Le label allemand Kontor a trouvé une manière ingénieuse et très originale d’assurer sa promotion : l’envoi de vinyles et d’une plate-forme interactive intégrée à leur pochette pour les lire à l’aide d’un smartphone. Une invention audacieuse à découvrir en détails et en vidéo dans la suite de l’article.
La photographe Benedict Redgrove et Thomas Moeller ont eu l’occasion, pour le lancement du nouveau site de la marque de voitures McLaren, de photographier la MP4-12C au McLaren Product Center à Woking en Angleterre. Des clichés impressionnants magnifiant le modèle, à découvrir dans la suite de l’article.
Microsoft vents its inferiority complex with Apple yet again—by humiliating Siri—in this new spot from Crispin Porter + Bogusky, following a similar ad last month that got more than 5 million views on YouTube. The new spot compares Dell's XPS 10 tablet to the iPad. Microsoft is still smarting about the "Mac vs. PC" ads, to judge by the tone of these ads, which is a shame, because that Dell tablet looks cool enough to stand on its own. And if you think this is harsh, I wouldn't be surprised if future ads take potshots at the Sony Xperia after what happened at E3 this year.
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Cherchant à expérimenter de nouvelles façons d’utiliser la Kinect de Microsoft sortie il y a quelques année dans le commerce, Mike Pelletier est parvenu à se servir de cet outil comme scanner 3D. Développant un modèle détaillé, voici une série de portraits 3D utilisant pleinement les capacités de la caméra.
In an attempt to become relevant again, BlackBerry is jumping into the movie business—though shorter than feature length. Two days after wrapping Sin City 2, awe-inspiring film director Robert Rodriguez (also known for Spy Kids, Desperado and From Dusk Till Dawn) partnered with BlackBerry to direct the short film Two Scoops as a part of BlackBerry's "Keep Moving" project.
Two Scoops was written, produced and shot by Rodriguez, but three scenes were left incomplete. Fans of Rodriguez (and presumably of BlackBerry) could then help complete the story by tweeting ideas, submitting SFX ideas and conceptualizing weapons/props to be incorporated into the final film.
As it turns out, the completed film is just what one might expect from the eccentric Rodriguez—featuring a strange, futuristic, monster-filled world with massive toy-like weapons and scantily clad twins in search for their missing father. Oh, and a splash of that slightly awkward Spanish comedy. Like all Rodriguez films, things are not as they seem.
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Le studio Breakfast NY nous propose de découvrir leur concept « The Most Advanced Sign on Earth ». Repensant l’usage des panneaux d’indication, cette création propose différentes catégories d’informations évoluant en fonction de l’actualité et des évènements. Une idée ingénieuse à découvrir en vidéo dans la suite.
Jose Ortiz est un artiste basé à Los Angeles qui maîtrise à la perfection les différents outils en termes d’animation et de motion graphics. Il a récemment été en charge du générique d’introduction du film Iron Man III. Différentes créations impressionnantes à retrouver en vidéos dans la suite de l’article.
Ever stood slack-jawed on a street corner with a friend trying to figure out where to go to throw back a beer? Or debated whether it'd be better to hop on that approaching bus or descend into the subway to catch a train? The latest nifty gadget from the hardware and software engineers at Breakfast offers a slick solution to those problems, and others. Called "Points," it's a rotating digital street sign built to display a flexible range of data, from which favorably reviewed restaurants are within walking distance to nearby tweets. And it comes with an at-hand, interactive menu of options that can be programmed to change based on the time of day (are you hungry for breakfast or dinner?) or the needs of a particular setting (sports scores at a stadium).
Feats of technology and design aside, at least some of the info is already accessible to people with smartphones in their pockets. It's easy, though, to imagine the value of aggregating and conveniently serving up certain cues in the context of their environments—especially at big, often chaotic events like music festivals, where signs could literally and dynamically direct attendees toward the overlapping acts going up on different stages. Unlike some of Breakfast's other projects, "Points" wasn't created for a particular brand client, but the agency sees myriad ways to customize the interface for marketers, including, naturally, at sponsored events and locations. That not to mention the obvious public-service and tourism applications for municipal governments. So, what say all you brand jockeys out there—on point, or pointless?
