Zombie Ants Attack!

...attack leaves, I mean...

Scientific American published an article about how this particular tropical fungus infects nearby ants and controls them forces them to do their bidding. What happens is that ants all go to a leaf and bite down on it until it dies. Researchers found that they all bite down on the north side of the plant; at around 25 centimeters above ground; and in an area that is 94-95% humidity. Amazing and fascinating.

Read more about it here.

Crowdsourced Music

Bicycle Built for Two Thousand from Aaron on Vimeo.

Aaron Kolbin and Daniel Massey created this piece by letting participants on Mechanical Turk listen to a small sound clip and asking them to imitate it. The result is a symphony of voices recreating the song "Daisy Bell."

One Badass Rickroll

Yet another musical mashup, but this one, I don't mind. Makes Rick Astley kind of badass.

Toothpaste Art

Toothpaste Art on Passed Out People - Watch more Funny Videos

This might be the most tasteful prank I've seen.

3D Drawing Program

Check out this demo of a 3D drawing program called Rhonda. I can't draw worth beans so I can't comment on if this changes anything, but it looks amazing.

via @jackcheng

A Moodier Lily Allen

Doctor Rosen Rosen remixed Lily Allen's "It's Not Me, It's You." Allen's lyrics usually don't match the pop sound that it's packaged in. Doctor Rosen Rosen stripped the instrumentals and replaced it with a moodier background musics to match the lyrics. The end result it really good. Download or stream the songs here.

via clevahgrrl

Youtube in 3D

Youtubers are also privy to the 20% rule where they get to spend 20% of their work time on a personal project. One guy is working on making Youtube videos 3D. Check out the demo above. It's still in the early stages, but looks promising. More info here.

via Techcrunch

Time Released Ink Calendar

Designers Oscar Diaz created a calendar where each date slowly absorbs ink to print itself. The idea is that it not only shows the date, but also shows time passing and adds another dimension to the calendar. More here.

via @hashembajwa

Sneaker Bombing

It's kind of like sticker bombing, but with shoes. This video is from Brandan Chang of Greedy Genius throwing his shoes all over NYC.

Readability Means Access

Growing up, I’ve always thought it was strange that I was enrolled in AP English literature classes and was reading the classics with relative ease while I couldn’t read a mortgage contract to save my life. Initially, my reaction was to blame the education system for teaching me a skill – deciphering the metaphors and symbolisms of dead white men – that had no application to the modern world. But even after grad school, I still can’t figure out the differences between three health insurance plans.

Allison Arieff, a NY Times columnist, wrote an interesting piece calling for support of a national design policy. Part of her argument is that official documents like contracts, mortgages, credit card information are inherently hard to read for the average American – never mind a high school kid. The consequence of having a national design policy would be the liberation of information to the masses.

Whether it’s intentional or not, poor design has kept crucial information hidden from the people who need it the most. People who are buying their first home, getting their first credit card, or frantically filling out a form at the emergency room are all vulnerable to making mistakes while making these very important decisions.

Clear and understandable documents will allow us to better use the counsel of experts. I remember my parents spent hours with the realtor understanding the terms of the contract. What they should’ve been doing is strategizing the best way to tackle that huge mortgage. Good design has the ability to make the grunt work easier so you can spend more time on bigger things.

And lastly, good design is good customer service. Nothing is a bigger “fuck you” than 42 pages of legalese in 10-point font. When we think about how everything is a touch point for a brand experience, something that looks like a page from the dictionary is starting the relationship off on the wrong foot. It sets up a relationship that is not about the brand in service to the customer. It’s a relationship about the brand doing what it wants and the customer working around that to align with the brand.

That may be nuanced. But I think it adds to why we think governments, HMOs and mortgage companies are inaccessible bureaucratic monsters that we have to do battle with to get the things that they are supposed to be offering us. Readability means access. And these are the organizations that shouldn't be holding things from us.

The Fray - Heartless

The Fray covers Kanye West's Heartless. This is an interesting take on the song. Even though it doesn't have auto tune and features a distraught rock singer vocals, it doesn't seem as honest as the original.

There's something about the context surrounding Kanye West's personality, the overly emotional lyrics and the feeling that he's hiding behind the auto tune to distance himself from the lyrics that make it a much more honest song to me.

via @mikedamico

Very Big Fish in a Very Big Tank

Kuroshio Sea - 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world from Jon Rawlinson on Vimeo.

Check out this video from Japan's Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. It's supposed to be the world's 2nd largest aquarium. The largest aquarium is in Atlanta, GA (USA! USA!).

via @mikearauz

Infographic Version of Little Red Riding Hood

Slagsmålsklubben - Sponsored by destiny from Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.

