Issue 3

disco under world

issue #3 january 2009

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NEW YEAR NEW FUNCTIONS:



www.discounderworld.com. issue #3 contents. page

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Table of contents, lets you navigate which pages to read. Print publication. Prints one page to an A4 page. We have put a PDF on the web site which prints two to a page, so you get the double page spreads and save paper. Best to get it off there.

Full screen mode, makes the publication full size, so the magazine looks fantastic and is so easy to read.

The Be Seen Zine page 72

Page 45

Cover Story: Robert Charles page 12

In this issue:

Arrows let you turn the page. You can also use the outside corners of each page or the table of contents.

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Agnieszka Parr page 27 Slimeface: page 52

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Tell a friend: helps you share the love and let others know about our awesome offering.

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$1,000,000

more s t o l plus

onth’ m t s on la w o h w like:

web

uiz/ ace/q

s sp

ike’ m / l l o

s p

Download as a PDF, so you can read it on the screen, offline.

Search, lets you search the publication for key words that interest you.

...

What is the definition of art? page 38

watch o t sites



Welcome to disco under world issue #3

{if you are seeing this, it’s because a video has yet to load}

Have patience my dear.

My first attempt at the above video. Titled: The reason why sometimes it is best to work from the office.

Why sometimes it is best to work from the office.

{if you are seeing this, it’s because a video has yet to load} Have patience my dear.

www.discounderworld.com. direct address. page

W

elcome to a New Year and a new issue of disco underworld! We are very excited about the upcoming year, and all the possibilities it holds, and we hope you are all in the same frame of mind, wherever in the world you may be!

Explore. Experience. Evolve. sums up the things we think are most important in living the fullest possible life: Explore your surroundings, Experience different ideas and ways of thinking, and use these to Evolve into the best possible version of yourself.

We are welcoming in the New Year, by remembering our philosophy of Explore. Experience. Evolve.

This year we will be bringing you a wide variety of people from all over the world, starting with this issue, where we have interviewed four awesome people, from all walks of life.

disco underworld was conceived as a way to meet people from all around the world and the things they love to do, even when we can’t travel the earth and meet them in person. disco underworld is published by Online Insight Limited © copyright 2008. We welcome you sharing the information in these pages, but copyright laws apply for reproducing or using any images or articles. Contact us for permission to reproduce: Editor: Stacey Childs [email protected] Sub Editor: Tessa Prebble

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We have also looked into the definition of art, and the different ways people of varying backgrounds describe and define the word. The result of our probing starts on page 39 and continues on page 81. Enjoy this issue and Yaye! to another year! Stacey Childs

Coming up in the next few pages: Join our newsletter: email [email protected]

Web sites to watch Cover Story: Robert Charles Quiz

Our contributors are where you are. And if they’re not, then they should be! Get in touch if you have something to contribute to disco underworld. Contact Stacey: [email protected]. She’s in New Zealand, but oh, the marvels of the internet...

Tessa Prebble [email protected] Robert Charles [email protected] Hinemoana Baker www.hinemoana.clear.net.nz [email protected] Teresia Teaiwa [email protected] Agnieszka Parr www.mouseonaleash.blogspot [email protected] Leon Green [email protected] http://leongreen.freehostia. com/photo.html

Mike Woodruff www.mutinouswombats.blogspot.com Faaiza Munif www.faaiza.deviantart.com [email protected] Sarawut Chutiwongpeti www.chutiwongpeti.info [email protected] Eleanor Gannon www.jelphoto.co.nz [email protected] Marissa Ramlu [email protected]



Web sites to watch

{if you are seeing this, it’s because a video has yet to load} Have patience my dear.

www.jpgmag.com Pretty much the new addiction of our editor, jpg is a magazine community for photographers, and people pretending to be photographers (like Stacey). 100 times better than Flickr, it is interactive, and has a real community feel. All photographs uploaded have the chance to be published in their print magazine, as decided by the community. Check out Stacey’s page, (please give her some votes and props to make her feel good) and make your own: www.jpgmag.com/people/discounderworld

For P hotog raphe rs an d Wan nabes

www.discounderworld.com. web sites to watch. page

YouTube We know YouTube isn’t a very new web site to watch, but we just had to tell you about a series of ads on there by Kiwi vodka producing company 42 below. Watch this one, titled “cow”, visit YouTube and type in “42 below” to see more, the old ones from the days when P.C. just stood for Personal Computer, are sure to make you laugh, but the newer ones, such as “cow”, “prime minister” and “invisible ticket” are still a crack up!

For

42 below video

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{if you are seeing this, it’s because a video has yet to load}

Have patience my dear.

ne

yo Ever

www.crowdspring.com Built to connect designers and small businesses seeking anything from logo design through to complete publication design. Crowd Spring lets small businesses commission design projects, and designers have a crack at earning some $$.

