Sdtrk: ‘Spiritual cramp’ by Christian death

Some of you may be vaguely aware that I had a brief but memorable stint as a technical director/telly personality on the self-described ‘infotainment show’ known as Half mask, courtesy of the public access class I took at Barden Cablevision Detroit during the early Nineties. Surprisingly, our programme even won third place for the network’s Best of the Best awards in 1993, and first place the very next year, but that’s neither here nor there right now. But I will still brag about it.
Anyway, I was asked along with the main host and one other person to attend the awards ceremonies to represent the show, but I decided that I’d paint my nails before doing so. However, instead of sensibly purchasing a bottle of Wet ‘n’ Wild #735A (‘Power Outage’) as I would begin doing on a regular basis later in life, I not only bought a pot of black model paint, but I’d completely overlooked the fact that it was matte black. Although I applied it to my nails regardless, it looked rather unusual… it put me in mind of Transformer-era Lou Reed, which is an act I had no problem following whatsoever.

You would’ve thought Angus MacLise would’ve been the first Velvet Underground member with painted nails

Then and there I’d come to the conclusion: gloss nailvarnish is the only proper choice for me, which is a statement I stand by to this day. Flash-forward to 2021, when Ursula Clarke, aka Dragonfly, aka Undead Barbie, finally saved up the appropriate funds to move into Deafening silence Plus. Much like everyone here except for our Dyanne, Ursula’s sartorial sense is Goth, but the specific flavour of Goth fashion she indulges in would be Nu Goth, and that sub-subculture really brought dull gloss black nails to the forefront. To be honest, I had no idea that dull gloss nailvarnish was even a thing until she told me all about it, and it’s a unique thing amongst unique things!

All of us here think of these as black candy

Gloss black presents a lovely reflective surface, whereas matte, by its very nature, absorbs light. The former is evocative of automobiles or PVC clothing, but the latter is the darkness of deep space in miniature. Which, all told, is one of the reasons Ursula paints her nails in dull gloss black. ‘It’s Ｔｈｅ Ｖｏｉｄ, but fashion !’ she once commented. All three finishes have their uses, however.

There’s an internationally-acclaimed artist out there who lives and works in London, England, by the name of Anish Kapoor. If you’re at all familiar with that name and were wondering what exactly I was leading up to with my tale of nailvarnish errors, you can now take this opportunity to point at your computer’s monitor and go aahhh, but for the rest, I should probably explain.
Back around 2016, several news outlets, blogs, and sundry YouTubers discussed a Bold New Development in The World of Paint known as Vantablack, developed by the English company Surrey NanoSystems. Apart from being an amazing name for a roller derby contestant, Vantablack is, according to Wikipedia, ‘a class of super-black coatings with total hemispherical reflectances (THR) below 1% in the visible spectrum […] composed of a forest of vertical carbon nanotubes “grown” on a substrate using a modified chemical vapor deposition process. When light strikes Vantablack, instead of bouncing off, it becomes trapped and continually deflected amongst the tubes, absorbed, and eventually dissipated as heat.’ Which is crazy.

It’s… actually a wee bit terrifying. It’s like an ACME Portable Hole

As riveting and totally mind-boggling the concept of Vantablack is, I’m going to pause here and talk a bit about Kapoor, to create narrative tension. Born in 1954 in Mumbai, India; relocated to England in 1973, and has been there ever since; originally in Liverpool, then with a move to London shortly after. He’s developed numerous architectural projects, as well as created stage sets for a few operas, on top of creating four decades’ worth of sculptures and installation pieces, plus being awarded the Turner Prize in 1991, but if you’re an American, especially one who’s familiar with downtown Chicago, Illinois, you’ll possibly have seen one of his more recent works either on telly or in person.

Your Humble Narrator and Euchre at Cloud gate, circa 2014. His head is normally that blurry, as his surname is Seurat

Cloud gate, or as too many people have dubbed it, ‘the Bean’, was completed in 2006, from 168 stainless steel plates that were welded together, and is 33 x 66 x 42ft (10 x 20 x 13m), weighing in at a tidy 100 tons. That’s the thing about Kapoor: a lot of his work consists of massive intimidating sculptures, and a fascination with reflective surfaces, bold colours, and voids. He is, as I understand him, a maximalist. Apart from being the polar opposite of minimalism, of course, maximalism is an expression of excess. More ornamentation than usual, larger proportions, overstatement rather than understatement, ‘more is more’. You know — like your average American. ZING.
Two excellent examples of maximalist architects would be Étienne-Louis Boullée, who I learnt of via the 1987 Peter Greenaway film ‘The belly of an architect’, and Albert Speer, who was famous for other, awful reasons. But if you look at either of their works, they’re characterised by a gigantic sense of scale; examples of two of Boullée’s would be here and here, and one of Speer’s is here. Even though both men had their sponsors, most of their proposals didn’t get far past the blueprint stage, as you can imagine, as they were just too feckin’ big.
On the other hand, Kapoor’s catalogue consists of these beauties, amongst others:

