moon
Debut SF movie Moon directed by Duncan Jones is a well-executed ballistic hadouken. Get the cards right: the son of David Bowie drops a movie inspired by 2001: Space Odyssey and Blade Runner about how a 3-year long Moon maintenance job can turn into a nightmare in the last two weeks - including a weird doppelgänger, Sam Rockwell and a computer voiced by Kevin Spacey and a set designer from Alien, who's obviously not onscreen. But I surely digress.
The film's screened at Sundance this year, also in Los Angeles and New York on the 12th of June, Sony Pictures Classics starts commercial distribution from June 2009. (via io9)
daichi: japan's answer to beatboxing beardyman
18-year old wonder kid Daichi is making world beatboxing championships - Beardyman and all his celebrity kin - work hard on their tonguework. Although his contestant material for the YouTube Beatboxing Championship is nothing short of amazing (his scratching is GODLY), what's really shining is his appearance in a Japanese TV show where he performs with boyband SMAP - but before that, he's really sending everyone in a frenzy and he deserves every fucking millisecond of it. (via japanitup)
UPDATE 1: It's not merely the scratching that makes Daichi's stagework amazing but also the tongue clicks he does. Ever thought about all the click consonants that South Africans have in lots of their dialects? How many kick-ass beatboxers can they have - or what if Daichi is actually speaking in African dialects when he rolls a groove?
melbourne shuffle: futó embertől a kvadra térdrúgásig
Lassan vagy körülbelül, de húsz éves a Melbourne Shuffle, Ausztrália egyik legnagyobb ajándéka a frissvízi krokodilokon, a kilencvenes évek popkulturális alapját képező poszt-apokaliptikus filmek helyszínéül szolgáló félsivatagokon (ezt kétszer is elolvastam egymás után, pedig én írtam), a glitterkopasz öko-rockot játszó Midnight Oilon és az ever-optimista neonipari Angelspiten, valamint Greg Egan sci-fi írón kívül. (Ha a cikk itt végződne, azzal kellene zárnom, hogy Ausztrália végeredményben jó hely, a fák égéssel szaporodnak, valamint onnan indult ki a New Project is. Köszönöm, hogy elmondhattam, továbbmegyek.)
A fluoreszkáló áramvonalakkal cizellált, vagy kényelmesen baggy városi közlekedést biztosító phat nadrágokban járt, csúszásokból és forgásokból és strafekből véletlenszerűen összerakott táncstílust ezer helyen köthettük be a tudatunkba, a YouTube rengeteg kapcsolódást ad jumpstyle, tecktonik, c-walk és számos más koreográfia felé, zenei oldalról ismerhetjük hardstyle, hardtrance, trance vagy éppen valami csűrdöngölősebb, fogazott evil psy istállójából - fent a stílusról szóló első dokufilm, a Melbourne Shuffler trailere köszönt minket, ebben interjúvolták a brit Lab 4 duót, akik korábban a To Die Forban játszottak szomorúgótot, aztán inkább átmentek a The Torture Garden fétisklubjába hardtrancet játszani, Scott Alient, Melbourne legjobb acid DJ-jét és az ex-Prodigy Leeroy "az ő lába alatt pattogtak a petárdák" Thornhillt is.
Aki ilyet akar tanulni, az szaladjon neki a YouTube-nak, a kanonizáltan hárombetűs csapatok ugyanis oda táncolják fel fémjelzett mozdulatosoraikat, ebből pedig alaposan szemezgetnünk kell, a jóléti társadalom izgága motollafiúi (érdekes, ujjatlanpólós motollalányokat nem láttam) mellett ugyanis egyenlő eséllyel mutatják meg beszédüket favágással központozó redneck tizenévesek, hogy hogyan kell a családi parkettát sarokkal kirecézni. Mercenary még tavaly írt egy rövidebb posztot a shuffleról, szerinte négy alapmozdulatból tevődik össze a stílus, ezek a fast running man, T, kick és a 360 spin action, a fenti oktatóvideó azonban - a kezdők kedvéért - csak kettőt tanít be, a shufflet és a running mant, illetve a kettőt összekötő átmenetet, ezzel is nagyon jól lehet alapozni - további infót első nekifutásra a Melbourne Shuffle Oldskool oldaláról vagy annak még régebbi, de érezhetően különböző verziójáról lehet nyúlni, a magyar vonatkozásról pedig csak csendben annyit, hogy a Subba a leghülyébb dance evernek nevezte, amiért az alapítók saját fegyverével, a nyálas faszkorbáccsal sújtunk vissza. Tavaly még Shuffle Meetup is volt a Hősök terén, szervezkedjetek newtecherek és cangások mellett önerőből, tizennyolc felett is jó sokszor tizenhétnek lenni, május 9-én úgyis raveparty van a K2-ben.
