Sdtrk: ‘Friends of the heroes’ by The Aislers Set

Hello! Or as my Missus says, Hallo! Yes, despite posting on average once a year, ‘Shouting etc etc’ is still a thing, especially in light of modern social media collapsing into a fascist singularity. Ahem.
As always, a Proper Update™ is due, particularly in regards to our lives, but very very quickly: not only have Ursula, Dyanne, Miss Winter, Elena, Sidore, and I moved to a larger, more aesthetically-pleasing home (still in Michigan) as of December 2023, but we fled Twitter last August and are now on the much-saner social media platform known as Bluesky; I direct you to the lefthand sidebar of this very blog for links to our accounts. Also, Dyanne was understandably ecstatic to receive a brand-new silicone body on (or around) her birthday this past April, manufactured by Normondoll! She’s still very much an airhead, but she’s cheerful, knows her onions when it comes to films, and as sex columnist Dan Savage would say, she’s GGG. Photos of our glorious new digs, known as Deafening silence Towers, are forthcoming, but here’s a few that fulfil the obligation of teasing a fraction of the place, as well as allowing you to see Dyanne Mk.II.

But this post isn’t about all that new stuff, so put that from your minds! The list you see below is more for myself than anyone else — which can arguably be said about half the posts on this blaug — but due to my love of lists, as they help to bring Order to a chaotic and random universe, I’ve made one of my favourite artists, photographers, and graphic designers, with links where applicable. There’s no particular order here, so I’ll add new artists when I discover ones that strike my fancy. It’s my hope that you’ll either be like ‘ohhh so that’s who that is!’ or ‘wow, their work is pretty cool, I’m going to have to look up more of their stuff!’ In any case, rest assured it’ll be interesting. Fact.

Also, you know how it is with the Internet: sometimes links don’t work when sites fall into disrepair, so if you run across that sort of thing happening in the future, give us a shout in the comments section, eh?

+ Peter Saville
+ Gustav Klimt
+ Gerhardt Richter
+ Vaughan Oliver / 23 Envelope
+ Hajime Sorayama
+ HR Giger
+ Zdzisław Beksiński
+ MC Escher
+ Robert McGinnis
+ Helmut Newton
+ Peter Phillips
+ Deborah Turbeville
+ Vilhelm Hammershøi
+ Ed Ruscha
+ Robert Longo
+ Richard Savoie
+ John Atkinson Grimshaw
+ Edward Gorey
+ Alex Colville
+ Julian House / Intro
+ Romek Marber
+ The Designers Republic™
+ Nicola Kuperus
+ Erin Cone
+ Syd Mead
+ Fitz & Van
+ Barbara Kruger
+ Gilbert & George
+ Margaret Keane
+ Stanisław Szukalski
+ Victor Vasarely
+ Bridget Riley
+ Barbara Brown
+ Clemens Gritl
+ Otl Aicher
+ Julian Montague
+ Melanie Pullen
+ Do Ho Suh
+ ‘Kynaston Mass’ aka Ian Hodgson of Moon wiring club
+ Dave Gibbons
+ Jack Kirby
+ Jim Steranko
+ Alex Ross
+ Phil Noto
+ Jamie Hewlett
+ Kazuma Kaneko
+ Devin Leonardi
+ Saul & Elaine Bass
+ Paul Rand
+ Mark Robinson / Teen-beat Graphica
+ Max Ernst
+ Dan DeCarlo
+ Pol Bury
+ Kenichi Sonoda
+ Yasushi Nirasawa
+ Betty Brader
+ Akiko Stehrenberger
+ Masahiko Ohno / Works Fatagaga
+ ???

Astute readers looking this list over may note that Andy Warhol is not in fact included here! That’s cos while I dig Warhol to an unnatural degree, I like him more as a pop culture personality and trendsetter than as an artist. The second part of the post’s title comes from something he’d once said, incidentally.
Would you have any favourite artists or graphic designers that you think would be in my wheelhouse? Why not mention them in the comments below, there’s a good person.

