
With a few notable exceptions, landscape painting and abstraction operate on separate planes, and ne'er the twain shall meet. Brooklyn-based painter Benjamin King ignores this illusory boundary, with raw and expressive interpretations of natural landscapes. The works on canvas distill the feelings and sensations of the nature scenes -- without accurately depicting them. As he explains in a......read more
As a Brooklyn resident, Inlets main man/multi-instrumentalist Sebastian Krueger knows a thing or two about light pollution. The impressionistic video for "Bright Orange Air," wonderfully crafted by Benjamin and Stefan Ramirez Perez, goes deep with the song's theme. "Bright Orange Air" appears on Inlets' debut album, Inter Arbiter, out this week on twosyllable records....read more
In the lead up to the release of their self-titled debut album, Seattle hip-hop outfit Kingdom Crumbs used Kickstarter to raise some funds to make the album a full on multimedia experience for its listeners. As part of the Kickstarter drive, the crew tapped Tel Aviv-based animator/illustrator Ori Toor to make this trippy video to go along with "Evoking Spirits," the opening track from......read more
Your standard gas station beef jerky contains a long and scary list of manmade ingredients and chemical preservatives that have no buisness being consumed by humans. With Kings County Jerky Co., Chris Woehrle and Robert Stout set out to shift the market. The company's Classic Jerky is a mouthwatering delight, handcrafted from all-natural ingredients like grass-fed beef, fresh Portobello......read more
Bergen seems like a fascinating place. The picturesque little city on Norway's west coast was an infamous epicentre of the country's black metal scene, which in its 90s heyday stole headlines for spawning a string of church burnings — not to mention a murder or two. At the opposite end of the spectrum stand Kings of Convenience, the whispery Bergen folk-pop duo who sound like Simon and......read more
I recently met Beth Terry, the author of a great blog on plastic pollution called Fake Plastic Fish (the definitive resource on our culture’s obsession with plastics) at a very sobering event – the return from an expedition to Midway Island with photographer Chris Jordan, who traveled there with a film crew to document the “plastic graveyard.” Midway is literally “midway” from......read more
This is the first in a series I’m writing for SHFT called Ars Natura: art in nature, nature in art. Though I typically blog abut media and technology I have become increasingly aware that the problems our civilization faces are not going to be solved by technological ingenuity alone. Yes I believe we can solve the energy problem and perhaps even find a way to deflate the planet’s overheated......read more
The Finns are a thoroughly modern people. They are world-famous for their uber-modern design aesthetic and are wont to include any historical references of any sort in their architecture or design. And while the country revels in its modern history, it is next to impossible to find any information on the ancient roots of the Finnish people. In contrast to Norway and Sweden, Finland is not......read more
Reuben Margolin is a visionary Bay Area artist who creates totally singular kinetic wave sculptures from a variety of found materials. Graceful and mesmerizing, Margolin’s work is inspired by natural reference points like water droplets, wind gusts, and ocean eddies. Here, MAKE: television takes a look at the artist and his process. ...read more
The key to a successful business is good margins, the difference between what you buy stuff for and what you sell it for. So when what you're selling costs you nothing to buy, and it retails for $50 or $100, you're in good shape. Such is the case with Justin Gignac's New York City Garbage project, in which the artist/entrepreneur gathers trash found on the streets of Manhattan,......read more