daito manabe having a party in your face
Daito Manabe kickstarted his way to YouTube last October, now he's posting more material on his microstimulus projects that sync facial muscle twitches to glitch minimal. Above: four of his friends taking part in a sync experiment, below: it's all about adding LED light. (via gizmodo)
UPDATE 1: Follow Daito's YouTube channel.
lilt line, put your dirt inside
A new rhythm game (one of many, actually) is coming to the iPhone platform called Lilt Line with a dubstep flavour, according to creator Gordon Midwood. Looks like Audiosurf in 2D and although simplistic in its abstraction, it promises to an instant buy. Beware of people whose content is fulfilled with a single line. Less is really much, much more. (via indiegamesblog)
frequency, amplitude: rez-like rhythm/remix games
Cyberpunk died with Johnny Mnemonic, the Krokers said in 1995, Robert Longo killed it - and with that came the slow dissipation of wireframes and vast electronic non-spaces of either consensual hallucination or psychedelia. Tetsuya Mizuguchi had it on PS2 and he brought it back for the 360 XBLA, leaving splinters of rumours about a Rez sequel and leaving us waiting empty-handed. If you still own your PS2, dust it off and google up a store where they still sell Frequency and Amplitude - developed by Harmonix in 2001 and 2003, respectively.
It's all about evoking the mindless speed limit breaking into an octogonal tunnel with sides connected to tracks, each of them containing notes you have to hit in order to keep the music flowing. It's basically a game-induced remix tool, containing songs by The Crystal Method, Curve, Orbit, Roni Size, Juno Reactor, Meat Beat Manifesto and a lot more in Frequency and the same diverse repertoire comes up in the sequel with Garbage, Herbie Hancock, Styles of Beyond or even Pink. My only heartbreak is that it's only for the Playstation - and PC's never really gotten far with similar music/rhythm games apart from Audiosurf.
louis vuitton + takashi murakami qr code
The first stylish QR code I've seen - done by Tokyo creative agency SET, promoting the joint projects of Louis Vuitton and Takashi Murakami. Although Jean Snow sez it works, I didn't manage to actually decode that - can you? (via dvice)
the sensoring manifesto
If we do not progress beyond the stage of gadgets, we will become increasingly detached as we attempt to follow an insurmountable amount of information. By acquiring information as sensory input instead of a disruptive gadget, the natural senses are strengthened. The capacity of the brain can be increased, new senses added, and old senses enhanced. It has already been found that additional streams of information can be parallel processed by the brain, the user only aware of the information, not the delivery system. Not only is this possible, but it is happening right now. (Grant Meacham, The Sensoring Manifesto)
condition: human
In the near future, man has begun to address the economic and environmental issues plaguing the early 21st century. Rapid technological advancements have changed life dramatically, especially the creation of advanced humanoid robots who have begun to play an integral part in everyday life. Takumi Kenji, the reclusive CEO of Kenji Electronics, and father of all things A.I. has announced the first ever 'companion' bots. A model of humanoid whose interactive capabilities are remarkably natural. As robots continue to evolve their place amongst us must evolve as well. And as it does society carries the responsibility of answering the moral questions that come.
