Syd Mead
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| - | :"out today! - the eagerly awaited new issue of the [[deviant culture]] handbook: “[[timeless]]”[http://timelesszine.blogspot.com/] - the [[infamous]] [[Nana Rape Blossom]] painted by [[Loulou Picasso]] gracing the cover - i’m not actually sure if i’m included myself in this volume - but, besides the 300 regular edition copies, there is a special boxset limited edition of 50 with signed prints by me alongside [[Syd Mead]], [[Sleazy]] and [[Slocombe]], plus “a special gift”" - [[Trevor Brown]] (capitalized some by me) | + | '''Sydney Jay Mead''' (July 18, 1933 – December 30, 2019) was an American [[industrial designer]] and [[neofuturistic]] [[concept art]]ist, widely known for his designs for [[science-fiction film]]s such as ''[[Blade Runner]]'', ''[[Aliens (film)|Aliens]]'' and ''[[Tron]]''. |
| + | ==In film== | ||
| + | Mead worked with major studios on the feature films: ''[[Star Trek: The Motion Picture]]'', ''[[Blade Runner]]'', ''[[Tron]]'', ''[[2010 (film)|2010]]'', ''[[Short Circuit (1986 film)|Short Circuit]]'', ''[[Aliens (film)|Aliens]]'', ''[[The Spirit of '76 (1990 film)|The Spirit of '76]]'', ''[[Timecop]]'', ''[[Johnny Mnemonic (film)|Johnny Mnemonic]]'', ''[[Mission: Impossible III]]'', ''[[Elysium (film)|Elysium]]'', ''[[Tomorrowland (film)|Tomorrowland]]'' and ''[[Blade Runner 2049]]''. [[George Lucas]] created the [[AT-AT]] for his ''[[Star Wars]]'' saga based on art by Mead. Mead also contributed to the Japanese film ''[[Solar Crisis (film)|Solar Crisis]]''. In the 1990s, Mead supplied designs for two Japanese [[anime]] series, ''[[Turn A Gundam]]'' and the unfinished ''[[Yamato 2520]]''. | ||
| - | More artists in this volume: | + | In May 2007, he completed work on a documentary of his career with the director Joaquin Montalvan entitled ''Visual Futurist:The Art & Life of Syd Mead''. The short 2008 documentary film'' 2019: A Future Imagined,'' also explored his works. Mead also appears in movie documentaries such as ''Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner'' and [[Mark Kermode]]'s ''On the Edge of Blade Runner'', and promotional materials such as the DVD extra for ''Aliens'' and a promotional short film about the making of ''2010''. |
| - | Romain Slocombe, Trevor Brown, Keit Ota, Tampopo, Motomichi, Seven Bastards, Daisuke Ichiba, Beatrice Cussol, Mijn Schatje, Elles Sont de Sortie, Kiki Picasso, Loulou Picasso, T5dur, Pyon, Stu Mead, Cameron Jamie, Blanquet, Gilles Berquet, Mirka Lugosi, Antoine Bernhart, Guy Lemaire, Julien Carreyn, Jonathan Canady, Jonas, Jankowsky, Fredox, Jean Pierre Le Boul'ch, Gea, Otto, Pakito Bolino, Tisbor (Splinter vs Stalin), Keith Brewer (Taint), Michael Williams (Eyehategod), Intrinsic Action, Philip Best (Whitehouse/Consumer Electonics), Bruce Benderson, Peter Christopherson (Soisong/PTV/Coil/Throbbing Gristle), Jordi Valls (Vagina Dentata Organ), Gaspar Noe, Elzo, Angelo aka Joseph Farrel, Martin of Holland. | + | ==Career history== |
| - | <hr> | + | * 1959: Employed by [[Ford Motor Company]]'s Advanced Styling Center in [[Dearborn, Michigan|Dearborn]], [[Michigan]]. |
| - | [[Stanley Kubrick]] at 80. | + | * 1960–1961: Working at Ford Motor Company Styling in [[Detroit, Michigan]]. |
| + | * 1961: Makes futuristic paintings for a [[US Steel]] booklet. | ||
| + | * 1970: Starts own company, Syd Mead, Inc. | ||
| + | * 1976: Book of designs ''Sentinel'' published. | ||
| + | * 1978: Works on ''[[Star Trek: The Motion Picture]]'' ([[V'ger]] design) | ||
| + | * 1980: Begins work on ''[[Blade Runner]]'' (city background designs, vehicle design) and ''[[Tron (film)|Tron]]'' (lightcycle, tank, solar sailer, and carrier designs). | ||
