TV on the Radio’s new song “Will Do” has a tenderhearted, lovely new video… replete with VR cybergoggles. Their next album, Nine Types of Light, drops April 12th. Best wishes to bassist Gerard Smith for a speedy recovery.
Director: Dugan O’Neal / Executive Producer: Danielle Hinde / Director of Photography: David Myrick / Visual Effects: BEMO / Art Director: Ashley Fenton and Megan Fenton / Editor: Dugan O’Neal and Isaiah Seret / Virtual Reality Goggles by Nikolai Hass and Simon Hass / Commissioner: Michelle An / Production CO: Doomsday Ent.
Encyclopedia Britannica Films presents this fascinating look into the arduous and protracted task of printing a book in 1947, cialis at least when compared to the process as it is today. Also interesting to note the nigh complete lack of workplace safety guidelines, allowing a man to cut copper plates on a table saw without the need for cumbersome safety goggles.
Michael Hansmeyer’s incredible construction. Via E. Stephen, thanks!
Fast Co Design has posted a fascinating article and slideshow calledThe World’s Most Complex Architecture: Cardboard Columns With 16 Million Facets. An intrepid builder named Michael Hansmeyer has been using complex algorithms invented by Pixar and jaw-dropping handicraft to create a cardboard column that looks a bit like a cross between a honeycomb and a Beksinski painting and a Dubai skyscraper and the most fractalicious, psychedelic fever dream imaginable:
When people mistake photographs of your physical prototypes for computer renderings, you know you’ve achieved something amazing. That’s exactly what happened when Michael Hansmeyer showed off his “computational architecture” column, created by iterating a subdivision algorithm over and over again and then fabricating it out of cardboard.
Hansmeyer’s column stands nine feet tall, weighs about 2000 pounds, and is made out of 2700 1mm-thin slices of cardboard stacked on top of wooden cores. It contains somewhere between 8 and 16 million polygonal faces — too complex for even a 3D printer to handle, according to Hansmeyer. “Every 3D printing facility we spoke to turned us down,” he tells Co.Design. “Typically those machines can’t process more than 500,000 faces — the computer memory required to process the data grows nonlinearly, and it also gets tripped up on the self-intersecting faces of the column.”
But Hansmeyer’s prototype is very real — in fact, it can even support weight, and the designer wants to experiment with more robust materials so that he can actually start building real structures with his “computational” architectural forms. So how did Hansmeyer actually get this thing out of his computer and into the real world? Take a look at this slideshow to find out.
An Egyptian anti-government activist kisses a riot police officer following clashes in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 28, 2011. Image by Lefteris Pitarakis/AP.
Shit’s going down in Egypt. Since January 25th, the streets of Cairo have been flooded with protesters demanding the resignation of Hosni Mubarak. For a clear and comprehensive overview of what’s been happening in Egypt these past several days, we recommend Nick Baumann and Siddhartha Mahanta’s post on the Mother Jones blog, titled What’s Happening in Egypt Explained.
One of the scariest elements of this situation has been the ease with which the Egyptian government was able to wipe out citizens’ access to information and communication nationwide. Last week, one by one, ISPs surrendered to the will of the state, depriving thousands of the Internet access that so many of us take for granted. And through Internet connectivity was restored for many Egyptians today, there remain concerns of surveillance. Eva Galperin writes on the EFF blog, “given the potential dangers, it is absolutely critical that Egyptian protesters take precautions when communicating online. To reiterate, social networking tools have given activists a powerful voice, which can be heard well beyond Egypt, but activists should also remember that the Egyptian government could use these same tools to identify and retaliate against them.” Phobos at the Tor Project blog adds, “we are concerned because it is possible that traffic crossing the Egyptian border is being recorded and possibly saved for future use. Correctly using Tor to and from Egyptian destinations will keep your traffic anonymous.”
The Tor Project, a system to enable online anonymity, has been crucial in aiding activists around the world. Thanks to this week’s fundraiser to help Tor fight the blackout in Egypt, Tor has begun experimenting with ways to improve performance over satellite and mesh networks as well as VSAT and BGAN connections. The results of this research, Tor reports, will “benefit those with little to no Internet access, whether due to political unrest, natural disasters, or remote locations, who nonetheless seek to keep their online activities safe.”
This week, we’ll be donating to support Tor’s efforts. We invite you to do the same. And there’s a way for you to contribute to Tor and receive something from us in return. We’ve just put up one rare, mint-condition copy of Issue 01 on Ebay. The original issue 01, typo on the cover and all. The highly NSFW version that was only sold on our site. Only 1,000 copies of this version were ever printed (an alternate version went to the stores), and we have a mere 10 left in stock for the rest of our lives. It will never be reprinted in its current form. 100% of the proceeds will go to Tor. (Also of interest: Zoetica’s own Tor auction for a tentacle-painted denim jacket.) Bidding starts at $15.00 (not to be confused with this vendor’s $119 auction for Issue 02 – that’s not us – we’re flattered and somewhat appalled). The auction is here. GO!
