More Proof that I am a Man-Child

BIG-ASS SWINGS!!! Yeah, now that’s what I’m talking about. For any newcomers out there (hopefully) I’ll state right here that I’m a huge fan of art that is playful and often larger than life. My pervious posts are evidence of that. This is a “multisensory” project by Ann Hamilton that occupies theWade Thompson Drill Hall which, bee tee dubs, is 55,000 square feet…are as I like to say with all the eloquence I’ve gathered after four years of reading classic literature: “Reaaaly fuckin’ big”

I would jump out of that thing...screw up the experiance but it would kick ass

 



It doesn’t end with just a bunch of swings, a curtain, and hardwood flooring. A pair of readers in robes will read from large scrolls which participants can listen to through ear-piece radio transmitters that you can pick up from the floor…why they are in robes and why they have pigeons caged next to them is not something I’m equipped to answer.



My Answer is: Yes, they can be.

The debate has raged for several years (hell, decades at this point) of whether video games are art. My stance has always been, and will always be barring some quantum crazy world altering shit, that video games are capable of being art. I view them as a medium for artistic expression on many, many different levels. But like films and novels and even some paintings and photographs, I think it is possible to not be art as well. What I’m saying is not every game made is a piece of art. But I do believe that many can be art either by actively being as so (the work of Jenova Chen) or unintentionally (the early works of Shigeru Miyamoto, the man behind Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda). But my personal views aside, I bring this up now because the Museum of Modern Art in New York has just announced that they’ll be adding video games to their collection. Classics like Pac-Man and Pong will also be joined by more modern examples such as Portal and Katamari Damacy (which is just bat-shit crazy fun and hilarious).

One of the Best Villians in History

 

Take a look here for the whole story and a complete list of all the games being added. I think it’s a fine list but why no Ico or Shadow of the Colossus?



It's looking into my soul

I think it’s safe to say that the American populace was an unhealthy relationship with Hollywood stars and their appearances. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think the fact that Taylor Swift being seen in public without makeup on or that Lady Gaga was spotted dressed as a fucking human being are newsworthy. It’s a strange obsession with beauty, or at least superficial beauty. This is what Matthew Rolston's “Talking Heads” project is addressing (or that’s what I’m taking from it). By gussying up (or not) ventriloquist dummies in the style of Hollywood stars of yesteryear (and a few from today) we get a kind of unsettling imagery that some claim to be hauntingly bea—GHA! WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?

IT.KNOWS.THINGS.

 

Sweet mercy! Those things creep me right the fuck out. Which is good. Art should elicit and emotional reaction, something I try to do with me writing (mainly by being an irreverent ass, but hey, still a reaction). This certainly elicits a reaction…it’s the eyes. Seriously, some kind of hell-dimension creature is using ventriloquist dummies to spy on humanity…I just know it…no inanimate eyes can look so dead yet so knowing at the same time (*shudders and tries to think of happy things like unicorns and shit*). Sorry…I got off topic for a moment. In all seriousness though, I do think this project is very interesting and I’m for some social commentary leveled at our fascination with Hollywood stars. You can see for youself here

Out of Touch

This article really doesn’t have much do with digital arts or culture, but I think it is important to call someone on saying something really fucking stupid. Elon Musk wants to be one of the first to set up a colony on Mars. Okay, that’s all well and good. Ah, and he wants to make it so the “average guy” in their mid-forties could easily afford a ticket. Well, damn that’s even better. It’s the Mayflower all over again. Humanity is finally stepping out of the nest and expanding to new horizons of greatness…I’m sorry, Mr. Musk what was that? I was kinda high on the seer awesome of…WHAT! A “reasonably” priced ticket to you is HALF A FUCKING MILLION DOLLARS!...you can kind go fuck yourself.

Pictured: the average savings of a male in his mid-forites

I try to not be such a belligerent dick, I really do…but why does the world keep making it so damned hard. Even adjusted for inflation that is still a lot of money. What’s gonna happen is only the super wealthy are going to be able to afford tickets and BAM, just like that Mars just became the next Dubai-esque playground for the rich. I bring this up because the future of humanity is something I’m often concerned about…but this guy is either just completely out of touch with just how much the “average guy” makes or is just that fucking stupid.

