Jjjjound's Justin R. Saunders, Snarkitecture's Alex Mustonen
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The intersection of work, culture, and community. No. 04 The New Guard Issue JJJJound’s Justin R. Saunders, Snarkitecture’s Alex Mustonen & Daniel Arsham, Olympian Daryl Homer, Noah’s Brendon Babenzien, rapper Joey Bada$$, singer Shamir, & more. A destination for the best in men’s style with a new collection every month. Shop today at frankandoak.com FOLLOW US @LIBERTYFAIRS #LIBERTYFAIRS #BRAN DTOG ETHER WWW.LIBERTYFAIRS.COM NAM GARSIN II PHOTOG RAP HED BY JOHN M IDG LEY Oak Street Creative Director Ethan Song Editorial Director Sachin Bhola Art Director Camille Miron Sauvé Copy Editor Gemma Horowitz Contributors Thomas Albdorf, Catherine Beauchamp, Justin Bridges, Christopher DeLorenzo, Philippe Durocher-McBrearty, Marc Anthony George, Brent Goldsmith, Jenna Gottlieb, Ériver Hijano, Vicki Hogarth, William Hunter, Matthew Johnson, Jean Jullien, Noah Kalina, Corey Kelly, Sowmya Krishnamurthy, Ben Kriz, Richmond Lam, Victoria Ling, Andy Luce, Hana May, Ben McNutt, Derek Medina, Edith Morin, Samuel Pasquier, Stéfanie Vermeersch, William Yan Advertising & Distribution Premium Utility Gear Justin Smith [email protected] Contact [email protected] Oak Street 250 Lafayette Street, Suite 3A New York, New York 10012 — 160 Rue St-Viateur E., Suite 613 Montreal, Quebec H2T 1A8 Visit oakstreetmag.com Cover: Justin R. Saunders photographed in his office by Richmond Lam. © 2015-2016 Modasuite Inc. All rights reserved. The editorial content and graphics forming part of Oak Street are protected by Canadian copyright, international treaties, and other applicable copyright laws. Oak Street may not be copied or reproduced without written permission from Modasuite. Purchasers of Oak Street (print edition) may also print short excerpts of Oak Street for personal, noncommercial use, and may refer to Oak Street and its content as part of fair reviews and commentary. Under no circumstances will you obtain ownership of any rights in any work forming part of Oak Street (including text, photographs, graphics, and other content of Oak Street) and shall make no claims of ownership in the same. Clean details, streamlined fits, and intelligent fabrics combine to create a range of gear that’s suitable for both city hangouts and quality workouts. Available only at frankandoak.com Content A. Intelligence The New Guard Andy Warhol famously said, “They always say time changes things, but you In Conversation with Bio-Artist Sonja Bäumel, 9 Issue actually have to change them yourself.” This couldn’t be more apt as we enter Camaraderie 2.0, 14 2016, because achieving the progress we seek will require a great deal of work. The Business of Instagram, 16 That's why our latest issue, The New Guard, celebrates those people who not Cultured, 21 only embrace change but create it. Frankie Solarik: My Signature Drink, 22 In our cover story, we speak to Justin R. Saunders (page 66), one of the most influential creative directors of our generation. When he launched his blog, B. Connections JJJJound, it was in the vanguard of the public mood board format and was rep- Paradise Found, 24 resentative of the new territories created by art and technology. Baltimore’s Beacon, 37 The overlap between disciplines is also fully evident in Snarkitecture (page A Design Guide to Reykjavík, 40 76). Alex Mustonen and Daniel Arsham, the men behind it, are at the forefront The Future of Fashion, 48 of a new interdisciplinary field that marries architecture and art. Their work On Tour with BADBADNOTGOOD, 60 breathes new life into everything from retail spaces, like the Kith store in Brooklyn, to gallery installations. In the musical realm, Shamir (page 94) is one to watch. His electronic sound is C. Conversations making its way into mainstream pop culture, and his experience as an androgy- Justin R. Saunders, 66 nous, openly queer artist sets him apart from his contemporaries. He’s as much At Work with Snarkitecture, 76 of a role model for aspiring artists as he is for today’s LGBT youth. Joey Bada$$, Hip-Hop’s Rising Champion, 86 Everything Old is New Again, 89 What unites every person featured in this issue is an openness to the unexpected Shamir, 94 and a fierce stand against complacency. They don't just brace themselves for change—they pave the way for it. All of us should follow their lead. D. Aesthetics En Garde!, 100 –Sachin Bhola Nothing is Set in Stone, 110 Editorial Director Strictly Business, 116 Chromatic, 128 Forest Chants, 134 8 | 9 In Conversation with Bio-Artist A. Intelligence Sonja Bäumel Fine grooming products. c raF ted in m ontreal. www.lesindustriesgroom.com Words by William Hunter GRO_pub_01-vF2-110915.indd 1 2015-09-11 15:36 The New Guard Issue Defined as the design and construction of new biological The work, recently included in the group show “Gare du parts, devices, and organisms, or the redesign of existing Nord” at the Waag Society in