Many of us remember Andrew Huang‘s DIY sci-fi short, “Doll Face“, which went viral on YouTube in 2007, boosting the USC graduate’s professional career. Huang’s most recent work, this short film called “SOLIPSIST“, is nothing short of a vibrant, sensual revelation. It earned him and his team the Special Jury Prize for Experimental Short at Slamdance 2012.
Pro-LDR? Anti-LDR? LDR-ambivalent? S’all good. (No matter what, it’s important to maintain a healthy sense of humor about life. And scrutiny. And Donald Duck.)
Joy and surprise! Recently, we unearthed a long-lost box of Issue 05s we didn’t even know we had. We’ve put them up for sale in our online shop. To promote the sale, we’ve also thrown together this HTML page with an assortment of free “Making Of” goodies that everyone is welcome to check out. Enjoy!
It’s been a lot of fun, taking a trip back to 2010. From the Coilhouse vaults:
This is a paper proof of an alternate cover concept for Issue 05, featuring all-holographic foil. We worked with two companies and logged many hours in conference calls to try and make this happen, but ultimately decided to go with a holographic effect that was more subtle in order to preserve the original photo’s vibrant background. Ah, well! One of those “live and learn” scenarios, and a fun experiment in the evolution of Issue 05.
There were many such experiments. These Dorian Gray images, for example, went through tons of iterations: different backgrounds, multiple stages of Photoshop, etc. And photographer Allan Amato’s simultaneous Dorian Gray/Amanda Palmer & Neil Gaiman shoot was, itself, a pretty boisterous experiment! From beginning to end, the process of putting those two features together involved, quite literally, thousands of emails and phone calls between roughly two dozen collaborators. The “Issue 05 Making Of” page includes behind-the-scenes Dorian Gray snapshots, as well as several gorgeous photos of Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman that we didn’t have room for in the magazine. There’s also a zip file of a high resolution file of Mildred Von’s paper doll, so you can print out and embellish your very own giant Dick Cheney! (Oh boy! Just what you’ve always wanted!)
So, to reiterate: there’s an unexpected windfall of Issue 05s briefly available in our shop. There are 43 copies available. Buy ’em now before they’re gone forever. Also, this seems like a good time to remind everyone that we still have Issue 06s available in the shop. GET SOME.
Posted by Coilhouse on March 1st, 2012
Filed under Coilhouse | Comments Off on On Sale Now: Limited Quantity of Issue 05s, Plus "Making Of" Goodies For All!
Bartholomäus Traubeck, sales a German designer, artist, and inventor, has crafted a modified record player that takes wood slices from trees and creates music out of scan data gathered from the inner rings:
The Traubeck tree turntable pairs a standard record turntable with a PlayStation Eye Camera attached to the (motorized, moving) arm. In lieux of a tangible needle locking into the grooves of a piece of vinyl, the slowly panning, stylus-mounted Eye Camera reader scans a disc of wood as it rotates below, then passes the data on to computer running an Ableton Live program, which Traubeck has specifically installed with algorhythims that match distinct keyboard notes to various scan density levels.
The resulting music is surprisingly lucid, conveying –quite literally– the internal rhythms of the life of an individual tree. Breathtaking and melancholy.
I was at my wits’ end, dear readers. I really felt that it was all over, because that’s how one feels when your employer shows up with a video of a guy playing a Joy Division song on a cat’s ass. I mean, really, how the fuck is a guy supposed to compete with that? It’s impossible. I was pretty despondent most of the day, to be honest. Bad enough they keep me down here, shackled to a desk, kept alive on a diet of water and beet gruel, but then to post, perhaps, the be all and end all of weird, cat-centric internet videos, well, it was too much. Digging frantically I looked for something, anything of interest but found nothing.
Just when I was about to give up, send word to my overlords that I was done, doomed to be moved to the Lower Levels to tend the infernal Machines, going about their awful work deep, deep under the Catacombs, I found I tiny glimmer of hope, a small, barely gleaming nugget of web-based detritus. I reached out and plucked it, brushed it off and gazed at it’s simple beauty. This would do, I thought, this is what will save me, at least for now. If, years from now, I am still doing this and someone asks me what my lowest point was I will cite this day. And if they ask what got me through it I will proudly say: “Robot quadroters playing the James Bond theme song.”
