:: live-action design knees-up Cut&Paste makes its Shanghai debut this Saturday, May 23.

The Cut&Paste Digital Design Tournament is a globally touring competition that pits designers head to head, in a series of lightning-fast rounds, to prove their mettle. 2009 sees 16 cities on its roster – Shanghai is number 14 – plus a global championship event in June. 2D, 3D and Motion Design are represented, and contestants have a fixed amount of time – 15 minutes for 2D, 20 minutes for 3D, eight hours for Motion – to execute a creative brief on the spot. Their work is projected, live and in real time, on massive screens so the audience can ooh over every creative decision, ahh over every technical move, and get a glimpse into the ever-nebulous Creative Process.

Check the video from the last tour:

Pretty neat, eh?

Shanghai’s 16 contestants have been handpicked from tons of entries collected earlier in the year (they’re listed on the Shanghai event page, under their respective categories). Tournament judges include Chinese contemporary artists Ding Yi and Jellymon creative director Sam Jacobs for the 2D category, Asentio Design founder David Williams and adFunture founder Eddi Yip for 3D; and W+K’s Francis Lam and AKQA’s Johan Vakidis for Motion.
The afterparty – co-hosted by (they who brought Daedelus, People Under the Stairs and, most recently, Modular Records) – sees LA’s in Shanghai, rather fitting given Cut&Paste’s 2009 tour started in LA three months ago. (It’s been moving across North America, Europe and Asia ever since.)

Three audience design contests will allow folks not content just watching to get a taste of what those onstage are up against. Winners of these contests – selected from all global entries – get to go to global championships in June, along with the official winners from each city.
Whether you’d like to see the creative process somewhat demystified, or are just hankering for a good show, head down the Shanghai Sculpture Space Saturday evening.

Cut&Paste Digital Design Tournament 2009: Shanghai. Saturday, May 23. Doors 6:30pm / Show 7:00pm. Shanghai Sculpture Space (570 Huaihai Xi Lu, near Kaixuan Lu). RMB 100 presale (RMB 80 for students) through Ticketmaster / RMB 120 at the door (tickets include entry to the at Yuyintang with Free the Robots). Full details: www.cutandpaste.com or . Facebook event .  // PL

[Panthea Lee is a guest contributor on 56minus1. Full disclosure: Panthea is the producer of Cut&Paste Shanghai, and Neocha.com – of which Adam Schokora (56minus1) is a partner – is a sponsor of the event.]

:: Benjamin Steiger Levine is a wickedly talented filmmaker and music video director from Montreal, Canada.

This video for Socalled’s “You Are Never Alone” is an example of his charming, quirky, wonderfully cinematic style. Given his surrealist aesthetic and love of special effects driven storytelling, it’s not surprising that Steiger Levine has been drawing Michel Gondry comparisons of late.

[The video above loads quickly in China, but for a higher quality version, click here.]

Steiger Levine joined Toronto-based Spy Films in December 2008. On the company’s blog, there’s a short Q&A with him — about a recent video for Beast’s Mr. Hurricane. See more of his reel here.

For those in Shanghai, Socalled is performing tonight (Saturday, May 2) at Yuyintang (along with ) as part of the series presented by Spli-t Works and transmitCHINA. Other visiting bands from the Great White North include (yesterday), and and Hollerado (tomorrow). Local support from and Crazy Mushroom. All the bands will also be playing in Zhenjiang this weekend for the MIDI Festival. Support those crazy Canucks, eh? Bravo, well done.  // PL

[Panthea Lee is a guest contributor on 56minus1.]

:: Starting next Friday, a quartet of literary love-ins will be rolling out in Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu and Suzhou, each lasting two to three weeks. (March is looking that much brighter now, yes?)

Over 50 international and Chinese novelists, journalists, and writers of many a stripe will be presenting workshops and talks as part of the International Literary Festival series. (Note: the events are all in English.) While the Shanghai edition (organized by the M Group) and the ones in the other three cities (put on by The Bookworm) are not officially affiliated, the festivals do share some names. (Though I am curious, after comparing programmes side-by-side: why not more?)

Past years – and only speaking for the Shanghai incarnation here – have seen some heavyweights on the festival rosters. 2007 had esteemed man of letters Gore Vidal, fresh-from-the-Bookers Kiran Desai, author Amy Tan (Joy Luck Club, Saving Fish from Drowning), lefty Canadian badass John Ralston-Saul, and travel writers Jan Morris and Simon Winchester. (The former mentored the latter, and if you ever get a chance to hear these master raconteurs tell their tales themselves, jump on it.)

Last year, attendees included Arundhati Roy with Pankaj Mishra (whose talk on being an activist/author got the crowd nicely worked up); Hari Kunzru (who then went on trip to Moganshan, resulting in, among other things, ); architect Paul Andreu; and the Atlantic’s man in China, the ever erudite James Fallows, who spoke on his adopted home of the past few years – he’s lived in both Shanghai and Beijing since 2006 – as well as the Iraq War (he’d just published ) and the 2008 US presidential campaign (then in the maelstrom of March primaries).

I’ll be frank – this philistine has not heard of many of featured names on this year’s bills, which seem to have fewer household names than in years past. This, of course, says nothing about the quality of the event, it merely that it’s time to do some homework. (In past years, all relevant titles have been available pre- and post-festival at Chaterhouse in Shanghai, and the Bookworm stores in the other cities. Call ahead, though, to make sure that’s the case for whatever you’re looking for.)

