F*** TED talks
A meme of the moment is to bleep footage of video at clever (or even random) points, to make it seem like there's obscenity flying - and here is a rather splendid bleeping of various Ted Talks:
Nice pay-off.
Article Dan
Short sharp shocks to the world
A sleek web-slacker with a chef's background. One finger on the pulse in every pie. I know know that life before this was preposterous. I know that life since is still to be decided...
New Radiohead / Thom Yorke tunes - chaos and angst in abundance
New Radiohead (ok, technically Thom Yorke) tracks! Nobody told me about these: Hollow Earth and Pulled Apart By Horses
(No neither of them are 'videos'...)Very much of the Kid A / Eraser (Yorke's previous solo album produced with Nigel Godrich) mould, it's all about the sonics, the ambients, the challenge Yorke continues to set his vocals (and his audience). Eraser, as an album, I could pretty much take or leave. In fact more leave than take. These tracks though, while continuations of Eraser's methodology, contain a greater urgency, punch and edge; Jonny Greenwood's adrenaline pumps an insane rush into the track, raising the game far higher than Eraser ever achieved. As ever, it's not a natural and easy listen for those who still adore The Bends and OK Computer and secretly wait for more of the same, but it's interesting, chaotic stuff from the Radiohead boys - long may they continue to wreak audio havoc from their beautiful stage. Keep th' faith,Article Dan
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Mash-up gold: We came, we saw, we kicked its ass!
The Golden Age of Video - indeed (providing you love Bill Murray). Fantastic video, asking the world, among other things, how has 'We came, we saw, we kicked its ass!' not been the main hook of a hundred mash ups before now?
A genuine treat.
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Cadbury's ads - WTF?
It really is feast or famine with Cadbury's ads. They give us the Gorilla, a superb zen marketing masterpiece; but then they produce horrors like this:
Now, I'm not usually a peddler of the WTF? But honestly - this is an insult to my needy consumer eyes, no? Tell me - is this supposed to be fucking charming or something? Faux naïf?
It's dreadful. If the Cadburys gorilla crew won awards, the fools behind this want choking. Twice.Comments [4]
3D Art-itecture - beautiful projections upon beautiful buildings
These three videos are examples of light as paint and brush, and buildings as canvas. Artitecture, if you will. Like Neil Gaiman's fears for the Ukranian sand art, you can imagine this becoming an advertising gimmick before the year is done, but til then, enjoy the ambient soundscapes and incredible use of graphics and projectors. I defy you to watch these films and not be impressed; perhaps even a little jealous that you don't spend your time creating things like this.
by nuformer
by Apparati Effimeri
by UrbanScreen Keep th' faith,
Article Dan
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Making a drama out of a Twitter
Celebrity's tweets are put into the hands (and dramatic hearts) of a trio of fine thesbians (no thesbian jokes about Lindsay Lohan, now. Don't be cheap.)
If that player doesn't work for you - go to the source http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2009/09/09/VI2009090902439.html?hpid=topnews
Oh, lovely lord. This is the best thing since Peter O'Toole read The Spice Girls Wannabe lyrics on TFI Friday.
Oh, wait... That wasn't so great. How did Chris Evans get away with that shit for so long? Oh, the 90s - so awful in hindsight. At least the 80s had the decency to flat up dreadful to your face...
Keep th' faith.
Article Dan
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Fantastic webcam mash-up video
Lean forward and enjoy this beautifully done low-fi web cam video from band Sour, enigmatically titled '日々の音色 (Hibi no neiro)':
Lovely stuff. YouTube continues to deliver innovations and fun with form. This takes the sound mash-up magic of Kutiman and applies it to video to simply glorious effect.
No one off, though; these guys clearly have a lovely artistic sensibility when it comes to videos:
Keep th' faith,
Article Dan
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Sex in an MRI scanner - reproductive science for lay-persons
From the nether vaults of The New Scientist comes (ahem) this stunning video of people being scanned having sex in an MRI scanner (be warned this may technically fall under the banner #nsfw not safe for work):
This vital study of people's vitals filled with vitality is catchily titled: Magnetic resonance imaging of male and female genitals during coitus and female sexual arousal. And this video's expositional voice over is just wonderful. Describing the niche and not-so-niche nature of the study in laconic, slightly amused American tones:
"Of interest to specialists and also, perhaps, to lay-persons who have an interest in reproductive anatomy." Lay-persons? Excuuuuuse the pun.
They required people who were 'willing and able to perform under technologically cloistered conditions'. Baby, I do some of my best work under technologically cloistered conditions - where do I sign?
That's MRIght, baby. That's the place I like to bring the sexy. Come visit my technological cloister, you beautiful, scannable thing, you - let's make sweet sense of science!
And, I think that's where I'll leave that.
Keep th' faith,
Article Dan
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A Momentile Lapse of Reason
Momentile is a new site / app / social networking photo image platform - just launched in alpha; I was fortunate to get an invite to the early days of Momentile's iteration and final polishes towards beauty. All this and an iPhone app to boot. Su-weet. 
Momentile has similarities to MoBlog in that it is a perfect in its simplicity: take a photo and upload it. Boom - you're done. The idea is to build a visual mosaic of your life, a photo a day, another version of the emerging online phenomenon of the 'narrative of habit' seen in evidence across sites such as Daytum and 43 Things, and likely more; the idea that a ritual act creates expression and implies a tale to be referenced or inferred.And, you know? I quite like something about this site's attitude - casual, cheerful, knowing, ironic... Your sign in button is labelled 'Kenny Login'; the site tells us that it thinks 'flickr's poo don't stink' so if you're looking for more bells and whistles for your images than this platform provides - go there instead, no hard ones, baby. But it's that very irreverence and fast-loose play that gets them into the trouble for me.
