i was just out delivering some work and noticed that the flag at tauranga airport was at half-mast. and then i noticed another one further on that was the same. i thought, "who would warrant that kind of respect?" and my first thought was "sir ed hillary". sadly, when i came home to check, it turns out that it was in fact ed hillary who passed away today.
ed hillary was easily the most famous new zealander alive - he and nepalese sherpa tenzing norgay were the first people to reach the summit of mt everest. or as he put it "we knocked the bastard off". he came to personify the typical kiwi bloke - no fuss, just get the job done sort of attitude.
he was an all-round adventurer and travelled to the north and south poles - the first man to achieve the everest, south pole, north pole trifecta. he was also a humanitarian, tirelessly working for the nepalese people. tragically, nepal claimed the lives of his wife and daughter in a plane crash in 1975.
it's sad that he's passed away - it's a loss for new zealand. at 88 he had a good innings, and will always be considered a legend.
this morning i watched a biopic on jackson pollock starring ed harris. it was a pretty good film. i can never watch a movie about art without wanting to do something of my own. ever since taking pictures in alleyways in town a few days ago, i've had multiple ideas firing around in my head about how to use them.
watching the pollock film gave me the idea to just get on with it and see what emerges. i decided to start work on an idea i've had for several weeks. like the last piece i did (the plastic stag one) it was a long-term idea that really evolved when i started playing with the elements.
it incorporates the following elements: one of my alleyway photos, my standard artwork of me (blindfolded and degraded), an image of blue sky over the suburb of bureta, the safe little world brand, and as a little bonus, a map of tauranga (bureta to central city) that covers the area where the alley is, taken from the perspective of where the blue sky is.
on the headphones: 'thou shalt always kill' by dan le sac VS scroobius pip. check it (you won't regret it).
well, here we are on the verge of 2008. i've just been on a nice little road trip / work trip with lance that included a stay at my brother's holiday house north of auckland. very cool.
anyway, the intention - like last year - is to get some creative projects finished during my work holidays. that includes (somewhat dauntingly) a revamp of my website. it also includes realising some concepts i've had in mind for some time for visual pieces.
i'm working on a series (long-term) that incorporates grid designs done on my etch-a-sketch. today i finished the second of these pieces - 'plastic stag'. it's satisfying to complete this, because the idea for this particular image began to emerge very early this year when i took the background image at a music team retreat in the country.
here's the finished piece:
i'm immensely pleased with the final result as it truly incorporates all the aesthetic elements i like - the etch-a grid, iconography, text and photography. the photography itself has good colours and subject matter (i like switches and plastic forms). the text reads "plastic stag [bagged and mounted by a plastic huntsman]. barometer rising. safe little world."
meanwhile, to provide more background material for these pieces i fulfilled another long-term idea to go into town when it was quiet in the evenings and get some pictures of urban walls. the lighting was great and as well as the walls i was thinking of, i also found a few more nice ones. i had my work camera (a sony fixed lens that provides 10.3 mp images) at home so i used that.
here are a couple of examples:
so that's about the sum for now. happy new year - hope it's a good one.
on the headphones: 'rain' by fat freddy's drop, from the album 'live at the matterhorn'.
please have a look at this little video. it's called 'the story of stuff' and it is an excellent summary of the whole consumerism, global economy thing and its inherent problems. the presenter talks to you a bit like a primary school teacher, but it's worth watching anyway (cool animation graphics).
here is the first part (5 minutes). the whole thing is 20 minutes long and you can watch it at www.storyofstuff.com
the workload i used to have and which i once thought was full-on now seems like something of a holiday since taking on quite a bit of extra work a few months ago. it's been good, but i'm definitely looking forward to a nice break and a chance to do some non-commercial creative projects (like getting safelittleworld.co.nz up and running and doing some more artworks).
in the midst of all my busy work (which has also included editing, designing and releasing a new castle publishing book, completing work on the typesetting of a book for the salvation army, creating issue 3 of abb engineering's bimonthly product update, and various work for HOTmilk), here are a couple of quite nice looking projects that i've worked on in the last month or so...