Some sessions that look interesting:

• “China on the Internet” with Andrew Lih, Vanessa Na and Simon Elegant moderated by Jeremy Goldkorn (March 3, 7:30pm, Beijing)
• James Fallows (), journalist, author, national correspondent for The Atlantic, and – random fact! – youngest presidential speechwriter in American history (for Jimmy Carter; yes, he was even younger than Jon Favreau) (March 7, 3:00pm, Shanghai)
• Mohammed Hanif (), the Pakistani journalist whose debut novel – a political mystery/comedy – was longlisted for the Booker (March 8, 3:00pm, Shanghai)
• The Inaugural FT Debate: China vs Obama’s America, with Simon Schama, Richard McGregor, Jonathan Fenby and Geoff Dyer (March 15, 5:00pm, Shanghai)
• Fuschia Dunlop (): chef and food writer on Chinese cuisine (various dates and times; Beijing, Chengdu, Suzhou)

There are plenty of others sessions that may be worth checking out: Israeli writer Alon Hilu (Death of a Monk); That’s founder Mark Kitto (who many know, and who recently published his China Cuckoo memoir); adventurer Robin Hanbury-Tenison (The Seventy Great Journeys in History); American essayist and translator (for Jorge Luis Borges, Octavio Paz) Eliot Weinberger (An Elemental Thing); hot new Vietnamese-Australian writer Nam Le (The Boat); Shanghainese historian and author Lynn Pan (Shanghai Style: Art and Design Between the Wars); and a host of journalists (Ian Buruma, Barbara Demick, HS Liu, Duncan Hewitt, Paul French) in various arrangements for the Bookworm’s “Committing Journalism” series.

For those saying “pass” because “the writers aren’t as big as you’re used to” or bellyaching about why we can’t have bigger literary festivals, newsflash: as English is not the main language in China, the English-language literary scene is – no surprise – not all that big. (In the same vein, no griping about why Chaterhouse doesn’t have that first edition Neruda you’ve been hankering for, please.) If you want more English-language cultural events in future, show up and support what is happening when it is happening, and help build the scene you want.

Hats off to AsiaMedia, The M Group, and the Bookworm family for making these happen. Not sure how long the Bookworms have been involved, but the Shanghai edition has been a labour of love for its organizers for now nine years and counting.

Programmes vary by city, and the above information will not apply to all four festivals. Please check the respective websites for full details.

Shanghai International Literary Festival. March 6 to 22. The Glamour Bar and M on the Bund (6/F and 7/F, No. 5 The Bund, 5 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu, near Guangdong Lu; Tel: ). Regular sessions RMB 65 (includes one drink), prices differ for season tickets and literary lunches. Tickets through MyPiao.com or at 400-620-6006. Full details on the website.

Beijing International Literary Festival. March 6 to 20. The Bookworm – Beijing (Building 4, Nan Sanlitun Lu, Chaoyang District, Beijing; Tel: ). Most events RMB 50 (includes one drink). Full details on the website.

Chengdu International Literary Festival. March 6 to 21. The Bookworm – Chengdu (Yujie Dong Lu #2-7, Renmin Nan Lu #28, Chengdu; Tel: ). Most events RMB 50 (includes one drink). Full details on the website.

Suzhou International Literary Festival. March 6 to 20. The Bookworm – Suzhou (Gunxiufang 77, Shiquan Lu, Suzhou; Tel: ). RMB 30, pricing differs for workshops and literary dinners. Full details on the website.  //

[Image by Vipul Mathur, used under a Creative Common license.]

[Panthea Lee is a guest contributor on 56minus1.]

:: Arts&Crafts (smokin’ Canadian indie label boasting the likes of Bell Ochestre, The Most Serene Republic, and Feist) recently released a beautiful concept album called The Happiness Project by Charles Spearin (smokin’ Canadian musician best known as a founding member of Broken Social Scene). The eight-track wonder grew out of casual conversations between Spearin and his neighbors in downtown Toronto on the topic of happiness, portions of which he then extracted and worked into song. His motivation: to draw attention to the musicality of everyday discourse. Spearin explains on the album’s website:

“Normally, we don’t pay any attention to the movement of our lips and tongue, and the rising and falling of our voices as we toss our thoughts back and forth to each other. We just talk and listen. The only time we pay attention to these qualities is in song. [...] Meaning seems to be our hunger but we should still try to taste our food. I wanted to see if I could blur the line between speaking and singing – life and art? – and write music based on these accidental melodies.”

Spearin’s soundscapes of speech – arranged by him and realized, on the album, by a motley crew of musicians, including daughters, neighbors and bandmates – document the prosaic, and push it towards something sublime.

Christopher Mills (smokin’ Canadian video artist – do we see a pattern here? – who’s done work for Modest Mouse, Interpol, and The Secret Machines) created a short film to introduce the Project. Narrated by Spearin and populated by a cast of animated characters, it’s a simple concept well executed, and a gem in its own right.

Those in Toronto, Montreal or New York, will be able to catch the The Happiness Project live, with Spearin and a seven-piece band, over a few dates in mid-March (details here) For those of us in China, there’s been murmurings of the Canadian government throwing more money behind Canuck talent parading in the PRC – anyone hit Buck 65 last year? – so keep your fingers crossed. There are good things a-brewing… For more information on The Happiness Project, visit the website. Bravo, well done. //

[Panthea Lee is a guest contributor on 56minus1.]