North Korean Beer

Looks so darn tasty. You may have heard that North Korea started producing a beer that isn't half bad. According to the article, we may never get a chance to try it out because of their poor infrastructure and lack of trade partners. I guess we still have Hamm's if we want to savor the bitter, gross taste of delicious irony at whatever hipster dive we find ourselves in.

Do Gooder Designers

There's a group of people who take down ugly flyers that are posted around the city and redesign them to be more aesthetically pleasing. It's a fun exercise in showing the general public the power of great design. Check out their website here.

via caitlinthinks

Gruesome Chocolates

NYC based artist, Stephen K Shanabrook, created chocolates inspired by fatal wounds. Would you eat it? More chocolates and an interview here.

via @caitlinthinks

Greatest Website in the World

Interaction designers take note - this is how you get it done. Get the whole experience here.

Publicly Shaming Companies into Better Customer Service

There have been quite a few stories about how companies are using Twitter as a customer service channel to improve how they connect with consumers. For the most part, I think the consensus is that it’s a good thing that companies are more responsive. But I wouldn’t consider that a win for the company. I think all it has done is teach consumers to threaten companies into giving them better customer service and it has turned customer service into PR function.

If the companies truly cared about customer service, they would invest in other touchpoints – hotline, website, better instruction manuals, in person etc. – because that’s where you can nip the problem in the bud.

Customer service over Twitter is a reaction to all the complaints people are logging on the network and an attempt at damage control. And in a sense, it’s a little self-serving as well. Now a company is resolving customer service problems in front 100 people instead of waiting for that person to tell 5 people about it.

By the numbers, it works. But it misses the whole idea of good customer service which is to preempt complaints by being attentive. These stories about how some company heroically sent a repairman to a complaining customer are indeed very sexy stories of triumph. But is it a triumph if you have thousands of those complaints a day with your handle on it?

Multiple Screens Music Video

This is just a cool little music video from Japan. Purely executional, but the way they use all those little screens and the interaction between the people inside them is done quite well.

via @clevahgrrl

Augmented Reality Gaming

This is a game trailer for "Ghostwire" which will be available for the DSi. Pretty much anything that is exciting these days comes in some form of alternate reality. The DSi has a camera and the microphone which is used to scan for the ghosts you have to deal with inside the game. This is really pushing gaming into that experiential and more emotive space that some developers have been talking about.

The company blog for "Ghostwire" is here.

Last Words

I stumbled upon this website that documents some of the last words of death row inmates from some random clicking. It's surprisingly profound. We could assume that these men had a lot of time to think about their last words. But it doesn't come off as the product of years of fancy wordsmithing, rather the product of years of regret, guilt and remorse expressed in a millions of iterations over and over as they wait for their time to come.

Micro-Volunteerism

Volunteering for a few minutes at a time when ever you can is apparently a new trend. The Extraordinaries is a company that created an iPhone app that allows people to do a quick task - translating something, giving advice, identifying something - on the behalf a non profit. This idea is a mix between crowdsourcing and micro-transactions which theoretically allows more people to participate in causes because it's a fairly minimal commitment, yet they still get the sense of satisfaction doing good.

Read more about it here.

Lost Tribes of NYC

This is a nice, unassuming video from a pair of ethnographers who were interviewing residents in NYC.. They've found a creative way to use soundbites to tell a pretty personal and location based story.

via This Branded Youth

Baseball Infographics

There seems to be a data visualization craze lately here at GSP. For those who can't seem to get enough of it, check out Flip Flop Fly Ball - you guessed it - baseball infographics.

Sarcasm aside, data visualization could be powerful tool and a great add on for fantasy sports that are heavy on stats - baseball and basketball in particular. It could help players see mismatches and patterns much better than line after line of numbers. And at this point, most fantasy sports sites are fairly similar with the exception of where they get their insider news for the players.

Journalism Fail

Journalism died with the coming of social media. This piece of crap is spitting on it's grave.

It's All About Presentation

Check out Fancy Fast Food. It's a blog that, well, rearranges fast food so it looks really fancy and expensive. My kind of blog. I'm the opposite of a foodie and I'd eat at McDonald's and White Castle everyday if it wasn't for the shame I would feel when I bring it into the office. Imposing class structure food is ridiculous and this blog proves it.

Profit from Hate and Ignorance

A Manhattan synagogue found out that an anti-gay and anti-Semitic church from Kansas was coming to town to protest their existence, but managed to turn it into a nice fund raiser to support their own community.

What happened was that they asked supporters to pledge a dollar or more for every minute the protesters were at it. After 50 minutes they hauled in $10,000.

