The Film4Climate Global Video Competition showcases how filmmakers are engaged in decision-making, commanding universal attention and action at the COP22.

As the COP22 Film4Climate Global Video Competition begins, the mood is somber: it's the end of the first week of the Conference of Parties and just five days after the announcement of Trump’s election win. While uncertainty and fear for the future are palpable, there's also a sense of hope, as this is where the efforts for taking action on climate change merge with the creative medium of filmmaking.

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Justin Bieber and Bondage-inspired fashions redraw the lines around feminine sexuality in Namilia’s S/S17 line, ‘You’re Just A Toy.’

Mounted on the top bunk in Hotel On Rivington’s Owner’s Suite, I can hear a muted ripping sound as I register that I’ve turned the tiny hole across my backside into two entirely separate pieces of fabric. As a model in a NYFW presentation, this is basically #1 on the “You Are Now Fucked” list, but being a part of the presentation for Namilia’s newest collection, You’re Just A Toy, I have numerous reasons to shrug it off and just enjoy my evening bare-assed.

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This is an article published by VICE's Creators Project on June 4th, 2017. The original piece can be found here with the accompanying photographs. 

Leslie Foster’s 59 film installation features 11 collaborative short films made by marginalized artists.

Though mainstream cultural narratives often fail those relegated to the fringes of our societies, artists like Leslie Foster are deliberately crafting content that, as Foster and the artists with whom he's collaborated call it, "isn't for you."

This "you" is the proverbial "you" that exemplifies the cultural powers-that-be, and more specifically in the case of Foster's most recent project, the 59 film installation, the cis, white male. "These visuals are not created for the dominant culture to easily consume," explains Foster. "They are celebrations of bodies and genders and ideas that are often marginalized."

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COP22's International Youth Photo Competition reminds legislatures that climate change is everyone’s problem, encouraging comprehensive and inclusive action.

As heads-of-state, environmental ministers, UN members, and various other governmental and diplomatic agents meet in Marrakech at this year’s COP22 to discuss how to best implement the conditions set forth during last year’s COP21—where the now-infamous Paris Agreement was outlined—a group of young folks ranging from 7-18* years of age are exhibiting their own take on the effects of climate change.

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NOTE: I wrote this piece long before I received any education on the reality of the settler-colonial state of Israel. Throughout the years of my expensive, elite, and private education, only once did I learn about the cruelty, colonial violence, and ethnic cleansing campaigns that founded – and the continued settler and state violence and militarized, US-backed apartheid that upholds – Israel: in my Black Lives Matter class, taught by Frank Leon Roberts, during my senior year at NYU Gallatin.

From where I stand today, I would not participate in such a piece. I believe it de-fangs a violent and unjust “status quo,” wherein Palestinian families and communities are displaced and/or massacred in order to make room for settlements, and that it inadvertently legitimizes these settlements. I also mean no direct disrespect to Arazi, with whom I no longer have contact, and whose position on the matter I do not know, by making such a statement here.

That said, the piece exists, and I will not attempt to erase parts of my past that no longer represent the person I am today and the beliefs I now hold. Many, many thanks to the numerous educators, organizations and comrades who have aided in my continued political and spiritual education and liberation.

This is an article that was published by Vice's Creators on March 12, 2017. The original article and the accompanying photos, on which the article is featured, can be found here. 

Photographing a region as contentious as the West Bank would assumedly manifest as an attempt to document divisions between the many sides and ideologies defining the territory—from the Palestinians who have inhabited the land for thousands of years, to liberal Israelis hoping for a two-state solution, to more extreme individuals on either side of these divides. Photographer Michele I. Arazi, however, takes a very different approach in his most recent body of work, Homestead. In it, Arazi focuses less on identifying which side is "right," opting instead to produce a visual record of his experiences amongst a specific set of individuals: the conservative, committed, and self-described "nationalistic" Israelis occupying the Jewish settlements along the West Bank.

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This is an article that was published by VICE's Creators Project on June 18, 2017. The original piece can be found here with the accompanying photographs. 

Amsterdam’s Circus Family brings 'TRIPH,' an immersive and responsive light installation, to Northside Festival. 

Last week, Northside Festival unveiled an entirely new sector of the festival, which until this year had revolved around music and celebrating Brooklyn's je ne sais quoi. This new element was entitled "Innovation," and—plot twist—all of the events in this division were somehow connected to creativity aimed at the future. Artists, journalists, filmmakers, politicians and all those in between could be found dotting the ballrooms and presentation spaces of various BK hotels and hotspots, including the Williamsburg, Wythe William Vale hotels, the Brooklyn Brewery, and McCarren Park. Within one of these spaces, conversations about diversity in the media, the future of virtual reality, and how women are shaking things up were complemented by a trippy new art installation, called TRIPH, put on by Amsterdam's Circus Family. 

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This article was published by VICE's Creators Project on May 28, 2017, and can be found here with the accompanying images.

Remembering some of our favorite pranks in the art world and beyond. 

