Just got back from Florence where I was a part of the team that put on this show. It was great fun! Enjoy!
An impressive animated video for Fujiya Miyagi, by Wade Shotter. More of his work can be seen here, at Factory Films.
Was this done by hand or generated by computer? If I had directed this, and the animator had complained at the tedious nature of manipulating each dice by hand, I would have told them to check out Google's latest addition to Google maps, and told them to think themselves lucky that they are not the individual that has to photograph every street in the world.
Check out the new amazing functionality here, and go to San Francisco to see it in action. How cool to see a real image of the exact place you are going to have to find - like this you will know that you have arrived exactly where you meant to go. Super useful!! And try clicking and dragging the image - you can pan around the image like a QTVR, and zoom in also.
Faile yesterday announced their first solo show in New York City that will take run from Thursday, June 7th to Sunday, June 10th. It will feature only works on canvas and wood. Faile also announced that they will also be releasing new prints sometime in August.
The location will be announced the evening before the show via the Faile site
Sweeney's art concentrates of the construction of complex forms through repetition of simple elements and forms. Where the structure of the form is exposed and becomes an integral part of the beauty of the form itself. Inspired by nature and architecture Sweeney's works is driven by a search for using the least amount of materials to create complex looking structures.
View his site and his Flickr gallery.
The X prize foundation, the organization behind the prize, today launched a new prize for the Automobile industry. The prize aims to award the first successful car that achieves super fuel efficiency compared to todays typical production models, with the aim of breaking our dependence on oil with the aim of reducing environmental impact and global warming. The winners will receive a multimillion dollar cash prize. The winning car will have a fuel economy of at least 100 MPG (or equivalent), and must be viable for production of a run of at least 10,000 units.
The actual set of requirements to win the prize are posted here
The requirements have gone through many revisions and have been drawn up by industry professionals, but the final criteria is open for discussion and comments from the general public - so if you have anything to add you can do so via the Auto X Prize site.
About the X Prize Foundation:
"The X PRIZE Foundation is an educational non-profit prize institute whose mission is to bring about radical breakthroughs in space and technology for the benefit of humanity. On October 4th, 2004, the X PRIZE Foundation captured world headlines when Mojave Aerospace Ventures, led by Burt Rutan and Paul Allen, built and flew the world's first private craft to space twice in two weeks to win the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE. Because of the dramatic nature of the achievement, the X PRIZE Foundation is now widely recognized as the leading model for fostering innovation through competition. In October 2006, the Foundation launched the $10M Archon X PRIZE for Genomics for the first team to sequence 100 human genomes in 10 days."
Visit the X prize foundation site for more info.
These glass sculptures caught my eye, with their incredibly detailed and hypnotic inner landscapes. They are made by Padadino Hansen in California.
See more here.
Apple announce today that it would be making all of EMI's music catalogue available from it's iTunes store WITHOUT Digital Rights Management - meaning that the music will be able to be copied to any other music player or played on any other computer without any software controlled restrictions.
Users will be able to choose between DRM protected tracks, or the unprotected alternative. The unprotected tracks will be mastered at a higher quality than the DRM protected tracks, so will offer better quality and be usable on pretty much any digital music player, but will cost about 1/3 more (about 30 cents).
This annoucement makes all the more sense of Steve Job's recent outspoken statement regarding the future of music distribution and his desire to see DRM free music. This now seems like clever positioning prior to this very interesting announcement. EMI will certainly appear as pioneering and brave following this announcement.
I am not sure that I find the DRM of Apple that intrusive(unlike the Microsoft equivelant), although I would prefer to have DRM music naturally so that in future I could use the music on any platform. So I am not sure I would pay a premium. Good on EMI though!
Read more at Apple.
Tank.tv is a platform for new and innovative works in film and video. It presents a monthly curated exhibition for which visitors can also submit their works for consideration.
The site is beautifully in its simplicity. With a simple bold text interface that concentrates focus on the artworks themselves.
The videos are free, but registering with the site gives you access to the archive of previously featured films.
This month features the works of John Smith, and one that stands out to me is 'Girl Chewing Gum' - It appears to be a director giving orders to actors as they act out a natural street scene, but what is actually being shown is archive footage of a scene that the artist is then providing his own ironic 'direction' dialogue on top. As the video progresses, flocks of birds and then clocks are instructed to carry out the artists vision. I love this idea, and it could be applied to so many situations. From banal scenes to presidential speaches, with all protagonists being 'directed' by the omnipresent 'director'.
Tank.tv is part of the creative Think Tank, Tank Magazine.
More about Jjohn Smith.
Chemists at the Univercity of Washington have released a demo of a prototype pair of sunglasses that have lenses that can change colour. The lenses are adjustable by the wearer, who can change the colour of the shades by turning a small button on the side of the shades arms. The technology will be applied to shades where wearers may want to have shades for different conditions - such as skiers or riders of bikes and motorcycles. Traditional shades that react to the light to darken the lenses in bright conditions do not work when shielded from UV rays (which trigger the reaction), where as these user controlled shades would work in all conditions.
Thanks to Kimm for this link.
Read more here.
The BBC reports today that while advertising spend in 2006 suffered as a whole, investment in online advertising over the same period increased by 41%.
TV advertising itself experienced a 4.7% fall in spending to £3.9bn.
The report added that online advertising actually grabbed a record market share of 12.4% in the second half of 2006, as expenditure topped £1.098bn.
UK's online ad market share is almost double the global average of 5.8%, the report added.
Recruitment spent the most on web advertising - increasing expenditure by 2.7% - followed by finance and technology.
Read more here.
A very simple and beautiful interface to a site that presents a wonderful short film project. Each film is created with only one single take. The films are availble to download for mobile and iPod video.
I am still watching all the films - my favorite so far is the glass pistol.
Check out the site here.
These guys at Essex Univercity have made a very realistic robot fish that is on show at the London aquarium.
This is footage of commercially available water robots, called Aquaroids. They were available in Japan in 2001, but I am struggling to find any to buy in Europe. If anyone knows please leave a comment, or write me. They were made by Takara (Tomy) in Japan.
This robot can do back flips - which is more than I can do! Mind you if you have the $1,200 to pay for the prebuilt kit, I would hope that it could! The kit is available from online store
The robot, called Robonova is created by Hitech Robotics, a family run robotics company in Korea.
They have video of their robots in action here.
foldschool is a collection of free cardboard furniture for kids, handmade by you. The downloadable patterns can be printed out with any printer - simply follow the instructions to assemble a stable piece of furniture.
A cool and simple site for kids - foldschool
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