Category Archives

Art

What to wear on those long spaceflights

Normally I pay no attention to YouTube ads before my video content loads, but damn did Prada do a fine job on these spots for their Fall/Winter 2012 collection.  These are “Real Fantasies” that I can most assuredly get behind.


I love the way the scene vanishes to reveal the credits at the end of this one.


The most intriguing game of moon-chess you’ll ever see, guaranteed.

Together apart

“They were a bit puzzled how the image was going to be done. But once they start seeing the resulting image, most of them start to see the deep impact of such a session. There’s a very deep longing in their sentiments. You can sense that they miss each other very much, and yet it’s something we have to accept in the current fast-paced society.”

Artist John Clang explains his new exhibition Being Together with The Atlantic.

Musical landscaping

Ever wonder what your favorite album might look like as a physical object (and no, I’m not talking about moving back to CDs, tapes or vinyl)?  The Microsonic Landscapes project from Mexico City has done exactly this by printing the sonic landscape of five artists as 3D plastic artifacts.  Gorgeous, no?

Science fiction-y backlog

It’s been a busy week here (and it’s only Wednesday) and I’ve been meaning to post the following for several days.  So without further adieu:

1.

The first episode of Brian Singer’s new web series H+.  You’d better believe I’ll be watching the rest of these tonight.

2.

With the advent of the smartphone, many Americans have grown used to the idea of having a computer on their person at all times. Wearable technologies like Google’s Project Glass are narrowing the boundary between us and our devices even further by attaching a computer to a person’s face and integrating the software directly into a user’s field of vision.

From “Cyborg America: inside the strange new world of basement body hackers“.  While not necessarily a new concept, it’s a new take on the subject that looks really well done.

3.

Amazing Martian art that was actually commissioned by NASA, proving that they have a sense of style even more so than Starhawk did.

Text-based horror

Having played my fair share of text-based adventure games as a kid, I can tell you the joy that was getting to the occasional point when a crazy-awful illustration would pop onto the screen after multiple pages of story whizzed past.  And when we progressed to mostly picture based games, the illustrations were an ever-present fact of storytelling, even if they didn’t really look all that fantastic.

Fast forward to now and we have io9 presenting us with haunting animated gifs in the style of vintage computer games by Uno Moralez.  It’s like Zen & The Art of The Macintosh gone spooky.

DefCon’s Badges: Cooler Than Yours

Part art, part game and entirely cool, the badges put together for DefCon this year also have a purpose:

“Those doing the hardware hacks will have to find someone to do the puzzle side,” Clarke says. “It will drive them to find someone from the other side of the house.”

Learn more at Wired.

Cyberpunk Saves the Day

Just as when we were on the cusp of cyberpunk and didn’t know it, I’m hoping now for another new breed of writers, people who can craft drive-by speculations that leave us gasping with surprise.

My love of all things 80s and 90s artsy/techie of course has bred in me a fascination with the ethos of the cyberpunk.  It doesn’t help that I’m also a Stephenson junkie and a Gibson supporter…  Paolo Bacigalupi’s “How Cyberpunk Saved Sci-Fi” was a delightful find in the latest issue of Wired magazine.  (And it’s available to read for free online now, too.)

Perhaps not too surprising since the staff at Wired’s always been on the cyberpunk bandwagon, though.  Probably actually helping turn its tenets into our reality.

Library fine city…

…and other assorted landscapes carved into books.  There was something extremely Prometheus about this particularly starscape and lifeless mountain:

You can see more of this work by Guy Laramee over at Colossal. (via Atlas Obscura)

Needed in my life

There are some things that are necessary in one’s life.  This “Dress Up Bigfoot” magnet set is one of them.  To quote the manufacturer:

Why can’t we find him? We think its because he’s right under our very noses, hidden in plain sight. So we’ve created this fun magnet set to help you find clues to catching a glimpse of the mythical beast.

Unholy hereafter

Like some sort of terrible combination of Portal, a medical form and copyright law, “Welcome to Life” greets a new resident of a  future digital consciousness.  If this is the singularity, would I still be in?

Absolutely.