Cut and Paste Berlin 2009

Yeah yeah, we have been to the cut & paste event in the Tape Club last Saturday.

If you don't know what c&p is about, in short, it is a battle of visual artists in the tradition of hip hop competitions. Four artists are giving a topic and 15minutes to create an unique piece of artwork, a jury decides who goes to the finals and then another 15min battle for the top prize, which was some new wacom tablet and a trip to the finals in New York City. Meanwhile, a crowd can follow the creation of the artwork on big screens, sheer and support and dance to the DJ set. The categories of skirmish were 2D, 3DDesign and Motion Design, the latter being the exception with a six hour time frame and only four combatants. All in all, a very cool concept for a neat event.

The Motion Design competition had the best results working around the subject "public and private". The crowd reacted really positive, too. 2D and 3D did not really blow me away. Nobody expects master pieces within 15 minutes time. But given that the competitors were told the themes a week in advance, I think the main concepts for the pieces could have been better. It was interesting to see the people build their pieces, especially in the 3D section, where the approaches of building the pieces and use of software had been vastly different. As usual, the audience prize for this category went to the bloke who brought the most friends. Cheap. Sad to see that he also won the jury price.

In 2D, I was surprised that none of the artists really used the wacom cintiqs to actually draw on them or even do a speed painting. No, real illustrators, alot of missed potential there. People mostly stuck to collague technique and illustrator style vector and besier pushing. The cool effect that you get from actually watching someone draw was not achieved.
There was robotkid, a guy who did a fairly cool pic. He tried to put the piece together in tune with the rhythm given by the DJ. That was cool and playful.

Nobody expects super dope artwork, you don't go there to learn anything or witness photoshop revelations. The artists are supposed to show of their skills and get some of that imediate feedback that a visual artist never exeriences in normal work life. Everybody else should have a good time at on a design themed party and the sponsors and media partners could present themselves as it is common these days.

Still, I left the event rather annoyed and somewhat angered. I liked the location, I liked the audience, I could live with the artists and jury and I really liked the music that day. But the two presenters were really really horrible. First off, neither the fat bloke with the bad hair nor the air head chick spoke proper german or had the slightest idea about the event they were hosting. English is not my native tongue nor is my writing very elegant. I do not expect anyone to speak perfect German. Who does?

But a presenter should present. They were mocking. I figure the little sense the two brats were talking could have been easily understood by the audience in any other language. And I could have lived with that. Easily. What made me mad was their ill-prepared performance and blatant ignorance for the event and their audience. They did not know what they were presenting, nor did they seem to care to show some interest. They even tried to be cool and even funny. Making fun of the audience by repeatedly calling the crowd "workless graphic designers" (haha, good one) or blaming them for the bad atmosphere after they managed to turn all the enthusiasm in the room into mild boredom.

Lacking rhetoric repertoir, the fat one screamed "BERLIN!" every time he felt like something had to be yelled, expecting the crowd to go ape shit. Annoying. Some people were drunk or otherwise prepared enough to bear it, my friends and I had to leave after two and half hours.

Sad thing is, it could have been such a cool night. Everybody had the best intentions to make the event a nice party. If c&p comes back next year, I'll give them a second chance. There is a lot of potential for a good event.
Rating on the shitshockminipenguin scale: 1/5