Pechakucha Night PGH #14 - How to survive Italians

Here we go, my friends! 

I am very excited to present you my second Pechakucha Night, in Pittsburgh.

The previous time I talked about Bruno Munari, but yesterday night I just wanted to do something fun and it really came out well. I presented a useful guide:

HOW TO SURVIVE ITALIANS - ITALY 101

I want to share with you all my 20 slides with the captions I pronounced during the 20-seconds-per-slide. Unfortunately, there are three slides that are easier to understand if you could see/listen to me, in person. Enjoy the other 17! All the graphics -a part from the photos- are sketches of mine.

Booh! (scaring intro)

These Italians...

Buonasera… salve… ciao… come state?! 

This guide is dedicated to all my friends, who survived me even without it. 

And the reason for this guide is simply this…

...over 60 million people. Sharing a boot!

I mean: you have to be creative there to survive.

This guide will be very dense of information, maybe even a bit chaotic - dealing with Italy.

But... that's it: it's Italy!

I will talk about the average Italian, how we are, what you could do in Italy, what you shouldn't do in Italy… and my suggestions are valid if you come to Italy, both for work or vacation. 

I will tell you everything you have to know to survive Italians.

Starting from knowing that..

...we are very scaramantic. Actually, this word doesn't exist in English, but I discovered that only too late. I had already submitted my slides!

It simply means that we are very worried about good luck. I am NOT, but the average is pretty full of rituals and funny good luck charms. 

Many Italians don't want anyone to directly wish them "good luck". It's a bad sign for them.

(the following slide is difficult to follow, since you can't hear me. As soon as the video will be published, you'll understand what I meant)

Italian has a reduced alphabet but the biggest difference comes with vowels pronunciation. 

For example, we go to IKEA, we dress LEVIS, we wash our teeth with COLG-A-TE, after eating at B-U-BBA GUMP.
Plus, we digit WWW.google.com

There are some mock Italian dishes in the US, but if you come to Italy, never ask for:  

"Alfredo pasta" (we don't know him) nor "spaghetti with meat balls" (which are very good here).

"Pasta alla Bolognese" is not from Bologna, nor from any other city.

Italian dressing is absolutely prohibited.

If you want to eat well, you should ask for "pasta alla carbonara", "risotto alla milanese", "pasta al ragù", "pesto alla genovese", "pizza margherita", "patate al forno". You'll impress the waiters and will eat very well, I promise.

Now spaghetti world: bucatini, in the corner, have the "buco" that means "hole". Then you have the linguine (the flattened spaghetti), the tagliatelle (which is a super flat pasta) and then spaghetti, with different number according to the different thickness.

To digest Italian food, my choice and recommendation is for the sparkling water San Pellegrino. You know it. It's really the Italians' favorite. 

NEVER EVER ASK FOR THE FRENCH PERRIER, that's a taboo. 

You could be charged twice as a punishment. 

San Pellegrino is the only possible choice to go with Italian food. 

There are some issues I won't touch in this guide. We should need 200 slides for our problems and deficiencies. I am not going to talk about: soccer, lack of civic sense, italian laws, financial crisis, diffuse corruption, very bad stories about politicians...

I am not going to talk about him, even if I know you are curious. I can't talk about him and we are just lucky he's not tall enough to reach the slide. 

I am sorry, that will be another PKN night!

I will talk about Italian provinces. It's fun because some of the American states have the same initials of some Italian cities. (See the slides for the initials)

Up to 10 years ago you could find those initials on our plates. Which are also on the front of the car, because Italian drivers are so dangerous that we should have plates also on the sides. Just to be always recognizable.

Never drive in Italy, if you are not obliged to do that. 

It's a mystical experience, very crazy.

I would like to spend just a slide on the Vespa. There is a little confusion in the US: please note that Vespa is a brand, not a typology of vehicle. 

You can have the old or the new model, but the brand is only one: Vespa.

But instead of driving in Italy, which is just absurd, you'd better watching a little Italian TV - which is fun. We have RAI1 RAI2 RAI3 which are the state TV (we pay a little tax on those).

And then RETE4, CANALE5, ITALIA1, which are Berlusconi's TVs (there is a lot of ads but less than in the US). 

La7 is private channel, pretty good, and enough independent to preserve quality.

A part from the most popular Italian songs from the past, I would encourage you to discover our current singers. My favorite are Elio e le Storie tese, who are great musicians and a funny band, Jovanotti, the king of pop/dance - whose concerts are amazing and I always cry like a toddler-

 and for who loves Rock Ligabue is the Boss.