reservegroup b&b website
this was my first project for my new web photojournalism job. i wrote all the content and took a lot of the photos for this b&b establishment. the guys at reservegroup did a beautiful job of the design. my first project went live a week or so ago.
a screenshot of the front page (have a nosey at the whole site here):
expanse christmas card
another cool project i worked on was a christmas card for my friend alex, who operates a town planning consultancy called 'expanse'. the brief was to create a card to communicate that expanse had purchased a dairy cow through world vision's 'gifts of hope' programme.
the first step was to create this hand-drawn / hand-painted cow (which i did with some reference photos, photoshop and my wacom tablet):
i then overlaid it on a stock photo of a city street at night (to bring in the town-planning aspect) that included christmas colours, making the image look painterly, adding a bright glow behind the cow and including the phrase "the cattle are lowing..."
the card was printed digitally on gloss stock and came up right nice.
i'm hoping to get a bit more time soon to make some more posts on my blogs... but for now a slacker's post.
here are a couple of videos about 'the house of the future' at disneyland back in the day (found via boingboing - which, by the way, would be the blog to choose if you were going to read just one blog a day). sponsored by monsanto chemicals it was made almost entirely out of plastic. what a safe little world that would be.
part 1:
part 2:
on the headphones: 'go it alone' by beck, from the album 'guero'.
recently when i lost my .com address by being scammed by my america-based web host, i resorted to safelittleworld.co.nz. so i guess you could say that the big bad cyber world was far too dangerous for my safelittleworld. but having the .co.nz instead has ended up feeling like it fits the concept better. and i've begun to realise how much being in new zealand informs that idea.
people create safe worlds for themselves everywhere, but in new zealand it is part of our national psyche. it's a safe haven down in the corner of the world, so near the edge of the map that maybe bad things won't notice us. and our national anthem asks that God will defend us.
i'm also aware that the safe little world concept originally came to mind because i live in tauranga - a safer subset of our already safe nz world. it's a very bourgeois suburban place to live. a very nice place to live - a place that people move to for the lifestyle.
recently, police and anti-terrorist squads raided a number of locations around nz after a year-long investigation into activities that seem to have been aimed against the government and stability of the nation. the full details are yet to emerge. but there is talk of assassination plots, molotov cocktails, arms caches, and guerilla training camps in remote and formidable bush locations. one of these training camps happens to have been set in our province - the bay of plenty.
this is of course troubling news for nzers. but it also demonstrates the paradox of the safe little world concept. the camp in the bush demonstrates both the unsettling nature of social tension in nz and also serves as a metaphor for the fact that in nz the land itself can be a frightening force. the camp was situated in the urewera ranges (pictured) - one of the most remote and untamed parts of nz. i've discussed the threat of the land and nature in nz in an earlier post.
in other safe little world news: i was excited to see that the auckland art gallery have an exhibition opening up called 'making worlds'. from the gallery website:
"Making Worlds looks at the way artists invent worlds of imagination, speculation, wonder and enquiry. Like scientists they research, question and experiment. They imagine things and places. Explaining the world that we know, or that which is beyond, they use models, signs and miniature systems. They describe worlds that make us feel secure and happy, and others, which give us a feeling of dread."
i wish my concept was a bit further along in terms of artistic output, and i wish i was known enough to have been included in that exhibition! it just sounds so spot on - i'm amazed. maybe it demonstrates how universal the concept actually is - and that i've hit upon describing something that is truly archetypal to human existence. gosh, does that make me clever or what?
of course from auckland art gallery's point of view it is a chance to create an exhibition for all the family and encourage kids to interact with art. they are asking people to send in pictures of huts and dens that they've created (with sheets and chairs and things). maybe the opportunity is too good for me to miss... the kid part is all good, because i'm really interested in the make-believe aspect of the safe little world, toys etc. maybe we never stop making-believe.
[picture is of Here and There by morgan jones, from here]
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today i was listening to the latest edition of 'this american life'. it was all about mapping and how we use maps to try and make sense of our world. excitingly this fits in with something i've started doing in my graphic art - incorporating map-like grids as a motif to show interconnection (see one on the temporary splash page of my website).
anyway, on this edition of the podcast they talk to a topographer named denis wood who has been creating all kinds of maps of his neighbourhood for about 25 years. he maps things like the pools of light created by street lights. you can see some of his maps here. great stuff.
