immolate yourself (telefon tel aviv, the mill)
The Mill’s renowned directing trio, Bif, has conceived a dark and eerie short-film in Dix. Dix, which is French for “ten,” highlights Mark, a tortured man who suffers from an obsessive-compulsive disorder that forbids him from physically stepping on lines beneath his feet. In many ways, the main characters unnerving anxiety is reminiscent of the childhood mantra that, “If you step on a crack, you break your Mother’s back.” (via motionographer but more importantly thanks to Tommy for showing this to me at a very important moment, after all the chili and the glorious pain)
TO: ten free minutes of Fumihiko Sori's latest CG scifi anime
Avex uploaded a ten minute long clip from Fumihiko Sori’s Sci-Fi CG Anime TO to youTube. Technically, this doesn’t look much better than Vexille but maybe TO will have more to offer on the story side since it’s based on Yukinobu Hoshino’s 2001 Nights (2001 Ya Monotogari) manga series. (...) TO will be released in two episodes, Symbiotic Planet and Elliptical Orbit on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in Japan on December 18, 2009. (via affenheimtheater, a fantastic blog you should really delve into - amazing things there!
robert seidel - _grau, a short film
Award-winning experimental film _grau for the first time in HD on Christmas 2009: … _grau is a personal reflection on memories coming up during a car accident, where past events emerge, fuse, erode and finally vanish ethereally … various real sources where distorted, filtered and fitted into a sculptural structure to create not a plain abstract, but a very private snapshot of a whole life within its last seconds … (via vimeo)
hangry & angry
Just talked to Meikee Magnetic and he referred me to a girl duo I regrettably haven't heard of. Yet. The gothloli pop duo of hANGRY & ANGRY comprises two 4th generation Morning Musume members (okay, there's a reason why they eluded me so far, heh), 吉澤 ひとみ - Hitomi Yoshizawa (hANGRY) and 石川 梨華 - Rika Ishikawa (ANGRY) and if you ayrtonsenna your precious headmeat into the Top Secret video (above), you'll treat yourself all too well, that's some quite decent Jpop material and most probably their catchiest and cheesiest hit so far. Apparently, according to Wikipedia, they're on a payroll of a Harajuku fashion store of the same name, so they're basically a promotion unit.
Hangry & Angry is a brand of popular Japanese designer h.NAOTO. Illustrator GASHICON draws the gurokawa (grotesque-cute)-style characters "Hangry" and "Angry" who came from the H44 Star Nebula in order to save the world from global warming. They arrived in the present in their time machine dubbed "LOVE MACHINE." (via japanfiles)
And while you're busy clicking your way around the ladies, be sure to check out Gothuall label they released their first mini album on and the other band on it called GaGaalinG, that might be a kick for all you people out there into the lighter side of J-rock like Danger Gang and exist†trace - this band is actually fronted by MAIMING, a model you could mostly see in the Harajuku fashion mag KERA.
the best commercial of 2009 (and hopefully 2010, as well): else mobile (the time has come)
The time has come. Electronic world evolves. Humans and data have become closer. They will become one. Technology was supposed to make our lives easier. Instead our lives grew more complicated. It was supposed to liberate us. Instead it enslaved us. It's time we demand a change.
Created for Else Mobile Phones as half viral campaign, half official website content and commissioned by The Visionaire Group in LA. 'The Time Has Come' acts as an intro for the new mobile device. The entire campaign was shot on location in downtown LA and California. (via vimeo.)
star wars burlesque
There's a reason why Courtney Cruz always performs last at Devil's Playground events and it's not simply because she founded the burlesque troupe. Her costumes, designed by Carlos Flores, are consistently over-the-top and heavily detailed, in this instance, down to the Stormtrooper pasties. She performed to Front 242's industrial dance hit "Headhunter." You should have been there. However, if you weren't, Devil's Playground will repeat the show on March 13. (via laweekly via boingboing)
Médium - Hang - Esztétika: USB-csatlakozót az agyunkba a szemünkön keresztül
Nosztalgiaízű, gyomormozgató basszusokkal és kávé helyett használható ütemekkel teli gyerekkori kedvenc cukorka a Médium-Hang-Esztétika tanulmánykötet. A Batta Barnabás szerkesztette gyűjtemény ugyanis hiába kapta a "zeneiség a mediális technológiák korában" alcímet, az az átlagolvasó számára ez nem sokat jelent - ellenben nagyszabású ívet húz az elektronikus zene előtörténetétől az iPod designelméletéig. Hozzátesszük: egész stílusosan teszi mindezt.