This is innovation isn't it? The most expected way to deal with those types of protesters is to have counter protesters and get into this huge shouting match that frankly makes both parties look pretty bad. But at the same time you don't want to let them go at it without a response - you still want to win. I think their tactic of turning it into a fundraiser essentially reframed the battle and made their enemies' actions a benefit.

Some related Sun Tzu wisdom right here:

Therefore the skillful leader subdues the enemy's
troops without any fighting; he captures their cities
without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom
without lengthy operations in the field.

I like it. More on the protest here.

via @molluskbrigade

Silhouette Masterpeice Theater

Does it get any classier than this? Artist Wilhem Staehle takes classic paintings and stories and gives it one of those modern, ironic, hipster-ish spins. It's a lot of fun.

More here.


via Divine Caroline

Fixing Marriage

National Geographic has an article about an ethnic group in China that is a matrilineal society (woman dominated). The women in the village own all the property and are heads of households. But the most unusual aspect of their culture is the idea of a “walking marriage.”

What happens is that when a woman is interested in a man, she will invite him to spend the night with her and leave early in the morning. That basically establishes the relationship or marriage. When a child is born, the father can visit, but he doesn’t play a role in raising it. Instead, the father is responsible for raising the child that their sisters, aunts, cousins have (they all live in the same house). The women are allowed to switch partners, but more often than not, they usually just have one. A better way to describe this is like “serial monogamy.”

They say the benefits of doing this is stability within the family – meaning no divorces that will muddy up things like dividing property and creating a bad environment for the kids.

Interestingly enough, just this week, the Atlantic published an article questioning the purpose of marriage in our society. The writer argues that it’s an outdated institution that hasn’t kept up the cultural trends that have women working more and men taking on a larger role in the home – but it’s not always a rosy situation as she describes the tension:

That said, it’s clear that females are dissatisfied—more and more, divorce seems to be initiated by women. If marriage is the Old World and what lies beyond is the New World, it’s the apparently stable men (comfortable alone in their postfeminist den with their Cook’s Illustrated and their porn) who are Old Worlders, and the Girls’ Night Out, questionnaire-completing women who are the questing New Worlders.

To work, to parent, to housekeep, to be the ones who schedule “date night,” only to be reprimanded in the home by male kitchen bitches, and then, in the bedroom, to be ignored—it’s a bum deal. And then our women’s magazines exhort us to rekindle the romance. You rarely see men’s magazines exhorting men to rekindle the romance.

I’ll admit that the writer may have a slight chip on her shoulder, but the frustrations she draws seem honest and real (I say “seem” because I’ve never been married myself). In one of her proposals for alternatives to marriage concerning child rearing she suggests that:

As far as the children are concerned, how about the tribal approach (a natural, according to both primate and human evolution)? Let children between the ages of 1 and 5 be raised in a household of mothers and their female kin. Let the men/husbands/boyfriends come in once or twice a week to build shelves, prepare that bouillabaisse, or provide sex.

And strangely enough, that sounds awfully similar to a “walking marriage.” But what’s interesting is that in both cases the call is to move men out of the household and to use them as needed. It is sad to see the marginalization of men as the solution for stability. Obviously, gender relations within marriage is an issue that affects every culture. There is an interesting tension in how we just don’t get along and we’re better apart. And interestingly enough, this insight is relevant even after the coming of the “Modern Man,” who is supposed to be more progressive and female friendly.

Homeless Sims

A student of game design in the UK (Robin Burkinshaw) created a couple of homeless characters in Sims 3 to see what would happen to them. Alice is the innocent daughter who is extremely clumsy, yet good willed. Her father, Kev, is a huge jerk. The result is actually quite interesting.

Kev provides a lot of the comedic fodder in the experiment while Alice’s struggles tug harder at the heartstrings. She spends a lot of time being stressed out and sleeping on the park bench and occasionally on people’s couches (uninvited most of the time). The best story was when she got a part time job but then donated her first paycheck to charity despite the obvious fact that she needed it. It inspired Burkinshaw with this thought:

What does it mean when a character you’ve created makes you re-examine your own life through their astonishing selflessness?

Check out the blog here. I think it’s an interesting experiment and shows how powerful video games have become. I would argue older videos came with the objective to win and finish the levels. New video games were more immersive, but still come with an objective. But these open ended games are interesting because you don’t know what the story is going to be.

When is the Best Time to Pee?

This handy little website will let you know which part of a movie is slow so you can dart out to the bathroom without missing anything. Check it out here.

via Popgadget, photo from there too.

