LINGDUM™

Steve Jobs Met with Light Field Camera (Lytro) Company's CEO

noreply@blogger.com (LINGDUM) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:15:00 +0000

Steve Jobs Met with Light Field Camera (Lytro) Company's CEO:

In the upcoming Inside Apple book by Adam Lashinsky, it's revealed that Steve Jobs had expressed interest and subsequently met with the CEO of Lytro, the makers the first light field camera. The relevant book quote posted by 9to5Mac states:

The company’s CEO, Ren Ng, a brilliant computer scientist with a PhD from Stanford, immediately called Jobs, who picked up the phone and quickly said, “if you’re free this afternoon maybe we would could get together.” Ng, who is thirty-two, hurried to Palo Alto, showed Jobs a demo of Lytro’s technology, discussed cameras and product design with him, and, at Jobs’s request, agreed to send him an email outlining three things he’d like Lytro to do with Apple.

Lytro received a lot of press last year when the first of its light field cameras went on sale in October. The product even received Popular Science's 2011 Innovation of the Year.

Light field cameras are a different take on photography by capturing "the entire light field" and saving all that information into a single file. Photographers can then edit the file afterwards in a number of unique ways -- including refocusing the image. This video walks through this unique ability:

One of the limitations in the early light field cameras is a relatively low resolution. The first Lytro camera produces final photos of only 1.2 megapixels (1,080x1,080). The cameras also don't take any video and start at $399 for an 8GB model. The camera carries an elongated form factor that seems to be a result of the unusual optics required.

Given the hype surrounding the technology, it's perhaps no surprise that Steve Jobs found interest in meeting with the young company. That meeting, however, is getting special attention due to the fact that Walter Isaacson had said that Jobs wanted to reinvent television, textbooks and photography.

Apple just released their first digital textbooks for the iPad, and is expected to get into the television space. Apple's future goals for photography, however, remain unclear. Apple includes a digital camera its iPhones and has made progressive improvements in camera quality over the past few generations. While Apple no longer makes a standalone digital camera, they were one of the first to product a consumer targeted digital camera back in 1994.

Given the popularity of smartphones and the subsequent decline of point and shoot camera popularity, we'd expect any future Apple movement into photography would be centered around the iPhone.

Final Call for Heineken Design Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (LINGDUM) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:17:00 +0000

Final Call for Heineken Design Challenge:re-blog from CRBlog

Last chance to submit redesigns of the iconic green bottle

Advertorial content:

The window is drawing to a close for designers to submit their proposals for the Heineken Limited Edition Design Challenge. Open until 31 January, the competition asks creatives to submit original work that reflects the way people will be connecting over the next 140 years. As an added twist, all redesigns must be submitted in pairs, with the Heineken Limited Edition Facebook page serving as a medium for artists to find like-minded partners. With thousands of people already connected, the challenge has pulled a substantial international and multicultural crowd with some exciting new looks at the classic green bottle.

Judges for the competition include CH co-founder and executive editor Evan Orensten alongside Mark Dytham, co-founder of design community leader PechaKucha, and Heineken's head of global design Mark van Iterson. The top 100 will be forwarded to the judges, who will shortlist three designs to be refined for a final review. The winners will be announced in March, and their design will appear on Heineken's 140th anniversary gift pack.

“The entries so far have shown there will always be magic in the chemistry that a team creates together, and technology is making it easier and easier for people all over the world to collaborate," says Orensten. "I’m really excited to see what can be created as the gallery continues to fill." Head over to the Facebook page to download the template and submit your design, and be sure to follow Twitter updates by searching for #yourfuturebottle.

Desktops

noreply@blogger.com (LINGDUM) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:53:00 +0000

Desktops:re-blog from CoolHunting

Virtual versus physical: Our conversation with six creative professionals about their workspaces
Our environment influences our behavior both physically and mentally, guiding our personal evolution to determine, among other things, our quality of life. Nowhere does this ring truer than in the workplace. The surroundings, comforts, decorations and distractions that exist in the work environment can have a huge influence on creativity and productivity. For most, the workday revolves around the desk, and how individuals interact with that space can give some insight into the way they operate in the workplace. For the contemporary professional there now exist two desktops, the virtual and the physical, which raises some interesting questions about the relationship between these two spaces in our lives. We asked six creative professionals from the art, web and design worlds to show us their virtual and physical spaces, and found out what makes the modern desktop.

Monica Khemsurov, Co-Founder, Sight Unseen

Do you think of your desktops differently?