Momentile's a social platform (natch), working on a minimal text - maximum image basis. You can share these images you take and you can enjoy the images of others like (or unlike) you through the platform's offering, via SMS or iPhone app, but here's the rub: the social thing has been horrendously mis-packaged and mis-presented for users. The problem lies with the terminology of the product. The words - all important in this neck of the social woods - have, in my opinion, been ill-chosen.So, you can follow people on Momentile, right? They can follow you. But you know how Twitter got there first with the whole following thing, well... Well, Momentile have decided to be different: you don't follow people - you STALK them. 
Yes.That's right.You stalk them. And they can all stalk you.
So I suppose that's ok. The stalker is also a stalkee, so there's a real levelling here, no power-relationships to make the stalking thing seem weird or off...NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!That is not ok. I don't want to be a stalker. I don't want to be stalked. Let's be clear - I've never been stalked; I've never stalked anyone. It's just not for me on either side of that fence. But here's the thing - I don't sit on that fence either. I don't have ambilvalent, feelings about stalking as a prospect. It's not a 'meh' issue for me. It's bad. Stalking is bad. I'm sorry, but the word has pejorative meaning for me, and I think for many others. And I don't think it's one that can be claimed back by the good guys. I imagine the meeting where 'stalking' was decided as their alternative to following... "OK guys, we know we want people to be social and basically follow each other, right? But we can't have following. Twitter has following. We're different. We promised the VCs we were different, so... we can't have followers. So brainstorm time: other things that people do like follow..." "Chase." "Tail" "Creep" "Show interest" "Watch" "Hunt" "Stalk" "Prey upon" "Groom"..."Wait, Scott Back up there. You had it!" "Groom?""No, 'stalk'! People stalk each other right? If you're on Momentile and you follow someone you 'stalk' them. Awesome."<A room erupts into applause> Did no one stand up and say - "Sweet jesus christ, people! This is the worst idea I've ever heard! No one - NO ONE - is going to want to talk about their stalkers, how many people they're stalking, how they started stalking Stephen Fry and he stalked them back...!" Who was in that room? Besides the imaginary Scott... I find it hard to imagine the group that found consensus on this one.
Yes.That's right.You stalk them. And they can all stalk you. So I suppose that's ok. The stalker is also a stalkee, so there's a real levelling here, no power-relationships to make the stalking thing seem weird or off...NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!That is not ok. I don't want to be a stalker. I don't want to be stalked. Let's be clear - I've never been stalked; I've never stalked anyone. It's just not for me on either side of that fence. But here's the thing - I don't sit on that fence either. I don't have ambilvalent, feelings about stalking as a prospect. It's not a 'meh' issue for me. It's bad. Stalking is bad. I'm sorry, but the word has pejorative meaning for me, and I think for many others. And I don't think it's one that can be claimed back by the good guys. I imagine the meeting where 'stalking' was decided as their alternative to following... "OK guys, we know we want people to be social and basically follow each other, right? But we can't have following. Twitter has following. We're different. We promised the VCs we were different, so... we can't have followers. So brainstorm time: other things that people do like follow..." "Chase." "Tail" "Creep" "Show interest" "Watch" "Hunt" "Stalk" "Prey upon" "Groom"..."Wait, Scott Back up there. You had it!" "Groom?""No, 'stalk'! People stalk each other right? If you're on Momentile and you follow someone you 'stalk' them. Awesome."<A room erupts into applause> Did no one stand up and say - "Sweet jesus christ, people! This is the worst idea I've ever heard! No one - NO ONE - is going to want to talk about their stalkers, how many people they're stalking, how they started stalking Stephen Fry and he stalked them back...!" Who was in that room? Besides the imaginary Scott... I find it hard to imagine the group that found consensus on this one.But found it they apparently did.
So, I agonised about this post. Having written it full of cheerful invective I suddenly thought - ok, I've been invited to help test the alpha site - it's a work in progress, do I really have a right to criticise this site? But, on consideration, - I've told you nothing you couldn't have found out via their iPhone App and pages. I'm not criticising the central concept or the functionality - indeed I like both of those. It's just the stalking thing. I've already written to Momentile about this - and forewarned that I've written the blog - and had a reply that takes my comments on board; they say that a lot of people basically like the fun / funny aspect of the stalking. So am I way off base here? Have I totally lost my sense of humour and fun? Would you happily sign up to start stalking friends and other strangers?
Keep th' faith,
Article DanPS The song that sprang to mind as I wrote this:
Keep th' faith,
Article DanPS The song that sprang to mind as I wrote this:
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Unbelievable sand animation - so can art only stay beautiful in the dust?
Un. Believe. Able. Ukraine's apparently REALLY got talent for sand animations:
I'll quote Neil Gaiman's tweet that first brought this to my attention 'If you are an ad executive planning to rip off this Ukrainian Sand animation for Coke or Sony, please die first'
At first I second that. This was a simply a beautiful display that, frankly, shits on Susan Boyle's efforts. Hypnotising. Enchanting. Not an ounce of saccharine, which an ad agency just wouldn't be able to get.
But why shouldn't she make some money out of this talent? And what pays better than an advert? Why are we so instinctively adverse to the 'corruption' of talent by commerce? Is this why we've moved so neatly and seamlessly into accepting the notion that we should no longer pay for music, for news, for content? Because beauty ceases to be beauty when you know the creator has done it for cash?
Of course not. And Gaiman's words are to Coke ripping it off. But if they paid her to do this for a coke ad - is that ok? I get the feeling that many would get that sinking feeling and that the warm light from that flickering candle might pale and chill a little.
Art, beauty, soul, love... All best imagined and embraced in a cashless vacuum. But, do our artists really need to be so poor and obscure to remain real?
Keep th' faith,
Article Dan
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