Bloody 8-Bit Fantasies from Tereza Anton

July 27th, 2010 by Sydney

Here are a couple shots from artist Tereza Anton’s series The Low-Rez Life.

(Via Who Killed Bambi?)

Girl Peels Off Her Cyborg Parts: The Final Cut

June 18th, 2010 by Sydney

Here’s the final cut of my untitled video piece, which was featured in the show Fantasy IRL at the Helen Lindhurst Fine Arts Gallery last month.  Enjoy!

“In this piece, I explore the anxiety a person can feel as they come to realize that their fantasies can never be real. The literal breaking-down, peeling back, and deconstructing of the fantasy (in this case, the desire to be a cyborg) is done in a way that is physically painful and stressful, which mirrors the emotional pain and stress one endures as they come to realize their fantasies are unattainable.”

Check out a previous cut here.

Do You Know Who These Cosplayers Are?

March 31st, 2010 by Sydney

Senna and I are in the final stages of putting together our gallery show.  We’re thinking of including some pictures of cosplayers from a couple of the conventions we went to this summer.  Of course, we didn’t take down any of the names of the people we photographed but we really want to invite them to our opening!  Do any of you know who these guys are (the actual people, not the characters…)? Leave us a comment if you do!

(We actually would like to know what these guys are from… they look awesome!)

Girl Peels Off Her Cyborg Parts

January 21st, 2010 by Sydney

This is the second test shoot I’ve done for a video that I’m working on.  This piece is my way of dealing with a childhood fantasy, the desire to be/become a robot/cyborg, and the anxiety one feels as they come to realize that their fantasies can never be real.  In the video, I’m literally breaking-down/peeling away/deconstructing the fantasy in a way that’s physically painful/stressful to mirror the emotional pain and stress.

As you can see, the video cuts off.  Camera problems, lighting problems, and some other problems mean I have to do it again.  I guess that’s why they say the third time is a charm… They say that right? Please, God, tell me that’s what they say.  This shit hurts!

I’m A Cyborg And It’s Okay.

January 2nd, 2010 by Sydney

Production still from my latest video shoot. I’ll post the final cut once I’m done editing.






Dead Malls And The End Of The World: Brian Ulrich’s “Dark Stores”

December 13th, 2009 by Sydney

Photographer Brian Ulrich has been investigating the plight of American consumer culture, documenting dead malls and other franchises as they sit abandoned in ruins.  Looking at these, I half expect zombies or cannibals to pop out at me.  They are utterly horrifying (but in the prettiest way possible).  Should we be worried?  Yeah, I think so.

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Interested in seeing more on this subject?  Another photographic series to look into is Walead Beshty’s “The Phenomenology of Shopping + Dead Mall.”

(via io9)

The Puppet Show

December 13th, 2009 by Amanda

This is creepy as hell, but I love it. See more.





I’ve Seen the Future and it’s Broken: Photographing the Future

October 17th, 2009 by Sydney

This is a series of photographs that I took this last spring.  The project was called Future-Speak, which is also the name of my other blog.  For this project, I conducted a number of shot interviews in the form of questionnaires that asked what people thought the future was going to be like.  From their answers, I gathered a general sense their kind of collective future and produced these seven photographs illustrating what I thought that future looked like.  To accompany the photographs, I made a sound piece which I thought further created a sort of futuristic environment in which the photos could be viewed.  Eventually these photos will be up on my personal website (the one that I never have time to make) as apart of my portfolio.

Listen to the sound here.

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ITSOK

October 12th, 2009 by Amanda

Via The Vulcan & The Unicorn

Project ITSOK: by Sighn life’s focus is on a potentially impossible feat, a hand cut one million wooden cut outs simply reading “IT’S OK”. The end result of this 50 year venture will result in a piece entitled: one million times it’s ok. Every piece is numbered as a part of the “Limited” Edition of 1 Million. For every one bought, one tree will be planted through The Arbor Day Foundation.

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View a short documentary of the process.

You can purchase them online here.

Or you can check them out at any of these locations.

I purchased mine [#1179] at the
Flock Shop
943 N. Broadway, #103
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Artist Blip: Brody Condon

October 12th, 2009 by Senna

Brody Condon is a local Los Angeles artist who combines LARPing, video games, and virtual realities and their surrounding cultures in his work.  And as you know images speak louder than words, so check out this video and his website.