Yes. My virtual desktop gets far more use than my physical one, and it can accompany me into bed at night when I'm being a workaholic (which is always). I work from home, and my physical desk mostly just exists to keep me off the couch and save my back.

Favorite desktop accessory or decoration on both virtual and physical?

Virtual: My desktop image is the cover of a 1969 issue of the German advertising-art magazine Gebrauchsgraphik. Search its name on Flickr — amazing. Physical: Hard to pick a favorite, but I guess I'd go with the little metal bust on an acrylic stand, which I got this summer at a San Francisco antique store. I'm obsessed with things on stands; I also have a set of old geodes mounted on little metal tripods.

Where/when did you learn to organize or form a system of organization for them?

I don't have much to organize on my physical desktop — I keep my mess on my kitchen table. But I will say that on my virtual one, I've always religiously kept things in aliased folders because a long, long time ago I was told that storing a lot of stuff on your desktop slows down your computer, which I think is actually no longer the case. Ah, modern technology.

What do you look for in a work space? What are the key elements to keep you productive?

Quiet, comfort, and good food at arm's reach. I work really well at home actually — I can focus here far better than I can in an office. Offices make me tired and shifty. Especially when I'm not near a window, which has been the case for half of my working life. Once I was shut away in my own office with no window at all, so I hung a huge photograph of a forest on the wall, but it didn't help the feeling that my soul was slowly dying.

Dennis Crowley, Co-Founder, Foursquare

Do you think of your desktops differently?

Yes, my physical desk is just a seat. As much a place to sit and get work done as it's a place to store all the stuff I accumulate. The foursquare office is pretty open with lots of common space to work. There are some days I'm only at my desk for a few minutes (meetings, etc) and I'm totally fine with that. My virtual desktop is pretty bare—I've got a portal to Dropbox which mimics everything onto my Mac at home, iPad and iPhone. I guess the Dropbox cloud is the virtual equivalent of my messy physical desktop.

What are you embarrassed about on your desktop?

Physical: It's a mess. I just tend to accumulate stuff—stickers, papers, postcards, photos, books, baseball cards, trinkets, USB cables. Virtual: Nothing! Since I got this new Mac I've bee keeping it real organized!

Favorite desktop accessory or decoration on both virtual and physical?

Physical: Penguins that sing and dance to House of Pain's "Jump Around" (my Mom sent it to me for Christmas). Virtual: I've been using this app called F.lux that subtly changes the color of your screen as you get further from dawn and closer to dusk. Took me a few days to adjust but it's pretty nice.

Where/when did you learn to organize or form a system of organization for them?

Virtual: My desktop hasn't always been so tidy - the desktop my old MacBook was littered with old files. My physical desk has always been kind of an "organized mess". Luckily, foursquare is moving offices next week which will force me to get rid of most of it.

What do you look for in a work space? What are the key elements to keep you productive?

Being in a crowded room. I'm more productive when everyone around me is buzzing. Most of the early foursquare prototype got built in East Village coffee shops since the atmosphere was much more motivating than working alone at my kitchen table.

John Maeda, President, Rhode Island School Of Design

Do you think of your desktops differently?

I don't see them as connected in any way. I do regret that I don't connect them more thoughtfully.

Favorite desktop accessory or decoration on both virtual and physical?

On my physical desktop, Kinesis keyboard is a necessity. On my virtual desktop, I guess it would be my Sparrow Mail window.

Where/when did you learn to organize or form a system of organization for them?

In 2005 I wrote a book called The Laws of Simplicity that espoused principles of organization that I use in my daily life.

What do you look for in a work space? What are the key elements to keep you productive?

I look for a large enough table with a power outlet nearby. The key elements are industrial ear plugs, my computer, and my in/out box.

Jon Burgerman, Artist and Illustrator

Do you think of your desktops differently?

Yes, one collects dust and the other, images dragged off the Internet.

What are you embarrassed about on your desktop?

Nothing really, I have no shame, not anymore.

Favorite desktop accessory or decoration on both virtual and physical?

I have a small collection of cute/ugly animals stuck to the wall of my office. I haven't really added to the collection for a long time now but I still like them. I try and keep both desktops clutter-free. I don't like clutter. I don't like unnecessary things. Almost everything is unnecessary...apart from wet wipes, of course.

Where/when did you learn to organize or form a system of organization for them?

I am feral. I learned and adapted by need and circumstance.

What do you look for in a work space? What are the key elements to keep you productive?

Nothing. I like space and the suggestion of a never-ending afternoon. To keep productive I need no restrictions or distractions. I'm distracted so easily.

Kelsey Keith, Senior Editor, Dwell

What are you embarrassed about on your desktop?

