splinters: aliens and blade runner scenes in cryengine 2
Splinters. Fishing out all the details from the inbox and spreading it to you, exactly as they were months ago. Won't move on until the splinters are not layered out on the floor evenly so that you could end up with aching feet. Or whatever that is that you're walking on.
A group of three talented artists have put together an amazingly accurate scene from the science-fiction movie classic Blade Runner using Sandbox 2 World Editor. (via incrysis)
manifest destiny
Every time I find myself the recipient of one of these late night phone calls, tramping through some back alley behind another dark abandoned warehouse... Stuttering another secret password... Entering another hastily constructed operating room... Scalpel in hand, performing another indescribable procedure... I see another pair of eyes... By now in the hundreds... Staring... Whenever I try to sleep... Another member of an unenviable audience... Asking a painfully simple question for which I have no answer... Why... Cranston says I need to “detach”. I suppose he’s right. I can no longer bear their judgment. I leave them here... On the table... As I scribble my signature on the confidentiality agreement, I leave them to their fate... I say goodbye... (via io9 as the creepiest surgery scene in the world)
paul robertson and his mecha fetus movies of 8-bit joy
"Paul wants to RIVERSIDE MUTHA FUCKA deet deet deet deet deet deet pooom pooom." We really wouldn't like to bother you now, Paul, would we. Still, let's give this a try. Last weekend's Budapest Micro fest gave us splendors like Nullsleep, blasted and multiplied by gorgeous and psychotic visuals such as this piece of holy jewel below, Kings of Power 4 Billion % done by Paul Roberson (not the Canadian businessman. Make this poor man a Wikipedia entry, let him procrastinate.) Below, a joyful orgy of anything and everything you could have pillaged from the last twenty years of the past millennium: from epic massacres to sword-wielding chibis and kids whose movement always ends up as ten changes of adjacent pixels, but hell, their number is just pure legion. (Yes, I know we talk 8-bit art. Move on.)
The Kings of Power 4 Billion % music was composed by Cornel Wilczek (seriously, let's just backtrack here for a while - you don't compose nowadays, that stuff you hear there? that's a contraption. that's being done with a tracker. or a gameboy. operated by nipple twists and a theremin.), if you want some massive oldschool (or lesbian schoolgirl, I'd love to post it and Google would so monkeyslap me out of the AdSense cartwheel) artwork, check up on The Mecha Fetus Visublog and don't forget to check out one of his older movies, Pirate Baby's Cabana Street Fight, check out part one, YouTube the rest.
sin tuesday
Hello, this is Sin Tuesday. Do whatever you feel like doing, be prepared for updates. I am re-possessing my brain that was used as an outsourced computer for Hungarian national security science commandos. Which obviously raises the question - what if you could use human brains to actually render porn and then burn those visions to a HD and then bam! Add an adult movie title randomizer, an adult movie script randomizer that automatically crossreferences scripts with available actors/actresses and there you go, automated, on-demand porn industry is there, on the rise. Oh. Did I just give you an idea there? Hire me. (via live360.fr)
penfield's electrode: the author speaks
This past month? It was about digging up obscure stuff on YouTube, partly amateur cyberpunk concepts, short films, idea buds, you name it. One lucky contestant was Penfield's Electrode, Brainmove's weird mixture of a moody narrative and when the medical bioterror storyline would kick in, bam, cliffhanger. No part two anywhere. We even missed it.
So, I had a friendly chat with the man behind Penfield's Electrode. The project is basically a one-man show with some friends helping out with the acting and Brainmove working on the story, editing and recruiting friends who need to be convinced over pints of beer. (What's more to come, he'll be making his debut as the male lead in a couple of episodes.) It's basically all wrapped together with a cheap Canon handycam, an iMac and a CompositeLab Pro. Some progress has already been done on the second episode and it's going to be done in a reasonable timeframe. Whatever that means.
singapore in 2015
Gleeful childlike nostalgia, the Singapore skyline, laced with families, nothing more than flickering neon Morse tweets scattered over downtown. Gleeful childlike nostalgia, how elements of Appleseed, Bubblegrum Crisis and devilishly cheerful Microsoft "future ads" pop up in this six-minutes long "we almost had this, the future" video on how Singapore in 2015 will actually look like. See how all the points connect? Obviously not. This is a nodal point now.
