Spare a thought for Hidden Eloise, a UK based artist who’s currently in dispute with Paperchase over one of their designs. Paperchase are selling tote bags and books that feature an element that’s clearly traced from one of Eloise’s paintings. I think it’s a bit strong calling it plagiarism, but Paperchase’s designer has clearly lifted the girl’s figure from the original painting, which is lazy, unprofessional and unethical. I made a gif to demonstrate the similarity:

The items were on sale on Amazon, but have been withdrawn, and Paperchase has made the following statement:

Paperchase’s position regarding the allegations of ‘copying’ made against the Company today is as follows:

Above all, we would like to apologise to any customers upset or angered by this allegation against us. Paperchase takes all reasonable precautions to check that designs we source or buy from individual designers or agencies are from reputable sources. In this case, we would like to confirm that Paperchase bought the artwork in question, in good faith, in October 2008, from a well-known central London Design Studio along with a number of other designs.

The illustrator who is making the allegation made us aware of her concerns in November 2009 and we duly responded to her in early December, since when we had heard nothing….until today. Back in November 2009, we spoke at length to the Design Studio in question and they categorically denied any plagiarism.

It is worrying that such an allegation can create such reaction and again, Paperchase apologises for any ill-feeling caused.

Well, Eloise had the painting on her blog on 6 May 2008.

Paperchase’s statement is really not good enough. Paperchase should agree an a fee with Hidden Eloise and not work with the other design studio again (I have my suspicions that “Design Studio” uses Google as a design tool). Continued denial of what’s indisputable, that another artist’s work has been incorporated into their products without recompense, will only harm them in the long term.

I used to work for Macnas in Galway and in 2001 I was inspired to draft a proposal for a show based on the myth of Heracles (or Hercules as the Romans had him). I submitted it on spec and nothing ever came of it (and I mean nothing, it wasn’t even acknowledged). The written treatment is lost on a crashed harddrive somewhere but I found the designs I drew up to go with the proposal last night so I thought I’d share them here.
Macnas at the time had an obsession with The Odyssey, producing no less than 3 shows based around the epic, including a promenade performance for the Galway Arts Festival called Ollie Deasy. This had a stylised contemporary Irish setting, and had some successful stagecraft in it. I thought I’d continue in the vein, proposing an adaptation of the labours of Heracles with a similar setting, and came up with The Tasks of Harry Cleese.
At the time I’d just come across Julie Taymor and was exceptionally turned on by her approach to puppetry and performance, and had met and worked with Michael Curry in New York the previous year for the Millenium celebrations. Also, Irish production designer Tom Conroy had given several of us a crash course in designing for the stage and street during the year. Those influences are very apparent looking back on these drawings.

From the story I submitted I seem to remember that the drink was Harry’s demon, and that his wife had left him, taking the kids with her (Heracles in the Greek original had killed his own children during a bout of madness), and the tasks were a feverish penance in his own head to right his wrongs. So his own home was laid siege by the Hydra in the form of a tree (see above), mocking him every time he looked out the window.

Harry’s friend, imagined as Pholus the Centaur, who sets him off on his tasks.

Harry sets off through the audience.

Harry haunted by the Lamia-like image of his wife.

Harry tames wild (Thracian) Horses. Very Taymor, but the notion of exposing the performer in costume puppetry seemed very radical at the time and made a huge impression on me.

Harry captures an escaped ostrich. This amalgamated several of the tasks, and I think there was a lot in the news about ostrich farming at the time!

The Stymphalian Birds:  Stimp and Phil. These would have been rivetted puppets with features made from printing metal and would have been comic relief. Harry kills them in rage when they taunt him.

How Stimp and Phil would have made their entrance: different puppets, swooping in the dark over the audience’s head.

The cow stampede/ Cattle of Geryon.

Cerberus would have been three wild dogs that attack Harry, with the performers coming together at times to suggest a three-headed hound.

It would have ended with Harry taking an axe to the mocking Hydra in the (hopefully) emotional crescendo of the show.

It’s kind of wistful finding something like this and knowing it’ll never see the light of day. It was obviously highly derivative but at the time I was pretty confident it would make a good show.

Alas, Harry Cleese won’t be mounting his bicycle.

Firstly, the keyboard has the most dreadful action of any keys I’ve ever pressed, including toy mobile phones from a Two Euro shop. It squashes down in the middle when you’re typing, and it’s got the clackiest keys, sounding like the spokes of a BMX bike in the 80s. Recently the F4 key just popped off the board. I secured it again, but I use secured in the same sense that the Beverly Hillbillies “secured” their belongings on the back of their car.
Some designer decided that the touch sensitive controls for DVD playback should be invisible too. They do become visible once they’ve been touched, but if you want to adjust your volume using them you must first run your finger along where you think they are so that some will light up, and you can remember the one you want once you’ve closed the DVD programme that springs open even if you just brush of that part of the keyboard.
The soundcard is dreadful. Sound playback even on external speakers clicks and hisses the whole way through. If I want clear playback I’ve to use a USB soundcard, then it works fine, but I shouldn’t have to shell out more money for something that should work in the first place.

It came with Vista installed, which isn’t really a hardware issue, but the whole thing packs up if I try to use data CDs and has to be rebooted, and then I have to eject the disc before Vista boots fully. I put this down to shitty Vista conspiring with shitty hardware.
The touchpad is about as sensitive as bark on a tree that died from an overdose of anaesthetic. For some reason it’s set off to the left rather than being placed neutrally in the middle. You might think this would be to the exclusion of left handed people, but no, it would be a more comfortable experience for a lefty; right handed users will find it takes a lot of getting used to, at least, once the cramps have passed.
No, I never returned it to Dell. The reason is the same one that most people would have: I had to buy a new computer because the old one packed up, and once I had it, I had no window in my work schedule to send it off for in indefinite period for repair.

Or to put it simply, you can’t repair bad design.
UPDATE: looks like Pat’s having Dell problems too.
UPDATE 15/03/10: Now the screen’s getting loose and shaking. The volume control lights flash on and off after Vista updates. What a piece of crap.

There’s a nice post on Screen Rant about the upcoming Hulk movie, including the above comparison of the new design with the Ang Lee version (left). I have to say, first impressions of the new design aren’t good. There’s something very odd going on with the skin texture, it looks like plastic, and the musculature makes him look like he’s bound in old rope. All in all it looks like the quintessential rubber costume from low budget monster movies. The smaller head and simian features of the newer version (compare the jawlines and noses) look odd. As for the Abomination, well, I think that’s going to live up to its name.

Still I know I’m going to end up going to see it, and I’ll probably enjoy scenes. It can’t be as bad as Spiderman 3 (can it?). And let’s face it, the real quandary these conflicting versions is putting me in is choosing between Jennifer Connelly and Liv Tyler. Would that I ever had that choice to make…
UPDATE: I’ve reviewed it here.

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