Thursday, 27 May 2010

Wednesday, 26 May 2010

Tuesday, 25 May 2010

Seeing the World in Miniature with Tilt Shift Photography

HD Versions of these clips can be found here.








All videos were shot in an around Sydney using tilt shift photography techniques by Keith Loutit

Serra da Leba, Angola - Desert Road


From the Photographer, Kostadin Luchansky

This is Serra da Leba, a landmark in Angola. It has been one of the country's postcard images for decades, but all shots were taken by day. I needed something different. I decided to try a night shot, but it seemed impossible: pitch black, foggy, an altitude of 1,800 meters (5,000 feet). My Nikon can stay open as long as 60 seconds max. But a car takes a few minutes to climb and descend and complete the "drawing." The fog was blocking! Suddenly the fog cleared, a car went down, another went up, and they met in the middle in under 60 seconds.

Sunday, 23 May 2010

Urban Abstract - Tokyo/Helsinki inspired animation

Runtime: 4:08mins

Sound Design & Music: Chikao Maruyama


Art Director Jopsu Ramu from Musuta Ltd. (a multidisciplinary design agency based in Helsinki & Tokyo) has created together with Shun Kawakami (artless Inc) an artist and designer from Tokyo - a piece titled Urban Abstract. This digital art piece is being shown as the November break bumpers on one of the biggest commercial TV channels in Finland: TV Nelonen.

The website urban-abstract.com works as a part of the piece and creates an extra dimension for the clips shown on TV.

The Concept:

Urban Abstract is a journey across urban space that unfolds in forty, 5 second parts. The journey, in one, two and three dimensions, is a bit like abstract surfing in which the original destination is only reached after a number of seemingly random yet linked detours occur. Points , lines, planes and other abstract elements create a journey through an Urban Abstract.
The space between things is as important as intended space, perhaps creating a fourth dimension. Meaningful shapes and purposes occur in this dimension's reality as well. The concept of negative space has meaning here.
Nature plays a part as well. To be able to understand and differentiate what is urban one has understand what is nature.
The style of the shorts is fluid and, though seemingly random, stream into a cohesive whole. Perhaps watching them in a different order would be more like seeing the same journey from another point of view. The sound world is also very important -- movement in space is sensed even if watching the shorts with eyes closed. Sounds overlap, fade, come and go.
Architectural, abstract, someway minimalist and abstract with a touch of humanity.
This feeling is reached through mixing techniques such as vectors , hand drawn lines and painting.
Urban Abstract was realized in Tokyo by a team of artists, designers and animators from Finland and Japan. Urban Abstract was created by Jopsu Ramu from Musuta Ltd, a concept, art & design -studio based in Tokyo and Helsinki.


The Hairy Cathedral of Shanghai


This is the Seed Cathedral. The British entrant for the world expo in Shanghai earlier this month. 60,000 rods of clear perspex are inserted into a large accessible, walkable structure, creating a shimmering, moving almost hairy building.
At night, LED's illuminate the structure, but by day the innards of the cathedral glow with natural light. Each one of the rods contains a different seed donated by the world seed bank, China.

The creators of the piece, Heatherwick Studio reports that the Seed Cathedral has already found favour with the Chinese public, who have nick-named the pavilion 'Pu Gong Ying', which translates as 'The Dandelion'. We are also glad to hear that the studio have planned for the afterlife of the pavilion when the World Expo ends.
"After the Expo, just as dandelion seeds are blown away and disperse on the breeze, the Seed Cathedral's 60,000 optic hairs, each one containing the huge potential of life, will be distributed across China and the UK to hundreds of schools as a special legacy of the UK Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo."

The UK Pavilion rather sensibly doesn't aim to compete with Asian high-tech solutions, but goes for a spectacular low-tech approach instead. Heatherwick Studio describe their approach as engaging "meaningfully with Shanghai Expo's theme, Better City, Better Life, and standing out from the anticipated trend for technology driven pavilions, filled with audio-visual content on screens, projections and speakers."





A full and very watchable description of the piece from designer Mark Heatherwick can be found here: iPlayer - Culture Show

But be quick, the interview is only available until Friday.

Heatherwick Studios

Thursday, 20 May 2010

Curious Mirrors - Audience, from rAndom International

Audience by rAndom International with Chris O'Shea

Installation in the US for private art collector.



Wednesday, 19 May 2010

Progressive games and their designers examined in upcoming Indie documentary.

I'm wary of games. They give us a great platform for interactivity and immersion, though rarely tap into their full potential creativity.
However, there are groups within the gaming industry that do attempt to push the boat out and attempt to redefine what games can be and do.
Independent games designers. They are freer to produce original, but on occasion, commercially unsound packages. Here below is an upcoming documentary which examines one such designer and his motives.




The game mentioned above (Aether) can be played for free here.

Northern Sahara shot with Canon 5d mk2 - Predictably awesome

Runtime: 4:14mins

Music: SaReGaMa

HD Version here (Recommended)

Old Photos of the San Franciscan cliff house in 1907




Photographic Credits 1 & 2

1024architecture - French duo and their hypnotic audio installations

I came across Pier Schneider and Francios Wunschel's work some time ago. They mix their own electronic audio with fantastically complex live projections to produce some pretty dramatic results under the name 1024architecture.

From their website:  1024 works on the interactions between 1024 dimensions: Space, Sound, Visual, Light, Body, Architecture, City..

I'm such a sucker for audio-reactive stuff. It's odd how mainstream acts often seem to settle for less when it comes to their own stage design.

Selected Works:






Website: http://www.1024architecture.net/