Symphony for the Office

No, I don’t mean the television series in either its American or British formats. I meant, you know, like an office…with cubicles and shit. Anyway, use this article to go to a composition by Rolf Liebermann. I’ll wait…

Okay, so if you managed to get through thirty seconds of that without losing your goddamned mind, congrats you fared much better than me. Hey, I love trying new and crazy things as much as the next guy, but at some point it is important to remember that a gimmick is not a replacement for an actual artistic experiment. But that’s just me, if you liked it than I’m not disparaging your musical taste at all. I’m happy for you, nay envious. I think it’s a cool concept, but I also think it could have pushed itself a little harder to make a better tune.

Artist's renderign of my reaction to this song

 

The huffpost article asks us “What do you get when you combine 16 typewriters, 18 calculators, eight accounting machines, 12 office perforators, 10 cash registers, eight humidifiers, eight tickers, two metronomes, four bells, two entrance door gongs, 10 electric horns, 16 telephones, 40 experimental signal receptors, a fork lift, a duplicator and an elevator?” Well, unnamed author, for one you get a long fucking paragraph of a question, and two you get one of the most annoying techno songs made entirely of things that inhabit workplaces…take that as you will



This Photo came from Someplace very Interesting...

Act Swiftly Awesome Pachyderm

(Title, not my non sequitur flippancy)

 

That right there was made on a freakin’ iPhone. Hand to god. It’s one of the pieces being exhibited in a new show featuring nothing but works made on iPhones, iPads and so on. It’s called “digital painting”. Unfortunately the story doesn’t really explain how people managed to do this but it makes me all kinds of happy.

This is what I like to see. People actually taking the new technology we have and using it for artistic purposes. It makes even me, the grouchiest cynical ass you’ll meet for a good long while (at least I hope so), simile like an idiot. I posted before about “Resses Moments” those times when tech and art fuse to make the most kick as creative cyborg…this is one of those moments. Gotta love it!



More like PFA-1

I would call this Pretty Fuckin’ Awesome One (see what I did there…bask in it for a second). The Public Farm One is a project to show how somewhat large scale agriculture can be carried out in a small urban environment and look good. They tell about it far better than I, so have at it. I’m always fascinated by things like this, it’s a shame that practically none of them have caught on in a big way. Imagine what our country would be like if we didn’t depend solely on rural farms for agriculture. We could produce that much more fresh produce. It would kick several kinds of ass.

I would totaly use this as a water slide

 

I post this because I just had a…I’m going to be generous and call it a “discussion” with an individual who espoused the idea that creativity was something next to useless. I’m not a patient person when it comes to these kinds of things. One need only look at older posts to find ample evidence of that, but I think creativity and innovation go hand-in-hand to the point that they’re inseparable. All I have to do to prove that creativity makes the world go ‘round is point at irrigation. You think whoever came up with that idea was some idiot who stumbled on the idea of redirecting water for crops. Hell no. and what made civilization advance to the point were we have access to damn near the entire accumulated mass of human knowledge on a fucking phone…you guessed; irrigation. The next time some dick tells you creativity doesn’t matter simply point to his smart phone and give him a proverbial knowledge bitch-slap. 

Color of a Season

Every now and then I do post about artistic projects that aren’t in some way related to bouncy houses. This awesome triptych is the work of Katrin Korfmann, a German artist famous for the use of birds-eye View photography. The subject is a festival called the “Hali” festival which is a celebration of the coming of spring. This is done by throwing pigmented powder and perfume at one another. The result would give a bag of skittles penis envy.

'Kolorit-Yellow' by Katrin Korfmann

Flippancy aside I find it to be absolutely beautiful. I love bright colors because I rarely get to see them when they aren’t sprayed on the sides of freight trains. It’s also a really good example of a triptych, which is a nice call back to earlier from the semester.

 

Yo-Ho

The fight against Internet piracy continues. A new policy isin the works from some major internet providers and the government. Which I’ll just go ahead and translate for you as SOPA Lite…well I’d like to anyway. What strikes me as super-sketchy here is the fact that the people who are making this policy (as well as enforcing it) haven’t told us sweet fuck-all about it. What we do know is that people caught going to pirating sites (read torrent sites) will be redirected and could have their internet speeds severely and have access to sites blocked. The article linked above poses the important question of “which sites, guys?” which is a good goddamn question.

 

YAR! Load as much free porn as the hard drive can hold!