"In short, he's creating maps that are more like novels, trying to describe everyday life." read more here.
[picture is a map of phone, cable, and power lines by denis wood, from here]
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that's about the sum of it. i haven't made any more progress on my website relaunch. i've been busy - recently taking on a job in which i work as a photojournalist describing safe little worlds for tourists to visit.
on the headphones: 'take me to the riot' by stars, from the album 'in our bedroom after the war'.
well, i've had some serious difficulties with my website (particularly the hosting - more about that later in an intraspace review). but now i am getting things sorted and that means an up-coming relaunch of the 'safe little world' website.
i'm taking the down-time as an opportunity to redesign some parts of the site - hopefully that won't take too long. stand by for more info.
meanwhile, i've been assisting roly on a photoshoot for the jamie strange album cover art. we had about a 15 hour day on saturday, starting with a dawn shoot at 5.30 am. there has been all kinds of strangeness (excuse the pun) as we transport a mannequin to all kinds of locations. and the adventure continues this weekend with more locations.
i went to the semi-permanent design conference in auckland on saturday. it was great - i'll be reviewing the event on intraspace soon. meanwhile here are a couple of souvenirs i scooped up during the event. oh, and if you are trying to find my work, my www.andrewkillick.com domain is temporarily down and is accessible through the domain name www.safelittleworld.com.
here's the first little bit of goodness. this is the annual semi-permanent book that comes out with the conference. they open it up for submissions from around the world, and this year one of my photos was selected for inclusion - you can see it there in the photo (the little bird-watching hut, not the dude with the dumbbell on the facing page).
the second little piece of goodness is this rather cool looking konica range-finder camera that i snapped up for $5 at the markets in aotea square in front of the conference venue. the thing has a metal construction and seems to be in working order. i'm looking forward to chucking a film in it and giving it a go soon.
always nice to come away with a few things to remind you of an experience like that where most of the impact is physically intangible.
on the headphones: 'nautilus' by loscil, from the album 'submers'.
we had a few running jokes on our brothers' road trip recently. one was based around the camo jacket that i bought from the warehouse prior to the trip. i love camo, not because i'm a redneck but for more fashion-orientated reasons. however some folk see camo differently. i was accused by my brothers of causing a cafe proprietor to look down on us because i was wearing this jacket. my brothers said it was because i looked like a bushman just back from pig-hunting. "bowhunting," i replied.
i've long been struck (n.p.i) by the idea of bowhunting - the least effective but most rugged of all common animal-slaying methods. i'm also intrigued by the way evangelical christianity has become intertwined with gun and hunting culture in the usa - it's one of the most bizarre amalgamations i can think of. so you can imagine my excitement when, in reading an article on stuff.co.nz about how camo bibles are the topselling product from an outlet called 'the christian outdoorsman', i discovered that there is actually an organisation in existence called 'christian bowhunters of america'.
i quickly visited their site. currently they are holding a Spiritual Retreat Hog Hunt at Bowhunter Paradise, in Texas - archery only. i'm putting on my jacket and buying my plane ticket as we speak...
[picture: andrew (left) and dave getting rained on while walking on a jetty, taupo. picture by rob]
over the weekend i went on a road trip with my two brothers - rob and dave. i think this was the first time the three of us had been away together on a trip like this, so it promised to be an interesting social experiment. back in the day, when they were roadtripping as younger men i was only about 10 years old. 20 years later we set about planning to drive down to the central plateau of nz to see what we could see. and it turned into rather a good trip. here's the highlights package...
day one: south of rotorua we went to a place called orakei korako (aka hidden valley) - a geothermal area that is supposed to be pretty good. we shelled out our $28 per person (tourist prices) and went across a catchment lake (part of the waikato river) on a little ferryboat to the other side. then we looked at sulphuris formations and various subterranean bubblings. the highlight was a big open cave surrounded by native bush with a blue tinted thermal pool at the bottom.