Episode 1 and 2 are available on Vimeo and YouTube as I'm writing, check up on any info on the series on Facebook and MySpace.
silver bionic grace
A moment of awe. Robotic penguins shown at Hannover-Messe this year, using a new flexible glass fibre flapper technique, being able to move like their living counterparts - with the addition of being able to move backwards as well. The real beauty, it's more like the helium-filled animals floating and moving around each other with visible grace. If you remember the Jones, the cypherpunk dolphin from Johnny Mnemonic - how about this as a casemod for your box and router in one package of silver curves?
love is exploration, love is shaders (love is noise)
I wrote almost a year ago about Eskil Steenberg's (not so) massively multiplayer game LOVE - working with the procedural generation approach, gently sloshing your retina with visuals you're not exactly used to in video games. It's indie, it's been done by one guy. And Kotaku's out with a demonstration video.
the fall of anti-establishment: jg ballard dies aged 78
Author of Crash, Vermillion Sands and other avantgarde SF works of the new millennium, James Graham Ballard died yesterday, 19th April, 2009, at the age of 78, after a long battle with cancer. Guardian has a longer retrospective on him. (via renegade futurist)
gathering, breakpoint: kilobytes and neon grids well spent
Younglings, prepare for massif breakdown. Two of the major demoscene events, Gathering and Breakpoint have announced their winners and I'm posting you only two of the many that's really worth checking out. ASD is back with another supreme demo this year with a terrific amount of blue wireframe and statik black (ranked 1st in the Windows demo category at Gathering 2009), whereas RGBA/TBC proves that you can add almost four minutes of gliding camera on photorealistic landscapes synced to music into nothing more than 4 kilobytes of code. Grand Theft Auto IV on dual-layer DVDs? Rockstar, eat your heart out. (ASD - Rupture at pouet.net, RGBA/TBC - Elevated at pouet.net)
juno reactor: "i wanted to be like yello"
All of us who grew up with MTV and the techno era of the nineties have a few strands of Ben Watkins in our DNA. We spent an hour on the phone with one of the forefathers of all that's goa and psy with the saw leads and the bubbling basslines and the samples that cut knowledge in our forebrains and we know - he loves working with new people, he thinks dubstep is the new shit and he's just a master chef... or so he says.
(Originally published in THE DOSE #2, 2007.)
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alec empire: "music videos don't matter anymore"
We hooked up with Alec Empire not too long after Election Day. The mastermind behind Atari Teenage Riot and now his new project, The Hellish Vortex redbulled into a chilly evening and talked about his apparent optimism into 2009, his movie projects, how MySpace fame can turn into a worst nightmare and also, what you need to tweak to acquire the urban stage legend we call "riot frequency". All this in the bowels of a Ukrainian stone-carrier ship turned into a venue on the Danube.
(Photos by Akos Stiller.)
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aural lsd, junior bondage: best iphone apps round-up, part 2
We're spending less time with Left 4 Dead and Mirror's Edge (prepare for parkour goodness soon!), yet increasingly more with all the iPhone games that started trickling in the App Store since January - lots of neon geometry, intriguing gameplay, good design and some more procrastination extraordinaire. From aural LSD to Van Helsing Crimsonland, junior bondage and beatbox tutorials, it's all here.
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allosphere: a gigantic solution of data visu (joann kuchera-morin, ted talks)
Electrons dance and they are music. Tissues form landscapes. Greg EganAllosphere< was presented at TED, the thinktank spawning pool. I spend a moment of awe with the electron flow, a moment of certainty it is not only soundform that thoughts resonate with, it is visu as well. (allosphere)
from edge to finger fu: best iphone apps round-up, part 1
Cyberpunk or not, The Dose HQ is all about 80s vectors revisited (think Darwinia!), abstract geometrical forms and intense finger-flicking action, when it comes to handheld games. Until the i-platforms receive their well-deserved share of Flash, here's a brief rundown of all the apps - mostly games - we came to love in the past few months. They sometimes look like Rez, cover you like Music for Airports and they often frustrate you into an inhuman piece of shrieking Neanderthal who's been just defied by the complexity of a cube. Grab some demonic wisdom here!