For D esign ers a nd Sm all

Busin

esses



www.discounderworld.com. reader survey. page

HEY EYEBALLS!

! Y A W S HI T S E V SEL R U O Y DIRECT

KS!)

(THAN

1) For how many years had the moon risen and the sun set on your face? (Age)

2) If I was to say sex would you say: (Gender)

Male Female

4) How do you put bread on the table? (Occupation?)

3) If you were to walk in the opening ceremony of the Olympic games, what country’s flag would you be walking behind? (Country)

5) How many times have you partaken in the fruits of disco underworld? (How many issues have you read?)

Could you please help us by answering these simple questions about yourself, so we can get a gauge on who is out there. We did ask a couple of liquor suppliers to provide a few bottles of something festive to give you for your time, but it turns out they had been getting a little too festive, and had none left to give. We also found a web site offering free KY warming liquid, but that offer had expired too. But! if you could please please please (don’t make us say it again) fill this out, we will:

Send you a real life personalised postcard from disco HQ! SNAIL MAIL! EVERYBODY LOVES SNAIL MAIL! If you don’t want one, just leave your address out. (P.S. don’t worry we won’t tell anyone where you live. Apart from the postman, but he knows already.) WOW what an incentive! You’d better get cracking:

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6) What do you like to do when not putting bread on the table? (Hobbies) 7) Where (apart from ‘at my computer’) do you spend the most time reading disco? i.e. at home, at work...

7) What do you like the most about this fair magazine? 8) What do you like the least? 9) Anything you want to see in it?

If you would like some personalised snail mail, please enter your full address and name here:



www.discounderworld.com. charlie. page

R

obert Charles

Words by Stacey Childs

Robert Charles (or Charlie as he prefers to be called), has been taking photographs for years. He started in high school, and has just recently finished a degree focused in photography. For the past two years, he has also been working part time for a newspaper, and says he loves the spontaneity and immediacy of shooting for the media. “I love the pressure of having one chance at nailing the shot.” On the next few pages is the story of a project Charlie did for university, investigating the idea of graffiti as an art form.

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“Because graffiti is obviously illegal if unauthorized, the space that was used for the piece had to be approved.”

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o ensure the project was legal, Charlie had to find a wall that could be approved for use in the photo shoot. The wall needed to be plain brick that was not too porous, and for safety reasons, it also needed to be away from public eyes.

Charlie rang around demolition companies, asking if they had any buildings that were going to be knocked down that could be approved for graffiti. After a number of rejections a company offered a wall and the project had a location.



“Getting a graffiti artist willing to be interviewed and photographed, was more challenging”, says Charlie. “I tried everything: friends and school peers who might know of any possible tiny lead that I could follow up; graffiti removal companies; graffiti artists who had appeared on gallery walls; people commissioned by the council. Everything.” Every lead seemed promising until he tried to make contact with the artists. “Whenever I contacted an artist, they would get scared off or simply ignore my calls and texts,” he explains. “This part of the process was the most frustrating and probably the most overlooked in my planning.”

“No artist = no photographs and a waste of three months of researching.”

www.discounderworld.com. charlie. page

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Then a colleague and friend led him to “dFRESH”, who promptly agreed to be interviewed and photographed. “dFRESH” is a break dancer slash graffiti artist who has grown up in the culture of both. He agreed to be photographed and interviewed because he is not heavily involved with graffiti any more (meaning he wasn’t on the police wanted list). Charlie interviewed him for over two and a half hours, during which he told Charlie about every element of graffiti and his involvement with it. He also explained to Charlie the difference between graffiti and tagging.

Coming up in the next few pages: Quiz Opportunity Navigator Agnieszka Parr

www.discounderworld.com. charlie. page

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s n o i t n e t in s t s i t r a i fit f a r G . g cin a f e d n.” SH E o o i t R s n F s i d e r e r p ex sa r e e v g i t g a a e T r “ lc a n o s r e are for p

“Tagging is the infant stage of graffiti. These kids never aspire to be artists. Their credibility isn’t based on their ability, it’s about being seen and claiming turf: they do the same tag for years and years. Taggers are into defacing.” “Graffiti artists intentions are for personal creative expression, with the hopes of admiration. It’s not about defacing, it’s about beautification. The more complex, the more creative and artistic the piece is, the more respect and credibility the artist has. The process is 100 times more intricate than buying a canvas on frame and sitting it at home and working on it as you feel fit.” -- dFRESH

Charlie has put together an audio sound slide from his interview with dialogue and images of “dFRESH”. You can watch it here.