So, someone left a pineapple on a rather decorative display stand at an exhibition at Aberdeen's Robert Gordon University, and everyone thought it was art. Two students placed the tropical fruit there as a joke, but when they returned, the pineapple was not only still there, it had been moved to a display case, protected by plexiglass. Naturally. No one at the museum has fessed up to any involvement with this fantastically ridiculous occurrence, but as we appreciate this, uh, incident, we can't help but recall the other art pranks that have taken place in recent history. In honor of Marcel DuChamp, a.k.a. R. Mutt's, Fountain, and to commemorate the recurring inclination to fuck with the art world elite, we at Creators have decided to journey down the rabbit hole of everyday objects mistaken for art. 

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This is an article that was published by VICE's Creators Project on May 20, 2017. The original article can be found here with the accompanying photographs. 

Ian Burkard transforms vintage toys into totally unique hybrid creatures.

Everyone's got their favorite toy from way back when. For me, it's a stuffed cat with a missing eye from my teething phase. For others, it's action figures of their favorite superhero, or plastic figurines of one of the 101 Dalmatians. But it's almost impossible to imagine what for Ian Burkard's favorite toy is. The artist's tumblr, Genus Toys, showcases the literally one of a kind creations he crafts from pieces of other toys. "I always frequent local discount stores," Burkard says, citing his love for "vintage bootleg toys," which are apparently hard to find amongst crappy knock-offs and remakes.

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This article was published by VICE's Creators Project on April 3rd, 2017, and can be found here, along with the accompanying photos.

"Take only photos, leave only footprints," says @Whereyousmoke. And don't forget to take the roach home with you!

Even the simplest landscape is elevated when you are also, well, elevated. Exceptional Instagram account @whereyousmoke merges dope views with the smokable stuff, posting gorgeous photos of exotic locales with spliffs in the foreground. The account was started by an LA artist who wishes to remain anonymous, but he tells Creators that the National Geographic-esque shots are all about the "grass-roots exploration" that comes from "being able to share moments with smokers all around the world."

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This article was published by VICE's Creators Project on April 3rd, 2017, and can be found here, along with the accompanying photos.

Nick Knight commissioned 30 illustrations to interpret the model's favorite runway looks for 'Moving Kate' at London’s SHOWstudio.

Few things remain as timelessly chic as Kate Moss. Representing the best that fashion has to offer—style, charisma, drama, and top-notch cheekbones—Moss is an emblem of seemingly untouchable cool. Her face has graced runways and campaigns for everyone from Calvin Klein and Alexander McQueen to Dior and Supreme. And although she is best known for being photographed, a new exhibition at SHOWstudio in London transforms the model's iconic runway moments into evocative paintings and illustrations by well-known artists. Organized by renowned photographer Nick Knight, Moving Kate is a collection of 30 different artworks interpreting Moss's extensive body of work and celebrating her longstanding creative partnership with SHOWstudio.

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This is an article published by the Creators Project on February 18, 2017, and can be found here. 

 

Ari Andersen and Matthew Little’s titular podcast is a crucial reminder that at least one generation still has hope.

All too often we're thought of as apathetic, self-centered, and on a fast-track to failure, but California-natives Ari Andersen and Matthew Little are on a quest to prove that Millennials Don't Suck. At 22 episodes and counting, their titular podcast illuminates an alternative reality, one far closer to the truth. Recorded out of Andersen's home in East Los Angeles, he and Little seek out and exhibit the "community-driven content" that is both coming from and serving the world's diverse communities of young people."We think it's really important, now more than ever, to show that we're capable of having deep, introspective, meaningful conversations as 20-something-year-olds," Andersen tells Creators. In each episode, the guys explore the ins and outs of millennials' current work in everything from technology to politics to spirituality. 

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COP22's International Youth Photo Competition reminds legislatures that climate change is everyone’s problem, encouraging comprehensive and inclusive action.

It’s hard to escape the social media echo chamber resonating with all the reasons 2016 was such a garbage fire, so we’ve put together a holiday gift guide that’s more soothing than simple retail therapy. Below is a compendium of last-minute gifts that offer more substantial comfort than the rush brought on by the swipe of a credit card. At best, these gifts offer aid to the increasingly targeted, and at the least, they’re far less hopeless than 2016. That, and they’re quick and easy, y'all who have put off shopping ‘til RIGHT NOW. That's always a plus.

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The Guggenheim's golden toilet—called 'America'—is the latest in a long line of bathroom jokes.

Soon, the art world will celebrate the centennial of Marcel Duchamp’s (or should we say R. Mutt’s) urinal sculpture, Fountain. Despite its current status as an acclaimed and pivotal artwork, the ready-made installation was not initially received as such, called “indecent,”and decidedly not installed as part of a Grand Central Palace art show in 1917. Effectively censoring creative expression, the decision deemed that Fountain "may be a very useful object in its place, but its place is not in an art exhibition and it is, by no definition, a work of art.” A century later, classifying a urinal as incompatible with “a work of art” due to its presumed indecency is just as poignant as ever.

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'Shrub' fosters new environmental relationships by fusing art, technology and communication.

VR Goggles producing alternate universes; Pikachus sending people off of cliffs… Our screens are taking us places we’ve never been before, and in certain cases places we’d never want to go. Rarely do our iOS apps encourage real-world engagement, regardless of the constant ‘interactions’ occurring through them. The Shrub app, however, seems to invert this trend and encourages a type of interaction that, at the very least, will let you see the cliff before you go flying off of it.

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