Category Archives: Inspiration

Collider – work in progress (Eyeo 2012)

12th July 2012

Robert Hodgin’s “Aphex Twin NYE Show Visuals”: “Surprisingly, I received an email a short while later from WeirdCore who was in the process of working on live visuals for Aphex Twins new years eve show in Rome. He had shown some of the videos to Aphex and they were positively received.

I ended up creating a Cinder app that had 10 preset modes and various parameter controls that WeirdCore could interact with in realtime during the show. The modes ranged from simple 3D point clouds to variations of Body Dysmorphia.

WeirdCore did a fantastic job integrating the Kinect content with the other feeds consisting of visuals created with QC, MaxMSP/Jitter, VDMX, and v002. Here is some footage of the last bit of his set.“

 via motionographer

“MaKey MaKey” – An Invention Kit for Everyone

30th May 2012

This video will blow your mind. Imagine the possibilities.

MaKey MaKey is an invention kit for the 21st century. Turn everyday objects into touchpads and combine them with the internet. It’s a simple Invention Kit for Beginners and Experts doing art, engineering, and everything inbetween. MaKey MaKey works with any laptop or computer with a USB port and a recent operating system. How recent? We have tried it with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Mac OSX.

Any material that can conduct at least a tiny bit of electricity will work (if it doesn’t already work, just rub it with bananas, spray it with water, or apply copper tape). Here are some materials people have used in our workshops including Ketchup, Pencil Graphite, Finger Paint, Lemons, etc. other materials that work great: Plants, Coins, Your Grandma, Silverware, Anything that is Wet, Most Foods, Cats and Dogs, Aluminum Foil, Rain, and hundreds more. Have you ever played Mario on Play-Doh or Piano on Bananas? Alligator clip the Internet to Your World, and start inventing The Future.

via makeymakey.com

“Anatomical Cross-Sections in Paper (Tissue Series)” by Lisa Nilsson

30th May 2012

These pieces are made of Japanese mulberry paper and the gilded edges of old books. They are constructed by a technique of rolling and shaping narrow strips of paper called quilling or paper filigree. Quilling was first practiced by Renaissance nuns and monks who are said to have made artistic use of the gilded edges of worn out bibles, and later by 18th century ladies who made artistic use of lots of free time. I find quilling exquisitely satisfying for rendering the densely squished and lovely internal landscape of the human body in cross section.

via lisanilssonart.com

Typographic Photography by Arne Lind

29th April 2012

Johnston Underground, London May 1985

Hello, I am Arne. I live and work in Stockholm, Sweden. I work as a graphic designer and I became interested in photography in the late 1960s. The interest raise during the 1980s as art director for a Photo magazine (FOTO).

A wide range of cameras have been used over the years. Mostly Leicas. M2, M3, M5, M6 and a Leicaflex SL2. In early years Practica, Yashica, Canon, Hasselblad 1000F. Later, besides the Leicas, Canon Dial, Nikon, mostly FM and FE, occasionally a Leica CL, a Minox 35, Pentax 6×7, Hasselblad 500C and so on. The film has mainly been Kodak Tri-X. Negatives are scanned in 16-bit (positive scan then inverted), Photoshop is used for the final work which is limited to dust and scratches besides cropping and image contrasts.

via itsnicethat.com and arnelind.com

Hillman Curtis (1961 – 2012)

22nd April 2012

David Hillman Curtis (February 24, 1961 – April 18, 2012) was an American new media designer, author, and filmmaker. Hillman Curtis was a former rock musician who became a prominent first-generation Web designer and a visionary figure in the Internet’s evolution: from a predominantly text-based medium to the multimedia platform it is today. He made the first ever Flash website and died on Wednesday, at his home in Brooklyn.

via motionographer.com, post-gazette.com and wikipedia.com

Jacob Sutton’s L.E.D. Surfer

19th February 2012

“Filming in the suit was the most surreal thing I’ve done in 20 years of snowboarding,” says Hughes of the charged salopettes. “Luckily there was plenty of vin rouge to keep me warm, and Jacob’s enthusiasm kept everyone going through the cold nights.”

