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It is hard not to let your face twist into an expression of grimace while looking at the work of today’s most popular designers; how they’ve managed to fully appropriate youth culture’s 90s nostalgia and make money from selling these carbon copies of old patterns to, well, you guessed it, the youth. After all, millennials have more purchasing power than their parents according to this CBC article, which states Canadians between 25 and 34 years old are on average richer than their parents were at that age. I’ll agree, it is a place of protest because it’s a place of annoyance. The problem here is not young creatives influenced by culture from an old regime. The problem here is not nostalgia’s inability to lead to innovation. The problem here is traditional fashion houses and big corporate fashion companies abandoning their creative originality, and attempting to cash in on these trends by latching on to the youth. On the other end of the spectrum, young creatives right now are producing work rooted on practices like Post-modern Art and Post-contemporary thought drawing upon their unlimited access to history and technology side-by-side, and simultaneously pushing things forward. Blame corporate America, blame capitalism, even blame an older generation.

And truly, is it that bad that young creatives look towards a past, whichever past? Not to say, the Internet is an incredible enabler in allowing us to truly understand the past, learn from it and get the most authentic ‘feel’ of decades gone through archived images, videos and interviews, something artists could only dream of before the dot-com boom. It’s interesting to take a look at the essence of nostalgia, its true form. Nostalgia seems to be this beautiful dance between memory, consciousness and the world around us. We objectify our memory in items and images that remind us of our past, be it a Janis Joplin record, a Biba vintage dress or a picture of Winona on the set of Heathers.

I believe there is a deeper meaning to this neo-nostalgia of our generation. Perhaps it bursts out of an unconscious urge to further understand ourselves by coming to terms with our past. We buy the clothes for a reason, because at the end of the day, style is an extension of our personality. And, if through what we decide to wear we can come to terms with our past, including our childhood memories, then so be it. If you want to wear your jellies and an original X-Girl t-shirt because it makes you remember a time you wish to re-address in your adulthood, well so be it. Yes, it’s fun, and maybe too much fun to understand for an older generation that seems too preoccupied in plunging forward without looking back.

Now, there is the crucial disparity between those who desire that bittersweet taste of nostalgia, and those who are capitalizing on it. If we look closely, those young creatives who have succeeded in bringing their work to the public eye are actually applying various influences and techniques to their work, not just re-creating borderline inappropriate schoolgirl skirts. Ryan Lo’s collection looked back at Patricia Field’s styling work for Sex in the City, but also presented garments inspired by shapes and colors taken from a beautiful, fantasy beach hidden somewhere in his mind where grottoes are made from ruffled, silk threads and waves flow like sheer scarfs. This is a Post-contemporary approach to design, in which innovation is always on sight, but the reconstruction of meaningful traditions from history lead the artist through his creative process. Maxine Beiny, another young, emerging designer whose recent collection is a conglomerate of social media meets minimalism meets sportswear, says, “I wanted it to feel new and fresh, it was important for me to find my own aesthetic and identity.” She continues, “I think it is important to look at the past, but not be too influenced as it’s already been done.”

It is possible for innovation to arise from nostalgia, and to believe otherwise would belittle the countless innovative, significant works of art that have looked back at the past, both subtlety or bluntly. Tech innovations and social media start ups such as Instagram and Snapchat have all been influenced by a search for nostalgia, by either finding old school inspired methods of recording your life or traditional ways of communicating with friends. The proclaimed fine artist, Bruce Nauman, in 1966 pioneered video art and body art with Self Portrait as a Fountain, in which he captured himself in his studio spitting water from his mouth, a nod to the 1917 readymade by Duchamp, Fountain. And, I am not even going to go into the countless of incredible film directors who have channeled the past to bring us their personal view of the present.

The Internet is not only the main source for designers’ inspiration but consumers are continuing to challenge ‘high-end’ fashion houses unwritten laws of ‘good taste’ because of it.  This effect is due to online platforms like VFiles and Tumblr that gather the likes of young, experimental stylists and designers whose stream style is growing in value. In New York, VFiles showcased a user-generated runway for their third time presenting designers who are chosen globally by users on their interactive online fashion community. Another brand that notably incorporated the digital this season was Topshop. The high street giants partnered with the 3D agency Inition to let their fans experience the runway, as well as join forces with Facebook and Instagram to tell fashion stories in a creative way, giving their consumers a major role in the production and coverage of London Fashion Week. 