Intelligent Nation 2015 (iN2015) is Singapore’s 10-year masterplan to help us realise the potential of infocomm over the next decade. Led by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), iN2015 is a multi-agency effort that is the result of private, public and people sector co-creation.From the people sector, individuals provided their ideas and views through focus groups and the Express iT! iN2015 Competition. The competition attracted thousands of entries from students and the general public on how they envisioned infocomm would impact the way they live, work, learn and play in 2015. In addition, hundreds of private and public sector representatives participated in numerous discussions to come up with ideas for transforming their sectors through infocomm, and how to translate these ideas into reality. (in2015 via @dawe_ via @bruces)
human perfection, what could go wrong?
Synopsis: FBI agents (Bruce Willis and Radha Mitchell) investigate the mysterious murder of a college student linked to the man who helped create a high-tech surrogate phenomenon that allows people to purchase unflawed robotic versions of themselves-fit, good looking remotely controlled machines that ultimately assume their life roles-enabling people to experience life vicariously from the comfort and safety of their own homes. The murder spawns a quest for answers: in a world of masks, who’s real and who can you trust? (via cpc)
The Surrogates theatre launch date: September 25, 2009.
ridley scott confirmed to direct new alien movie
After months of rumor and speculation, Variety confirms that 20th Century Fox plans to keep the "Alien" franchise alive with a prequel film that will be directed by original helmer Ridley Scott. (...) Screenwriter Jon Spaihts has been hired to write the prequel after the studio was impressed by his work on two space thrillers, both for Keanu Reeves, called Passengers and Shadow 19. (via comingsoon.net)
nawlz: updates on the net's best cyberpunk comics
Todd of Jawbone.TV just informed me about some updates concerning one of the most imaginative, pure, drug- and neonlight-laden interactive comics art project that's ever come to the Net called NAWLZ. (Hungarian readers might remember, I very briefly covered it last December.) So, this is hard work and global collaboration sparked and fueled by nineties cyberpunk anime and thrives to show how designer culture might look like if we were 50 years into the future. Check nawlz.com to see how you, if you're an artist or someone to rip them off, could form a new platform of content distribution. Sutu mentions in the interview that he'd love to publish his comics - count me in for one happy customer monkey. If you're interested in the work process - and you know you are - check the remaining two videos here on jawbone.tv.
gamer: living, breathing sex dolls
Brian Taylor describes the game's dynamic as "much like the adult industry", with people being paid to enter into various sexual situations, some willingly, and some less willingly. Regardless, within gameplay these human sex dolls must surrender completely to the gamer's control. Despite the game's vibrant candy colors and glittery aesthetic, Taylor confesses "it's a very dark place." (via io9)
the book of eli: just like fallout, only with tom waits
Denzel Washington goes Fallout in The Book of Eli, a 2010-scheduled post-apocalyptic extravaganza. Kotaku's already drawing parallels with the Fallout universe which is as obvious as anything, so really, get over it. Apart from Washington, the cast includes, first and foremost, Tom Waits himself as an Engineer (you could only top that with Ron Perlman as the Engineer's evil twin brother. But I'll include his dark swamp cabaret vaudeville here just in case), Mila Kunis (her Max Payne appearance hopefully forecasts annihilating mutant hordes with attitude and a leather-covered ass) and Michael Gambon. (UPDATE: And yes, Gary Oldman himself is there as well - who just managed to blurt out there's a new Batman movie in the works including him in the cast.)
tron legacy trailer: watch and embed!
The TRON Legacy trailer surfaced on the net a good 12 hours ago - unfortunately, YouTube has made all Legacy trailers non-embeddable (this is how I managed to not via CPC's post) - help comes from Hungarian blogger Aeon Flux. Sit back, hit fullscreen, enjoy. (And embed, while you still can. Embed disable for a movie trailer in 2009? Disney, eat fuck.) (via aeon flux)
tetsuo the bullet man: tsukamoto's english-speaking sequel
That's a good day to be an IO9 reader now. According to them, Shinya Tsukamoto revealed his newest project at the Comic Con: Tetsuo the Bullet Man will be his new sequel to one of the most authentic cyberpunk monogatari so far. The English-speaking movie (to be released in 2010) is about Anthony, a guy working in Tokyo who transforms into Tetsuo after his son is called after the encounter of the "evil driver", a character who's basically creating Tetsuos in the first two movies. Join the Tetsuo Project here.