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Ichwan Noor est un sculpteur indonésien qui a présenté sa dernière création en Chine au cours de l’exposition Art Basel de Hong-Kong. « Compressed Beetle » propose de découvrir sous forme de sphères de vieux modèles de voiture tels que cette Coccinelle Volkswagen de 1953. Un rendu réussi à découvrir dans la suite.
Sober Industries et le Studio Rewind ont collaboré pour développer de superbe jeux de lumière sur sculptures. Appelée « Welcome to the Future », cette installation a permis de projeter des jeux de lumières sur 2 sculptures en bois représentant respectivement un rhinocéros et un hibou. Des détails dans la suite.
Superabundant Atmosphere est le nom d’une installation développée par l’artiste new-yorkais Jacob Hashimoto. Composée de milliers de cerf-volants blancs en tissu de soie faits main collés sur des cadres de bambou, cette création est une superbe structure présentée à la Rice Gallery en 2005.
Présentée au Museum of the Moving Image à New York, Sonos Playground Deconstructed est une installation qui permet aux visiteurs de sélectionner n’importe quelle chanson depuis un iPad relié à Spotify pour ensuite admirer une visualisation de la musique projetée sur les murs. Une création très réussie signée Aramique.
Après avoir présenté 3D Printed Record en décembre 2012, Amanda Ghassaei a développé une technique facilitant la fabrication de disques avec « laser cutter », permettant d’utiliser des matériaux tels que le bois ou le papier pour créer des disques. A découvrir en détails dans la suite en vidéo.
Visiting the video arcade at my neighborhood mall in the '80s was both exhilarating and a bit scary. On the one hand, I feared that bigger kids would try to take all my change. (And I mean a physical shakedown, so quarters would spill from my pockets onto the pizza-smeared floor.) The adrenaline rush came from the games themselves. Asteroids, Space Invaders, Radar Scope … I loved them all. As I played, I rarely paid attention to my score. I just grooved on the sights and sounds, thrilled to each synthesized pop! bleep! and ping!, riding waves of pixelated excitement for hours on end. I wanted to meld with those machines and live in that world. Magic machines everywhere! That's what I wanted the future to be like. That was a scary thought, too, but no less wonderful for that.
Fast forward to Google's latest Chrome Experiments—two games designed to show off the advanced capabilities of the company's browser. They took me back to those arcades of my youth in ways both good and bad. This is partly because the games, "Roll It" and "Racer," are self-consciously retro. (The latter's soundtrack is by Giorgio Moroder, still taking his passion and making it happen after all this time!) Despite the nods to yesteryear, both games are cutting edge and let users play across multiple screens—phones, tablets and computers. "Racer" lets you drive a car across as many as five mobile devices. Watch it speed from the phone you're holding to the tablet in your buddy's hand! With "Roll It," you control the trajectory of a virtual skeeball on a desktop or laptop screen by moving a smartphone handset this way and that.
"Racer" and "Roll It" are both fun and absorbing—impressive slices of techno-magic that fulfill the promise of those crude arcade screens from the mall. They're like yesterday's dreams come true, brimming with possibilities for our digital tomorrows when synced systems running Chrome will conquer space and time. Still, I can't help feeling ambivalent, even dispirited about the proposition. For one thing, the joviality feels forced and works a tad too hard to sell happiness on a microchip. "Grab your phone, some friends and get ready to roll," says the "Roll It" promo clip. "No apps. No downloads. All you need is Chrome."
Booyah, Google's got the fun! It's daffy doodles, rad robots, animated animal rock groups and games all day long. Just follow the bouncing Chrome ball across screens of every shape and size … because the company now demands our attention on multiple platforms, as if retargeting humanity one screen at a time wasn't enough fun.