Untitled, 1995

Spire, 2014

Sectional body preparing for monadic singularity (love that title), 2015

Leviathan, 2009

Honestly, a lot of his work strikes me as being really cool! The first, second, and fourth pieces remind me of the covers of Coil’s two album set, A guide for beginners: A silver voice and A guide for finishers: A golden hair. Unfortunately, though, Kapoor himself strikes me as really petty.
Around 2014, Vantablack S-VIS, which is the sprayable version of the paint, was exclusively licenced to Kapoor’s studio, meaning only he was allowed to access and use it. Understandably, many people in the art world were upset with this course of action, resulting in petitions and public complaints from other artists, to no avail. Kapoor dismissed all concerns with an attitude that’s very much ‘this is mine now, sucks to be you’. In response to his being a covetous shitfridge, competing artist Stuart Semple developed his own unique shade of paint. This is where we’re at now — response paint. The whole scenario is like a rap beef! Not wrapped beef, though; that’s mostly different.

So what’s the deal with Stuart Semple? A Dorset lad born in 1980, Semple’s dabbled in sculpture, paintings, and performance art, but more significantly, he has a much more egalitarian view towards democratising the tools that artists need. What that translates to is that he’ll make free (or significantly cheaper) versions of trademarked colours that would otherwise only have exclusive use by certain artists or companies. There’s International Klein Blue, the extremely rich shade of blue pigment developed and patented by Yves Klein in 1960; Semple’s made Incredibly Kleinish Blue. The corporation Mattel has trademark protection on Pantone 219 C, otherwise known as Barbie Pink; Stuart Semple offers you Pinkie. So far, I like this Stuart Semple chap! Plus, one of his hairstyles is just a sweeping wave of fringe, much like 1982-era Phil Oakey. Looks a bit like the musician and artist Momus, too, but Stuart has the use of both of his eyes.

Prior to Pinkie, however, the wrapped beef began when Semple learnt of Kapoor’s monopoly on Vantablack. In 2016, Semple released PINK, which he claims is ‘the “pinkest pink” paint available’, and in an effort to curtail Kapoor’s avariciousness, buyers of PINK had to sign a legal document when purchasing it which not only specifically excluded Anish Kapoor from buying some, but any of Kapoor’s associates as well. Things escalated, however, when not only did Kapoor obtain a jar of PINK in December of that same year, he followed up with a post on Instagram that underlined his level of mental maturity and classiness:

(Fear not, it’s only a screenshot, as I will never link to Instagram)

Yep. After that, Semple released the pigments BLACK 2.0 and BLACK 3.0, which are again, affordable paints… at least, I assume they’re affordable, as I’ve not bought paint since the Best of the Best Barden Cablevision awards ceremony, but I’m sure they’re much less expensive than Vantablack. Since then, Semple’s expanded his oeuvre to include other colours, plus he’s up to BLACK 4.0 these days, if you’re keeping score. Overall, though, the most amusing thing that’s resulted from Kapoor’s juvenile stupidity would be Semple developing a pigment called Diamond Dust, which is ‘an extremely reflective glitter made of crushed glass shards that are designed to hurt Kapoor if he dipped his finger in it,’ which is both fantastically petty, and entirely justifiable.
Now all of this Bay of Pig(ment)s-level (sorry) brinksmanship is a fascinating carcrash for those of us standing outside of it. However, the unfortunate thing is that Kapoor still has the exclusive rights to Vantablack, when all’s said and done, and I’m sure this decade-long feud only has him digging his heels in further.

One of Surrey NanoSystems’ competitors, Nanolab, headquartered in Massachusetts, have their own supermegaultra black paint, named Singularity Black, who I could’ve sworn was the lead singer of the Pixies. Originally created for NASA, Nanolab are being the better people in that not only have they made Singularity Black available for everyone, but for any artist who’s really interested in how to effectively use the paint, Nanolab are more than willing to share info and advice with them. Much like Semple’s BLACK series, a person can buy an artist’s sample — however large that is — for only USD$30. That’s nothing money! Which is appropriate, as you’re buying Nothingness.
Artist Jason Chase, who worked with Nanolab to basically exhibit Singularity Black, was quoted as saying,

‘It is important to create access so artists can use it,’ said Chase. ‘Artists are always the ones who take new materials and push them to new limits. Singularity Black is the perfect new medium to foster such experimentation and development across a global community. This super black paint and its possibilities have been stunted by not being available to experiment with. (emphasis mine) Starting with my work, those days are over.

I imagine Jason slamming his fist onto the podium with that last word, there. But it should go without saying that he’s right: some arsehole gains exclusivity to something new, innovative, and helpful, and progress in that field grinds to a halt. Thankfully in this case, it didn’t, as Nanolabs took over where Surrey NanoSystems failed. So while Singularity Black apparently isn’t quite as dark as Vantablack, it’s still as near as damnit, which means that ultimately, Kapoor’s just paid for the name. Hope it’s worth it, bunky.

