Obscura Digital has used their propriety software to control a giant HD light show spread across multiple, synchronized 20k resolution projectors. This is very impressive piece of work and the fact that it is projections onto a wall is amazing I think. The way that it is done is fascinating and looks so well. The projectors also recognise where there is a window and project around it which is very impressive. Obscura Digital create and produce a lot of projection pieces and also deal in interaction experiences such as multi-touch displays. It is worth to take a look at their website : www.obscuradigital.com
Since 2000, Obscura Digital has been developing technology-driven creative solutions for Fortune 500 companies and leading advertising agencies around the world.With our proprietary software, who are able to turn virtually any surface—from the side of a skyscraper to the hood of a car—into a stunning, high-resolution video display. Their exclusive patented hardware includes motion-triggered and multi-touch screens that allow people to interact in unique and truly engaging ways.
Obscura Digital is developing reactive sensor-based systems that can make video react to movement. Our reactive “billboards” can simply respond to the movements of passersby or be used as navigable user interfaces. Our single- and multi-touch screens can display RSS feeds, real-time streaming audio and video, and other information and receive information from people via touch, phone, Bluetooth, or even laser pointer.
The Japanese artist, Kazuharu Sakura, has introduced in June ‘08 a new handmade keyboard that is made of leather. There are no letters or numbers or any markings on the keyboard. I think this is such a forward thinking idea.
The idea to have keyboard made out of other materials, materials that feel nice to touch and are fabric. Why hasn’t this been thought of before?! It would heighten the experience of typing , especially for those who are on computers 24/7. The sense of touch would be quite satisfied especially with a leather keyboard. It could be a more soothing experience to type, rather than pressing hard keys with your fingers all the time! Maybe a keyboard made out of cotton buds or wool or silk could be a next try? Something squishy and soft would be a good material and sensation for when a person is typing. The problem with no markings is that who’d have to be a master in typing and know where all the keys where.Indents could be made on each of the keys or a rough marking on each of the keys could be a way to get arount this. Also the how durable the materials would be and how long they would last would be an issue and also the cost of production. Yet I think that this idea is such a forward idea and it really impressed and inspired me.
This music video is amazing. It really impressed me. It is a stop motion music video that was made with shredding machine. Every third frame of the footage was printed, shredded and shot three times blended with adjacent frames by different stripes configuration. Very time consuming work that completely paid off with a very impressive finished result. Shredding paper and using that to make up the video is an extremely good idea that I have never seen done before. I can only image that amount of time and effort gone into the video. Yet without thinking of the amount of work that has gone in the music video stands alone as a very impressive piece. The finished result speaks for itself.
The video was made by Katarzyna Kijek & Przemysław Adamski.
This is a bit mad and over the top! There is a lot of technology nowadays integrated into clothing and fashion for useful and necessary purposes. I found out about a dress that as you lost weight,(or gain weight i suppose), would fit or shrink to your size, so that it would always fit you no matter what and be comfortable. A very useful and necessary integration of technology here.
And then there is technology that is just stuck onto a bag for no reason whatsoever. Jeri Ellsworth took it upon herself to cram a Nintendo-on-a-chip and a Commodore 64-on-a-chip (her own creation) into the bag, along with an LCD. Then she connected up some NES controllers, which are velcroed onto the outside of the bag.
Fair enough if you feel the need to entertain yourself when you get bored but just buy an Nintendo DS or iPhone or buy a book but is it really necessary to stick a gaming device onto the side of your bag?! The idea is very forward thinking and innovative and the presentation of the bag is done well. The whole idea does push boundaries and the fact that it is actually useable is impressive. I commend Jeri Ellsworth for coming up with the idea and implementing it but basically I would never buy one of these bags and can’t see them being marketed as a product.
Philps have created a new range of OLED and LED light solutions/products. Lumiblade offers a wide range of lighting solutions which they are targeting torwards creative designers and architects. Lumiblade offers many new ways of using light that are completely different from those of existing lighting technologies, and simply oozing wow-factor, giving an edge in more ways than one. Lumiblade has a unique look – it’s a glowing sheet that produces a constant light of almost any color, ideal for illuminating a wide area evenly, something that LEDs and conventional bulbs can’t do. Thanks to their ultraflat shape and surprising aesthetics, Lumiblade can create unique light effects – it makes product glow, it can enhance fine lines and tune products from normal to outstanding. The elegant, polished surface is ideal for integration in other shiny materials.
