Where light meets architecture: Lighter on London

Shot in 2010 by Dentsu as a commercial for Green Tomato Cars; an eco friendly taxi service.  The laser murals where created using technology developed by a company called Sensaa 


Lighter On London :: Laser Murals from greentomatocars on Vimeo.

Where light meets architecture: night lights

A 2010 joint effort by YesYesNo, The Church, Inside Out Productions and Electric Canvas to turn the Auckland Ferry Building in New Zealand into a interactive light show.


night lights from zach lieberman on Vimeo.

Read more at YesYesNo

Where light meets architecture: Perspective Lyrique

I have been fascinated by the new and imaginative ways many artist are embracing and using technology.  This is especially true in the creative marriage of light and architecture.  So in appreciation of these marvelous installations I will post one of my top picks each day for the next week or so.



PERSPECTIVE LYRIQUE from 1024 on Vimeo.

Play catch with a robot

Kind of reminiscent of these ping pong playing robots.

Hatin' on Walmart

I saw this posted a few times recently on facebook:

Spend enough time on facebook and you will find that this is a common attack against the giant retail chain.  One thing which I have always found curious though is that these sort of criticisms are regularly made against Walmart, but you never see them made against Target.

So why is it that Walmart is seen as the evil empire to be rejected by communities while Target is warmly embraced?  Well it isn't due to the difference in what they pay their employees.  According to this AOL article based on payscale.com data, the two companies pay their hourly employees the same amount.  There is some difference between the two when it comes to salaried (management) employees but this also is greatly equalized when you take into consideration annual bonuses.

So if it isn't due to a difference in employee pay then what is it?  I suspect it is largely due to the difference between their clientele.  According to this 2005 Scarborough market research study, those shoppers that would shop at Target but not Walmart (Target exclusive) are more likely to come from upscale households that also shop at stores such as Nordstrom, Macy's, Costco, Mervin's, ect.  On the other hand, Walmart exclusive shoppers tend to have less income and shop at other stores such as Dollar General, Family Dollar, Big Lots, Kmart, etc.  So this is the question; do the people who criticize Walmart but not Target do so because they see Target as fitting into what is acceptable within their social/economic class and thus hypocritically give it a free pass?

Gustav Hoegen's Animatronics

The unbelievable animatronics of Gustav Hoegen.  The music is pretty annoying so you might want to watch it with the volume off.

Inattentional Blindness/Selective Attention

I remember seeing this 'count the passes' video a number of years ago and being completely blown away by it.  If you have never seen it, check it out before reading any further.



The video is a famous demonstration of what is known in the psychology world as inattentional blindness or what some researchers call selective attention.  Inattentional Blindness is the failure to notice some object which is fully visible but unexpected because attention was focused on some other object or task.

There are four criteria which must be met for a failure of awareness to be considered an example of inattentional blindness. 1) The observers fails to notice a visual object or event.  2) The object or event is fully-visible and observers readily see it if they are looking for it.  3) The failure to notice results from engagement of attention on other aspects of the display and not from aspects of the visual stimulus itself.  4) The object or event is unexpected. 1

Four factors which may affect inattentional blindness include:
Conspicuity - An objects tendency to capture our attention.
Mental Workload - How much of our attention is divided unto other things.
Expectation - How expecting certain things can have a tendency to block out other possibilities.
Capacity - An individuals capacity to focus attention which is also related to how much attention is needed for a particular task.  2

Inattentional blindness is often a major topic in public safety research which seeks to limit the use of cell phones while driving. 3

Here are a couple of entertaining videos on inattentional blindness.  As explained above, for this phenomenon to work the viewer must not be expecting and thus looking for something peculiar.  With this in mind you may not be fooled by the following but then again, maybe one will get passed you.






1. http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Inattentional_blindness

2. http://www.visualexpert.com/Resources/inattentionalblindness.html

3. http://unews.utah.edu/old/p/031506-7.html

Plurality: Sci-Fi Short Film

For a movie that was created with what director Dennis Liu calls a "micro budget", Plurality delivers a big production look.  The story takes place in a future New York city where a new technology known as the grid matches all of a persons information to their DNA.  This information is then accessed and monitored through innumerable sensors throughout the city which allow individuals to electronically open doors, start cars or make purchases through touch.  Hints of a darker consequence start to unfold as the story progresses leaving you wanting more than the 13 minutes can provide.  

Lewis Lavoie's Mural Mosaics

The astounding mural mosaic paintings of Canadian artist Lewis Lavoie. Mural Mosaic is a process that takes individual paintings and places them in a specific order to create a large painting.  It is staggering the amount of creativity that goes into each piece.  It should be noted that some of these projects are completed entirely by Lewis Lavoie while other are done in collaboration with numerous artist in a community effort.

Adam by Lewis Lavoie

Buffalo Twins by Lewis Lavoie & 270 other artist

Cultivate Life by Lewis Lavoie & 145 other artist

Close up of Cultivate Life

Le Cadeau Du Cheval "The Horse Gift" Lewis Lavoie & 173 other artist

Close up of Le Cadeau Du Cheval

Click here to check out Lavoie's website where you can see a completed project from a distance and then zoom in to to view the individual paintings.

Mask of Love Illusion

What do you see when you look at this Venetian mask?

Can't see anything special?  Here is a video to help.

C.S. Lewis quote on tyranny

"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber barons cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - Clive Staples "CS" Lewis

Are psychopaths better at making themselves attractive?

A new study by Holtzman and Strube of Washington University shows that people with dark personality traits are effective at making themselves attractive.  Specifically, the team looked at what is referred to as adorned attractiveness which is the ability to enhance physical attractiveness through such things as wearing stylish clothing, jewelry, use of makeup, hairstyle, etc.  The researchers found that those who possessed one or more  personality traits of the Dark Triad (Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy) were more effective at adorning themselves than those with personality traits from The Big Five (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and intellect).

According to the authors "This study provides the first experimental evidence that dark personalities construct appearances that act as social lures—possibly facilitating their cunning social strategies."


http://spp.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/10/02/1948550612461284.abstract?papetoc

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/head-games/201210/why-are-mean-people-so-good-looking

http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2012/10/20/villainous-people-are-hotter/Hmuk5Uj7ZVkDXAQM5FygBL/story.html