Have you ever tried to stuff a bunch of stuff into a small space, like a closet for instance, and found you just couldn’t fit everything in?

Or you were able to squish it all in there after spending an extraordinary amount of time trying to fit items together like a jigsaw puzzle in order to utilize the most space? For example, like when you are packing for trip and you stick a bunch of socks inside that extra pair of empty shoes.

Swedish artist and space utilizer extraordinaire Michael Johansson is a master of taking random, unrelated objects that would usually have no business living together and then marrying them in the most extreme ways without leaving an inch of usable space.

Johansson utilizes everything from suitcases, old TVs, furniture, construction equipment, drinking glasses and anything else that he can find and, like a Jenga game in reverse, sticks them all together into one cohesive form. His sculptures are a veritable cornucopia of odds and ends that ask the viewer to wonder, “How did he do that?”

But he creates other types of sculptures as well. Recently Johansson began to show another set of sculptures that are essentially 1:1 ratio “model kits” utilizing everything from row boats and bicycles to old hair dryers.

By taking life-size objects and connecting them together with a series of rods, his sculptures have the look of those toy model kits that say “some assembly required” on the box and have all the pieces attached to each other via thin plastic connecting rods. All a model maker needs is some glue and paint to create a miniature car or boat. The only difference is that Johannson’s model boat is an actual row boat that really floats. And his model bicycle which if put together properly would be a good ride.

Johansson is an artist that plays with our perception of reality, space and size when it comes to how we view the ubiquitous objects around us. With his sculptures where he is fitting all manner of life’s objects together into a uniform box-like shape he is doing something that many of us do all the time when we try to stuff as much as we can into a small space. He just takes away the walls and allows the viewer to see what all that stuffing might all look like if they could see it from every angle.

People have always loved boxes within boxes and Johansson’s suitcases within suitcases sculpture is a classic example of a fun piece of art that gets the viewer thinking about relative space and how space is utilized. Remember, suitcases are made to put stuff in and Johansson does just that, but he turns the idea on its head by putting another suitcase inside the first suitcase, over and over again, until there is no more room.

Johannson’s art is fun, unique and might inspire a viewer to go home and see how much they can squish into their closet, drawer or a suitcase without leaving any space at all and perhaps even call it art.

We’re stoked. It’s one week til SXSWi kicks off. This will be my fourth consecutive year attending, so I’ve decided to offer up some survival tips for you newbies.

Badge Pick Up
This is an annual necessary evil. I’ve gone to the convention center at varying times each year and I’ve found no secret formula to the best time to go. My advice is to just go, be ready for a wait and make the best of it. Instead of spending time glued to your phone, take a look around and make friends with the folks in line near you. After all, a big part of SXSW is meeting new people and connecting.

With badge finally in hand, you’ll be officially ready to take part in all things SXSW (or whatever your badge grants you).

What To Do
So many panels, so many parties, what’s a SXSW geek to do? My advice: head for the nearest yummy Austin food joint (there are many) and pore over the schedule. Determine your absolute must-sees, the things your geeky little heart can’t stand to miss. Take note of anything else that looks semi-cool and be ready to be flexible.

Pace Yourself, Arrive Rested And Stay Healthy
Every year I’ve attended, one thing always happens: people get sick. Last year, I got sick. The previous year, a colleague did and so on. It’s almost hard not to get run down when you’re geeking out at panels by day, checking out parties by night and fueling all of it on Austin’s finest bbq.

Your best bet is to arrive rested. Nothing runs down your immune system like being wiped out. When you arrive, head for the Whole Foods Lamar location (their flagship store). It’s a long walk or quick drive from the convention center area. Stock up on healthy snacks and breakfast goodies that will get you through the week and save you some cash.

Get Connected
SXSW is a great opportunity to connect in real life with the folks you know virtually. Look for your favorite Twitter or blogger buds and make plans for coffee or drinks.

Get Out
You’re in Austin, one of the coolest music towns around. Even though the Music Conference isn’t happening during Interactive, there are always tons of cool things going on. When the day’s sessions are over, get on out there. Take a breather from the conference geekery and see what Austin has to offer. Take your new found pals from the conference and see what’s happening at spots like The Continental Club on South Congress or Emo’s on Red River.

Eat and Eat Well
Austin is also a great town for foodies on all types of budgets. Check out sites like Foursquare or Foodspotting for tips from locals. Or give some of my favs a try:

-Manuels, an upscale Mexican spot with amazing mole
-South Congress Cafe, a yummy dinner (and brunch) spot
-Hey Cupcake! will satisfy your sweet tooth from an Airstream
-Jo’s Coffee for spectacular coffee (what else), free wifi and breakfast tacos
-Homeslice Pizza, pizza that satisfies this New Yorker

Last but not least, have fun.

