Hey guys! Please be on the look out for The Beat magazine, who have just released their spring issue with a dangerously wonderful article featuring my graphic & performance art. I was first approached by editor and chief Wendy Logan and creative director Andy Liverant when Kodomo and I had performed an audio/visual show together at the Factory Underground last year.

The magazine is dedicated to the food, arts, culture & color of Fairfield County and provides a wide range of articles that profile chefs, restaurants, artists, cultural institutions as well as columns dedicated to wine, dining reviews and music.

I’m very excited to be a featured artist this spring, so please check out the latest issue if you can find it around town, or view it here digitally. Please take the time to “friend” them on Facebook and check out all the great work that they’re doing to bring some flavor into our local area.

Also, please check back here soon for the latest projects that I have in store for spring. This includes a new line of graphic work, some installation video projects, launch of a new hollydanger website and more performances with The Moon. To be continued!

Hope everyone is happy, healthy & enjoying the warm weather.

Saturday April 14th from 12-5pm. Drop by and say hi to me and Jeff, we’ll be at the Danger booth all day.

Warmer weather and sunny days are upon us and I’m getting excited for participating in more craft fairs and events as the weeks roll on. I was reading Etsy for some inspiration this morning and thought it would be fun to answer some questions that were featured when they were portraying one of their artists. So here is a little self-portrait exercise that I decided to put together on life in and out of the studio. Enjoy!

Apart from creating things, what do you do?

This is a funny question to me because most of the time I feel that if I stop creating, and stop my momentum, it’s like I stop breathing.  In the last five years I’ve shifted my schedule from working 24/7 juggling work and freelance, to having a 9-5 editing job, working in my art studio on a new line of personal work, and performing live visuals for music performances the rest of the time.

Outside of work might involve belgian beer (my weakness!), traveling, seeing live music shows and being with friends & family. I also have many obsessions which take up my time between deadlines. I like going on spontaneous adventures, cooking organic/vegetarian foods, IDN magazine, Beck, John Lennon, non-fiction books, the 60s & psychedelia, the beat generation, Andy Warhol, desert camping, being on the water, doing zumba & yoga, gallery visits, art parties, science museums, acoustic nights, camper vans, mystery ships, visits to Portland, Austin, San Francisco…

Inevitably, these obsessions feed my desire to endlessly create. So it seems like one long stream of interconnected passions.

What would be the title of your memoir and why?

My memoir would be called “Slanted & Enchanted” if I were allowed to steal the album title from the band Pavement.

Slanted and Enchanted is a way that I’ve described myself for many years because I thought it fit my style perfectly being that I’ve always felt a duality running through me. I’m drawn to bright bold colors as well as dirty dark textures, eclecticism, opposites and and the ugly beautiful of the world. If I were to actually write a memoir it would be a poetic menagerie of day dreams, music references, optimistic stories, adventures, philosophies and recipes, with an aim to inspire people to realize their own unique energy and way of self-expression.

I’ve miraculously kept an online journal since the year 2000 up until now. 12 years of documenting my life, including the entire decade of my twenties. The musings of my younger self would probably find it’s way into my future memoir as well.

Where does your inspiration come from?

My inspiration comes from my obsessions, my friends, music, random things I see in television shows, junk treasures at thrift shops, etsy shopping, google image searching, youtube video collecting, studio experimentations and taking as many trips to new places as humanly possible at all times.

What does handmade mean to you?

Handmade to me, means crafting a piece from the very first spark of an idea into a fully realized piece of work, and bringing it to life. The final creation is something that wouldn’t have existed without your energy, vision and skill.

The handmade work that I’ve been producing in my studio lately has been a collection of digital collage mounted on wood, mirror, or vinyl records, necklaces, rings, pins, coasters and screen print t-shirts. The work that I make varies based on what type of materials that I have on hand at the time. I’m constantly collecting materials from all over. So what I make is always changing, mostly one of a kind items based on my treasure findings and mixed with my design work.

Who has been most influential in your craft?

There are far too many people that have influenced me to only draw attention to one, but I always tell everyone about Scott Hansen when it comes to a major artistic influence in my life. I first discovered Scott’s work in the mid 2000′s and fell in love with his perfect symbiosis between being a graphic designer (to which he calls himself ISO50) and being a musician and live visualist (under the guise of Tycho). I had never seen anyone develop such a uniquely synchronous world of art & performance before, and I was completely hooked on his design style, sun soaked color palette & sound. I’ve since followed his shows around the country from New York to San Francisco, taken a design workshop from him at the OFFF festival in 2007, and met him at the F5 festival in 2011.

Another big influence which changed my course of action over the years was Elliott Earls. He was one of my college professors who was a visiting artist to SUNY Purchase College during my junior year of school. One semester with Elliott brought me out of my world of print design and into the wonders of motion graphics. I simultaneously took a video production course called “installation video art” and once I linked those two skills together my career was never the same again.

When did you know you were an artist?

There are two instances in my life where I knew I was an artist, or going to be one.

The first was when I was maybe 4 years old. I got into modeling in NYC at a young age and was working with a photographer named Doug Hopkins. I vaguely remember being curious about his camera during our shoots and he let me get behind the lens a few times and pretend that I was the photographer. It was then that I felt a desire to actually be the one shooting & creating the imagery.

A few years later my grandparents, who were artists themselves, gave me their collection of PRINT magazines from the 60s. From the moment I laid eyes on these pages I was captivated by design, typography, photography, color combinations and 60s design aesthetic. That was the moment I knew I would be a designer.

How would you describe your creative process?

The first step in my creative process is keeping an obsessive collection of things that excite me. I have a few “inspiration folders” that I keep on my online dropbox account, which I can access from all of my computers any time I want to. This makes it easy when I see something that sparks an idea, I can grab the image and save it for later reference when I’m ready to design something. I collect videos, songs, color combinations, textures, fonts and interesting imagery that I can use in layered collage work. My work is a combination of found imagery, recycled materials, stuff I’ve shot on camera from day to day trips & explorations, graphic collage in photoshop, and messy happy accidents made in my studio with ink, paint, pen and whatever else I have lying around.

Once I’ve finished a design going between hand crafted collage & photoshop manipulations, I print the piece with my Canon PIXMA printer, mount the work on wood, vinyl records, window frames, mirrors or canvas. Then I usually coat the piece in a glossy resin to seal the art and give it a thick glass-like finish. I’ve also recently started making my art into jewelry, necklaces, rings & coasters.

If you could peek inside the studio of any artist (alive or dead) who would it be?

This is a toughy!  I want to say Scott Hansen, the artist I mentioned earlier as one of my biggest visual influences in my career, but I actually think I would most like to visit Michel Gondry’s studio.

I am often most fascinated by outrageous ideas that are completely unique to the artist and I think it makes for the most inspired art & conversations. I am in love with Michel Gondry’s mind, and I can only imagine his studio to be just as whimsical and magical as his ideas are.

What handmade possession do you treasure the most?

I have 3 pieces of original work from my incredible friend & brilliant Czechoslovakian artist Zora Janosova. She passed away in 2005 and has made a permanent mark on my life.

The pieces I have from her represent all the memories I have of being with her, adventuring with her, conversations we’ve had, and ideas we’ve exchanged. They are definitely my most treasured handmade possession.  A close second to that is owning her red vintage coat that reminds me of her energy every time I wear it.

How do you get out of creative ruts?