comic con: tr2n renamed to tron legacy
IO9 reports from Comic Con: apparently the sequel to the first Disney cyberpunk TRON is no longer called TR2N but Tron Legacy and apart from the brief lightcycle run we've seen in the first trailer, we find out that Flynn (Jeff Bridges) is living inside glowing vectorland and after 20 years his son gets a hunch and goes out to find him. (via io9) This is supplemented by a new site called Flynn Lives that apparently serves as a perfect basis for future augmented reality games. According to IMDB, Tron 2.0 - as they call it - is scheduled for the big screen in 2011.
obscure but retrieved 002: residuos
This pretty well-hiden piece comes from Chile, 2007. A subtle Battle Angel Alita infusion into the post-apocalyptic barren wastelands of the Fallout universe comes out as RESIDUOS (translates as waste), more like a 3D portfolio practice than anything and that's really without a story whatsoever - still a decent 80 seconds while you hose your bowels with ristrettos.
obscure but retrieved 001: voiden
Hours spent on YouTube, following links after links into depths you wouldn't have imagined you could go to during your working hours. Our gorgeous intelligence finds us neat but meaningless cyberpunkish, post-apocalyptic, grey-tinted hard eyecandies for us to devour, the first being VOIDEN. It was meant to be a Poser series, but no sequels have been posted since December 28, 2007. Think kindly of the dead and deceased.
An oppressed people struggle to rid themselves of the reign of terror imposed on them by Voiden with the help of a small group of mercenaries lead by Novan, the last of the Hybridtrons, a military cyborg race now permanently banned from Voiden. This is a Saga rooted in the tradition of Star Wars, Lord of the Rings or even Star Trek or Blade Runner, more episodes are coming, so sit and enjoy!
penfield's electrode: japanese girls and brain hacks for hire
Canadian neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield was something we'd have called a radio shack afficionado back in the days, only he did it to brains. If you ever wondered who found out the 0day vulnerability on the brain not feeling any pain directly, Penfield was surely one neurogeek to exploit that. According to what Michael Talbot wrote in The Holographic Universe,
While operating on the brains of epileptics, he would electrically stimulate various areas of their brain cells. To his amazement he found that when he stimulated the temporal lobes (the region of the brain behind the temples) of one of his fully conscious patients, they reexperienced memories of past episodes from their lives in vivid detail. One man suddenly relived a conversation he had had with friends in South Africa; a boy heard his mother talking on the telephone and after several touches from Penfield's electrode was able to repeat her entire conversation; a woman found herself in her kitchen and could hear her son playing outside.
This will serve as a gorgeous intro to YouTube user brainmove's "Repressed adolescent web-series in da house... ", PENFIELD'S ELECTRODE. Smooth Japanese narrative with low angle shots, heavy dose of after-effects and some shots of a mutating mental patient that reminds me of Metalosis Maligna. Tune in when we manage to find out more about this small jewel!
coilhouse issue 03 up for grabs
Is there anything you guys actually buy on paper instead of reading online? That was one of the key thoughts I asked myself when I killed off The Dose PDFs and I just might have completely missed the point. Coilhouse is one example of the Quality Paper Mag and the very milestone of The Critical Third Issue looks like it's just been stormed by gloriously: features on Kowloon Walled City, Boing Boing mind diva Xeni Jardin or Marina Bychkova's doll art are just one of the few. Grab the mag while you still can. I own them all.
tron reboot episode 2: 40 seconds of the neon-edged absurd
Ben Hansford's Tron comedy series is back with another 40 seconds. Top-notch visuals are seriously degraded by the lack of storyline and the comedy aspect of it all. Sad, sad.
tron comedy web series launches on youtube
Don't get too overexcited on the new Tron series. Tron Reboot basically equals comedy humour with classic Tron design and a whiff of commedia dell'arte bad. Expect new episode (previous was 93 seconds, barely enough for a gag reflex) on the 14th of July. If you're in for the more serious stuff, expect TR2N media launched on the new Comic-Con. (via cpc)