Lessons in Sunk Costs

I’ve been meaning to post about this, but it got lost in the shuffle of everything else. A friend of mine quit his job a couple of weeks ago to move on to another position. The guy changes jobs about once a year and I’ve always admired his willingness to just get up and move on to something else. It’s not like he doesn’t care. He is just able to move on the idea of sunk costs better than anyone else I know. Below is an excerpt from his blog:

Lastly, a real quick story to wrap things up. A couple of weeks ago, I had breakfast with Annie Duke (professional poker player) who told me a great life lesson and story around sunk costs. In the most basic terms, the concept is used in making good decisions (which is the secret to the success of professional poker players). Wikipedia defines sunk costs as “costs that cannot be recovered once they have been incurred.”

So, for example, if you’re waiting in line at the grocery store, and the line next to you moves faster, most people won’t hop over to the faster line because of the time they “invested” in their current line. This makes absolutely no sense as anything invested in your past shouldn’t influence your future. Another example revolves around relationships. Most people stay together because they’ve “been together for the past five years.” Again, people shouldn’t make decisions based on past investments. And if you’re wondering how this applies back to poker. Once you make a bet and put your chips in the middle, that money is no longer yours (so you shouldn’t make bad decisions on getting it back).

Instead, you should look toward the future and look at all the different paths, opportunities, and possibilities presented to you right now. The sky is the limit. Everything in your past gets you to this point but it’s up to you to make the best possible decision on which path you want to go down.

It’s a truly inspiring thought that helps you keep your eyes down the road without devaluing the experiences that have gotten you to where you are now.

The Bright Future of Paper

Paul Sloman put together a book about paper that traces it's history, current innovations and creative uses in art. The point of the book is to show that as we digitize everything, paper will gain a higher status as a medium. We won't be using paper for everyday things as much so when we do use it - it might have more special connotations. Paper will gain a little more respect, says Sloman. Check out the interview here.

Interactive Music Video

A Spanish group called Labuat created an interactive music video for their song "Soy Tu Aire" ("I’m Your Air"). This was beautifully done - visuals, song and execution. I don't understand Spanish, but I feel like the interaction piece of the experience worked well with the mood of the song. Play with the video here.

via VSL

Stop Motion with Post It Notes

I think the effort and tenacity to create something like this is to be admired.

via @clevahgrrl

The Recession as the Catalyst for Happiness

Lately I’ve been seeing articles here and there about how the recession has actually freed up a lot of people to reprioritize their lives. The end benefit of this being that they will, in general, become much happier people. Happiness is an interesting and often studied concept. The Atlantic had an interesting article this month titled “What Makes Us Happy” and it follows a study that tracks a handful of men throughout their lives. The conclusion about happiness is it’s about how you react to the situations in your life that determines your happiness level. And depends much on your personality as to how you react to those situations. It was a very compelling article and an interesting way to look at how you could attain happiness.

However, I think there is a ton of inertia that the average person has to overcome to react appropriately. I think that’s why we are so obsessed with the concept and work so hard to find quick and easy ways to attain happiness. You can’t beat something that’s ingrained in you.

Back in college I worked in the community a lot and was obsessed with creating change. Like this happiness example, there was just a lot of inertia that had to be overcome. In a conversation about this, my friend shrugged his shoulders and said, “something big and catastrophic needs to happen or else nothing will change,” just like a huge disruptive force.

That’s what this recession means to our collective pursuit of happiness.

It’s a giant force that not only knocks us off our routine; it challenges the things that we believe in. That might be the most interesting insight into happiness is that sometimes we may not be capable of setting ourselves up to get it. Not that it just happens to us. But we do need a significant push.

The Strangest Little Cooking Show

Brooklyn, NY artist Thu Tran has been writing and producing the “Food Party” on Youtube for a while now. “Food Party” is a show about cooking that features handmade puppets. It’s like Sesame Street plus a toned down version of “Science of Sleep” mixed together. Even the food she prepares is off beat – bologna, cheese and cucumber sushi for example. They just signed a deal with IFC so you can catch this on your big screen as well. Follow her blog here.

For the Daft Punk Fans

There are definitely more than a handful of Draft Punk fans over here, but I think everyone else might get a kick out of it too. It's a sound board that allows you to play different clips from their songs. You can turn on a beat to go under the music you're making with the board. Click here to go nuts.

Most Uncomfortable Video to Watch

New BabySafe Ball Makes Shaking Your Infant Guilt And Injury Free

The idea in general is very unsettling, but about every 10 seconds it gets worse and worse to the point where you can't believe they are doing that. Dark humor at it's best.

Like the Wii But More

Microsoft showed off a demo of what they are calling "Project Natal," which is a new way of playing video games by using your whole body as the controller. One of the guys working on it is Jonathan Lee - a name that might sound familiar if you are a fan of TED. He showed off the Wii remote hacks . Now he works for Microsoft as a researcher in the Applied Sciences group. Check his blog post where he reveals a little bit more about how "Project Natal" works.

