Aesthetic Delirium

A Studio Visit with Matthew Shlian

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 22:24:06 -0400

The artist’s studio is always a fascinating place to visit. Through its array (or disarray) of tools and artifacts, it tells us as much about how the work gets made as it does the individual behind the work.

While Matthew Shlian was producing Apophenia, his latest series for Ghostly International Editions, we asked Ann Arbor photographer Cullen Stephenson to pay a visit and document not only Matt’s working process, but his studio space as well. Enjoy the look inside.

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For Slowing Down

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 13:01:00 -0500

One of the pieces that stuck with me this year was by the electronic musician Fort Romeau, about the idea of Slow Listening. It’s a love letter to vinyl, but can be read to include any form of uninterrupted listening (running, solo driving, sitting on a plane).

The Slow Web, a piece by Jack Cheng, which was published around the same time really cemented this as a movement in my mind.

Slow was everywhere this year and it hit me again at the airport yesterday.

…..

Being of Midwestern descent, I’ve always run from “slow” as a putdown of the region. I’ve come to realize with art and tech, it’s actually more about a certain faith in process, that distracting yourself, is actually cutting corners.

This year’s busy trap aricle, was one of a handful in the NY Times that warned of busying ourselves into oblivion. That in our need for incessant meaning, we create a chaos which doesn’t allow us to actually retain, or feel, much.

drip.fm, the company that Miguel Senquiz, Haig Papaghanian, and I have been building is also about this. It’s not about unlimited options at any given moment. It’s about experiencing culture as it is, not as an opportunity cost.

ghostlystore: Ghostly friend and collaborator Rob Fissmer, aka...

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 11:02:40 -0400

ghostlystore:

Ghostly friend and collaborator Rob Fissmer, aka Raeo, who was featured on the blog earlier this year, lent us his time and skills to create the latest mixtape for Freunde von Freunden, the international interview magazine based in Berlin. Head on over to their site to listen to the mix, and while you’re at it, check out the wealth of inspiring, meticulously presented content. Weekend reading anyone?

ghostlystore: Sougwen Chung: Works in Progress Today marks the...

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 16:14:01 -0400

ghostlystore:

Sougwen Chung: Works in Progress

Today marks the release of Sougwen Chung’s second print series, Étude Op. 2, No. 1-4, for Ghostly International Editions. To coincide with this release, we asked Sougwen to give us a compass for where she’s heading next. (Click the images above for a slideshow and learn more about each image in her descriptions below.)

Whether it’s the result of restlessness, unbridled curiosity, extensive traveling, or simply the cumulative effect of all of these factors, the breadth of Chung’s work has surged in the past year. From a newfound fascination with origami to elaborate projection mapping and live visuals, these works in progress suggest that the artist we already esteem, is just getting started.

Row 1 (left to right)

Macro shot of the interior of a tessellated paper piece. Making connections between code-driven visuals and the simple materiality of building form with paper creasing and folding.

A snapshot of a recent work in progress piece, entitled Prélude. Experiments with light projection on a planar surface.

Row 2

Still from a timelapse light sketch, made on my studio wall.

Embrace of Indeterminacy framed. Violin, and korg nanocontroller I use while performing visuals for Sepalcure. Working on creating a piece that can integrate these three tools meaningfully, or at least, elegantly.

Prélude intro, more here

Row 3

Drawings I’ve made over the years

Another projection experiment, Optogenesis. This time on a hyperbolic paraboloid structure, accompanied by a track by Tim Hecker.

magnuseckhell: “The Aleatoric Series” - Paper engineering set...

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 23:51:30 -0400

magnuseckhell:

“The Aleatoric Series” - Paper engineering set off with abstract painting in a collaboration from Ghostly International.

What a friend to have known (Taken with instagram)

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:22:50 -0500

What a friend to have known (Taken with instagram)

L to R: Latif Peracha, Stan Valentine, Tom Windish

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 12:10:37 -0400

L to R: Latif Peracha, Stan Valentine, Tom Windish

artandopinion: In the Cafe 1888 Willard Metcalf

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:43:45 -0400

artandopinion:

In the Cafe

1888

Willard Metcalf

marionblank: ©Walker EvansMan in Derby1941[From his portraits...

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:43:31 -0400

marionblank:

©Walker Evans
Man in Derby
1941

[From his portraits shot in the subway between 1938 and 1941 using a hidden camera. These portraits were later collected in Many Are Called]

remember-paper: paul reubens. interveiew magazine 1983.

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:43:12 -0400

remember-paper:

paul reubens. interveiew magazine 1983.

brunopostigo: my visit to @ghostly

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 14:45:12 -0400

brunopostigo:

my visit to @ghostly

tomasslaninka: Where is the border between simplicity and...

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 14:00:00 -0400

tomasslaninka:

Where is the border between simplicity and complexity of music? When can we speak of schmaltzy romanticism and when is the music sincerely emotional? What are the aspects of smart and sophisticated minimalism and when does it sink into dull nothingness connected by notes like dots lying besides each other to make an ordinary line? And finally, can we speak of contemporary classical composers as of late-minimalists or are do some artists follow the silent calm of Satie just to simplify their job?

Unsurprisingly, answers to these abstract and maybe bit unnecessary questions depend on the particular music that is subject of such examination. As the contemporary scene of pianists and other solo-instrument artists saturates and most of their music even simplifies, two things help to orientate. Reasons for their usage of minimalism – every piece of music should have some reason and goal; aimless music is suspicious of needlessness – which lightens the purpose for the selected aesthetics. Second examination is the artist’s background and insight into the classical music in its complexity.

The purpose of this introduction is to set reasons why Nils Frahm’s new album FELT should not get lost between tons of simple, mediocre piano work that overflows from numerous indie-classical-blogs. First listen to his new composition aptly named Snippet doesn’t show much – easy-going melody accompanied by repetitive left-hand murmur with hisses and rushes of keys hitting the strings of piano. Frequent shifts from major to minor consonances and evolution of the main melody freshen the silent tranquility. The silence itself is the key essence of Snippet emphasizing the fragile, immaculate nature and, at the same time, underlining the ease and simplicity as a concept of the entire album. Even though this is far from being a ground-breaking idea, Snippet transforms it into its greatest asset.

weareblonde: Tycho - A Walk [Download] [Purchase]

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 18:53:12 -0400

weareblonde:

Tycho - A Walk

[Download] [Purchase]

movimenta: video retro-futurista molto adatto alle sonorità di...

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 21:42:12 -0400

movimenta:

video retro-futurista molto adatto alle sonorità di Com Truise questo diretto da Will Joines per la traccia Brokendate - dall’album Galactic Melt, uscito per Ghostly International.

Taken with instagram

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 23:43:59 -0400

Taken with instagram

End To End Non Burners, Berlin (Taken with instagram)

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 05:54:16 -0400

End To End Non Burners, Berlin (Taken with instagram)

Lowkey (Taken with instagram)

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 13:47:54 -0400

Lowkey (Taken with instagram)

Hammer Of The Gods (Radio Ga Ga) (Taken with instagram)

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 13:42:20 -0400

Hammer Of The Gods (Radio Ga Ga) (Taken with instagram)

Alberto Balsa Wood (Taken with instagram)

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 13:39:27 -0400

Alberto Balsa Wood (Taken with instagram)

You’re perfect / successful (Taken with instagram)

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 13:36:08 -0400

You’re perfect / successful (Taken with instagram)