If you think Charlie deserves a place in The Gold Edition, and a shot at the $500, please click here, and send us an email with his name in the subject line. If you don’t want to be added to our newsletter, please put “pass” after his name. Only one vote will count per email.



www.discounderworld.com. Agnieszka Parr. page

gator i v a N y t i n u t r o p p O If you or someone you know has a unique story to tell, get in touch with us, we may be interested in telling the story in an issue of disco underworld. Email [email protected] for more information. If you are an artist who would like to gain exposure for your work, you can be included in The Be Seen Zine. See page 72 to enter.

Agnieszka Parr Words by Stacey Childs

Maybe you think you could design our front cover? Read more on page 80. y to promote to it un rt po op or t en ev an If you have @discounderworld.com ey ac st t ac nt co , le op pe 1000’s of in the pages of disco. it e ot om pr to w ho t ou to find

Quick Quiz: 1) What does a woman raise and hold up in a Pabana? 2) In the film “Pulp Fiction” Vince Vega and Mia Wallace win the dance contest by twisting to which Chuck Berry song? 3) Who had “the face that launched a thousand ships”? 4) Which record was set when a vulture was sucked into a jet engine at 11,500m?

5) Who was the first European known to have encountered the cacao plant? Answers on page 80.

Coming up in the next few pages: Agnieszka Parr What is the defintion of art? I can see Fiji

Agnieszka Parr spent the first 23 years of her life in Poland, and the first 12 of those, like most of the rest of Eastern Europe, were spent shut away from the world behind the Berlin Wall. She is now calls New Zealand home.

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“I always had a thing for tables made from old Singer sewing machines. My grandma had a Singer and luckily I found one of those in somebody's garage a few years back. I dragged it home and restored it. The table top was covered with several layers of pastel coloured enamel. I discovered there was beautiful maple under all the muck, de-rusted and re-painted the metal parts, and took off all the unnecessary parts. The moment of panic came when all the bits lying on my garage floor were ready to be reassembled. Somehow I put it back together without having any parts left over. Now it is my computer table, part of my working space and it looks gorgeous. Funny thing, everyone who sits at the computer for longer than five minutes, starts playing with the big sewing pedal with their feet. It's weirdly relaxing.”



www.discounderworld.com. Agnieszka Parr. page

“We went from queuing in near-empty shops with food coupons and Russian art house cinema to Barbie dolls and Playboy overnight.”

A

gnieszka experienced the massive transformation in Poland after the Berlin wall came down in 1989. “I was twelve when the Berlin Wall crumbled to pieces. We went from queuing in near-empty shops with food coupons and Russian art house cinema, to Barbie dolls and Playboy overnight.” She now lives in Christchurch, and works as a graphic design tutor, illustrator, freelancer and mother.

“I moved to New Zealand eight years ago. My whole life was packed inside the 25kg luggage limit, I had to start from scratch. I decided to finally go with what I really wanted to do, so I started a foundation course in arts and design.” Poland had nurtured her artistic interests, but didn’t offer art and design as a career option. “Poland has a long history of brilliant poster designers. The work is everywhere, right there on the street. Books I read as a child were beautifully illustrated; book jackets were works of art. I drew, wrote, and spent way too many hours in my darkroom, but going to art school was out of the question. It wasn’t considered a ‘proper career’ in my family, just a nice hobby.”

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www.discounderworld.com. Agnieszka Parr. page

“I find day-to-day life much less stressful here. Maybe it's all this empty

space

that makes people calmer.”

In Poland, Agnieszka had begun studying to become an English teacher. Halfway through her BA, (to her family's horror) she spat the dummy and took a year off. During that time she found part-time work in a publishing company and would find any excuse to hang out with the graphic designer there. The move to New Zealand happened soon after. To cut a long story short, Agnieszka met, fell madly in love with, and married a Kiwi. They decided to try living in his end of the world for a while. “Eight years later and we are still here. I find day-to-day life much less stressful here. Maybe it’s all this empty space that makes people calmer. I love the landscape too. It’s such a cliché I know, but the mountains are gorgeous, and I love water. The fact that I can be on the beach in 20 minutes whenever I feel like it, is fabulous.”

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it's the moment in the restroom. before a trial, a presentation, a speech. before a meeting with the all important client. at that moment the lipstick becomes war paint. the calm before the storm. in that moment she prepares to be fierce.



When it comes to her work, people are the biggest inspiration for Agnieszka. “I'm fascinated by people, constantly surprised how we operate, what makes us tick, how we protect ourselves, why we make choices we do. Movies, books, plays, music: they’re all expressions of, and a struggle to, figure out what it is that we are.”

