Some things just have to be seen to be understood.
Like a cross between the control panels on Star Trek’s Spaceship Enterprise and the scene in Alice in Wonderland where Alice falls down the rabbit hole, A State of Sound’s projection screen took nightclub visuals to a whole new level last Friday with video mapping.
After nearly 70 hours of preparation that included the construction of the set, 3D preplanning and video creation, the oddly-shaped screen came to life as Burn Electric (Stephan Kostarelis and Dominik Tyliszczak aka Dominik Hooker) played, and continued throughout Genetically Modified Beats’ (Eben Pretorius and Matt Chisholm) set.
PHOTO COURTESY OF DERICK CHEN
Tyliszczak explained his idea: “Video mapping is an exciting new area of visual arts as it bridges the worlds of suspended disbelief that is video and film and the tangible, in a fashion that people relate to more than the ones created with 3D. It’s not a replacement for 3D, but rather runs parallel to it, injecting the imagination of the artist into real world spaces.”
Though the set is too big to make the trip to Kaohsiung tomorrow, Dominik Hooker and Genetically Modified Beats perform from 11pm to 7am at Brickyard, B1, 507, Jhongshan 2nd Rd, Cianjin Dist, Kaohsiung City (高雄市前金區中山二路507號B1). Admission is NT$350 for men and NT$150 for women or NT$250 for men and NT$100 for women with student ID before midnight.
While the south gets a taste of the north’s local talent this weekend, the north is hosting three superstar DJs. Tonight Armin van Buuren, the world’s number one DJ for three years running, plays at Luxy.
PHOTO COURTESY OF VERY ASPECT
Armin van Buuren, tonight from 10pm to 4am at Luxy, 5F, 201, Zhongxiao E Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市忠孝東路四段201號5樓). Call (02) 2772-1000 or 0955-904-600 for reservations (English service available). On the Net: www.luxy-taipei.com. Tickets are NT$1,300. All the tables are booked and advance tickets are sold out, so it’s advisable to get there early.
Usually, Saturdays are the big night out on the town, but this weekend Sunday night sees a legend go head to head with one of the hottest up-and-coming producers in the world.
Just hearing the name Fatboy Slim (Norman Cook) conjures up images of hundreds of thousands of
partygoers writhing their bodies on a beach to the line Check it out now/It’s the funk soul brother, from The Rockafeller Skank.
Fatboy Slim — The Legend Returns Party (流線胖小子終極回歸派對), Sunday from 9pm at Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall 2 (台北世貿二館), 3 Songlian Rd, Taipei City (台北市松廉路3號). Advance tickets are NT$1,800, available from Room 18, B1, 88 Songren Rd, Taipei City (台北市松仁路88號B1), and NT$2,500 at the door.
Hipsters in their early 20s might not know much about Fatboy Slim, but they will know Boys Noize (Alexander Ridha), and will be out in full force, dancing to his remixes of N.E.R.D, The Chemical Brothers and Chromeo.
Boys Noize Uber Asia tour, from 10pm on Sunday at Spark, B1, 45 Shifu Rd, Taipei City (台北市市府路45號B1). Admission: NT$800 in advance, NT$1,000 at the door. On the Net: www.spark101.com.tw.
Tip: To those that want to see Fatboy Slim and Boys Noize, the former goes on at 11pm, the latter at 1am.
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
This year’s Michelin Gourmand Bib sported 16 new entries in the 126-strong Taiwan directory. The fight for the best braised pork rice and the crispiest scallion pancake painstakingly continued, but what stood out in the lineup this year? Pang Taqueria (胖塔可利亞); Taiwan’s first Michelin-recommended Mexican restaurant. Chef Charles Chen (陳治宇) is a self-confessed Americophile, earning his chef whites at a fine-dining Latin-American fusion restaurant. But what makes this Xinyi (信義) spot stand head and shoulders above Taipei’s existing Mexican offerings? The authenticity. The produce. The care. AUTHENTIC EATS In my time on the island, I have caved too many times to
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not