 

The number of times I’ve talked about piracy on this blog is starting to get old for me, but holy hell, this crap just keeps happening. My feelings on pirating are pretty straightforward: Don’t Fucking Do It. The best argument I can present is thus: If you’re torrenting a TV series or movies or music that you like then you’re actively hurting the sales of those things. We live in a capitalist country and if something doesn’t make money we stop making it. In the long run, by pirating you’re acting to ensure that you want get any more of the things you love. That being said, I’ve yet to see a movie producer, recording artist, or television executive who was wont for anything. Oh, and I love the quote in the article about how this new Six Strikes (as they call it) policy is “more valid under human rights law,”. Keyword more that doesn’t make it any better. Example, getting kicked in the shin is more merciful than getting kicked in the testicles (or ovaries). It’s a problem to be sure, but sweet mercy there needs to be a better way to deal with this crap.

In Honor of Black Friday...

This. This is a thing.

Apparently, Black Friday is a cultural phenomenon so ubiquitous right now that articles about waiting line playlists are published by respectable news sites. I’m not angry (as many of my previous posts would like to prove otherwise), I am merely baffled. Yes, saving money in an expensive society (very much preoccupied with monetary gain) can be nice…and also lead to Battle Royal style battles between normal (I hope) sane individuals. I tend to avoid lines whenever possible due to my tendency to dislike camping in front of a Best Buy for the privilege of braining some poor bastard that I might get my hands on a TV at a severely reduced price.

I think a good many artistic opportunities lie in the Black Friday phenomenon. I’ve seen plenty of institutional critique pieces about rampant consumerism, but none have been directly tied to Black Friday.

As for things to do in line…I just misquote Macbeth “This line doth stretch on till the end of time”…that’s about all I got.

Well, no Shit

-->

It’s November 6^th everyone! YEA! Thank god, now that election season is over I can go onto the internet and not suffer as much political asshattery…for the most part. But apparently something hilariously interesting happened a few months before. Apparently a lot of people dropped off of Twitter. The reason given? Well, supposedly if you give enough people an open forum with a lot of anonymity it tends to make them behave like complete dicks. For proof of this I point you to highly acclaimed internet master John Gabriel’s extremely helpful mathematical diagram.

Penny-Arcade.com

To be less vague about it people were swearing off Twitter because they got sick and tired of trolls being armature political pundits and demanding they vote. Now, I’ve been on the internet for years now and have come to learn much about the wily Troll but I now see that it is news. This is why the internet is so fascinating; it’s a one-of-a-kind environment where people can express themselves without anyone ever knowing who they are. This one system has completely changed the world by such magnitude that its staggering. However, it has also reveled the stagger levels of idiocy, racism, and general asshattery that the populace will engage in when given said open forum and anonymity.

I really wish I could stop posting about this crap...

Have you ever been mugged? Where you in the awkward situation of presenting your assailant with your iPhone instead of your pepper spray can? Well guess what? That will never happen again thanks to the new pepper spray iPhone case.

I swear to god sometimes the comedy starts just align in perfect order. This case, designed by the head of Spraytech as a means to find a protection device for his daughter, is a real thing. Now, I’m going to drop a personal security bomb on y’all. I have a good friend who worked in law enforcement for years and he gave me the straight about personal security stuff. First is your assailant (most likely a mugger) armed with a gun? If so give up your money without any fuss because a bullet moves a fuck load faster than pepper spray. Okay if not then pepper spray is not a very good means of self defense. What if it’s windy? Now you’ve made your attackers job that much easier as your wondering how it is possible to experience that much pain in her face. Stun guns are ever worse in case the assailant is has on thick clothing. In which case that thing is better used as a toy pistol than anything else. His umber one suggestion: collapsible baton. It’s extremely light weight and getting smashed in the face with a carbon fiber stick hurts like unholy hell no mater how much clothing you’ve got on or how windy it is. Hitting someone right under there nose with just a fist is good enough to incapacitate them for long enough to GTFO, but use a stick designed for explicitly beating ass will do even better.

Yes, it has a diagram for use...

Sorry, got off on a weird tangent there…still valuable knowledge I suppose…but back to the dumbest defense tool invented. Am I the only one who sees how this will be immediately abused to make the most dipshit photos ever. Imagine (shouldn’t be too hard) some bro pulls out his p-phone (that’s short for pepper phone. Thought that one up myself, thank you very much) and tells his bros to pose. He then, as most dickhead bros are wont to do, pepper spray them and immediately snap a photo of the post-spray pain and crying. Which he will post to Facebook posthaste with the caption “LOLS PEPED”. And just like that a new meme is born for the internet…like planking or T.Bowing. This will be Peping and we’ll have Spraytech to thank for what has got to be one of the worst ideas in self defense since a rabid badger tied to a stick

Actually, this is a better idea



So...this happend today...