Post-Internet style took the front stage this season, showcasing the unexpected ways designers have incorporated the digital in their collections. Chromat’s SS15 collection featured 3D printed bra cups, pockets and face masks rendered in precise but elegant shapes inspired by architectural graphics. In London, the duo at Fyodor Golan who called their collection “digital romanticism” showcased a whimsical approach to futurism by designing feminine and voluminous garments using digital patterns of computerised versions of nature. The duo also used cutting-edge fabrics made from satin and plastic threads in there space-age looks – think Barbarella meets Frank Stella’s colourful minimalism.

As some designers tried to bring the virtual into physical reality, others were inspired by the network of youth aesthetics nurtured by social media. One controversial user-generated involvement spotted this season was a nostalgia for old computer graphics. Catwalks became living-breathing collages of online style aesthetics taken from this obsession. Its a materialisation of the repetition, reposting and reblogging habits of the youth, and their nostalgic views of subcultures.

Underground subcultures were a big part of this social media inspired Post-Internet style. Designers that embraced this included Ammerman Schlosberg’s, who’s SS15 collection was a display of super cool goth and rockabilly joined with Santa’s little helpers, as well as Marques Almeida’s and Ashley Williams’ ‘shy goth’ inspired collections.

Finally, rave culture was seen to be a great influence over many designers. Appearing on the runways of Lulu & Co with sporty, bright-coloured prints of neo-psychedelia and metallic fringe earrings, and Marc by Marc Jacobs with rave-ready inspired hairstyles.

Nineties Pop princesses and the decade’s ultra girly culture were also spotted in shows such as MM6 Maison Margiela, who presented a collection that included a paisley bandana tube top made from latex, and western inspired looks reminiscent of Madonna’s early noughties cowgirl phase. Louise Alsop’s SS15 collection at Fashion East also channeled an early noughties vibe, with her take being a post-apocalyptic, grunge aesthetic slightly reminiscent of ‘Dirty’ by Christina Aguilera, with a collection including revealing ripped dresses and belly-chains. On the other hand, Rodarte and their asymmetrical mermaid dresses were evocative of early, glitter-good girl Britney meets prom dresses. Ryan Lo also tapped into retro Barbie Girl in his tropical, Carrie Bradshaw inspired SS15 collection with fun, textured and pastel-coloured pieces, notably the rainbow ruffled dress and pink glitter jumpsuit.

Moreover, we are obsessed with Ryan Lo’s collaboration with the Sailor Moon, girl toy, luxury jewelry designer O Thongthai.

I personally do not agree with generalising such a broad statement about our culture and its definition of beauty, but I suspect many scholars will try to cash in on Kim’s search for cultural importance through pictures of herself. Because of this and many other factors, selfies are now being scrutinised on basis of cultural importance, how they define women and the future.

Upon further research for the true cultural importance of the selfie- and what it means to girls all over the world- I could not help but make a connection between the person posing for the selfie, and the invisible audience that is inherently part of the pose-n-pout-n-snap process. Whilst scrolling through hundreds and thousands of Tumblr-ready selfies of red-lipped fashionistas branded with designer logos, photobooth punk princesses, unabashed, greasy haired, cigarette smoking, no-fucks given female artists, amateur porn entrepreneurs on their days off, normcore girls in minimalist, sardonic settings, high schoolers adopting a Mileyesque aesthetic, and many more, I realised that apart from the act of snapping a selfie itself, the only common thread connecting these extremely different women were the poses held in their self-portraits.

Now, thinking of the history of women posing or modelling, there is an origin which puts into question women’s ideas of themselves and their definition of beauty today. Before feminist art, before the rise of girl culture, before wanting empowerment and before selfies, male artists were capturing images of women on their terms, based on a male idea of what it meant to be a beautiful and attractive woman. Matisse, for example, an artist who had an obsession with his female models, would instruct them on how to pose for him. How to place those sensuous curvatures of the hips, what angles favoured the dimensions of the breasts, and so on. Like him, you also have Picasso’s use of Parisian prostitutes, Gauguin’s nudes of young Polynesian girls and Renoir’s impressions of 18th century women of the home laying down while brushing their hair nude and bored. Nevertheless, the most influential female pose in art is the ever controversial odalisque. First represented in 1814 by a French artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres in “Grande Odalisque,” (which depicts a slave from a harem nude with her back turned as she stares back towards the audience),  and the reclining nude addressed by the Impressionist artist Manet in “Olympia,” in 1863 (in the 70s, this pose was readdressed by feminist artists during the Second Feminist Movement, during the efforts to shatter the tradition of male-created images of women).