There are few reasons to avoid us. Few, but there are. Coming to Italy could result a pain for who is very precise, who works in the law field, in the financial field, or simply would like to do some business there. Once in Italy, they will find pure creative chaos.

Luckily, there are many more good reasons, to join us: we are friendly and welcoming, we are always ready to have parties and prepare good meals. But the best is: we have always a solution for any problem: we can always fix whatever is not working. 

There is always an Italian way to have the things done properly.

(the last 2 slides are all about gestures... 

I invented a mock speech during which I was gesturing like a crazy to show off all my Italian dictionary. Here I will just put the name of the gesture in bold)

And now the most important part of the guide: the gestures! 

The only way to learn them is having someone that shows you and here I am.

If we were two, we could organize something together.

Or maybe I couldn't be interested,

if I think you are crazy,

and say nonsenses.

But if you have a good idea,

you could do a lot of money out of it

if you don't have fear to try.

if the result is not working

we could excape with the money

but if I cannot stand you anymore

I will just say bye bye

…because I'm smarter than you!

I will just put a short video from YouTube of the last gesture, which is the most important TO SURVIVE ITALIANS

Again, thank you very much to all my friends who came to support my 6 minutes and 35 seconds of celebrity.
I had fun before, during and after the presentation.
The Pechakucha Nights are gorgeous, I warmly invite everybody to come and present as well!

AIGA Pittsburgh: in the sign of good design

Today I would like to talk about a very active Association in Pittsburgh: AIGA Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Chapter of the professional association for design in the USA.

First of all, few screenshots from the official websites:

screenshot ©AIGA of the official website http://www.aiga.org/

screenshot ©AIGA PITTSBURGH from the official website http://pittsburgh.aiga.org/

AIGA PITTSBURGH presentation in their words, from their website:

<< The Pittsburgh chapter is one of 66 chapters of AIGA, the professional association for design. Established in 1988, AIGA Pittsburgh has more than 450 members and a strong association of friends in the community that participate regularly in our events and programming. AIGA Pittsburgh’s diverse membership includes designers in all disciplines from student to long-practicing professionals in print, interactive, motion, branding, strategy, production, in-house, agency, freelance and more. >>

On Friday March 22nd 2013 they celebrated the best design in Pittsburgh, WITH THE EVENT PGH365, at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. Designers could submit their best works and then being judged by a quality jury. This year, the jury was composed by:

Denise Gonzales Crisp
Professor, Graphic Design, College of Design, North Carolina State University
Designer, SupérStové!

Jessica Ivins
Senior UX Specialist, AWeber

Joe MarianekApple

Here some shots I took at the event: it was a great party, full of people and design of quality.

The submissions were hanging on two opposite walls: the wall of winners and the wall of the other participants.

The crowd of people waiting for the awards.

Official interviews, videos and photos of the night.

A proof than work is never off, or... almost!

The submissions could have been just posters, webdesign, books, packaging, ads... whatever could involve a design process by a designer. It was nice to see posters or ads of events I attended, or I would like to attend (I filled my agenda for the next month!). 

Here some shots I took:

Left: the Handmade Arcade poster. On the right: the restaurant Burgatory's packaging and strategy.

It's a great day to be a Pittsburgher. I totally agree!

The logo of the Design Center of Pittsburgh.

Left: Larkin Werner and James Nesbitt for Silk Screen Festival 2012.

Right: the magnificent brand 'burgh by Nick Caruso.

Design by Paige Sabedra

The Marcellus Shale Project book

The Heinz Endowment Magazine "h" by Kipp Madison

Congrats to AIGA Pittsburgh and all the designers!

It was a celebration of good work, indeed.

Heavy Duty Pittsburgh

Some of my last shots in Pittsburgh, near the Strip District

 

*** 

see more here

Let's talk about "Unspoken" - August Wilson Center

From the official webpage of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre  

http://www.pbt.org/performances/unspoken-august-wilson-center

ALL THE DATES OF THE SHOW:

Friday, March 8, 2013 - 8:00pm

Saturday, March 9, 2013 - 8:00pm

Sunday, March 10, 2013 - 2:00pm

Thursday, March 14, 2013 - 7:30pm

Friday, March 15, 2013 - 8:00pm

Saturday, March 16, 2013 - 8:00pm

Sunday, March 17, 2013 - 2:00pm

August Wilson Center for African American Culture

980 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222

p: 412.258.2700
f: 412.258.2701

There is time until St. Patrick's Day (Sunday, March17th, 2013) to see this interesting mixed repertory of ballets.  The title is "Unspoken" because the repertory is composed by three (very) different stories, told without words, but only with the languages of the dance, the theater, the music.