I plan a trip immediately. Traveling is the #1 thing that gets me out of creative ruts. If I can’t get away at the time, long drives and gallery visits help too. So does belgian beer.

Where would you like to be in ten years?

I have trouble planning my years out, let alone ten years from now. However, in ten years time, I would like to see myself owning my own graphic design & video art business. I would love to make a living on my art without feeling the need to work in large companies in order to bring home a paycheck. I’d also love to be working with musicians that inspire me, and help brainstorm & choreograph visuals for their live performances and travel with them around the world putting on shows. I’ve also always pictured myself owning a home on the water in Portland, Oregon, driving a funky Danger van, and working in my studio art barn on my own time schedule, making and selling my own unique art & design. One can dream.

If you missed our performance of the Moon at Goodbye Blue Monday we have a video to share with you of our last song, and only duet, True Love Will Find You in the End. Thanks so much to Hoi Chen for coming out & filming the entire show for us. More videos to come.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A few hours of sleep later after the show, Jeff’s alarm went off at 7:30am. Still a little hazy from a few too many Ommegangs, I realized it was time to head to the studio, unpack my video equipment from the night before and load in all my art, jewelry, dress form, 6ft table & table cloth banner, 2 chairs, speaker, mini dvd player, tshirt supply, print rack & prints, and all the display items into my little car. (Tetris skills came in very handy here!) This was only the second time I had ever exhibited my work outside of studio walls and let me tell you – it is a LOT of work setting up your own booth and relocating it out of the studio! Having accumulated this much stuff makes me want to fulfill my dream even more, of having my very own Danger van one day! I’ve always wanted one for housing all my equipment & artwork, taking long road trips, camping and doing drive by projections! Maybe this year I can make this happen..

Thanks to everyone who made it to both Brooklyn & Bridgeport this weekend. It turned into such a super awesome weekend reunion of friends, and it meant a lot to me to reconnect with everybody, as well as meet new folks in the area.

Gallery 305K plans to host these art markets once a month in their space, so you can expect to see me there again for the next one April 14th. For those of you who couldn’t make it to Bridgeport, here are a couple snapshots from the event. Enjoy!

Check back here or sign up for my newsletter for more upcoming shows, art exhibits & updates.

Hey Guys! Happy almost-spring!!! I hope you are all doing well! Before the week gets too crazy for all of us, I wanted to say hello and to tell you about two fun events going on this week that you might be interested in. The Moon at Goodbye Blue Monday & Danger at the Bridgeport Art Bazaar.

Friday, March 9th – The Moon at Goodbye Blue Monday, Brooklyn, NY

As many of you know, I’ve been recently collaborating with singer/songwriter/boyfriend Jeff Schram on an audio/visual project called The Moon. We’ve only recently started to play out live for an audience, and have had two wonderful shows at both the Franklin Street Works art gallery & a smaller more intimate show at my art studio in Stamford, CT. Something rare happened at both shows, I sung for the first time in public! And I plan to do so again in upcoming performances because it was SO MUCH FUN!

If you missed it, we recorded a track in my brother’s studio about a month ago, and would love to share it with you. Our song is a cover of Daniel Johnston’s True Love will Find You in The End.Download free from here.

Coming up this Friday night, March 9th, we will play a small show with live visuals in Brooklyn, New York at Goodbye Blue Monday. I’m excited to perform alongside one of my very good friends & accomplished anti-folk musicians, Toby Goodshank and to perform at this venue as the Moon for the first time. The show is free and we are set to perform from 9PM-10PM. Please join us!

Saturday, March 10th, The Bridgeport Art Bazaar

Then, Saturday, March 10th from 11AM-6PM, I will be at the Bridgeport Art Bazaar and will be showing some of my latest hand crafted work from the Danger studio.�The winter months have proved to be a great time for creative production, so as a result, I’ve got some new Danger jewelry, prints, posters, screen printed tshirts & art pieces to share. Not only will I have a booth set up, but many local artists and friends will as well. This event is hosted by Bridgeport’s 305K gallery which will be open to the public and exhibiting work, and there will also be an open artist studios going on at the same time. Details in the poster below. Hope to see you!!

Happy New Year! I just returned from an adventure I will never forget.

Myself and 3 of my favorite people, trekked out to Ecuador for the turning of 2011 into 2012. It was an exploration of a lifetime.

I’ve barely been home long enough to unpack my suitcase let alone absorb what I have experienced in an articulate story to share, but as I sort through the 3000 photos that we captured and 70 video clips we took, I’ll be stiching together and mapping out our adventures and post them here for you.

I just wanted to say a very quick happy new year to those of you who swing by regularly. I’m very excited to start this year with fresh eyes and optimistic outlook. Feeling full of creativity & love and excited to start 2012 off with some sparks….

Hey guys, if you are in or around Brooklyn on Saturday, December 10th, please stop by 3rd Ward‘s annual Handmade Holiday Craft Fair. This is my first year as a vendor and I am excited to be sharing a table with my good friend and creator of HerbanLuxehandmade organic cosmetics. I will be displaying my new line of Dangerwall art, prints, resin jewelry and screen print tshirts.It will be a warehouse full of unique items and great holiday sales by many different local artists. Come check it out, visit us and say hi!

Here are the event details from 3rd Ward:

Friends don’t give friends bad gifts! Get your lists ready for the 5th Annual 3rd Ward Handmade Holiday Craft Fair, an extravaganza of beautiful, clever, never-before-seen gift items for your friends, family and while you’re at it you!

Come browse all types of creative handmade gifts including jewelry, bags, housewares, paper goods, toys, clothing, winter essentials, culinary treats, and much more! Plus stay warm and merry with live music, DJs, cheap seasonal cocktails, and some quirky surprises. This is one craft fair you won’t want to miss.

Saturday, December 10th
Noon to 6 pm
195 Morgan Ave, Brooklyn, NY
FREE admission

Thanks to everyone who came out to check out our performance at Franklin Street Works last Thursday. We had so much fun performing and sharing our music and visuals with you. Special thanks to Franklin Street Works for hosting us and our friends! Please friend us on The Moon’s facebook page to learn about upcoming events.

For those of you who couldn’t make it out, check out this video taken by Franklin Street Works. This was one of our instrumentals called “Olive”. The photo above was taken by Jackie Alcayaga.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here is a little backstory on how it all came together. �Jeff and I worked every night in the studio, last week, to get our set just right.

He was still finishing lyrics to his new songs, and I was choreographing visual clips that would enhance the mood and fit the pace. We settled on 8 songs including 1 cover song that we did as a duet together to end the performance. The duet we covered was,�True Love Will Find You in the End by Daniel Johnston. I’ve always loved his original version and Beck’s cover. (Check out those links to hear the different versions.)

Daniel Johnston is particularly special to us because when Jeff and I went on our first date, we went to the Highline Ballroom to see Daniel perform. We had both seen The Devil & Daniel Johnston documentary and were completely hooked on his music. It seemed like the perfect song for our duet considering that this was the first time I have ever sung in front of a live audience! (Which I loved, and will do again.)

My visual footage for the performance came from a variety of different sources from my VJ library that I’ve been collecting over the last 3 years. Additionally, a good deal of footage came from two special trips I took this year. The first being from California when we spontaneously went hot-air-ballooning at sunrise over wine country and the other at the Shedd aquarium in Chicago. I hope to incorporate more and more travel footage into my shows as we continue to build our performance.