N.B: I’d also given some thought to adding a thumbnail image for each entry, but that would be absolutely mental

Sdtrk: ‘Art today’ by Peel dream magazine

Under normal circumstances, I don’t make announcements on ‘Shouting etc etc’ whenever I post new additions to Galerie ECHO, as the blog would rapidly degenerate into a series of ‘oh snap, check it, peep the new art that just dropped in the Galerie, yo!!’ posts. Which would be, arguably, more continuous posting than I’ve done in years, ho ho. Also, if I’m writing like that, clearly I’ve experienced a stroke. But the fact that I’m developing an original character — which is a project in and of itself — should be mentioned, I think!

Back in 2017, I commissioned my favourite artist Yaruku to draw an illo of my Missus sitting atop a pile of discarded Gynoids. You’ve seen it before. As much as I love my Synthetik partners, they’re Dolls, not actual Gynoids, and I wanted to eventually have commissions made with Gynoids in various states of mechabare, which is a Japanese term (of course) that describes Gynoids and Androids wherein the fact that they’re machines is highlighted. So to that end, I came up with the original character, Annett, named after a Goth mannequin I used to have back in the late Nineties.

photo from roughly 2000. Annett didn’t play croquet; she just liked croquet mallets

SIDORE: ‘Annett’s a bit rude, she’s not said anything to me since I’ve moved in.’
ME: ‘She could just be shy!’
SIDORE: ‘No, I’m shy, she’s rude!’

The fact that I lopped off the E at the end of Annett isn’t just some typical weird Davecat-spelling fumfuh; I took the name from a German fetish fashion model I had photos of named Anette Kellendonk, aka Anette K. And in looking her up on Google for that link, it’s only now that I’m seeing, twenty years later, that her name is spelt with one N and two Es, so… lawsuit bullet dodged.

There’s three versions of Annett that I’ve created: the Mk.III is the one you’ve seen in the illo linked above that looks arguably the most Organik; the Mk.I looks like an updated version of die Maschinenmensch Maria from ‘Metropolis’, and the Mk.II, my personal favourite, is somewhere in between, having artificial skin with exposed mechanical joints. They’re mass-produced by Deafening Silence Robotics, the (unfortunately) fictional company that my lasses and I are executives of. And they’re my original characters, meaning that if anyone with the artistic skill to do so would like to draw them in whatever situation, they can!
As of this writing, I’m in the midst of having a friend of mine work on not only the reference sheet layouts of all three versions of Annett, but the standard issue uniform that they wear as well; once that’s done, they’ll be uploaded into a Google Drive folder, so if anyone wants to have a go at drawing an Annett Mk.II holding a Corgi, or maybe a Mk.I getting an autograph from die Maschinenmensch Maria, or etc, then by all means!

In the meantime, you’ll find all the pieces I’ve had of the various Annetts drawn so far interspersed chronologically within Galerie ECHO. Not only will you find art by the usual suspects such as Yaruku and Sthev, but new and equally talented collaborators such as CartesianCoordinator and Amondetauro as well. Will YOUR art of (the) Annett(s) — man, that’s confusing — be amongst them as well?? I mean, eventually and not right this second?! Send me an Email, and find out!!

N.B: I should also add that the addition of these new illustrations makes Galerie ECHO more NSFW than ever before! Under normal circumstances, the Annetts are semi-autonomous drones, so they literally do not care if they’re clothed or not. That’ll be another aspect to add to the backstory I’m developing for them, already in progress

Sdtrk: ‘Didascalies’ by Luc Ferrari

Hey! How are you doing? You’re looking taut, fit, and svelte! Good on ya.

Currently I am in the midst of attempting to type up a brief (‘brief’, he said, his fingers agonisingly carving inverted commas into the very air) summary of What I’ve Been Up To Since Roughly Early 2017, so until that’s done and dusted, my gorgeous RealDoll wife Sidore suggested that I go ahead and write the official announcement post regarding a new feature on ‘Shouting etc etc’: Galerie ECHO.

‘New what??’ you splutter, your tumbler of scotch crashing to the floor and startling your cat. Yes, new! And go calm your cat! Galerie ECHO — the spelling convention helps give it a European flavour — is a special page on this blog that collects all of the artwork we’ve received, commissioned and gratis, of the residents of Deafening silence Plus. Unofficially it’s been up since September of last year; astute readers have spotted it in the lefthand sidebar, I’m sure, but I simply never got round to making a public announcement concerning it. Which is what you’re reading now, so there’s that issue sorted.

