“They were a bit puzzled how the image was going to be done. But once they start seeing the resulting image, most of them start to see the deep impact of such a session. There’s a very deep longing in their sentiments. You can sense that they miss each other very much, and yet it’s something we have to accept in the current fast-paced society.”
Artist John Clang explains his new exhibition Being Together with The Atlantic.
It’s been a busy week here (and it’s only Wednesday) and I’ve been meaning to post the following for several days. So without further adieu:
The first episode of Brian Singer’s new web series H+. You’d better believe I’ll be watching the rest of these tonight.
With the advent of the smartphone, many Americans have grown used to the idea of having a computer on their person at all times. Wearable technologies like Google’s Project Glass are narrowing the boundary between us and our devices even further by attaching a computer to a person’s face and integrating the software directly into a user’s field of vision.
From “Cyborg America: inside the strange new world of basement body hackers“. While not necessarily a new concept, it’s a new take on the subject that looks really well done.
Amazing Martian art that was actually commissioned by NASA, proving that they have a sense of style even more so than Starhawk did.
Having played my fair share of text-based adventure games as a kid, I can tell you the joy that was getting to the occasional point when a crazy-awful illustration would pop onto the screen after multiple pages of story whizzed past. And when we progressed to mostly picture based games, the illustrations were an ever-present fact of storytelling, even if they didn’t really look all that fantastic.
Fast forward to now and we have io9 presenting us with haunting animated gifs in the style of vintage computer games by Uno Moralez. It’s like Zen & The Art of The Macintosh gone spooky.
Part art, part game and entirely cool, the badges put together for DefCon this year also have a purpose:
“Those doing the hardware hacks will have to find someone to do the puzzle side,” Clarke says. “It will drive them to find someone from the other side of the house.”
Learn more at Wired.
Just as when we were on the cusp of cyberpunk and didn’t know it, I’m hoping now for another new breed of writers, people who can craft drive-by speculations that leave us gasping with surprise.
My love of all things 80s and 90s artsy/techie of course has bred in me a fascination with the ethos of the cyberpunk. It doesn’t help that I’m also a Stephenson junkie and a Gibson supporter… Paolo Bacigalupi’s “How Cyberpunk Saved Sci-Fi” was a delightful find in the latest issue of Wired magazine. (And it’s available to read for free online now, too.)
Perhaps not too surprising since the staff at Wired’s always been on the cyberpunk bandwagon, though. Probably actually helping turn its tenets into our reality.
Like some sort of terrible combination of Portal, a medical form and copyright law, “Welcome to Life” greets a new resident of a future digital consciousness. If this is the singularity, would I still be in?
Absolutely.
In today’s “look at this cool thing that Wired unearthed” posting we have these incredible photos by Christina de Middel that envision what a Zambian space program in the 60’s might have looked like. Don’t laugh: apparently one was “seriously” considered. The image above is my new favorite thing of the next 72 hours, at least.
My friend Owen tipped me off to this awesome Science Friday piece on inventive Romanian high schooler, Raul and his successful orbital launch/retrieval of a Lego space shuttle. The clip features not only the ascent of the shuttle but also some wonderful lines from Raul, notably his admission that his space endeavors, private funding, etc have nothing to do with his formal education so much as his own curiosity and usage of the internet.
Also, aren’t we all still waiting for our own eccentric billionaire to invest in our dreams of space travel?
Sometimes it’s good to be reminded that people are awesome. Tonight the job is done Jarno Smeets, a inventor/engineer who has just created working bird wings for himself.
Where’s Leonardo da Vinci when you need him?
…or maybe it didn’t happen, in which case people suck. Either/or.
Update: This guy is a douche.
I know, I know: some people love the feel of a real, printed book in their hands and prefer the act of reading words on a printed page. I completely understand that they are out there. Many of my good friends (and family members) are librarians!
But this just seems like a massive waste of resources. This being the Espresso Book Machine, that is. Basically, it’s the exact opposite of the future that I had hoped for when the iPad (not the new one or the former new one, but the original) was announced. That future being a world where only the most masterful, artistic books would make it to print. The books that celebrate the art of bookmaking or truly take advantage of the affordances of paper. Books as only a vehicle for knowledge delivery would be absorbed into the digital publishing realm and many a forest would rejoice!
Instead, this machine seems poised to make very physical digitally stored versions of books for potentially single-purpose use and on demand at that. Perhaps it’s cheaper than a fleet of iPads or other e-readers, but it sure does seem silly, doesn’t it?