A few weeks ago we presented our first creative partner project and our first short film, the result of a cooperation between Berlin-based composer and music producer Robot Koch and the photographer Sabrina Theissen. For “In a Creative Dialogue – Robot Koch x Sabrina Theissen for IWISHUSUN” our ambassadors got together to take a look at the topic of sight, which IWISHUSUN has dedicated its work to. These photos shown below and above document Robot Koch’s working process.

The process and the thoughts of the two IWISHUSUN ambassadors are documented in intense imagery in Editude Pictures’ short film, “In a Creative Dialogue – Robot Koch x Sabrina Theissen for IWISHUSUN”: 

Once labelled “The World’s Ugliest Woman,” Lizzie Velasquez is one of three known people in the world who suffers from a rare syndrome, which prevents her from gaining weight and has caused blindness in her right eye. But the 24-year-old consistently redefines what it means to be beautiful. On March 30, 2013, Lizzie Velasquez shared her “idea worth spreading” at a TEDx talk in Austin.

When Lizzie Velasquez was in high school, she discovered a video of herself on YouTube that was titled “The World’s Ugliest Woman” and had garnered millions of views. In that moment she had to decide whether or not she would let these people define her. With her family’s support she answered back and found the strength to turn hate into love and motivation. Today Lizzie calls it the “greatest blessing of her life.” “I’ve had a really difficult life, but that’s OK,” she adds. “I’m going to let my goals and my success and my accomplishments define me, not my outer appearance.”

At TEDxYouth@Austin Lizzie Velasquez told viewers how she resolved to take charge of her life by killing the negativity with ambition and by defining herself on her own terms.

What defines you? Your backgrounds, friends, families? Lizzie Velasquez definitely succeeds in reminding us that life is what you make it!

We are thrilled to be able to present our first creative partner project and our first short film, the result of a cooperation between two ambassadors of our steadily growing network: “In a Creative Dialogue – Robot Koch x Sabrina Theissen for IWISHUSUN.”

Berlin-based composer and music producer Robot Koch and the photographer Sabrina Theissen got together to take a look at the topic of sight, which IWISHUSUN has dedicated its work to, from an unusual perspective. Robot Koch provided his brand new song “Jupiter”, for the project, which Sabrina Theissen used to garner inspiration, answering with her photographic tryptich, shown above.  The sky and the sun are the determining motifs, which, in a similarly minimalist way as the song by Robot Koch, are captured only indirectly by reflection, allowing the greatest possible space for the unexpected aspects of ones own interpretations in their complete reduction – a playing field for one’s own way of seeing and perspectives.

This process and the thoughts of the two IWISHUSUN ambassadors are documented in intense imagery in Editude Pictures’ short film, “In a Creative Dialogue – Robot Koch x Sabrina Theissen for IWISHUSUN”:

Our thanks to Robot Koch, Sabrina Theissen as well as Frederic Leitzke and Andreas Lamøth from Editude Pictures, who captured the creative exchange in moving images. 

You can read the IWISHUSUN interviews with Robot Koch, Sabrina Theissen and Editude Pictures here.

Frederic Leitzke & Andreas Lamoth

filmmakers & co-founders of Editude Pictures – Berlin

Together they are strong! Frederic Leitzke and Andreas Lamoth co-founded their own film production company Editude Pictures in late 2010. What started as a more or less improvised coalition of five friends, slowly but surely evolved into a young promising company. While music and art are definitely prioritised, both of them have also corporately worked for brands like Coca Cola, Levis, Red Bull and Converse. Nevertheless what we love the most are their urban films which are filled with their passion for street art, illustration, urban culture and music. No surprise that they are best-known for these kind of interactions. Their documentation of Berlin’s creative scene, “In The Belly Of A Whale,” is their first film and at the same time a foundation for many video works that followed.

While their first documentation strung together various filmic portraits of Berlin’s art scene members and is still complemented by new episodes, Frederic and Andreas also worked for our friend and music producer Robot Koch in the past. To unlock the exciting potential which arises from our creative supporters we teamed up with Editude Pictures and two of our other dear ambassadors – beautiful project which we will showcase very soon. Stay tuned!

In the meantime welcome Editude Pictures as one of our supporters!