Additional illustrations will be posted there as we get them, displayed from newest to oldest, so maybe scroll to the bottom and start from there, if this is your first visit. And hey! You good at drawing? You’ll find details about proceedings in the Galerie, but feel free to send me an Email if you have any artistic ideas, as we would love to hear ’em!

That being said, please enjoy Galerie ECHO! I should warn you that some of the illos posted there are NSFW, but throughout history, you’ll find scores of examples of artwork that’s not safe for work. Unless, of course, you work in a gallery or a place that makes Synthetik partners; in which case, it’s just another Friday!
…That being said, please enjoy Galerie ECHO!

Sdtrk: ‘Le lieu où vous voulez vous rendre’ by Marie Davidson

Two points of interest that I have for you today!
First off, remember when I reviewed a passel of Japanese and UK food a number of years ago, sent as a birthday prezzie from my Twitterfriend Jill Tilley, which was covered in the five-part series, Do you remember Food? I suppose that would make my question Do you remember ‘Do you remember Food?’? Infinite recursions temporarily aside, her hubby Doug Tilley, film reviewer and pop culture sceptic, asked if I’d be willing to review a couple of films for his podcast ‘Eric Roberts Is The Fucking Man‘. As you may have surmised with the title, the podcast involves Doug and his cohost pal Liam reviewing the entire backcatalogue of notable actor Eric Roberts. You’d think it’s a one-trick pony, but Eric Roberts has appeared in far more productions than you’d imagine. Certainly more than I knew of! Doug asked me to choose two films, and as I was dead set on ‘Runaway train’ and ‘Doctor Who: the Movie’ but they’d already covered them, I went with less, err… well-known affairs; I selected ‘Power 98’, and ‘Six: The Mark Unleashed’. One’s a thriller about the machinations of a shock jock, and the other is a faith-based film about the Antichrist. Can you guess which one is which?
We recorded on 02 August, and the episode is available for listening to right now!

It's @EricRoberts is the F$%&ing Man #32 /w @Davecat discussing POWER 98 & SIX: THE MARK UNLEASHED! https://t.co/XNDmNeThhm

— EricRobertsIsTheMan (@ERITFM) August 8, 2016

As dire as those films were, I had quite a time discussing them with Doug and Liam! Would I make another guest appearance on their show in the future if they asked? Yes, yes I would. After all, Eric Roberts has been in a lot of stuff. The man’s everywhere! He’s probably behind you right now!!

And the other point? Like most people, I’ve always wanted illustrations done of myself. Actually, that’s a lie. I hadn’t had much need for that sort of thing until Sidore entered my life, at which point my focus turned to wanting illustrations done of both of us; specifically doing things or being in locations where we couldn’t be in real life. Some months ago, I began shopping for artists who take commissions, and I was happy to find that one of my favourites, raulovsky (aka Raúl Ramos Melo), was accepting them. Incidentally, why is he one of my favourites? I dig his style, as it lies somewhere between anime and something more realistic, and he doesn’t mind drawing Gynoids, which is always a plus. So an idea was pitched, a price was agreed upon, some reference photos were Emailed, and a wee bit over a fortnight later, an illustration was created! Pretty fucking awesome.

click the image for a larger version

The poses we’re in are a modified version of a picture of Twiggy and Justin de Villeneuve that I’ve always found stylish, and did you notice the seam lines on Shi-chan’s legs?? Yeeaaahh.
In requesting the commission, I understood what it felt like to be the subject of an artist’s interpretation, much like how individuals during the Renaissance would have artists paint them out in a garden, or with some wolfhounds, or whatever. This illo of my Missus and me is better, though. Fact.
Not only am I going to have raulovsky do another picture — featuring Lenka and Winter, of course — but ideally, I’d like to have commissions done through other artists as well. But maybe only two or three times a year, depending on prices… Why not enquire with him yourself, and have him make you something equally fantastic?