One such product is an OLED wall which is transparent and displays shadow reflections when people walk by. This wall caught my eye and is a really good idea. It is done really well and looks impressive. When persons walk in front of the wall, panels that are normally lit power down and become like miniature window frames. So it looks like a pixilated image of you walking by. The wall can pick up how far away you are from the wall so that if you are right up close to the wall the shape (or shadow) of your figure is much bigger than if you were far away. It picks up more than one body at a time and if you are moving fast motion shadows appear as you run by. I really like this idea of the wall. It is very innovative and it’s interesting to see a company like PHilips exploring new areas of lighting.
The video below shows a good example of the wall in use and you can see better what I am talking about.
This website is a portfolio website for Dave Werner. It is done extremely well and is very impressive for a portfolio website, something that I would like to have myself.
This flash website really impressed me.It is very visual and is done well. I like the way he uses a collage of images for the visuals and the idea of showing the process of how the product or work came about, shoing the storyboards and sketches in an collage of all the images.He uses different images of sketches as the loading bar which is another simple idea that I like.
He makes good use of video and audio and shows alot of his pieces through video which is an idea that I really like. One particular example is when he also shows his about info through a video also showing old baby photos of himself which is a nice personal touch. I like the idea of engaging wiht the audience more and showing more of yourslef in you online porfolio, taking down the barrier of technology. By having these videos in his website it gives him a stonger voice and much more of a presence so people can really get an idea of theperson he his and shows that he puts himself into his work and is not afraid to do so.
Jermey Hollister is a visual effects artist and designer/director at Manhattan Transfer Inc. in NYC. His work is mostly broadcast and television commercials, he has also done some projects in film and hi-def. He founded Plus et Plus in 2002 as a creative collective in the Flatiron District of New York City. His work caught my eye when i first came arcoss him through a book. I really liked the work he did for the MTV Movie awards in 2001. It was very fresh, strong and striking. I like the style he uses across all his works. HIs website shows a small few examples of his work but hasn’t been up dated in awhile and doesn’t show anything up-to-date.
This is an excellent example of stop motion executed really well in an advertisement. It is a very long ad, over 3 minutes yet each individual scene and each movement executed extremely well and looks very natural. The movements look extremely realistic and have a very consistent flow to them. This stop motion in this advertisement impressed me so much. I came across this when i was doing research at the beginning of my avant garde project.
Another excellent stop motion commercial that I came across in my research for my avant garde project. This commercial is for the Xbox games console. It uses a simple idea that is executed so well. A person is moulding an instantly recoginasble shape or figure from them 3 games that it is advertising for the console. It is such a simple idea that last for 30 seconds and would make any Xbox player want to buy those games!I dont even have an Xbox and I would buy one with those games after that ad! Maybe a slight exaggeration but it would nearly make me buy it. It caught my attention and now I have an interest in the product.
The ad displays huge attention to detail because not only does the person mould the figures and characters but the figures themselves move and are animated. This is such a good idea and works so well. The last figure especially carries out a lot of movement and even has expression on the face which is quite a difficult task within stop motion animation. This ad also impressed me.
I found this talk on TED very interesting. The whole idea of newspapers dying out is one that is becoming more and more of a reality. In the long run there are no practical reason for newspapers to survive. On-line newspapers are becoming more popular and saving trees is a huge issues with newspapers. Yet I find that there is a huge tradition with newspapers that will never die out. It is much more relaxing to sit down with a newspaper and to read it for ten to twenty minutes rather than sitting at a computer and reading the online paper for the same length of time. The whole mentality towards sitting down at a screen and sitting down with an actual newspaper is completely different. Many read the newspaper at times when they want a break for fives minutes or taking time out for themselves in a day.
I think that this idea is quite avant garde in the sense of redesigning the look of the newspaper. It is very innovative, very fresh and pushes the boundaries that have been set for all newspapers. It needs to be done. The information is still give the layout is just different and invites you to read it.
In Jacek Utko’s work,” he’s proved that good design can help readers reconnect with newspapers. A former architect, Utko took on the job of redesigning several newspapers in former Soviet Bloc nations, starting from basic principles. He’s now art director for the Bonnier Business Press, overseeing papers in Eastern Europe and the Baltic states.”