On the booklet of the show and the official website www.pbt.org you can find a detailed description of each piéce.

The three ballets, with a 15-minutes-intervallo between each of them (also to protect the uniqueness of each ballet) are the following:

***

Serenade

http://www.pbt.org/serenade

Jardin Aux Lilas (Lilac Garden)

http://www.pbt.org/lilac-garden

Drink only with Thine Eyes

***

Each ballet is a story and each story is told via a precise "media", that is not the word.

Serenade, for example, is all about the body and the music. It's the choreography that puts together the episodes of the narration. Which is pretty interesting, because it's a mix of real life (of George Balanchine) and art (the ballet itself). 

Balanchine, invited to the US from Russia, created this ballet from Serenade in C mayor for String Orchestra, by Tchaikovsky.  It's the story of the long road < a dancer must travel from student novice to ballerina >.

[image from the official PBT page http://www.pbt.org/serenade © The George Balanchine Trust] 

Jardin Aux Lilas was the only piece with historical costumes, very well designed (by Raymond Sovey after sketches by Hugh Stevenson) to match the choreography (by Antony Tudor) and the personal story of each character. Despite recognizing that both music and choreography were good, I must admit that I was totally captured bu the costumes. They are so clear in the intent and the make-up as well is very eloquent.

The story told here is about a girl "Caroline" that is going to have an arranged marriage with "The Man She Must Marry". At the farewell party that precedes the ceremony, though, she see "Her lover". 

There is also the figure called "An Episode in His Past" who's a mistress that seems to have been in confidence with both the fiancé and the lover.

An image from the original choreography of 1936 by A. Tudor. 

Dancers (from left): Hugh Laing, Maude Lloyd, Antony Tudor, and Peggy van Praagh

(Photograph from the Dance Division, 

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts,Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations.)

Drink only with Thine Eyes is much modern, in terms of choreography and costumes. I loved the simplicity of the white costumes, that also included leggings for the females and comfortable pants for the males. But it's music that is really speaking here - perfectly followed by the dancers that reinforce each note. 

This ballet is the only with live music, performed by the company pianist Yoland Collin, native from Belgium. The music is very fresh and joyful, the dance has to be precise, finely crafted and sparse. 

There was something that reminded me of Pulcinella, in the costumes and in the often sparkling dance.

All the three pieces are very complex, but easy to follow and pleasant to see. They totally drag you in the story, thanks to the fluidity of the dancers.

I tried to underline in particular one main narrator for each story, but as in all the best stories, it's never a solo. The big work of this group of people, behind the scenes or on the stage, leads to a final result that really deserve to be seen. Even if you are not an expert of ballet. These stories are a very good lesson of "how to do ballet".

Finch Fight - Bird is not the only word

March 1st Gallery Crawl on Penn Avenue (aka Unblurred) confirmed once more it's always worth visiting. Despite the bitter cold and the freezing breeze. 

At ImageBOX, in particular, you can always be sure you'll see high quality art. This is how I discovered Abby.

Abby Diamond is now presenting some pieces from her work "Finch Fight" in this space and as I entered the place, I had no idea about what I would have seen or found. The drawings on the walls, hung in a simple way, were very powerful and really well drawn. I loved the clear lines, but also the wise use of colors, and the elegance of the technique (I first thought the illustrator was a male, but very gentle!)

From her profile on Tumblr, I discover that she is "an illustrator in Pennsylvania, and these are my adventures fresh out of college. You may see a lot of birds here". 

After seeing the drawings I spotted her in the crowd and sincerely congratulated with her. She is very nice and kind, but her drawings show also a strong character, precision, elegance and energy - all at the same time.

As I was walking through each piece, I was studying the lines that define the figures. There is something Japanese in these drawings, as well as something taken from the fairy tales. The over-all aesthetic reminds me of the Japanese prints of Sesshu Toyo or Kanu Eitoku, a little more complex of course. The shades of some shadows in the background, though, are very oriental, in a way. 

Then there is the subject: magic animals? Enchanted woods and ponds? Dream or reality?