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juri
For starters, Juri looks to be more of a "roll" fighter than a charger. Most of her moves can be executed by your classic quarter or half circles and "Z" patterns rather than holds, putting her in the Ken/Ryu class, rather than guys like Guile and Honda. This aids in her ability as a quick striker, as well as her mid-air attacking, mixing up a nice bit of speed and angles in her fighting. (via ps3.ign.com and kotaku)
the third & the seventh
A FULL-CG animated piece that tries to illustrate architecture art across a photographic point of view where main subjects are already-built spaces. Sometimes in an abstract way. Sometimes surreal. (via vimeo)
the fortress of solitude (santambrogio & arosio)
An amazing concept designed by the Santambrogiomilano group. (...) The glass home is a collaboration between founder Carlo Santambrogio and designer Ennio Arosio featuring a series of iconic furniture pieces, beds, sofas and bookcases, along with architectural elements such as staircases and kitchens. They are all fashioned from ‘extraclear’ glass. (via io9.com)
psychick warriors ov gaia: exit 23 (the drum club remix)
Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia is a group of techno music producers from the Netherlands. It is also known as Thee Disciples Ov Gaia and Sluagh Ghairm, one of its members was affiliated to Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth. The group released a number of records and CDs on the Belgian KK Records in the late 1980s and early 1990s. (via wikipedia) | Mysterious formation from Holland (Tilburg), specialised in blends of deep techno, subtle trance and ambient soundscapes, mostly redefining the adjective 'tribal'. At the end of 1992, Robbert Heynen left the group to concentrate on his solo project Exquisite Corpse. (via discogs)
abstrakt: free experimental art game for iphone
Abstrakt, created by a group of students at the French games and media school ENJMIN, is a free application that allows players to interact with abstract art and music. (...) Each of the game’s included art pieces can be touched and dragged in order to add color, rearrange geometric elements, or reposition lines. (...) Abstrakt contains artwork from Paul Klee, Vassily Kandinsky, and Piet Mondrian, with each piece offering different mechanics and interactive elements. (via bestiphoneappmatic)
the burj birdmen: base jumping off burj dubai
Two men travel to Dubai to attempt a world record base jump off the worlds tallest buidling - The Burj Tower. Director's cut of the award winning Current TV broadcast.
brent stirton's photos of vanishing ethiopian tribes
Brent Stirton is a senior staff photographer for Getty Images and a LIFE.com contributor who routinely spends nine months of the year on assignment, all over the world, covering everything from narco-wars in Afghanistan to "fog harvesting" in Nepal. In 2007, Stirton spent two weeks in Ethiopia's Omo River Valley, documenting tribal groups that still live largely as they have for centuries. "This is a woman of the Mursi tribe, wearing boar's tusks, which traditionally would be considered men's decoration. The Mursi women are famous for their clay lip plates, a symbol of beauty. A woman would literally have a little hand bag with three or four of them featuring different designs. Sort of their own version of Prada." (via life.com)
mad catz' cyborg r.a.t. gaming mouse: if life has steam achievements, this will unlock them all
New line of Mad Catz gaming mice ships in Spring 2010, different models between 50 to 130 euros. The knobs, the color combination, the hidden needles! (via gizmodo)
tina root sings reaping beauty about bayonetta (and tina fey)
Last year at Comic-Con, everyone was talking about Bayonetta, this new game about a witch who comes back from hell and tries to find her way home. Beefy, Random and I wrote this song about how Bayonetta looks like Tina Fey and got Tina Root from the 90s industrial band Switchblade Symphony (back with the LA band Small Halo) to sing the hook which she wrote. The song was produced by Jason Bazinet from SMP. (download reaping beauty from mclars.com via kotaku)
the future is nao
The robot ad that ROCKS because of the soundtrack, a perfect blend of Boy Robot, Hecq and Lassigue Bendthaus. The rest? Oh, the rest. SingularityHub has a longer article on NAO: movable telepresence, facial recognition, text-to-speech translation sound solid, 15 thousand dollars for it more so. Check the ad in which robots lie and then humans get the moral upper end by literally kicking them in the back.
dubai: xero error, dubai 2010 and the star wars mockups
I wanted you to see Cédric Delsaux's Dubai Star Wars mockups first. IO9 has a longer post for you with all the construction images Delsaux so eloquently filled with Vaders, AT-ATs and Jawas. Among other geeky boytoys.
This satire of the classic Hollywood movie trailer was created by Dubai-based post-production house Rolling Thunder. The tongue-in-cheek clip depicts a futuristic Dubai, complete with skyscrapers, space shuttles and underwater space stations. The creative concept, script and all VFX shots were done in-house, supervised by Hermann Venter and Henrik Friberg. (read io9's comments for the starship homages)
In the future Artificial intelligence [AI] is superceded by Natural intelligence [NI]. The story centers on XE7, a cyborg on a spiritual journey who discovers the unknown. He begins to realize that things in recorded history contradict with facts he has observed in real life and begins to open up his mind to the supernatural. He finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, at a major crime scene, leading him to a Cyber-terrorism scandal and trouble with FACET - The First Authority in Cyber Espionage and Terrorism. Packaged as a slick, futuristic thriller, the compelling storyline keeps you guessing till the end. (xero-error.com, extra info in the article via thenational.ae)
UPDATE 1: Just seeing there was a SF short released in Dubai entitled Alliance, any more infos about that, anyone? (The film, set in the 24th century, begins with a planet under attack from a shadowy extra terrestrial race who launch brutal and inexplicable raids on Earth at the same time that a decades-old anarchist movement plunges the planet into cycles of terrorist attacks and destruction.)
the marionette unit: steampunk ballet torture film
SYNOPSIS: This film is set in an alternate Victorian England, a world where steam-punk technology has developed rapidly and in a world where all creativity, art and individual expression is state-controlled. The Marionette Unit is a theatre show where machine and human have been fused together. A musical machine that resembles a twisted tortured church organ, run with valves, steam and electricity, is connected by a mass of electrical cables to three ballet dancers, who have the wires fused into their bodies. The dancers are controlled by the machine much to the amazement of the Victorian audience.
We follow the story of Smith, an enigmatic character connected to an underground society of artists, hunted by the police. He has come to watch the prize ballet dancer, Georgette try and escape the wired clutches of The Marionette Unit. Will she be able to wrestle free and escape with Smith, or will she succumb to the powerful forces that hold her captive? What follows is a stunning and imaginative display of the human spirit fighting to be set free. (the marionette unit official site via io9)
the first post of 2010: the machine that turns itself off
Instructables has instructions for building this Claude Shannon-style box that turns itself off. (via boingboing)