#33: Junk Art, Quality Time for your Ears, Emojis on Parade, 10 Years of Marshall, Quazy Quiltz
Throw these into the conversation.
1. Jumbo Junkyards
For more than four decades, São Paolo-based artist, Cássio Vasconcellos, has been fascinated by overhead photography and how it can capture patterns on the ground. It’s from this perspective that he’s explored and exposed the acres and acres of detritus left behind by modern overproduction.
His ongoing series, Collectives focuses on the mesmerising—and mind-boggling—quantity of scrapped vehicles and metal indefinitely parked in junkyards around the world. Vasconcellos draws on tens of thousands of aerial photographs he’s made of metal scrap heaps, airplane graveyards, and waste dumps to create remarkable, large-scale composite images. The results are as dramatic as they are disorienting.
But Vasoncellos is interested in more than just junk. He’s also made fascinating overhead collage images of crowds, crops, cities and landscapes. When he’s not looking down, he’s looking up, often pointing his camera skyward to get startling images of architecture and sculptures.
But mostly, Vasconsellos is trying to tell us something about the forgotten impact of our modern industrial / consumerist culture. How much of the junk we leave behind will still be here long after we go? Check out Vasconcellos’ portfolio here.
2. QUALITY TIME AUTUMN 2024 PLAYLIST
Seeking to block out the world? I can relate.
I’ve put together a little playlist of bops to keep you moving through the apocalypse while avoiding unnecessary engagement with our distressing world. Some of these tunes might be familiar if you click on the regular ‘final word’ music feature near the end of each newsletter. Some will likely be new to you. Expect a mix of Spanish-language pop punk, Jamaican smooth disco, Japanese pop, alt-country from France, a Bowie classic, contemporary Indian - Australian instrumentals and a new school house banger among others. It’s a playlist perfect for crisp morning city walks, sunny drives along the coastline or just sitting out in front of the local Starbucks with your lukewarm Americano staring at the parking lot.
However you enjoy your Quality Time, let Tyler, the Creator, Valerie Simpson, Lord Kitchener, MONO, Letta Mbulu and the rest keep you company and help you tune out the maddening crowds. Enjoy!
3. New Emojis
Happy day! Unicode, the shadowy international regulatory body that decides these things, has unveiled a collection of proposed new emojis which could be finding their way to your keyboard late next year. See above the recommended new emojis including an ‘anxiety’ smiley face, a jumping orca, a treasure chest, several ballet dancers, and Big Foot. The rest of the proposed new additions are skin-colour and sex variations on the standard ‘couple with bunny ears’ and ‘people wrestling’ emojis.
The ultimate update will be known as Unicode 17.0 and while currently in draft form, is expected to be approved in September 2025. It’s not clear to me how this all works but nonetheless, I demand a say! See below my suggested list of useful new emojis the authorities might want to consider. Each one, I think, would be more useful than ‘couple with bunny ears’ whatever their skin-colour.
Dirty needle
Manager-seeking Karen
Seagull snatching french fries
Coffee pod
Crocs
Brass knuckles
Food truck
MJ’s sequinned glove
Real Housewife
Iced-coffee w/ straw
Butt plug
Dumpster fire
Mariah Carey
I could go on. Any emojis you’d like to see included? Let me know!
4. 10 Years of the Marshall Project
Serving canapés and tending bar part-time for a New York City event company will get you into some pretty ritzy parties. Fashion shows, fundraisers, company do’s and dreary ‘networking events’ - I’ve worked them all. It’s been a good little money spinner and also a reminder that you never know who’s serving you that blue cheese and pear crostini.
Last night as I lingered aimlessly behind the champagne bar at a westside brownstone owned by a high-profile tech mogul, I listened to a mid-soirée presentation about the Marshall Project, celebrating it’s ten year anniversary. What I heard was really impressive.
The Marshall Project is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system. In an age of declining independent media, the Marshall Project makes a real impact with feisty advocacy journalism about our byzantine justice complex and its victims that few of us think about. It’s uncovered a culture of abuse in New York prisons, the pervasive misuse of police attack dogs, the often deadly practices of unregulated, private prisoner transport companies and many other injustices.
When was the last time you saw any coverage at all of our metastasising prison population? The facts laid out by the Marshall Project will not just inform you, they’ll outrage you. Lest you think their coverage relates only to those caught up in the prison system, I recommend this chilling story of a mother who had her newborn taken away from her because she failed a routine, state-mandated hospital blood test. The Costco salad she ate earlier that day elevated certain blood levels that trip drug testing indicators. County Social Services were called and her newborn was immediately taken into protective custody. All in keeping with the trend toward disempowering women and mothers in favour of foetuses and children - regardless of context or nuance. By the way, this was in lefty-liberal California!
I’m broke, but I’d rather donate $15 monthly to the Marshall project than Netflix. You can too.
5. Quilt Index
In my travels online I came across the incredible Quilt Index, the open access, digital repository of thousands of images, stories and information about quilts and their makers drawn from hundreds of public and private collections around the world. In addition to the amazing craftsmanship on display, it was the creativity of the pattern names that really got me. Turkey Tracks, Drunkard’s Path, Giddap, Lafayette Orange Peel, and Rob Peter to Pay Paul are just some of the evocative titles featured.
Of course this got me thinking about the wild world of paint colour names. Both Sherwin-Williams and Farrow & Ball offer online colour indexes. (I expect other paint companies do too.) Any guesses what colour Mole’s Breath is? What about Ionian? Rejuvenate? Bancha? Whirlybird? Free Spirit?
It’s pure word association. Come up with a term that could mean anything and apply it to a colour that essentially means nothing. Can I have this job please?
Small Print:
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Final word from Dojo Cuts
parting shot(s)
Brilliant, as usual!