Circumstantial Art

There is something amazing about people in these times. Despite layoffs everywhere and a crummy economy, it seems like most people have remained fairly optimistic. Cards of Change is a website that asks people to upload a business card from their last job with an update of what they're doing now. This might turn out to be another Postsecret type of community art project. All the cards featured on the website have some sense of optimism or sense of relief - letting the viewer into the untold story of why they may have not been happy at their jobs to begin with.

Asian Moms

Check out this website, My Mom is a FOB, started by two smart alack college kids in the UC system. FOB, by the way, stands for "Fresh off the boat" which is a derogatory name for an Asian immigrant. But in this case it's used in a lovingly way.

What's interesting about this little collection of moments is that it's so distinctly American. You realize that it takes two people to create this one crazy Asian mom character portrayed on the website - the immigrant mother and the Americanized children.

Go through a couple of these posts and you'll find a mother knows what she is trying to do/say but it's comes out contextually wrong. And then you'll see a kid who knows what their mother is trying to do/say, but they won't give their mothers the benefit of the doubt.

1000 Years Magazine

Opium Magazine created an issue that will take 1000 years for it to reveal the story, which is 9 words long - that's one word per century. They are using two layers of black ink. The top layer will disintegrate with exposure to UV light and reveal words in the bottom layer.

The concept plays around with the idea of anti-instant gratification. But the more interesting story, I think, is how they are using this to make print relevant. Magazines are disposable. And this device forces you to keep it for a while, but also creates the kind of spectacle to gain the attention that this medium so desperately needs to be meaningful to people. Interestingly, they didn't try to establish relevance through content but rather interaction with that content. Have all the stories that can be told, been told?

Interacting With Women Makes Men Stupid

Researchers in The Netherlands ran two studies that measured men and women’s cognitive abilities after interacting with each other. In both studies, men performed worse than women – especially if they were attracted to the person woman they were talking to.

The researchers have a couple theories:

1. Men are spending too much brain-power trying to look cool and not enough is left to say or do smart things.
2. Men may be taking on traditional sex roles and try harder to live up to those expectations of being manly and cool and attractive.
3. It might just take more brain-power to control yourself around people of the opposite sex. Researchers think we just have more experience being around the same sex that when we meet people of the opposite sex, it throws us for a loop.

I guess this falls into the category of science verifying the obvious. I mean, how many times have we tried to introduce ourselves to an attractive woman only end up posting about the disaster on Fuck My Life?

But this has interesting implications for learning and builds a case for having same sex schools. Check out the rest of the article here.

Break Dancing Robot

As if the possibility of them becoming our future overlords wasn't enough. You just got served.

via @mike_damico

Youtube Celebs Vlog for Charity

Here's an interesting twist. Youtube celebrities KevJumba and Happy Slip have started new channels to host some of their more casual, b-roll, outtake videos. These guys also happen to be official Youtube partners and make a cut of the money made off the ads running on their videos. So what they are doing is donating the money made on their second channels to charity. They're asking people to subscribe to the new channels and encouraging them to view the videos.

Smart idea. Brilliant. It demonstrates how these guys really understand the magnitude of their popularity, but also the economics of Youtube. Check out KevJumba's channel here where he'll donate his earnings to a different charity each month. And check out Happy Slip's channel here where she'll donate her earnings to Operation Smile (cleft lip surgeries for kids).

Toy Fail

You mean I have to fake shoot myself in the face to get a piece of candy?! Ok, I'll do it.

via @davetreston

UPDATE: credited the wrong person I stole this from.

4 Foot Tall Gundam Papercraft

Freedom Gundam - 4 foot papercraft from Taras Lesko on Vimeo.

An artist in Washington state created a 4 foot tall replica of an Anime action figure. Check out the rest of his website as well. It turns out this guy is a designer/artist who is just starting to explore the world of papercraft. He's got a couple other videos over sized replicas of his and his pastor's head.

Real Human Interface

Hi from Multitouch Barcelona on Vimeo.

This is just a cute video that personifies your computer and how you interact with it.

Be Like Kutiman

Check out this website that's a dashboard of Youtube videos that you can play together to create songs. Kind of like Kutiman and his epic remixes.

Self Important Tweet

Check out Tweeting Too Hard, a website that collects the most self-important, narcissistic tweets for everyone to vote on. It was bound to happen. The whole medium lends itself to self-indulgence since we have the benefit of broadcasting our thoughts without the requirement of having something to say.