It's a cubicle with gray walls and very little flair.

Favorite desktop accessory or decoration on both virtual and physical?

I moved into this office two weeks ago, so I don't have much in the way of decoration. Several must-haves are red pens, a stack of clean notebooks, and a drawer to stash all the extras: snacks, stain remover, passport, calculator, hand cream. I would equate that drawer to the folder of photos on my virtual desktop.

Where/when did you learn to organize or form a system of organization for them?

I tend to remember things as soon as I write them down, so I wasn't forced to get organized until I started managing people in an editorial role. Now I stay on track by adding appointments, even tentative ones, to my calendar as soon as they crop up and keeping a running tally of high-priority tasks on Mac Stickies. Funny enough, I loathe physical Post-It Notes.

What do you look for in a work space? What are the key elements to keep you productive?

No clutter. Bright but warm light. Seltzer. Noise-canceling headphones. A land line.

Kiel Mead, Designer

Do you think of your desktops differently?

My desktops are the same, there is never enough space!

What are you embarrassed about on your desktop?

My wood shop is sort of next door to my office so there is usually a fine layer of dust on everything. I am kind of self-conscious of that when clients are visiting.

Favorite desktop accessory or decoration on both virtual and physical?

My dog, George, She is currently on my computer desktop and strangely, sometimes we catch her on the actual desktop! She is a 40-pound Basset hound, explorer.

Where/when did you learn to organize or form a system of organization for them?

On my computer desktop I like all my icons very small. For some reason I feel like it is more organized when it is small. I wish I had a shelving system, floor to ceiling. I think that will be my next investment.

What do you look for in a work space? What are the key elements to keep you productive?

I am always looking for pens in my work space—they keep disappearing. My wireless printer is a task-killer, easy as pie, I can print from my phone! The main things that keep me productive are the endless threads of emails I tend to find myself on.

Oh wow, it's Daniel Arsham

noreply@blogger.com (LINGDUM) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:49:00 +0000

Oh wow, it's Daniel Arsham:re-blog from CRBlog

The installations of American artist Daniel Arsham play with the very fabric of the gallery itself. His first solo show, the fall, the ball and the wall, has just opened at the OHWOW gallery in Los Angeles

Hiding Figure, 2011, Fiberglas, paint, joint compound, mannequin, fabric, and shoes, 87 x 48.5 x 13 inches

The show, OHWOW says "illustrates the artist's continued interest in manipulating architecture and in challenging expectations of accepted realities".

In these latest works, Arsham uses materials such as fibreglass and foam to create pieces that appear to be formed out of the walls of the gallery itself.

Curtain, EPS foam, plaster gauze

Mail Slot, 2008, Bronze, plaster, paint, joint compound

the fall, the ball and the wall is at OHWOW, 937 N. La Cienega Blvd. Los Angeles, until February 16. Details here

Goldfish Salvation

noreply@blogger.com (LINGDUM) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:59:00 +0000

Goldfish Salvation:

Riusuke Fukahori creates incredible depth in his artworks by painting a layer at a time onto acrylic resin, until a 3-dimensional image is formed, sort of like how 3D printers work. More photos here.

LG: Smart Thief

noreply@blogger.com (LINGDUM) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:53:00 +0000

LG: Smart Thief:

What looks like security cam footage of a thief caught red handed is actually a clever little piece of viral marketing for LG, flaunting their products’ key feature with an imaginative approach.

Daft Punk Derezzed Floppy Cover! SO AWESOME!

noreply@blogger.com (LINGDUM) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:26:00 +0000

Daft Punk Derezzed Floppy Cover:

YouTuber MrSolidSnake745 covers Daft Punk’s bliptastic TRON single Derezzed using five floppy drives. It’s not as clean as the electric guitar cover, but you can’t miss the song’s unmistakable riff.

Envisioning Disney Characters in reality!

noreply@blogger.com (LINGDUM) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:20:00 +0000

Nitro Circus: The Movie

noreply@blogger.com (LINGDUM) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:20:00 +0000

This is gonna be AWESOME!!!

Travis Pastrana and the rest of Nitro Circus take their Jackass-with-vehicles antics to the big screen – and in 3D, naturally. We’re sick of the Angry Birds gimmick, but the other tricks are enticing.

Liquipel Waterproof Coating

noreply@blogger.com (LINGDUM) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:03:00 +0000

Liquipel Waterproof Coating:

Liquipel is a nano-coating – 1000 times thinner than human hair – that provides smartphones with surface protection from water. Learn more about the tech and the process here and here.

