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Towards a Cyberpunk Sky

By Tom Saunter on May 9, 2012 // design

When plans for The Shard were unveiled my first thoughts were that its piercing aesthetic would be too harsh for the London skyline. But now it’s been ‘topped out’ and soon to open to the public, it’s time to get used to it.

Shard London Bridge Complete | Towards a Cyberpunk Sky | Digital Cortex

I heard somewhere that Irvine Sellar, the property magnate behind the tower, intends for his creation to stand for more than 200 years. Well, of course it does, but this concept did the most to shift my perspective.

Imagine how this city will feel in two centuries: totally transformed, utterly modern and yet (hopefully) still uniquely London. The Shard is another step towards an exciting Future London.

To illustrate my point, here’s a video flyover showing the tower in context. Watch closely and you’ll see  London’s slow climb towards a cyberpunk sky:

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Video

Happy Birthday David

By Tom Saunter on April 18, 2012 // film

Meet David: the 8th generation android from Weyland Industries that pushes technological, intellectual, physical and emotional barriers in robotics:

We’re told one of these units is serving as the butler and maintenance man on Project Prometheus, so I’m sure they’ll be in safe hands…

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Video

True Skin

By Tom Saunter on March 30, 2012 // film

Imagine you are in the future.

Things haven’t changed much, except for a few… augmentations.

The filmmaking team at N1ON recently flew out to Bangkok, returning with footage documenting how the city’s famously vibrant nightlife has adapted to the ‘age of augmentation’, revealing their symbiotic relationship with tech.

Here’s the teaser:

Stephan Zlotescu (Director), H1 (Director of Photography), Shamim Seifzadeh (Production Designer), MK (Makeup), Chris Sewall (Producer).

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Matthias Müller’s Particle Art

By Tom Saunter on January 23, 2012 // film, Technology

There’s this guy called Matthias Müller, and he makes beautiful abstractions out of virtual dust on his supercomputer. He’s some kind of motion-art superhero, probably sent to us from the exploding Planet 3DS Max by his scientist parents.

In this post I’ve picked out a few examples of his work, because as well as being simply gorgeous viewing material, they’re great examples of what’s possible with a few gigs of RAM, a graphics card and some imagination.

Probably my favourite due to it’s relative simplicity, this tech demo plays with texture in surprising ways:

This next one is so epic! Like an underwater fireworks show of electric choreographed jellyfish, or something…

Watch as millions of particles merge and blend with infinite complexity in this piece of seemingly generative fludity:

This final clip is almost a love story. Watch as two swirling masses collide, explode and dance in time with the music:

An undoubtedly talented guy, Matthias has done commercial work for Honda and Vodafone (as featured last year).  His YouTube channel is certainly worth a look, as are his lovely image renders on CGPortfolio.

I can barely get the most out of MSPaint, however…

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Video

Justice: Audio, Video, Disco

By Tom Saunter on January 22, 2012 // music

If I’m to make good on my resolution to blog something every single day, then I currently owe a whopping eleven blog posts.

I ought to get on with it, hadn’t I?

In the spirit of getting on with it, the new Justice video features electro-rockstars Gasparde and Xavier doing exactly that, while preparing for the release of their track ‘Audio, Video, Disco’ from the eponymous album.

The video documents the pair living and breathing their work in the studio at all stages of the track’s life cycle, from conception to critical acclaim. You’ll like it, because it’s confident, it’s awesome, and it’s very very French:

One more post by midnight… time to get on with it!

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