Related to this, check out #tweetingtohardmashup, the beginnings of a meme where they just go for it.

Time Magazine Calls Out Youtube

Image from Newteevee.com

Time magazine named Youtube one of the “10 Biggest Tech Failures of the Last Decade” citing the fact that it hasn’t been able to generate enough profits to break even since it’s inception.

Newteevee.com makes a good point in that Youtube is a cultural institution that has managed to “democratize access to content production and consumption.” Beyond that, I wonder if marketers are partly to blame for not being able to find creative ways to use Youtube and helping make it a better marketing platform.

Obviously, a lot of us still rely on impressions through banner ads and the occasional viral video as our main tools on Youtube. Some more advanced marketers may create a brand homepage to house videos and others may have contests. But all in all, there seems to be a “if you build it, they will come” attitude about using the platform - which is the opposite of what you should be thinking if you want a quality marketing program to come out it.

Marketers tend to set their objectives to quantity over quality – meaning they want to see thousands of views and submissions. But to aim for those goals you run the risk of ending up with small, fleeting moments of engagement with a lot of people. Because you can’t ask all of Youtube to upload a 5-minute long masterpiece – most likely way to involve that many people you’ll have to ask them to do something incredibly easy.

I don’t think we as marketers have a strong grasp of users on Youtube either. We tend to think of them as “young creative digital people” or some other (perhaps more clever) segmentation. I think we should actually examine them as a whole – the Youtube community – and then segment the audience based on participation level (lurkers, raters, commentors, producers, etc.). That way we can leverage learning from the Obama social media campaign and build ways in for everyone in the community to participate.

As much as people cringe when marketers get involved with social media, everyone seems to have an understanding that it’s not free. Right now, they tolerate us because we’re helping to pay for some of it. But we still have the responsibility of making interesting programs for them to get involved with because ultimately that’s how we’ll get the most for our money. And from there Youtube can offer to help produce the programs since they have the expertise.

UPDATE: There is also an interesting conversation happening on Techcrunch.

Craigslist Personals

Craigslist is an interesting phenomenon that attracts probably the more diverse group of people you'll ever see. The casualness of the website really lends itself to attracting that type of audience, I think. But the most interesting part of the website has to the be the personal section where every woman seems to get pictures of penises and every guy can get an easy lay.

Photographer Mark Andrew had an insight about the how the personal ads were both anonymous, yet intensely personal. He solicited the people in the ads to shoot them in their homes, creating beautiful photos that add an interesting context to their original ads. A lot of personals offer to trade photos, so you don't see the person in their ads. Needless to say, that leaves a lot to the imagination depending on how cynical/optimistic you are. I wouldn't say that these photos make the ads any more attractive or the people any more desirable. But I think it makes the insecurities that we see in those ads much more surprising.

Check out Andrew's work here.

Reviews for a 3 Wolves Moon Tshirt

Order yours here.

via @clevahgrrl

7 Days to Get Married, Have a Kid, and Divorce

A pair of artists explored the idea of a conceptual relationship that starts and ends in the span of 7 days. Zach was the brainchild of the project and wanted to explore all the emotions and patterns of a relationship collapsed into a week. But is also a living project where they acted this way around their friends as well. Zach, in general, doesn't seem to enjoy the traditional norms of dating and relationships, as he mentions in this interview. However this project did give in an interesting insight:

More than ever, I understand the appeal of these behavioral norms. Over the years, I’ve always felt a sense of dissonance when I’ve imagined myself being in these stereotypical situations, but now that the project is over, I feel like it’s easier for me to understand why so many people choose to go down these pathways. Maybe it’s easier to imagine myself going down them, too.

For more, check out the blog here.

Folded Paper Drawings

A German artist created 2-D "drawings" from just folding paper. Amazing. Find more of his works here.

via PSFK

Group Discount on Computers

The guys over at Zeus Jones found out about Dell Swarm, a group buying program launching in Singapore.

It’s a website that will offer the bulk price on a computer if enough people agree to buy it. Right now it looks like it’s only running in Singapore. I think this is an interesting innovation in their sales channel, because in Asia group buying is already an established practice. The problem is people head straight to the stores instead of going to the manufacturer. By cutting out the middle man, Dell can offer an even better price, making it a more lucrative deal for their consumers.

However, if you've browsed through Dell's annual reports, you'll find that they have identified their lack of retail presence as a fundamental weakness in their business. It makes sense because they have prided themselves so much on selling direct to consumers since their inception. It will be interesting to see how this program will affect their relationship with retailers.

Lord of the Ring Spin Off

Film maker Chris Bouchard created a 40 minute spin off to tell Gollum's story, which was left out of the original "Fellowship of the Rings" title. This movie, "Hunt for Gollum" was shot on a shoe string budget with about 160 volunteers. And to avoid copyright issues, they decided to give it away for free. Click here to see the movie.