day two: we set out from taupo and headed to the famed horopito motors. weatherwise this was exactly the same type of day as when lance and i went there earlier in the year, except now it was winter - so it was about 9 degrees colder. horopito is always good. and afterwards we took quite a lot of photos in the surrounding landscape. from there we headed to ohakune.
in ohakune we got a brilliantly cheap lunch from the bakery and drove up mount ruapehu. at the top of the road, dave's 'snow warning' went off in his car. it was 1 degree outside and raining/sleeting. well you can't not get out and touch snow when you're up the mountain so we braved the stinging rain for a few minutes. back in the car we decided that the only sensible thing to do in weather like this is to go for a bush walk.
we went down the road a bit and found a nice track to some waterfalls (the waitonga falls to be exact). being in the bush was ok - wet but not windy - until the track crossed open tundra that looked like the marsh scene out of lord of the rings, but colder and without the faces and lights. we got lashed with more sleet and had to concentrate on not getting blown off the boardwalk. back in the bush we descended into a valley. the path ended far too far away from the actual waterfalls for these kiwi blokes, so we bush-crashed up the valley until we were standing right beneath the main waterfall. so now we were being thrashed by the waterfall as well as the rain - refer to mention of temperature earlier to appreciate comfort level - but it was exhilarating and literally breath-taking.
after 2 hours of being out in that charming weather we finally got back to the car and cranked up the heater, which did a surprisingly good job of keeping us warm in our 1 degree celsius rain/waterfall water-soaked trousers.
stayed that night in turangi after driving north up the desert road.
day three: we drove north to a road that travels up the west side of lake taupo. we stopped at an old jetty and took more photos (pictured above), getting more rain on us and spying a picturesque village across the water with a waterfall and church with a high steeple. we worked our way around the lake until we came to the sign to waihi village - the place we'd seen. anyway, further up the road was a big handpainted sign telling us to keep out. before the sign were a couple of great-looking little 1950s holiday cribs which i had to photograph for my safe little world stuff.
standing on the edge of the grass in front of the places, i had taken a couple of photos when i heard a vehicle behind me. anyway, to cut a long story short, it was lady telling me off for photographing private property - the locals clearly sensitive about outsiders in this area. i explained to her that i wasn't doing anything wrong. she told me i had to ask for permission to photograph the buildings. i said, "can i photograph the buildings?" she said, "yes" and drove off. the old killick charm clearly paid off.
then we went further north up the waikato river, taking in a couple of quite impressive dams until we came to arapuni and the enormous swing bridge that i had forgotten was there. we parked the car and walked across the bridge feeling like it was going to collapse at any moment and send us hurtling into the rapids over 50 metres below.
that night back to my parents' place in kaiaua, then back home the next day.
a classic trip accompanied by dave's rather eclectic ipod library (everything from audioslave to hot chocolate and portishead); and apart from one 'discussion' about politics, no arguments...
on the headphones: 'the underdog' by spoon, from the album 'ga ga ga ga ga'.
quite a while ago i went on a road trip with lance to the central plateau, and in particular to a little place called horopito that boasts a particularly impressive graveyard of old cars.
the other day, i got back a roll of transparency film from the photolab. given the cost and hassle of getting film processed these days (they send film away for E6 processing - there is apparently no one in the bay of plenty or waikato that does it) i treat film very sparingly. so this roll had been in my lomo camera for nearly six months.
sadly i discovered that an on-going problem that i've been having with my shutter sticking is still going on. it is an intermittent problem, so i lost about 9 random shots out of the 36 exposure roll. anyway, among the photos i got were some dating right back to the horopito trip. a number of them were duplicates of digi photos i took the same day, but with the distinctive look of the lomo camera.
one of them was this photo of a skoda wreck:
one of the things i like about this photo is that it is a picture taken of a soviet-engineered vehicle with a soviet-engineered camera - and both pieces of russian technology are miles from home in a paddock in the middle of new zealand.
