I promised myself at some point in the past year or so that I’d stop forgetting the Paleofuture blog I love so much. (Yeah, that worked out.) While I wasn’t watching this time, the creator decided to start putting together video montages on specific topics related to the world of tomorrow. Upshot to just realizing this now: not one but two videos to get started – one on food, one on the apocalypse.
(Did anyone else hear Orson Welles say “nuke-u-ler”?)
I sometimes forget that even The Cure could be susceptible to the nonsensical pop madness that was the 80s. Thanks for reminding me, VH1 Classic!
David Herbert’s 2005 sculpture/monolith VHS is an 8-foot-tall video cassette copy of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001. What does this piece mean? I’m not entirely sure, but I’m just going to assume it’s an audacious statement against Betamax.
(io9)
Imagine if Siouxsie had performed in the Galleria à la Tiffany or Debbie Gibson. Don’t stretch your imagination too far, though, because it would have looked something like this:
The French: chic even in their mall concerts.
And now an actual video from Zola Jesus.
I love it when BMW goes to the movies. I’m sure you remember their 2001-2002 films starring Clive Owen – most notably “Star” with Madonna in the backseat of an M5. Proving what a difference a decade makes, the newest series of BMW videos, “Wherever You Want To Go,” will be focusing on the future of mobility. From really expensive productions about the BMW lifestyle…to basically the same thing but about green technology and human scale transportation solutions. Anyway, it should be a lot of fun and the videos will be released all throughout February, beginning on the 1st.
(Autoblog)
I have, sitting on my desk right now, a stack of iPod touch devices that I have slipped into Belkin Ergo cases with straps. I have loaded onto each a copy of iMovie, a custom Media Commons background and an organized set of icons. These devices are intended to travel to the upcoming TLT Symposium where they will be used as video capture devices that can allow attendees to record their community engagement experiences, edit them quickly and upload directly to our YouTube channel.
But these iPods represent a bit more than just a trinket to be used at a conference. We are actually exploring how we can replace our fleet of Flip cameras as primary video production devices for each of the Penn State campuses here at the Media Commons. The benefit is, of course, the flexibility of the iPod touch. Instead of just shooting video, students could use the same sub-$300 device to edit, upload, research content online, record audio, take still photos, type up notes, etc. And that’s just with the default apps. One can imagine field guides, lesson manuals and more preloaded on iPods for specific classes.
Of course, all of this experimentation is leading us towards an even grander goal: iPad (2) as primary device for producing, editing and sharing content for students. The promise of such a solution is too great to not begin exploring it now. Being able to grow at the cost (in up front purchases and tech support complexity) of the iOS is so much more appealing than trying to add more Macs to each campus, don’t you think?
(From my iPad blog.)
The Digital Media & Learning Conference has published its schedule for the 2011 “Designing Learning Futures” event and it’s a bigger collection of workshops and panel discussions than I imagined! 17 workshops and 42 panels are spread across several tracks on four days, providing ample opportunity to learn from some of the best minds in the field. I’m most interested in the “Novel Content Sourcing: Reframing Curriculum for the 21st Century”, “Designing for designers: Exploring ways in which online community settings support young people’s participation as digital media creators” and “New Participatory Models of Professional Development” sessions – and that’s just from day one! This conference should be a lot of fun – and Long Beach at the beginning of March is never a bad departure from the snow that keeps falling on University Park.
Made famous by BMW, the concept of the art car has picked up another German manufacturer as participant: Mercedes-Benz. MB sponsored a four car installation entitled Recollection Quartett which places iconic models from the marque inside of sculptures conceived by Frederik Heyman and styled by a trio of fashion designers. All a part of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Berlin (where else?).
Rock group Angels & Airwaves’ Tom DeLonge (formerly of Blink 182) produced and created the music for the spacey film Love. The movie’s about a astronaut stuck alone on a space station, and the visuals are remarkable.
And they are – io9 nails it. To quote them again:
Plus, the music is pretty gripping (something I was earlier dreading when I first read of A&A’s involvement, I was wrong it’s lovely).
And it is…and I did, too. I really don’t like Angels & Airwaves all that much (though the visuals for their first single, “The Adventure” – oddly, set in space – did allow me to partake for a viewing or two) but this soundtrack (if the trailer is to be believed) is sublime.
I wish I could set my blog posts to remind me about things because I want to remember to see this movie. Perhaps a new plugin to research? I also really should finish Moon, I’m realizing…
Well, not really the Media Commons so much as me, but I did have a badge on with “Nick Smerker – Penn State University” while there this past Thursday.
The AutoWeek Design Forum is an annual event held in Detroit each January that brings together creative folks from within and around the automotive industry. This year was no different, welcoming the head of exterior design from Audi, chief executive of Johnson Controls, art director and director of Cars 2 at Pixar and more into the halls of the College for Creative Studies.
Aside from the obvious benefit to a car geek like myself, was the Design Forum worth the blustery drive across three states for those interested in media? Absolutely. The industry is chock-full of media from digital renderings in product brochures, magazines and websites to delightful animations in Pixar’s creations to the truly futuristic ideas of holographic sales consultations in showrooms and fully modeled concepts in the design rooms.
More than that, being in a room full of – quite literally: you should have seen the breakfast/lunch crowd – creative people at the top of their fields was a breath of fresh air. Even if you took out the car-focus, the Design Forum was a chance to listen to amazingly artistic people talk about nothing but the inspiration behind creativity.