| + | * 1983: Works on ''[[2010 (film)|2010]]'' (Leonov spaceship design). | ||
| + | * 1985: Works on ''[[Aliens (film)|Aliens]]'' (''Sulaco'' design) and ''[[Short Circuit]]'' ("Johnny" robot design). Book ''Oblagon'' published. | ||
| + | * 1986: Works on ''[[Short Circuit (film)|Short Circuit]]'' (robot design). | ||
| + | * 1987: Designs space cruisers, fighters, props, and costumes for the [[Japan]]ese [[anime|animation]] ''[[Space Battleship Yamato#Yamato 2520|Yamato 2520]]''. | ||
| + | * 1991: ''Kronolog'' design book (compilation of ''Kronovecta'', ''Kronoteco'', and ''Kronovid'' books) published. | ||
| + | * 1991: Designs backgrounds and spacecraft for the the video game ''[[Terraforming]]'' (1992, PC-Engine DUO, Japan), also known as ''[[Syd Mead's Terraforming]]'' (1993, TurboDuo, North America). | ||
| + | * 1993: Designs vehicles for the [[Video game|computer game]] ''[[CyberRace (computer game)|CyberRace]]''. | ||
| + | * 1994: Works on designs for ''[[Timecop]]'' (guns, time machine) and ''[[Strange Days (film)|Strange Days]]'' ("sim-stim" deck and headgear). | ||
| + | * 1995: Designs vehicles for the [[SegaSaturn]] [[Video game|game]] ''[[Gran Chaser]]'' aka ''[[Cyber Speedway]]'' (''CyberRace'''s sequel). | ||
| + | * 1997: Conceptual artist on the computer game ''[[Wing Commander: Prophecy]]''. | ||
| + | * 1998: Designs [[mecha]] for the anime ''[[Turn A Gundam]]''. | ||
| + | * 2000: Works on ''[[Mission to Mars]]'' (vehicle design). | ||
| + | * 2001: ''Sentury'' published. | ||
| + | * 2004: "DVD" drawing Step By Step 4-series. | ||
| + | * 2005: Works on ''[[Mission: Impossible III]]'' (Mask Maker machine design). | ||
| - | I've previously mentioned[http://jahsonic.wordpress.com/2006/10/17/coldness-and-seriousness-in-kubricks-films/] my [[disenchantment]] with Kubrick and "[[modernist film]]" in general (an exception needs to be made for its [[Deviant modernism|deviant]] siblings). His work is of course ''[[incontournable]]'', as the French say, but ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey (film)|2001]]'' is one of the most boring films I've ever seen and only comes close in tediousness to ''[[Citizen Kane]]''. | + | ==See also== |
| + | * [[Futurism]] | ||
| + | * [[high-tech]] | ||
| + | * [[commercial artist]] | ||
| - | Nevertheless, as all [[flawed]] products, ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey (film)|2001]]'' has one or two redeeming elements: | ||
| - | *[[Olivier Mourgue]] Djinn chairs [http://www.jahsonic.com/2001.jpg] | ||
| - | *[[2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_%28film%29#Soundtrack|Its soundtrack]] | ||
| - | :''2001'''s soundtrack did much to introduce the modern classical composer [[György Ligeti]] to a wider public, using extracts from his ''[[Requiem (Ligeti)|Requiem]] '' (the Kyrie), ''[[Atmosphères]]'', ''[[Lux Aeterna (György Ligeti)|Lux Aeterna]]'' and (in an altered form) ''Aventures'' (though without his permission). | ||
| - | *The dark tower [[monolith]] scene, again scored by [[Requiem (Ligeti)|Ligeti]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBT__4ldjAs&] | ||
| - | |||
| - | To conclude: a good YouTumentary the significance of ''2001''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P95NWAHWLrc&] by Collective Learning by Rob Ager. | ||
| - | <hr> | ||
| - | Internet nostalgia. | ||
| - | |||
| - | Around [[2002]] I discovered [[Tom Ewing]]'s [[I Love Music (ILM)]]. The forum featured posts by bloggers and writers such as [[Simon Reynolds]], [[Philip Sherburne]], [[Mark Fisher]], [[Scott Plagenhoef]], [[Momus (artist)|Momus]], [[Stevie Nixed]] and [[Sasha Frere-Jones]]. ILM represented the first batch of serious music writing in the [[blogosphere]], and was notable because of its non-[[rockist]] approach. | ||