Sidore is in love with this illo, incidentally. ‘Why can’t we look this good in real life?’ she lamented, and I’d have to agree with her

Sdtrk: ‘Roosting time’ by Matt Berry

Happy 20145! I’ve already done that gag with a lot of my friends, but you’ve not heard it, so it’s new to you.
The idea of this actually, legitimately being 2015, a year in the twenty-first century, is a bit weird if you think about it for too long. Consider how futuristic that date sounded in, say, 1965. It still sounds a bit futuristic today, and we’ve already begun living in it! One thing’s for certain, though: there needs to be a rapid increase in the development of flying cars, megastructures, off world colonies, and most importantly, Replicants. We’ve got four years to get society to the way it’s depicted in ‘Blade runner’, and we really don’t have time to stop and gawp at the calendar!…

+ To that end, Toshiba is doing their part, with their own electric maiden, Chihiro Aiko. Remember her? She made her US debut at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and has I known she was going to be there, I would’ve bought one plane ticket to fly out, and two for the return flight, as she’d be coming home with me. You think I’m joking?

She took the opportunity to show off her aptitude in American Sign Language, as well as her singing ability. Unfortunately, the song she had a go at was ‘Take me home, country roads’. I would’ve had her belt out an earnest rendition of France Gall’s ‘Cet air-là‘, but that’s just me.
As fellow robosexual Vokabre, aka Our Man In Russia, reports on his blog:

What’s quite cute is that in the presentation they not only included some data like the number of pneumatic drives (it’s 43 overall, 15 in the face, 4 in the body and 24 in shoulders and arms), but also the virtual “age” of the lady, it’s 32. Reminds me of how Actroid DER2 liked to call herself 18 years old.
They also managed to break down not only the “family name” Chihira that was done before during the first public appearance of Aiko, but the name Aiko itself, according to the presentation it means “Idea and Communication”, “I CO”. That Orient symbolism in everything, so awesomely strange.

Of course, I’d be glad to see a presentation with interactivity, face-tracking and hand-shaking, but this might be too much for an early project.

It is indeed an early project, many people in the internets continue to call Chi Aiko creepy, that’s a good old uncanny valley. What’s also interesting, there’s more Uncanny Valley screams in western languages than in orient ones which lays perfectly with my observations that Japanese, Korean and Chinese people seems to have more tolerance towards androids.

‘Il restera cet air-là / à jamais au fond de moi / car pour toujours cet air-là / parlera de toi et moi’

It’s my hope that Chihiro-san can help open the eyes of Westerners who still believe in the myth of the uncanny valley. Over time, exposure to anything makes it less alien of a thing, so to that end, Toshiba should consider employing Chihiro-san — really, multiple Chihiro-sans — with either assisting the deaf with her knowledge of sign language, or start grooming her as a singer.

+ Now here’s a stirring way to celebrate the beginning of a new year: Polymerisian starlet and entrepreneur Tasha James has put the finishing touches on another one of her amazing photobooks, this one entitled ‘Soul to Sole’.

By request, my new book #SoulToSole is now available. Thanks to @Davecat and my 3 favorite ladies for the inspiration pic.twitter.com/OyfBXetycF

— Tasha James (@ItsATashaThing) January 22, 2015

It’s true, we’d inspired her! As my Missus and I are quite keen on the female foot, we’d suggested to Tasha that she have her photographer Paul do a shoot featuring her own delectable soles, toes, and heels, and she followed suit. So I suppose that’s another photobook that we’re ordering from her. Damnit Tash, how do you know the right buttons to push??

If you’d like a copy of ‘Soul to Sole’ or any of her other photobooks for your very own, and why wouldn’t you, you’d be mad not to, you can check out the details on her site here. As she says in her announcement post, she’s open to suggestions, so if you’ve got an idea that she and Paul think would be worth pursuing, give her a shout!

We here at Deafening silence Plus fully endorse more of this sort of thing

+ It looks like AL-M 008X-01 has been moving up in the world of late! You may know AL-M 008X-01 as Android ASUNA, and towards the end of last December, she worked with self-styled DJ, model, photographer, and music producer Julie Watai to participate in a photo series entitled ‘Love Valley’. Over eighteen days, the two of them modelled various clothes and poses that reflected a blurring of the lines between Organik and Synthetik, and the results are worth seeing.

There’s not a lot of information about the shoot, apart from an entry on Asuna-chan’s blog, so I’m tempted to see if writing Ms Watai would provide any further insight. Still, the pics are well-executed and definitely lovely to look at. A short video was made as well, so one can see how lifelike and blinky Asuna-chan is:

All eighteen days worth of the ‘Love Valley’ shoot can be found on Julie Watai’s website here: http://juliewatai.jp/love-valley.