At the studio, I also shot some footage of Jeff playing guitar on green screen with the hopes of masking some animated visuals into his silhouette. While the end result was very cool, it never made it into the final performance. Maybe next time!

I kept coming up with tons of last minute details that I wanted to add to our show, and one of them was for both of us to wear all white clothing. When we were in front of the visuals they would just melt through us and blend into the walls. I think the effect worked well to really enhance the projections in the space. The hardest part was actually finding white clothing this time of year. Thankfully Goodwill and my thrift-shop-hunting skills was a success. Perhaps in the future we can find a way to make all of our equipment white. I think it would create a really exciting environment for visuals in all the subtle details.

The space we were setting up at Franklin Street Works was an intimate room on their lower level. It was a little challenging from a setup perspective because of it’s size, mirrors, door and wall indentations. We had no way of hanging projectors to the ceiling like we usually do. However we were able to jimmy-rig a setup using speaker stands and clamp mounts and were able to hook up 2 projectors skewed towards the two main walls, and one angled towards the ceiling. A white sheet and a couple pillowcases did the trick to hide the window & mirrors. Unfortunately the VJ software that I’m using currently doesn’t allow me to skew the video angles to be perfect when the projectors are set up on an angle, so I ended up changing my �set towards using more abstract imagery in the end result. This ended up working out really well in my opinion and gave the illusion of changing the shape of the walls around us.

Everyone packed into the space at 6pm and we had a great time talking to everyone, and connecting with new and old friends. Thanks again to everyone who made the night special for us and for collecting videos & photos. We hope to make another performance happen again soon!

Please check out our new site: themoonmusic.com for more in the near future.

New to the Danger Studio as of this weekend, is a really cool collection of handmade Danger pendents!

This is my first attempt at making jewelry out of my designs and I’m really stoked with it’s transformation. I took my Wanderlost collection of graphics and cropped them into 1 inch circles, then obsessively cut out 50 small prints. Each of them is affixed to silver plated pendents, and finished with a glass dome enclosure. The work becomes a magnified orb of bright color, and each is completely unique from the next.

Later this week I’m going to attempt another round using resin as the finishing glaze. I’ve been using resin over the last year on all my wall art, which gives it a glossy glass finish so I’m excited to see if I can bring the same great results to jewelry.

Next up are a batch of rings!  All will be available on etsy once I’m happy with the collection. Stay tuned!

Hi Folks!  I have a new show announcement that I’m excited to tell you about…

On Thursday November 10th, a new collaborative performance project that I’m working on, The Moon, will be debuted locally at Franklin Street Works. FSW is a not-for-profit art space and cafe that recently opened in downtown Stamford, CT.

I’m performing with musician Jeff Schram who will be filling the atmosphere with his original acoustic songs, heightened by electronic elements, vocals & digital manipulation. I will be cooking up a visual cocktail of projections and real time camera effects live, and together we aim to transform the space into a colorful dreamworld of visionary motion, art & sound.

If you are local, please join us!

Click here to RSVP on Facebook

Here are the details:

Franklin Street Works
Thursday Nov. 10th, 6PM-7PM
Franklin Street
Stamford, CT

A few months ago I saw a video online that stopped me in my tracks. It was a graduation speech that Steve Jobs had given a few years ago. Funny how I found it too. I had an image of a Day of the Dead skeleton on a blank card and I thought to myself, if this card were to have a headline, what would it be?  I came up with the phrase, “Live before you die”.  Having been really happy with coming up with this profound little phrase I decided to google it and low and behold, up came this brilliant speech that blew my mind.

Rest in peace Steve. We are all grateful your vast inspiration & the creativity that you brought to this universe.

The “live before you die” speech:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hey guys! This Saturday, October 8, from 8PM-2AM, will be the third Signal to Noise event at the Museum of the Moving Image.

I’m super excited to be invited back and Jeff and I will be once again outfitting the place with 6-7 projectors filling their performance space. I’ve been busy in my studio creating new materials, testing new equipment and getting ready for this epic set-up. Hope to see some of you there. We’ll be working with a number of other visualists that evening and will be VJing for MiniBoone.

Here is some additional info from the museum’s event page:

Signal to Noise once again takes over the entire Museum of the Moving Image with interactive spectacles and visual delights, including electro-jams, post-rave vibes, circuit-bent video, shadow game tournaments, battling guitar video game contests, and much more as the galleries stay open late and the party goes later.

Tickets: $15 (advance) public / $20 (at the door) public / $10 Museum members / Free for Silver Screen members. Members may reserve tickets in advance by calling 718 777 6800. Advance sales will be available until noon on the day of the event. Following this, tickets will be available at the door.

Advance tickets can be purchased by clicking here

RSVP over at the Facebook Event Page

Happy Summer Everyone!

I know it’s been quiet here on the Danger blog but I’ve been busy creating new stuff!  I’ll be updating all of this very soon, but in the meanwhile I wanted to let you all know about a little show going on if you’re interested & local to Stamford.

My very good, long time friend, Maria Castellucci, owns a beautiful salon in Stamford called REVEAL and is exhibiting the Danger Studio Summer Collection on her walls for the next two months as a part of her ongoing artist series. The show will be up from July to September.

Maria has been a creative inspiration to my own personal style & red hair design for over 10 years, and I’m excited to see my work in her lovely space.

If you are in town, please stop by to check out the goods! The work is for viewing & for sale.

Reveal is located at 322A Hope St. Stamford, CT.

In two weeks I am heading off to do something I have never done before – I’m hopping a plane to San Francisco to participate in the city’s annual foot race, Bay to Breakers for their 100th year!

The race starts at the north east end of the downtown area adjacent to San Francisco Bay, and runs west through the city to finish at the breakers of the Pacific coast on Ocean Beach. The complete course is 7.46 miles (12 kilometers long) and is not a traditional race by any means.

Participants are known to dress up in all sorts of crazy costumes and some have even run it naked! This year for their hundredth they are enforcing some rules that they haven’t in the past. No alcohol, no floats and no nudity. We’ll see just how much the public abides. There will be 50,000 runners this year!

Since I’ve never done anything like this, I’ll be thrilled just to complete the course. I made it my personal goal to focus on various upgrades in all different aspects of my life to start 2011. There have been many times in my past that I’ve sat at my computer editing 60 hours a week and ditching the fitness in favor of deadlines. As a result of changing that dynamic this year I’ve felt so much happier and more productive on a daily basis.

My training started in January when I began the 4 Hour Body diet, started taking latin based dance classes, and mixed it with training runs. While I haven’t been 100% consistent with my training, I’m really proud of how far I’ve come. I’m lucky enough to have a great partner to run with and support me along the way, and I’m super excited to meet this epic achievement in my life. 8 miles may not seem like a lot to most people, but I have hated running all my life and I’m not a runner by any means. The closest I have come to this has been inline skating 10K races in the past. It’s very different when you have wheels on your feet!

This makes me all the more energized to meet this challenge that I set out to accomplish at the beginning of this year.

If anyone wants to meet up, say hi, or cheer us on while we’re out there, drop a line here or keep a look out for my Danger shirt among the sea of runners. I’ll be deconstructing one of my shirts and representing Danger all the way!!

Here is what the course looks like!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Last Friday morning I got on the early train to Roseland Ballroom for the 2nd birthday of New York’s finest and freshest motion graphics design conference  F5 Fest. I was lucky enough to attend back in 2009 for it’s first installation and having had such an inspiring experience I signed up to attend again. It is seriously amazing to be in a room with all your heros and surrounded by so many creative folks. F5 has proven to be one of the most intimate conferences I’ve been to. It’s an intelligent mix of artists, designers, art directors, vjs, scientists, technologists, film makers and musicians. They even set up scheduled drink breaks in between speakers so that everyone can meet and hang out. Doesn’t get better than that!

