Daim Sprays Virtual Graffiti

"Walls, trains or house fronts - graffiti need to be sprayed on solid, "real" backgrounds. Doesn't it? An answer to this is provided by the "Tagged in Motion" project, which builds a bridge between real graffiti art and its virtual depiction. The centre of attention is the graffiti artist DAIM, who co-created the nextwall. Equipped with the appropriate technology, DAIM sprays graffiti into empty space. In a large hall, three cameras using Motion Capturing record DAIM's position and the movements he executes with a virtual spray can. The assimilated data is shown to him in real time in a pair of video glasses - as free-floating 3D graffiti in space. In this way he can decide how and where to apply his strokes, and via a Bluetooth controller can also determine the colours, strength of brushstrokes and textures of his work."

Although this is just in its infancy, further development of this should see some seriously innovative ways of getting-up virtually.

Stolen from Wooster Collective.

Freak Show at the Cheese Factory Squat

Last Thursday, I went down to the famous Cheese Factory in Hackney, to witness their Freak Show event with my mrs. Luckily for us, we met the heavily-tattooed Roc, the main attraction of the night, in Barcelona last year so we were given front row seats. The Cheese Factory is a collection of squatted flats which have had extensions built onto them to create a subterranenan maze of shacks and rooms that join onto a small factory space. It's this space which is used to hold events like fashion shows and art exhibitions in a typically "bohemian" style. The venue even had a permanent bar, a coffee shop feel and a stage area. It was such good fun to have a good drink and smoke and watch some seriously weird acts. It's times like this where I do really love living in London...


Myriam the Bearded Lady took care of being the Master of Ceremony


Roc and his lovely volunteer prepare to swallow some fire


Roc prepares to lift two full paint cans which weighed approx. 15 pounds each!


This is him in full swing mode...stretching the lobed region of his ears to the max! (and yes, he has full-sized chilli peppers tattooed for side-burns.)

Naruto Shippuden

*NOTE* IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE NARUTO SERIES 1-9 YOU MAY WANT TO READ THAT FIRST TO GET MORE BACKGROUND INFO.

Naruto Shippuden is based on part 2 of the manga series. Shippuden is a continuation of the Naruto saga and the storyline starts 2 1/2 years after series 9. Naruto has returned to the village after having left to train with Jiraiya. On his return he realizes that unlike his friends who have progressed to higher ranks. He is still a genin and Naruto finds this a little hard to take.

Shippuden has been segmented into 2 major arcs; in the first team Kakashi and team Guy have to save the sand village's Hokage (Gaara). We get to see how everyone has progressed and their new powers. After the two teams return to the leaf village, team Kakashi get a lead on how to find Orochimaru's hide out (arc 2). But they have to replace Kakashi (as he is still recovering) and Sasuka. So there are 2 new members added to team Kakashi the new captain to stand in for Kakashi while he recovers Yamato and Sai. Sai is really weird and does not know how to act in society and therefore says everything that is on his mind. And when he first meets Naruto he says some colourful things to make Naruto hate him. Sai does the same thing to Sakura and both Naruto and Sakura end up thinking he's an asshole but agree to work with him in order to save Sasuka.
(This is the second opening with the new team members.)

There are some really kick ass fight scenes in both arcs and this series just keeps getting better and better. I watched the first 43 episodes in 2 days and now I am forced to wait until Friday each week to watch the new episodes. I have fallen for this anime in a big way and I would recommend this to anyone. If you watched the original series and did not like it then give Shippuden a try I am sure you will like it. The grate thing about this series is you really don't need to watch the first 9 series to start watching this one (although I would recommend that you do). Also you need to watch past the end credits as there are some funny bits at the very end.

So I have been digging around to try and find out how far they are going to take this series. If you look on Google you will only see 46 episodes but I have found out there is going to be 55 episodes with the last on airing on 04/10/2008. We can only hope that they will continue with more after that. There are also 2 movies that are connected with Shippuden the first came out in 2007 and will be released on DVD in April this year so you can look for that on the net in April. The second movie is due to be released in Japanese cinema in the summer. And in the opening credits of episodes 40-41 you get a little taster of what’s going to be in it(watch the fiest video I posted to see it).
This just proves my long standing point, if you want to watch good anime and not wait for it you need to learn Japanese. And this whole experience has made me dig out my old Japanese books and search the web for classes.

TOX- The most prolific graffiti bomber in London

Great Discovery Channel video (2004) from the Look-Rare Blog regarding London's most hardcore bomber- TOX. If you live in London and take the Tube, it's impossible not to see one of his tags somewhere along your journey. He may not have much aesthetic style, but props has to be given to him for getting up everywhere. Each year, he changes his tag slightly from TOX 06 in 2006 to TOX 07 in 2007 and so on. Hundreds of thousands of GBP of damages has been claimed against him, yet he still continues to this day.