You are filmmakers and therefore sight must be a very important sense to you. What other sense couldn’t be missed in your life? Why?
Andy: It’s really hard to imagine a life without any of my senses, but besides my eyes I would miss my ears the most of all I guess. For me vision is strongly connected to hearing which you can see in almost all of our films: Sound and especially Music is so important to set the right tone for moving images and are unseperable in my eyes.
Fredi: That’s for sure. Besides that I would probably miss tasting the most, because my hobby cooking wouldn’t make much “sense” anymore I guess.

What is your vision for your personal work? 
Andy: I hope to be working more in the field of documentaries in the future. There are tons of lives and people out there who are worth being banned to film and who’s stories are worth beeing told.
Fredi: Documentaries are very important to us for sure. Since our first film “In The Belly Of A Whale” lots of good things happened and we got great feedback for our work. That’s definitely a vision. Always try to do stuff that makes people happy, that entertains people, that has a purpose, that somehow “remains” in that crazy fast moving digital world.

Your personal opinion: what makes a good film? 
Andy: Authenticity. Most of the big blockbuster movies simply have no heart and are only produced for making money. So I really prefer movies with smaller or even no budgets for which the filmakers had to make a big creative effort to get it done.
Fredi: The story. Always the story. In the past, the story was the most important thing in a movie. Movies were made because writers and directors had things to say. Today it’s more about pleasing the market, the industry, the crowd with crazy effects, pompous settings, big stars, telling the same stupid stories again and again, using every cliché available. Of course today still many nice movies are made, but really good and innovative screenplays are definitely more rare than in the last century.

What filmmakers have inspired you lately?
Andy: I love Wes Anderson and am really looking forward to his new movie in January. Besides that I am really into short documentaries about everyday life, which you can find very easily by independent and hobby filmers on Vimeo.
Fredi: Yeah, Wes Anderson for sure. The filmmaker who inspired me the most recently was Malik Bendjelloui, director of the masterpiece “Searching for Sugar Man”. A man with an – again – absolutely amazing story, without a big budget, with lots of struggles during the production but with a strong vision and impressive skills succeeds in the end, brings his vision to the screen and creates one of the most beautiful documentaries ever made.

What themes do you find yourself exploring over and over again?
Both: We have a really strong bond into Berlin’s art scene, so it’s almost natural that we are exploring themes like creativity, making a living from what you love and collaborations between different kinds of people in our films. Besides that we are planing a new documentary about the new age of making music – hopefully we will start filming in 2014, watch out!

What is the most beautiful thing you ever saw?
Andy: That’s a tough one. I believe when you look close enough you can find beautiful things happening around you everyday, even (often mostly) in the most random and trivial situations.
Fredi: Impossible to answer.

Sunrise or sunset – what do you prefer?
Andy: Sunrise.
Fredi: Sunset.

As a seeing person it is hard, if not impossible, to imagine the world from the perspective of a blind person, and the same applies in reverse. How would you describe our world and surroundings to a blind person?
Both: We don’t think it’s fair trying to tell a blind person what the world looks like. We would rather try to find advantages which blind people have. For example we believe they have no problems with prejudice and are able to experience the world in very different but also exciting ways.

What would you like to see more often?
Andy: Justice.
Fredi: Humility.

What is your tactic for making the world a better place?
Andy: There is so much screwed up stuff happening around us that one person really can’t handle all types of it. So I guess you just have to concentrate on 2 or 3 things that matter most to you and try to make a change. Lately I am trying to boycott mass animal farming by not eating any meat no more; it’s really hard to see animals suffering because of massive exorbitance in our ways of living.
Fredi: Making the world a better place is a hard task. I rather focus on little things in my daily surroundings, that you really can influence and that make a small difference. Treat people nicely and with respect, be honest, be humble to the environment and in my daily life. Things like that.

When was the last time you gave back and what did you do?  
Andy: I am trying to support Unicef on a regular basis to help them fight the problem of stranded refugees all over the world.
Fredi: The last time? I guess that was some money I gave to the fantastic street musician on Warschauer Straße, that I pass every morning.

Deep in the Joshua Tree National Forest, in the deserts of California, artist Phillip K. Smith III revealed his beautiful architectural play of light, the so called “Lucid Stead” installation. An optical illusion, Phillip K. Smith III who received his Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design and often experiments with light and its reflections proves how simple it is to irritate our perception but also the transformational possibilities of light. Smith states, “Lucid Stead is about tapping into the quiet and the pace of change of the desert.  When you slow down and align yourself with the desert, the project begins to unfold before you.  It reveals that it is about light and shadow, reflected light, projected light, and change.”

