Now Available from Microcinema DVD: Colorcalm “by Design” World-renowned artists, designers and musicians collaborate to create groundbreaking ambient design DVD available through Microcinema DVD. Catalog No. MC-470 2005, Continuous Loop DVD, Region: 0 (All Regions) TV System: NTSC UPC: 180448000036 SRP: $19.99 (includes PPR) Street Date: November 1, 2005
To order/details: http://www.microcinema.com/programResult.php?program\_id=470
(October 10, 2005, SAN FRANCISCO) – Design lovers throughout the world can chart brand new territory in design with the release of Colorcalm’s latest DVD entitled by Design available through Microcinema DVD November 1, 2005. The Colorcalm by Design DVD pairs leading graphic artists with musicians to produce three individual and distinct ambient designs.
By Design defines a new type of design and lifestyle programming. Translating across all cultures and representing real creative collaboration, it provides artists, designers and musicians with a multimedia digital platform for interdisciplinary experimentation with a complete range of screen-calibrated PANTONE Colors. Responding to the ever-increasing demand for flat-panel TVs, the trend for the TV to be the focal point in the home, and an increasing sensibility toward home design and aesthetics, Colorcalm by Design provides a visual arts experience that adds mood and atmosphere to any room. As people explore additional uses of the TV and DVD players for interactive, calming, inspiring and creative purposes, Colorcalm’s programming continues to set the standard.
”Art Barcodes” features artwork from Dutch graphic designer Irma Bloom with music by composer Michael Nyman. This piece features 80 striped color panels inspired by paintings from historical and contemporary artists ranging from Rembrandt and Van Gogh to Warhol and Fontana. Beautiful and graphic, the paintings are translated into a series of vertical colored stripes that seamlessly blend from one image to the next.
”Food Coloring” from artist John Maeda of MIT Media Lab features a score by composer and pianist Ryuichi Sakamoto. Maeda mixes colors and abstract forms to create “Food Coloring,” a digital rendition of different color palettes derived from food he found in his refrigerator one day.
The final piece, “Color Wheel,” is by British designer Peter Saville with music by New Order. Comprised of two separate pieces, Saville uses a color palette inspired by the Renaissance period to create a colorscape accompanied by a Terranova remix of New Order’s track “Elegia.” In the second piece, Saville explores the transition between two specific colors, blue to red, accompanied by the full-length original New Order track.
The combination of works results in a DVD that is credible and also a collectable artwork successfully fusing art, graphic design, music and technology.
Editors’ Notes
Peter Saville Peter Saville was born in Manchester, England, in 1955. He studied graphic design at Manchester Polytechnic from 1975-1978. In 1979, he was a founding partner of the independent record label Factory Records, where he created some of the most recognizable album covers of all time for Joy Division and New Order.
Over the years his clients have included Roxy Music, Ultravox, Peter Gabriel, Suede, Whitechapel Art Gallery, the Pompidou Centre, Yohji Yamamoto, Martin Sitbon, Jill Sander, John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney, Mandarina Duck, Givenchy, ABC, Selfridges, Pringle and EMI.
His work is known for combining ”an unerring elegance with a remarkable ability to identify images that epitomize the moment.” For more information about Peter Saville, please visit www.saville-associates.com
New Order Rejecting the obvious has always been New Order’s technique. In their 28-year career, they’ve changed the face of pop music on more than one occasion. As Joy Division, they ripped up rock’s rulebook by making music that was heavy and subtle, glacial, yet full of lament. “Love Will Tear Us Apart” has just been chosen as one of The Brits 25 best songs ever written. Then, as New Order, they were light years ahead of the dance scene with the world’s best-ever-selling 12” single “Blue Monday” before bringing Manchester to the masses with the platinum-selling album Technique.
There is no other band that unites both “spotty students and football hooligans” (Bernard Sumner), as well as housewives and rock stars, the art set and the mainstream, indie-lovers and dance nutters. No other band that can wring such emotion from machines, or make guitars sound so fresh. No one else is so spiky, so startling, innovative and inspirational; no one else makes pop music for clever people that hit the heart as well as the head.