Websites Useful Anymore?

Mike Arauz has an interesting discussion going on his blog questioning the purpose of websites. The general consensus is that people are visiting fewer websites in general these days. It’s like they have a top 8 that they visit regularly. And if you want to be part of their consideration set, you probably have to build the greatest website in the world. Otherwise, it’s not worth it to sink so much money into something that someone might visit once for about 56 seconds.

I mostly agree. I think the Internet has matured to the point where it’s not the Wild West anymore and the building boom has outpaced demand. But I think the point is more relevant for microsites – those one off websites that last no longer than a few months with content as deep as a ditzy blonde. Corporate websites are still important as a source of reference, but microsites are like intrusive billboards on the interstate. As Mike pointed out, it makes no sense to build the microsite and then use ad buys to drive traffic to it. And if the content isn’t that deep, why not put it in a rich media banner? At least you are guaranteed impressions, which is more than you can say about a microsite.

What is a better solution is for a brand to participate in the digital spaces that matter to their consumers – beyond ad buys and sponsorships – but that true integration/authenticity/community building or whatever jargon is popular at the moment.

The best example I can think of is Whopper Sacrifice on Facebook. People around me know that I love this example for anything digital. I understand that it got pulled fairly quickly, however, it keyed in on insights about the user and the norms of the community while making the product at the center of it.

I think one way go at these opportunities is like this:



It might be too simple to guarantee any success while using it, but at least it puts us in the right position to take advantage of the opportunities. I think the most important part is the community insight bubble – so often we don’t ever have a deep enough understanding of how these groups work, but that might just be lazy planning in general – because that’s what makes the whole thing relevant.

Yes? No?

Hand Drawn Conversations

Check out Paper Beats Internet it's supposed to be a social networking website that uses hand drawn images to bring everyone together. I might be over selling it, but it's more like a message board where people talk to one another through hand drawn pictures. It's a fun idea and it gives the conversation so much more character and depth.

via @HashemBajwa

Telegrams Live!

An Australian company, Telegram Stop is bringing back the telegram. For $4.70, you can send a telegram to anyone in the world. This service is great for the same reason we write letters - you make more impact with something real and tangible.

Japan v. South Korea B-Boying

I think I screamed "oh snaps!" and "whaaaaat!" at least 6 times while watching this video. It's an all star team of b-boys from Japan versus the Gamblerz. The Gamblerz might sound familiar, they were the world champion b-boy team in 2006 (I think). They were one of the storylines in Benson Lee's "Planet B-Boy." The funniest line in that documentary was someone from the French team scoffing "I hope the judges don't fall for their amazing bullshit" after watching their performance.

B-Boying actually has a lot of followers in Asia - most notably in Japan and South Korea. They have competitions in China as well, but I think the consensus is that they aren't as technically proficient as the guys in Japan and South Korea. If you watch "Planet B-Boy" you'll see that it's not that each country developed a style, but it's more about each person making it their own. It's a very powerful observation because when we see a video clip of guys doing head spins, that's what it looks like. But to have that context and understanding of the person makes every move so much more meaningful and exciting. In that documentary there's a moment when they do a slow-mo of the Japanese team's battle. You'll see what I'm talking about.

Anyone Can Animate Movies Now

Kind of. One of the guys at work introduced me to Xtranormal, a website that allows people to easily create animated movie clips. All you have to do is type in your script, dress up the characters, add emotions/movements (choices are limited), fiddle with the cameras a little (if you want) and you're done. Click here to see my first movie (the embed code doesn't work for some reason).

This is one of the powers of cloud computing. Animation takes a lot of processing power, so you need a fairly robust computer to do it. I created this with a tiny little Macbook that can run a little more than a handful of programs at the same time properly. The trick is that the website's servers does all the processing and rendering for you. This makes these sorts of applications available to more people in general and it's more efficient in terms of costs too. I don't have to buy a massively powerful computer to do something like this.

MV in One Take

Nyle "Let The Beat Build" from Nyle on Vimeo.

Check out Nyle's music video done in one take. It's nicely executed, but a great song as well. My favorite lines because they are so optimistic, yet realistic:

I won't be stressin’ this recession if it leads to a depression
It won’t be in my mind, I'll be fine as long as I can survive off the beat and rhyming?
Then I don’t mind surviving off eatin’ no ramen
Cause where I’m standing, right now, this is the best time to be grinding
Cause ain’t nobody signing, so ain’t nobody shinin’
No more dreams are going down and spitting that fly talk
Dudes talkin' street when they barely sidewalk

Mixed Reality

Noteboek from Evelien Lohbeck on Vimeo.

