fluoroDigital Giveaway – Unit Portables

Unit Portables’ key ‘raison d’être’ is to bridge the gap between practicality and fashionable design. fluoroDigital is showcasing their credentials by giving away two Unit Portable bags and two iPad cases.

Simplicity is often the key to smart design. Unit Portables have appropriated this as their modus operandi and have created a bag and iPad case collection that focuses on functionality and practicality, while retaining a distinct sense of style.

Available in a range of colours, the bags and iPad cases blend into the urban environment. Tough and sturdy, but sleek, these cases and bags are the perfect match for any city excursion, to keep your technology safe while looking fantastically stylish.

For your chance to win a Unit Portable bag or iPad case, valued at AUD$145 and AUD$50 each respectively, comment below on who your favourite functional, stylish urban brand is, and why.

Giveaway ends on Friday 30 March 2012. The winners will be notified via email on Monday 2 April 2012

www.unitportables.com

Wed 22 Feb 2012

Best Friends

Colin Pinegar explores a rarely-considered side of the social media explosion of recent times with ‘Best Friends’, a visual tracing of just how close we are to who we call our online ‘friends’.

“Since the advent of Facebook, the meaning of the word “friend” seems to have lost its meaning. I wanted to see just how many of my online “friends” would actually fit the pre-Facebook definition of the word.” – Colin Pinegar, creator of Best Friends.

After many hours of research, it became clear to Colin that the more two people communicated – especially offline, in a format that was not merely text – the stronger their relationship was. Colin then created a survey that measured the amount of contact he had with his friends over the past year. Each friend scored somewhere between 1 and 25 points, and each score was assigned a color on a spectrum. A bust was then cast in soy wax and dyed according to the score. Pink busts were ‘friends’, working its way to purple busts for ‘best friends’.

What does this mean for our lives, nowadays so easily conducted and managed online? For Colin, it is a visual representation of who he considers to be his ‘best friends’; for us, it can make us re-evaluate exactly who we really know online, and possibly even force us to put down the keyboard, and pick up the phone instead.

www.colinpinegar.com

Mon 20 Feb 2012

United Colours of Benetton S/S 2012

An irresistible, unstoppable explosion of colour and energy – the United Colours of Benetton Spring/Summer 2012 Collection conveys the twin feelings of blooming spring and excitable summer.

Vibrant colours and prints – long standing Benetton brand signatures – highlight all the key elements: geometric shapes, patterns, decoration, fabrics, moods and ideas. These signatures are continued in the female collection. Playful in mood, and juxtaposing block colours with dots and stripes in an eye-catching fashion, the distinctive Benetton look is well and truly in place.

Men can look forward to a multitude of styles, mixing pure comfort and informality with striking patterns and colours. Safari jackets, short check jackets and short trench coats mark the spring outerwear, with the bold look to complement the mood of the season.

The S/S 2012 collection is available from all United Colours of Benetton stores.

www.benetton.com

Fri 17 Feb 2012

Barcelona FC, Vintage Style

Taking one of the world’s foremost football teams and placing their faces on vintage-style cards may seem like a far-fetched idea, but photographers Diver & Aguilar have made it happen with none other than the stars of Barcelona FC.

For the 2012 La-Liga season, Diver & Aguilar recreated the current Barcelona team in soft, warm tones on vintage football cards. The idea stemmed from 1871, where the American company Allen and Ginter began inserting pieces of card into cigarette packets to stop the contents from being damaged. These soon developed into collectable sporting cards which today have reached values of up to £160 per inidividual card.

Featuring such modern, iconic players such as Messi, Puyol and Xavi, these cards hark back to a different time in art and design – where practicality and fantastic photography met, and still meet today under the watchful lenses of Diver & Aguilar.

www.diveraguilar.com

Wed 15 Feb 2012

B&O Play

Iconic brand Bang & Olufsen have taken another step into the pantheon of classic audio design, unveiling B&O Play – a convergence of high quality design and convenience for the digital generation.

B&O Play features stand-alone products that are concise in their operations, intuitive to use and easy to integrate into daily life. Henrik Taudorf Lorensen, Vice President of B&O Play, said the mission of this new brand was to evoke senses and to elevate the everyday experience of watching and listening.

“We have spoken to musicians and studio recorders who all love the fact that more people listen to music in more places, but hate the fact that the quality of the listening experience has been eroded. We want to provide the opportunity to experience media in a convenient and easy way but still in outstanding high quality.”

The first product launched under the B&O Play name is the Beolit 12. A tribute to Bang & Olufsen’s popular Beolit transistor radios from the 1960s, it presents a compact form with a distinct design and pure clarity of sound. It also features Apple’s Airplay technology, which allows you to play music wirelessly from your iPod, iPhone, iMac, Mac or PC.

The Beolit 12 is the flagship product for B&O Play, and promises a bright future from the brand. It is available from all Bang & Olufsen showrooms.

www.beoplay.com

Mon 13 Feb 2012

An Italian Straw Hat

Farce is a comedic force that sweeps aside all in its path, revealing errors in judgment and the futility of the human condition. ‘An Italian Straw Hat’, screening at the Barbican, showcases this force perfectly.

René Clair’s satire on middle-class pretension is one of the great landmarks of French silent cinema. A young man in 1890s Paris is on his way to his wedding, when his horse chews the straw hat of a philandering married woman. He offers to replace the hat whilst trying desperately not to jeopardise his wedding arrangements, and complications inevitably abound.

Comic misunderstandings clash against each other, piling up so swiftly that the film takes on a quasi-beauty in its car-crash hilarity.