Kozik 36" Real Evil

Continuing on the large-scale toy tip, legend Frank Kozik is just about to release a 36" RealXHead Real Evil figure that should scare the pants off most fans. The actual toy will be made of fibreglass and is rumored to be retailing at $500 USD. The colorway should be similar to the "Nightstalker" custom Frank did last year. (See below)Beautiful and evil!




This is an image of the toy's Philipino sculptor Rommel just for some scale.

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DC Custom Kicks

Aaron Thomas

More customised shoe goodness by DC Shoes X Subtext entitled "Kicks" which opened at Subtext in San Diego. We've posted some here (after the jump) and you can see more in his flickr album. You can see more at WTFunk's Flickr Album.


Josh Taylor

Angry Woebots

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Conor Harrington Show

Went to the Lazarides Gallery to see Conor Harrington last Thursday do his first solo show of 2008. This guy is getting beter and better each year as he takes his blend of realism & classical paint-style and mixes it all up with very modern lines and graffiti-esque backgrounds. I reckon that Conor is one of the best young artists living in the UK at the moment and look out for another UKAdapta feature on him in the next couple months.

DJ Krush Interview

UKAdapta had the serious honour of meeting and interviewing the legendary DJ Krush, the day before his big show at KoKo, London. I first went to see his gig in 1998 and was blown away at the then relatively new technique of live-sampling and beat juggling. I have been a huge fan ever since and could really feel how Irieman was nervous as he had to do the interview.


However, Krush, being the gentleman that he is made us feel comfortable in the presence of a real hero and the interview finished without a hitch. I will inform you all once we have the interview done for the Feb update of our website.


The following day, we went to see his show at the beautiful venue that is KoKo in Camden, London. The show was incredible and we had a great birdseye view over the crowd and it was the perfect perch to soak up the atmosphere in the auditorium.


With other headline acts on the flyer like Herbaliser and DJ Vadim, I really felt a pang of nostalgia and at the same time a feeling of progression and accomplishment. Ten years ago, I was a mere bright-eyed, bushy-tailed student who wanted to seek out the underground music scene and ten years later, I am getting to interview some of my heroes!

Barry McGee Show

At the Baltic Centre from 21 January - 27 April 2008 is a show created by the legendary (and personal fave) Barry McGee. "They Don’t Make This Anymore" is his first solo show in the UK and deals with the ideas of property, surveillance and control, his uncontained practice incorporates damaged surfaces, flash movies and hundreds of ‘tape’ paintings to question the privatisation of public space. It is also interesting that he decided to exhibit in Gateshead (Newcastle) instead of the usual London-based shows. Wish I could see it in person......sigh.








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All images copyright of SHAM69

Giant 18" Skuttle

I am a huge Touma fan and have a good collection of Knuckle Bears and Fang Wolves as well as having a penchant for turtles. (Jeremyfish's skull turtle camper is still the best) But now there is a serious contender. Touma has teamed up with Play Imaginative to create an 18" version of his Skuttle design. Holy shit I want! However, like Toysrevil mentioned, this particular colorway is not very inspiring and luckily this is just a prototype. Let's hope they dont mess up all that beautiful plastic with these minty colors. YUK!

Abandoned Britain

Abandoned Britain is a great website for those who are interested in abandonment and lost architecture in the UK. The pictures on the site are really beautiful and inspired me to want to break in and either paint the walls or take some photos myself. Well worth visiting...

Royal Sea Bathing Hospital built in 1791


Radar Domes RAF Stenigot built in 1942


Graylingwell Mental Hospital bulit in 1897


Brunswick Wharf Power Station bulit in 1950

See hundreds more images HERE.

Thanks to Tai for the heads-up!

Toyota Yaris ad

60 seconds cheeky commercial for the Toyota Yaris titled "chase". Very nice 3D graphics!
Check out their website : http://tokyoplastic.com


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Eric Staller

Eric Staller is a sculptor and photographer who is more known for permanent artwork in public places, but also for his experimentation with light. He was pulling off these kinds of amazing light photographs back in the 1970's and can probably be credited as being a pioneer and if not, the first person to play around with light in the urban environment. Hats off to one of the geniuses of photography







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Japanese Theatre Artform

Olympics done Matrix-style.

Kasou Taishou is a semi-annual show on NTV (Japan) in which various amateur groups (or solo artists) perform short skits, which are rated by a panel of judges. Especially in recent years, many of the skits have revolved around clever methods of "faking" cinematic special effects on a live stage. Amazing Lo-Fi effects that really come across well. Please please check these out!


The reason she got mad at me.


Ping Pong skit Matrix-style.

Funny Ads

Made me chuckle!

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Steampunk Monitor

I posted last year about a wicked Steampunk Keyboard and now the great artist/designer has gone and made an accompanying flat-screen monitor to complete the whole look! Amazing craftsmanship!






To see more detailed pics of the making of the monitor, jump HERE.