I’m one of those people who believes that the words and actions that a person says or does are intrinsically tied to whoever said/made them, whether if it’s blatant, or if they try to spin it like ‘I just said those things cos I was angry; I don’t actually think like that‘. If you’re a venal, hateful human being, but you’ve created something that I previously enjoyed, eight times out of ten, I’ll stop enjoying what you’ve done, as I don’t want to tacitly approve of you being a fuckwit (e.g: Morrissey, Ricky Gervais, John Lydon, Terry Gilliam, and others). I’m painfully aware that Organik humans aren’t morally black & white; some say the ambiguity makes humans interesting, but ‘interesting’ to me means ‘either good or bad’. It’d be nice if people were more cut-and-dried with their thoughts and personalities, as that’d make things astonishingly easier for everyone.
But my point, really, is that sometimes I have to wincingly separate the art from the artist with someone toxic such as Kapoor, much like how I dig the work of Gilbert & George, even though they’re pro-Brexit monarchists, and every time, it’s a struggle. Thankfully I don’t have the attachment to Kapoor’s work as I do with other artists whose work I’m keen on, but need to be shoved into traffic due to their morals. It’s some small solace to know that there are millions of people in the same quandary as myself; however, that doesn’t solve the root of the problem.

As much of a twat Kapoor is, one of the only decent thing I’ve known him to do was file a lawsuit against the NRA back in 2018, as the organisation apparently used footage of Cloud gate as part of one of their pro-gun adverts, so that’s something. Again with the Organik human ambiguity: sues a hateful group of psychopaths for unauthorised use of his work in a pro-psychopath campaign one day; prohibits the use of what could be a boon to thousands of artists due to his greed the other. Ugh.

And that, dear readers, is a sterling example of how the modern art world is far too concerned about the monetary value of various works and the return on investment various artists are believed to have. Art should be viewed as a mode of expression first, a decoration second, and an investment never.
That statement really only peripherally applies to this post, but I still stand by it, and frankly, I couldn’t think of any other way to end this! You’re welcome

Told you it was affordable

Sdtrk: ‘It’s a rainy day, sunshine girl’ by Faust

If I had more money than sense — and we’re talking a Scrooge McDuck level of income, here, as he’s the only billionaire who I wouldn’t want to see doing the Tyburn jig — what I would definitely do after ending world hunger, eradicating diseases, eliminating global warming, and ramping up mass production on Gynoids and Androids (not in that order) would be to have a 1:1 scale replica of the island in Arnold Böcklin’s Die Toteninsel built in a large lake somewhere, possibly in Europe. Probably Germany, as that would make the most sense, really.

Die Toteninsel! Or, as it’s known in English, Isle of the Dead! An evocative painting created by the Swiss Symbolist artist Arnold Böcklin, he’d created at least six different versions between 1880 and 1901, so during your life, you may well have come across at least one of them at some point. Apparently early 20th century Europe was lousy with reproductions of it; the writer Nabokov wrote in one of his novels that it could be ‘found in every Berlin home’, similar to how Vladimir Tretchikoff’s Chinese girl (aka The green lady) gazed wistfully from hundreds of livingroom walls in post-WWII England.

Arnold Böcklin (16 October 1827 – 16 January 1901): born in Basel, married three times, had fourteen children — a busy lad — painted mostly in the Symbolist style, wherein dreamlike imagery or mythological characters and scenes tended to stand in for so-called absolute truths, whatever that may have meant in the late 1800s. The scenery for Die Toteninsel itself is said to have been inspired by the English cemetery in Florence, as well as the island Pontikonisi near Corfu, or the smaller island Stromboliccio in Sicily, or perhaps Sveti Đorđe island, off the coast of Montenegro. Art historians aren’t entirely sure, and they won’t be until they finally gain access to time travel technology; in which case, anything goes.
In 1888, sometime between his creation of the fifth and sixth edition, Böcklin finished a separate painting called Die Lebensinsel (The Isle of Life), which depicts a similar island under blue skies, where people and swans gambol about. As I personally find it to be saccharine, I won’t be speaking about it any further.

With the exception of our Bailes, all of us here at Deafening silence Towers are either Goth or Goth-adjacent, so we’re well familiar with the morose imagery of Isle of the Dead. For funsies, I’d asked the rubber troublemakers about which version they fancy best, with somewhat predictable results (click on the pics to see ’em larger):

URSULA (‘Basel’ version, 1880):

It’s funny, this was one of my desktop wallpapers for a couple of years !