Shut Up and Play the Hits (Trailer)

noreply@blogger.com (LINGDUM) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:56:00 +0000

Shut Up and Play the Hits (Trailer):

A documentary about LCD Soundsystem’s final show – aka “the best funeral ever” – with additional focus on frontman James Murphy, who was the one who decided to break up the band.

The Scream Animated

noreply@blogger.com (LINGDUM) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:17:00 +0000

The Scream Animated:

Winter Version

HzO 'Talking to Apple' About Water Blocking Technology for Future iPhones

noreply@blogger.com (LINGDUM) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:39:00 +0000

HzO 'Talking to Apple' About Water Blocking Technology for Future iPhones: Pocket-lint reportsre-blog from MacRumor

that Utah company HzO, which was showing off its "WaterBlock" technology for providing water resistance to mobile devices at last week's CES, has said it is talking to Apple about the possibility of including the technology in future iPhones and other devices. Samsung is also reportedly "excited" by the technology.

"We showed the Samsung Chairman the technology with a Samsung Galaxy S that we had coated with HZO and he couldn't believe his eyes," a representative of the company told us. "Samsung is really excited by the tech."

The company has told us that they are also talking to Apple as well, hoping to be able to let Apple make the iPhone 5 waterproof.

"We expect HZO to be in next season's phones," HZO told Pocket-lint rather confidently.

The WaterBlock technology, which consists of a coating applied to interior device components to help them resist water damage, is performed during the manufacturing process and is invisible to the user.

It is difficult to know how serious the company's discussions with Apple are, and any substantial conversations would almost certainly be subject to non-disclosure arrangements. In addition, expo floor exhibitors are of course primarily interested in promoting their products, and any mention of discussions of partnerships with major companies is a good way to generate publicity.

Consequently, it is impossible to put any measure of weight on speculation that Apple might adopt HzO technology, but it does appear to be an interesting possibility for mobile device manufacturers seeking to improve the durability of their products.

'Immense Pressure' Leads to Cancellation of Steve Jobs Figurine

noreply@blogger.com (LINGDUM) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:40:00 +0000

'Immense Pressure' Leads to Cancellation of Steve Jobs Figurine: Earlier this month, we reported on Hong Kong company In Icons, which was attempting to release a realistic-looking Steve Jobs figurine. According to reports, Apple was at the time threatening legal action over the posable figurine, and PC World now notes that production on the figurine has been halted.

http://www.inicons.com/ for more pictures!

In Icons has posted a statement on its website acknowledging that while it does not feel that it has violated any laws with the figurine but noting that it will cease production out of respect for Jobs and following "immense pressure" from lawyers representing Apple and Jobs' family.

I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate that the original intention for creating the figurine was driven by a fan’s admiration of Steve. We respect copyright and trade mark rights and therefore indicated on our site that we were not providing any Mac, iPhone and iPad models with the figurine. Further, we haven't used any Apple related brands. Unfortunately we have received immense pressure from the lawyers of Apple and Steve Jobs family. Regardless of the pressure, I am still Steve’s fan, I fully respect Steve, and his family, and it is definitely not my wish or intention that they be upset. Though we still believe that we have not overstepped any legal boundaries, we have decided to completely stop the offer, production and sale of the Steve Jobs figurine out of our heartfelt sensitivity to the feelings of the Jobs family.

The 12-inch figurine had been set to sell for $99.99 plus shipping, and included a number of accessories to help users replicate any number of famous Jobs poses.

For Kids, and Grown-up Kids, Digital Puppetry with Kinect (openFrameworks)

noreply@blogger.com (LINGDUM) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:16:00 +0000

For Kids, and Grown-up Kids, Digital Puppetry with Kinect (openFrameworks):re-blog from Create Digital Motion

Puppet Parade - Interactive Kinect Puppets from Design I/O on Vimeo.

The work by Theo Watson and team has been one of those magical technological revelations that makes people say “oh – that’s what that’s for.”

Say computer vision or tracking, or show the typical demo of what these can do with interaction, and eyes glaze over. But make them work as puppetry, and somewhere deep inside the mechanisms by which us human beings interact with our world, something lights up.

With iteration, that first proof of concept just gets better. Theo writes to share that he and collaborator Emily Gobeille made a second version of the project. In “Puppet Parade,” the Interactive Puppet Prototype 2.0, the barrier between digital realm and human gesture gets a bit thinner.

But don’t just watch the edited demo – see what it looks like in action below, and a brief visual look at how the system works. (Bonus: Theo wrote the tools on which the whole system was based – and shared them with a well-connected global community of hackers via his open source library.)