Brandon Stosusy describes him: “Brody Condon affixes his own factual and revised history to games, creating a different, personalized sort of digital authoring. Rewriting and defamiliarizing
clichéd gaming tropes, he’s more interested in autobiographical overlaps, the
subsequent subversion of the impulse, and other forms of infestation than straight,
out-of-the-box play. Condon’s artistic universe centers on movements (using literal
game pieces) and the dialogue between Late Medieval radical Protestants, 60’s
and 70’s counterculture, contemporary/mid-century Fascism, and current pop
culture, while folding in roll (and role) playing, outsider Fantasy Art, astral projection,
and 80’s drug culture. It’s more about the spaces he colonizes than playing
the games; the potential violence and the aftermath of trauma rather than the
actual event. Condon’s symbolically and visually rich virtual locales offer an alternate
environment, a place where endless repetition (of death, spastic dancing, or
the most banal half memory) is easily attainable.”

He also works with c-level projects, which you can check out here.

Boy, would we like to collaborate with him!  Thanks Adam Overton (really cool sound artist) for the suggestion!

Stepford Wives & Italian Futurists: New Makeup From Blogger Amanda Egle!

October 9th, 2009 by Sydney

I recently helped Fantasy IRL blogger Amanda shoot photos for her makeup artist portfolio (website coming soon).   For this particular series, we were going for a sort of android/retro/Stepford wife kinda thing.  Since I was actually in these photos, we had our friend Justin (also known as sunnyheadcase on this blog) shoot them on my Nikon D90.  They were shot at Amanda’s house, which was built in the 1950′s, the perfect location for such a shoot.

The concept was pretty simple.  I’m an android women that lonely men can buy and take as their wife.  When you first buy me, I come naked and without hair.  I also come with a set of three wigs that you can switch in and out at your leisure.  The creepy husband/Italian Futurist-looking guy is played by my boyfriend, Joey.  Thank to Joey and Justin for helping us out!

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Fantasy IRL Update + Sydney’s Looking for Cyber Cafes and Arcades in the SoCal Area

October 4th, 2009 by Sydney

We’ve taken a break from the convention circuit and are trying to focus on making work for the exhibitions we’re set to be in over the next year. (There are three of them so far!)

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Right now, as research for my latest project, I’m looking for internet/cyber cafes and arcades in Los Angeles. I’m having a hard time finding ones that I don’t already know about and I actually haven’t been able to find out about many news ones through the internet. Does anyone have any suggestions? As far as the aesthetic, think dark, grungy, punky looking cafes and bright, sensory-overloading arcades.  If you know of any, let me know at sydney@fantasyirl.net. Thanks!

Sand Sculptures That Will Blow Your Mind

September 23rd, 2009 by Amanda

These are the most amazing sand castles I’ve ever seen, well I guess they’re not really sand “castles”, well whatever they are, they are out of this world. Unfortunately, I have no idea where they are.

“African elephants, the Egyptian sphinx, Batman, Spiderman, the incredible Hulk and also other super heroes, movie and TV show characters are just some of many giant sculptures transforming a seaside resort. The most amazing part about this is that the sculptures are made entirely out of sand.” No Labyrinth though. Has anybody ever made a labyrinth out of sand? Now that I’d like to see.

Click here to see them all.

Collaboration, Copyleft and Dispersion: A Lecture with DEXTER SINISTER

September 4th, 2009 by Sydney

Aside from the fucking awesome cool shit- I mean… aspects of fantasy in real life that we find out in the world and post on this blog, we do have a few other interests, believe it or not.  And I would like to hope that the readers of this blog have checked out the main site at least once since it’s been up but I can’t be sure of that.  I don’t know if you’ve noticed this but the URL for this site is fantasyirl.net/blog.  Ever wonder would would happen if the /blog weren’t there?  Were would it take you?

Though the main site, fantasyirl.net, is headquarters of our ongoing project, Fantasy IRL, the official purpose of this blog has always been to act as a place where we can document our work as well as gather, collect and share our many influences, inspirations and interests not only as nerdy fangirls, but as artists.