The track used on this DVD is called “Elegia” (Full Version) and was first released on Power, Corruption and Lies.
“Elegia” performed by New Order Courtesy of London-Sire Records Inc. By arrangement with Warner Strategic Marketing For more information about New Order, please visit www.neworder.cc
Terranova The Berlin based electro project was formed in 1995 by DJ Fetisch and has since produced five best-selling albums and various soundtracks. The “Elegia” mix used on this DVD also features Shapemod, who joined Terranova in 2001. For more information about Terranova, please visit www.editionterranova.com
Irma Boom Irma Boom has won international acclaim for the sheer beauty of her books. Every book is meticulously planned and researched over several years, and the results are works of unrefined elegance that set new standards for the printing press. Her books are to hold as much as they are to read, and her love of color shines through the pages.
Born in the Dutch town of Lochem in 1960, Irma Boom studied in Enschede and, after graduation, worked for five years as a designer in the Dutch government publishing office. Since opening Irma Boom Office in Amsterdam in 1991, she has designed scores of books, as well as taught at Yale in the U.S. and the Van Eyck Academy in Maastricht. For more information about Irma Boom, please visit www.irmaboom.nl
Michael Nyman Born in London in 1944, Nyman studied at the Royal Academy of Music and King's College. London. On graduation, Nyman became a musicologist and critic. His book Experimental Music – Cage and Beyond (1974, republished 1999) is regarded as a classic of writing on new music. Apart from his student works, he began composing in 1976 for a production of Goldoni's Il Campiello and composed continuously since then. His works include film scores, operas, concertos, string quartets, orchestral and vocal music.
Nyman’s music has reached its largest audience through his film scores, most notably for Peter Greenaway, with whom he collaborated on 11 movies between 1976 and 1991 (including The Draughtsman’s Contract, Drowning by Numbers). Other directors he has worked with include Jane Campion (The Piano), Volker Schlöndorff (The Ogre), Neil Jordan (The End of the Affair) and Michael Winterbottom (Wonderland, The Claim, 9 Songs, A Cock and Bull Story ).
The music on this DVD comes from The Piano Sings, the first release on MN Records, Nyman’s own record label that, by October 2005, will also have released an opera, Man and Boy: Dada and his newest soundtrack for director Laurence Dunmore’s The Libertine. For more information about Michael Nyman, please visit www.michaelnyman.com.
John Maeda John Maeda is a world-renowned graphic designer, artist and computer scientist at the MIT Media Laboratory. He has pioneered the use of the computer for people of all ages and skills to create art, and is currently spearheading a new research initiative to “redesign technology” so that it consistently makes sense, is fun, and keeps us coming back for more.
Maeda, who has been teaching at MIT since 1996, holds the E. Rudge and Nancy Allen Professorship of Media Arts and Sciences, and is director of the Lab’s design-oriented Physical Language Workshop.
His many awards include the U.S. National Design Award and Japan’s Mainichi Design Prize. Maeda and his students in the Aesthetics and Computation Group at the MIT Media Lab create some of the world’s most digitally sophisticated and exciting pieces of design.
Maeda, who was born in Seattle in 1966, received both his BS and MS degrees from MIT, and earned his PhD in design from Tsukuba University Institute of Art and Design in Japan. For more about John Maeda, please visit www.maedastudio.com.
Ryuichi Sakamoto A founding member of Yellow Magic Orchestra, Sakamoto’s impact on the electronic music scene was solidified with his 1980 release B2-Unit, which included the seminal single ”Riot in Lagos.” His career in film launched with the score for Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence and his score for The Last Emperor earned him an Oscar and a Grammy.
The track used on this DVD is called “Energy Flow.” In 1999, it was the number one hit in Japan and marked the first time a solo piano track topped the charts selling more than a million copies. For more information about Ryuichi Sakamoto, please visit www.sitesakamoto.com.
To order/details: http://www.microcinema.com/programResult.php?program\_id=470
Ordering information: Microcinema DVD 1706 Church Street, #1222 San Francisco, CA 94131 USA fax: 509-351-1530 phone: 415-864-0660 orders@microcinema.com
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