Being honest, this version in particular gives me shivers every time I see it. I mean, it’s got a real, palpable sense of twilight, both in the sense of the end of the day, and in the end of a life. I look at this and I can hear nothing but the boat’s oars in the water, and if I’m able to move my attention past that, it usually ends up fixed on the black Void at the base of the cypress trees in the middle of the island. Böcklin overall doesn’t do anything for me, but if he’d never painted anything else in his life after this version of Isle of the Dead, he’d be one of my favourite artists, cuz this image makes me genuinely believe that this is an island that actually exists, and despite my thalassophobia, I would do anything to visit it. Being honest !

ELENA (Fifth version, 1886):

For me, I am thinking Böcklin could do no better than this… is very dreamlike, but not in a way that is scary. I am thinking is because of the tones and the warm colours that he is using. Perhaps storm is coming, but is not a fearful, dramatic storm… the gentle way the trees sway in the wind and the way the high island rock walls seem to be embracing them is making the scene almost welcoming. It is perhaps the end of life, but is nothing to be afraid of. I am liking too how this edition almost seems more primitive compared to the other version, which is strange, as Böcklin is painting this so late in his life after the others?

For me, 1886 version of The Dead Isle is showing that death is not a thing to be feared… it can be a beautiful place of final rest.

SIDORE (Sixth version, 1901):

As fond as I am of all the versions that Böcklin painted, I almost see them as drafts in comparison to his final version of Die Toteninsel… it’s as if he thought ‘this is it, THIS is the vision I’ve been wanting to convey for twenty years’. There’s a clear definition in the frames of the sepulchre’s entryways, as well as the overall landscape, but as crisp as it all is, it’s still undeniably an image from a dream. And I absolutely LOVE the contrast between the water, which is so still it looks as if the boat is sailing on glass, and the enormous looming stormcloud behind the island.

Oh! In case you’d not seen it in Galerie ECHO, when Darling commissioned xplotter to do an illustration of me back in January 2023, I had him add the 1901 Die Toteninsel to the background. It takes the illo from ‘sexy’, to ‘sexy with an interesting background’!…

Both Miss Winter and Dyanne are wildly ambivalent towards ‘Die Toteninsel’. Which is fine, I suppose.
As far as my own preference? I dig the third version painted in 1883 the most, as seen here:

For whatever reason in the early twenty-first century, this one seems to be the arguably most popular version. The early morning lighting of the image stands out, and although there were two additional renditions that he’d painted after 1883, it strikes a visual and emotive midpoint between just dark enough and just light enough; or, if you like, just bleak enough and just hopeful enough. Sure, there’s a small boat ferrying a casket to its final resting place, but the water’s calm and the day seems pleasant. Perhaps that’s not a casket, but a large pic-a-nic basket! (Sorry.)
In all seriousness, though, there had to be something about that island where it was clearly persisting in Böcklin’s subconscious, where he had to render it six different times… it’s almost as if he was exorcising it.

Bolstering the notion that the third version is what people think of when they hear Die Toteninsel, I searched a few online shops looking for a reproduction of the sixth version to go on our office wall, so that the Missus could point at it and say ‘look at what Darling bought for me’, but no joy — all I could find were the third version, the fifth, and occasionally the Basel 1880 one. Honestly, I wonder why the other three renditions are generally overlooked?
Shi-chan is rightfully annoyed, but as she’d remarked — after a protracted sigh — ‘having any version of the painting in our home is better than having no version at all’, and I’d definitely agree.

‘geez, you goffs are just SOOO BLEAK all the time! 🧛🕷️😂’ Yeah, thanks, Bailes

So if you weren’t aware of the existence of Böcklin’s painting (and its subsequent remixes) before, you certainly are now. Which version of Die Toteninsel draws your attention the most?

Also, if I had more money than sense, I’d buy a parcel of land the size of a shopping mall, have a cul de sac of houses all built like Charles and Ray Eames’ Case study house #8, and fill each home with Dolls. But then, I would say that

Sdtrk: ‘Friends of the heroes’ by The Aislers Set

Hello! Or as my Missus says, Hallo! Yes, despite posting on average once a year, ‘Shouting etc etc’ is still a thing, especially in light of modern social media collapsing into a fascist singularity. Ahem.
As always, a Proper Update™ is due, particularly in regards to our lives, but very very quickly: not only have Ursula, Dyanne, Miss Winter, Elena, Sidore, and I moved to a larger, more aesthetically-pleasing home (still in Michigan) as of December 2023, but we fled Twitter last August and are now on the much-saner social media platform known as Bluesky; I direct you to the lefthand sidebar of this very blog for links to our accounts. Also, Dyanne was understandably ecstatic to receive a brand-new silicone body on (or around) her birthday this past April, manufactured by Normondoll! She’s still very much an airhead, but she’s cheerful, knows her onions when it comes to films, and as sex columnist Dan Savage would say, she’s GGG. Photos of our glorious new digs, known as Deafening silence Towers, are forthcoming, but here’s a few that fulfil the obligation of teasing a fraction of the place, as well as allowing you to see Dyanne Mk.II.