Description and credits:

Puppet Parade is an interactive installation that allows children to use their arms to puppeteer larger than life creatures projected on the wall in front of them. Children can also step in to the environment and interact with the puppets directly, petting them or making food for them to eat. This dual interactive setup allows children to perform alongside the puppets, blurring the line between the ‘audience’ and the puppeteers and creating an endlessly playful dialogue between the children in the space and the children puppeteering the creatures.

Puppet Parade premiered at the 2011 Cinekid festival in Amsterdam. Puppet Parade is made with openFrameworks and the ofxKinect addon.

Project page: design-io.com/?p=15

Credits:

Project by Design I/O – design-io.com

Exhibited at Cinekid Media Lab 2011 – cinekid.nl

Sound Design by: m-ost.nl

Video by Thiago Glomer / Go Glo – thiagobrazil.blogspot.com

Here’s the live version, unedited, for a better feel of what this project is like in person.

Note the interaction on two planes. (Kyle McDonald, another superstar of the Kinect community, points to this element in comments on Vimeo – thanks, Kyle.)

Puppet Parade - Live footage from Design I/O on Vimeo.

And for a peek behind the curtain, you can also see the tracking that drives the interaction:

Puppet Parade - Short Computer Vision Demo from Design I/O on Vimeo.

Filip at Creative Applications goes into greater technical detail, in terms of libraries used and other specifics. Two particular tips: motor control allows the system to adjust to different heights, and the depth of field benefits from the use of two cameras.

United Arab Emirates Architecture Brought to Life with Light; Behind-the-Scenes Details

noreply@blogger.com (LINGDUM) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:30:00 +0000

United Arab Emirates Architecture Brought to Life with Light; Behind-the-Scenes Details:re-blog from Create Digital Motion

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Projections from Obscura Digital on Vimeo.

Illuminating the facades of United Arab Emirates mosque and historical architecture with extraordinary imagery, Obscura Digital transformed these structures with visuals both decorative and cultural. It’s a visually-rich celebration of Arabic and Emirati culture, and one of the developers – absurdly-prolific artist and geek virtuoso Barry Threw – walks us through some of the details of how it was produced, all using TouchDesigner software.

The mosque, top:

In celebration of UAE National Day 2011

Projection and design by Obscura Digital

44 projectors with a combined brightness of 840,000 lumens

were used to cover a surface 600ft wide x 351ft high

Barry explains in detail how this lavish projection project came into being – and get ready for some nerdy vocabulary, folks, which is part of why we love what we do:

All of the mapping is done with TouchDesigner.

The first step in the pipeline is getting some sort of model of the structure involved. In this instance, we used a laser scanner to output a 3d point cloud of the building. This point cloud then needs to be turned into a mesh, and then we re-topologize it into a simpler mesh that can be easily handled in realtime. There is a high degree of skill necessary in this process.

At the same time, the physical projector locations have to be decided upon. This depends upon the actual map of the building and surrounding area, where we can get access to, and what kind of structures we are allowed to build. This particular job was easy in terms of obstructions of the surrounding area, but difficult because of the sacred nature of the site. All of our projector towers had to be well designed with facades to match the mosque architecture.

The projector placement and physical production aspects are a behemoth tasks in themselves. Number and placement of projectors has many variables, but in general, maximum brightness, full area coverage and optimal resolution are the major ones.

The art design process is another concurrent pipeline. After the 3d model and general projector spec’ing is complete, a template can be made to render the content, which has previously been put through an extensive creative process. This is output as video, in our case using a currently-proprietary codec called FireFrame, which are then textured onto the 3d model.

Projector calibration is basically a two-step process.

We typically use stacks of projectors to achieve higher lumens over the projected area. So the first stage is converging stacks of projectors to make a single, clear image.

Secondly, physical projector extrinsics must be calculated to match a virtual camera in our 3D world. We are currently using a technique that I’m lovingly referring to as “Sain-O’Neill Extrinsic Trilateration,” or SONET. Basically, it involves triangulating the projector and projection centroid placements based on other known onsite architectural features.

This gets you fairly close with careful application, but a number of post-3D and 2D transformations are used on the geometry to account for the fallible nature of the physical world to which we are chained. There is also a separate group of procedures that are used in the instances where a blend between two channels are necessary, and the one that we use is dependent on the architecture.