Interestingly, in today’s social media culture you find the same poses once created by men for men being used by women in selfies. But who for?

Are we modelling for ourselves? Our own idea of what is beautiful now? Then why do we go back to typical poses of women depicted by men, and by doing so possibly reasserting the always haunting idea that the objectified image of women has not really died at all? Or, is this the way we take that image back by readdressing it in our own way? And does this reclamation make it ok to repeat the poses for our peers at a time when feminism is expanding and reaching younger generations?

Obviously, the fashion world and media have popularized such poses repeatedly, but selfies may also show that women envision themselves in the same way males did way before TV and the Internet, or do they instead show a desire to want to fit in with the male status-quo of what is sexy? Artist Gracie Hagen last year created, ‘Illusions of the Body’, a photo-series paralleling a person’s ability to pose in a flattering, ‘sexy’ manner, and then shift to show what our culture considers unattractive poses in all their slouching awkwardness. On her website she says, “This series was made to tackle the supposed norms of what we think our bodies are supposed to look like.”

The internet is full of sensuous self-portraits of women laying on their beds like odalisques baring their bums to the world, reclining nudes portraying proudness of their bodies, and even something simpler like the popular finger in lips pose, or framing your face with your arm. It seems that women are conditioned to believe certain poses will give them a certain level of attractiveness. But, the question still stands. Who is the audience of the female selfie?

Maybe it was his natural talent of playing guitar accompanied by a DIY mindset free of pretension that gave him the opportunity of building a music career, and playing with some of the wildest bands and caricature musicians. Maybe it was being in New York City during the late 70s and 80s, or maybe it was his academic experience, being a music major for a time in collage, that lead him to shred his guitar at Madison Square Garden with one of the biggest names in rock history. What is clear is that Kulick has always taken music seriously. His professionalism intertwined with his talent is what makes him today a prolific musician who transcends any generation or music trend, while maintaining a youthful, creative and ambitious outlook on life.

“I realized that was a job, and I took it seriously. I didn’t play the rock star card very much. I didn’t act like an idiot getting drunk saying, ‘I am on top of the world.’”

Before Kiss world, his manager helped him move from local, small gigs to international touring. A big change from Kulick’s first gig where he got booted off the stage while opening for the famous band Cheap Trick. “Next thing you know, I’m traveling through Europe, and I am performing for big crowds, bigger than a club for sure.” he says. His first taste of an audience of millions was touring with Meat Loaf’s band in the late 70s following the release of their first critically acclaimed album, Bat Out of Hell. Though the change was drastic, Kulick always played his best despite the nerves and pressure of standing at the backstage of a huge venue hearing the pounding screams of thousands of fans, and the feeling of colored spot lights hitting the side of his face for the first time.

“I am a perfectionist, so I always cared, even if I was playing for a bunch of people at a club that I performed well. But, obviously you do a big show, and its 50,000 people out there; there is pressure on you.” he says. “I was aware that I was fortunate to live my dreams of playing on a big stage in front of a big crowd, but I was nervous. I did have to deal with it.”    

Struggling to deal with Meat Loaf’s increasing stardom, he began a short-lived band called Blackjack in the late 70s with Michael Bolton on vocals, before the singer started delving into pop music. Later, Bolton helped co-write “Forever,” the lead single from Kiss’s 1989 album Hot in the Shade, a power ballad featuring Kulick’s signature solo performed with an acoustic guitar.

These early years of Kulick’s career in the late 70s were a period where rock was transitioning from the psychedelic and hard rock that was dominating the scene in much of the 60s and 70s, and the mainstream arena rock that came to embody American music in the 80s with all its theatrics and gimmicks, big hair, makeup, platform shoes and tight pants. The American band Kiss embodied this transition through their ups and downs. Kulick came to define the band’s most important comeback because he captured a new generation of fans, but also had an inborn classic rock style.