But this post isn’t about all that new stuff, so put that from your minds! The list you see below is more for myself than anyone else — which can arguably be said about half the posts on this blaug — but due to my love of lists, as they help to bring Order to a chaotic and random universe, I’ve made one of my favourite artists, photographers, and graphic designers, with links where applicable. There’s no particular order here, so I’ll add new artists when I discover ones that strike my fancy. It’s my hope that you’ll either be like ‘ohhh so that’s who that is!’ or ‘wow, their work is pretty cool, I’m going to have to look up more of their stuff!’ In any case, rest assured it’ll be interesting. Fact.

Also, you know how it is with the Internet: sometimes links don’t work when sites fall into disrepair, so if you run across that sort of thing happening in the future, give us a shout in the comments section, eh?

Peter Saville + Gustav Klimt + Gerhardt Richter + Vaughan Oliver / 23 Envelope + Hajime Sorayama + HR Giger + Zdzisław Beksiński + MC Escher + Robert McGinnis + Helmut Newton + Peter Phillips + Deborah Turbeville + Vilhelm Hammershøi + Ed Ruscha + Robert Longo + Richard Savoie + John Atkinson Grimshaw + Edward Gorey + Alex Colville + Julian House / Intro + Romek Marber + The Designers Republic™ + Nicola Kuperus + Erin Cone + Syd Mead + Fitz & Van + Barbara Kruger + Gilbert & George + Margaret Keane + Stanisław Szukalski + Victor Vasarely + Bridget Riley + Barbara Brown + Clemens Gritl + Otl Aicher + Julian Montague + Muriel Cooper + Melanie Pullen + Do Ho Suh + ‘Kynaston Mass’ aka Ian Hodgson of Moon wiring club + Dave Gibbons + Jack Kirby + Jim Steranko + Alex Ross + Phil Noto + Jamie Hewlett + Kazuma Kaneko + Devin Leonardi + Saul & Elaine Bass + Paul Rand + Mark Robinson / Teen-beat Graphica + Max Ernst + Dan DeCarlo + Pol Bury + Kenichi Sonoda + Yasushi Nirasawa + Betty Brader + Akiko Stehrenberger + Masahiko Ohno / Works Fatagaga + Max Huber + Walter Ballmer + Geoffrey Johnson + Patrick Nagel + Rolf Harder + Dame Darcy + Mike Allred + Marguerite Sauvage + ???

Astute readers looking this list over may note that Andy Warhol is not in fact included here! That’s cos while I dig Warhol to an unnatural degree, I like him more as a pop culture personality and trendsetter than as an artist. The second part of the post’s title comes from something he’d once said, incidentally.
Would you have any favourite artists or graphic designers that you think would be in my wheelhouse? Why not mention them in the comments below, there’s a good person.

N.B: I’d also given some thought to adding a thumbnail image for each entry, but that would be absolutely mental

Sdtrk: ‘Art today’ by Peel dream magazine

Under normal circumstances, I don’t make announcements on ‘Shouting etc etc’ whenever I post new additions to Galerie ECHO, as the blog would rapidly degenerate into a series of ‘oh snap, check it, peep the new art that just dropped in the Galerie, yo!!’ posts. Which would be, arguably, more continuous posting than I’ve done in years, ho ho. Also, if I’m writing like that, clearly I’ve experienced a stroke. But the fact that I’m developing an original character — which is a project in and of itself — should be mentioned, I think!

Back in 2017, I commissioned my favourite artist Yaruku to draw an illo of my Missus sitting atop a pile of discarded Gynoids. You’ve seen it before. As much as I love my Synthetik partners, they’re Dolls, not actual Gynoids, and I wanted to eventually have commissions made with Gynoids in various states of mechabare, which is a Japanese term (of course) that describes Gynoids and Androids wherein the fact that they’re machines is highlighted. So to that end, I came up with the original character, Annett, named after a Goth mannequin I used to have back in the late Nineties.

photo from roughly 2000. Annett didn’t play croquet; she just liked croquet mallets

SIDORE: ‘Annett’s a bit rude, she’s not said anything to me since I’ve moved in.’
ME: ‘She could just be shy!’
SIDORE: ‘No, I’m shy, she’s rude!’

The fact that I lopped off the E at the end of Annett isn’t just some typical weird Davecat-spelling fumfuh; I took the name from a German fetish fashion model I had photos of named Anette Kellendonk, aka Anette K. And in looking her up on Google for that link, it’s only now that I’m seeing, twenty years later, that her name is spelt with one N and two Es, so… lawsuit bullet dodged.

