As an artificial limb designer and hobbyist robotics engineer, artist Christopher Conte rarely uses blueprints or sketches to craft his elaborate biomechanical sculptures. Instead, the New York-based machinist relies on his imagination. “I just get a vivid idea in my mind of what I want to make and start hunting for the parts,” he said. “I have a large inventory of antique parts, so I’ll often play with them like Legos and see what comes together.”
Inspired by the intricate craftsmanship of turn-of-the-century technology and Japanese bronze work, Conte also turns to obscure sci-fi films for stimulation. “I’ll see something in a movie and think, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if that existed?’ And then I’ll try to bring them to reality,” he said.
via Wired
The initial clue was so subtle that for nearly two days nobody noticed it.
On February 10, 2007, the first night of Nine Inch Nails’ European tour, T-shirts went on sale at a 19th-century Lisbon concert hall with what looked to be a printing error: Random letters in the tour schedule on the back seemed slightly boldfaced. Then a 27-year-old Lisbon photographer named Nuno Foros realized that, strung together, the boldface letters spelled “i am trying to believe.” Foros posted a photo of his T-shirt on the Spiral, the Nine Inch Nails fan forum.
More at Wired.com here and the Trent Reznor interview here. Or better yet, download the interview in MP3 format right about here.
Totally fascinating stuff!
David Byrne and Thom Yorke on the Real Value of Music. When Radiohead said it would release its new album, In Rainbows, as a pay-what-you-will digital download, you’d have thought the band had gone communist.
There’s a great Q&A interview with Trent Reznor/Nine Inch Nails in Melbourne’s Herald-Sun newspaper.
TR: It’s a very odd time to be a musician on a major label, because there’s so much resentment towards the record industry that it’s hard to position yourself in a place with the fans where you don’t look like a greedy asshole. But at the same time, when our record came out I was disappointed at the number of people that actually bought it. If this had been 10 years ago
I would think “Well, not that many people are into it. OK, that kinda sucks. Yeah I could point fingers but the blame would be with me, maybe I’m not relevant”. But on this record, I know people have it and I know it’s on everybody’s iPods, but the climate is such that people don’t buy it because it’s easier to steal it.
You’re a bit of a computer geek. You must have been there, too?
TR: Oh, I understand that — I steal music too, I’m not gonna say I don’t. But it’s tough not to resent people for doing it when you’re the guy making the music, that would like to reap a benefit from that. On the other hand, you got record labels that are doing everything they can to piss people off and rip them off. I created a little issue down here because the first thing I did when I got to Sydney is I walk into HMV, the week the record’s out, and I see it on the rack with a bunch of other releases. And every release I see: $21.99, $22.99, $24.99. And ours doesn’t have a sticker on it. I look close and ‘Oh, it’s $34.99′. So I walk over to see our live DVD Beside You in Time, and I see that it’s also priced six, seven, eight dollars more than every other disc on there. And I can’t figure out why that would be.
Read the entire article here.
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