future

i was watching something on future cars, or something like that. thats what the show was called i think. anyway, it was kinda neat, and talked about how the design of cars will change, gas economy should change, and just everything really. they even talked about a car that goes from zero to 100 BACK to zero in 8 seconds, and that it technically should be able to drive upside down given a long enough tunnel. nuts! but anyway, at the end they had a guy named syd mead who they said was the da vinci of car design.They also said that non of his designs have ever actually been made into commercially sold and licensed vehicls.
I think he is so highly regarded because he is basically an artist, and not purley a designer.this is where things start to get jumbled up a bit cause they start to coincide with other stuff that ive been thinking about recently.

Where to begin. Well first off, i guess ill start from this syd guy, and with something that i told keith the other day while we were running. I mentioned something to him about intelligence and the typical or general consensus of what an average person would consider a smart or very smart person. For example, a genius might typically be thought of as a brilliant scientist or mathematician. Or a doctor, or something like that. Some people might mention someone like Michelangelo, but would probably forget. im sure they would agree if someone brought the name up though. But im assuming that no one could really think of a modern day genius outside of einstein, who is not very modern day even though his theories are still being used today, or stephen hawking. they both, however, cover the mathematician and scientist parts of being smart however. Im pretty sure no one knows of any biologist or applied biologist or doctor who is a genius, nothing to date, such as the way lance armstrong is the face of professional cycling and thats all anyone really knows about the sport, theres perhaps no face of the doctoral world outside of maybe patch adams, and there is im sure no personality to call on in reference to the artistic world, outside of Michelangelo and da vinci, who are about 300 years deceased. Someone might be able to mention picasso or van gogh, but im sure they have no reason, or rather no visual reference as to why they are genius's, and they are of course visual artists. someone would probably know that starry night is a piece that is world famous and i dont assume that anyone would really know the name of any picasso. maybe they might be familiar with his blue period and they might have seen les demoiselles d'avignon and guernica, but they have no reason to believe that this makes them a genius. anyway i should get to the point before i get WAY off track which i can feel myself trying to do.

When i was running with keith, i said to him that it is interesting that some of the more intelligent people in the world, or the people who are generally considered intelligent and are regarded highly, are often fond of artists and consider them to be very smart. It seems almost funny that one might be just in saying artists are the muses for those who serve a more direct service to the public. I didnt exactly say those words to keith, but i mentioned that it is interesting the kinds of things artists come up with, which tend to do more with philosophy and aesthetics, which is where the genius of an artist actually comes from, not solely the visual work they produce. of course an artist is supported by his or her work, but that work has to be supported by his or her thoughts first. picasso did not paint les demoiselles d'avignon without thinking that what he was doing might not be considered art by the public. there were theories that went into his painting which is what makes an artist a genius. Because these are theories, philosophies and ideas that are relatable to visual art work as well as an aesthetic view on life and life styles, these artists are regarded highly by those who can understand that much better than those who do not keep up with the times.

Anyway, trying not to sound pretentious, moving on.

Ive been looking at egon shiele lately and i went to a used book store the other day. I was browsing through the art books and saw 2 klimt books that looked really great. im sure i wont find a shiele book, but klimt is not bad to have either. His work is similar at times, but clearly there are major differences in the bulk of the 2 artists work. They both get me inspired though, and i have been doing a little bit of drawing, not much though. Id like to get into a figure drawing class, but oh well.

So today I looked up some programs on the netflix cd thing that keiths girlfriend brought here and its kinda neat, just watching movies on that thing. I was looking through... scifi i think, and saw heavey metal, had to watch it. so awesome. 80's ideas and mentality of the future, full of aliens and dooms day devices. I looked for some more stuff but this time looked under tv or something, and saw aeon flux. well i love the artwork in it, always makes me think of how chung drew his figures so incredibly and often anatomically incorrect, but very slender and poetic, as if every character were a fashion drawing, with a little more muscle, or i guess a lot more muscle. And i love the contrast with his rugrats characters, figures who cant even touch the tops of their own heads cause they are half the size of their entire body.

The pilot episode of rugrats by the way is just phenomenal. i highly recommend it.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting when i was watching aeon flux how after awhile, the figures really reminded my of shiele. I dont think i had ever connected the 2 before, but its hard not to now. And while i was looking up images of aeon flux i came across a blog that had compared the 2, shiele and flux.
http://www.joannemackellar.com/designjournal/?tag=cartoons
I thought it was really neat, but ill try for my own comparison pictures















holy cow i didnt think id get one that good. thats probably the best one im going to find cause its REALLY hard to find concept drawings or stills or anything like that from the show. I also read in another blog someone talking about shiele and that looking at his sketches just makes you wanna draw aeon flux, haha, thought that was kinda neat.

So ANYWAY, since theres more i have to talk about and it doesnt matter how much i put on here cause im not wasting anyones time cause NO ONE READS THIS THING.... when i got finished watching that car show, i came up here to give a go on the whole designing vehicles thing. I am very interested in furniture design, architecture, and i have designed a couple cars and bikes before. So I started drawing and decided that i had to put on my 80's mix, which includes, the cure. joy division and new order, as well as m83....it just sounds 80's so thats why i did it. But theres something funny about when i get in a scifi future mode, and i have to listen to 80's music. not just any though, particularly joy division and new order and even more specifically in a lonely place by new order. I listened to that song and this mix a lot when i read enders game and i think i listened to it too when i was reading 1984. Its really funny cause this 80's future feeling is all just in a familiar place for me. So yeah, i put that one and started to draw and i drifted to bicycles and motorcycle designs. It got me thinking about tron and i was curious who the designer was for the bikes and thought that it had to be just one person, and it was, syd mead.While i was drawing i got to thinking about akira which is also just highly rooted in the whole 80's future fashion and future japanese city overcrowded life.

also, another funny coincidence is that syd mead was hired as a concept artist for blade runner and his designs were used in the movie, which is set in a new york city that has been overcome with a japanese integration of style and whatnot. I just thought it was really coincidental, all this stuff that kinda mixed together. another interesting thing is that the design for the steering and the overall placement of the rider on this bike is very similar to the designs i was working on. I know theres only so many places you can put someone on a bike, but still, pretty similar. now i should post this thing already before my internet shuts down and i loose this whole post.