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fetish, industrial and cyberpunk tweeters
MySpace without cleavages, Facebook without apps, last.fm without networking. This is how you'd look at Twitter if you'd live in a tunnel with acute hard-on syndrome for eyecandy, ADHD and honest love for click frenzy. That's alright, some of us still do. We'd take a different approach, though, and follow the footsteps of Violet Blue who made a wonderful job drawing up a master list of sex tweeters - we'd do the same for industrial, gothic, fetish, steampunk and cyberpunk, perhaps alternative. Let us know if we're missing someone!
Amanda Palmer of Dresden Dolls
Amelia Arsenic of Angelspit
Björk
Chris Cornell
Das Bunker (the venue)
Dillinger Escape Plan
Dir en Grey
DJ Xian
Dresden Dolls
EBM Radio
Ego Likeness
Erasure
Experiment Haywire
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge
The Horrorist (Oliver Chesler)
I:Scintilla
kiEw
Liam Howlett (of The Prodigy)
MERA LUNA FESTIVAL
Mr. Joe Black
Muse
Sigur Rós
The Birthday Massacre
The Genitorturers
The Last Dance
Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails
Tyske Ludder
Zoog of Angelspit
[fetish and model photography]
Adrianne Anderson
Alecia Anathema
Amelia G
Ancilla Tilia
Angela Ryan
Apnea
Athena Fatale
Bianca Beauchamp
Captive Culture
Chad Michael Ward
Christine Kessler
Courtney Crave
Darenzia
Deanna Deadly
Dita Von Teese
Donna Ricci
Emily Marilyn
Evelyn Rose
Fetish Jade
Ivy Blue
January Seraph
Josie Nutter
Kumi
Lenora Claire
Lexie Molotoff
Lexmachine
Libby Bulloff
Lithium Picnic
Miss Amarantha
Miss Duveaux
Natalie Addams
Nicotine
Noir Halo
Ropemarks
Rope Marks Muse
Rubberdoll
Rubber Dollemma
Saryn Christina
Satine Phoenix
Steve Diet Goedde
Sofia Valentine
Twisted Mermaid
Ugly Shyla
[they write, draw and design, gloriously]
Aunia Kahn
Ben Templesmith
Billy Antiseptic (of Antiseptic Fashion)
Bizarre magazine
Bruce Sterling
Coilhouse (the magazine)
Cory Doctorow
Douglas Rushkoff
Ectomo (the site)
Ego Assassin (they make printed latex clothing)
Haute Macabre (the site)
Iron Fist Clothing
Jhonen Vasquez
John Perry Barlow
Mer of Coilhouse
Molly Crabapple
Nadya Lev of Coilhouse
Neil Gaiman
Richard Kadrey
Side-Line (the site)
Stephen Levy
Tank Girl
Warren Ellis
Zoetica Ebb of Coilhouse
[list last updated: 2009 apr 23, photo is used by kind permission of @dawe_)
headscan: "cyberpunk was not a revolution"
Headscan has always been a definitve milestone in intelligent dance electro, industrial techno, cyberpunk, call it what you will, in a pantheon of names like Haujobb, Clock DVA or Forma Tadre. Cool, blue and sombre across the soundscape of the real, they slapped Gibson and Sterling into the mix of hyperclear electronics under the TV skies of Canada. Taking a break, they shared their opinions on cyberpunk, bizarro, techno-fetishism, Dune and many more.
(Originally published in THE DOSE #2, 2006.)
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kenji siratori: japanese cyberpunk institution
Kenji Siratori: acclaimed Japanese cyberpunk artist, bizarro idol, brain sex toy for linguists and rebels alike. Released nine books, over forty discs and worked with names like Portion Control, Bahntier, Pride and Fall, Prometheus Burning and Hypnoskull. According to some, he's not even alive. Yet, he talked to us about the Japanese cyberpunk scene. Be advised. He has FUCKNAMLOAD. (Originally published in THE DOSE #2.)
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twitter locates in shibuya, the net as a tokyo subway map
The idea itself is nothing new to data visu big bwai. Rip this idea thoughtfully: photoshop-crop out all the details and make a subway flowchart for your personal life or your searchwords and pin them on the subway system for your country, may just mash it up. Ideal for printing, Flickr has it 6740 x4768, do something similar for your sites. Zoomarama has a zoomable flash version. (via gizmodo)