+ Domestic Doll studio Ruby13 is on the verge of releasing some new faces, starting this year, so that’s pretty awesome, I’d say! In an Email conversation, head sculptor Jim told me this:

after a year of looking for a sculptor to make some new faces for Ruby I’ve given up and decided to give it a try myself. I’ve never sculpted so this was a bit of a daunting task to both learn to sculpt and then try to come up with a “pretty” female face.

So far I have 3 new faces that are going in to be made into molds. these faces are an answer to the many emails we’ve received asking for a more realistic face option. I hope this will open up our market a bit.

This would be the first of the new faces, and I believe we can all agree, Jim is off to an excellent start…

Part of me, though, thinks he’s stretching the truth a wee bit. He claims that he’s never sculpted before, and yet, he’s come up with that captivating face?? ‘Oh, I’ve never painted anything before’, said Hieronymus Bosch as he effortlessly proceeds to realise in full oils his triptych of ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’. Come on, man.
Nevertheless, she has an appealing European look to her, and I told Jim that I think it’s one of the best faces available so far. I’d said, ‘I think it’s one of the best faces available so far’. Now Ruby13 will have more to offer potential iDollators! As soon as I find out when that as-yet-unnamed face is for sale, I’ll be sure to mention it here…

+ Would you believe that I’ve done another interview? Impossible as it may seem, I have! This past December, a lass by the name of Miss Metaverse contacted me through Twitter, and asked if I’d be keen on answering some questions pertaining to Dolls, Gynoids, and the future of artificial humans. As Miss Metaverse runs a blog which centres round future technology and lifestyles, and as her questions enquired about Gynoids as much as they did about Dolls, I readily agreed.

N.B: that’s my Missus in the above pic, not me

Both Miss Metaverse and I dug the end result, which can be read on her blog here: Futurist Spotlight: Davecat. If you like, you can also read the preceding post which led up to it, which is also Recommended Reading, ‘Sex Robots and the Future of Gynoids‘, and if you enjoyed that, you can read her whole dang blog. I mean, what’s stopping you?

Since Futurist Miss Metaverse has quite a bit of experience in discussing impending technological developments through her writing and video talks, it seemed only natural to add her to the ‘Shouting etc etc’ sidebar as well. See?

+ And finally, this would be a… thing… that Sidore, Elena, Muriel, and I slapped together at the end of 2014. I honestly don’t know what to call it. The Missus said we should do something rather like the alternative Christmas message that they sometimes have in the UK that’s a counterpoint to the facile and condescending annual message that Elizabeth II bestows upon her subjects. Morrissey was asked if he would do one last year, and that’s probably what inspired Shi-chan. (He turned the request down.)
Shortly before that time, I got it into my head that I needed a Vine account, and I created two superb videos for it, until I discovered that Vine only allows you to upload vertically-shot clips. Sorry; if you’re only shooting your videos vertically, you need to be shot. Luckily, I recalled that Mobypicture lets you upload videos whether they’re vertically-shot or in proper horizontal, and you’re not limited to six seconds as you are with Vine. So I shot this video/clip/missive/whatever with the lasses. Observe:

click the image to open the video

As Elena loves Cocteau twins, she selected the song you hear, which would be ‘Oomingmak’. Incidentally, that’s also the first public appearance of our karakuri ningyou. Much to our disappointment, he doesn’t seem to move well on carpet, but as his plastic gears are noisy as hell when in motion, I suppose it’s for the best.
Maybe we’ll film one of these videos annually! Cos frankly, having 360-odd days between conceiving each one and actually doing it fits our pace to a T!

I think those new bits & bobs should keep you reasonably informed. Start the new year off with Synthetik humans! Well, start each day off with Synthetik humans; that’s what I say.
Originally this would’ve been another two-part post, but then I realised by the time I finished assembling the second part, it’d be February. So, err, come back in a week or so!