Click here to view the embedded video.

One of the most memorable moments for me this year was getting time to talk with one of my main inspirations in the design world for over 10 years, Scott Hansen, aka ISO50 / Tycho.

Scott was awesome and walked me through his VDMX setup that he uses to VJ with during shows. I’ve been on the verge of transitioning VJ software for quite some time. Thank you Scott for helping me realize I should get on board with VDMX, and taking the time to chat about Burning Man, VJing and for inspiring me further.

Another highlight was listening to Jacob Escobedo, creative director behind Adult Swim and the Cartoon Network. He described a really funny story about when he was younger, living in Nevada, and suffering through eating his first ever goat taco.

After eating this wretched food, he walked outside and saw the image of a severed goat’s head on top of a refrigerator which stopped him in his tracks. From then on, he developed his design mantra to be: “Does this image have severed goat’s head?” Which means,  Is the image I’m designing:  1) Arresting  2) Simple and  3) Memorable ?

I’ll never forget that concept or this image he showed us:

Cartoon Network and severed goats head graphics aside, Jacob happens to be another design hero of mine.

The design concepts that he developed for Broken Bells album artwork last year inspired my entire Wanderlost collection of wall art. I only wish I could have met him over a beer at the F5 bar!

We also got to listen to Scott Belsky discuss the creative process. Are you the Dreamer, the Doer or the Incrementalist when it comes to creative thinking?

Knowing which category you fit into ultimately helps a creative team get things done from the concept to the execution by learning to become proactive instead of just being reactive. Scott is the founder and CEO of Behance, and the Behance Network, Action Method, and The 99%.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Scott had the most advice to offer in the ways of helping us to create, not just be creative. Here are a few highlights from his talk:

• Create windows of non-stimulation 2-3 hours a day. He says this is your sacred space for deep thinking.
• Spend energy on staying organized. Being organized is a huge competitive advantage.
• Organize with a bias to action. Measure the value of a meeting in action steps.
• Tap the power of circles. Find your network.
• Seek competition. You will drive yourself harder and faster if you feel the urgency to create something first and best.
• Don’t become burdened by the consensus or by the unremarkable.
• When it comes to ideas and design, find one or two sacred extremes to present to your client. It will help shape the direction of your thinking.
• Overcome the stigma of self-marketing. Build a following. Curate your stream.
• Foster Accountability. We need to share our ideas liberally, in order to get other people to hold us accountable to them.
• Gain confidence from doubt.
• When finding people to work with you, seek initiative over experience.
  

There were so many highlights from this years festival that it is impossible to write about each one. Here are some folks to keep your eyes on:

• Creative motion graphics studio powerhouse Onesize. Mind-blowing graphics work.
• Creative illustration and motion graphics by Buck.

Click here to view the embedded video.

• Syyn Labs, a scientific twist of art & technology. These guys were responsible for the engineering of a mind-blowing Rube Goldberg machine used to create OKGO’s “This Too Shall Pass” music video.
• Shantell Martin, friend and VJ sketch projector from the UK. The top image of me above was shot during Shantell’s live performance, Hidden Ora, that she orchestrated on the fly with her wacom tablet and sketchbook pro during the F5 after party at Good Units.
• Mark Romanek, visionary film director behind “Never Let Me Goâ€? and “One-Hour Photoâ€? – as well as countless iconic music videos and commercials.
• Kid Koala, Eclectic Method, Nathan Love, Wayne White, Neil Huxley, Adam Bly, the list goes on.

All in all, an amazing weekend. It was really wonderful to meet all my new friends as well. Keep in touch. Looking forward to the next F5 Festival.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here are two video clips from the APRIL 2011 KODOMO+DANGER performance at the Factory Underground “Tweet Music & Words” Gallery Show. DRIFT will be a new release on Kodomo’s upcoming album “Frozen in Motion” and “Spira Miribilis” is a track on his full length album “Still Life”. Thanks again to all of you who came to our performance, I had such an amazing night with you all.

In a couple of weeks I’m honored to be VJing at the Museum of the Moving Image for their second installation of “Signal to Noise”. It will embody everything you’d want in a late night art party, with live visuals, live music and amazing DJs. Saturday, May 7th, 8PM-2AM.

Here is what they have in store:

Signal to Noise returns for another wall-rattling, late-night art party, activating every area of the Museum once again with fresh local tunes and visualists, web video showdowns, personally tailored playlists, performed cinema, booty shaking beats, and much more.

The World Series of ‘Tubing issues laser pointers for an evening-long augmented reality game show, Bruce McClure overwhelms the senses with live multi-projector spectacles, and Matt Wellins and Sarah Halpern time warp Ektachrome. The So So Glos dazzle with updated indie pop punk and Shark? blasts unquestionably catchy lo-fi melodies, while Holly Danger braves the visuals.Bubblyfish wields her Gameboys and The Shortsleeves bring the synth, with No Carrier on the eyecandy. Marius Watz simulates magnetic forces, and Dan Iglesia oscillates in an extra dimension.  Back by popular demand, DJ $mall ¢hange holds down the dance floor, and if we still can’t amuse you, AutomaticDJ knows your face and plays your favorite songs.

Tickets: $15 (advance) public / $20 (at the door) public / $10 Museum members / Free for Silver Screen members. Members may reserve tickets in advance by calling 718 777 6800. Advance online sales will be available until noon on the day of the event. Following this, tickets will be available at the door. Click here to buy advance tickets.

I hope everyone is enjoying the very beginnings of spring time! I’m slowly coming out of my own winter hibernation and warming up the creative flow with some new adventures. Most importantly right now, I want to share a performance update with you all that I am greatly looking forward to!

This Saturday evening, April 9th, I am excited to announce a truly rare and wonderful performance coming to Norwalk, CT. The musical counterpart to my visuals, Kodomo, is coming up from Brooklyn to perform a 1 hour performance with me, at the Factory Underground gallery & recording studio! I am setting up a multi-projection atmosphere and will be live mixing to his dreamy soundscapes.

Kodomo has been busy working on a new album so you may even get a chance to hear a few new tracks! This is a first time performance for us at the Underground so we hope many of you can come out and enjoy the night with us for a truly special evening.

The gallery will be open and hosting an exhibit called, “TWEET: Music & Words”, a multimedia show from 5:30-9:30PM featuring videos, large scale photography, performance art, monoprints and our live show at 8pm.

The show is free to all those who can make it, and wine & refreshments will be served. The Factory Underground is located at 16 Issac Street in Norwalk, CT. Hope to see you there!

Happy new year everyone!!  I hope the exciting new January energy is causing hibernations of creativity for you like it has been doing for me!

The frosty temperatures have me spending a lot of time in the studio and producing some new materials for upcoming shows, prints & shirts as well as a new website! A new batch of Danger tee’s are on the way this week, and I just received my first round of Danger stickers!  Stickers will come free when you order a shirt, will be available for purchase on etsy and I’ll also have a bunch for free at my shows if you come up and say hi.