Equipment used / number and types of projectors / lumens / power:

44 projectors on the mosque (24 x 20K lumens + 20 18K lumens) = 840,000 lumens

5 projectors on the fort (5 x 20K lumens) = 100,000 lumens

940,000 lumens total

49 projectors x 3.2kW x 60 hours = 9,400kW total show (Mosque and Fort)

CO2 Offsetting plan:

9,400kW = 12,878 lbs of CO2 = 6 tons of CO2

(1.37 pounds CO2 per kW / 2204 pounds = 1 ton of CO2)

6 tons x 5 trees per ton = 30 trees

Equipment rigs:

Custom-built projector enclosures based on floral designs that match the mosque

Architectural mapping / scanning components:

Obscura laser scanned the surface area of the mosque to generate 3D models.

Incredibly complex geometry: flat walls with intricate hand carved details (all mapped); arcades with rows of columns; domes ranging in size from the “small” 7m ones on the sides of the main gate to the 37 and 46m main domes of the prayer hall; all four of the 107m minarets.

I’d like to mention Dorian Orange (http://www.dorianorange.com/), a NY based shop who helped us immeasurably with the media on this project.

Project files themselves in TouchDesigner can seem a work of art. Click through for the full-detail version. Courtesy Barry Threw.

More information:

http://obscuradigital.com/

http://www.derivative.ca/ [developers of TouchDesigner]

UAE National Day Grand Mosque Architectural Projection Mapping [barry threw blog]

UAE National Day Fort Al Jahili Architectural Projection Mapping [barry threw blog]

A massive team worked on the project. Credits:

Technical Direction

Andrew Plourde

Eugene Dowlen

Simon Ransom (theRansoms)

Creative Direction / Media

Travis Threlkel

Marta Salas Porras

Ron Robinson

Nathaniel Ruhlman (Dorian Orange)

Production

Gaston Albanell

Nick Lynch

Diego Novoa

Rainen Janes

Joe Vigorito

Nathan Houchin

Eric Knuble

Interactive Development

Mary Franck

Grady Sain

Imran Nabhan

IT

Sean Holt

Photos / Documentation

Josh Brott

Block IPDelete

Projection Mapping for a Cause: Obscura’s Cube of CO2

noreply@blogger.com (LINGDUM) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:26:00 +0000

Projection Mapping for a Cause: Obscura’s Cube of CO2:re-blog from Create Digital Motion

CO2 Cube from Obscura Digital on Vimeo.

It’s an older project, but no less timely: speaking of Obscura Digital’s work, they’ve also employed projection as a way to illustrate in tangible terms a serious issue. You’ll hear climate scientists speak in terms of metric tons of emissions. But because we can’t see those emissions, and because most people really don’t think about volumes of carbon dioxide (hardly something you pick up at the grocery), it’s tough to wrap your head around what that means.

That is, it’s tough until you see the volume. Assuming sea level, you get a cube of 8.2m x 8.2m x 8.2m (27ft x 27ft x 27ft) or a three-story building. And so at 2009′s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Obscura Digital made the message more concrete. The object itself illustrates the point, and then becomes a medium for conveying information gathered from YouTube and Google. It’s called a “4-D Hypercube User Interface System,” which seems a bit of a stretch – this would technically still be a 3-cube – if clever branding. But the message is really clear.

It also suggests an important role of creative projection, which is making the projection surface itself part of the content and meaning.

More information:

http://www.obscuradigital.com/work/detail/c02-cube/

Moving Brands leans HP 13 degrees forward

noreply@blogger.com (LINGDUM) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 17:01:00 +0000

Moving Brands leans HP 13 degrees forward:-reblog from CRBlog

Moving Brands has proposed a sharp new mark for Hewlett Packard that aims to re-establish HP as a brand at the forefront of technological innovation

As our sister title Design Week revealed yesterday, Moving Brands' new mark is the upshot of a process that began in 2008 when the consultancy was charged with the development of brand strategy and experience design at HP.

1954 logo

Hewlett Packard was perhaps the original Silicon Valley success story. It was founded in a garage by Stanford engineering graduates Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in 1939 and proved an inspiration to the young Steve Jobs who had a summer job there. Jobs' partner Steve Wozniak also worked at HP and designed what became the first Apple computer there - he was obliged to offer it to his employer first but HP turned the opportunity down.

What Moving Brands found at HP is a familiar corporate story - a company once renowned for innovation that, thanks to successive acquisitions, had become bloated and somewhat lacking in personality and direction. From being one of the most innovative firms in history, it had become known as just another boring supplier of printers and PCs. "The once iconic brand was deemed dull and lifeless by consumers and business customers alike," as Moving Brands says in its case study here (which details just what a complex brand strategy project this was).

With its recent advertising from Goodby Silverstein, (including the Hands campaign starring various 'cool' celebs, above) HP had been trying to make up some of that lost ground.