Composed of mirror, LED lighting, custom built electronic equipment and Arduino programming amalgamated with a preexisting structure, this architectural intervention seems alien in the context to the desert area and at the same time easily fit in it. As the sun moves the house’s appearance changes and turns it into an almost spiritual experience.

Phillip K. Smith draws inspiration from the reductive logic of minimalism and the optic sensation of California’s Light and Space movement. Learn more about his work and his solo exhibition of light works at royale projects which will open on November 29 2013 here.

All images via Archinect. Photo 1: Lucid Stead by Phillip K. Smith, III. Photo: Steve King. Photo 2: Lucid Stead by Phillip K. Smith, III. Photo: Lance Gerber.

If our announcement of Jaybo‘s current solo show at Kallenbach Gallery in Amsterdam got you interested in our ambassador’s work, you can learn more about the choices an artist makes when creating in this interesting short film by Rogier Postma:

Proceeding on the assumption that different artists have different focus disciplines and workflows “but they all make something out of nothing”, Postma asks artists such as Jaybo to share their origination process through one of their works. You can check out Jaybo’s way of working above.

Jaybo also supports our cause – read his interview with IWISHUSUN here.

In the past Ralf Schmerberg‘s ads for Levi’s, Lufthansa and Nike stood out in Cannes, two of his films are part of MoMa’s permanent collection, his film and photo works won several international awards, his film “Trouble – Teatime in Heiligendamm” which documents 2007′s G8 summit was awarded the “Most Valuable Documentary of the Year” prize, in 2012 he received the title “Creative Leader of the Year” in the context of one of Germany’s most important media awards, Lead Awards – in short: Ralf Schmerberg is an internationally renowned and acclaimed artist and filmmaker. But most importantly the Berlin-based Schmerberg is a very sensitive person whose work and life is based on sight which is the most important sense to him. His personal and artistic vision is not about any aesthetic theories but is based on his own personality and visual impressions as well as the search for community and new ways of freedom.

FashionDaily.tv met the artist at his studio in Berlin-Kreuzberg and to those of you who German we recommend to watch their video interview!

Because a life without eye sight is hard IWISHUSUN has partnered with ORBIS to fight blindness and support the non-profit organisation’s engagement in Bangladesh. Even though the following 3Talk interview was conducted in South Africa as part of Eye Care Awareness Month, this talk is interesting for all of us: ORBIS’ Senior Programme Advisor Reshma Dabideen, Dr Dharmesh Parbhoo and his patient Jazmine Mnqayi as well as her mother Nombulelo were featured on TV. They talked with 3Talk host Noleen about Eye Care Awareness Month and what parents should do to protect their children’s sight, one of their special patients they have been able to help sitting next to them.

Learn more about the possibilities of early detection and the services available to prevent avoidable blindness:

Photo: ORBIS South Africa.

We avowed ourselves to be true fans of Aloe Blacc‘s work when we introduced the musician as a friend and supporter of IWISHUSUN (read his interview here) and now we have every reason for repeating it: This man got soul! After he released his latest single, “Wake Me Up” featuring Avicii, this summer, he went to the studio once again to record a live and acoustic version of “Wake Me Up”.

Watch the video here:

Aloe Blacc — Wake Me Up (Live / Acoustic / 2013) – MyVideo
Photo: Screenshot.

NOWNESS presents another beautiful video which brings together literature and video art and reveals model and actress Clara Paget‘s intensive voice while wandering around a rough sea setting: The contrasting shoreline of Bournemouth on the English south coast and “The Sea Close By” by legendary author and “Master of the Absurd”, Albert Camus are the perfect match; the beach lending an evocative backdrop to Paget’s reading of a passage from Camus’ essay “The Sea Close By” which reveals the writer as a sensual witness of landscapes, the sea and sailing.

“I always had an image in my head of a chapter from A Happy Deathby Camus,” explains director and photographer Tom Beard, who recently shot music videos for both celebrated newcomer FKA Twigs and the more established band Florence and the Machine. “It’s a sunny, rich portrait of his life growing up in Algiers—the heat, the sea, good weather; he paints an amazing picture. I wanted to try to do this in a very English way and create a sense of being transported through this extract.”

Watch the visual interpretation of philosopher Albert Camus’ text, starring the rising starlet Clara Paget:

via NOWNESS. Photos: Screenshot.