Future Rocker: mural art

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!

Tuesday, 10 June 2014

HAAS & HAHN: FAVELA PAINTERS IN BRAZIL

For links to donate, see the end of this article.

Eight years ago, Dutch artists Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn began a project that has since expanded into a global art initiative to bring colour to some of the world's bleakest urban vistas. Beginning with a mural called 'Boy with a Kite' in the favela of Santa Marta, Rio de Janeiro, the project expanded into painting the thirty or so houses that surrounded a public square in the same neighbourhood.

Recruiting and training locals to help bring the plans to reality, the idea is now regarded as a way to open up a dialogue between the disenfranchised citizens, and the architects, urban planners and elected officials who dictate how people live.

Thus, the two Dutchmen have created a blueprint that gives local people the power to affect their environment and stamp some character into the increasingly faceless urban sprawls of the twenty-first century. And in the favelas of Rio, they have inadvertently turned what was once regarded as a no-go area, into a big tourist draw.

In the intervening years, many projects have been completed, but in 2014, Haas and Hahn will return to Rio with an even bigger project, having successfully raised $250,000 to finance the latest phase of their unique urban regeneration.

Details with how you can help are at the bottom of this page. In the meantime, take a look at these pictures, exclusive to FUTURE-ROCKER.