isadora by Hila Shachar


aglow in peach and folds
she ducks and weaves
a flesh-tinged colour that enfolds her skin
unhinging the body, piece by piece
an abbreviation
of something that came before her


stale sir ruffles
she jumps forward, arms awry
each finger is a heralding of modernity
sharp, broken shards of a fugitive history
imperceptibly annihilating


an unappeasable transformation
becoming unmade, unwired
the roar of bare feet on a theatre floor
unprotected by history or pointe

Brief 33: You Should Be Dancing

Brief 33: You Should Be Dancing

Due date: Thursday 10th March 2011

Image by Extra Medium

Interview: Nicolas Cogels

Nicolas Cogels is a Belgium born creative who now calls Sydney home. Art Director by day, but musician at heart, Nic’s band Cogel has been featured on Triple J and toured Australia. They recently launched the beautiful single “Aquarium” with an equally at beautiful video clip. Nic also tells me there’s a photo of his butt “somewhere on the internet”. Google away girls.



1. What do you love about being in a creative field?
Being happy to go to work. I can wear the clothes I’m actually happy to wear. Challenging my imagination. Working with directors, photographers and designers. It helps me developing my sense of audio/visual which is useful for what I do on the side with my band or photography.

2. What do you think are some of the common myths about working in advertising?
Everyone is on coke. We all play foosball –
Also, I think people see an ad on TV and think “I could have come up with a better idea” – the fact is : the client pretty much 85% of the time research our scripts/ideas and there is a lot of great stuff that we need to strip back to get to a status quo and please everybody. It’s like trying to build a mountain (have a point of difference in the ad) but keeping it flat to please everyone.
And yeah sometimes the idea is crap as well.

3. What are your biggest creative challenges in your day to day work?
Selling an idea. Selling an idea. Selling an idea.

4. Are you ever stumped creatively? What do you do?
Yes. Then I walk and do something else, then come back to it.



5. How do you approach a creative brief?/ Do you have any tips for people in approaching Sparkapolooza briefs?
Always try to beat your first ideas. It’s never perfect; there is always a better idea. Looking everywhere, I mean, opening a magazine, talking to people, watching a film, just keeping an open mind and try to absorb things from all corners.
It’s also good to store ideas even when you’re not working on a brief. It’s a 24/7 job!

6. What’s your favorite medium?
Music.


7. Do you do any of your own work outside of your job? What is it and how do you find a balance?
If I can call this work, then yes : I work on my music/band. Balance sometimes hard but try to fit in the gaps whenever I’m not too busy with work + week-ends

8. If you could be doing anything else what would it be?
Music.

9. What are some of your favourite websites for inspiration?
http://www.notcot.org
YouTube is awesome, so random and rich – Random is good !
And trying to avoid Ads of the Worlds !

By Cassandra Nadia Arviani

By Charlotte Poul

By Laura Tjitradjaja

By Bianca Hudson

Gone Dotty
By Kate Toon

‘She’s gone dotty’ they said,
the silly old bat.
She talks to her plants and sings to her cat.

‘Her mind’s feeble’ they said,
she’ll have to have help,
with cooking, cleaning and washing herself.

‘Goodbye Fluffy” they said,
As they closed up the cage.
Looking after a cat was too much at her age.

‘You can’t stay here’ they said,
and moved her away,
‘Sunny meadows – a happier place to stay’.

‘You should join in’ they said,
It was bingo night,
The numbers were hard, account of her sight.

‘Eat it up now’ they said,
It didn’t look nice,
All sticky, yellow and covered in rice.

‘Be a good girl’ they said,
If she dared to complain,
And passed her another pill for the pain.

‘Let us help you’ they said,
As they pulled at her tights,
A shower in the morning, a bath at night.

‘You’re untidy’ they said,
And messed with her things.
Her photos, her books, George’s medals, her rings.

‘She’s gone quiet’ they said,
As she sat in her chair,
Day after day, watching ‘free to air’.

‘They go downhill’ they said,
It’s old age you see.
Better you don’t visit, just let her be.

‘See you soon George’ she said,
As she swallowed the lot,
Closed her eyes, smiled and quickly forgot.

By Joanne Chan

By Marcel Moniaga

As the lights beckon
By Isadora Filković

By Chris Brewer

By Weyma Notel

By Joanne Chan

By Justin Bellchambers

By katiecrackernuts

Brief 32: Gone Dotty

Brief 32: Gone Dotty

Due date: Wednesday 16th February 2011

Image of Yayoi Kusama via ArtInfo

By Joanne Chan

Poem by Grey Marks (with image via Zastavki)

By Charlotte Poul

an extract from:







take
in parting days a dream
flown away
a vision none see
or seem


roar
tormented within
they creep
one wave we seem
within a dream


~po

i dream of silver rain drops

fall onto the silver leaves in the silver forest

and then everything becomes blur and sparkle

By Laura Tjitradjaja