Thursday, July 28, 2011

Bright Siren

Wow... two hundred and fifty Canon 60Ds make up this light animation:



Video directed by Masashi Kawamura + Qanta Shimizu + Masatsugu Nagasoe -- cool but, why do they need the cameras?... surely you can fire the flash alone with a sync cord. The songs a bit shit as well (IMO) -- Bright Siren by Androp.

Behind the scenes video of how it was done:



Via Strobist

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Grid

Fascinating way of creating an abstract piece... artist Semâ Bekirovic let's three snails crawl over a grid on a piece of paper, their slime-trails dissolved the ink creating an abstract figure:

Grid by Semâ Bekirovic
Grid by Semâ Bekirovic
Grid by Semâ Bekirovic
Grid by Semâ Bekirovic
Grid by Semâ Bekirovic

Friday, July 22, 2011

Space Shuttle Time Lapse



Segment 1: NASA's Shuttle Discovery (STS131), while docked to the ISS, captured these images on April 12, 2010 as it moved from the night side of the Earth to the daytime. In the process the Aurora Borealis can be seen on the Earth's limb. A solar panel from the ISS and a docked Soyuz module can be seen in the foreground.

Segment 2: NASA's Shuttle Discovery (STS131), while docked to the ISS, captured these images on April 16, 2010. The sequence begins as the Shuttle emerges from darkness over the Canadian Rockies, traversing the United States southeast towards Florida. The Bahamas and Hispaniola are seen as the Shuttle continues over Venzuela, Brazil and finally the southern Atlantic ocean before returning to darkness.

Segment 3: The Sun rises behind space shuttle Atlantis in this time-lapse sequence from July 19, 2011, one of the last days of the historic final mission of the shuttle program.

Images courtesy of the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography eol.jsc.nasa.gov

To read more go to: earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=51399

Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.

The Third Reich Trilogy

Great set of covers by Stefanie Posavec - the designer behind the MyFry iPhone app - for the box set of Richard J. Evans' trilogy of history books that charted the downfall of the Third Reich (published by Penguin):

The Third Reich Trilogy designed by Stefanie Posavec

"Designing a series of books that looked beautiful but were still sensitive to the topic was a challenge. The books reference the style of German book design from the time period and in their patterns present stylised themes found within each book in the trilogy. As the story moved towards war, the designs became more hard-edged. Yes, an unusual topic to work with but I'm still pleased with the outcome." – Stefanie Posavec

The Third Reich Trilogy designed by Stefanie Posavec
The Third Reich Trilogy designed by Stefanie Posavec

Available on Amazon: The Third Reich trilogy hardbound box set
THE FUTURE
COMING SOON

Via ZOOBEZOOBEZOO

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Light Apparitions

Some nice light experiments made with mirrors by Suzy Poling:

Light Apparitions by Suzy Poling
Light Apparitions by Suzy Poling
Light Apparitions by Suzy Poling
Light Apparitions by Suzy Poling

Thanks for the submission Suzy!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

City Silhouettes

Excellent series of photos by photographer Jasper James:

City Silhouettes by Jasper James
City Silhouettes by Jasper James
City Silhouettes by Jasper James
City Silhouettes by Jasper James

I was trying to figure out how he did these... with a quick glance they appear to be reflections with simply a darker silhouette (which sounds obvious), but on closer inspection I don't think they are. I reckon they're double exposures of sorts, two images superimposed.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Space-Time Cloak Possible, Could Make Events Disappear?

Richard A. Lovett
for National Geographic News
Published July 11, 2011


"It's no illusion: Science has found a way to make not just objects but entire events disappear, experts say.

According to new research by British physicists, it's theoretically possible to create a material that can hide an entire bank heist from human eyes and surveillance cameras.

"The concepts are basically quite simple," said Paul Kinsler, a physicist at Imperial College London, who created the idea with colleagues Martin McCall and Alberto Favaro.

Unlike invisibility cloaks—some of which have been made to work at very small scales—the event cloak would do more than bend light around an object.
Instead this cloak would use special materials filled with metallic arrays designed to adjust the speed of light passing through.

In theory, the cloak would slow down light coming into the robbery scene while the safecracker is at work. When the robbery is complete, the process would be reversed, with the slowed light now racing to catch back up.