There’s three versions of Annett that I’ve created: the Mk.III is the one you’ve seen in the illo linked above that looks arguably the most Organik; the Mk.I looks like an updated version of die Maschinenmensch Maria from ‘Metropolis’, and the Mk.II, my personal favourite, is somewhere in between, having artificial skin with exposed mechanical joints. They’re mass-produced by Deafening Silence Robotics, the (unfortunately) fictional company that my lasses and I are executives of. And they’re my original characters, meaning that if anyone with the artistic skill to do so would like to draw them in whatever situation, they can!
As of this writing, I’m in the midst of having a friend of mine work on not only the reference sheet layouts of all three versions of Annett, but the standard issue uniform that they wear as well; once that’s done, they’ll be uploaded into a Google Drive folder, so if anyone wants to have a go at drawing an Annett Mk.II holding a Corgi, or maybe a Mk.I getting an autograph from die Maschinenmensch Maria, or etc, then by all means!

In the meantime, you’ll find all the pieces I’ve had of the various Annetts drawn so far interspersed chronologically within Galerie ECHO. Not only will you find art by the usual suspects such as Yaruku and Sthev, but new and equally talented collaborators such as CartesianCoordinator and Amondetauro as well. Will YOUR art of (the) Annett(s) — man, that’s confusing — be amongst them as well?? I mean, eventually and not right this second?! Send me an Email, and find out!!

N.B: I should also add that the addition of these new illustrations makes Galerie ECHO more NSFW than ever before! Under normal circumstances, the Annetts are semi-autonomous drones, so they literally do not care if they’re clothed or not. That’ll be another aspect to add to the backstory I’m developing for them, already in progress

Sdtrk: ‘Didascalies’ by Luc Ferrari

Hey! How are you doing? You’re looking taut, fit, and svelte! Good on ya.

Currently I am in the midst of attempting to type up a brief (‘brief’, he said, his fingers agonisingly carving inverted commas into the very air) summary of What I’ve Been Up To Since Roughly Early 2017, so until that’s done and dusted, my gorgeous RealDoll wife Sidore suggested that I go ahead and write the official announcement post regarding a new feature on ‘Shouting etc etc’: Galerie ECHO.

‘New what??’ you splutter, your tumbler of scotch crashing to the floor and startling your cat. Yes, new! And go calm your cat! Galerie ECHO — the spelling convention helps give it a European flavour — is a special page on this blog that collects all of the artwork we’ve received, commissioned and gratis, of the residents of Deafening silence Plus. Unofficially it’s been up since September of last year; astute readers have spotted it in the lefthand sidebar, I’m sure, but I simply never got round to making a public announcement concerning it. Which is what you’re reading now, so there’s that issue sorted.

Additional illustrations will be posted there as we get them, displayed from newest to oldest, so maybe scroll to the bottom and start from there, if this is your first visit. And hey! You good at drawing? You’ll find details about proceedings in the Galerie, but feel free to send me an Email if you have any artistic ideas, as we would love to hear ’em!

That being said, please enjoy Galerie ECHO! I should warn you that some of the illos posted there are NSFW, but throughout history, you’ll find scores of examples of artwork that’s not safe for work. Unless, of course, you work in a gallery or a place that makes Synthetik partners; in which case, it’s just another Friday!
…That being said, please enjoy Galerie ECHO!

Sdtrk: ‘Le lieu où vous voulez vous rendre’ by Marie Davidson

Two points of interest that I have for you today!
First off, remember when I reviewed a passel of Japanese and UK food a number of years ago, sent as a birthday prezzie from my Twitterfriend Jill Tilley, which was covered in the five-part series, Do you remember Food? I suppose that would make my question Do you remember ‘Do you remember Food?’? Infinite recursions temporarily aside, her hubby Doug Tilley, film reviewer and pop culture sceptic, asked if I’d be willing to review a couple of films for his podcast ‘Eric Roberts Is The Fucking Man‘. As you may have surmised with the title, the podcast involves Doug and his cohost pal Liam reviewing the entire backcatalogue of notable actor Eric Roberts. You’d think it’s a one-trick pony, but Eric Roberts has appeared in far more productions than you’d imagine. Certainly more than I knew of! Doug asked me to choose two films, and as I was dead set on ‘Runaway train’ and ‘Doctor Who: the Movie’ but they’d already covered them, I went with less, err… well-known affairs; I selected ‘Power 98’, and ‘Six: The Mark Unleashed’. One’s a thriller about the machinations of a shock jock, and the other is a faith-based film about the Antichrist. Can you guess which one is which?
We recorded on 02 August, and the episode is available for listening to right now!

It's @EricRoberts is the F$%&ing Man #32 /w @Davecat discussing POWER 98 & SIX: THE MARK UNLEASHED! https://t.co/XNDmNeThhm

— EricRobertsIsTheMan (@ERITFM) August 8, 2016

As dire as those films were, I had quite a time discussing them with Doug and Liam! Would I make another guest appearance on their show in the future if they asked? Yes, yes I would. After all, Eric Roberts has been in a lot of stuff. The man’s everywhere! He’s probably behind you right now!!