“In New Zealand I find that people don't really socialize according to their ‘status’ (education, occupation etc). In Poland it's much more ‘snobbish’ in that respect, so I find it refreshing. My friends are from all sorts of backgrounds and do different things in life and everyone gets along, from creatives to engineers, to lawyers to stay-at-home mums.”

www.discounderworld.com. Agnieszka Parr. page

Design is the perfect field for Agnieszka because it brings all her interests together, and everything that she has dabbled in is useful and can be used.



“In Poland it is much more “snobbish.’”

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“To me design is the most versatile, the most challenging and varied discipline I’ve been involved in.
The most brilliant design comes from exploration and from not limiting yourself to a narrow interpretation of your brief.” Agnieszka is looking forward to traveling again, having not been out of the country for two years. She misses the architecture of old Europe, the little winding cobblestone paths, Gothic churches and the vibe of centuries of history. She hopes to live in Barcelona, learn Spanish, study more, open her own studio and get rich and famous in the process. You can see more of her work at:

www. mouseonaleash.blogspot.com If you think Agnieszka deserves a place in The Gold Edition, and a shot at the $500, please click here, and send us an email with her name in the subject line. If you don’t want to be added to our newsletter, please put “pass” after her name. Only one vote will count per email.



www.discounderworld.com. what is the definition of art? page

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WHAT is the

definition

of It began with an argument discussion with a friend around the subject of art, and how a widely agreed upon definition doesn’t seem to have been established. This led Stacey Childs on a quest to find out the real definition of ‘art’.



T

he quest began with my definition of art, which then led to a mini psychotic episode to work out why my definition was wrong. It went something like this:

“Hmmmm. Art… well it is something visual, which I admire because I couldn’t reproduce it myself. Which is a very personal definition of art. Something I may not like may be something someone else likes and regards as art.” (Silent thinking over the point I have just raised with myself)… after a bit… “But what about the term ‘con artist’, which means that someone is a swindler who exploits the confidence of his victims, here art maybe loosely termed as a specialised skill, whether visual or not.”

After a little more thought I decided to concentrate on the kind of art that produces something visual, but then realised that some music, cocktail mixing and perfumery may be considered art, so I had to broaden my definition there. I then decided to concentrate on art which is a product of admiration by some, not necessarily all, but then thought back to the con artist, who probably is admired by other cons, and if he isn’t, then he isn’t a con “artist” at all. Hmpfh. Right, so the relationship between both my definitions was that they involved someone being skilled enough at something to have the outcome described as art.

Coming up in the next few pages: I can see Fiji Slimeface Mike’s Space

www.discounderworld.com. what is the definition of art? page

But does it matter who does the describing? Yes, I think so. Picasso could have wrapped a turd up in a blanket, called it art, and someone would have paid real money for it. Hell, if no one was going to put in an offer, I would put up a few dollars. On the other hand, I could make a piece of turd wrapped in a blanket. But I bet no one would buy it.

So could a poo in a blanket be called art, or is that just a ridiculous suggestion? If so, then where do ridiculous suggestions stop, and real art start? And who says something is “art”?

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Eleanor Gannon, see more of her work on page 75 of the Be Seen Zine

www.discounderworld.com. what is the definition of art? page

I propose that there is a huge social aspect to this “art” idea. For example, dada, the movement started in Switzerland during the First World War. Although some would term it a “cultural movement”, as it was a response against the outbreak of war, it is still a style of art. Dada was anti-war, anti-reason and anti the logic of the bourgeois capitalist society the dada-ists blamed for starting the war. The output of the cultural movement was “artistic” material, such as poetry, performance and the work of perhaps the most famous artist from the time, Marcel DuChamp. DuChamp took everyday objects such as a urinal and a bicycle wheel, mounted them and presented them as art. These things are worth tons right now, and people are willing to pay for them and call them art. Due to the anti-bourgeois movement of the time, for something to be termed “art” it had to challenge the bourgeois ideals and reject their standards of art. So I’m getting closer to a definition: One person other than the producer must be

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involved and think the product is worthy of being called art. That then makes the producer the artist and the product the art, whatever that product may be. The act of describing something as art is enough to make it “art” (whatever that may be). Time to go to Wikipedia.

Continued on page 81.



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www.discounderworld.com. i can see fiji. page

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Hinemoana Baker, music producer and writer, and Teresia Teaiwa, poet and academic, have just collaborated to make a CD “I can see Fiji”. Hinemoana writes about their journey. At the launch of the CD. From left Des Mallon, Teresia Teaiwa and Hinemoana Baker.

