I’ve been searching for a decent link to photographer Dave Maisel’s series “Oblivion” —brilliant and terrifying aerial photos of the LA sprawl—ever since I fist saw it featured in the September issue of Dwell Magazine. On his subject, Maisel writes:
“In his book “Warped Space,” the architectural theorist Anthony Vidler speaks of the ‘paranoiac space of modernism,’ a space which is ‘mutated into a realm of panic, where all limits and boundaries become blurred…’ These words come to mind when considering the urban aerial images of Los Angeles and its periphery …

Organic meets robotic in this sweet CG from 1st Avenue Machine.
Reminds me quite a bit of Neill Blomkamp’s work.

This past summer, on the balmy shores of Lake Huron, I took part in a wine tasting where the libations in question were all by the same wine maker, they were all from the same grape and all bottled in the same year. The defining difference between the three bottles was one of geography. The first bottle had been cultivated from the grapes on the southern hillside of the winery; the second bottle’s fruit had matured in the valley while the last bottle had …

There is something eerily resounding in the utter silence of abandoned buildings. No longer with purpose, emptied of their human charge, they stand as physical prophecies to the conquest of time and the inevitable reinstatement of nature.
Check out these spectacular images of Abandoned Japan (via the Skinny). And if you are left wanting more there is a very comprehensive listing of similar urban skeletons at Ruins and Urban Exploration.

The White Stripes continue their video production relationship with the brilliant and – in this case more than others – warped director Michel Gondry on their latest single Denial Twist.

The Industrial Brand Blog has been getting quite a lot of attention as of late. In less than a year, the number of visitors has risen steadily to about 30,000 per month. We suddenly find ourselves using terms like “blogroll” and “trackback” a lot. We’ve made contact with other bloggers and web pioneers from around the world. We’ve sat on blog panels. And just this past month, we have been recognized by Applied Arts for Best Blog and on Wednesday with a Lotus Award of Merit for Best Interactive Miscellaneous. …

Always experimenting with new ways to present art to the public, the Vancouver Art Gallery’s current exhibit, Classified Materials: Accumulations, Archives, Artists is at times overwhelming in how it conveys the chaos of information that swarms today’s artists and the subsequent order that they make of it.
Walking through the two floor exhibit, it was a fitting and pleasant surprise to find Hadley + Maxwell’s “The Decor Project” amidst the filing cabinets and alphabetized lists. Beautifully documented by my friend and photographer, Sven Boecker, the artistic team visited curators’ homes …

“The most beautiful chord is made from dischord” -Heraclitus
On May 29, 1913, ‘The Rite of Spring’, performed by Diaghiler’s inimitable Ballet Russes made its world premiere at Paris’ Théatre des Champs Elysées. The physically unnatural choreography accompanied by the atonal, rhythmically ambiguous music of Igor Stravinsky was too much for the audience’s sensibilities. Hissing and booing grew to such a volume that the dancers were unable to hear their cues and the performance eventually dissolved into a state of chaos and rioting in the theatre. …