Murakami

Went to the Murakami exhibit at the Geffen in Little Tokyo this weekend. It was packed! The art was good and it was refreshing to see that instead of using traditional audio guides, the Geffen used the new cell-phone audio tour. You call a number with your cell phone and voila -- you're listening to Murakami through the comfort of your own phone. A bit hard to hear at times, but worth it.

This mini-retrospective encompasses everything from Murakami's sculpture, paintings, animation, to even his commercial affair with LV. (In fact, they even have a store within the show where you can purchase Murakami / LV bags.) The highlights for me were definitely the robo-chicks on the front landing, the KI KI & KAI KAI animation and 727, the sanded painting. If you make it to Little Tokyo, check out the show and then head to Daikokuya for a nice ramen / shredded pork combo.

TrunkSale

Something I've been thinking about is how we all consume so much but most of the time we end up hoarding them without actually using them. If, however, we could all channel our kindergarten teachers who always told us "be nice and share," then we would be able to make use of our resources. So, with that in mind and the fact that my basement looks like that (to the left)! I made the goal of one of my independent studies this term to develop a service that helps people share their resources. The main challenges are: 1) how to make it as hands-free as possible, 2) how to start a movement using design.

So, to try and figure out some of that stuff, I'm organizing an event at Art Center called TrunkSale where students, alumni, staff, and faculty can all load their scrap materials into the trunks of their cars and swap, share, or sell to each other for 2 hours. Anything that they can't get rid of and don't want to take home is going to be donated to a local organization called Design High. My hope is that it will be a huge success (though Art Center is not known for it's community activism) and that this concept can be dropped into any college setting.

I'm working on developing an online site for people to list their stuff but for now I've been mooching off of Facebook's Group and Event listings.

Wake up, little Audrey, wake up...

So, we've recently set our alarm to npr and it goes off for about an hour before I actually muster up the energy to get up and turn it off. For that hour though, I find myself sifting through the news reports as they filter into my dream sequences. I have to admit though that however much it may sound disturbing to have Hillary Clinton running through your dreams, I'm kind of addicted. It's like channel surfing in your unconscious.

PS: this is my first blog post! a sort of test, really.