Hearing Fiji

words by Hinemoana Baker

S

uva City, Fiji, a spring night. We cruise through the darkening, steamy streets, past the McDonalds’ sign with ‘bula’ written in bright yellow plastic, slowing at several zebra crossings on campus while Teresia smiles a warm greeting to friends and colleagues ambling over to the celebration she and her friend Larry have organised. The greetings turn to laughter and

car-window catchups: Bula bula! When did you get here? Io! So good to see you! It’s fairly typical of Teresia Teaiwa that she had planned to launch her latest literary treasure in her homeland of Fiji without realising till the last moment that she didn’t have a thing to wear. I had packed a dress for her – one she’d never seen but I knew she’d look

stunning in. One of those 70s’ wrap-around numbers – pale blue, with teal and gold designs that reminded me of Birds of Paradise. When she tried it on, sure enough, she was rocking it. “Oh isn’t that beautiful,” said her grandmother Hestlene. “God bless us all.” Teresia’s not so concerned about image. But since we

started work on her album, I Can See Fiji: Poetry and Sound, she’s rediscovered a passion for sound. The album features not only her poems, but excerpts of field recordings she’s made while walking through her adopted hometown of Wellington including conversations with her son and a Department of Conservation worker during a



tree-planting on Mana Island; a shouted cell-phone call; and the beep of pedestrian crossing signals which warps into the tick-tocking, rumbling and cymbal-crashing brilliance of Des Mallon’s percussion. I have trouble describing the genre myself – and I produced it. We agree to call the genre of the album ‘theatre for the ear’. Another friend says it reminds her of one of those old-fashioned radio plays. “I really enjoyed being directed by you,” Teresia says, when I email her with questions for this interview. She’s back in Suva, working on a book about Fijian women in the military – Tere is a mild-mannered scholar and lecturer by day. She’s also a published writer and performance poet.

Coming up in the next few pages: Slimeface Mike’s Space The Be Seen Zine

www.discounderworld.com. i can see fiji. page

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I Can See Fiji marks Tere’s second poetic album. Her first, Terenesia, was a collaborative work with renowned Samoan novelist Sia Figiel. Even with this prior experience in the studio, some of my requests and suggestions were still a surprise.

www.discounderworld.com. i can see fiji. page

I think this also applies to the production and sound design for me. As a musician, I’ve produced my own albums, but I’ve never worked in this way – modifying and palpating another artist’s material into something “other”.

lish g n E in y c n e u fl my e r e h w e c la p e at th n e e b e v a h , s t omen m ic t is t r a e s.” iv t in c g u e d b o r s p e t g s a o u g m n y “M her la t o in y c n e u fl f ck o ends and my la 3. A number of indigenous THREE LITTLE KNOWN THINGS ABOUT FIJI By Teresia.

“I’d never been directed to perform my poems in particular ways,” she explains. “It was really freeing, to leave behind the original meanings of certain poems and recite them imagining brand new contexts. I loved how reading a poem as a shopping list could make the words resonate so differently, and more effectively; how reading a love poem as a response to a tsunami gave it more depth.” “My most productive artistic moments,” Teresia says, “have been at the place where my fluency in English ends and my lack of fluency in other languages begins.”

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As the launch begins, the crowd quiets to a silence punctuated only by a gecko’s clacking soundtrack. Teresia has brought Des and me over from Aotearoa to perform at the launch – and it seems from the audience’s reaction that the live version of the tracks is getting a similar spellbound reaction as the CD does. We re-create the spirit of the album on stage with a drumkit, a koauau (Māori flute), even a Banaban song. Tere’s dad is from Banaba – Ocean Island – in Kiribati. He twinkles proudly from the back row, watching her hands bring the words alive. Have a listen to their CD at: www.myspace.com/hinemoanabaker

1. The media is always casting social and political problems in Fiji as a product of tensions and fundamental cultural differences between the indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians. But Fiji has a rich diversity of ethnicities that also includes Rotumans (the other indigenous Fijians), Europeans, Chinese, Solomon Islanders, I-Kiribati and Banabans, Tuvaluans, Samoans, Tongans. 2. In the late 19th century and early 20th century there had been a serious proposal put forward to join Fiji to New Zealand in a kind of “Federation”...!

Fijians and Indo-Fijians served in NZ forces during WWI and WWII, and New Zealand had oversight over the Fiji Military Forces after WWII until Fiji gained independence from Great Britain in 1970.

If you think “I can see Fiji” deserves a place in The Gold Edition, and a shot at the $500, please click here, and send us an email with the name in the subject line. If you don’t want to be added to our newsletter, please put “pass” after the name. Only one vote will count per email.



www.discounderworld.com. slimeface. page

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e c a f e

m i l S

Words by Stacey Childs

Slimeface (whose real name is incidentally Paul) is a 52 year old long haul trucker who has been trucking across America for over 30 years. He created the name “Slimeface”, because he felt no one could call him anything worse than that around the poker table.