            In good old England today, November 5^th is remembered as Guy Fawkes Day…which I was introduced to by Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta graphic novel…but that’s neither here nor there. Outside of Parliament in London today a group showed up to show support for Anonymous. You might recognize that name as the group of Garbage Dicks responsible for hacking the Playstation Networking and stealing the personal information of many people. In short (clears throat) FUCK THESE ASSHATS. At some point the cultural lexicon shifted “activist” to “shitheel how thinks they’re being a goddamned new revolutionary” and suddenly being part of a hacker (read: cyberspace thug) collective is on par with some like, I don’t know, Guy Fawkes. They way I see it a ‘good hacker’ is a lot like a good thief in that they don’t announce to the fucking world how great they are!

            Now I’m no major hater of the “underground internet” as sometimes some very interesting art and creative works can spring from it (still waiting on the virtual spaces Banksy) but these people aren’t helping anybody. They’re just…well, asshats. As someone who damn near had his credit card number stolen by these fuck-muffins I think I have a good right to tell them to go a flog themselves with an AC adapter….oh shit, now they’ll read this and I’ll be a victim of identity theft…grand. Oh well, read it up while you can people. For the story go here

I haven't seen this many assholes with black and white faces since the Gathering of the Juggalos

Sky Walkin'

Okay, so Tomás Saracneo has a new exhibit called “On Space Time Foam” which is an art project designed to simulate the feeling of walking on a cloud and possibly scaring the literal piss out of those with acrophobia. The material is suspended sixty feet in the air in the exhibit building and is an unspecified thin clear film…I really can’t stress the unspecified part of that sentence enough.



SEE! That guy in the middle. That is the look of a man who's pissed himself...told ya.


Pee jokes aside, this is supposed to be a kind of “adult playground” which as a man child I fully endorse. It certainly looks to be a very interesting piece. If it were anywhere near me I’d be willing to try it out just for the undoubtedly surreal experience.

Check it out

Worth your Time and Money

Last week I actually saw a movie that was worth watching. You all may have seen it advertised or heard about it. It’s called Cloud Atlas. This film is technically an independent film as the directors The Wachowski’s (The Matrix trilogy) and Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) could not get any Hollywood studio to buy in. It is an extremely ambitious film based on a book of the same name that was considered to be of the “unfilmable” family. It looks pretty damn amazing thanks to the fact that they did manage to get some German financial backing (which is kind of…odd). Essentially it is six stories being told at once that are all connected in some way or another and share common themes of causality, human connectivity and love. All of these stories are pretty drastically different in both tone and setting and a handful of actors play various roles that have them changing race and gender. The stories range from 18^th century period piece, a seventies crime thriller, hardcore sci-fi and upbeat British comedy. The “Atlas” part of the title is certainly fitting.

I would highly recommend that people go and see this movie simply because that it was so hard to get made. And holy hell is it a blast of fresh air. I can guarantee that you won’t see anything quite like it. Go and give it your money. Be forewarned that it is 3 hours long and doesn’t give you any warning as to the fact that it’s telling you six stories at once. It gets right into the thick of it. In all seriousness though, in a time when a movie needs to be a sequel or be about superheroes it’s inspiring to see something so unique and inventive.

The make-up can get pretty bad at times though…asian Hugo Weaving looks more Klingon than Korean.

Oh. Dear. God. NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WARNING: If you like the Twilight “Books/movies” don’t read this post. Upon reading it you will most likely be filled with, at the very least, and intense dislike for my and, at worst, will want to stab me until I look as dead as Robert Pattinson’s expression.

Now, I’m not going to rant about why this is news or the fact that I find these movies to be not only based on awful source material but just bad films. Nope, that’s been done by the internet as a whole to the point that if the internet gained sentence based on content it would A) Be a mindless sex machine (thanks porn) and B) want to murder the Twilight Saga. So, with that out of the way I’m going to talk about one of the things I find to be just absolutely appalling about this series, which can be summed up in one moment.

After three books/movies of tedious prose and three films that feature little to no actual acting we’re finally treated to some vampire fuckin’. Now I could go on and on about how these books are blatantly espousing a “no sex before marriage, and then only for the baby-making” agenda, but I really want to talk about this moment after one of the most horrifying post-coital statements ever. Now, Bella, having been knocked fucking unconscious by the brutal banging only the pasty ass of Edward could deliver she awakens bruised and borderline broken. The room looks like an aging rock band just got done partying and Edward is apologizing for fucking this girl into unconsciousness (I really can’t stress how distressing that alone is).

