Wuthering Jans

[imomus]

Jan Family are a group of ex-Royal College of Art students whose design work shares the same conceptual and social accents as Åbäke. Since Åbäke are currently teaching at the RCA, it's quite possible that they're even ex-pupils of the group.

The idea of Jan family is that design is a series of proposals for new social possibilities, that each new design allows a new form of social interaction, a suggested etiquette. "How To Reach Out", a show in London last September by Ingrid Jan Hora (every transient member of the Jan family takes "Jan" as a middle name while they're working with the group; the founder members are Nina Jan Beier and Marie Jan Lund) lured visitors in with an inflatable clear plastic sausage that extended the gallery space all the way to the door of the adjacent video shop, rather like Vito Acconci's famous conference table. The work inside showed groups of people all sharing the same jackets and ties, or clusters of chairs linked together. Nice metaphors for "family", for putting the collective above the individual.

Today I'd also like to point you in the direction of the archives of the Institut National de L'audiovisuel: 100,000 TV and radio broadcasts from France, including lots of Gainsbourg and Brassens, if you're into that kind of thing. Personally, I'm more intrigued by this spooky video (complete with VHS artefacts) of Kate Bush singing "Wuthering Heights" at Efteling Gardens in 1978. It's a lovely example of how something spooky (Kate's talent, youth, choreography are spooky, along with the fact that she's playing a ghost who climbs out of a tomb and is accompanied by black-faced KKK members) is made more so by the electronic spookiness of glitches. Bush really is Sadako from Ringu here (but dancing better).

Comments

[bikerbar.livejournal.com]

I like the Kate Bush video -nice old video aesthetic - in place of Ringu she seems more like a hyper Mary Pickford in a Disney Haunted House.

[beketaten.livejournal.com]

Kate Bush is heinously divine ♥

janfamily

[(Anonymous)]

i think friends and neighbours would describe the relationship between abake and janfamily than teachers and pupils.

PS:
if anyone reading this happens to be around exeter these days you may want to pop into spacex and have a look at their work:

Contemporary art

SPACEX 45 Preston Street, Exeter EX1 1DF, phone: 01392 431786
Open Tues - Sat, 10am - 5pm, admission free www.spacex.co.uk

Nina Jan Beier and Marie Jan Lund

YOU US OR YOU ME

20 May – 15 July 2006

Ingrid Jan Hora

[(Anonymous)]

http://lexikon.nada.kth.se/cgi-bin/sve-eng

//
http://homepage.mac.com/produkt/

[vinylboy20.livejournal.com]

Very creepy video. That is, until the dancing tombstone and banister, and lip-syncing gargoyle show up.

She has a lovely / face of a genius.

[scythrop.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the Ophelia/Lady of Shalott (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMCZ8wdP3Ag) one? (Featuring undulating VHS breakdown to match the rolling river. Also featuring about eight cans of silver Streaks 'n' Tips (http://catalog.cineshoppe.com/browseGroup.cfm?item_group_id=9371).) That whole special is so over-the-top magnificent. Pure Kate. And to think she was still in her teens.

Re: She has a lovely / face of a genius.

[wingedwhale.livejournal.com]

Such a haunting song. Though I don't get why her hair was gray? (Think I'm missing some reference...)

[sakuraamplifier.livejournal.com]

It certainly doesn't seem too far-fetched to imagine that Hideo Nakata had seen that video. Thanks for the link.

another coincidence-

[svenskasfinx.livejournal.com]

Kate Bush, according to Mark Burgess is "The Goddess" in human form- I liked that comment but can't seem to find the exact quote; since both of you have mutual friends, I wouldn't find it odd if you knew him.

I was just thinking about that early this morning- not about if you knew Mark Burgess from the Chameleons but rather about the feelings that Kate Bush evokes within people..

I recall the first time I heard some music from "The Dreaming" when it was first released I was on the telephone with a friend from school and the time and said "You HAVE to listen to this!!!"

BTW-

Boo! ;)

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for the Åbäke link, I had a hard time finding anything on them for myself. I recently went into Spoonbill & Sugartown and asked about JanFam's 'Plans For Other Days' and was abruptly interrupted and told they do not sell their books, they only 'give them out as gifts'. However, I found the book the next day at St. Marks Bookstore. Spoonbill is now my second favorite bookstore.