If you’re reading this and want to say hi at SXSW, look for me on Twitter or in person. You’ll know me by my footwear - my fav black Lucchese cowboy boots (comfort is another important thing at SXSW).

See you in Austin.

What would happen if MySpace and Skype met at a speed dating event, hooked up, and had a kid? ChatRoulette.

Internet chat rooms (à la 1996) have finally crawled from the primordial soup and climbed to the next rung on the technological evolutionary ladder. Someone please make it stop.

The Creative Seed Initiative presents Died Young Stayed Pretty, a film by Eileen Yaghoobian, about the underground poster world tonight at the River Club, 3 MLK Jr. Blvd. in downtown Savannah. Yaghoobian will be on hand at the screening for a Q&A about her film. This film looks really cool and if you are into graphic design or just love cool posters the film offers a unique glimpse behind the curtain into this culture.

Died Young, Stayed Pretty is a candid look at the underground poster culture in North America. This unique documentary examines the creative spirit that drives these indie graphic artists. They pick through the dregs of America’s schizophrenic culture and piece them back together. What you end up with is a caricature of the black and bloated heart that pulses greed through the US economy. The artists push further into the pulp to grab the attention of passersby, plastering art that’s both vulgar and intensely visceral onto the gnarled surfaces of the urban landscape. The film gives us intimate look at some of the giants of this modern subculture.

Outside of their own circle, they’re virtually unknown. But within their ranks they make up an army of bareknuckle brawlers, publicly arguing the aesthetic merits of octopus imagery and hairy 70s porn stars. They’ve created their own visual language for describing the spotty underbelly of western civilization and they’re not shy about throwing it in the face of polite society. Along the way, they manage to create posters that are strikingly obscene, unflinchingly blasphemous and often quite beautiful. Yaghoobian shows these artists for what they are: the vivisectionists of America’s morbidly obese consumer culture.

This is part of a double-feature. Veer The Movie (about bicycling culture) will also be shown.

Geekend01 aaron draplin from Geekend on Vimeo.

Last November a whole lot of self-proclaimed “Geeks” from all walks of life descended upon Savannah for the first annual Geekend. Portland, Oregon-based Aaron Draplin was the opening night keynote speaker and he really set the right tone for not only the first Geekend, but for all the Geekend’s to come (Geekend 2010 is already in the works).

If you want to hear one of the funniest, most thought provoking presentations on design, life, collecting weird stuff at yard sales and The Flaming Lips then check out this video of Draplin kicking Geekend into high gear.

Yesterday afternoon when I bookmarked the new video from OK GO for today’s post it had been viewed just over 100,000 times. As of the time of this posting (less than 24 hours later) it has been viewed almost 900,000 times. This one is definitely going viral.

You may remember, OK GO became an overnight internet sensation four years ago with their homemade treadmill dance video for “Here We Go Again”. Recently, the band was involved in a disagreement with their record label EMI over the issue of allowing videos to be embedded by fans on blogs, websites and social media profiles. However, it seems that with this latest video, this is no longer the case.

I really like two things about this video. First, it reminds me of playing the “Mousetrap” board game as a kid; I was always fascinated by the intricacies of Rube Goldberg machines. Second, the whole video is done without any special effects and in one continuous camera shot. Check out the four Making Of videos below.

The 3rd installment of the Creative Seed Initiative at the Trustees Theater with design guru DJ Stout was a success. Stout kept the audience in good spirits as he took them on a fun journey from his childhood to his decade and a half long tenure at Texas Monthly and now at Pentagram where he is a partner.

The Creative Seed Initiative’s next installment will be the showing of the film Died Young Stayed Pretty on March 4 at 7pm with director Eileen Yaghoobian in attendance for a Q&A.

More pix of event at BFG’s Flickr page.

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.

Put some of these stats in your next PowerPoint presentation and your boss/client will think you are an internet rock star, just like us. (Just remember: an agent’s cut is around 20%, so don’t forget to show us some love when you’re all rich and famous.)

We’re stoked to be a part of Savannah’s first ever Ignite event, which is coming up this Monday evening.

We’ve been digging the Ignite format for quite some time. If you’re not familiar with Ignite, it got started a few years ago by some smart Seattle geeks who were looking for a fun way to network and share ideas. Since then, Ignite has turned into a global phenomenon with chapters in cities across the globe.

Speakers at Ignite events get five minutes and 20 slides to share an idea, a format that keeps presentations moving along and fun. No death by powerpoint!

That will be the format for Savannah’s Ignite event, which is also part of Global Ignite Week. Events like Savannah’s will be going on all over the world next week.

The Savannah event will feature nine speakers on a range of topics from how rap and country music intersect to Foursquare ethics and the future of food.