An oldy but a goody, posted both for those who have never heard it, and those who have heard it a hundred times already. The serene and mysterious ambient music of Jupiter as captured by NASA Voyager:
These sounds are the result of “the complex interactions of charged electromagnetic particles from the solar wind, planetary magnetosphere, etc.” (Via Andy Ristaino, thank you.)
There’s something deeply comforting and astonishing about this, isn’t there? Our universe is so far from silent. A wide range of heavenly bodies are constantly emitting unique electromagnetic signals that we can pick up and process, provided we have the right instruments. The stars do sing.
Here’s a helpful Monday morning mantra/boogie to help you manifest positive change in your life: “I want a raise. I want to go home. I want sex. I want a cookie. WAAAHHH. WAAAAOOW.”
The insubordinate music group known as The Evolution Control Committee “began in 1986 and continues to risk millions in copyright violation fines for what the ECC calls music'”. Founded by Mark Gunderson in Columbus, Ohio and now based out of SF, the ECC, along with John Oswald and The Tape-beatles, are progenitors of mashup who have long been using scads of unauthorized samples to cheekily protest against copyright law.
Their instant dance club hit, “I Want a Cookie” hails from the album Plagiarhythm Nation v2.0, released in 2003 on Seeland Records (Negativland’s label). Remember “Rocked by Rape“? Hee hee… that’s on there, too. These guys are sharp, funny, and free for downloading. (Although donations are always welcome.)
Fellow admirers of the late Pina Bausch may get a little emotional, watching this trailer for the upcoming film Pina– Dance, Dance… Otherwise We Are Lost, made “For Pina Bausch, by Wim Wenders.”
Via Gabrielle Zucker, thanks.
Coming soon. In 3D, no less! In the wake of that first wave of 3D schlockbusters and huge budget family movies, it’s going to be interesting to watch and see if this oncoming wave of arguably more “arthouse friendly” 3D films (Wenders’ film, Herzog’sCave of Forgotten Dreams, and Scorcese’sInvention of Hugo Cabret being chief among them) will change more critical viewers’ perceptions and expectations of the medium.
The superbly-designed website SpaceCollective dedicates itself to study of topics such as transhumanism, robotics, experimental architecture, and pretty much anything else that one can equate to “living the life of science fiction today.” Most of the site’s activity centers around blog posts and collaborative university projects, but one of the most stunning portions of the site, dense with complex, inspiring visuals and information, is the gallery.
There are six pages of scienctific psychedelia – a absorbing mixture as varied as Googie architecture, macro shots of hydrozoa, renderings of magnetic structures, jellyfish automatons, microchip embroidery, concept art from sci-fi films, and much more along the same lines. Two random images from this gallery may not have much to do with each other, but all together, they make a surprisingly cohesive whole. Quotes from the likes of Verner Vinge, Buckminster Fuller and Jorge Luis Borges cycle between the imagery, and most images are hyperlinked out to further sources. Enjoy!
LacyCute20‘s dad Bob says: “SLAYER!! I HAVE BEEN A FAN FOR OVER 20 YEARS AND THIS TOOK ME A LONG TIME TO DO.WATCHING IT IN PERSON WAS AWESOME. DEDICATED TO SLAYER AND ALL THE FANS!!!!! SLAYERBOBT SOUTHERN CA. P.S. THIS IS MY DAUGHTERS ACCOUNT SO DONT PAY ATTENTION TO THE GIRLY STUFF!!!! SLAYER RULES .THIS IS DONE USING LIGHTORAMA CONTROLLERS.THE LIGHTS AT THE END OF THE SONG ARE ON FOR ONLY A TENTH OF A SECOND AT A TIME.REALLY INTENSE…THIS WAS UP IN 2009 .NOW THAT ITS A BIG HIT I WILL BE PROGRAMMING A NEW SONG FOR 2010 AND GET IT UP HOPEFULLY BEFORE XMAS.”
Experimental musical duo The Books are highly thoughtful and empathic scavengers and re-interpreters who’ve been surprising and delighting audiences for over a decade now. Paul de Jong and Nick Zammuto’s songs –a strange melange of acoustic melodies (cello, guitar, banjo, etc.) spliced together with an ever-expanding library of “found sounds”– are dense with samples lifted from home recording cassettes plundered from thrift stores, as well as bootlegged video tapes. They also cut and paste sounds recorded from children’s toys and random non-musical objects to create looping percussive beds. The resulting music is off-kilter yet tightly controlled, and often unexpectedly danceable.
This chaos-wrangling, ephemera-pillaging style is well-represented visually by the music video for “Cold Freezin’ Night”, a weird 80s schoolyard disco taunt off their latest album, The Way Out:
via Dustykins once again. (Girl, you really gotta start blogging for us!)