Ah well, there's no point in bemoaning "Big Bad Google," because I can't imagine a world without its products and services. Sure, Google's scary—but it gives us wonderful stuff, and its output has become an indispensable part of our daily existence. Maybe that's my problem. We've melded with the machines more thoroughly than I'd ever imagined, and now there's no escape. Our cursor-driven workplace tasks are essentially problem-solving games, complete with somewhat more sophisticated pops! bleeps! and pings! There aren't any shakedowns per se—just data-driven commerce. We can all groove to that, right?
I got the future I dreamed of all those years ago. So, why can't I shake the feeling that I'm the one being played?
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Microsoft says a mouthful in this ad from Crispin Porter + Bogusky. And—surprise!—those words are spoken by Siri, Apple's voice assistant, from an iPad sitting next to a Windows 8 tablet. As the latter wordlessly flips through various features, Siri apologies for being unable to run those programs and perform the same functions. "I'm sorry, I don't update like that," she says. "I'm sorry, I can only do one thing at a time." I half expected a tax app to pop up on the tablet's screen and be greeted by an awkward silence from Siri. Maybe in the sequel. This is Microsoft's second spot in a week to deftly parody a rival's ad style (in this case, Apple's stylish minimalism), following its skewering of Google's Chrome browser. The tablet ad, which references the iPad mini's "Piano" spot from last October, is approaching 2 million views on YouTube in just a couple of days. There are some chatty personal assistants, like Indigo, available for Windows devices. But for my taste, the ultimate Microsoft PA voice would speak in measured, calm-yet-crazy cadences, providing sadly poignant commentary as the OS crashes into a sea of blue when its mind begins to go.
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Randomacts Channel 4 a collaboré avec Etta Bond sur une vidéo expérimentale pour sa chanson « Under the Knife ». Avec un clip réalisé par Jeremy Cole en une seule prise, cette vidéo a été coupé en 1 347 couches sur After Effects. Un résultat magnifique explorant la lutte de l’artiste face à sa quête de perfection.
Some days it seems almost anybody can make an enjoyable video promoting a Kickstarter project, but these guys get bonus points for simultaneously giving the venture-capital system a big poke in the eye. "Nikola Tesla Pitching Silicon Valley VCs" is a biting look at what might have happened if one of history's greatest inventors had to rely on today's venture capitalists. It also happens to promote a Kickstarter effort to build a WiFi hot spot statue of Tesla in Silicon Valley. What's interesting is that the video isn't some sort of populist celebration of Kickstarter. Instead, it depicts crowdfunding as a stopgap solution to the lack of large-scale vision among venture capitalists, whose tech-industry kingmaking is increasingly being called into question. The team behind the video, a creative project firm called Northern Imagination, admits the clip was pulled together quickly, which probably explains the strange audio levels and Tesla's questionable "Serbian" accent. But it has clearly struck a chord, inspiring GigaOm to write a 1,000-word essay on what the video "says about the state of Silicon Valley." In the meantime, the Tesla statue-raisers could still use your help. As of Thursday morning, they were still nearly $100,000 short of their goal, with only 10 days left. Via Boing Boing.
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Voici en exclusivité le film réalisé pour le lancement européen de la marque Hello bank!, où un orchestre symphonique piège son public grâce à une performance musicale basée sur des outils numériques. Une réalisation de Paul Dugdale (B-Reel) sur la célèbre musique de Georges Bizet – Carmen « Les Toreadors ».
Découverte d’Oscillate, le nom du projet de la thèse d’animation de Daniel Sierra au sein de la School of Visual Arts Computer Art MFA. Utilisant plusieurs logiciels d’animation et de modélisation, cette magnifique vidéo propose de mettre en images les variations musicales. A découvrir en images et en HD dans la suite.
A l’occasion de leur 50 ans, le constructeur Lamborghini a présenté à Sant Agata Bolognese le nouveau concept-car « Egoista » sous la forme d’un habitacle monoplace. Propulsé par 600 chevaux et son moteur V10, cette supercar se caractérise par son cockpit sur-mesure en fibre de carbone et en aluminium.
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