Are we on a highway to hell? A road to nowhere? Fellow colleageus,
welcome to the first "issue" of PY-TV, and when we say issue, we
don't mean "publication" that you pick up at the news agent or drug
store, we mean theme. In our first issue "APOCALYPSE?...JUST NOW."
we look at how in just twelve months the world has veered from dire
concerns about global warming and the so-called war on terror, to
grave concerns about the economic meltdown which continues to grow
in severity every week. How are you going to deal with it? What are
the impacts on your life, your career and your creative output?
Yes, its not very Christmassy is it? But its real, and its
EVERYWHERE. From Los Angeles, to Sydney, to London, to Cape Town,
the credit crunch is sparking a world-wide recession that by most
accounts is unprecedented, certainly in our lifetime. In shipping,
rental rates have dropped by 96%. Commodities are tumbling, and
retrenchment in major corporations is rampant. How does this affect
you dear reader? You of the artistic persuasion? Well read further
and find out! In the next issue, we hope to bring a silver lining
to this cloud, titled DUTY-TO-BEAUTY. We hope we all still have the
bandwidth by then! - Ed.
"CRISIS?
WHAT CRISIS?" Award winning Creative Director of Ogilvie
& Mather (Johannesburg) JONATHAN BEGGS chats to Los Angeles
based, fellow award winning colleague CRAIG CRAWFORD of Team
One/Saatchi & Saatchi about the global gloom and how
advertising agencies are coping structurally and conceptually with
the economic downturn. It's all their fault really innit?
"SOMETHING
FISHY" ONTARIO ART GALLERY REVAMP BY FRANK GEHRY : Toronto
based architect and writer LEN ABELMAN takes a look at the newly
revamped Ontario Art Gallery by Frank Gehry, a building that is
receiving a rapturous welcoming by the locals, but of course we are
going to trawl a little deeper than that!
"THE
DEATH OF LUXURY?" Cape Town based trendmeister and
all-round style guru BRAD ARMITAGE investigates the global
redefinition of
luxury and
value in lifestyle goods
and services.
"DIGGIN'
DIRTBIN". Last week, PY-TV Editor-in-Chief, DON ALBERT
shared a glass of cold water with I.D. Magazine cover stars
disturbance's all-too-modest RICHARD HART, to discuss disturbance,
the inadequacy of trend forecasting, disturbance's recent book
"These are a few of our favourite things...", and the up's and
downs of working with integrity and singularity in the Manchester
of the South African design industry, DURBAN!
"ITS
A WOODEN WORLD" Cameron Platter Studio exhibition at NSA
Gallery, Duban : Durban's arts writer PETER MACHEN speaks to
Cameron Platter about Studio, his interactive exhibition that has
the edge of an outsider artist and is as quirky as anything he has
produced.
"THANK YOU FOR NOT FUCKING" In a hard-hitting opinion
piece, Pretoria based Architect and lecturer GORDON JUBBER takes an
oblique view of corporate "green" programmes and dispels some of
the myth attached to so-called Green innovation - and proposes a
more practical and ethical solution!
"BET YOUR BOTTOM ABDULLAH" Creative Sonovabitch HEDMECHANIC
reviews South African Jazz Legend Abdullah Ibrahim's first Durban
show in 12 years and emerges a convert and patriot.
"OPTION
APATHY" Information Design Theorist BRUCE GOURLEY draws the
line between traditional and emerging forms of literacy.
"THE
BLACK WIDOW" South African opera don RICHARD BREYTENBACH
unpicks Cape Town artist Pierre Fouche's latest jaw-droppingly
mental exhibition at Bell Roberts Gallery, Cape Town.
"STARS
AND TRIPE" Cape Town based Architect DON ALBERT reviews the
comprehensive Andy Warhol retrospective at the Hayward Gallery,
London and thanks heaven for Sigue Sigue Sputnik and low bandwidth
media.
"OASIS?"
University of Cape Town Property Studies graduate ANDREAS GERDES
compares two vastly different lower income shopping centres in the
greater Cape Town area and suggests ways of improving their amenity
and aesthetics.
COOLING TOWER RENAISSANCE One time native to the area, NATASHA
SAMUEL, ponders the future of Lethabo Power Station in the Vaal
region of South Africa and invites others to look at cooling towers
as a new, formiddable force for renewable energy in addition to the
potential of providing housing of the future. Last but not least,
CATHERINE THE GREAT LIVES: In just four years Catherine Deane
has religiously perfected a brand that is set to convert globaly.
TERRENCE BRAY speaks with Catherine to discover her mission.
