8 Jul 2014

Noted: Why less than 5% Germans tweet; drawing the line at data-driven emotional manipulation; ethical algorithms; geofencing the Barbican; and guess who’s a jerk?

Why Germans shun Twitter, The Economist (audio edition).

Facebook’s [timeline] experiment reveals a much deeper problem with the internet today’, writes entrepreneur and Forbes’s contributor Tarun Wadhwa.

The current relationship between consumers and internet companies is unsustainable. … The reality is that in an environment where companies control all the information … you will always be a ‘lab rat’.

Woodrow Hartzog, assistant professor of law at Samford University, and Evan Selinger, associate professor of philosophy at Rochester Institute of Technology, submit ‘the way to fix it’.

If we’re to learn something from the debate over the ethics of Facebook’s emotion study and move forward, the answer must lie in collective action.

Owen Barder, Senior Director for Europe at the Center for Global Development, foresees an ethical debate over driverless cars.

Would you buy a [self-driving] car programmed to put the interests of strangers ahead of the passenger, other things being equal?

Digital artists have erected a geofence around the Barbican’s Digital Revolution exhibition, in response to Google’s efforts.

Demanding artists to use some Google technologies to create art is also a bit awkward. It’s like asking a sculptor to use graffiti as a medium. Let artists choose and create their own tools … If you want to reach out to the [digital] art community, don’t spend your money on a marketing stunt: buy our art instead.

And Eric Schwitzgebel, professor of philosophy at University of California, captures the ‘worldview of the jerk’ — and engenders further discussion about the offensiveness of offensive language.

4 Jul 2014

How to Make a Happening (1966): Listen to Allan Kaprow’s 11 rules of unpredictable art

Legendary American painter Allan Kaprow instructs listeners in how, and how not, to make a ‘happening’.

Forget all the standard art forms: don’t paint pictures, don’t make poetry, don’t build architecture, don’t arrange dances, don’t write plays, don’t compose music, don’t make movies. And above all, don’t think you’ll get a happening by putting all these together. […] The point is to create something new.

Read the full transcript here.

9 Jun 2014

Rik Mayall (1958–2014)

Video: Alan B’stard, the sleazy British politician brilliantly portrayed by Mayall in the 1980s sitcom The New Statesman, proposes shutting down the healthcare service.

Beloved comedian and actor Rik Mayall has died at 56.

Guardian columnist Mark Lawson pays tribute.

@UKComedyNews has collated video clips from many of Mayall’s best performances (here).

28 May 2014

How to Do Visual Comedy

How to do visual comedy like filmmaker Edgar Wright.

via kottke

21 May 2014

Interview with multi-media artist Russell Mills - video

(via WN)

russellmills.com

18 May 2014

Music: HNNY’s ‘Music For Listening’ mixtapes

Fantastic mixtapes compiled by Stockholm producer Johan Cederberg, aka HNNY. Classy vintage soul and easy-going jazz — with a dash of cocktail lounge and exotica — shaken and stirred with slices of dialogue from schmaltzy Hollywood films.

You can listen to the latest compilations above or download Music For Listening in its entirety here.

LINE SEGMENTS SPACE (2013) - video

Video of digital artists Elliot Woods and Mimi Son’s ‘LINE SEGMENTS SPACE’, a beguiling light and sound sculpture installed at the Seoul Art Space in 2013.

A tectonic equivalent of Ryoichi Kurokawa’s Oscillating Continuum.

16 May 2014

Jacqueline Mina: Gold

A lovely, four-minute film about contemporary British goldsmith and jeweller Jacqueline Mina OBE and her unorthodox use of traditional goldsmithing techniques. ‘Gold’’ has a contemplative feel of beauty, wonderment and tranquility.

(via Crafts Council)

Short film: Internet Machine - trailer

Trailer for Timo Arnall’s multi-screen film, Internet Machine, which documents the massive Telefónica data centre in Alcalá, Spain.

(via The Verge and elasticspace)

9 May 2014

URME anti-surveillance mask

(via CNET and Leo Selvaggio)

8 May 2014

Book-in-progress: Game Programming Patterns

Electronic Arts alumnus Bob Nystrom’s Game Programming Patterns is shaping up nicely to become a must-read for game developers.

You can start reading the book online and follow and comment on the work in progress at the code-sharing website GitHub.

7 May 2014

‘Inside New York’s Art World’: Interview with Chuck Close, 1979 - video

Television interviewer Barbaralee Diamonstein talks to renowned American photorealist Chuck Close, whose paintings eschew ‘elegant or meaningful or powerful art marks’ in favour of a rational system of incremental marks and colour.

In this archive interview, Close speaks openly and in detail about his work and process, revealing his unique sensibility, vision and adeptness to hold several apparently contradictory ideas in harmony.

You can browse the collection of artist interviews from ‘Inside New York’s Art World’ here.

1 May 2014

Cento Lodigiani’s fun animated take on ‘The Illusion of Life’

New York-based motion designer Cento Lodigiani takes inspiration from Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston’s 1981 animator’s bible, Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life, in creating his visual exposition of the basic techniques of classical animation.

(via Cento Lodigiani)

19 Apr 2014

Matthew Carter’s TED2014 talk: My life in typefaces

Type designer Matthew Carter speaking at TED2014 conference.

The question is, does a constraint force a compromise? By accepting a constraint, are you working to a lower standard? I don't believe so, and I’ve always been encouraged by something that Charles Eames said. He said he was conscious of working within constraints, but not of making compromises. The distinction between a constraint and a compromise is obviously very subtle, but it’s very central to my attitude to work.

(via ted.com)

18 Apr 2014

Computer simulations teaching themselves to walk

That’s one small step for an ill-proportioned human, one giant leap for slapstick biological cybernetics.

Impressive natural-looking motion based on 3D skeleton interaction and muscle geometry — triumph and failure in equal measure.

(via asbradbury)

This entry was updated on 25 April 2014.