Thought: After All, I Am A Male Model [news]
Hi, I have changed my description from Transgender Art Model to Male Art Model to better reflect the long way I have gone since I started my site about a year ago.
I have thought a lot about what it means to be female or male and came to the conclusion that I am after all male ;-)
In my opinion you can interpret almost all of my pictures in both a male or female direction showing the ambiguity of our gender roles.
Another reason for updating my description is my experience that many people are confusing transgender with transsexual, or do not understand the word at all. The latter meaning by the way gender reassignment by surgery, which is an interesting thought, but a different thing.
I think having the "Miss" in front of my nickname and the "Male Art Model" description now clearly expresses what I am while still emphasizing my interest in gender roles, their overcome and contradiction.
Vienna Design Week Tour With Megumi Ito [news]
Video credit: missviki.at
You know you've achieved perfection in design, not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away. — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Hi, the 10 Festival did not only consist of exhibitions and shows, but also offered several guided shopping tours.
I joined the first one with the Japanese interior designer Megumi Ito, which was co-hosted by Vienna Design Week.
Our "path of passion" included:
- Glass manufacturer Lobmeyr
- Fashion designer & interior expert P Weisz @ mood
- Studio of Sebastian Menschhorn, graphic & product designer
- Guerilla Store, 10 Festival's Fashion & Accessory store
10 Festival: The Shift from Still to Moving Image [news]
Video credit: missviki.at
Hi, if a picture is worth a thousand words, then a moving image must be worth a million. The Web has evolved from text to image and is now more and more embracing film.
But I think this does not mean that the former media is replaced or abandoned, it is rather enriched, although the mutual relevance can change over time.
Following the general trend toward video, I have also made a video summary of the Go International Talk, which was hosted in the Viennese palais Schönburg, about this subject.
The talk was moderated by Imran Amed from Business of Fashion. The first guest was Alexander Fury from SHOWstudio, who has raised the interesting point about "narrative versus mood" pictures (see examples below) and the possible intersection between fashion and perfume advertising.
Pictures and videos are also technologically quite related. Today every still picture camera has a video function, and vice versa. You can even extract single frames from an ultra high resolution (and ultra high bandwidth) video footage, and use it as your still pictures, which was also mentioned in the discussion by Alistair Allan from Dazed Digital.
Fashion video examples
10 Festival: Press Kit Unboxing [news]
Video credit: missviki.at
Hi, I have created my first unboxing video, a very popular category of YouTube videos by now, where the joy lies in unwraping a brand-new product, focusing on the packaging and overall design.
I have taken the idea to showcase the 10 Festival's press kit, which I got at today's press conference. Enjoy!
10 Festival For Fashion & Photography [news]
Photo credit: Elfie Semotan
Hi, June is Vienna's Fashion Month with a lot of fashion exhibitions, performances and activities such as guided shopping tours and exciting fashion talks.
And the best is, most of them have free entry, although you often have to register via email. Take a look on the dense time table on the official 10 Festival's program.
Here is an incomplete list of interesting events I would like to attend. Drop a comment if you are also going to one of the events. I look forward to seeing you.
June 7th
GUERILLA STORE
7 p.m. @ LISKA (Hoher Markt 8, 1010 Vienna)
June 8th
GO INTERNATIONAL TALK
The shift from still image to moving image
4 p.m. @ Palais Schönburg (Rainergasse 11, 1040 Vienna)
LA DEMIMONDAINE
Short film with Iris Strubegger by flair
4 p.m. @ Palais Schönburg (Rainergasse 11, 1040 Vienna)
June 9th
FOREVER FAMOUS
PhotographersLimitedEditions.com exhibition
6:30 p.m. @ Bauernmarkt 14, 1010 Wien
June 10th
VIENNA DESIGN WEEK Tour
Visit four shops with the Japanese designer Megumi Ito
5 p.m. @ Lobmeyr (Salesianergasse 9, 1030 Vienna)
CINEMA PHOTOGRAPHIQUE
Europe's first international open air cinema for fashion photography
9 p.m. @ Pratersauna (Waldsteingartenstr. 135, 1020 Vienna)
June 11th
AZUBIS 01
Joint fashion show of bachelor's classes in fashion from Linz & Vienna
8 p.m. @ Bulgarian Institute of Culture (Parkgasse 18, 1030 Vienna)
June 12th
VICE X Wood Wood Photo Exhibition
Philippe Gerlach Photography
6:30 p.m. @ Wood Wood Store (Zollergasse 29, 1070 Vienna)
AFTERSHOW PARTY
AZUBIS 01
10 p.m. @ The Loft (Lerchenfelder Gürtel 37, 1160 Vienna)
June 14th
DEPARTURE FASHION NIGHT
Anna Aichinger, AND_i, Doychinoff, mija t. rosa, Mühlbauer
8 p.m. @ Semperdepot (Lehárgasse 6, 1060 Vienna)
ROTATIONS
The designer EDITH A'GAY presents her collection entitled rotations.
