erika.whillas.com

Many Eyes

“Our goal is to “democratize” visualization and to enable a new social kind of data analysis.”

Many Eyes has developed some great data visualization pieces, and are part of the IBM Visual Communications lab.

Wii shaking things up, again

Wii seizes and shakes up Youtube interface

schtock.com

Schultzy stock? Schlepper’s stock? Well, now archived by General Projects, Schtock “was launched to look like a viral marketing effort put out by stock photography company, Corbis”.

Cute.

iphone app that makes music from your ambient reality

“RjDj is a music application for the Iphone. It uses sensory input to generate and control music you are listening to. RjDj is mainly consumed with headphones. Think of it as the next generation of walkman or mp3 player. The consumer experience of RjDj is similar to the effects of drugs. Drugs affect our sensory perception, so does RjDj. RjDj is a mind twisting hearing sensation.”
more info on http://www.rjdj.me

Internet use ‘good for the brain’

“Each volunteer underwent a brain scan while performing web searches and book-reading tasks.

Both types of task produced evidence of significant activity in regions of the brain controlling language, reading, memory and visual abilities.

However, the web search task produced significant additional activity in separate areas of the brain which control decision-making and complex reasoning – but only in those who were experienced web users. ”

Source: bbc.news.co.uk

RGA presents ‘Tattoo Santa’

A great viral christmas campaign created by RGA, tattoo santa lets users tattoo various parts of santa’s body with text and images, and then send a video of this branded santa to their friends. Super fun.

Lucy and Bart

“LucyandBart is a collaboration between Lucy McRae and Bart Hess described as an instinctual stalking of fashion, architecture, performance and the body. They share a fascination with genetic manipulation and beauty expression.”

Their website has a great flash landing page, in which the user morphs the image of a face between one of Bart or Lucy, depending on the mouse position.

“For me, the most important thing for people to learn from our work is that you can actually enjoy making art or design. I think that many people get really stressed about producing work, and they forget what creativity is all about.” – Bart Hess

I guess we started working together because we were talking about a lot of ideas, and it was not possible to realise these ideas in the brief of an electronic tattoo, which we were working on at Philips in the probes team. The Philips work is a far future design reseach programme looking fifteen to twenty years into the future. The programme explores the human body and suggests that our bodies are increasingly becoming a platform for sensitive and interactive technology, the project accelerates a vision for next generation sensitive technology mounted under the skin, where subcutaneous display could be augmented by human sensation, gesture and touch (www.design.philips.com/probes). So anyway, we started collaborating one evening doing fun things, wrapping our heads in sticky-tape and from there it all began… creating work together just in our spare time.” – Lucy McRae

Quotes supplied by Indigo Clarke

Duane Pitre Artist in Residence @ ISSUE Project Room, Brooklyn, NY

“Duane Pitre (originally from New Orleans) is a Brooklyn-based, avant-garde composer and performer. His current works explore both chaos and discipline—and the relationship that exists between the two. Pitre primarily works with long-tones and utilizes alternate tuning schemes that focus on microtonality, enabling him to explore unaccustomed harmonic intervallic relationships.”

I have now seen three performances/compositions of Duane’s. Last night’s program, one of four of this Artist in Residence @ ISSUE Project Room, entailed:
(taken from Duane’s program notes)

1. A sine tone “tape piece” that utilizes ISSUE’s 16-channel overhead sound system. The listener’s seating location in the space will vary the results of this work as the sound will be transferred, randomly, between speakers at a rate that allows the listener to perceive movement, also giving a sense of amplitude change, though this is not programmed into the piece itself.
2. A solo contrabass performance from comrade James Ilgenfritz. James will be doing his interpretation of a graphic/word score I created for him last summer (which was from a series of five, titled “Words and Lines for…”) – view page two of James’s graphic score
3. James will then join me for a planned-improvisation duo performance. I myself will man a table of guitars strung with multi-unison heavy gauge strings to be excited via bowing and a high-speed rotary tool. James will again man the contrabass, although detuned for this piece. This work will focus on low-end frequencies and relatively higher register string harmonics.

The first piece was very immersive, and had the effect of a small herd of animals moving over head. The sounds would build and travel, and at times move through you. I felt as though the space had been visited by beautiful sound creatures, who were not inhibited or thrown by the audiences’ presence.

The second piece was very abstract, and was a response to a very unique score. The piece successfully journeyed through several sound scapes, but I must say my favorite part was the simple and continuous sound made with repetitive strokes of the musician’s bow.

The third piece, which was very much the finale, was incredibly engaging and vibrationally consuming. The amplified contrabass had a sound reminiscent of Buddhist chanting, this is is because of “the low end frequencies and overtones, similar to those heard in throat singing” explains Duane. After a session of almost brutal bowing on an electric guitar, the frequencies let loose to bounce off the walls, had the effect of electric seagulls flying above.

www.mcmaster.com

• A pure catalog with no merchandising required
• Bookmarking an item is cookie based (requires no registration)
• Each page can be shown in HTML or PDF
• Powerful search, with accurate and minimal results
• Interesting cart features – when you select an item, basic options and the ability to add it to your order appears on the left
• Users can quickly build an order with known part numbers (great for power shoppers)

“An interesting experience given the audience: people who know what they need and want – engineers and hobbyists – people who just need the facts. It’s a great example of knowing your audience and
building a purposed experience around them.” G. Lewis

TGIF