Cool collage: Waste into Art

For the past several days I've been seeing a group of students busily doing an "art project" on the side of the building that's on the way from my office to the school cafeteria. (Usually that's not a good sign...but it is Singapore...you can't do too many bad things here!). On closer inspection, I was seriously impressed.

Here's a student working on it. The tools are simple. Used aluminium cans of various colors, a paper background with the design outlined, and some hardy glue, and of course people to do the work :-)

If you look closer, you'll see the remnants of drink cans (many are Asian specific drinks, so you may not recognize them). Some of the white pieces are pieces of Diet coke cans, the red pieces are from coca cola cans, and the black from coke zero!!

The kids were undergraduates in the Law program at NUS. They have to put together a float for their department, during some Uni parade. Low on funds, one insightful person came up with this design. I LIKE!!

Sita Sings the Blues

(photo from Ninapaley.com)

I came across this extraordinarily creative endeavor by chance (and through a friend). Nina Paley is a gifted animator who took her personal story and layered it with the Hindu epic, the Ramayana to make a phenomenal story called Sita Sings the Blues. It brings together beautiful animation styles, blues music, shadow puppetry, and humor into a modern version of the ancient epic.

There are a few inaccuracies in the story of the Ramayana, but by-and-large Paley gets the point across very well; and I greatly appreciated the creativity and art of her final product.

Probably most impressively, Paley has released the entire length of the film under a "creative commons" License so that anyone anywhere can view it. You can also download pictures and make your own merchandise out of it. Unfortunately I can't embed the film. But you can view it in its entire length here.

I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend watching it.

Finally, here is Paley's personal website and the Sita Sings the Blues website. A teaser is also embedded below.



(Hat tip to Chickpea at the Garbanzo Bean)