I’ve mentioned that I decided it’s about time I set up an artist’s site, and I’ll try to do better than most artists, who in my opinion very often don’t take that very seriously. But I doubt it will end up as ambitious as Wim Delvoye’s site, with a whole little pixel town to explore. At least not until I have studio emplyees to delegate that to. And a studio to keep them in….
I was pointed to a post on PingMag (this time I remembered to put it on my feeds, btw) about the aesthetics of RFID tags – the little things that make identifying an object, like a buss pass or shipping container, without physical contact possible – and the creativity in the forms of the antenna bit is quite remarkable considering that it’s something that usually would be hidden inside the object it’s supposed to mark.
But then I thought that if it is cheaper to slap the tag on a visible spot, you could also use the tag as a part of the design. Maybe that’s something that’s already going on? Excuse the stereotyping, but it does seem like an innovative Japanese solution to a problem.
Or at least someone with a year of fine art education behind them, and another year at the same school coming up. It’s somthing I’ve wanted to do for a long time, but for various reasons I’ve felt that I couldn’t make the best of the sort of resource art school is. But better late than never, as the saying goes. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done, and I’m intent on keeping on this path as far as it goes – hopefully by getting accepted to a bachelor program after this coming year (and with most schools here in Sweden that pretty much guarantees a place in the masters program as well unless you screw up totally).
I’ll have plenty of time this summer, and unless I get too bogged down with attention defiency and house moving I’m going to get a portfolio site up during the summer. Until then, I might post something here while I consolidate my work.
Here’s a Smithsonian interview with environmental scientist Wallade Broecker, who proposes CO2 scrubbers as the way to go when it comes to reducing global warming. If it could be put into practice, it would be a great idea.
But what if we add a bit of sci-fi to the concept, along with a splash of water? Then we’d have one neat natural resource on our hands because, as anyone with basic knoledge of chemistry might know, with carbon, hydrogen and a handful of other elements you can make a lot of stuff. Broken down into atoms, not many percent of what we eat is anything other than carbon and hydrogen. The same goes for many of the plastics that much of our stuff consists of. And a lot of construction can be done with fullerenes made out of carbon itself.
It would take some major advances in nanotechnology (which might be on the way…), but the thought of turning global warming into stuff is kind of neat. Especially if you’d end up with a magic fabricating box that anyone could own and use to tap into this resource. I believe this civilization thing we have going won’t work properly before the means of production are in the hands of the individual – but that’s an entirely different story.
Firefox 3 (you have gotten it already, haven’t you?) comes with support for color profiles. Even though it’s disabled by default for various reasons, I think it’s good news since it means that when everything gets ironed out more images will get to be seen as they were intended to. More info from DRIA.
Rob Beschizza at Boing Boing Gadgets posted about his first fetish gadget, a Pilot V-Point pen, and I was reminded that I’m looking for a substitute for what recently became a favorite of mine - the Bic Exact-Tip rollerball pen. Any suggestions?
I found one that for some reason had been stuck in a drawer for years, maybe because while it felt great to write with, the ink would smear a bit too much on glossier paper qualities which caused some ugly results on forms and envelopes of such paper (which is what I usually use pens for – when it comes to writing and note taking by hand I’m a pencil user).
But anyway, I found the Bic and I realized it had an excellent use as an instrument for sketching and doodling – with very smooth action, a bit of variation and vividity in the lines and a flow that allowed filling larger areas.
Then, when it ran out, I found that Bic had discontinued it while my pen was gathering dust in a drawer. Apparently I’m not the only one missing them, for example an Amazon commenter claimed to have seen a box auctioned off for $60 on eBay. A bit of searching last time I thought of it found a mail-order company in Australia or New Zealand with some left, but ordering pens across the globe felt a bit too geeky…
So, while it’s a long shot, I ask this question to the internets on the odd chance that someone who shares this conundrum, but has found a suitable replacement, stumbles on this post before I go to the stationery store and buy a dozen liquid ink rollerballs to see if I find something that works…
Unless the Swedish potato chip commercial above was shot back in the day, on the actual Western frontier, which I doubt, there must be some stock of Longhorse left in the world. Maybe there is an obscure fellowship of breeders that have kept these noble beasts alive, awaiting a time when they can serve us again – and now, at the eve of the petroleum age, have decided that their long, powerful are needed to carry us away from our dependence on SUVs and other gas guzzlers.
(Don’t ask me about the short horse, though. Maybe something for urban traffic.)
Found this couple of days ago. Eerie but nice short, directed by Christian Simmons for a project of the Savanna College of Art and Design. It has a feel that I can only describe as, well, very slipstream.
Check their SCADshorts site for more info, high quality version and links to their earlier monthly releases of short films.
Now for that request: I’m looking for the title of an animated short, and I haven’t been able to feed Google with the right combination of words. It’s probably best described as a cut-out/stop-motion hybrid centered on a train, made by folding and cutting printouts from classic live action films (which then play on the created objects). It was made by a German group.
I got to see it during the two week introduction course to traditional animation which was one of many things I got to do at art school this last year, and it would be fun to see it again.
I thought I had outgrown such things (not that I ever really was that much into it), I must say there’s something about Nightwish’s ye olde end of the world ballad. At least in combination with that quaility video. It could have been cheezy, but it does some steampunk/fantasy/post-apocalypse thing in a sort of pretty way.
A robot may not seek to be promoted above a human being who has been at the company longer, because the human being may have a wife and kids to look after whereas the robot just goes home and tries to have relations with a bucket. -Isaac Asimov's 30 Laws of Robotics
I've mentioned that I decided it's about time I set up an artist's site, and I'll try to do better than most artists, who in my opinion very often don't take that very seriously. But I doubt it will end up as ambitious as Wim Delvoye's site, with a whole little pixel town to explore. At least not until I have studio emplyees to delegate that to. And a studio to keep them in....
Firefox 3 (you have gotten it already, haven't you?) comes with support for color profiles. Even though it's disabled by default for various reasons, I think it's good news since it means that when everything gets ironed out more images will get to be seen as they were intended to. More info from DRIA.
...haven't I read Ken MacLeod before? Why, why, why? I picked up The Star Fraction yesterday, and I'm probably going to finish it tonight. It's so damned brilliant I'm almost considering sunglasses to be a good precaution when going near it. Got to make a note to get the rest of the Fall Revolution series asap!
I think this needs some sort of change in direction, as far as there ever was one. Both closing the site down or just letting it sit here being updated every other month seem a bit like the wrong options.
...William Gibson's Spook Country, and I just "accidentally" added the Deluxe Collector's Edition of Chan-wook Park's "Vengeance trilogy". Probably the most extravagant film item I've ever bought. More to follow on that, and that much anticipated book, when they arrive.
So, the multiplying posts are gone. Seems it was an older version of this otherwise very nice Sideblog plugin not playing nice with a newer version of Wordpress.
Weird Al is back, kicking off his upcoming album with "Don't Download this Song", a Band Aid-style anthem about not downloading songs. "Don't take away money from artists like me, how else could I afford another solid gold Humvee".