We hope you Low Country creatives will join us. Here are the event details:
What: Ignite presented by Social Media Club of Savannah and SEED Eco Lounge, with support by BFG Communications
When: Monday, March 1st, 6-8 pm
Where: SEED Eco Lounge, 39 Montgomery Street, downtown Savannah
Cost: FREE
Click here for more details.

One of the big stories in social media last week was Clerk’s director Kevin Smith’s Twitter tirade after being bounced from a Southwest Airlines flight allegedly for being too fat to fly. As you might expect, there’s a lot of he said/she said insofar as the details of the actual incident are concerned. (If you are unfamiliar with this story, check out the related links at the bottom of this post.)

The goal of this post isn’t to take a side concerning whether Kevin Smith is too fat or not too fat to fly, nor is it to debate the fairness of Southwest Airlines’ policy concerning its personal space allocation for each passenger. This post is about the empowerment of the individual consumer due largely to social media and the aggregate power of internet search.

A Brief History Lesson

A little more than a decade ago, if an individual consumer had an issue with the way they were treated by a company their options were relatively limited: speak to a supervisor, write a letter, or call a customer relations hotline. And if the consumer was unsatisfied with the company’s response, they had little recourse beyond telling their family, friends, and co-workers about their negative experience.

Historically, companies have not had to worry much about bad word of mouth from individual consumers because the average consumer is limited largely by geography in his/her ability to exert mass influence. And although a disgruntled customer could phone or email others about their negative experience, the average person’s circle of influence remained relatively small; limited mostly to the people with whom they physically interact. In other words, in days gone by the price of pissing off the average consumer was relatively small.

Power to the People

Today, thanks to the power of the internet, it is relatively easy for the average consumer to acquire a much larger circle of influence. Blogs, Twitter, Facebook and the like have placed the power to reach the masses into the hands of the people, and the aggregate power of internet search has brought all those people together. It’s like having a thousand voices together in one room, whereas before they were like a thousand voices in a thousand separate rooms. Individually those voices may seem quiet and insignificant, but together they can be deafening.

Which brings us back to the Kevin Smith-Southwest Airlines debacle.

The Age of Accountability

Some have suggested that Kevin Smith abused his “social power” by continuing to trash Southwest Airlines online even after they apologized. As one blogger commented:

We EXPECT, DEMAND, WANT big and small from companies online – but when it comes to us, the consumer, we apparently get a free pass when it comes to RESPECT, UNDERSTANDING and RESPONSIBILITY online.

Unfortunately, I think this is a cop out. Not only is it too easy to vilify the foul-mouthed famous fat guy in this story, but it completely misses the point. This is a story about a consumer who had bad experience with a company. He was initially polite and went through all the traditional channels in an attempt to receive a satisfactory explanation for what had happened to him.

Ultimately, the traditional channels broke down and the consumer was left feeling wronged. So rather than take things lying down, Smith leveraged the means at his disposal to hold Southwest Airlines accountable. He refused to be marginalized.

Kevin Smith is not the first consumer to leverage the power of social media after being wronged by an airline (he just happens to be the first celebrity, which is why it made national news). Last year, musician Dave Carroll became a YouTube viral sensation after writing two songs about his experience with United Airlines (they broke his $3500 guitar and then refused to replace it). Certainly it can be argued that Carroll’s online approach was more “socially responsible” than Smith’s, however, despite millions of views on YouTube, Carroll’s plight never received much attention from national media.

Apology vs. Repentance

The last takeaway here is the difference between an apology and repentance. Apologies, for the most part, are worth very little. Apologies have become part of well-crafted PR campaigns. When a company or a celebrity royally screws up, issuing the obligatory mea culpa is part of what they do to make the situation go away. It’s what they do so that they can get back to doing what it is they were doing before the scandal.

Repentance, on the other hand, is a different animal. Webster’s defines repenting as turning from sin and dedicating oneself to the amendment of one’s life; to change one’s mind. That’s not the same as apologizing.

I submit that the reason Kevin Smith continued to berate Southwest Airlines online even after they apologized was that he wasn’t interested in an apology; he wanted repentance. And in today’s culture of Mel Gibsons and Tiger Woods and politicians of the week, can you blame him?

The implications for companies should be clear: talk is cheap. Don’t just say you’re sorry; demonstrate what you are changing to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. Because if you don’t change anything, then you aren’t really sorry.

At the end of the day, this is my hope for the power of social media: that it gives power to individual voices; that it holds companies accountable for their actions. No one should be marginalized.

———————-

Kevin Smith vs. Southwest Airlines links:

• Kevin Smith’s Smodcast #106 - Talks about the incident shortly after it happened. (Warning: F-bomb fest.)
• Kevin Smith’s Blog - Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3
• Southwest Airlines Blog - Part 1 and Part 2
• If you want to know anything else, Google it.