i scanned the image on sunday, and today, quite by chance, roly emailed me a photo he'd been working on. he had taken a picture of his late model skoda (yes, skodas are back if you haven't heard). the photo was taken in his driveway, and then to expand his photoshop skills he made the image look like something out of a car commercial - complete with beautiful orange-tinged light and motion blur to make it look like it was travelling through autumnal countryside.
to counter his rather air-brushed interpretation of skodas, i emailed him my skoda picture. within the hour he returned with this bit of genius:
beautiful. oh and, this weekend i'm off on a road trip with my brothers - back down towards the central plateau. maybe i'll get to see my skoda again.
one the stereo: 'none shall pass' by aesop rock. get it free here.
our friends roly and lisa ebbing (lisa in particular) found themselves in the spot light this week. lisa has an innovative range of maternity underwear that is designed to look good, under the brand name 'hot milk'. anyway they got accused by someone of using soft-porn to market their product (see the article from the sunday star times here). lisa and her business partner ange appeared on campbell live on wednesday. see video etc of 'hot milk' on the tv3 website... entertaining. meanwhile you can be the judge by visiting their site.
speaking of roly - his photography graces the front cover of uno magazine. actually he's been quite a busy boy because in a couple of weeks he and i are doing a photoshoot for the album cover of jamie strange's forthcoming album.
well, here i am rumbling into virtual print for the first time in quite a while. who has stolen all our time? it is actually becoming a discipline to create spaces for creative work - i used to do it for fun. all kinds of other things sap your energy. i think we have a basic energy pool - and different things require different energy but they pull that power away from other activities. so for example the energy you expend in your day job pulls power from the energy you use for creativity or the energy you use for caring about someone else etc, and vice versa.
i'm fond of saying at the moment that if i stopped my paid job today and just started working on creative projects i have in my mind right now, i would be working on those projects for about a year (without adding any new ideas).
it's been ages since i wrote a poem but the other day i did. i'm always trying to think of ways to combine my various creative interests, so i started thinking about how i might put that poem into a design-format. normally i would have put the idea at the end of the mental queue of other ideas that are waiting to be executed. but i decided to try and strike while the iron was hot and just get down and do it.
here is the result - the poem is based on the story in genesis about joseph (who wore a particularly colourful coat) getting beaten up by his brothers and thrown down a pit... (click on the image to see it bigger)
in other news: my friend jonathan nalder and cyber-friend nick landbeck have completed an audio-visual art project based on their 'everyday beautiful' concept. they are having a multimedia event in brisbane this weekend (and projecting some of my images in the process). to see more about the 'everyday beautiful' concept, visit their site.
on the headphones: 'among plants' by mosaik. nice ambient electronic - get it free here.
forgive my tardiness with regard to posting on this blog. there have been much goings-on going on at my other blog intraspace - which i heavily recommend you subscribe to.
here's a post replicated from intraspace...
podcasting is great. i mean, basically a lot of it is people doing amateur radio shows - kind of the radio version of blogging actually. but of course there are lots of 'official' podcasts as well - and some are by actual radio stations.
one of these is called 'this american life'. it is a radio show that has run on american public radio for over 10 years - apparently now it is also a tv show. but the part i love is that they release their weekly radio show as a podcast.
'this american life' is a very eclectic [liberal] show, but it has as its heart an examination of american culture. i personally think it is very useful for us non-americans to study the american culture in this way because it influences the rest of the world so much. i think it gives us useful insights into this dominant cultural force.
each week, 'this american life' has a seemingly random theme and then people are interviewed, tell their stories etc based on that theme. some recent themes include: 'road trip' (about the american road trip tradition), 'big wide world' (mainly about a young iraqi guy who works as a translator for the western media in iraq - excellent episode) and 'notes on camp' (people telling their stories about summer camp).
but the episode that inspired me to write this review was one about guantanamo bay. i really and honestly think everyone should listen to this podcast - whether or not you think you are interested in the goings-on at america's terrorist prison. the episode is somewhat mysteriously called 'Habeas Schmabeas 2007' (all will be revealed when you listen to the podcast). it is a rerun of an episode that 'this american life' aired last year (i think), with some updates. in this episode they interview some actual past detainees of guantanamo bay and some of the attorneys that are representing current prisoners. it is very enlightening.