The precision of the illustration, botanical for the plants shown and very anatomic for the animals, clear most of the doubts: these "creatures" do come from reality, but are just presented in a different way. Reality can be magic, if you look at it from a different perspective.

Abby's work (above) and Kanu Eitoku (below)

I generally prefer simple drawings. These are very complex because made of a number of layers. Japanese prints are mainly 2D, while Abby puts a lot of details into her drawings. Nevertheless, this adds magic to the magic, because each piece, so rich in details, has the power of a story. 

It's impossible to just peep at her work. You are naturally captured and you start following all the lines that, inch after inch, develop a interesting narrative. The more you look, the more you discover. 

This process has a logic, easily followable, that gives you the pleasure to look at Abby's work. It's easy to add a lot of detail stacking them up like crazy. There is plenty of angry artists that express their anxiety by adding details over details. But you cannot follow any narrative. That's a renounce, while Abby tells you a very precise story, magic but not impossible. She fights to tell you that story.

People were very interesting and I do hope Abby will have all the attention she deserves. 

Congrats, Abby! Hope to write of you again!

check more - click here http://cargocollective.com/finchfight

contact Abby here: Finchfightillustration@gmail.com

CI13 Apartment Event | Chris Beauregard & Brandon Boan

Have you already planned anything for next Fall-Winter-Spring? I know all this could sound a little untimely, but Pittsburgh goes fast.

from the official blog http://web.cmoa.org/ci13/exhibition/:

<< The 56th Carnegie International, scheduled to open at Carnegie Museum of Art in October 2013, will be organized by co-curators Daniel Baumann, Dan Byers, and Tina Kukielski. This is the first time in the International’s history that a curatorial team of three people will lead the exhibition.

Initiated by Andrew Carnegie in 1896 in Pittsburgh, and presented every three to five years at Carnegie Museum of Art, the Carnegie International is among the leading exhibitions of contemporary art worldwide. The International serves to present an American audience, especially that of Western Pennsylvania, with a broad and ambitious survey of the art of our time. With hundreds of works by artists from around the globe—including many commissioned specifically for the show—the 2013 International will be a catalyst for new ways to present, experience, and think about art. >>

The 2013 Carnegie International runs October 5, 2013 to March 16, 2014. 

Whether you are artist, visitor, curator or just passing here by pure chance, just get ready: it's gonna be big. The three curators, Daniel Baumann of Basel, Switzerland; associate curator Dan Byers of Pittsburgh; and associate curator Tina Kukielski of New York, were selected in 2010, two years after the Carnegie International Exhibition of year 2008 (you can read more about them here http://old.post-gazette.com/pg/10267/1089883-437.stm on the Pittsburgh Post Gazette website).

Today, though, I would like to introduce a piece of this CI13: the apartment that the Carnegie Museum of Art rented in Lawrenceville. The address is 113 44th Street, Pittsburgh PA and they currently host lectures and the "Apartment Talks". 

<< In the run-up to the exhibition, the curatorial team has established a satellite space in an apartment in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh. This space accommodates visiting artists and curatorial colleagues, as well as an ongoing series of screenings, artist talks, and presentations for audiences of up to about fifty people. >> 

The apartment is a satellite space ready to introduce people to art or to guest travelling artists for short periods. The purpose of that, with the blog http://web.cmoa.org/ci13/, is to bring everybody into the event, little by little, <<hopefully, bringing some (but not too much!) transparency to the planning process>>

I would encourage everybody to check it out, since it's well structured and easy to follow. 

© http://web.cmoa.org/ci13/ 

I was invited to go there by Brandon Boan, a smart Pittsburgh-based artist that works between  object-making and performance. You can follow his activity directly on his blog www.brandonboan.info  

Monday night was dedicated to him and his friend Chris Beauregard http://www.chrisbeauregard.com/ 

 Chris was creating "sculptures" with melted sugar, colored with red and made hard again by throwing it in iced water.
Everything was then displayed on a light table where, with gloves, you could medically analyze the result.

 Brandon, elegantly dressed, was welcoming the guests and taking pictures of their teeth. 

After "Polaroidizing" them, everything was projected on a window on 44th Street,

I'm wondering if there is a connection between the teeth photos and the potential (but that wasn't the purpose of the performance) sugar overdose in the other room...

Among refreshments and people chatting, the event took place in this interesting space, temporary enough to allows people to think about the CI, but without exaggerating. The final result will likely be a surprise, but it will be interesting to follow both the pre- and the post-production.

Stay in the loop, then.