Kulick was impressed with Destroyer, Kiss’s 1976 album, the first time he heard it through his brother, even though he was not a Kiss fan. Bob Kulick became friends with Paul Stanley, and referred Kulick to the band later when they were searching for a new guitarist after the previews, Mark St. John, who had more of a progressive guitar style, had to leave the band when he became ill with Reiter’s Syndrome (arthritis).   

“All of the sudden, there I am being in the city with Paul, and he was really intelligent, kind of a sweet guy. I was shy around him.” he says.

In 1984 Kulick joined the band Kiss, and began touring with them after Mark St. John played his last gig, and emptied out the mini bar that night. Kulick felt he was talented and mature enough to play with such a big band like Kiss at this time in his career. Adapting to the iconic guitar sounds of Kiss was not a challenge for Kulick due to the exposure he had to different types of guitar styles like Jimmy Page’s precision and Jimi Hendrix’s soul, as well as the melodic riffs of The Beatles. “I always felt that one of my strengths as a musician was being able to play the right thing. It’s just my style.”   

Right before embarking on his first tour with Kiss through Europe, he injured his arm, which took away rehearsal time from him. Finally, he played his first gig with them in England, and felt incredibly nervous. Kiss being known as such theatrical and energetic performers acting as characters, breathing fire, and engaging the crowd with every detail, Kulick had to meet the expectations of longtime Kiss fans, learn how to work the stage while playing his best, and fitting in with the other members. “I was really surprised of how animated Gene and Paul were. In rehearsal we never did that.” he says, “I got a little bit of a bad reputation in the beginning that I was like a tree on stage, but I wanted to play the right stuff.”

During Kulick’s time with Kiss he contributed to five studio albums, and he was part of the band’s revamped image and style after they had lost many fans due to their failed 1982 album Creatures of the Night. A year later in 1983, in the spirit of making a comeback, on Sept. 18 Kiss made a public appearance on MTV without their makeup for the first time. In the same year, the band planned to release their 11th studio album Lick It Up that was geared towards the heavy metal, glam rock spirit of 80s music that was hitting pop culture with bands like Van Halen and Guns N’ Roses. Fans venerate Kulick because they believe he represents the generation of people this phase of Kiss’s career was aimed at. Kulick’s ability to play any style, including the old and the new Kiss, lead him to be a part of the band’s lineup.

The unmasking of KISS on MTV, 1983. 

“Kiss from that era could be competitive, but in a different way, without the makeup instead of prancing around like all the rockers did in the 80s.” he says. “I represent that non-makeup era. I am really enjoying that I am the guy that represents that era the best in an untainted way.”

Kulick truly came into his own during his time playing with Kiss by the release of the 1992 album Revenge, that some consider along with Destroyer is one of the band’s best albums of all time. In the album, he co-wrote one song titled “Tough Love” with Stanley,and he played great solos throughout the track list. Revenge is darker and heavier looking at the influence of grunge bands formed by a younger generation of kids that were going against the exaggerations and superficiality of heavy metal bands.

Later, near the end of Kulick’s time in Kiss, the band took from the grunge influence to record Carnival of Souls in 1996 bringing in producer, Toby Wright, who had worked with heavy grudge bands like Alice in Chains and Korn. Despite being overshadowed by the Kiss reunion that lead to Kulick’s departure from the band in 1996, Carnival of Souls featured the track “I Walk Alone,” the only Kiss song Kulick performed the vocals in.    

“I always knew that at some point they would have to put the makeup back on, and that would be when the market forced them to. We were the non-makeup band.”

Union became Kulick’s new project after he ended his time in Kiss, and the band revamped itself again by re-applying the famous makeup. After a two year run with Union, he began to work on his solo albums, Audio Dog from 2001, Transformer from 2003 and BK3 fro 2010. Currently, he plays for Grand Funk Railroad who have more of a classic rock sound with blues undertones. “I get a change to do a solo in every song. It is a different band, but its still about the music.” Says the musician who keeps practicing for the love of the art, and has already been playing with them for twelve years.