UPCOMING THIS WEEK, THURS, JAN 27th -

There is a very special show to come out for if you are around the city this week!! -Kodomo and I are psyched to perform our first show of 2011 as part of, Forward Motion Theater presents, “EYEWASH”, this Thursday night, January 27th at 9PM. Live Bands & Visuals. Interactive pole-dance installations. DJ & dancing. Special Guest Performances. All at the R BAR – 218 Bowery St. (Between Price & Spring) For more info, check out the links above or RSVP on Facebook HERE.

See you Thursday!

It was really quite a cool experience to see my collection up on the walls of this beautiful boutique. A total first for me and for the work that I’ve produced at the Danger Studio this year! As a result of this show, and my now bare walls at the studio, I have purchased a whole new round of wood boards for a brand new collection of work to design!

Here are a few snapshots from the boutique on opening night!  Check back here next month regarding a possible closing party at the shop. (Click the images below to view them larger…)

Hi Everybody!  I have a last minute announcement to make regarding an exciting collaborative art show happening this week.

This Tuesday, December 7th, I’ll be exhibiting my mixed media collage work & Danger t-shirts alongside Liz Squillace’s Paradox Ink line of screenprints at the Kriti Collection Boutique in Greenwich, CT. The opening party will be happening from 5:30-8:30 pm and the work will be featured at the shop for the next few weeks.

If you are in the neighborhood please stop by and grab a drink with us! There will be drinks & refreshments provided, live music and plenty of unique art, shirts, clothes & accessories.

Just a quick note to say that I have a really exciting show coming up tomorrow, this Sunday, 11/14. I’ll be performing with Kodomo at 3rd Ward’s Moviehouse as part of The Social Theater.  I’m excited – this will be our first collaborative show since August of this year. Please come out if you are in the hood! And if you are not in the hood it will be broadcast live via ustream right here on hollydanger.com.

Here is a brief description of what you can expect from the night:

Performance artist Chloe Bass and filmmaker Catherine Chao will use the ChatRoulette template to explore interactive relationships and layers of performance in a show that is broadcast to random strangers around the world.

Plus always-inventive Holly Danger downloads her own VJ performance with the beats Kodomo to the ChatRoulette world. Before the show enjoy snacks from two sides of the globe with Masala Loca. Sure to blow your mind!

Doors are at 7, performances start at 8. It’s free, but Moviehouse suggests a $5 donation to keep Brooklyn independent video thriving.

The details:
Moviehouse: The Social Theater
3rd Ward, 195 Morgan Ave, Bushwick, Brooklyn
Sunday November 14, 7pm
$5 suggested donation

For more info, please visit:
Moviehouse page: www.brilliantp.com/moviehouse
Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=115950581802826
3rd Ward page: www.3rdward.com/moviehouse

The shirts are now available on the Etsy Danger store.  The mixed media wall prints will be available on Etsy next week!!

In other news, if you are interested in coming out to see one of the next upcoming performances scheduled, there is a nice variety for you to choose from!

NEXT UP//

NOV 14. – VJing for KODOMO @ 3RD WARD, Brooklyn, 8PM

NOV 18. – VJing for BIG MOSEY @ ARLENES GROCERY, Manhattan, 9PM

NOV 20. – VJing for MANTYHOSE @ SEASIDE TAVERN, Stamford, 10PM

DEC 2. – VJing for EXIT MUSIC @ UNION POOL, Brooklyn, 10PM

DEC 9. – VJing for DJ KILLA MONJARO + MORE @ SEASIDE TAVERN, Stamford, 10PM

My hibernation has started early this year. I apologize for the Danger blog being so quiet over the last month! Be sure and check the Upcoming Performances listing to check out the large amount of shows happening every few weeks throughout November & December! Somehow I got incredibly busy with deadlines, gigs and designing and have neglected my beloved space here. So much so that I haven’t even announced that there is an exciting weekend coming up for us! The Loft Artist Association in Stamford, CT is having their annual Open Studios event, and the Danger studio will be opening it’s doors to the public for the very first time!!

I’m busy this week preparing new prints, exciting new silk-screen t-shirts and some tasty visuals for your projection pleasure. I’ll be showing a gallery of poster art, selling my prints for the first time, and also giving out some cool handmade Danger pins that I’ve been working diligently on for the past few days.

If you’ve ever wanted to meet me, or check out the studio, now is the perfect time for both!

This year in Black Rock City, my partner in crime, Jeff Schram, decided to document our adventure with his flipcam. The resulting video is very low-fi, spontaneous and fun, just as you’d expect from a drive to Burning Man. I started working on editing part two but it hasn’t made it out of my studio yet. It seems that we spent more time filming the trip on the way in than getting footage while we were out there enjoying it all. Nevertheless I still plan on exporting Part two sometime in the coming months. I swear!

Hi guys!

I am gearing up for my annual romp in the dust. That’s right, it’s my yearly visit to the Black Rock desert.  By all means if you are attending, please let me know so there is a chance of meeting up outside of the digital realms. I’ll be staying with my friends, Camp Monkey Business at 4:30 & G this year – and once again I’m bringing my VJ gear and would love to meet up with other VJs out there. Right now I’m deciding which equipment can stand to be in those desert conditions.  I’m also lining up my VJ performance schedule right now and hope to nail it all down before arriving. Once I arrive, anything goes!

So here is my current schedule & VJ lineup for the upcoming week:

Saturday – (Aug 28) I arrive in Reno to collect my supplies/bike/tent etc. out of storage & take care of biz..
Sunday – Buy whatever supplies I need, food, water, etc.
Monday – I arrive on the playa – early morning!  Set up - Possibly VJing at Nexus in the evening hours.
Tuesday –  VJing the False Profit party (4:30 & Esplanade) – Timing TBD
Wednesday – VJing the Apres Ski Party – (3:30 & B) – Sundown til late night.
Thursday –  VJing at Nexus (10 & Esplanade) – Sundown til 11pm
Thursday Late - Possibly VJing at the Phage party after Nexus party (4:30 & Esplanade)
Friday/Sat/Sun/Mon –  Anything goes ~ Possibly VJing on the Robot Heart Bus on those nights.
Tues/Wed – (Sept 7/8) Wash off the dust & travel home

That is the good word on all my latest news. This week is for collecting gear & packing..

See you the other side my friends!…..

Just finished hanging a wall full of my new poster series – setting up projectors and prepping the studio (aka buying beer & wine) – see you tonight!

If you are downtown Stamford tomorrow (Thursday night 8/5) for the last Alive at Five series - Drop by the FEZ afterwards and grab a glass of wine with me – I’ll be mixing up some live visuals for their local Thursday night DJ and will be there from 10PM-1AM. No cover.

For those of you who haven’t been, the FEZ is a great little moroccan restaurant & wine bar that recently opened up downtown Stamford across from Barcelona. Personally, any place with wine & dark red walls immediately captures my heart. Quoted as being, ‘Stamford’s best kept secret. A Soho/Greenwich village style lounge in a cool & diverse artist friendly environment’ – They have an impressive selection of vino (try the Malbec.. Mmm!), traditional moroccan dishes, and a stage in the back for local artists and musicians to entertain. Every week they have a different variety of music, DJs, bands, belly dancers, ‘bring your own vinyl’ night and acoustic open mic nights.

I’m excited to say that I’ll be joining the Fez for my second show there since VJing for Mantyhose & DJ Killamonjaro a month ago. This will be a great night out prior to my Studio Opening party, so get ready!!  - And definitely stop by Thursday night to say hi.