S

limeface’s passion for trucking was sparked at 10 years of age. His nextdoor neighbour was a truckie, and Slimeface was fascinated by his truck, and would listen for him coming home each night. Slimeface loved watching him fit his big truck and trailer into the tiny front yard and would dream of one day driving a big truck like his. His dream came true straight after high school in 1974, and apart from a few jaunts into other jobs, he has now been driving his entire adult life. He says: “I love what I do and can't imagine doing anything else.”

But truck driving isn’t the only thing Slimeface is passionate about. He is also a talented photographer, who first started taking photos with a digital camera only three years ago. He takes photos as he travels, by setting the camera up in the passenger seat, and snapping as he drives. As dangerous as this sounds, he assures us it is legit, as he presets the camera and doesn’t use the view finder, he just clicks as he goes along. “It’s no more difficult than drinking a cup of coffee!”

www.discounderworld.com. slimeface. page

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“All Summer Long” This shot was taken in California, on a road known as the “Grapevine”, a major route between Northern and Southern California. It was taken out the passenger's window of Slimeface’s 18-wheeler.



Slimeface is currently living in Florida and travelling between there and California, pulling a tanker full of food products like milk, cream, liquid eggs, yeast and juice. He drives an average of 700 miles (1120km) each day. “It doesn't leave much time for sightseeing but I take advantage of every opportunity to take pictures of the places and people I come across.”

“Cheyenne” “This stretch of highway lasts 400 miles and covers some of the most beautiful but treacherous terrain I travel.”

www.discounderworld.com. slimeface. page

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The thing Slimeface loves most about his job is the people he meets. “Everyone I photograph becomes a friend,” he says. He also loves the freedom and independence of life on the road, but says it can be hard being separated from his family for long periods of time. It is normal to be away for four to five weeks at a time, and the divorcé rate for long haul truckers is higher than average. “Luckily, I have been blessed with a special woman. It takes an understanding family to make this occupation a success.”

“Smoke” ”Northern Nevada was shut down in several locations due to smoke from the recent fires. I was happy to be hauling cream and not gasoline!”

“Face the Promise”, Michigan.

You can find out more about him here: [email protected] www.slimeface.com http://www.jpgmag.com/people/Slimeface http://www.youtube.com/user/Slimeface2008

If you think Slimeface deserves a place in The Gold Edition, and a shot at the $500, please click here, and send us an email with his name in the subject line. If you don’t want to be added to our newsletter, please put “pass” after his name. Only one vote will count per email.



www.discounderworld.com. mike’s space. page

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Mike’s Space: What is Art? Words and pictures by Mike Woodruff

B

efore I begin to talk about art, let’s talk about water for a second.

Water isn’t made. It isn’t created. It just is. It may take several different forms: steam billowing out of a whistling tea kettle, little droplets on the underside of fern leaves, tiny plastic cubicles frozen in the refrigerator. The simple, fascinating fact remains that the amount of water on this planet today, is the same amount from way back when Tyrannosaurs lapped up pond water in prehistoric Montana.

I have this theory that ideas are the same as water. They don’t appear out of thin air. They aren’t created out of nothing. The same basic elements for every idea and every creation, have always been there. Maybe now I can begin talking about my definition of art.



For me, art is not as simple as creating something unique. It isn’t even creating something out of something else. Art goes one step further. Art, in the higher sense of the word, requires that you say something with your creation. Let me explain. My artistic talents started to bloom in grade school. I filled sketch book after sketch book with pictures of nunchucks, broad swords, Sonic the Hedgehog, guns, and Sonic the Hedgehog killing another Sonic the Hedgehog with broad swords, guns and nunchucks.

Fourth grade carnage shaded in clumsy No. 2’s and maybe the start of something grand, but at this early stage, not quite art. I was just creating something out of something else. My love of art continued past high school classes filled with flower petal inkblots and into college, where I minored in studio art. My experiences can be summed up best by one particular class.

www.discounderworld.com. mike’s space. page

In painting, I did a still life project. The professor asked everyone to pick something of sentimental value and paint it in exact detail. Most everyone picked a family heirloom or something vividly symbolic. I forgot about the assignment until the day we started, scrounged around in my apartment for something I thought would be interesting to paint, and went to turpentine town. Two weeks later, my 4’ by 4’ oil painting of Mr. Potato Head ravaging the city of Seattle received rave reviews at the final critique.

“Wonderful”, they said. “Hilarious.” “Awesome!” “Um…what does it mean?” The hell if I know. I just needed something cool to paint. And that right there, was the crux of my collegiate forays into fine art. Painting brought me a lot of satisfaction, but for me, it never went beyond Mr. Potato Head. I never felt like I was doing anything more than making something that looked cool.

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“Capturing those magical moments that existed for a few brief seconds, maybe less, where the ordinary was transformed into the extraordinary.”

