‘Mustavalkeaa (Soita mulle I)’ by Regina

A few years ago, my girlfriend and I spent a month traveling through southern Scandinavia. It was one of those great trips. The weather was amazing, the cities were perfect, and the music was pure indie-pop. It’s the type of sound which the Scandinavians do so well. Take Finnish indie-pop trio Regina, for example. I recently discovered them when browsing through the excellent Pitchfork TV and I’ve had them on steady rotation for the rest of the day.

Not only do they sound great, but their videos take me right back to that summer I spent backpacking around the sunny Nordic countryside. Their sound reminds me of a more dream-pop version of Stereolab, and I love the fact that they sing in their native Finnish. The video above is part one of a three-part series filmed by Osma Harvilahti, and part two is available on the band’s Vimeo page. They videos are nicely shot and suit the fun feel of the music. I’m looking forward to part three already.

Philip

ZeBar by 3gatti

This is ZeBar, a Shanghai hangout designed by 3gatti. 3gatti, led by Francesco Gatti, has offices in both Rome and Shanghai (one of their other projects in China won a competition for the design of a car museum in Nanjing). The project is a pretty straightforward construction of a computer modeling operation. The designers made an amorphous shape, and subtracted that shape from a series of parallel solid walls that fill the project’s boundaries. The effect of the stripes is very graphic and bold, but I would imagine the lines get a little more blurry after a few drinks.

One curious fact about the bar’s construction highlights a difference between construction norms in Europe and China. According to Francesco:

“In Europe the natural consequence of this kind of design will be giving the digital model to the factory and thanks to the numeric control machines cut easily the huge amount of sections all different from each other. But we were in China where the work of machines is replaced by the work of low paid humans. Using a projector they placed all the sections we drew on the plasterboards and then cut each of them by hand.”

Alex

Space Suit of the Week

The Chinese have a long history of space travel, dating back all the way to the late 50s. So finding a cool space suit definitely wasn’t a problem. The space suit above was created by Wu Ershan as a part of a series called Nomadic Plan in Outer Space. The suits are meant to represent the nomadic lifestyle of the Mongolian people.

I love how the space suit looks, almost like a space age bushido. The layered plates on the shoulders and legs are not only beautiful ornamentally, but also look like they could protect the wearer quite sufficiently. The porthole in the face mask along with the grill kind of look like a smiling face though, which is in contrast to the rest. Perhaps one day we’ll see something like these in 20 or 30 years?

Found through We Make Money Not Art

Bobby

Live The Language – Beijing

Some of you may remember from a while back the series of videos created by Albin Holmqvist for the EF International Language Centers, a series of stunning shorts that were told through language and beautiful imagery. I figured it would be a perfect time to revisit the Beijing centered episode, a really fun, romanticized view of a foreigner’s journey to Beijing. The series is so well done that they make any place in the world seem like the perfect spot for your next vacation, especially China.

Bobby

‘The Puti Trees’ by Nod Young

Beijing-based artist and creative director Nod Young has a great portfolio filled with beautiful personal projects as well as commercial work for the likes of NIKE, Adidas and Coca Cola. My favorite piece of his might be this typographical project, The Puti Tree.

Based on the text of two poems from the Zen Buddhist tome Platform Sutra, The Puti Tree teaches “not to believe all that which exists, not even the reflection of ourselves in a mirror”. It’s a teaching that hopes to bring a state of Zen. According to the poem, one must attempt to release themselves from the perceived limitations of existence. For Young, this is also something that can help bring creative freedom. “It is difficult to achieve true creative freedom”, he said when discussing this work, “we are overly concerned with aesthetics and meaning.” For Young, these poems bring a sense of clarity. I feel he reflects this beautifully in the work, pairing down the words to their most basic visual elements.

More about Nod Young’s work can be seen on his website. Prints are also available on that page.

Philip