The summer is in full swing, my blog has been quiet for the last few weeks, and I’ve been struggling to nail down one big opening date for my studio party – HOWEVER, I finally decided to set it in motion and see what happens!

Next weekend I’ll be having an official open studio night, Saturday, August 7th, featuring multi-projector live video mixing, and a poster exhibit displaying my new design series.  It is a private party, so please, if you are interested in coming – Email me to RSVP.

If you can’t make the opening party on the 7th, you’ll be happy to know that another date is also potentially in the works for a Kodomo show on Saturday, August 21st. Hope everyone is having an adventurous and creative summer!!  See you soon.

This Saturday at Moviehouse Kodomo and I will be joining Moviehouse & performing at 3rd Ward’s Birthday BBQ Bike Bash!

The screen is split four ways and give one section to four uniquely talented VJs: Daniel Hai, Holly Danger and Shinje Murakami and our very own VJ Clay Franklin. Watch as each artist visually interprets live music from four different performers side-by-side on the same screen. Music by Xylopholks, Viva Nada, La Guadalupe, & a special guest. Sure to blow your mind!

Plus, 3rd Ward turns 4, to celebrate there’s live music, BBQ, summer drinks, art, crafts, screen-printing (bring your own tees!), free workshops and synchronized biking!

Doors are at 2, performances start at 5. It’s free, but Moviehouse suggests a $5 donation to keep Brooklyn independent video thriving.

The Details:

Moviehouse: 4×4 at 3rd Ward’s Birthday BBQ Bike Bash
3rd Ward, 195 Morgan Ave, Bushwick, Brooklyn
SATURDAY MAY 22nd
FREE or $5 suggested donation

Links:

Moviehouse page: www.brilliantp.com/moviehouse
Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=117925021579091&ref=ts
3rd Ward page: www.3rdward.com/moviehouse

Pix & Reviews to come!

Hey guys – Tonight I will be over at the Bowery Electric projecting some live visuals for my friends “Only Son”. The venue is really intimate and has a lot of energy so it should be a pretty spectacular night. I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve got a whole new collection of visuals and am ready to release them into the universe. Come hang out with us if you’re in the hood. We’ll be on at 10PM!  Also playing: The Bloodsugars & Spacecamp! See you tonight!

After every trip, I am immediately fueled into an active wanderlust, longing to go somewhere else…

I always come up with the most visual ideas when I’m outside my routines and experiencing different cultures, conversations and vibrations of people in other places. Traveling is something I became obsessed with years ago when I first started designing. Having only been back in town for a week, I can happily say that Austin sparked a new light for me. It’s the beginning of spring and the beginning months of my studio. There are good energies all around, exciting shows on the way and hopefully more travel in the near future. New visuals on the way!

Regardless, Day 5 was epic!! I woke up bright, early and stoked to finally see my first round of films! Spent so much time in the interactive sessions that I hadn’t seen any despite having a 5 day film badge! Plus it’s hard for me to sit in a dark theater when it’s 75 and sunny outside. Today I made the effort. I drove over to the Alamo Drafthouse theater and took my seat at the narrative shorts showing. I forgot how much I love that theater!  The seats are cushy, and they will deliver beer & food to you while you sit back and watch. The narrative shorts ended up being hit & miss. I liked 3 out of 8 films.

OK, so the one’s I enjoyed were:

Equestrian Sexual Response (TERRIBLE NAME!! – but well made film)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pancake Breakfast (ANOTHER BAD NAME and I’ll tell you why – Due to misreading the guidebook, I thought this was announcing that there WAS a pancake breakfast at the theater!! Ha! I was actually disappointed to learn that it was the name of the film! Regardless, this one was funny, I wish there was more to the story.)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Lastly, Girls Named Pinky (Good simple story, shot & acted well, with a twist!)

Click here to view the embedded video.

The last film dragged on for so long. The audio wasn’t mixed and my ears were bleeding, I nearly left.

I was also late to approach my next item for the day – seeing Broken Bells downtown! Former frontman for the Shins in collaboration with Danger Mouse! However… due to Austin SXSW traffic mania, I got to 6th Street pretty late and had to make a choice. It was 12:40PM – Do I race to find a spot, find the venue and wait in line to see Broken Bells who were going on in 20 minutes, or do I take my time and head over to see Tobacco play at Emo’s at 1:30? After seeing all of crazy long lines at each of these venues, I nixed my plan of racing to catch Broken Bells. Oh well. Next time! Tobacco gave me all the excitement that I needed. There were THREE Emo’s venues to scavenger through to find the right one, but I made it just in time. He played a pretty cool set, although he had no stage presence whatsoever. I snagged some video & some photos and happily strolled up the sunny street in search of lunch.

Tough day!

Two shows are on the horizon that I’m really excited to be a part of and wanted to let you know!

First up is APRIL 15th at 10PM I’ll be projecting live visuals for Only Son during their last residency show at Bowery Electric!!

Then, MAY 22ND at 7PM, an exciting collaborative audio/visual Moviehouse show at 3RD WARD, called Four by Four. The projection screens are split four ways and each VJ gets a section to simultaneously visualize & interpret the live music. VJ’s include Sketch Projector Shantell Martin, Daniel Hai, myself, and one surprise guest.

By Day 3 I was hitting my stride and in full information-absorption-networking-documenting mode! I trekked to the convention center with my laptop & I began my day with a panel called Real Time Video Blogging led by the makers of Rocketboom, a witty, successful NYC-based daily video news blog, and Amanda Congdon of Sometimesdaily.

A lot of the session seemed pretty common sense to me, but there were good tips to remember. They suggested that if you are interested in starting your own documentary style blog series, to first and foremost, always get a lawyer involved and make sure you are legally contracted, no matter what the project big or small. Find your personal niche to write about, create a mission statement and figure out who your audience is. Then get involved with larger projects that attract a similar audience so that you can attach your name to them and generate threads of new contacts back to your site.

A great site for copyright free stock video material to use in your blog if needed: archive.org. I’ve known about them for years, but haven’t yet put any of it to use in my own work. Personally I think they need a more organized website to be useful for my needs, but there is a tremendous amount of free material on there.

Video blogging in itself is something I’d like to try my hand at, but have never been good at turning the camera on myself or interviewing people at random. Those are two things I’d like to work on for future documenting practice. After this experience at Burning Man, I promised myself I would learn how to speak in front of the camera properly!

Next up I went to Visual FX for Indies: Big Impact Small Budget by Zane Rutledge of Zane TV. This was probably my favorite panel so far (next to seeing Gondry!). Zane is a writer, filmaker, editor, director, and FX junky who’s main love is post production. He provided a number of awesome slides that I photographed and uploaded here, in order to remember all of his great lists of tips & links.

This is pretty obvious, but the number one thing he stressed as being the key to great fx, is great audio. Never underestimate the power of sound effects and music added to visual effects to give the animations life.

He also went over something he calls “invisible fx”. Touchups and additions to film work that you don’t necessarily notice in the final piece. For example he showed us a clip where he actually tracked cold breath to character’s faces into a scene where you had to understand how frigid the temperatures were! That’s a lot of rotoscoping! I don’t have the type of patience.

