Future Rocker: British Post-War Architecture

Tuesday, 27 January 2015

ALEXI K: BRIGHT LIGHTS, GLITCHED CITY ( BIRMINGHAM PORTFOLIO )

Your editor here - In between painting, drawing, writing blogs, networking, talking, and procrastinating, it's easy to forget that I am also a avid photographer. To round off this edition of FUTURE-ROCKER, here's a look at some of my 'glitched' photography, inspired by science fiction books and movies, and taken while on walkabouts around Birmingham, the UK's 'second city'.

Below: The Rotunda and Bullring

Below: Bullring Shopping Centre at night

Below: Info-obelisk at Moor Street

Below: Bloc Hotel, Jewellery Quarter

Below: Google Earth's failed rendering of The Custard Factory and South Birmingham College

Below: Glitched Hannah, local model.

Below: Smallbrook Queensway, as seen from Radisson Blu Hotel.

Below: Info-obelisk at Moor Street

Below: Natural glitch at Snow Hill Station.

Below: Glitched Becky.

Below: Bullring Shopping Centre

Below: Smallbrook Queensway

Below: Incredible glitch of wall mural at HUBB ( original art by Mohammed Ali / Aerosol Arabic )

Below: Birmingham's 'Interstellar' bus service.

All photographs property of Alexi K

Note: The most glitchy of the above glitches are accomplished using WORDPAD. You have ZERO control over how they will turn out, other than to alter them after they've been glitched, using the art software of your choice. But give it a go...here's my guide:

HOW TO GLITCH IT:

1 ) Go through your archives, get a photo ( architectural ones work well ) and convert it to a bitmap.

2 ) Open it in WORDPAD, ( open > click rich text format > all documents ) then click on your file ( it'll appear on Wordpad as code ).

3 ) Press 'Save'.

Some people play with the code or delete bits before saving, but I find just pressing 'Save' is as good.

4 ) Go back to Photoshop to view the results...and hope for the best!

Don't get depressed if most look rubbish...occasionally it'll come out great!

Wednesday, 2 April 2014

WOLVERHAMPTON'S X-RATED RAIL RE-BRAND.

Quality Assurance: This is no April Fool, there is no Photoshop used in this article!

Even for frequent users of the various neglected rail stations across the UK, arriving in Wolverhampton can be a shock. Though the town itself boasts many examples of great architecture in a variety of styles - from the Classical, Romantic and Gothic ( take a stroll around the Town Centre ) to Thunderbirds Brutalist ( see the Art & Design faculty ) - none of these prepare the viewer for the hideous exemplar of Chernobyl-chic that greets them upon arrival at Wolverhampton's rail station.

A corroded, mouldering agglomeration that is an insult to any great city not policed by roving death-squads, it seems that some bright intern has had the idea of re-branding the entire station to commemorate the forthcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past movie.

Maybe the visual pun of the site's resemblance to the 'world's worst nuclear accident', and a film about a mutant insurgency, was something the admen couldn't resist?

For the sake of a nifty film tie-in and some cute pictograms, one wonders how many confused travellers have accidentally continued on to Wales, thinking that this wasn't their stop?

See photographs, below...