Keep Out Sign Irresistible Online

“Despite one website creator’s plea to stay away from his site, people just can’t stand not clicking on the Don’t Go There button. The site, programmed to go dark after 100 visitors, stayed live just shy of one hour.” Michelle Delio —Keep Out Sign Irresistible OnlineWired) Similar:Quick visit to see my mother and siblings.Students are…

Radebaugh: The Future We Were Promised

An excellent collection of images by a futurist illustrator. The website itself is rather difficult to navigate. First, it uses frames. Second, nothing happens when I click on the images that are supposed to be “portals”. Third, there’s really no text anywhere that I could quote in order to introduce the content of the site.…

Bourke-White's 'Photography of Design': Early Work Found the Hidden Beauty in Industry

“Margaret Bourke-White hung out of bombers to take pictures, climbed out on a gargoyle high atop the Chrysler Building to take pictures, was the first Western photographer to go to the Soviet Union, covered the dangerous days of India’s partition….Margaret Bourke-White was in love with the shapes of industrial design — the mechanical muscle and…

Relatively Speaking

“But however it may be in the art gallery, in moral issues we often cannot agree to differ. Agreeing to differ with Genghis is in effect agreeing to tolerate fox-hunting, and my whole stance was against that. Moral issues are frequently ones where we want to coordinate, and where we are finding what to forbid…

Film Scientists Not All Mad, Bad

“It might seem like a stretch to compare scientists to, say, African Americans and Latinos, who have historically been targets of often viciously stereotypical portrayals in film and on TV. But Weber thinks the media has a blind spot when it comes to scientists.” Jason Silverman —Film Scientists Not All Mad, BadWired) Similar:Visiting the #scienceofpixar…

Content is Crap

“The public water system is somewhat unpleasant to think about. Basically, the stuff you flush down the toilet gets sent through a filtering system. That system ‘treats’ the sewage until what remains is sufficiently pure to send back to you as drinking water. As content intermediaries, publishers perform an analogous function. Individual software writers, authors,…

Games * Design * Art * Culture

“Why is this a hobby horse of mine? Largely because I’ve been trying to promote the idea that games are an artform since I was a teenager, when I first started designing them professionally. Also because the rest of the world, both inside and outside the game industry, is starting to realize the validity of…

Fantasy Illustration by Luis Peres

“Creating imaginary worlds while trying to do it in a personal style to at least be able to retain some originality in my work, was always an enjoyable challenge for me and my favorite thing while drawing Fantasy themes.” Luis Peres —Fantasy Illustration by Luis Peresworld4mysheep.com) Similar:As part of an ongoing feud over the rights…

Interactivity Final Assignment: Create a Hoax. Submission: "Mothers Against Videogame Addiction and Violence"

“Proposal. Develop a false website and organization concentrating on the newest national concern: videogame addiction and violence. This organization is called Mothers Against Videogame Addiction and Violence (MAVAV, www.mavav.org). There is a great amount of stereotypes about people who play videogames (anti-social, depressed, unintelligent) and a lot of videogame violence bashing and blame (scapegoat) by…

"Star Trek" Reborn in Online Episode

“In what will surely be regarded as one of the best science-fiction ‘fan film’ projects of all time, a pair of ‘Star Trek’ fanatics have created a new episode in exacting 1960s style using their own actors, sets and props.” Julio Ojeda-Zapata —“Star Trek” Reborn in Online EpisodePioneer Press) Sigh. I am such a Trek…

The Rise of “Synthespians”

“Mr. Serkis is the human actor behind the computer-generated (CG) character Gollum, a wizened Hobbit who’s part manlike, part evil beast. More than just giving voice to the character, Serkis provided all its movements and facial expressions, which were later ‘painted over’ by animators.” Gregory M. Lamb —The Rise of “Synthespians” (CS Monitor) Gollum is…

Theaters Getting Game: Stadium-style room is transformed into a gaming center

“The theater has been transformed into a multi-player gaming center in which patrons can challenge one another on some 80 computer games. Unlike a video arcade, players will compete against each other on such popular game systems as Microsoft’s XBox, Sony’s PlayStation 2 and Nintendo’s GameCube. Where there used to be stadium-style theater seating, there…

Diego Time

Watch a family change over 27 years: “On June 17th, every year, the family goes through a private ritual: we photograph ourselves to stop a fleeting moment, the arrow of time passing by.” Diego Golberg —Diego TimeZone Zero) Similar:Couples in successful relationships always use these 6 phrases: ‘You’ll grow stronger both…Students are trusting software like…