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by Molly McCall
Wed, December 05, 2007, 8:00 am PST

Bring up "street art" and most people imagine the sides of buildings treated artfully—or hurriedly—with graffiti, stencils, or stickers. Thanks to the artist Slinkachu, some people may also think: "little hand painted people, left in London to fend for themselves."

For a year and a half, the photographer and artist Slinkachu—no other name needed, thanks—has posed diminutive human figures around the U.K.'s capital in positions of longing, trouble, repose, or despair.

His blog documenting the poses, appropriately titled "Little People: A Tiny Street Art Project," quickly caught on with the Web's art and whimsy-minded citizenry. It has since garnered praise both online and off. Slinkachu now has a deal with a press to print and sell selected Little People shots. In September, he participated in a street and urban art show in Norway.

We wrote about Little People last September. Recently, we emailed the mysterious Slinkachu to see what he'd be willing to divulge about his activities since then...

Hey, Slinkachu. We had so much fun writing about Little People. Is coming up with the shots and posing the tiny figures as enjoyable as we imagine it to be?

It can be fun, especially seeing the final piece in place. A few weeks back, I was setting up an installation around a dog poo, though, and that wasn't so much fun. Read the full profile...

by Molly McCall
Thu, August 09, 2007, 3:00 am PDT

Consider the stray shopping cart. Ignored, derided, or abandoned—the four-wheeled pushcart rarely earns an understanding glance, much less an intricate classification of its species. Until Julian Montague came along. This artistic and scientific wunderkind has come up with an intricate taxonomy of shopping carts that have wandered from, or been shoved off, their natural habitats. Ponder first, Class A: the "false strays." See how they linger, possibly confused. Next, peruse Class B: "true strays." These bold contraptions have become true outsiders, exiled from their parking lot brethren. Site studies in Cleveland, Niagara Gorge, and along the Scajaquada Creek in Buffalo, NY have turned up fascinating and, yes, moving documentation of both types. But what of the shopping carts in your neighborhood? Wait no longer—observe, document, and classify!
by Molly McCall
Wed, July 11, 2007, 8:00 am PDT

Kandyce likes bonfires. Andrew has a penchant for paperclips. And Kristen is keen for subtitles, postage, and "saying hello." Well, hello. This group—along with Jessica (knuckle-cracking), Lily (tomatoes), and Sam (negative ions)—make up the Urban Curators, a merry band of design students who have turned the most ravaged walls and overgrown lots of Providence, Rhode Island into their own public gallery.

Here's how it started. Reportedly introduced at a workshop on Semiotic Disobedience at the Rhode Island School of Design, the artists discovered that they have one predilection in common: a passion for urban disrepair. They tracked down frames. They coated the squares with gold paint. And they fanned out across their adopted city looking for boarded-up windows, graffiti-marked walls, and any spot that's seen its day—and ready to be showed off. Framed and photographed, even the most despairing surface takes on a special gleam.

Browse through the photos on their site; watch the videos; leave a comment if you'd like. And then, make like the urban curators and take new note of the aging, neglected parts of your town. You may find your own inner city museum.

by Molly McCall
Wed, July 04, 2007, 8:00 am PDT

In 2005, two young natives of Finland single handedly put their Nordic country on the e-map of global style. Liisa Jokinen and Sampo Karjalainen—club-haunting, camera-toting, enthusiasts of hip—launched Hel Looks, a site devoted to Helsinki street fashion. It remains to this day one of the leading examples of urban (and non-commercial) cool online.

Liisa and Sampo's site topped our list for 2005's Picks of the Year. When we checked in with Liisa recently, she told us how people are reacting to the Finnish fashionistas these days, whether they're still inspired by the sidewalks of Tokyo, and how Hel Looks continues to surprise them after all this time...

Hey Liisa, how do people react on the street when you approach them for a photo?

99% say yes and they give me a big smile. They understand it's a compliment when asked for a picture.  Read the full profile...

by Molly McCall
Mon, April 23, 2007, 3:00 am PDT

Of the thousands of entries gathered by The Visual Dictionary in its one year and two months of existence, "stop" flares up the most. "Exit" beats a hasty path to #2. "Fire," "love," and "the" follow. The dictionary, which, as its creator acknowledges, is really more of a "lexography" than anything else, serves as a kind of typographers' dream collection. Here, words of all sizes and shapes guide, promote, advertise, explain, warn, woo, and linger. They light up, establish authority, and melt away. They are "words in the real world"—and we like them that way, raw and natural. Browse recent submissions, check out the editor's selection, jump in randomly, or move methodically from A to Z. If you're inclined, you can register and contribute. You never know what kind of letter love may come back to you.


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