He also spoke about “camera projection” which involves mapping still photography over a 3D landscape and matte painting to fake depth. This was really cool and possibly something to experiment with. A good example of this, is the first scene in one of his films called “Wake Up” which I’ve posted below. The entire city-fly-through is done with one still photograph! If you watch the whole thing you’ll see other scenes which use this effect as well, including the man jumping off the building at the end and the cityscape below as you see little cutout cars animating around the photograph. Very cool! Sometimes I forget that simplicity is the answer to achieve a certain effect, especially on a low budget production.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pretty soon it was time for me to catch the keynote for the day, featuring Evan Williams who created Twitter. I barely got a seat there were so many people who crammed themselves into this lecture. I’m not a Twitter fan, so I was reluctant to go, but I decided it was important to see what all the buzz was about.

Evan described Twitter as a constantly evolving information network to share and learn what you care about at the exact time that it happens. While I personally haven’t quite adapted that into my own life, I see how this form of communication could be necessary progression in our tech-obsessive, ADD culture. It is the quickest and easiest way to connect with the most people at any given time, at anywhere in the world. It was actually hugely useful at the SXSW event itself, because it led me to know exactly what panels, films & shows were going on at the minute that I checked my phone. Perhaps I’ll try and adapt to it a bit more since so many people these days are using it as a major form of communication.

Here is a clip from the keynote where Evan describes the future and evolving features of Twitter. I got bored and left, sorry Evan!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Later in the evening I trekked over to the Texas State Capital building to join the VFX Master Series presented by SIGGRAPH. I specifically enjoyed listening to the visual effects directors for the film, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.” They said that the character design was adapted from 60′s children’s travel book designer M. Sasek & UPA Animation Studio films of the 30s & 40s. After many iterations of design for each character, they storyboard out the entire film and begin 3D tests for each character’s gesture, color palette, voice and body language.

After dinner, my last stop that evening was to check out the interactive after-party event called Plutopia. I only caught the end of the performances, missed DJ Spooky, but loved the 3 projection screen set up, visuals by Dr. Strangevibe, and live music mixed with electronica in the auditorium of the Mexican American Cultural Center. I was in time to catch the last band called White from Bejing. The energy of the crowd and the visuals got me excited for my own gig that I was preparing for on St Patrick’s Day as part of House by Southwest. I spent the rest of the night documenting with some video, and drawing to the music until the lights went on.

On Day 2 my number 1 priority was seeing Michel Gondry in person. He is one of my all time favorite visionary heros, who has inspired me endlessly in creative projects. I waited an hour to see the man and get 4th row at his seminar. Gondry echoed a similar practice to something Ze Frank had mentioned in Day 1′s panel. The emphasis to pay attention to every single off-the-wall idea that you have. Don’t dismiss it out of fear or logic. Pay attention and put energy into them. Give them breath before you kill the idea. Test it out and reinvent each step of the way to be as open as possible to all concepts.

It was pretty thrilling to hear and see him in person. I missed the premier of his new film “The Thorn in the Heart“, but I was just as excited to see him a few feet away from me. He’s quite timid, thoughtful and charming in his approach to how he answers questions. Something that resonated with me was that he said that sleeping is part of his creative process. “Listen to your dreams”, he said, “That is the time when memories are reactivated, and talking out your dreams lead to great ideas.” He also stressed that story boarding is absolutely key before executing ideas and sitting in front of the computer. If the idea makes sense on paper, it should make sense for the film or story that you’re trying to create. Another little exercise he does to begin a creative project is that he edits soley within the camera. Films for a few seconds or minutes, hits pause, and then continuing to the next shot. No further editing in the computer afterwards. I think it’s a fantastic and simple idea to try and see what you come up with in a single stream of thought.

Next I headed over to see a panel on Cinematic Title Design. We were shown a title design case study of the new film “Life 2.0” about Second Life, the virtual world, user-generated online community. They showed us each design iteration, with & without music and how the sequence was built up over time to it’s end result. The speakers stressed how important it is to tell your basic story up front without giving anything away, and hint at something that happens later so that the audience feels a sense of connected familiarity when they see it again. Story boarding is also equally important when considering the title sequence. Play around with the location of the intro, whether or not it makes sense to fall in the front, middle or end of the film. Personally I wasn’t crazy about their design for Life 2.0, however, when the presenters went to show us the final sequence with final music in an online clip off Vimeo, they accidentally found that Tronic Studio had remixed their title sequence, and I find this so much better! Tronic studio has long been one of my favorite animation & design firms in NYC.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I then sat in on Remix Goes Mainstream, a session involving the art of remixes, video mashups and copyright law. They briefly discussed two main sets of guidelines that we should be aware of as editors & filmakers: Creative Commons and Fair Use. I’m never quite sure of my rights to use clips of other’s work in my projects, so I bought the book from one of the speakers, Clearance & Copyright by Michael C. Donaldson. They showed us a few examples where it was completely legal to use other filmmakers work when it was presented in a new context. One I really enjoyed, was created by another one of the panelists, Johnny McIntosh of rebelliouspixels called Buffy vs. Edward. He used footage from two different sources, and cut them together as if they were telling one new story. Hilarious!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Other examples showed documentaries that couldn’t have told their stories without using clips from other works. Under a certain time limitation, it is completely legal to use, and was even released to HBO. Another great resource for artists, specifically for photos & stock images, is Flickr’s Creative Commons page.

Later I sat in on Improving Social Media with Live Streaming Video led by Brad Hunstable, the creator of Ustream. Ustream has allowed us as users the ability to broadcast video live from anywhere in the world, from our cameras and even from our phones. While still in the panel listening to the creator of Ustream I downloaded the iphone application within minutes and gave it a shot when I was at a concert later that afternoon. Ustream gave me a URL telling me where the signal would broadcast to, and then asked me if I wanted to post the link to any of my social networks. After that, all I had to do was hit the “Go Live” button, and I was on, streaming from SXSW! Streaming live makes anything we do an “event”, which makes it a more special occurence than something that can be viewed on-demand at any time later. Huntsable emphasized that the impact of broadcasting one time live, will attract a larger audience than shooting something and posting it later. It gives people a reason to go to your page, in real time, and allows people to engage in a more meaningful way. It is also trackable to discover where your audience is coming from, and records how long they stayed on the stream.

Due to over-scheduling myself, I missed Valerie Casey‘s keynote, but happily found a clip documented here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Valerie Casey consults with start-ups, governments, and companies all over the world on challenges ranging from creating new products and services, to transforming organizational processes and behaviors. She was named a “Guru” of the year by Fortune magazine, a “Hero of the Environment” by Time magazine, and a “Master of Design”by Fast Company. She was also selected as one of the “World’s Most Influential Designers” by BusinessWeek. Valerie is the founder of the Designers Accord, the global coalition of designers, educators, and business leaders working together to create positive and sustainable impact.

I ended the night meeting some of my friends from HUGE over at Ruby’s BBQ for a Lonestar and some Texan barbeque. Little did I know, it had been written up by one of my favorite traveling chef’s, Anthony Bourdain.  Thanks for taking me out for a great night guys!!

I finally have a quiet moment to myself to digest, decompress and formulate information. I have an overwhelming amount of data swarming through my head and need to transcribe it all along with the words scribbled throughout my trusty notebook.

Day 1 began when I left the windy rainstorm that took over NY, as I departed Laguardia at 6AM. I was on 2 hours of sleep and on the cusp of delirium. Somehow in that state of mind I thought it’d be a good idea to upgrade my flight to first class since the self-check in machine asked me if I wanted to. The big shiny button was too enticing not to push. Plus it was 5AM and I was feeling claustrophobic and sleep deprived. Though for the most part I just really wanted some decent space to set up my laptop and do some editing. Yes – Editing at 6AM! I was in the mood for some god awful reason. Most likely motivated by the fact that later that day I was aiming to hit a Final Cut “Supermeetup” that would allow me to share my work with a group of editors. I had to cut down a reel into 10 minutes, so I spent that morning cutting deliriously before the sun rose.