For the visual identity segment of its work in helping transform perceptions of the brand, Moving Brands' proposed solution is a stripped down mark that abstracts the HP name into four bars that, as the studio claims "lean into the future" at a 13 degree angle - the same angle used in previous HP logos. It's a determinedly modern mark that harks back to the likes of Muriel Cooper's MIT Press logo (below). This idea of the 13 degree angle has also been applied across other aspects of the design system created for HP including photography and other graphic elements.

The mark is incredibly simple, but in these days of Photoshop gradients and 3D gimmickry beloved of so many identity designers, all the better for it. One quibble - is it obviously 'hp' or could it read 'bp' to the uninitiated? Presumably once it has been repeated a gazillion times on ads and websites and everywhere else (as in these mock-ups, below) we will come to associate it unquestionably with the brand.

The temptation with so many of these projects is to go for a mark that attempts to do too much, cover too much ground, present the many faces of a multi-faceted organisation - as in the current vogue for flexible systems. But HP's problem was that it had too much going on. It needed a single, strong voice behind which its 300,000-odd employees could unite. And Moving Brands has provided it elegantly.

But, and it's a big but, the new identity has yet to be implemented. As Design Week revealed, the roll out is in the hands of HP, what they choose to do with it, and which parts of the proposed visual identity programme they choose to adopt, is up to them. It's very unusual for a consultancy to go public with aspects of a corporate identity that have not, as yet, been officially implemented. A little bit of testing the water perhaps?

HP has already started to use some of the additional visual elements developed by Moving Brands (photography, typeface etc) alongside its existing logo in a kind of halfway-house (see above film the film has subsequently been blocked). Will it now go the whole hog and adopt the new mark too?

UPDATE: Design Week reports that "there are no plans to implement the new logo. A spokesman for HP says, ‘The design system created with Moving Brands was the only aspect of this work that was approved. The logo was a working draft that did not get adopted by HP'."

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: Moving Brands has now removed the proposed new logo from its website which now carries this statement: "We have removed the HP case study per the request of HP, in order to clarify the distinction between the aspects of the work that were setting a creative vision for the brand but were not implemented in the market, and the aspects which reflect the actual in-market applications of the Identity and Design System. The ‘Progress mark’ logo is not the go-forward direction for HP."

Cultural figures

noreply@blogger.com (LINGDUM) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:55:00 +0000

Cultural figures:

British designer Jon Daniel's collection of African American action figures includes Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali and a coveted 1975 Super Agent Slade toy. Here, he explains what led him to look to the US for cultural inspiration and to start collecting...

Daniel recently contributed to CR's October Monograph, Stamps from the African Diaspora, which included a series of stamps featuring prominent black cultural figures and also formed the basis for an exhibition at the Stanley Gibbons shop in London.

Growing up through the late 1960s and early 1970s, writes Daniel, I think I am fairly typical of the British-born, first generation offspring of West Indian parents, in my search for identity.

It took me a long time to come to terms with Britain being a part of who I am. There was little in the British culture that either appealed to me or I felt I could be a part of. Any positive images or messages, were all coming from the West Indian culture of my family and the African American culture of the United States.

I was fortunate as a child to visit America on a few occasions to visit other members of my family living there. Everything about America seemed brighter, bolder, blacker and better.

The sheer volume of the sophisticated tv programming available such as The Jeffersons; cartoon series like The Jackson 5 and The Harlem Globetrotters; motion pictures like Shaft, Car Wash and The Wiz; and the music, funk, soul and R'n'B that we could also access in the UK through import records or pirate radio, all had a profound influence on me.

If I could have grown up in Harlem at that time, I could not have been happier.

And no doubt, this is a desire that has been instrumental in the nature of the collection of action figures I have subsequently acquired. Contrary to the nature of the subject matter, I did not start collecting them until I was in my late twenties / early thirties. Possibly, the birth of my children was a major factor.

But more likely, it is due to the rise of the internet, as the availability to scour the globe and find these items more easily became a reality.

My main focus is collecting figures from the 1970s and 80s, as they are naturally the rarest and embody the period of time I most identify with. One such figure that I am most proud of (and only recently acquired after a search for several years and many unsuccessful eBay bids) is the 1975 Shindana Super Agent Slade action figure.

A truly ‘superfly' figure, modelled on Richard Roundtree's black private detective character, Shaft, it is highly sought after by collectors of this genre.

So what's next? One day I hope to finally acquire a Medicom Jean-Michel Basquiat RAH action figure. It's not extremely rare, but it is extremely cool.

And at the end of the day that's what it's all about.

