Canadian collage artist Paul Butler takes the experience of art off the wall and turns it into a full-on party. Literally. A “traveling experimental group studio with a rotating cast,” Collage Party has roamed North American and Europe creating walk-in, full-room cut and paste installations.

Unlike your run-of-the-mill house party, these all-nighters (if the beer bottles and artists sleeping on clipping-strewn tables are any indication) are no-holds-barred creativity jams. The results range from nailing Teddy Bears to the wall to multi-colored floor to ceiling construction paper towers to mummifying one of the artists in scraps and taping them to a pillar… when you think about it, why not? It’s like pre-school craft time without having a teacher telling you not to eat the paste. No material is off limits as long as you can cut it, draw on it, and then stick it to something else.

Having referred to some of his own collages as “the visual equivalent of Prozac,” Butler’s individual works revolve around cutting, taping, pasting, and combining found images and objects in way that completely alters their original meaning and creates a whole new visual message. Austere and seemingly simple (taping the words “Go Go Go” on a discarded plastic shopping bag bring up a certainly layered take on the state of consumer culture), it’s that apparent simplicity that makes the deeply meaningful messages within so delicious to uncover. In just a few words he can dilute these consumerist images into a commentary on what’s really being sold to us –- when he glues “Change” onto a picture of a forest glade the relevancy of what he’s saying becoming subtly and immediately clear.

Butler is also founder of The Other Gallery, a “web-based nomadic gallery” designed to promote up-and-coming Canadian artists.

Just as its title so succinctly implies, Learning To Love You More is an on-going interactive web project created by artists Harrell Fletcher and Miranda July, which teaches us to explore ourselves from every angle.

Managed by California-based artist and designer Yuri Ono, the site challenges potential participants to complete a series of 68 assignments. New tasks are always being added and they can be completed in any order you chose. The results – whether it’s a video or picture or drawing – are submitted to the site and added to the chronicle of each task. Ranging from the artistic (#27 - Take a picture of the sun) and the anarchic (#34 - Make a protest sign and protest) to the ephemeral (#68 – Feel the news) and the sublime (#36 - Grow a garden in an unexpected spot), each new idea moves you to take on a new talent, face a new fear, or potentially dig up the past to get it done.

Since its creation in 2002, more than 5000 people around the world have put pieces of themselves into Learning To Love Your More. Those works have been gathered into a constantly shape-shifting exhibition and screening of the project, including a presentation at NYC’s Whitney Museum, and has also been documented in a book last September.

The simple power of each task and the collaboration between strangers all around the world points to one eternally poignant message. By accessing the most personal facets of your self and then having the courage to share them, you can’t help but see a beautiful truth: nobody is alone.

Judging by the amount of times we’ve posted about the Onitsuka Tiger footwear imprint, the Japan-based Asics brand may soon come to be known as the sneaker that launched a thousand creative endeavors. While it’s not the only footgear included in Nina Braun’s, snug stable of knitted sneakers, the Onitsuka Tiger Fabre is one of our favorite, featured footwear facsimiles in her entire collection. The German designer has created an impressive line of puschen, (German word meaning “slippers”) “for the cosy generation,” that flaunts the facades of some of the choicest kicks on the planet. While we wouldn’t recommend cavorting around town in these stylish slippers, they certainly make for a fashionable way to keep your feetsies from freezing, whether you’re getting ready for bed or just futzing around your flat.

You may remember back in July we encouraged you to ditch your old evite account in favor of Crusher, the next generation of online event invitations. Well, if you have yet to get on board with the electronic invitation revolution, the folks at Crusher have provided quite the incentive to change your ways. When we say incentive, we’re not talking about the free membership or even the ability to customize your invite or even the fact that you can poll your friends to make sure all of event details are hunky dory. In this case the incentive to check out Crusher is cold hard cash. The folks at Crusher are offering $1000 dollars to the person who comes up with the best video invite before February 29th (you’re lucky it’s a leap year). So what are you waiting for, throw a party and get creative telling everyone about it. Head on over to the contest page for additional details and may the best entry win. Oh and don’t forget to invite us to your rager once you win.

(Also, go pick up their “captcha” tshirt while you’re at it. Just to, you know, prove you’re not a robot.)

It was on the early side of our grade school days when we learned how to tell time by what the little and the big hand said. Soon enough after that, we got our first digital watch and thought we’d never have difficulty reading the time again. However, upon first glance at the Nooka Creatures-of-The-Night collection watches from Matthew Waldman, we reverted to a childlike state. These (like all Nookas) aren’t your run of the mill digital watches. These titillating timepieces with mineral crystal glass, stainless steel back, PU wristband along and a mind-bending LCD display are covered in camouflage with a striking design inspired by animals found in urban atmospheres. Rather than advertising the hours with a numeric flourish, the face provides dashes and lines to tell you just what time it is. We’ve also heard the rainbow camo one is great for “fighting the mistic [sic] unicorns of rainbow land!“

What happens when you combine an incredible U2 performance, nine pairs of those super-duper (and very pricey) high definition Sony Cinealta 950 cameras, and a dream to bring it to life like never before? Last week I had the opportunity to sit in on the press screening of the new 3D film U2 in 3D, which I wrote about a few weeks ago. Only a few minutes in, I looked around the screening room in my classy 3D glasses (they’re real glass!) and noticed everyone’s jaws were wide open. The footage was breathtaking, shot in seven different South American cities throughout U2’s Vertigo tour. At times throughout the film I found myself wanting to clap as it felt like I was there.

I’ve seen a lot of concerts — and the view from the boom put this in the top 10 shows I’ve ever seen, and the band wasn’t even in the room. This technology is something else.

The team at National Geographic and producers at 3ality Digital should be proud — they truly created something remarkable. Be sure to catch this when it gets a wider distribution; tickets for the screening at Sundance next week are already all over eBay!

Virtual newsstand PDF Mags‘ reasoning is simple: show ‘em where the free mags are at, and they will come. This neat resource links you to issues of independent PDF publications focusing on art and culture from around the world and back, some of them created only in this medium and others (like The Fader and XLR8R) have been converted from holy printed page into easy Internet reading. Browse by category as varied as reportage and fanzine or just dive in and see the whole list; either way, you’ll inevitably bookmark or pass on to a pal the links to slick, interesting publications like Bastard from Germany or Ninja from France. Mags are added regularly, and if you’re a photographer or other artist looking for more outlets for your work, a Submissions area gives you a heads up on which places are accepting work. Happy reading.