Kulick does not play for the stardom or fame. He is a passionate musician that has the ability to immerse himself in any music style or trend. He truly plays for the love of music and the feeling of playing for audiences all over the world. From psychedelic rock to the glam metal of the 80s, and evolving into more introspective, darker rock like the 90s band, Nirvana, Kulick can adapt to whichever style, and be an eternal guitarist. In today’s shifting rock genres, and the indie music that looks back at the old, it seems Kublick is also in tune with the youth despite his age. “I think there is more interest in classic rock, kind of the music with Grand Funk, even with the Kiss stuff. I am doing more of my era.”

Built by BW Architects, they conceptualized the practice of merging craft with technology to transform the festival into a fantastic landscape that reinvents spring. The flowers are minimalistic in their appearance and construction-steel rods hold the flowers, whose petals are made of white paper shades holding individual LED lights. The true atmosphere of the installation is best appreciated as the arrangements of the flowers swing back and forth at different speeds due to the kinetic energy produced by the varying length of the steel rods. 

The art world has a long history of merging fine art with vandalism, spurred by the satiric Dada movement pioneered by Duchamp, which inspired art that criticized while satirizing political and social institutions like museums—similar to the motivations of the popular street artist Banksy. In 1957, the art group Situationalist International was founded, and the group began plotting, and eventually executing, acts of fine art vandalism. Around the same time, the artist Gordon Matta Clark was becoming known for anarchitecture, his methodology of splitting actual buildings in half as a form of sculpture. Later in the 1960s, various art groups pioneered the art of decollage, a symbolic form of urban vandalism in which images are created by cutting, ripping or removing pieces from an original image revealing various layers, usually of advertisement posters.

The term “graffiti” came about during the 1970s and 1980s when it started appearing on the streets of New York as a portrayal of counter cultures such as the hip hop and punk movement, as a form of ego exploitation.Jean-Michel Basquiat began as a graffiti artist, and rather than bringing the streets into fine art, he chose to embody the streets in the fine arts world. Graffiti, more than street art, is based on primal skills, survival of the fittest, pride and the exploitation and ownership of an artist’s or artistic group’s tag. Graffiti also portrays a parameter of formal characteristics that stay within its realm.

A recent incident evidences the increasingly blurred line between street art and graffiti. On the night of October 6, 2012, a Russian member of an anarchist art group that calls itself “Yellowism” tagged a Mark Rothko painting at the Tate Museum in London. Their small screed read, “A potential piece of Yellowism.” This act of rebellion brings about many issues concerning graffiti and street art. Is it art or is it vandalism ? What does this act say about the street art and graffiti movements and their potential to overlap ? Why is it that nowadays there are so many subdivisions in the urban art world ?

A Puerto Rican graffiti artist who goes by Klas, who says that his graffiti career has been defined by fast-paced illegal art, explained to me his opinion on the difference between graffiti and street art : “There is a big difference. In graffiti, art letters are the most important element, the characters, landscapes, or outer designs are just decorations for the breakdown of the lettering. Let’s say that letters are the basis to play with line, curve, shape, color, design, etc. In street art, anything goes !”

Another Puerto Rican graffiti artist, who calls himself Mobs, sees it differently : “Graffiti is the defacing or alteration of private or public property in any form, so street art does constitute as graffiti, as long as it’s illegal, but we could also categorize political campaign ads or promotional posters for movies or concerts as graffiti. Within the graffiti community, writers choose letters as their main focus, and it’s about getting your name and your crew out there. Usually street artists use images with some deeper meaning behind it.”

Professor Saleeby-Mulligan has a still different take : “I think there are two ways of looking at graffiti : There’s traditional graffiti, tagging, then the more protest-oriented graffiti art. If you look at just the graffiti movement in the 1970s, the young artists tagging, it has been really embraced. Slowly, it becomes very commercialized.”

This range of opinions regarding the drift between the two concepts is, paradoxically, due to an undeniable merge between the two. As proof of this coming together—and the growing popularity of what results—the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston held an exhibition this year from August 1 to November 25 featuring the Brazilian graffiti duo Os Gemeos. This was the first exhibition of the identical twins Octavio and Gustavo Pandolfo in the United States. They translated their graffiti and pictorial style into the art world by creating paintings on canvases and sculptures that offer a new way of appreciating their artistic consciousness and their social, political commentary.