Jon Daniel is a designer and art director and leads the creative team at branding and design studio, ebb&flow. See jon-daniel.com.

Mr. T and the Lando Calrissian character from Return of the Jedi

Neil Gravander

noreply@blogger.com (LINGDUM) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 11:44:00 +0000

Neil Gravander:

video synthesizer from neil gravander on Vimeo.

lucky bone @the borg ward 08-17-11 from neil gravander on Vimeo.

Neil Gravander
http://www.myspace.com/luckyb0ne
scroll down for article

Russ Cogdell Apeirogon

noreply@blogger.com (LINGDUM) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 11:43:00 +0000

Russ Cogdell Apeirogon:

Magnetotron is an armonica mellotron mashup

noreply@blogger.com (LINGDUM) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:07:00 +0000

Magnetotron is an armonica mellotron mashup:re-blog from Hack A Day

[Michael] is a huge fan of old media formats. There’s something special about quarter-inch thick 78s, fragile blue cylinders holding music, and thin strips of mylar that preserve the human voice. He’s had an idea for a tape-based instrument for a while, and now that the Magnetotron is complete, we’re in awe of this glass harmonica and Mellotron mashup.

The Magnetotron is a large rotating cylinder that has dozens of strips of audio tape attached to it. The cylinder rotates with the help of a small motor. As the strips of tape rotate in front of him, [Michael] presses two tape heads up to the instrument, making some sort of sound.

Each strip of tape contains a recording of one note, like the venerable Mellotron. Instead of physical keys, the Magnetotron is played in a much more tactile fashion like the glass harmonica. The output of the Magnetotron is interesting with a whole bunch of wow and flutter. Check out the demo of [Michael] playing his instrument at NIME in Brooklyn after the break.

Playing with routers, vinyl and music concrete

noreply@blogger.com (LINGDUM) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:10:00 +0000

Playing with routers, vinyl and music concrete:re-blog from Hack A Day

When Danish musicians Vinyl Terror and Horror visited [Daniel] and his CNC router at EMS in Sweden, things were sure to get interesting. The band uses heavily modified record players and modified vinyl records to produce strange soundscapes. During their time at EMS, Vinyl Terror and Horror were able to produce some strange vinyl that shouldn’t play on a record, but do.

Most of VTaH and [Daniel]‘s work is centered on a CNC router. This soundscape took two records to produce. The spare rectangles were cut from a second record and designed to be press-fit into the host. When the newly assembled record is played, truly bizarre ‘skipping-but-still-playing’ sounds are made. The same process was used on the puzzle piece record the guys made.

The experiments continued by cutting a circle out of a record and gluing it back into place with a different orientation. This idea was taken to its logical conclusion that serves as the exemplar of music concrete.

[Daniel] and Vinyl Terror and Horror came up with a pretty neat spin (HA!) on century-old way of making electronic music, so we’ll give all of them some props. Check out all the videos from VTaH’s time at EMS after the break.

rectangle pieces from vinyl terror & horror on Vimeo.

Tango from vinyl terror & horror on Vimeo.

cirkel-fuck-up from vinyl terror & horror on Vimeo.

Beethoven meets E.T from vinyl terror & horror on Vimeo.

Small (Mad) Worlds (Surreal!)

noreply@blogger.com (LINGDUM) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 15:54:00 +0000

Small (Mad) Worlds:re-blog from Polkadot

Dystopian universes, middle-class nightmares and surreal architecture: German photographer Frank Kunert portrays a satire of contemporary society through his intricate, flawlessly detailed miniature models. He actually creates 3D model subjects out of deco boards, plasticine and paint and then he photographs them, with his impeccable attention to detail.

Frank Kunert’s photographs were part of NYC exhibit at the Museum of Art and Design, named “Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities” (June 7 – September 18, 2011).

LITTLE PRINTER (so cute, I want it)

noreply@blogger.com (LINGDUM) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 15:52:00 +0000

LITTLE PRINTER:re-blog from Polkadot

Riuscirete a farne a meno? Un pò stock ticker anni’30, un pò fax anni’90, Little Printer potrebbe diventare il vostro compagno sempre connesso al web, ma che stampa per voi gli updates che vi interessano, gli impegni del giorno, il sudoku per distrarvi, i messaggi dei vostri amici. Senza bisogno di un pc, lo configurate con il vostro telefono, e vi portate dietro la piccola stampa come promemoria. Gli utilizzi e le possibilità sono parecchie, i produttori stanno creando le prime partnership con i grossi nomi del web e non solo ( Google, Foursquare, Nike…). Non ci resta che aspettare il 2012…