Great bits of tech scavenged from around the internet via BERG, Russell Davies, Its Nice That, and I can’t remember where I found the projection mapping sand sculpture. (Fucking WordPress is being weird I’m being stupid but I can’t get videos to embed- you’ll have to trust me and click the pics to check them out- sorry)
I’m not into this sort of stuff (twitter, facebook and raving on the whole web 8.2 or whatever we’re on now), but this talk distills down the way it can be used for good (as opposed to facebook type evil).
First up a lovely music video which my new studio chum Clara showed me, for The Mariners Children. The animation style is simple and genuine and kind of innocent, I really like it and can’t put my finger on why- I think maybe it’s the music video equivalent of a zine or something.
Next up is a video showing the Tom Sachs studio rules. Beautifully done, funny and also some pretty solid rules. A nice insight into the workings of a great studio.
I think maybe the best you could ever hope to be able to say about any kind of design is ‘yeah- something there is right’. Project H in this video has got something right. It’s what design strives to be I think.
Came across a brilliant set of videos from Offset which is a 3 day creative conference. These videos are from 2009- expect the 2010 one shortly. But the line up is brilliant and it’s a great resource- all are good but I am a massive fan of the Oliver Jeffers, David Shrigley, Chip Kidd, Harry Pearce and Anthony Burrill talks. All excellent. Offset link: here.
From around the interwebs-
Salesman Pete- an amazingly animated video about a super hero salesman, put in front of my eyes by the animation guru Alex Amelines a.k.a onehugeeye.
Next up is a classic music video from the Ohio Players: Fire. You’ll have to trust me that it really IS worth investing 9 minutes into.
Last but not least is the vimeo award winning short film about a mans last moments with his dying dog. Oh by the way, if you don’t shed a tear then you are made of stone.
I was recently lent a great documentary film about Lancashire based film duo Mitchell and Kenyon. The pair were active in the early 1900s and shot Edwardian life to use as entertainment in the traveling shows. For example they would set up their camera to take footage of factory workers coming out of the gates at the end of the day- they would encourage people to get in shot and people smiled and waved and stuff and then the film would be shown the following evening as part of a nights entertainment and people would come and watch themselves on the screen.
It’s fascinating to historians as it provides a valuable insight into life then and specifically in and around the North West of the country. But I think it’s more interesting when you start to consider spectacle and documentary and home video. It’s also really interesting as when you see footage of these people from a hundred years ago (which normally you see as static photographs) you quickly understand what a short time ago it was and, we always consider people back then to be juddery (thanks to different frame rates on many cameras and stuff ) or stiff (as in the smart photographs) but when you see people moving around freely and normally (and I know it sounds stupid, but as you or I would) the anachronistic clothing and cars and stuff is forgotten a human connection emerges which I hadn’t expected. You do get a real sense for the people in the images- smiling and being excited about this new technology. I wish I could have that novelty of being filmed and watching myself on screen in such an innocent way as they did. Sadly it will never be- I’ve grown up with cameras and video and the spectacle of cinema and the unreal on screen, not to mention the fact that any city dweller has to give into the fact that they are probably filmed 50 times a day (or whatever the scaremongers tell us).
A really interesting and worth watching artifact.