‘An Italian Straw Hat’ will also feature live musical accompaniment , directed by Andrew Youdell. It will show at the Barbican on Sunday 19 February.

www.barbican.org.uk

Fri 10 Feb 2012

Tinpan Orange

Where folk music meets dark, ambient soundscapes and classically-influenced strings – it could only be Tinpan Orange. fluoroDigital spoke with effervescent vocalist and guitarist Emily Lubitz to discuss their dark new sound, the effect of art on music, and whether red-haired frontwomen really do have the it-factor.

(fluoroDigital) Where did you draw the inspiration for your name?

(Emily Lubitz) We kind of, just, made it up! It’s an allusion to Tinpan Alley in New York, where all the great pop songs were written in the 40s. And nothing rhymes with Orange! We just threw names around, and it was a bit of a random process.

(fD) How do you distinguish yourself in today’s folk music scene?

(EL) I don’t know if we are that different. I think lots of people sing like me, and I think other bands write much better songs than me too! But Alex Burkoy, who plays violin and mandolin, is classically trained and came here when he was around 16 from the Ukraine. I think he is quite distinct in what he brings to the band – he grew up listening only to the Beatles, so he does bring some cool musical ideas to the table.

(fD) Your latest songs have a distinctly darker sound. Where did this change come from?

(EL) [New single] ‘Barcelona’ and this upcoming record, sonically, are very different partially because we’re working with this amazing producer, Steven Schram. He put our sound in a blender, and it came out louder, darker, and possibly less folky. We have done the folk thing – lots of festivals and shows, but never radio play. This new record is far more accessible to a wider market, and it really is all thanks to Steve.

We also have a new drummer, Danny Farrugia, who is just so exciting to work with. He is such a musical drummer, and when Harry Angus (of The Cat Empire) and Danny came up with the groove for Barcelona, it just worked. New people and talents make all the difference.

(fD) The Tinpan Orange official website features many abstract-style artworks, drawing on retro colour schemes and odd illustrations to create a whimsical, Alice in Wonderland feeling. How does art / design influence your music?

(EL) The way I write songs is very visual. Lots of visual imagery and metaphor are in all my songs, and all the artists we work with for our designs, well, I love them all!

(fD) An upcoming gig at Party on the Park will also house the sounds of your close friend Clare Bowditch. Do you find flame-haired frontwomen give a unique feel to your style of music?

(EL) (Laughs) Definitely! It’s all about the red!!!

(fD) Time to put on your time-traveling hats. Where do you see TInpan Orange heading in the future?

(EL) We will be touring quite a bit, especially in Australia up until March. After that we head to Canada to support The Cat Empire on a twenty-show tour, and when we get back to Melbourne, we WILL finish this upcoming album to be released hopefully in Spring.

www.tinpanorange.com

Wed 8 Feb 2012

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBFuMfn_Myk

In Darkness

‘In Darkness’, a dramatic recreation of one man’s rescue of Jewish refugees from the Nazi-controlled Polish city of Lvov, features during the 10^th Polish KINOTEKA Film Festival at the Barbican in London.

An intense and heartfelt journey into the moral underground of a dark and disturbing time, ‘In Darkness’ has excelled on the international awards stage, becoming the Polish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 2012 Academy Awards.

The Barbican is screening ‘In Darkness’ with lead actor Robert Więckiewicz and director Agnieszka Holland appearing afterwards to talk about the film. Also, in celebration of Kinoteka’s 10th birthday, ten world-renowned British and Polish leading filmmakers have been invited to choose their personal favourite Polish films, marking ten milestones of Polish Cinema, spanning fiction, features and documentaries.

In Darkness will screen at the Barbican on Sunday 11 March. The KINOTEKA Film Festival will run from Thursday 8 March to Thursday 22 March 2012 at locations across London, Belfast and Edinburgh.

www.kinoteka.org.uk

www.barbican.org.uk

Mon 6 Feb 2012

¿Being Home?

A colourful world of words and ideas, created by the people, immersive and engaging. ¿Being Home? asks of us: what is home?

¿Being Home? is a community inspired, site-specific, interactive artwork created by Rupprecht Matthies that shifts and changes with each presentation. It features an immersive environment made up of colorful word sculptures and mobiles carved in Plexiglas, Styrofoam and foam.

Matthies once again uses his highly collaborative process to gather words in many languages through a series of community workshops, turning participants’ words into a new set of sculptural elements within the installation.

¿Being Home? is currently showing at the Denver Art Museum until Sunday February 19 2012. Don’t go home before you see it.

www.denverartmuseum.org

Fri 3 Feb 2012

Climate Change at Metro Gallery

Words and science have been critical in understanding and tackling global issues. Can art help us take another step towards resolution?

‘Climate Change’, which will show at Metro Gallery, Melbourne, Australia, features ten of Australia’s leading artists each taking on the role of problem solver, cutting through political polemic, media analysis and scientific debate to provide a unique perspective.

The artists were filmed in their creative processes over several months to create an in-depth documentary. The documentary will be previewed at Opening Night, before its international screening in New York. A tour of regional Australia will follow in late 2012.

“A creative response to a social problem is something that’s always avoided or evaded or not trusted. But art has an impact in a way that figures and theories don’t. It can express the inexpressible and when you add emotion to thought, you bring resolution a step closer.” – Ann McCulloch, Deakin University Professor.

‘Climate Change’ opens tonight at Metro Gallery. It closes on Saturday 11 February 2012.

www.metrogallery.com.au

Wed 1 Feb 2012