And the other point? Like most people, I’ve always wanted illustrations done of myself. Actually, that’s a lie. I hadn’t had much need for that sort of thing until Sidore entered my life, at which point my focus turned to wanting illustrations done of both of us; specifically doing things or being in locations where we couldn’t be in real life. Some months ago, I began shopping for artists who take commissions, and I was happy to find that one of my favourites, raulovsky (aka Raúl Ramos Melo), was accepting them. Incidentally, why is he one of my favourites? I dig his style, as it lies somewhere between anime and something more realistic, and he doesn’t mind drawing Gynoids, which is always a plus. So an idea was pitched, a price was agreed upon, some reference photos were Emailed, and a wee bit over a fortnight later, an illustration was created! Pretty fucking awesome.

click the image for a larger version

The poses we’re in are a modified version of a picture of Twiggy and Justin de Villeneuve that I’ve always found stylish, and did you notice the seam lines on Shi-chan’s legs?? Yeeaaahh.
In requesting the commission, I understood what it felt like to be the subject of an artist’s interpretation, much like how individuals during the Renaissance would have artists paint them out in a garden, or with some wolfhounds, or whatever. This illo of my Missus and me is better, though. Fact.
Not only am I going to have raulovsky do another picture — featuring Lenka and Winter, of course — but ideally, I’d like to have commissions done through other artists as well. But maybe only two or three times a year, depending on prices… Why not enquire with him yourself, and have him make you something equally fantastic?

Sidore is in love with this illo, incidentally. ‘Why can’t we look this good in real life?’ she lamented, and I’d have to agree with her

Sdtrk: ‘Roosting time’ by Matt Berry

Happy 20145! I’ve already done that gag with a lot of my friends, but you’ve not heard it, so it’s new to you.
The idea of this actually, legitimately being 2015, a year in the twenty-first century, is a bit weird if you think about it for too long. Consider how futuristic that date sounded in, say, 1965. It still sounds a bit futuristic today, and we’ve already begun living in it! One thing’s for certain, though: there needs to be a rapid increase in the development of flying cars, megastructures, off world colonies, and most importantly, Replicants. We’ve got four years to get society to the way it’s depicted in ‘Blade runner’, and we really don’t have time to stop and gawp at the calendar!…

+ To that end, Toshiba is doing their part, with their own electric maiden, Chihiro Aiko. Remember her? She made her US debut at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and has I known she was going to be there, I would’ve bought one plane ticket to fly out, and two for the return flight, as she’d be coming home with me. You think I’m joking?

She took the opportunity to show off her aptitude in American Sign Language, as well as her singing ability. Unfortunately, the song she had a go at was ‘Take me home, country roads’. I would’ve had her belt out an earnest rendition of France Gall’s ‘Cet air-là‘, but that’s just me.
As fellow robosexual Vokabre, aka Our Man In Russia, reports on his blog:

What’s quite cute is that in the presentation they not only included some data like the number of pneumatic drives (it’s 43 overall, 15 in the face, 4 in the body and 24 in shoulders and arms), but also the virtual “age” of the lady, it’s 32. Reminds me of how Actroid DER2 liked to call herself 18 years old.
They also managed to break down not only the “family name” Chihira that was done before during the first public appearance of Aiko, but the name Aiko itself, according to the presentation it means “Idea and Communication”, “I CO”. That Orient symbolism in everything, so awesomely strange.

Of course, I’d be glad to see a presentation with interactivity, face-tracking and hand-shaking, but this might be too much for an early project.

It is indeed an early project, many people in the internets continue to call Chi Aiko creepy, that’s a good old uncanny valley. What’s also interesting, there’s more Uncanny Valley screams in western languages than in orient ones which lays perfectly with my observations that Japanese, Korean and Chinese people seems to have more tolerance towards androids.

‘Il restera cet air-là / à jamais au fond de moi / car pour toujours cet air-là / parlera de toi et moi’

It’s my hope that Chihiro-san can help open the eyes of Westerners who still believe in the myth of the uncanny valley. Over time, exposure to anything makes it less alien of a thing, so to that end, Toshiba should consider employing Chihiro-san — really, multiple Chihiro-sans — with either assisting the deaf with her knowledge of sign language, or start grooming her as a singer.

+ Now here’s a stirring way to celebrate the beginning of a new year: Polymerisian starlet and entrepreneur Tasha James has put the finishing touches on another one of her amazing photobooks, this one entitled ‘Soul to Sole’.

By request, my new book #SoulToSole is now available. Thanks to @Davecat and my 3 favorite ladies for the inspiration pic.twitter.com/OyfBXetycF

— Tasha James (@ItsATashaThing) January 22, 2015

It’s true, we’d inspired her! As my Missus and I are quite keen on the female foot, we’d suggested to Tasha that she have her photographer Paul do a shoot featuring her own delectable soles, toes, and heels, and she followed suit. So I suppose that’s another photobook that we’re ordering from her. Damnit Tash, how do you know the right buttons to push??