After college, I picked up photography. I enjoyed the instant access to imagery, capturing those magical moments that existed for a few brief seconds, maybe less, where the ordinary was transformed into the extraordinary. Paths I’d walked a thousand times before suddenly took on new light. The spontaneity and the possibility of so many different images produced by a few simple clicks of my index finger, and a few swipes of my thumb, entranced me. While I often felt the tangible power of communication through images, I never felt that those

communications were entirely and completely my own. In a technological medium built on mirrors and glass, was I ever really saying anything for myself? Or was I just reflecting something in a new way? Pictures are worth a lot of words. Maybe not a thousand, though. That’s quite a high number, and with economic use of them, I can say much more in a few pages than I ever could in one photo. So far, in a word count just under that measuring stick, I’ve discussed dinosaurs, ninja weapons, plastic toys masquerading as Godzilla, the definition of art… and I still have three hundred words to go.



The point is simple: In skillful hands, a thousand words can create a million ideas. That’s what does it for me, it feels like I have created something out of nothing. With words I feel like I am saying something.

“Every artist finds expression through different avenues. Words are my turf.”

Durr… you are probably thinking. “With words you can say something? No way”… That may be stating the obvious, since words are always a means of saying something. For me, though, I find enjoyment in finding special, unique ways of using words to express ideas that no one else has thought of before.

www.discounderworld.com. mike’s space. page

And I have. I spent the last three years writing a book. I used approximately 90,000 words to tell the story of an orphan living on the streets of Los Angeles who survives the apocalypse only to be orphaned once again in an abandoned America. It’s about a lot of things, but mostly, it’s about the dual-sided nature of mistakes and destiny, and how one is never quite complete without the other. It most definitely says something, and it does so in a way that is completely mine.

Coming up in the next few pages: The Be Seen Zine The definition of art cont. Last issue’s favourite

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Every artist finds expression through different avenues. Words are my turf, the ocean in which I swim. Photography is my brief flight into a different sort of expression, but some strange sense of gravity always pulls me back down into the waves of words. If I were ever beached on the shores of, say, interpretative dancing, plenty could be said about that disaster by using economic sentiments such as LOL and WTF!?. Be glad I swim where I do.

Mike Woodruff lives in Los Angeles. When not writing, he enjoys playing basketball and throwing rocks at unsuspecting brown bears. He also likes to eat Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. You can find him on the internet at www.mutinouswombats.blogspot. com. Read last month’s Mike’s Space here.

{Faaiza Munif: Graphic Design and Illustration} www.faaiza.deviantart.com

Faaiza Munif

be seen zine Created to give every artist exposure to people who appreciate a good piece of art when they see it. Be in the next one:

is 21 years old and currently on a break from University, which means working and relaxing when she can.

Name: Faaiza Munif

Her parents are Fijian Indian, but she was born and bred in New Zealand. Her seventh form art teacher introduced her to Photoshop, and that is how she got into design.

Website: www.faaiza.deviantart.com

Style: Graphic design and Illustration Email: [email protected]

She describes her art as quirky, and experiments with things like feminity and illustration. She has just finished creating a publication for potential new design students. It featured quotes and advice from the current students and tutors and is aimed at motivating new students to join the design course. The inspiration for the publication came from her younger sister who was investigating into which design school to go to. Most schools only showed the finished work of students, but her sister felt it was important to meet and hear from the current students, to see what it was really like. Next year Faaiza will be entering her fourth year at University, and in the future hopes to be living in Australia, working on a variety of projects in commercial design, with a few personal projects on the side. Her photograph above was taken by her friend Derek Cook, the photograph won bronze at this years Infocus photography competition.

The Be Seen Zine, introducing you to a wider range of styles and arty types. Proudly brought to you by Online INsight.



{Sarawut Chutiwongpeti: Mixed Media Installation} www.chutiwongpeti.info

{Eleanor Gannon: Evocative and Unique} www.jelphoto.co.nz

Name: Sarawut Chutiwongpeti

Name: Eleanor Gannon

Style: Mixed Media Installation

Style: Evocative and Unique

Website: www.chutiwongpeti.info

Website: www.jelphoto.co.nz

Email: [email protected]

Email: [email protected]

The Be Seen Zine, introducing you to a wider range of styles and arty types. Proudly brought to you by Online INsight.





{Marissa Ramlu: Elegant Cut and Paste}

{Sarah Decker: Nature and Wildlife}

Name: Marissa Ramlu

Name: Sarah Decker

Style: Elegant Cut and Paste

Style: Nature and Wildlife

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.deckers.viewbook.com/ portfolio/sarah_decker_photography Email: [email protected]

The Be Seen Zine, introducing you to a wider range of styles and arty types. Proudly brought to you by Online INsight.



