Category Archives: Culture

For Those Interested In Chatroulette…

…it would be worth your while to watch this short documentary:


Have any of you tried Chatroulette yet? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Mine are as follows:

  1. It’s a bloody great idea that I hope maintains its current momentum en route to totally anonymised social networking
  2. It is not as gratifying as Omegle, where the medium of text offers the chance for more frequent and rewarding interactions
  3. There are some truly revolting people out there who’ve just been handed a new ‘creative outlet’ – so please watch out
  4. I’m not sure how Chatroulette ended up on my radar, but it probably won’t be long until it’s all over the Daily Mail

chat roulette logoMaybe I’ll see you out there.

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World Builder – A Film Where Holography Meets Romance

I stumbled upon a video last night, in which a man builds a virtual world using holographic tools for a certain special someone. It’s a blend of astounding graphics, clever user interface ideas, some poignant moments, and an actor who does this odd sideways smirk quite often (but don’t let that spoil it).

World Builder was shot in a single day followed by about 2 years of post production. It has won several short film awards. The film’s creator, Bruce Branit, has built a Facebook community around World Builder, where he’s been sharing updates, behind the scenes material, and the news that he’s pressing on with a feature length version.

My favourite element of this video is Bruce’s interface concept – fingertip control, a wrist-mounted colour & texture palette, and a sense of our favourite Photoshop tools brought into the real-world.

As with all the videos I post here, remember to hit fullscreen, and let me know what you think in the comments. Don’t get too slushy though.

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How To Draw All Sorts Of Crap

I don’t usually blog about drawing, unless it’s about gadgets, toys or, say, the psychology of comic art. But when I saw this image from Coelasquid I was struck by the urge to share. And besides, I’ve been stuck with writers block lately, so why not revert to pretty pictures instead?

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McLuhan: An Audiovisual Bricolage

I’ve been in touch with a really interesting bloke called Richard Altman. He’s what I’d call a Digital Activist – in that his strongly opinionated views challenge normative behaviour, and have the potential to cause others to reconsider that which we take for granted. His area of interest: the Web and it’s governance.

Marshall McLuhan

This man partied with The Beatles

I’ll be sharing some of his thoughts in an upcoming post, but for today, we’ll be exploring some of his filmmaking work. Altman and I share a passion for the work of  Marshall McLuhan, and he’s made a short series of thought-provoking films that assess many of his ideas: a perfect jumping off point for those not yet acquainted with the great man.

Be forewarned: these videos aren’t exactly lean-back viewing. Altman has developed a unique presentation style that fuses blazing imagery, dubbed-audio and staccato editing into what would be described as an audiovisual bricolage.

The effect of watching each video is quite close to McLuhan’s own ‘braindump’ writing style, in which he didn’t expound mere theories, but developed probes – aphorisms designed to to stimulate curiosity about one’s subject or environment. This allowed McLuhan, as it does for Altman, to be far less committal in the work presented, yet to encourage the reader/viewer to make up their own mind about what they’ve just experienced.

Try these out, and let me know what you think:

Part 1 – Acoustically Visual

Part 2 – Linear Tactility (nsfw)

Part 3 – Painting the Invisible

I have an interview with Richard scheduled for publication, so check back in the next few days to read an explanation of the themes and ideas herein, that is, if you’re still left scratching your head!

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Take A Journey Through The Digital Universe Atlas

This beautifying, stupifying and climactic video goes a long way to demonstrate Man’s understanding of the Universe, and our place in it. Utterly incredible work from the American Museum of Natural History, who had this to say:

The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. The new film, created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010.

Get ready to have your mind blown:

Apologies for the brevity of this post, but this is my last working day of 2009 and there’s a lot to get out of the door. I have plenty of more in-depth coolness planned for the Xmas period, so stay tuned!

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