Craig Anthony Perkins
| Craig Anthony Perkins | |
|---|---|
 Self Portrait - February 2010. |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Craig Anthony Perkins |
| Born | March 22, 1964 Deming, New Mexico, U.S. |
| Genres | Industrial rock, alternative rock, electronic, Post-punk, art rock |
| Occupations | Musician, Singer-songwriter, Sound designer, Record producer, designer, Photographer, Filmmaker, Author |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, piano, synthesizer, keyboard, programming, bass guitar, drums, Theremin |
| Years active | 1984-present |
| Labels | ZERO:GENSHI Records |
| Associated acts | Cybertek (1984–1992) cell:burn (1992–present) jido-genshi (1994-present) VENTER (2002-present) StarDotStar (2004-present) |
| Website | genshi.com |
Craig Anthony Perkins (born March 22, 1964) is a musician, composer, record label owner and producer, photographer, filmmaker, author and designer from Los Angeles who is most known for his designer toy figure the Broken Heart Robot and his music project jido-genshi.
Perkins is an autodidact who is self taught in music, design and photography. His father Gary Perkins, a popular Radio DJ and a drummer himself, started Craig on the drums when he was only 4 years old. By the age of 8 he had picked up guitar and by 13 was already playing in bands with members twice his age.[1]
Starting his own company in 1995 known as Genshi Media Group he has been able to work in a variety of fields successfully with the launch of his various music projects such as jido-genshi and cell:burn which he distributes through his independent record label ZERO:GENSHI Records, and his popular designer toy the Broken Heart Robot whose images have been ubiquitously used in popular culture[2] and in articles[3] seemingly unrelated to the actual toy.
As a composer, Perkins won the 2002 Telly Award for best Jingle for a commercial produced and directed by the non-profit organization Women In Film for the U.S. Department of Commerce’s technology-based educational program, GetTech.org.[4] In 2006, he worked with Grammy Award winning artist Duncan Sheik to create a re-mixable version of Sheik's album "White Limousine" in the Ableton Live format. Perkins also wrote the built-in "Live" lesson guide to remixing the tracks on the album. He was also the author of the music education CD-ROM entitled "Ableton Live 4 CSi Master" which was published by the educational and technology publishing house Thomson Course Technology in 2004. He has since worked composing music for numerous video games and independent films.
In 2006 there was mention of Perkins' Broken Heart Robot character receiving its own Animated TV Show in the U.S.,[5][6] though it is not known if this is still in the works or not.
As a photographer, Perkins is known for both his digital street photography as well as his Holga images which have been published in magazines such as Light Leaks[7] and JPG Magazine.[8] As an architectural photographer, he was commissioned in 2009 to shoot the Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Caltech.[9] During this time, Perkins also taught Principles of Digital Photography at Rio Hondo College in Whittier, California. As one of the leading iPhone Photographers, Perkins has also been a part of the exhibition "Pixels: The Art of iPhone Photography" which showed at the Orange County Center For Contemporary Art in Santa Ana, California.[10]
Craig has also explored filmmaking as Director, Cinematographer, Editor and Composer winning second place grand prize at the 2011 iPhone Film Festival for his short film "Remembrance (a ghost story)"[11] as well as being invited to world premier a short film and participate as part of a discussion panel of iPhone Filmmakers at the 2012 Macworld | iWorld expo.[12]
[edit] Bibliography
- "Art-Toys Limited Edition" (ISBN 978-0-97933-077-3)
- "Art-Toys" (ISBN 978-0-97933-076-6)
- "Dot Dot Dash." (ISBN 978-3-89955-161-7)
- "Ableton Live 4 CSi Master" (ISBN 978-1-59200-578-9)
[edit] References
- ^ "Craig Perkins Bio". http://genshi.com/news/?page_id=2.
- ^ Maveal, Danielle (2006-07-24). "This Next". This Next. http://www.thisnext.com/item/864DA579/Broken-Heart-Robot.
- ^ Scott, Katie (2009-03-30). "Robots taught to cower". Wired Magazine. http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2009-03/30/robots-taught-to-hide-from-grumpy-humans.aspx.
- ^ "Women In Film". http://wif.org.
- ^ Alves, Daniel (2006-11-22). "Craig Perkins Interview". Never Grow Up Club. http://tngucaus.blogspot.com/2006/11/craig-perkins-interview.html.
- ^ Silvka, Brian (2006-01-26). "Plastic and Plush Review". Plastic & Plush. http://www.plasticandplush.com/plasticandplush/2006/01/genshitoy_broke.html.
- ^ Barnes, Michael (2008-12-07). "Light Leaks Magazine". Light Leaks Magazine. http://lightleaks.org/.
- ^ Champ, Heather (2006-01-09). "JPG Magazine". JPG Magazine. http://jpgmag.com/people/genshi.
- ^ Carmichael, Carol (2009-12-29). "Cahill Center". Cahill Center. http://genshi.com/news/?p=325.
- ^ Bronson, Knox. "Pixels: The Art of iPhone Photography". http://pixelsoccca.tumblr.com/.
- ^ Kazantsev, Ruben. "iPhone Film Festival". http://www.iphoneff.com/archives/2609.
- ^ Borgasano, Marisa. "Macworld". http://www.macworldiworld.com/iphone-film-festival/.