| - | |||
| - | I stayed around for a year or two, [[lurk]]ed more than I contributed and moved on, starting my own domain in that same year. | ||
| - | |||
| - | The reason I go back to these days is a blog I found by [[Tom Ewing]] on [[popular music]][http://freakytrigger.co.uk/popular] over at [[Freaky Trigger]], a site/blog he has as a follow-up to [[NYLPM ]] [http://freakytrigger.co.uk/nylpm]. Tom means ''popular music'' in the literal sense, reviewing every [[UK Singles Chart|UK number one single]] since [[1952]][http://freakytrigger.co.uk/popular/page/45/]. As of now, he has arrived in [[1978]]. | ||
| - | |||
| - | The reviews are funny and well-informed. Consider this recent entry on [[Kate Bush]]'s ''[[Wuthering Heights (song)|Wuthering Heights]]''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW3gKKiTvjs&]: | ||
| - | |||
| - | :"I’ve never read ''[[Wuthering Heights]]'', though I like to imagine its heroine does a pushy-arm dance at some point. Looking it up on Wikipedia, however, I was shocked to realise that [[Kate Bush]] is singing this song as a [[ghost]], but really that’s just another oddness on a teetering pile of them: in a really excellent article on Bush for the late [[Stylus magazine]][http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/weekly_article/this-sentient-soul-this-living-breath.htm], [[Marcello Carlin]] (hi dere!) points out that she is ''“the last musician to be allowed to do what she likes, as and when she likes”'', and the [[precocious]], [[precious]] “Wuthering Heights” is both evidence and justification for this [[indulgence]]." --[[Tom Ewing]] at ''[[Freaky Trigger]]''[http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2008/07/kate-bush-wuthering-heights/] | ||
| - | |||
| - | After viewing the list of [[List_of_number-one_singles_from_the_1970s_%28UK%29#1977|1977 number one hits]] one must come to the conclusion that a lot of interesting things can be said about what I like to call [[guilty pleasure]]s[http://jahsonic.wordpress.com/category/guilty-pleasures/], and secondly, that one can't argue with popular. | ||
| - | <hr> | ||
| - | :"The [[Erasmus House]] in [[Brussels]], Belgium is staging an amazing looking exhibition called "[[Anatomie des Vanités]]" that will be on view until [[September 16]]th. The exhibition celebrates the 75th anniversary of the creation of the Erasmus Museum and is organized around a 17th century anatomical Eve (see top photo above), belonging to an unspecified private collection. Modern artists such as [[Jan Fabre]], [[Marie-Jo Lafontaine]] and [[Aïda Kazarian]] also take part in this project." --[[Morbid Anatomy]] | ||
| - | <hr> | ||
| - | :"Last month [[Paul Miller]]—the avant-garde DJ, musician and theorist who always appends his name with “aka [[DJ Spooky]] that Subliminal Kid”—finally released a collection of essays..."--[[Erik Davis]] | ||
| - | <hr> | ||
| - | Esotika on ''[[Lucifer Rising (film)|Lucifer Rising]]''. | ||
| - | :"As both an exercise to get myself back into film writing/watching, as well as a way to make myself come to terms with the way I think about cinema, I'm going to start a series of reviews of '[[ESOTIKA CLASSICKS]].' Which, instead of writing about the obscure or esoteric films that usually decorate my blog, I will be revisiting more common films that exemplify the [[Esotika]] spirit and are a core part of the Esotika [[canon]]." --[[Esotika]] | ||
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Sydney Jay Mead (July 18, 1933 – December 30, 2019) was an American industrial designer and neofuturistic concept artist, widely known for his designs for science-fiction films such as Blade Runner, Aliens and Tron.
