Error: SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 1030 Got error 28 from storage engineError: SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 1030 Got error 28 from storage engineError: SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 1030 Got error 28 from storage engineError: SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 1030 Got error 28 from storage engine Rough Sketches: Design Observer

Advertise | Masthead

07.28.16

Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand | Audio

Rough Sketches

On this episode of The Observatory, Michael and Jessica discuss two new—and opposing—trends in video. On one hand, ordinary people are capturing raw footage on cell phones during confrontations with police and streaming live views from Black Lives Matter protests and other political events. On the other, filmmakers and designers are “thinking by making,” and offering up eloquent criticism in the form of meticulously edited video essays.

Jessica says:

It’s just emotionally really rewarding to see these things. I think we live in an age where video is so polished and we go to see blockbuster movies and everything’s in 3D and now we’re waiting for augmented reality to hit next. So to see these things that are made by these really thoughtful, intelligent people? I think the world needs a lot more people like Jarrett Fuller and Tony Zhou.

Also discussed:

Frank Lesser on the Trump convention aesthetic
The stories of photographer Jonathan Bachman and Ieshia Evans, who he photographed at a Black Lives Matter protest in Baton Rouge
More commentary on that photo by photo editors on Petapixel, critics on Hyperallergic, Max Bruinsma on Facebook, Teju Cole in the New York Times
Alexandra Lange, Farewell to the Four Seasons
Introducing the Allen Brain Observatory
Greg Miller, The Many Ways to Map the Brain
Jarrett Fuller, A Rough Sketch for a Video Essay as Design Criticism
Charles and Ray Eames, Rough Sketch for a Sample Lesson for a Hypothetical Course (video)
Tony Zhou, Every Frame a Painting series

Thanks to AIGA for sponsoring this episode.

Subscribe to The Observatory on iTunes or your favorite podcast app, or follow Design Observer on Soundcloud.

More from Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand

Episode 127: Fear and Longing
Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters; Hrishi Hirway and Mike Errico; The Quiz Broadcast; Shakespeare and Co. Project

Episode 126: Screens and Dreams
Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration; Unorthodox; My Brilliant Friend; The Affair; Anil Dash on the dangers of social media; Anna Wiener on Silicon Valley; quarantine dreams

Episode 125: Zoom Aesthetics
Zoom aesthetics and COVID-19; Kyle Chayka on minimalism; Deborah Berke on shared spaces; Jessica Salfia’s poem “The First Lines of Emails I’ve Received While Quarantining”; Megan O’Grady on artistic recluses

Episode 124: That Thing You Do
Making art and design during the COVID-19 pandemic; Christoph Niemann and Daniella Zalcman; Adam Schlesinger; spec scripts for Larry David

Episode 123: Closing Doors, Opening Doors
Looking at COVID=19: Flattening the curve, Washington Post designers Harry Stevens on visualizing social distancing, Alissa Walker on how dots are people, Stephen Sondheim at 90

Jobs | November 25