A chance discovery

We chanced upon this at Stowe yesterday. It appears that Andy Goldsworthy has written his name in found things from the woods. It was utterly sursprising and charming. Serendipitous. Even if it had been created by a 6th form art student from the school or Andy himself, it possessed great creativity and charm. I think Alan Bennett said once that the beautiful thing about TV was the possibility of discovery. How many ads would do something so humble as place themselves in a media backwater to be stumbled upon by chance? And then be so creatively charming that they make the viewers' day altogether brighter and uplifted? We call ourselves a creative industry - and surprise and delight should be in the domain of creativity, not sales promotion.

Mumblecore

I read an article in the NY Sunday Times about Mumblecore. This is a new film movement (I guess only in America at the moment) that relies on naturalistic, low-budget production and often improvised dialogue. It's apparently a defining genre for today's 20-somethings. So will Hollywood or Madison Ave find it first? Will it translate to the UK? And, maybe interestingly, why on earth would a traditional ad agency be any better at making mumblecore ads than say a 20-something video-literate blogger? Perhaps this is another example of how traditional classifications and definitions of agency specialisation are going to erode. And another question mark over how agencies resource.

Art department redux

I vaguely recall Creative Departments were called Art Departments once. In these days where ideas can come from anywhere, even planning, and given we're all creative really, perhaps there really isn't any specialness being called the Creative Dept. Some time ago I wrote about renaissance agencies - truly integrated, visionary, energetic and scalar. Crispin Porter talk about advertising rebranding to the Media Arts. So, surely an Art Dept would be more respectful and descriptive of that department's role in the creative process?

Expression or the anticipation of expression?

The Slides.JPG
Originally uploaded by alt.planning.

What is art in a commercial context? The Tate Modern was absolutely heaving, which is great, slides are a great thing, but are they art?

There's a lovely story about Leo Burnett in Sydney who kept inflated the emergency evacuation slide in the building's atrium, just for the fun of it. Good for them.

Should advertising be more arty or more fun - or are they not mutually exclusive concepts?

Art envy

There's an exhibition of Moleskine notebooks by artists, film-makers, architects and so on. I saw this one in the Conran Shop but I think they're at Waterstone's in Piccadilly too.

Now I like the surprise of seeing something a bit unsual like this. But I don't know if Moleskines are just analog blogs - and therefore why can't they be digital instead? - or whether to feel envious because I can't paint.

My work Moleskine has a few mind maps in it but it's just too dull by comparison.

(PS this is now my 4th most viewed shot in Flickr. Memo to self - take more Moleskine shots)