the original episode won a peabody award - whatever the heck that is (oh, here we go). which means, that is it very very good. a quick hunt reveals that unless you were a 'this american life' podcast subscriber (free, through itunes, or by using this link http://feeds.thisamericanlife.org/talpodcast) when the episode came out, then you can no longer download it for free - very sad. but you can stream it for free online. i recommend doing that at your earliest convenience my friends.
early last month, i did a short sermon for the evening service at church... it was tag team preaching, i did the first part and my mate nathan miller did part two. we preached on 'the questions God asks'.
if you want to have a listen, the audio files are below. left click on the links to listen in your browser (files are 8 - 12 meg) or right click and 'save as...' to download.
i have just finished reading h.r. rookmaaker's 'modern art and the death of a culture'. i've reviewed it over at intraspace - check it.
one of the things that rookmaaker talks about is that modern art is opposed to suburban bourgeois culture. the point he makes is that christians should be opposed to it as well.
as i've mentioned before, my 'safe little world' concept contains a paradox and i love rookmaaker's critique of suburban life (this is part of longer passage):
"These thousands, millions live a normal human life. They play it safe. They evade any real problems. They are nice people living a nice life. They have their little melancholies, unfulfilled dreams of youth - but life is like that... So they live their lives fairly happily, even if not exactly adventurously, and look for fulfillment in their career, a nice home, a bit of affluence and some kind words at retirement." p210
i should have posted this a few days ago... my mate malcolm (colm) is playing a live gig at the kings arms in auckland tonight. he is playing alongside flabotonum and mr slackjaw, for the release of a short film by shaun garea called 'my beautiful world' (click on the link to see the trailer and news clip about the film).
colm plays post-rock and i think this might be his first live outing for a few years (since the days when 'his' band humber were gigging). his work is featured on the film's soundtrack.
oh, and head over to intraspace - now called 'intraspace: the review lounge'. it is now functioning in its new expanded form. there is a new review of a book by brennan manning, a review of the new(ish) album from air, and a review of what it's like to be 32, by jonathan nalder. subscribe to it!
some changes are afoot at intraspace (my review blog). tired of just reading my own reviews of books that i've read, i've decided to open up the blog to other contributors and have also opened up the scope of the site.
so, now there will be reviews on all manner of things (books, films, albums, concerts... you name it) - well, that's the aim anyway. the majority of the authors will be christian in their worldview, although this won't necessarily be overt (sometimes it will be). we should end up with a rather interesting array of topics, opinion and content.
this is my first venture into team blogging so i suspect this will be an evolving process, including making a few adjustments to the site to make it more streamlined and suitable.
the best way to stay up to date with new content is to go to intraspace and sign up to the automatic email feed on the right. when a new review is posted, it will automatically be sent to your email. don't worry, you won't be inundated - i'm sure all our writers have a better things to do than post endless reviews to intraspace! and, if you find that you are getting too much email, you can always unsubscribe later.
on the headphones: 'angelica' by lamb, from the album 'between darkness and wonder'. www.lamb.tv
and now, for your viewing pleasure, you can head over to youtube, and watch some amazing b-grade (c-grade? d-grade?) footage from a film i had a hand in back in 2000.
the film ('bytemare') was directed by my mate john butterworth, and i think my initial roles on the production were: "director's assistant" and "cinemagraphic advisor"(?!) - however i'm not sure what i am listed as officially. in the end i was only present for about half the filming because i took off to the uk for seven weeks.
the amazing thing about bytemare was that it was shot in 2000/2001 and has been in post-production ever since. but word on the street is that it will be released one day.
i would tell you what the film is about, but maybe john b is still guarding that secret, so i won't.
there are three clips on youtube: a behind the scenes (in which i make a brief appearance), a trailer, and montage thingee.
i was just out delivering some work and noticed that the flag at tauranga airport was at half-mast. and then i noticed another one further on that was the same. i thought, "who would warrant that kind of respect?" and my first thought was "sir ed hillary". sadly, when i came home to check, it turns out that it was in fact ed hillary who passed away today.
