feral intelligence

animated light

admin — Sat, 19 May 2012 23:57:55 +0000

light painting isn’t exactly new (picasso did it!), but animated light painting is a rather fabulous leap in the artform. the lichtfaktor collective in cologne created this whimsical 2min stop-motion video to show off their mad skills. i’ve already watched twice. i think i might have to watch again.

justice triumphs (for now)

admin — Sat, 19 May 2012 01:31:22 +0000

u.s. district judge katherine forrest just did us all a favor. she issued a preliminary injunction against the clause in the national defense authorization act that allowed the government to arrest and hold citizens indefinitely. may sanity and basic human rights ultimately triumph.

giving john waters a lift

admin — Fri, 18 May 2012 18:31:04 +0000

i’ve been a john waters fan ever since i first saw mondo trasho lo those decades ago. but now i’m a superfan after reading this report from an indie band who picked up the filmmaker as he hitchhikes across america. HITCHHIKING! across america! he said he needed an adventure. wow.

dark shadows, the first

admin — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:35:47 +0000

how’s your memory of the 60s TV show ‘dark shadows?’ want a refresher before the new movie hits your screens? you can watch the first episode of the ghoulish soap here.

tesla gun!

admin — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:32:29 +0000

in keeping with my obsession with all things tesla, this link is definitely a keeper. a tesla coil gun!!! the insanely talented rob flickenger (who, among other superhuman feats, designed and built wireless networks for the UN in africa) couldn’t help himself. he had to build this, um, weapon. our world is better for it.

the eagleman stag

admin — Sat, 12 May 2012 18:46:43 +0000

short-form storytelling rarely dares to deal in subjects as weighty as those at the heart of mikey please’s 3D-esque ‘the eagleman stag.’ the perception of time. the thrill of discovery. a hovering ennui that continually threatens. the palette may be monochrome and the narrator may be a pompous twit, but the 8min animation curiously thrills. well worth the click.

john peel lives

admin — Sat, 05 May 2012 19:00:14 +0000

i miss john peel. if you do, too, you might want to visit the john peel centre for creative arts where you can not only listen to recordings of his radio shows and watch video interviews and sessions, but also peruse his remarkable music collection and listen to tunes via spotify. it’s a work in progress. i plan to visit regularly.

new york captured

admin — Sat, 05 May 2012 18:40:53 +0000

new york city is a marvel. a grand metropolis full of beauty, heart, mayhem and daring. if you need a bit of convincing, check out the 870,000+ photos just released into the public domain by the new york municipal archives. a gorgeous black-and-white history of the 20th century, it’s hard not to concoct a story for each image. the atlantic curates a collection that whets the appetite.

chernobyl today

admin — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 20:04:28 +0000

26 years ago, the citizens of chernobyl woke to horror. jan smith visits today and finds beauty. in particular, he has been photographing the graffiti that has been growing up among the abandoned ruins. the images are wistful. spare. often childlike. but at the same time full of hope.

street art utopia

admin — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:27:02 +0000

i admit it. i’m a street art junkie. for those similarly inclined, the website ‘street art utopia‘ is an always rewarding window onto the form. global in scope, delightfully clean layout and beautifully curated. my only criticism is no news feed. i’d love to see it pop up in my reader every day.

water, water, everywhere

admin — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 20:29:28 +0000

if macro photography knocks you out, as it often does me, ‘micro empire‘ is a must see. a collaboration between clemens wirth and radium audio, it explores the life in a drop of water. 2 min of awesome beauty made, i think i’m not exaggerating, thrilling!

love vs. war

admin — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 20:27:42 +0000

frangin is a gorgeous, sweetly paced animation about a boy who sends his pigeons, one by one, to find a brother who’s gone off to war. delicate and deadly at the same time. well worth the 5 minutes spent. congrats to EMCA Angoulême.

tattooed teeth?

admin — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 23:14:49 +0000

tattooed teeth? mike mcalpine of princeton is proposing just that. a one-atom thick layer of super sticky graphene holds peptides that can ‘read’ the bacteria in your mouth and help in an ongoing diagnosis of what ails us. i think my left incisor would look quite lovely with one of these.

here comes tattooed santa

admin — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 23:11:44 +0000

tattooed santa? this trailer for RISE OF THE GUARDIANS says yes! along with a quirky easter bunny, toothsome tooth fairy, jack frost and sandman, it would appear there is much to look forward to in the telling of this dark tale.

what has 88 or fewer keys?

admin — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 23:05:31 +0000

pianos are magical. all those keys and wires and hammers promising dulcet tones. over on urbanghostsmedia.com, they mix the ivory and ebon with rust and dust, showcasing instruments long abandoned. the whole website is a trove for those who find beauty in decay.

alan lomax trove

admin — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 21:33:31 +0000

alan lomax is a national treasure. for fifty years, he scoured the world’s highways and byways recording music that would never have otherwise been preserved. today, culturalequity.org opened its archive of more than 17k digital files. a truly remarkable trove. many photos, as well. thanks to openculture.com for the heads-up.

analog demoni

admin — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 19:09:46 +0000

kottarashky & the rain dogs are a bulgarian band on the wonderfully named asphalt tango label. they mix lilting traditional eastern euro sounds with jazz, soul and even rock. theodore ushev created this animated video for their song DEMONI by painting directly onto vinyl records and then filming them while they played in zoetrope-like cycles. i’m still humming the tune. bravo.

red riding hood retold

admin — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 18:23:01 +0000

‘everyone gets cut in a knife fight,’ my mother used to say. and so it is with red riding hood and the wolf in RED, a genius retelling of the tale by animators jorge jaramillo and carlo guillot. four+ gorgeous minutes spent in a dark and dangerous woods. congrats.

water, water, everywhere

admin — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 18:47:28 +0000

it’s as though the gods put van gogh in charge of the world’s oceanic currents. ‘perpetual ocean‘ is a NASA visualization of the whorls and eddies formed by global water in motion over a 2.5 year period, all condensed to a mesmerizing minute and a half. free to download, if you’d like to keep it near.

turning fear to elation

admin — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 22:44:52 +0000

fear can kill or enthrall. as this fourth-grader learns her first time down a ski jump. with a camera recording every second, from the hesitancy at the top to the thrill at the bottom, we get to share in her surprise and elation. a great two minutes for an otherwise grey afternoon. enjoy.