Now here’s the kicker and the summation of why I hate this goddanmed series with a passion bordering on insane. She says “It’s not your fault.” You heard that right people. Let’s boil that down: “It’s okay to beat me and sexually harm me because you’re a man and that makes it my fault.”

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!?

That’s what this entire string of literary and cinematic feces really gets me about; the blatant misogyny. I’m a man, I can admit that and I have no right to claim what it’s like to be a woman, but by god I sure as shit align with many feminist notions. It constantly puts forth that it’s totally cool to be in an abusive relationship. Hell, you should want that teenage girls so long as the bastard smacking you around is so man-pretty that he sparkles like a stripper.

I had to get that out there. Even if it’s been said before. the fact that this is news is what really bothers me. How did we let this happen?

 

ACTING

Time to be Self-Serving

I’m actually kind of ashamed I haven’t posted about this yet, but better late than never I suppose.

Some of you may know that WSU Tri-Cities has its own Creative Arts journal. It’s called The Element. It’s open submission (like all journals) and accepts Art, Photography, Poetry and Prose. Now is a great time for me because with this I might be able to generate some great traffic. I myself am Head Editor for Prose and as such it is my job to judge weather a piece of writing is worthy of publication (all I’m looking for is a good story that is consistent and makes sense) and my co-Editors have very similar criteria for publication. The point is that I think its far better to have too many submission than to few. If you’re afraid we’ll know who you are and have some kind of bias (positive or negative) fear not because all submissions are blindly submitted to all the editors. There are no names for myself or the editors to associate with the work. Don’t worry about rejection, it happens and you can ask for feedback by the editors on the submission form. Seriously, I’ve been rejected (on numerous fronts) multiple times. Each time I get better and sometimes it’s just a matter of bad luck.

Anyway, please submit whatever you want to share. Stories, poems, photos, art projects of any kind; all can be submitted. If you get it published you get that bragging right. “I’m a published (writer, poet, artists, photographer)”

You can go here for submissions if you so chose.

Okay, back to being inane…

A Real Beast

The latest Bioshock Infinete trailer just hit the web and it is freakin’ awesome. First and foremost, Bioshock 2 was a direct sequel to the original but was not developed by the team that made the original. Infinite however, is being made by a lot of the core team behind the original Bioshock. Most important it is being written and supervised by ken Levine, the man behind the original.

Aside from being a really snappy trailer it actually has a lot jammed into it. First off the opening shot on the boat is actually a connection to the original Bioshock which has some very interesting story implications. What’s really cool about this trailer is the use of “Beast” by Nico Vega which has a very distinct kind of critique of America. The game itself takes place in 1912 in the fictional city of Columbia which floats in the sky and is currently locked in a civil war between the Vox Populi and The Founders.

Oh, Hell Yes!

FYI, these next two posts deal with some really awesome trailers. This one is all about the first trailer for Iron Man 3. I’m a big fan of comics and Marvel’s line has more books that I like than don’t. But now that The Avengers has come out and made a metric shit-load of cash (Joss Whedon for the WIN!)  Marvel is starting up “Phase Two” of their cinematic universe.  The first of those films (to conclude in Avengers 2) is Iron Man 3

Iron Man 3 is written and directed by Shane Black who wrote and directed Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (which is a phenomenal film) and has written the first two Lethal Weapon films and a host of other great movies. In short this movie has everything going for it and I would be shocked if it wasn’t less than completely awesome. Plus it’s taking story elements from the Extremis story of Iron Man which could have some really dark implications.

A Great Site for any Film Fan

One off absolute favorite sites on the internet is Mondotees.com. It’s an independent site that publishes art based on film and some television as well (though most of that is based on Adventure Time). The movie pieces are usually done in the style of a movie poster. The most popular works are those based on movies that came out that year. This year saw some really great pieces done. My favorite is Drew Goddard’s The Cabin in the Woods done in the style of M. C Escher’s House of Stairs. The best part is that if you’re fast enough you can actually buy some prints. The problem is that they only sell them for a very limited time once they are released. Check the site out and if the archive makes you jump up and down (like me) then get on the newsletter so you know when a new piece is up for grabs. The upside to that is that all the prints are made to order so they don’t “run out of stock”. Here are some kickass examples of what was put up this year.