[edit]
In film
Mead worked with major studios on the feature films: Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Blade Runner, Tron, 2010, Short Circuit, Aliens, The Spirit of '76, Timecop, Johnny Mnemonic, Mission: Impossible III, Elysium, Tomorrowland and Blade Runner 2049. George Lucas created the AT-AT for his Star Wars saga based on art by Mead. Mead also contributed to the Japanese film Solar Crisis. In the 1990s, Mead supplied designs for two Japanese anime series, Turn A Gundam and the unfinished Yamato 2520.
In May 2007, he completed work on a documentary of his career with the director Joaquin Montalvan entitled Visual Futurist:The Art & Life of Syd Mead. The short 2008 documentary film 2019: A Future Imagined, also explored his works. Mead also appears in movie documentaries such as Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner and Mark Kermode's On the Edge of Blade Runner, and promotional materials such as the DVD extra for Aliens and a promotional short film about the making of 2010.
[edit]
Career history
- 1959: Employed by Ford Motor Company's Advanced Styling Center in Dearborn, Michigan.
- 1960–1961: Working at Ford Motor Company Styling in Detroit, Michigan.
- 1961: Makes futuristic paintings for a US Steel booklet.
- 1970: Starts own company, Syd Mead, Inc.
- 1976: Book of designs Sentinel published.
- 1978: Works on Star Trek: The Motion Picture (V'ger design)
- 1980: Begins work on Blade Runner (city background designs, vehicle design) and Tron (lightcycle, tank, solar sailer, and carrier designs).
- 1983: Works on 2010 (Leonov spaceship design).
- 1985: Works on Aliens (Sulaco design) and Short Circuit ("Johnny" robot design). Book Oblagon published.
- 1986: Works on Short Circuit (robot design).
- 1987: Designs space cruisers, fighters, props, and costumes for the Japanese animation Yamato 2520.
- 1991: Kronolog design book (compilation of Kronovecta, Kronoteco, and Kronovid books) published.
- 1991: Designs backgrounds and spacecraft for the the video game Terraforming (1992, PC-Engine DUO, Japan), also known as Syd Mead's Terraforming (1993, TurboDuo, North America).
- 1993: Designs vehicles for the computer game CyberRace.
- 1994: Works on designs for Timecop (guns, time machine) and Strange Days ("sim-stim" deck and headgear).
- 1995: Designs vehicles for the SegaSaturn game Gran Chaser aka Cyber Speedway (CyberRace's sequel).
- 1997: Conceptual artist on the computer game Wing Commander: Prophecy.
- 1998: Designs mecha for the anime Turn A Gundam.
- 2000: Works on Mission to Mars (vehicle design).
- 2001: Sentury published.
- 2004: "DVD" drawing Step By Step 4-series.
- 2005: Works on Mission: Impossible III (Mask Maker machine design).
[edit]
See also
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Syd Mead" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
