Apparat: You Don't Know Me

Another wonderful song which was part of the Pilobolus's piece Automation.

James W. Griffiths: Room 8

Room 8 / 1 of 5 Films / Bombay Sapphire Imagination Series from Bombay Sapphire on Vimeo.

My favorite of the five films selected as part of the Imagination Series 2012 contest. The Imagination Series is a film contest sponsored by the gin company Bombay Sapphire. Participants used a short script written by Geoffrey Fletcher (the movie Precious) from which to create their screenplay around. The five best pitched screenplays were then selected and provided funding to create their films. After watching the films I gather the script was something along the lines of this:

Person 1: "What's that?"
Person 2: "Nothing."
Person 2: "Stop."
Person 1: "Why?"
Person 2: "Don't open it."
Person 1: "Why not?"
Person 2: "Because you might regret it."
Person 1: "I'll take my chances."
Person 2: "Fine, go ahead and open it."

Here are the other four films:


The Mrs / 1 of 5 Films / Bombay Sapphire Imagination Series Film from Bombay Sapphire on Vimeo.

Water Song / 1 of 5 Films / Bombay Sapphire Imagination Series Film from Bombay Sapphire on Vimeo.

Crab / 1 of 5 Films / Bombay Sapphire Imagination Series from Bombay Sapphire on Vimeo.

Concrete / 1 of 5 Films / Bombay Sapphire Imagination Series from Bombay Sapphire on Vimeo.

Single Photo Illusion: Bela Borsodi

What an incredible illusion created by photographer Bela Borsodi as an album cover for the band VLP. Though the picture appears to be four separate images combined, it is actually one single shot. Closer inspection reveals that the various items in the photo are carefully laid out in such a way as to create the four image illusion. Well, that and a little creative painting of the coffee table.

Here is the same room from a different angle.

Check out the video. It is interesting to see it coming together bit by bit.

Max Richter: On The Nature Of Daylight

Gorgeous song I first heard during Pilobolus's performance of Automation. I have since learned that it was also used in a couple of movies including Shutter Island.

Lost in Translation

Some of my favorite lost in translation pictures.

Story Link

Story Link

Whenever I go out to eat, I can never choose what to order.

And when your down with your new ass don't forget to keep it well groomed.

Shadow People

I love these shadow works by UK artist Tim Noble & Sue Webster. I find it fascinating that these shabby looking junk pile sculptures produce such incredibly realistic shadows.

Wild Mood Swings

Self Imposed Misery

Wasted Youth

Kiss of Death

Dirty White Trash

Old Squirrel

I've been getting such a kick out of this squirrel that has been hanging out on the rail by the side door at work. He has done it four or five times. He just lays there seemingly undisturbed by us standing at the door watching him. 

Nightvision: Luke Shepard

Incredible video created by photographer Luke Shepard of some of Europe's most famous structures.


NIGHTVISION from Luke Shepard on Vimeo.

NAME - ARCHITECT - LOCATION
Brandenburg Gate - Carl Gotthard Langhans - Berlin, Germany
Arc de Triomphe - Jean Chalgrin - Paris, France
Philharmonie Luxembourg - Christian de Portzamparc - Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Atomium - André Waterkeyn - Brussels, Belgium
Palace of Westminster - Charles Berry - London, England
Copenhagen Opera House - Henning Larsen - Copenhagen, Denmark
Trevi Fountain - Nicola Salvi - Rome, Italy
Belém Tower - Francisco de Arruda - Lisbon, Portugal
L'Hemisferic - Santiago Calatrava and Félix Candela - Valencia, Spain
Berliner Dom - Julius Raschdorff - Berlin, Germany
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao - Frank Gehry - Bilbao, Spain
Cologne Cathedral - Willy Weyres - Cologne, Germany
Hungarian Parliament Building - Imre Steindl - Budapest, Hungary
Oslo Opera House - Tarald Lundevall - Oslo, Norway
The Shard - Renzo Piano - London, England
Fernsehturm Berlin - Hermann Henselmann and Jörg Streitparth - Berlin, Germany
Bode-Museum - Ernst von Ihne - Berlin, Germany
Sultan Ahmed Mosque - Sedefkar Mehmed Agha - Istanbul, Turkey
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral - Alexander Pomerantsev - Sofia, Bulgaria
Tower Bridge - Horace Jones and George D Stephenson - London, England
Prague Astronomical Clock - Mikuláš of Kadaň and Jan Šindel - Prague, Czech Republic
Fraumünster - Staffelbach Meier and Marc Chagall - Zurich, Switzerland
Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía - Santiago Calatrava - Valencia, Spain
Rathaus Vienna - Friedrich von Schmidt - Vienna, Austria
National Theatre - Maria Siklós - Budapest, Hungary
Sagrada Família - Antoni Gaudí - Barcelona, Spain
Roman Colosseum - Vespasian and Titus - Rome, Italy
Under Krystallen - Schmidt Hammer Lassen - Copenhagen, Denmark

Tony Schwartz: Nancy Grows Up

Heard this on the Radiolab episode on time. American sound archivist Tony Schwartz’s ‘audio time lapse’ of his niece year-by-year from one month old to 13 years of age in under two minutes. I found it very touching.

FYI, you will probably need to adjust your volume down.

listen to ‘From birth to age 12: "Nancy Grows Up" by Tony Schwartz’ on Audioboo

Macro Time-Lapse: Daniel Csobot

Wonderful time-lapse video created by Daniel Csobot. The song is Digital Hearbeat by Daniel Gautreau.

The Art of Subtle Influence

I just read the following two articles posted on Facebook by a friend regarding a visit a family received by federal agents presumably after they had Googled some things which set off alarms.

Google Pressure Cookers and Backpacks, Get a Visit from the Feds

pressure cookers, backpacks and quinoa, oh my!

The articles highlights some very serious issues regarding how much freedom and privacy we as a nation are willing to relinquish in exchange for (a sense of) security. 

Though I think this is an important topic, with this blog post I would like to look at something entirely different. It has to do with this picture which is at the top of the first article. 

After reading the first article which states "Wednesday morning, six men from a joint terrorism task force showed up at their house to see if they were terrorists" I assumed, without giving it much thought, that this was a picture of the event. But then I read the second article written by the wife of the man interviewed by the agents. In it she says "Six gentleman in casual clothes emerged from the vehicles...". Hmm, casual clothes? The men above don't look so casually dressed. 

As someone who is fascinated by how humans process information, make decisions and are influenced by others, I found this to be quite interesting. I wanted to know where the picture originally came from so I ran it through a TinEye image search. It seems it is actually a picture taken during the military and police lock down of Boston while they were conducting door-to-door searches for the Boston bomber.

The story was originally sourced from the Atlantic Wire and written by Philip Bump. I don't know if Mr. Bump selects the photos to accompany his articles or if someone else does but either way someone decided to add an image which they knew did not accurately represent the situation. Kind of makes you wonder how often this sort of thing happens?

Thousandth Street

// ArtFX OFFICIEL // Thousandth Street from ArtFX OFFICIEL on Vimeo.

Impressive sci-fi short which borrows heavily from Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. Thousandth Street was created as a project by four students attending ArtFX School in Montpellier, France. A very nice display of their talents. Looking forward to future projects.