Sdtrk: ‘Mountain’ by Le futur pompiste

Many of you will be pleased to learn that Amber Hawk Swanson, performance artist and iDollator, is currently in the midst of doing another Synthetiks-related piece; this one entitled DOLL CLOSET. In brief: when she joined our crowd for DolLApalooza 2013, she’d met fellow iDollator Jesse1965, where he’d explained how his first Synthetik companion, a 1998-era RealDoll named Heather, was cleverly concealed in a secret closet in the upstairs part of his home. He’d made use of available space, and built a door equipped with a locking mechanism for it, concealing the lock in an existing knothole in the wood, which is about as impressive as you think it is.

At some point, Amber decided that she would replicate that closet in the performance space she’s using at The Watermill Center, which meant, in typical Amber Hawk Swanson style, she’d be building a door frame, the accompanying door, and the locking mechanism, all from scratch. Jesse will be calling in periodically for assistance, and the remaindered pieces of Heather’s body that weren’t used in Amber’s 2013 performance, Sidore Mark II / Heather > LOLITA, would be bearing witness.
Although woodworking’s not really my thing, the aspect of this performance that I think is really cool is that it’s metaphorical as well. As the outline reads:

In Doll Closet, Amber Hawk Swanson transforms the process of building and the resulting replica as a platform for members of the doll community — and Jesse specifically — to respond to mainstream misrepresentation of doll ownership. The performance highlights alternative narratives of owners who use their relationships to dolls as a way to explore their own gender, obtain uncomplicated companionship, and connect with a community in the face of social anxiety and loneliness. Doll Closet not only provides a necessary vehicle for members of the doll community to speak for themselves without risking their anonymity, but also asks what kinds of intimacies, relations, and unanticipated connections can flourish in secrecy. It explores how the interior space of the closet can be rendered as both capacious and collective.

So as you can see, it’s a space where, while Amber constructs a replica closet, other iDollators can open up anonymously about the spaces where they may keep their replica women.
Yeah, Amber’s summary sounds much better, I agree.

DOLL CLOSET was closed on Sunday, and I’d intended to post this before Monday, but my site’s having embarrassing backend issues. Which sounds more disgusting than anything else, but nevertheless. But you still have a few days left to watch the Livestream Amber’s had set up. And as I clearly didn’t give you any heads-up prior to this — I’m full of mea culpas this eve — you can view the performances of the previous days on her Vimeo channel. Although I wasn’t physically at the performance, I did add my .02 pfennig on Saturday, as did a couple of other iDollators. It’s Amber’s hope that more people who have Dolls will contribute with their experiences as well before the project ends on the 17th, but failing that, it’ll still be art worth watching

Sdtrk: ‘Village dance’ by Matt Berry

When I’d first seen the following photo scrolling through Shi-chan’s tumblr dashboard earlier this month, I thought it was one of those trompe-l’œil-style paintings; meaning, I thought the woman was staring at a very hyperrealistically painted work that appeared to be three-dimensional, but actually wasn’t.

As it turns out, that’s actually a 1/1 scale diorama installation by artist Roxy Paine entitled ‘Control room’, made last year.

With the project ‘Apparatus’ which contains the ‘Control Room’, Roxy Paine introduces a new chapter in his work, a series of large scale dioramas. Inspired by spaces and environments designed to be activated via human interaction, the dioramas present spaces and objects which are hand carved from birch and maple wood and formed from steel. Encased and frozen in time, void of human presence, they’re making their inherent function obsolete. The ‘Control Room’ is a stunning installation made out of wood, steel, automotive paint and glass worth visiting.
taken from this site

It almost looks CG

Not only do I enjoy and sometimes prefer replicas of various things (the Devil you say!), I also dig generic-looking control rooms such as this — rooms that either wouldn’t be out of place on the site of a massive industrial facility, or as part of Mission Control, so ‘Control room’ speaks to me on a couple of levels. This piece is part of a new series Roxy is working on called ‘Apparatus’; the other diorama he’s made would be ‘Carcass’, which would be another hand-carved replica of the area behind the counter of a fast food restaurant. The scale it encompasses is equally impressive, but… it’s just not ‘Control room’.

With this post, it’s high time that I’ve made a new category for ‘Shouting etc etc’: from now on, you’ll be able to find posts dealing with art under the subheading ‘Was ist Kunst?‘ It’s not as if I speak about art a tremendous amount, but categorisation is always helpful, as you know.
Now I have to go back and add that category to a mess of previous posts