“The shoot was really challenging. Not only were we using experimental technology in terms of the suit, but we were shooting in deep snow at night and the temperature was -25C. We were shooting for between 6-8 hours a night for three nights.”

via nowness.com and interviews via facebook.com

Aaron Koblin: Artfully visualizing our humanity

20th January 2012

Artist Aaron Koblin takes vast amounts of data – and at times vast numbers of people – and weaves them into stunning visualizations. From elegant lines tracing airline flights to landscapes of cell phone data, from a Johnny Cash video assembled from crowd-sourced drawings to the “Wilderness Downtown” video that customizes for the user, his works brilliantly explore how modern technology can make us more human.

ted.com

Garrett Lisi on his theory of everything

20th January 2012

Physicist and surfer Garrett Lisi presents a controversial new model of the universe that — just maybe — answers all the big questions. If nothing else, it’s the most beautiful 8-dimensional model of elementary particles and forces you’ve ever seen.

via ted.com

Justin Hall-Tipping: Freeing energy from the grid

3rd December 2011

What would happen if we could generate power from our windowpanes? In this moving talk, entrepreneur Justin Hall-Tipping shows the materials that could make that possible, and how questioning our notion of ‘normal’ can lead to extraordinary breakthroughs.

via ted.com

Cosmic Motors’ Detonator

14th November 2011

From Daniel Simon – the former VW designer and futurist who also penned the Light Cycles for Tron: Legacy. Its got a 30-inch front wheel and dual 96 volt electric motors in the hub of the 27 inch rear wheel. The e-bike is powered by lithium-ion batteries, and charges in an hour when plugged into a 110 volt outlet. Parker Brothers estimates the bike has a 80-100 mile range when fully charged, and its been bench tested to a 120 mph top speed.

via wired.com

Limitless Infinite Zoom Lens (Fractal Zoom)

17th October 2011

Limitless opens with a continuous, seemingly endless zoom shot that starts as if the camera had been dropped off a skyscraper balcony, then weaves through the streets of New York, past pedestrians, under construction scaffoldings, though blocks and blocks of blinking lights and hubbub, through the back windows of taxicabs and out through their front windshields, through Harlem, into Times Square, and then right into a glowing Jumbotron. You are gliding at street level right through solid objects, and the shot reveals little visual evidence of computer-generated trickery.

via pcworld.com

POLLI-Bricks

16th October 2011

The creative minds at miniWIZ recently debuted the POLLI-Brick, a recycled polymer bottle that can be interlocked to build an incredible array of structures. Made from recycled PET bottles, the lightweight bricks offer excellent acoustic and thermal insulation and can build anything from fences and roofs to pots for plants, skylights and beautiful walls of light.

via inhabitat.com

The Argusâ„¢ II Artificial Retina

24th August 2011

The Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System (“Argus II”) is designed to bypass damaged photoreceptors in certain blind patients. A miniature video camera housed in the patient’s glasses captures a scene. The video is sent to a small patient-worn computer (i.e., the video processing unit — VPU) where it is processed and transformed into instructions that are sent back to the glasses via a cable. These instructions are transmitted wirelessly to a receiver in the implant.

via Second Sight

Access Main Computer File

28th July 2011

A blog with nothing but screenshots of computer interfaces in movies. Some of them are amusing, some make no sense and some feature large fonts so the audience knows what’s on the computer.

via accessmaincomputerfile.net

Royal de Luxe

28th July 2011

Royal de Luxe is a French mechanical marionette street theatre company. They were founded in 1979 by Jean Luc Courcoult. In the past dozen years, they have created a series of spectacular shows involving giant figures as big as 11 or 12 metres high. Shows are simple the animal or giant arrives in town and lives its life, going about its business for a few days. Extraordinary interactions take place between passers-by and the performance; residents become enchanted with the activities of these miraculous beings and begin to follow their every move.

via wikipedia.org and lesmachines-nantes.fr

The Creators Project – Intel & Vice at Coachella 2011

20th July 2011

The Orchestrion – UVA’s standalone light and sound sculpture with experimental music provided by fellow Creator Mira Calix.

via thecreatorsproject.com

Summer Into Dust by Arcade Fire (Dir. Chris Milk) – during Arcade Fires last song “Wake Up,” cascades of beachballs were released into the crowd. With the help of ESKI and Moment Factory, Milk was able to control the LEDs and IR transmitters, embedded in each ball (provided by Tangible Interaction), to light paint kaleidoscopic patterns all over the unsuspecting audience.

via thecreatorsproject.com