“Os Gemeos is a great example of everything coming together,” says Saleeby-Mulligan. “They do art shows, and they do outdoor work as well.”

Despite the merging of the two, when graffiti artists decide to embark on the art world, there are many variations in the ways in which it is done, and different responses from various audiences.

“There is a crisis of identity for street artists when they go into the art world,” says Saleeby-Mulligan. “How do you make money and still be a protest artist ? It is hard for street artists to stay true to themselves when they become famous.” She added that there are protest street artists who even refuse to be part of the art world because they prefer to be outside of the system to create denunciative art critical of society and politics.

“I am very involved in the visual arts, but I manage to maintain both separate, although both are heavily influenced on the other,” says Mobs about the possibility of bringing his graffiti into the art world by participating in gallery shows or creating interior work.

Klas says his peers are making money working in the art world, and he is now considering creating commercial or gallery-oriented art. “Going into my 30s, maybe I’ll step out of the shadows, and leave the illegal bombing to pursue a legal art career,” he says. “Damn, this statement sounds wack ; never mind, I’ll just keep bombing for the rest of my life !”

This inner turmoil and struggle between the duality of a graffiti artist—an outsider—while simultaneously relating to the art world does not transcend the parameters and characteristics of the graffiti world that go beyond the aesthetics. Graffiti is raw and primal, sometimes even Freudian, coming from intentions based on survival of the fittest and the importance of the ego.

“I would say location is very important, says a lot about who you are, if you're ballsy, if you're scared,” says Mobs. “Because you’re putting your name out there, you're putting yourself out there. It’s inevitable that ego's clash.”

Competition between artists or crews is such an essential part of the scene and the work artists produce because, as Klas explains, “graffiti artists use their nicknames or tags constantly, which becomes an ego thing about who is “burning,” breaking down letters in the funkiest ways, or who is ‘up’ more.”

Interestingly, both artists agreed that the tag on the Mark Rothko in London was disrespectful. Because these artists work around a large community of other artists, they explain, a respect for others’ work inevitably develops. Urban artists respect even the smallest scribble, maybe from an unknown artist or crew, while in the art world respect comes with prestige and fame.

“I find (Yellowism painting over Rothko) over the line and disrespectful as well as incredibly hilarious ; takes guts to do that,” says Mobs. “Personally, I wouldn't do that because I was taught not to go over anyone—any type of art, not only graffiti.”

Klas argues that Yellowism’s act of marking the Rothko painting is not art ; he considers it a malicious destruction of property. Also, he expresses the respect he has for artists and their work.

“It’s pure vandalism", he says. “I really look down on people who use graffiti as a tool for vandalism. My rule of thumb is that I don’t paint places where someone will be hurt by the act. I paint illegally, but mostly trains, highways, underpasses, abandoned buildings, and run-down buildings. I don’t get a thrill out of painting on someone’s property that is well taken care of, and I definitely would not ruin someone’s artwork, no matter how lame it is.”

Graffiti and street art depict our collective consciousness, from the anarchic misfits experiencing the thrill of freedom and open expression, to protestors looking to make society aware of our space, time and culture, and even artists freeing themselves from the strictness of traditional, artistic institutions. The street art and graffiti movement is an icon of our present, modern culture.

Klas says that when he was a child, graffiti distracted him from violence, drugs, crime and prison, and as an adult has served as a creative outlet to express his frustration. “It is my belief that each and every one of my works, from the simplest tag to detailed pieces, is a vote of protest against the government and society”, he says.

These culture jammers of art history break with the expected, and destroy the commonality of society’s ways of thinking. The exploration of the drift and merging between street art and graffiti, and the history of those shifts, is a depiction of contemporary yet archaic images, products of our culture’s consciousness.

The project is a collaboration between French artistic entities Théoriz Crew and BKYC. The latter is composed of a three-person team who re-define drawing, blending traditional art with contemporary practices such as graphic design, animation, and web design. And Théoriz Crew has been working with multimedia art since 2009, building installations that immerse the viewer in interactive environments. Inspired by old 30s cartoons, comics, and similar works like AntiVj’s Cityscape 2095, they bring their impressive drawing and painting to life using technology to complement and augment these traditional techniques.

