Reykjavík Grapevine - 16.06.2017, Blaðsíða 49

Culture 48The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 10 — 2017
Language,
Creativity &
Space Time
A few of Anton Kaldal’s favourite things
Musician, Designer, Author
Anton Kaldal is the mind behind Tonik
Ensemble, whose simmering, lush elec-
tronic album ‘Snapshots’ was named
the Grapevine’s Album of the Year in
2015 . Here, Anton talks us through
some formative influences that helped
him become the ar tist he is today.
Short: Powers of Ten—A Film Dealing
with the Relative Size of Things in the
Universe and the Effect of Adding
Another Zero (1977)
This short film by Ray and Charles
Eames is based on the works of Kees
Boeke, in his book ‘Cosmic View: The
Universe in 40 Jumps’. Sometimes
you see, hear or read something in
exactly the right moment. The first
time I stumbled upon it, it slipped
right into my subconscious. It’s some-
thing I revisit every now and then,
and even referenced in a song title.
Talk: Creativity (1991)
As John Cleese says in this talk: “You
know, when Video Arts asked me if I'd
like to talk about creativity, I said, ‘No
problem!’ No problem! Because telling
people how to be creative is easy. It's
only being it that's difficult.” It’s a great
lecture from a legendary creative, and
another one I find myself revisiting.
Designers: Wolfgang Weingart, Peter
Olpe
Back in 2008, I attended a sum-
mer program in Basel, tutored by—
amongst others—Peter Olpe and
Wolfgang Weingart. Hierarchy, draw-
ing, training the eye and all things
typographic: it was a much-needed
foundation, and I’ve been grate-
ful for the experience ever since.
Book: Ágrip af sögu Íslenzkrar
stafsetningar (“A summary of the
history of Icelandic spellings,” 1959)
I went through the schooling system
studying the Icelandic language, like
every other Icelander. But reading
through the history of grammar—that
predated what we had been tought—
it was interesting to learn that what
seemed to be a consensus about Ice-
landic grammar and writing turned
out to be an agreement to disagree.
This was a read that eventually lead
me on a four-year journey in the col-
laborative research project ‘ð ævisaga’.

Song: Aphex Twin – Equation (1999)
I deal in music and graphic design
with the relationship between sight
and sound, and this track from the
‘Windowlicker’ EP is quite the literal
take on that, using a spectrogram, the
visual representation of frequencies,
as a canvas. It’s quite mesmerizing to
view the song as a deliberate painting.
Animation: La Linea (1971–1986)
I think every Icelandic child of the
80s has this theme song embedded
in their brain, alongside 'Pat a Mat'
of course. ‘La Linea’ is a humour-
ous take on creator vs. creation, and
its simple nature allows you to put
that into what ever context you like.
Remix: James Yorkston – Woozy With
Cider (Jon Hopkins remix) (2007)
This remix by Jon Hopkins is some-
thing special—it goes way beyond the
original, and essentially shows the
lengths to which you can take a re-
mix. It’s something I’ve kept in mind
when doing remixes myself. On the
same 12” you have a remix by Kode 9.
Graphic novel: Here (1989/2014)
Appearing originally as a 36-panel
story in the 80s anthology ‘Raw’,
Richard McGuire’s comic breaks
the space-time continuum to tell
a story of a space, or in the case of
‘Here,’ a corner of a living room.
MAKING OF
AN ARTIST
Words:
Anton Kaldal
Photo:
Alexander
Matukhno
gpv.is/making
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“Sometimes you
see, hear or read
something in exactly
the right moment... it
slipped right into my
subconscious.”
NO BUN
NO FUN