This is my 4th trip to Austin, and yet only my first experience at SXSW. I organized my schedule to reflect over 95 panels during the course of my 5 day stay. Saturday I arrived, just narrowly escaping the hurricane behind me, and got in just in time to catch a conversation late in the day with Ze Frank.

Ze is someone I learned about in college for his witty, weird, spontaneous humor through videos and design concepts. Probably most well known for his “How to Dance Properly” videos. Due to the nature of his off-the-wall ideas, he says he’s always had anxiety over whether or not they’re going to be successful, but that he’d make them regardless of whether or not anyone ever watched them. This only fuels his desire to want to push the envelope, and get his concepts out in public rapidly and faithfully to his viewers. Not only that but he says he strives to do things that have not been done before. He’ll do massive amounts of research and data collecting before starting a project to see if he can be the first one to do it. He deems it a success if you can google an idea and it doesn’t exist yet.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I realize from his talk that I need to pick up my game & brainstorm more.  His ideas are so zany, and so unexpected, that it is a breath of fresh air to hear about, and it leaves me curious to see what else he’ll come up with next. It also reminds me how I can harness that kind of energy to put my own ideas into action, despite any anxiety I might have towards them potentially being too weird, or not good enough. It takes you out of your routine ways of thinking and allow you to start opening up to the unexpected.  For example, when someone asked a boring question about jumping into the freelance world, Ze’s answer was, “I’m a Unicorn!” There is so much to be said for just putting out your craziness into an audience and see what happens.

Later that evening I headed over, DVD in hand, to the Final Cut meet up over at Maggie Mae’s on 6th Street. I immediately met up with one of organizers who was able to show my work on the projection screen and TVs filtered throughout the venue. While it was fun to show work at SXSW to a room full of editors and videographers, it would have been more exciting for me, if it was more of a forum and less of a party. The work on the screens became background videos and we didn’t get enough interaction following up with each artist who showed. For example – there was a guy who showed work before me that almost entirely resembled a brazilian collage animation that I love, yet when I went to ask who’s work it was, the guy presenting the work had no idea. So that was kind of a bust. What made up for it was the $10 raffle ticket I bought, that won me a copy of Adobe’s CS4 Creative Production Premium Suite, worth $1700. I couldn’t have asked for a better first night!

In just a few days I’ll be boarding a plane to Austin, TX to join the SXSW festivities. You will most likely find me sipping a Lonestar and attending something nerdy between the days of March 13th through the 18th. I’ll also be VJing at an event on Congress called House by Southwest on the 17th, (St. Patricks day!)

Keep checking back here to the Dangerblog, because I have decided to create a daily write-up for each day that I’m out there.  I will be experimenting with a pocket Mino HD flipcam lent by my good friend Jack from Steelblender. Thanks Jack!!  It shoots 60 minutes of HD footage, is as tiny as an ipod, and has a built in USB for quick import. I’m sure by the end of this trip I will want one for myself.

I’m looking forward to all of SXSW, documenting the trip and meeting a lot of new folks. Drop me a line if you’re going, or stop by the show on Wednesday night at Silhouette!

I’m VJing for my brother’s band tonight. It’s a special birthday bash for the singer!

8PM-2AM

Friday night was spent running around town and picking the right shade of red to adorn the wall that will be behind my desk at the new Danger Studio.  After much deliberation and speculation under different light sources, I went with Behr’s “Cherry Tart”. It is the most perfectly dangerous red that I could have found!  It’s dark and bold, and has hints of burnt lava orange. Spicy and delicious… I’m in love!

I was very lucky to have such great friends join me, drop in, hang out and help paint, during my first night building up the space. Special thanks to,  Jeff Schram, Liz Squillace, Mike Lupinacci, and Chris Harrington. You guys rock!! It made for a very memorable unofficial opening night for me.

This week the second coat goes on, and over the weekend the furniture will be moved in! I’ll be organizing a studio warming party sometime soon once we get it all together. Gotta start building the bar! (Essential to any good design studio in my opinion.)

]]> http://www.hollydanger.com/blog/and-thus-it-begins/feed/ 2 http://www.hollydanger.com/blog/studio_sxsw/ http://www.hollydanger.com/blog/studio_sxsw/#comments Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:21:13 +0000 hollydanger http://www.hollydanger.com/blog/?p=1181 It’s been quiet over the last few days, as the city has been under blankets of ice & snow.

Two quick pieces of news!

I’m excited to announce that I will be getting my very own studio space dedicated to all of my Danger visuals work!! I was waiting to blog about this until I had some photos to go along, but they will have to wait until after I’ve signed the lease and retrieved my keys. I will be setting up shop at the Loft Artists building in Stamford in just a few days!  More on that to come.

I’ve also just bought a gold pass to the SXSW festival in Austin which starts in a month. I’ll be bringing my VJ equipment along for the ride and see what events might let me hop in. If anyone knows of any opportunities, please send me an email or leave a comment here.

Photo by Mary Woods

Photo by me

Thanks to all who came out to the “Chocolate & I” gallery show last Monday in NY!!  I had so much fun meeting everyone, tasting truffles, and sipping their chocolate margaritas. Mmm. Music, visuals & chocolate are some of my favorite indulgences.

This was the first show of mine where I was able to incorporate both of my projectors at once, split the VGA signals and mirror the images across the beautiful gallery wall. I usually don’t have the luxury of having so much space and freedom, but this felt absolutely wonderful to break free of the singular image and experiment with some new ideas.

To think, just over a year ago I didn’t even own any of the equipment to be able to perform like I can now. I had always wanted to, but it seemed overwhelming. It’s quite an investment:  laptops, mixers, projectors, cables, stands & adapters. Now after a year of experimentation, and slowly accumulating a studios worth of equipment, I can’t imagine my life without performing. I’m inspired in new directions from each and every show.

If anyone reading this photographed the night I would love to see your collection!!  Feel free to send me an email, or post them here.

Video soon to come!

To celebrate some good news that I will be posting about in upcoming days, I’ll be giving out my new DANGER PINS at the next few performances. Just come over and say hi!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If any of you are in the CT area on this snowy friday evening, I will be projecting some videos over at the City Lights Gallery in Bridgeport from 6-11pm tonight. Thanks to Liz of Paradox Ink for inviting me!

I picked out 10 of my favorite experimental pieces that I worked on in 2009 and this will be the first time they are landing on gallery walls. I’m sure at some point in the evening I’ll end up free-form VJing a bit too.

City Lights gallery is debuting their first Nu Media show, involving a mixed collection of video art, short films, and  animation. Hope to see you!

City Lights Gallery is located at 37 Markle Court Bridgeport, CT 06604  : $5 Entry fee

Kodomo + Danger Monkey town - 1/2/10

Thanks to everyone who made it out on Saturday night! It was another sold out show at Monkey Town and I had so much fun hanging out with all of you. Special thanks to Cutlery for inviting us to play, and special thanks to my brother who made it out to see us for the first time.

Kodomo & I debuted some new material which got a lot of great feedback.  Here is an early video version of what I cut up and re-mixed at the show for the new track. The original animation was not created by me, it was black and white, and used for a Raveonettes video.

Click here to view the embedded video.