 

By Phantom City Creative

 

By Jock

 

By Olly Moss

Something Truely Asinine

Okay, so apparently there’s a new digital watch that hides the time in the negative space of a maze. This article proves that I am not lying about this…though I wish I was. Then we could all rest a little better knowing that something like this was merely the delusion of a sleep deprived English Major. Sadly, that’s not how the world of watches works.

"Let's See those fuckers on the bus figure this out!"

What drew me to this was the potential to do something with this like, I don't know, a smartphone display were all your apps and whatnot are "hidden" in some artwork. I think that would be cool. Alas, I had to settle for a watch based on the idea that people "stealing" a galnce at your watch are a problem. As a result I have just one more example of human stupidity...which I really don't need any more off considering that it's election time.

Time over Space

First off, check out these photos.

Oh, and read the article as well. What I got from it was that this camera takes photos in a way that allows for some very interesting things to happen due to it being a Slit Camera. I saw those pictures, thought of the Photomontage project and immediatly wished I'd had a Slit Camera.

That takes some serious flexability

PTA

This is PTA. It may look violent and complicated but it's actually quite simple.

I just manipulated the outlines of the letters to make into unrecognizable shapes then switched the border to chalk scribble. By doing so it created this very violent looking splatter effect; I then set the fill color to black and the outline to red. I did try using other fonts and played around with (failingly, I might add) with using perspective mapping. I also applied the eraser tool and manipulated the positioning to make them overlap and combine.

Now, I didn’t choose the letters PTA at random. When I was in high school I was a teacher’s assistant for a semester. I quickly realized that teachers in my school didn’t give a damn about teaching anyone who wasn’t in an AP class. Every now and then, out of sheer boredom, I would scribble Please Teach All on scrap paper. I tried to make it look cool by stylizing the letters…but I can’t draw to save my life.

A Style of its own

I'm going to show you three little webisodes that are promotions for the upcoming video game Dishonored. Pay attention to the art style is all I have to say



 

 

 

 

I could go on about game lore and what not, but what I really want to talk about is the animation. The art design is intentionaly modeled after Victorian era cartoons found in British serials. The games setting of Dunwall was modeled directly after Victorian era London with steampunk and stylized industrial flares. I found them to be both disturbing, beautiful, and amazing.

Droping the Ban Hammer

Hey, everybody it's Banned Books Month. If you didn't notice all the sings aroudn the WSU TC campus allow me to explaine. This month we honor the works that were (or are) banned or contested from being put in public schools and libraries...I really didn't need to explaine that did I? Anyway for this years challaenged books check this out. (FYI, Fifty Shades of Grey shouldn't be banned but it should be hurled into the sun)
This brings to my mind the idea of censorship and what that means in art. The popular art forms that are tied to the entertainment industry have to deal with this more than anythign else.

What they use to dispose of Banned Books

Aren't Google Goggles a thing?

First off check out this video

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/03/sight-short-film_n_1739192.html?utm_hp_ref=film

Now. What you just saw was the potential future of Augmented Reality. AR is already used for certain smartphone games and even on the Nintendo 3DS. What it does is provide an overlay of reality...and disturbingly enough that short film is probably more accurate than you'd like to think.

Full disclosure, I have several stories I'm currently working on set in a future of rampant Agumented Reality. They are no where near as high minded as this but that doesn't mean I'm not trying to make them poignant...oh, and isn't Google working on something like this?

 

 

"Shut UP! I'm updating my Fcebook Page."



Best. Bouncy Castle. EVAR!

This is so very cool. Alan Parkinson is displaying his inflatable luminariums to the world. These infaltable spaces are illuminated (go figure) with colored light and shaped in ways so as to "awakens a sense of wonder in people" as Parkinson put it himself. Much like the perviously mentioned "Music Minutes" exhibit, this is another example of art not being confined to a particualr space. I just want to walk around in one of those things.

Seriously, I want to bounce around in this thing

Next up: Paint-lates (oh, God, I'm sorry for that)

Horrid pun title aside,  Kunsthal Rotterdam, a Dutch art museum is currently runnning showing an exhibit titled "Museum Minutes" The point of which is to show that people kinda suck at viewing art in exhibits. Though this is nothing new it got me thinking about "Mapping Outisde the Frame: Interactive and Locative Art Environments". The view of the art itself is not the artistic statment, but rather the commentary on the fact that most people spend very little time actually looking at a piece of art in an exhibit. This is achieved by put the viewer on a tredmill and putting a timer over the piece. I find it to be a delightfully funny jab.