10 p.m. @ Pratersauna (Waldsteingartenstr. 135, 1020 Vienna)
June 15th
LISKA
Thomas Kirchgrabner presents his new collection Apokalype.
8 p.m. @ Semperdepot (Lehárgasse 6, 1060 Vienna)
June 16th
AWARDS 10
Austria Fashion Awards
7:30 p.m. @ Semperdepot (Lehárgasse 6, 1060 Vienna)
THE BLACK LODGE PARTY
AWARDS 10 After Party
11 p.m. @ Celeste (Hamburgerstr. 18, 1050 Vienna)
June 17th
Show Angewandte 10
Vienna's University of Applied Arts
6 p.m. @ Orangerie Schönbrunn, 1130 Vienna
— End of 10 Festival
June 18th
Schau 2010
Vienna Fashion School Hetzendorf
8 p.m. @ Schloss Hetzendorf (Hetzendorferstr. 79, 1120 Vienna)
Peyman Amin In Vienna [news]
Video credit: missviki.at
Hi, I got an autograph of Peyman, the former right hand in Heidi Klum's Germany's Next Topmodel ;-)
In an interview, which he gave at the BigsMile Place in Vienna, Peyman also told frankly about the dropping audience of the Next Topmodel series after he left.
I managed to record a short video clip from the press conference, and also did a voice over for my first time :) I decided to make it in German in order to keep everyone in his/her native language.
Another argument for German is that a (fashion) video is first and foremost a visual medium, anyway. I will also keep posting descriptive text here on the blog, so do not worry if you do not speak German.
The Hetzendorf Graduation Show 2009 [news]
Video credit: missviki.at
Hi, I just uploaded my first YouTube video, a recording of last year's show 2009 of the Vienna Fashion School Hetzendorf :)
The fashion show was one of the larger and more professional shows, which are taking place in Vienna, and presented over 250 design picks of Hetzendorf's students and graduates. You can find a good German summary of the show on Austrian Fashion Net.
After an almost ten years pause in video editing, it was fun to see the progress in this field (remember, after all I am a computer scientist). If you like it and want to see more, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel. The next Hetzendorf show will take place on the 18th of June 2010. See you there.
Posing In Outer Space [news]
Photo credit: NASA
Hi, I have recently taken an online course about Astro Physics, which has raised my awareness and fascination about our universe. Gravity is the most mysterious natural force, which gives us our intuitive feeling of weight.
In this post I would like to take a look how models astronauts pose under zero gravity.
The above picture shows the photogenic Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki lifting her colleague Soichi Noguchi in the Kibo laboratory of the International Space Station.
Naoko Yamazaki in the Destiny laboratory
Group portrait of Expedition 23/STS-131 crew
For The International Community [news]
Photo credit: missviki.at
Keti Berisha, Art Of Hair
Hi, there are two types of jetlags. One that is caused by a rapid change of the time zone for instance after a long distance flight, the other – probably even more familiar – by going to bed too late or by getting up too early due to work or other important circumstances.
If you are suffering from either kind of jetlag, you may find JETLAG INTERNATIONAL interesting, four kinds of events for the international community in Vienna.
Yesterday, I went to the monthly JETLAG BUSINESS LOUNGE in the Steigenberger Herrenhof hotel in order to chill out from my recent jetlag (trip to Linz and back to Vienna in one night).
The networking event featured two fashion shows, a magician, live hair styling and manicuring, which was organized in cooperation with Dominik Wachta (Topmodel TV).
Cars meet fashion
Bentley in front of the hotel lobby
Ringstrassen Galerien Designer Award 2010 [news]
Photo credit: missviki.at
Dernier Cri, Juergen Bertsch, Rinda Salmun, Shakkei, and Konsanszky
Hi, I visited the Ringstrassen Galerien Designer Award 2010 last week, which was held in a luxurious Austrian shopping center in the first district of Vienna for the seventh time.
It seemed to me that the main goal of the event was not necessarily to promote Austrian fashion designers, but rather to deliver a solid and professional society event build around fashion. Inviting five international designers, who competed with five national designers, appeard a bit arbitrary to me, but made the event more interesting at the same time.
Surprisingly (or not), the German designer Juergen Bertsch won the award with his avantgardistic menswear collection, which is a nice exception to my hypothesis that male fashion is neglected ;-) Among my favorites were Dernier Cri (read the interview with the designers), Konsanszky and Rinda Salmun.
Another noteworthy detail was the really cool background music and sound, which perfectly matched every collection and supported the entire show.
Here is the PULS 4 video clip about the show with yet another discussion about anorexic models. I love skinny models (because I am skinny too), but I also find curvy models very attractive :) What do you think?
Dernier Cri
Ringstrassen Galerien Shopping Center
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