Amsterdam, exposed the natural biological systems for useful purposes, synthetic mixture of life forms building on her body on any given biology allows scientists to expedite the process of breed- day, highlighting the fact that people are the result of ing everything from plants and animals to bacteria and an accumulation of the smallest parts—the bacteria that human DNA. Today, we can create DNA sequences from inhabit and rule the human hosts. scratch and design organisms with features they never possessed before. But the public has remained mostly I caught up with Bäumel, my former Design Academy unaware of these breakthroughs. Eindhoven classmate, to discuss her work. The conver- sation revealed a mind insistent on defining itself not in This is where art comes in. More and more artists disciplinary terms but by the passion of discovery. and designers are using biological science as a viable medium for their work. The movement began as early as Someone on the street stops and asks you what you do. the 1980s, when Joe Davis, who would go on to become a How would you explain it? Why should they be excited or, pioneer for a generation of outsider artists influenced by for that matter, care enough about the work? living organisms and biological specimens, set foot on I work with very tiny, live, unpredictable organisms. the campus of MIT. But it was in 1997 that artist Eduardo The experiments and research—the art I make, in some Kac actually gave the field a name: bio-art. way, may help us better understand our bodies. I design these processes in a way so that the outcomes are entic- Today, bio-artists explore the discipline in a myriad of ing, strange, and creatively odd. The payoff is it can ways, from examining human anatomy to the technologi- yield relevant results. On the subject of antibiotics—our cal applications of bio-influenced 3D printing. A common bodies are becoming more and more resistant. What goal is to transform the way we see, understand, and use if synthetic biology could help identify alternatives? science. Through the work of designers like Alexandra New technologies need to be cared about. In order to Daisy Ginsberg and Rachel Armstrong, and institutional avoid developments in medicine evolving into poten- incubators, such as SymbioticA at the University of West- tially dangerous directions, people should want to be ern Australia, new paths of expression are breathing life aware of the societal impacts. Such breakthroughs are into tedious scientific processes. already happening in labs all over the world. Everyone Vienna-born, Amsterdam-based Sonja Bäumel is a should have a say in the kind of future we want. leading light at this juncture of art and science. Through artist residencies and funded projects, she mediates You came into the pursuit of synthetic biology through Expanded Self (2012) Bäumel found a unique way of visualizing the invisible between fiction and fact, conducting beautifully bizarre a different doorway, studying at the University of Arts in surface of the human body. She uses a gigantic petri dish investigations that evolve from live confrontations with Linz and at the Fashion Institute of Vienna before arriving as a canvas and the bacteria living on her body as color. scientific data. at the Design Academy. Would you say you discovered a Preoccupied with the existence of microorganisms sort of “science of fashion”? produced by and living on our bodies, Bäumel attempts I actually prefer, instead of “fashion,” the science of to create a space in which bacteria can act as cooper- clothing or, even better, the biggest nonverbal com- ative partners, therefore exploring its larger cultural munication platform between humans. I am trying to significance. If this sounds a bit complicated—and understand the existing microorganisms living on us. creepy—that’s because it is. But, according to Bäumel, How do we actually build a system that starts with the this pursuit is necessary for us to become more aware individual, their socio-physical needs, and individual of the human body’s ability to adapt and evolve. beliefs? I’m questioning the system. Can we use it in a more sophisticated, authentic, and meaningful way? Bäumel’s work supports the intentional interruption of You could say I operate somewhere in between art, Textured Self (2011) social interactions between bacteria that, among other fashion, and design—all of these matched with a strong A work commissioned by the TextielMuseum (Netherlands) makes the layer of bacteria things, cause sickness and disease. Her “Metabodies” interest in science. taken from an individual's body on one research, for example, is concerned with the unexpected specific day tangible. diversity found within the human ecosystem’s “social What is it about synthetic biology that fascinates you? network” by focusing on the language of billions of My first synthetic biology experience was in my work Page 9: The making of “Expanded Self II” bacteria that populate it.