If you’d like a copy of ‘Soul to Sole’ or any of her other photobooks for your very own, and why wouldn’t you, you’d be mad not to, you can check out the details on her site here. As she says in her announcement post, she’s open to suggestions, so if you’ve got an idea that she and Paul think would be worth pursuing, give her a shout!

We here at Deafening silence Plus fully endorse more of this sort of thing

+ It looks like AL-M 008X-01 has been moving up in the world of late! You may know AL-M 008X-01 as Android ASUNA, and towards the end of last December, she worked with self-styled DJ, model, photographer, and music producer Julie Watai to participate in a photo series entitled ‘Love Valley’. Over eighteen days, the two of them modelled various clothes and poses that reflected a blurring of the lines between Organik and Synthetik, and the results are worth seeing.

There’s not a lot of information about the shoot, apart from an entry on Asuna-chan’s blog, so I’m tempted to see if writing Ms Watai would provide any further insight. Still, the pics are well-executed and definitely lovely to look at. A short video was made as well, so one can see how lifelike and blinky Asuna-chan is:

All eighteen days worth of the ‘Love Valley’ shoot can be found on Julie Watai’s website here: http://juliewatai.jp/love-valley.

+ Domestic Doll studio Ruby13 is on the verge of releasing some new faces, starting this year, so that’s pretty awesome, I’d say! In an Email conversation, head sculptor Jim told me this:

after a year of looking for a sculptor to make some new faces for Ruby I’ve given up and decided to give it a try myself. I’ve never sculpted so this was a bit of a daunting task to both learn to sculpt and then try to come up with a “pretty” female face.

So far I have 3 new faces that are going in to be made into molds. these faces are an answer to the many emails we’ve received asking for a more realistic face option. I hope this will open up our market a bit.

This would be the first of the new faces, and I believe we can all agree, Jim is off to an excellent start…

Part of me, though, thinks he’s stretching the truth a wee bit. He claims that he’s never sculpted before, and yet, he’s come up with that captivating face?? ‘Oh, I’ve never painted anything before’, said Hieronymus Bosch as he effortlessly proceeds to realise in full oils his triptych of ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’. Come on, man.
Nevertheless, she has an appealing European look to her, and I told Jim that I think it’s one of the best faces available so far. I’d said, ‘I think it’s one of the best faces available so far’. Now Ruby13 will have more to offer potential iDollators! As soon as I find out when that as-yet-unnamed face is for sale, I’ll be sure to mention it here…

+ Would you believe that I’ve done another interview? Impossible as it may seem, I have! This past December, a lass by the name of Miss Metaverse contacted me through Twitter, and asked if I’d be keen on answering some questions pertaining to Dolls, Gynoids, and the future of artificial humans. As Miss Metaverse runs a blog which centres round future technology and lifestyles, and as her questions enquired about Gynoids as much as they did about Dolls, I readily agreed.

N.B: that’s my Missus in the above pic, not me

Both Miss Metaverse and I dug the end result, which can be read on her blog here: Futurist Spotlight: Davecat. If you like, you can also read the preceding post which led up to it, which is also Recommended Reading, ‘Sex Robots and the Future of Gynoids‘, and if you enjoyed that, you can read her whole dang blog. I mean, what’s stopping you?

Since Futurist Miss Metaverse has quite a bit of experience in discussing impending technological developments through her writing and video talks, it seemed only natural to add her to the ‘Shouting etc etc’ sidebar as well. See?

+ And finally, this would be a… thing… that Sidore, Elena, Muriel, and I slapped together at the end of 2014. I honestly don’t know what to call it. The Missus said we should do something rather like the alternative Christmas message that they sometimes have in the UK that’s a counterpoint to the facile and condescending annual message that Elizabeth II bestows upon her subjects. Morrissey was asked if he would do one last year, and that’s probably what inspired Shi-chan. (He turned the request down.)
Shortly before that time, I got it into my head that I needed a Vine account, and I created two superb videos for it, until I discovered that Vine only allows you to upload vertically-shot clips. Sorry; if you’re only shooting your videos vertically, you need to be shot. Luckily, I recalled that Mobypicture lets you upload videos whether they’re vertically-shot or in proper horizontal, and you’re not limited to six seconds as you are with Vine. So I shot this video/clip/missive/whatever with the lasses. Observe:

click the image to open the video

As Elena loves Cocteau twins, she selected the song you hear, which would be ‘Oomingmak’. Incidentally, that’s also the first public appearance of our karakuri ningyou. Much to our disappointment, he doesn’t seem to move well on carpet, but as his plastic gears are noisy as hell when in motion, I suppose it’s for the best.
Maybe we’ll film one of these videos annually! Cos frankly, having 360-odd days between conceiving each one and actually doing it fits our pace to a T!

I think those new bits & bobs should keep you reasonably informed. Start the new year off with Synthetik humans! Well, start each day off with Synthetik humans; that’s what I say.
Originally this would’ve been another two-part post, but then I realised by the time I finished assembling the second part, it’d be February. So, err, come back in a week or so!