{Leon Green: Urban Surrealist} http://leongreen.freehostia.com/photo.html

Name: Leon Green Style: Urban Surrealist Email: [email protected] Website: http://leongreen.freehostia. com/photo.html

The Be Seen Zine, introducing you to a wider range of styles and arty types. Proudly brought to you by Online INsight.



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WHAT is Have a crack at designing our front cover, and we will thank you publicly for your effort. We may even use it on a future issue, which then means you will have a choice story to tell your friends, and lots of people will see your design. Email stacey@discounderworld. com to find out more.

the

definition

of

Continued from page 43

Coming up in the next few pages: The definition of art cont. Ways we can get to know each other better Last issue’s favourite revealed

Answers to the Quick Quiz on page 26. 1) Her Skirt 2) “You never can tell”. 3) Helen of Troy 4) Record for the highest flying bird. 5) Christopher Columbus

Good definition Wikipedia although I am still convinced that to be classified as art it needs to be acknowledged by more than the producer.

This adds an interesting element to the idea. Communication is a given. Art is created to say something. Whether that message be loud and clear or the opposite, art still says something. How it says something is varied, but if art wasn’t meant to communicate then it would not exist. So art means something (which goes back to the Wikipedia definition) although communication comes in many forms. Think also of my earlier idea that art is personal; if only one person is being communicated with (the art maker), is it still art? Leo Tolsoy probably wouldn’t think so. I have a sneaky suspicion I would disagree, which blows my theory about art needing to be acknowledged by more than the producer to smitherines.

Leo Tolstoy throws another spanner into the works by identifying art as a use of indirect means to communicate from one person to another.

Having come full circle, I decide to ask my audience and associates. The ideas I got in return confirmed that everybody had different ideas of art:

Wikipedia says: “Art is the process or product of deliberately and creatively arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. In its narrow sense, the word art most often refers specifically to the visual arts, including media such as painting, sculpture, and printmaking. However, ‘the arts’ may also encompass a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music and literature.”

‘bow chik-ca reow reow...’ Three ways we can get to know each other a little better:



www.discounderworld.com. what is the definition of art? page

he There was t

f things: o e d i s n o i communicat “Art is anything that makes you think, that has a meaning, whether or not it's functional.”

“Art is a form of expression.”

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The

personal:

“Art is the result of creation, its beauty lies either in its physical appearance to the beholder or of the feelings and motivation that led the creator to create.”

“Art is an outlet for all the things in us which cannot be rationalized, pigeonholed or clearly labeled.”

art

as

“Art is expression and is the opposite of nature which is expressionless. Although both will often be appreciated in the same terms. An easy test for the presence of art is to look for people. If you see one, there be art!”

“Art is something I used to be able to define before I got an education.”

“An expression of one's personality”

“Art is a definition of you, it comes from you. It is what you think and believe in.”

And

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n

cond

itio

“Art is all the questions we're left with, after all is supposedly learned and explained. It's what, next to science, moves the human race forward.”

n: “It's a way for us to record our existence, make a mark, it's the sophisticated ‘X was here’ scratched on a park bench.”

“Art is a culturally learnt activity that recognises and reorganises patterns, and conforms or challenges the viewer.”

disco under world



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is

by

y publishe l d u d o r p

With all these great ideas, the old adage “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, came to mind. Maybe “Art is in the eye of the onlooker” could be a good definition?

Contact them first for all your digital publishing needs. They will collaborate with you, or create for you, from start to finish, anything from digital media kits, travel brochures and annual reports to regular publications such as magazines and newspapers for you to share with the world.

Visit www.online-insight.com and request an obligation free quote.

Another thing I think is important is the idea of change and fluidity. The traditional ideas of art: painting and drawing, have been expanded over time as humans find new ways to express themselves through dance, photography, graphic design and eventually computers. What was once a physically tangible idea can now exist purely in cyber space, on the computer screen, or in the case of improvisational dancing, one second. Art is no longer material or tangible, but is fluid and ever-changing, personal and objective.

So what conclusions have I reached at the end of all this rambling? (It was quite an interesting topic to research and write about, I hope you enjoyed reading it also). Conclusions: Art is personal. Art is a human condition. Art is fluid. Art is made to communicate. Art means different things to different people. In the words of Leon Green, (a reader of disco) “lets not try to tie down a definitive explanation; it’s more fun to make it up as we go.”



www.discounderworld.com. last issue’s favourite. page

Your favourite from last issue, and the person to be included in the Gold Edition at the end of next year is:

JAMES BARNETT He wins: A spot in The Gold Edition 2009, a print publication which follows up on your favourite people from the year before, and provides you with interviews and spreads of other cool cats from around the globe. You can read his article from last month’s issue here.

Thanks for reading this issue of disco underworld!! Make sure you keep up with our upcoming events and issues by subscribing to our reader newsletter:

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