Sorry for the unnecessary story, just had to share my frustration.
Also, I always look for you on the trains when I know you're in New York. For some reason I always expect to see you but I never do.

JANFAM

[(Anonymous)]

the janfamily book is so gorgeous and subtle.

and so refreshing!

rvw

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Shades of Sarah Bernhardt and Loie Fuller.

adbusters - designing revolution?

[larameau.livejournal.com]

i wonder what you and whimsy think of the adbusters (http://www.adbusters.org/home/) design project. BTW kalle lasn has just published his new glossy, boldly illustrated book "design anarchy"... their aim is to create a new, environmentally-conscious society and to "subvert corporate power" by using the same advertising techniques and design-packaging strategies as the corporations. they also have a manifesto where they plead for an ethical use of design.

visually, the results are wonderful. apparently, they have terribly good artists. but again i wonder - can their products - direct actions, ads, artworks, magazines, website, posters, postcards etc. - really bring about true change or does the ad-effect/design-effect stop at the surface? when reading or looking at stuff from adbusters i sometimes feel i am content with the product itself and don't feel the urge to do further action.

Re: adbusters - designing revolution?

[stanleylieber.livejournal.com]

I think Adbusters has become much less accessible over time and now mainly attracts those who are already converted to their way of thinking. Whereas in the past their visual presentation was more immediately influenced by current advertising and had the possibility of grabbing the attention of 'civilians' who might then proceed to be swayed by the actual content of the magazine.

Advertisers are also quite savvy, and have adopted the 'cynical approach to advertising' stance in their own material. Many ads and commercials nowadays carry a message of rejecting advertising in favor of [x product]'s self-evident quality. Advertising's continuing ascendence into acceptance as a legitimate fine art also clouds things.

(Sorry, not who you asked for, but hello and nice to meet you!)

[(Anonymous)]

nice to meet you, stanley! your comments are always interesting

[larameau.livejournal.com]

sorry, that was me. forgot to log in!

cool hunting...

[larameau.livejournal.com]

what you say also links to the 'cool hunting' phenomenon. the advertisement industry wises up very quickly when it comes to intercepting and co-opting radical trends in society, especially youth movements. it is likely that adbusters has -involuntarily, or at least i hope so- helped provide "radical chic" cool hunters and the mainstream entertainment industry with many good ideas...

Re: cool hunting...

[stanleylieber.livejournal.com]

Given their the fact that these cool hunters exist, it seems inevitable.

[wingedwhale.livejournal.com]

Did you listen to Kate Bush's album from last year? If so, what did you think?

Efteling Gardens

[(Anonymous)]

Can only imagine London (or Efteling Gardens) in '78.

Never did quite get Kate's music, but with these video's I'm in, her acting, dancing... where did this come from? These songs with a hook that sneaks in...

Writing this from a hotel across from docklands. A former co-worker grew up with Kate.

Is part of the spookiness a London Sud-Ostalgie? Never could get those suburbs out of my mind...

[loverboy82.livejournal.com]

i picked up the janfamily book last time i was in ny. quite noice really! the kate bush video is very spooky.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Went to the Metropolitan Museum yesterday and saw a 17th century German organ (they have a great musical instruments section) with a label explaining the difference between "portative" and "positive (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_organ)" organs. The portative organ is much smaller and lighter, a personal organ. The positive is much more massive and heavy, and the one they have at the Met is a communal machine, with four music stands and places for two players, one to pump the bellows and one to play the keyboards. It reminded me of Jan Family's work... designed for community.

To see the opposite -- a trend for individual designs -- check A Hideout of his Own (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/18/garden/18men.html?_r=1&oref=slogin), an article in yesterday's New York Times about the popularity of sheds men can use to retreat from community in a shared house.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

I have a couple friends at the Met who I sometimes visit on Mondays, when it's closed to the public--a temporal hideaway, if you will.

The displays at the Met don't seem to have as much opportunity to develop the stylistic idiosyncrasies one sees at AMNH (if you don't count the artifacts, that is).

Institut National de L'Audiovisuel

[(Anonymous)]

That is an amazing resource!

I love it!

Mitsos

Musical Instruments

[extramusical.livejournal.com]

Great post, would love to collaborate on future Musical Instrument (http://extramusical.com/catalog/index.php) articles with you.