I have a strong urge to have Ok Go music playing right now...

Forced Conversion

Okay, so film director Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy) has a new film coming out in 2013 called Pacific Rim where the major focus is giant robots beating the shit out of "kaiju" (which is the actual Japnesse term for gaint monsters like Godzilla and Mothra). That alone is just pure awesome. However, Legendary Pictures wanted it converted to 3D for piracy protection (can't torrent a 3D file yet) and a bigger ticket price. del Toro refused....adamently. But then this happend.

Studio interferance is nothing new, and del Toro is being diplomatic here...still doesn't mean I like it any less. Of course this in no way means I can't watch the 2D version when it hits theaters (I hope with all my heart that this movie is good.)

Rate of Frames: The Hobbit Controversy

For those who know or care: yes, this is old news, but I still want to discuss it if only to rant a little about how Hollywood investing in 3D has kinda screwed some things.

Let's start from the beginning. It was revealed by director Peter Jackson early on that The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey would be filmed at both 24fps (Frames per second) and 48fps. This caused the interent to flip its shit...which is nothing new but always entertaining. So what's the big deal? Well people were more concerend about the whole 48fps filming. So what's the big deal? Well, film is shot at the speed of 24 frames per second. So every second a 24 frames of film have passed on screen. You may not notice it but all film has a kind of motion blur when people move and most lighting efffects are captured that way as well. When you dump up the frame rate you get less (or sometimes) no bluring. That may sound good, but it isn't. What ends up happening is the image becomes more crisp and clear...more HD if you will. The trade off there is that it look like it was shot on a video camera or live TV. So why do it? Simple: 3D effects look better and cause less strain when the film is moving faster becasue the motion blur is gone. Incidentally, CG effects also look better because the motion blur isn't interrupting the animation. Since this public backlash from both idiots with keyboards and actual journalists the 48fps version will only see a limited release.

This would not be a problem if Hollywood didn't want to make everythign 3D. Though it can be used for artistic expression, most of the time its a post-production conversion that is only done to get people to pay extra for a ticket. But i'm no done with my 3D talk. That leads right ino my next post...

Windows 8: Or, how the Indy Developer is getting reamed

In an attempt to fight video game scurvey--SHIT!--I mean piracy Microsoft is implementing a controversial new system for Windows 8. Essentially, what they're doing is requiring all software to be purchased through the Microssoft app store in order for it to even run. Now that's all well and good for big triple A releases, they can afford to lisence that, but the Independent game developer might not be so lucky. Not only that, but some major developers are going to have to kowtow to

Windows 8 and its hardware requirments. That could end up being problematic...just a little.

It's all very technical and I don't fully understand the logistics and specifics behind it, but I do understand that it is a giant pain in the ass. That, by the way, was Gabe Newell. He's the head of Valve studios the creators of the Half-Life video game sereis a well as Portal and Portal 2. He's also famous for beating around the bush.

 

Again, it all comes back to fighting piracy, which is good, by screwing over the people trying to make the product or those trying to buy it legitimately, which is bad.

That's right. I'ma talk about porn

And i'm not even gonna be comedic about it. What follows is me beign completly straight-faced about this. There is absoultly no sarcastic undertone to the followign writing.

A new search engine for the web has launched. It is aptly named Search.xxx
As we all may or may not know, it is incredably difficult to find porn on the interent of any kind whatsoever. In order to combat this lack of content browsing, ICM Registry has created a search engine designed for finding porn sites on the internet. Brave, brave people these.

Jesus, I'm sorry. I can't keep writing like this or I'm going to have a brain aneurysm. Okay, deep breaths....phew.

In all seriousness though this engine does bring up a topic that is acctually relevant to digital culture, and that is piracy. I can garantee that the majority of the sites that this engine links to are Tube sites (sites that stream content for free). I'd bet that the pornography indutry is the most pirated industry right up there with film and video games, but this engine is more or less activly enabling piracy...which is shitty on several level. You can get the much more professional story here...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/27/searchxxx-porn-search-engine_n_1921161.html

Behold, the new iPhone is upon us!