The project is composed of a large-scale painting with added animation and 3D motion design, giving the work movement and vibrancy through projection mapping—with the color of the painting surreally changing as the day passes. A Kinect lets viewers walk inside the city, with sound design enhancing the experience further and making it appear more naturalistic.

His photographs have a way of playing with the viewers subconscious and their awareness of physical reality. InVertical Density the photographs manage to pull the viewer in—the viewer gets a sense of violent claustrophobia, as well as a feeling of ethereal openness. Ajay Malghan captures this in his work due to a modern take on the Impressionist infatuation with studying the effects of light on landscapes. Along with his experimental techniques, Malghan takes landscape photography to surreal dimensions.

The technology wiz from Portland who brought you the quirky yet, ingenious Oreo cookie-separating gadget, has now found a way of translating guitar notes into computer keystrokes. Artist and inventor David Neevel was looking at ways in which he could optimize his time. The problem was how to balance the time consuming nature of emailing, and playing his rad guitar. The solution was to combine both activities in one by implementing the use of various devices and technologies in a working process.

The Email Guitar uses a Roland synthesizer pedal to send a MIDI signal to the opto-isolator. The opto-isolator then reduces the frequency of the MIDI signal allowing it to be processed by the self-programmed Arduino, an open-source electronic prototype that makes the notes legible to the computer. By passing through a relay that simulates the keyboard panel, the signal is then transferred into the circuit board from the keyboard. Finally, the music is reproduced in your computer in the form of text.

Wildbytes is a creative studio and technology lab based in New York and Madrid, and by pushing forward technological research they're able to bring the unreal and unimaginable to life. The parallel worlds they create through their works are inspired by the collective fantasies and sensibilities of everyday people—the aim is to connect the public with immersive experiences using interactivity.

The project Superhero began back in 2011 when they decided to combine the concept of super powers with gesture-based technology. Because if you don't happen to hail from the planet Krypton, then why not use technology to pretend you can fly.

The latest version of Superhero was featured as the signature artwork at the 2012 Dumbo Arts Festival in New York. During the festival Wildbytes projected a monumental moving image of colorful paint splatters onto the façade of the Empire Stores building. Participants’ bodies were scanned by Kinect cameras in 3D, and then they were ready to soar through a magical superhero heaven. With custom gesture-detection technology and projection mapping, participants were able to control their superpowers, while simultaneously transforming the architectural background of Brooklyn into a moving comic book. Flying is as easy as raising your hands, tilting your hips changes direction, and players can also grow in size like Doctor Manhattan, throw energy balls, run at high-speed like Flash, and paint with a trace of visually stunning color.

For the past few years people have been creating short—and even feature—films using their smartphones. There’s theiPhone Film Festival and the iPhone Cinema Vimeo channel, both popular platforms for artists and iPhone users to showcase their originality using the shiny touchscreen sitting in your pocket.

But in Versus NeSmith does something different by turning an assortment of real footage from his life into a fictitious story which examines the psychology of Zach, an introverted art student, and highlights the generational reality of college partying. “Working this way presented many creative challenges, difficulties and long-awaited solutions.” says NeSmith. “Using my iPhone 4S to film most of the movie, I was able to shoot easily at any time in any place and had culminated days of footage by the time editing and plot development began.”

Unlike the parodying, fake situations of mockumentaries like This Is Spinal Tap (1984,) or I’m Still Here (2010,) NeSmith leaves the unaltered reality to his iPhone camera, and the fiction to his editing skills. By gathering candid footage he was able to collage home videos and clips of his life to build characters and narratives around the formal qualities of his shots and the opinions and reactions of his friends.

Sinichi Higashi‘s series Graffiti of Speed/Mirror Symmetry takes street art to the next level as he symmetrically mirrors long exposure photographs to capture a rapturous, spaced-out view of Tokyo’s urban cityscape. His view is a fast-paced, futuristic world where ghostly flashes of bright lights form translucent, abstract lines and shapes that hover through the hard concrete and metal of the city’s engineering and urban plan.

Higashi unconventionally merges various facets of collective, yet immersive art practices. His photographs look back at Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama’s magical, infinite environments of artificial lights and mirrors that explore obsession and repetition. Simultaneously, Higashi with the use of the slow shutter manages to hold the collective artistic expression of Tokyo’s high-speed culture, rendering an abstract, gestural expression of society.