouldn’t be. It isn’t about getting ontheroof to sign a waiver; but all the unintended consequences:

    • They could fall off and hit someone
    • The building could be sued for damages due to the trauma of watching one of them fall of a building to their death

    If they used safety harnesses their content would lose its appeal as they are competition with other crews looking to ever more extreme footage.

    Not too sure if the swiftly added disclaimer would be enough to stop the lawyer letters coming through the letter box with this ode to Invisalign braces. When does parody become slander.

    Wee Scottish travel agent Thorne Travel put together a unique YouTube advert. I am guessing that it go nowhere near a legal team before it was uploaded on YouTube. Not too sure that they have permission from David Guetta for the soundtrack or Disney for the appearance of Mickey and Minnie Mouse – which probably explains why it got taken down. I thought that the N.W.A. soundtracked remix of the video was inspired. It also provided material for The Poke.

    The Poke have remixed some of their videos including a Halloween themed one with Michael Jackson’s Thriller the soundtrack and strategically placed pumpkins.

    Warner Brothers are pushing out to Western audiences Black Butler, a Japanese live action adaption of a Faustian manga tale. If you like anime like Death Note, you’ll like Black Butler.

    Finally, Agence France Presse put together a really good animation on how Ebola attacks the body, surprisingly it was hosted on DailyMotion.