Lo, and he said unto them, "It shall have LTE and be all kinds of sleek"
Yes, the new iPhone is here, but unlike the rest of teh world, I'm not flipping out like a cirque du soleil performer on meth. Hey, I know it is a fantastic piece of tech and the original iPone started the whole Smartphone thing, but it's hard for me to get excited about somethign that's just going to be replaced and/or uptaded in a year. I'm not an Apple hater, I equally hate this entire culture we've built around yearly updating our equipment. I can't wait for the day when there's only one piece of hardware that is phone, computer, web terminal, etc. and all that will be sold is software. No more of this crap....that thing is pretty sweet though (but no NFC functionality? What the hell?)  http://www.ign.com/videos/2012/09/28/iphone-5-video-review

In the Deep Sea

After reading Ralf Nuhn’s article “From UNCAGED to Cyber-Spatialism” I couldn’t help but think of a very interesting conceptual video game (I will always work gaming into this blog if I can). Before I get into it check out the video and pay attention to the last couple minuets where immersion takes center stage in conversation.

Also, condom covered microphones...

 



 

Nuhn's idea about Cyber-Spatialism in UNCAGED immediately brought me to this game. A core concept, as I understand it, is that a virtual action has a real life effect. This is the same concept only the other direction. But wait, I can already hear the “But Jon, every video game is like that. You push a button and someone gets decapitated, blah, blah, blah.” True. But that is merely an interaction method. A controller is not much more than a stylized keyboard. The real thing I want to focus on is the way the mask of this game puts you in complete darkness (thus depriving you of visuals and, you know, sight) and how your breathing in and out affects the sound of the game that is fed back into your headphones.

It’s fascinating and unique. Reportedly people can’t play the game for more than about two minuets before pulling it off…though I’m sure halitosis might play some factor in this as well. It’s a great study in how people fear isolation, tight spaces, and silence so pervasive that the only sound you hear is your own heartbeat and breathing.

Most people tend to think of video games as an exercise of the id, but this right here proves that they can be studies in fear and the human mind as well.



Don't worry, I'm Still Alive

It has been far too long since I last chimed in on this blog. In order to make up for lost time I’ve decided to talk about typography. But instead of talking about a font or its usage, I’m going to show you a video that uses typography in a really kickass way. Enjoy.

 Brings a smile to my face every time

 

 

That was made by a loving fan of Valve's hit game Portal. The font is the same as what's seen in the game as well as the graphics of people being injured. What I find so enjoyable about this video is how the typography is used in junction with visuals to make a flowing, almost animated, video. I love it. Also, the game is just made of awesome and cake.

Resse's Moment

I have always been fascinated by both science and art in equal measures. When the two combine it often strikes me as a Resse's Moment (my own term for the "peanut butter and chocolate" epiphany). More often than not the two are treated like polar opposites that would react like matter and anti-matter should they ever meet. As seen in Elaine Shemilt's “A Blueprint for Bacterial Life”combining science and art is not only refreshing but can also lead to unexpected discoveries. Fun fact: when I was taking Bio 101 a couple years ago I learned that every human being is essentially made of four nucleotides (human Quaternary Code) which were abbreviated as A, C, G, and T. I looked to my friend who was an avid musician and suggested that it would be possible to translate a human genetic sequence into a musical score by replacing T with whatever note would actually work in harmony (Note: T is not a musical note for those of you who don't know). It's things like this that make me realize that looking at something through a purely scientific lens can cause a kind of tunnel vision and it's times like that that make me truly appreciate an artistic spin on things

Which leads me to my next thought; the combination of technology and art. What really stuck out at me in Ann-Sophie Lehman's “Invisible Work” was the discussion of the I/O Brush and Daniel Rozin's Easel project. As technology advances and becomes more advanced and user-friendly, the ability to combine it with tools for artistic expression become more realized. For example, though expensive as hell, a Cintiq does all the great things of a drafting table and pen but contained on what is essentially a tablet. The key thing is that this machine does react to pressure and adjusts line thickness accordingly. That's a simple example, and the machine itself is very complex. Now the new iPad has ridiculously high picture resolution and allows users to take very clear pictures on a device used primarily for screwing around on Facebook and playing Angry Birds.

It's Resse's Moments like these that make me realize that art and artistry will infiltrate just about anything and allows for great advances and breakthroughs in both science and technology. Who knows what amazing things could come of someone messing around with tech and science with an artistic spin; it could be world altering.

A look inside my head

This, if anything highlights one key aspect about myself; I am not good with Photoshop yet. That aside, I wanted to show, in an abstract way, how the things I love and enjoy occupy my brain. The careful observer will notice that all sections can be identified as comics, films, books, music, school books and video games. I wanted to include things like pictures of friends, fears, hopes, a collage of beautiful women...that kind of thing, but I worked with what I thought was manageable for my skill level. These things inspire me to be more creative with all my work.