If the "before" and "after" visions are seamlessly stitched together, there should be no visible trace that anything untoward has happened. One second there's a closed safe, and the next second the safe has been emptied.
"

Read the full article here »

Nocturne 113 by CHad Wys
Nocturne 113 by CHad Wys

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Attributes for <IMG ...>

So, pretty much every time I create a blog post I do a search for the HTML image tag to grab and use... mainly with all the attributes; HEIGHT, WIDTH, ALT. I should remember it really, but it avoids small mistakes with missing quote marks, etc.:

<IMG SRC="image.gif" WIDTH=500 HEIGHT=500 ALT="Planetary Folklore">

I figure if I'm using it so much I ought to add an article - and grab the code from here!
Some info on this tag:

– WIDTH and HEIGHT tell the browser the dimensions of the image. The browser can use this information to reserve space for the image as it contructs the page, even before the image has downloaded.
– WIDTH and HEIGHT are not required:

<IMG SRC="image.gif" ALT="Planetary Folklore">

– WIDTH and HEIGHT do not have to be the same dimensions as the actual picture. If you set different dimensions the image will be stretched or shrunk to accomodate the dimensions.
– You can use percentages instead of pixel widths. Percentages are of the available width or height that the image could fill - when using percentages be sure to enclose the value in quotes:

<IMG SRC="image.gif" WIDTH=500 HEIGHT="50%" ALT="Planetary Folklore">

– You can specify only one of WIDTH or HEIGHT, and generally browsers will render the image so that the ratio of height to width stays the same:

<IMG SRC="image.gif" WIDTH=500 ALT="Planetary Folklore">

– Always use the ALT attribute

HTML Images - HTML Code Tutorial

Friday, July 8, 2011

Invented Conglomerations

Val Britton makes immersive, collaged works on paper that draw on the language of maps.

The impetus for this body of work was my longing to connect to my father, a truck driver who drove eighteen-wheelers across the country; he died when I was a teenager. Based on road maps of the United States, routes my father often traveled, and an invented conglomeration, mutation, and fragmentation of those passageways, my works on paper help me piece together the past and make up the parts I cannot know.

Val Britton
Val Britton
Val Britton
Val Britton
Val Britton

Thursday, July 7, 2011

The Space Shuttle

Lush gallery on the BBC News - In pictures today: The Space Shuttle

Nasa's first space shuttle Colombia took to the skies on 12 April 1981 and 30 years later the last remaining shuttle, Atlantis, is due to makes its final voyage...

The Space Shuttle

Physicists Almost Certain The Universe Is Not A Hologram

By Duncan Geere, Wired UK
By Wired UK July 5, 2011 | 10:27 am

An astrophysicist’s attempt to measure quantum “fuzziness” — to find out if we’re living in a hologram — has been headed off at the pass by results suggesting that we’re probably not...

Read the full article here »

Chaos and Structure

Stunning work by Tatiana Plakhova - Chaos and Structure:

COMPLEXITY GRAPHICS by Tatiana Plakhova
COMPLEXITY GRAPHICS by Tatiana Plakhova
COMPLEXITY GRAPHICS by Tatiana Plakhova
COMPLEXITY GRAPHICS by Tatiana Plakhova
COMPLEXITY GRAPHICS by Tatiana Plakhova
COMPLEXITY GRAPHICS by Tatiana Plakhova
COMPLEXITY GRAPHICS by Tatiana Plakhova

COMPLEXITY GRAPHICS

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Ghostly International

I'm a big fan of Michael Cina's work - widely known for starting YouWorkForThem with Michael Paul Young, who assumed sole directorial and creative control in 2009 when Cina left to start his own design studio, Cina Associates - especially his work for record label Ghostly International, with it's abstract fusion of design, painting, and photography:

Michael Cina
Mark E; Stone Breaker. Artwork by Michael Cina
Jesu: Pale Sketches Demixed. Artwork by Michael Cina

Cina, from an interview with Ghostly Founder Sam Valenti IV:

"I feel that artists should have no boundaries when it comes to medium. If you look at the crew from the Bauhaus, they were working in every arts profession and excelling in them all. I think when you work like that, each medium you explore influences the other. It is an artist's role to use everything at his disposal to push thought and limits. I feel capitalism has changed that aspect of art. If you look at the difference between artists today and artists 70 years ago, you will see stark differences in their body of work. Artists used to be so robust in their interests and exploration, and that is what excites and inspires me. We are in an extremely pivotal time where the public is taking back art. This will be a huge shift for every aspect of 'art.'"

Daso & Pawas: Det EP. Artwork by Michael Cina
Artwork by Michael Cina

Ghostly has made available a back catalog of his artwork to recognize four years of solid contribution to the record label - Michael Cina | The Ghostly Store

Michael Cina links:

http://michaelcinaassociates.com/
http://www.trueistrue.com/
http://www.flickr.com/people/mikecina/
http://cargocollective.com/michaelcinaart
http://www.behance.net/michaelcina
http://ghostly.com/visual/mike-cina

Electronic Instant Camera

Niklas Roy's ‘Electronic Instant Camera’, is a combination of an analog b/w videocamera and a thermal receipt printer...



"The device is something in between a Polaroid camera and a digital camera. The camera doesn’t store the pictures on film or digital medium, but prints a photo directly on a roll of cheap receipt paper while it is taking it. As this all happens very slow, people have to stay still for about three minutes until a full portrait photo is taken."

Electronic Instant Camera by Niklas Roy

I love the prints!:

Electronic Instant Camera by Niklas Roy
Electronic Instant Camera by Niklas Roy

Via today and tomorrow
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