So, what you’re about to read is my first post in a long time of any real substance! (Be excited) I present to you… *drum roll*… a special rant about collaboration, copyleft and artists/designers Dexter Sinister!

(It should be noted that the piece was originally written for the blog my design class keeps.)

Wednesday afternoon, I attended the lecture of visiting artists David Reinfurt and Stuart Bailey, collectively known as Dexter Sinister, at USC’s Roski Graduate School of Fine Arts. I felt compelled to go, not just because of the extra credit that I was offered from my design professor (though I must admit, it was nice incentive) but more because I was curious to hear the duo speak about their work as a collaborative team.

For the past several months, I’ve been working on my first collaborative project, tentatively called Fantasy IRL, with a fellow Roski student, which investigates fantasy and science fiction fan culture and their members’ methods of finding or enacting their fantasies in-real-life (IRL). I’ve found that people often underestimate the added pressures and responsibilities of working as a collaborative team as opposed to by one’s self and I was interested in observing the ways in which Reinfurt and Bailey interact and work with each other, and in this case, particularly in the public sphere.
They spoke they way their work looks: direct, plain and and well-researched. Their way of speaking was regimented and at times seemed planned, but not in a stiff or unnatural way. When there was a pause in the conversation, one would fluidly pick up where the other left off with plenty of things of his own to say, almost like they had their talk rehearsed down to an art in itself, which I’ve found that many artists do. Though I regret not asking them any questions during the Q&A about their practice as a collaborative team versus their individual practices, I later spoke with Shannon Ebner, artist, professor and head of Roski’s Photography Department, who, having collaborated with Dexter Sinister on a number of occasions herself, was able to further illuminate some of what I was further interested in knowing. From what she said, while working as Dexter Sinister, Reinfurt is more hands on with the actual designing of works and has a small design company of his own. Bailey, though still a designer, is more of the front-of-the-house kind of guy, talking and dealing with galleries, museums and whoever else they need to keep in contact with while making their work. This sort of pragmatic division of labor is something I find most helpful in my own collaborative dealings and processes and one that I hope we can further implicate in mine and my partner’s practices as we continue on with our project.

Aside from the inner working of Dexter Sinister as a team, I was particularly interested in how they deal with mechanical reproduction, copyright (or in their case copyleft), and dispersion of information in their work, all issues that I, as of laterly, have been considering and dealing with in my own artwork as an artist (issues that designers working in today’s world should be concerned with as well). Though photography itself is a form ofmechanical reproduction, the issue has only become more exaggerated with the current digital revolution. And as I have been using more and more digital means to produce my own work, work that also often deals with aspects of the digital age and a movement toward the future and technological singularity, I found their words and interests particularly applicable. Also, having recently become an avid blogger, I’ve had to become more and more aware of copyright laws and ways of legally dispersing information that might otherwise be illegal and it was interested to hear the ways they delt those issues as well. In one of their works in particular, the piece consisted of a copy machine and a number of loose chapters of a book on a table next to it.  Dexter Sinister found a loop hole in the book’s publisher’s copyright laws that allowed them to at any one time let any person make one photo copy of one chapter from the book and keep it without technically doing anything illegal. This also meant that technically the same person over the course of several hours or days could go back into the gallery and copy a different chapter of the book each time until they collected the whole book without ever having to pay for it.  Technically.

Though designers they may be, I’ve come to see, appreciate and respect Dexter Sinister more for their ideas and conceptual work as artists, rather than as designers (thought I must say, I do love the clean simplicity of their visual designs). Not only am I interested in now keeping up with their various publications, such as dot dot dot, but I’m excited to observe the way they will further adapt to the world in which they live and work as it continues to evolve around them, as well as keep track of more future incarnations of Dexter Sinister.

Future-Speak Interview

August 6th, 2009 by Amanda

Sydney is currently conducting interviews about the Future. You can read my answers to her questionnaire on her website Future-Speak. She also encourages everybody to fill out the questions and send them to her at sydney@future-speak.com or via the Future-Speak contact page.

1. What does the future look like?
2. What color is the sky?
3. What does the future smell like?
4. What does the future taste like?
5. What color is the future?
Read More »

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