Just a video from a student's graduation portfolio. She plays a couple of visual tricks on us that's pretty fun to watch.

Nerdy Urban Farming

We Make Money Not Art hjavascript:void(0)as a great look at re:farm an urban farming initiative with a technology twist. The premise is that everyday people (city dwellers especially) have lost a lot of farming knowledge over the last century and we need some help if we are to grow sustainable, bountiful gardens in urban settings.

To fix that these guys create open source hardware and software to help manage an urban garden. That way, anyone can do it well. Right now the hardware is a watering system built from an old water pump and some tubing. The software is supposed to tell you what fruits are in season, what local varieties are available, what dishes it's used in, etc.

A more high tech version of this was started in Japan when they converted a basement vault in a bank building into a farm where everything from temperature to artificial light was controlled by a computer.

But the advantage of re:farm's work is that it's much, much cheaper to implement. It's also interesting to think that in the past we've used technology to beat or outwit nature into higher yields. Now we're using technology to be much more complimentary with nature.

New School Soul

Just stumbled upon Mayer Hawthorne who has this refreshing old school soul and jazz sound with a little of pop mixed in there.

Despite not having a record out yet, he's been featured on BBC radio and is starting a multi city tour in May. There is something very clean and honest about his music and it might have something to do with the retro vibes that comes from it. More info about him here.

The New Pose

Remember all the non-nonchalant, over the head angle pictures that people used to take for their Myspace profile? In Russia, women are doing the "Vilena" pose. A woman named Vilena took a picture of herself in the pose first for a social network and everyone started copying it.

Controlling a Robot with Gestures

Thanks to our newfound hatred of buttons, Japanese researchers have developed a robot that can be controlled with gestures - Minority Report style. The robot is outfitted with cameras that detect human movements. It looks at the movements and detects the gestures that are commands.

Killer Shower Curtain

People waste a lot of water when they shower, so Elisabeth Buecher designed a shower curtain that slowly inflates to let you know when it's time to stop. Pictured above are two variation, one that squeezes you out and one with spikes. Her design philosophy is "design for pain and our own good" which is much different than what's vogue right now.

No matter how much education conservationists use to educate people about reduce waste and consumption, we still have a massive environmental problem on our hands. Al Gore can give the most passionate speech ever and people will still be to lazy to recycle. This design seems to be a reflection of cynicism in our fellow man's ability to change their damaging habits and sometimes we need to save ourselves from ourselves.

via http://hrrrthrrr.tumblr.com/

Microjobs in Africa

Txteagle is like Amazon.com's Mechanical Turk and ShortTask which are online marketplaces for short, uncomplicated tasks that users take up for a small payment. The difference between txteagle and the other examples is that the tasks are sent through text message - it's mobile crowdsourcing. It also means the nature of the jobs are smaller and simpler, like translation.

This idea makes this marketplace reachable for those in Africa especially, where a lot of people have mobile phones but not computers. It's great that they can turn mobile phones into an income source and it brings to life the opportunity cost of leaving a mobile phone idle.

Latrines and Anti-Nostalgia

Check out this blog from an IDEO engineer who is taking a sabbatical to design better latrines for people in rural Cambodia. He meticulously documents the entire design process from the ethnography all the way to the brainstorming session with the locals.

An interesting bit in their research was that some people hated dry pit latrines because that's what they used during the Pol Pot regime. Now this was really interesting because I think this is something that slips us when we think about our relationships to objects and certain behaviors - the historical context around them. Now, I understand that comes in the form of nostalgia, but that's related to positive emotions. This is like "anti-nostalgia."

Anti-nostalgia seems to occur from shared catastrophic events or else they would be too varied to study as a group. Looking at recent America history some of those events can be Hurricane Katrina, 9-11 and the Wall Street Fallout and the scars are pretty obvious. But what I'm wondering is what are the not so obvious scars? Hurricane Katrina for example, it's obvious their trust in the government has waned considerably. But say during that time, did they develop an affinity or hatred for any product or process?

It might as well be a rhetorical question as I can't give an answer. But I think this gives us another wrinkle to try to capture when thinking about people and how they relate to things.

You can download a report of the research here.

What Planet Do You Live On?

A study from Ohio State University showed that conservatives didn’t understand that Stephen Colbert is joking. They rationalize it by saying that Colbert is pretending to joking but genuinely means what he saying. What planet are they living on?

A while ago, my friend was working with an idea about how information creates communities. Before media fragmentation (I know, that concept is so 2000), it would be one or two large homogenous communities because there would only be that many media outlets. Now of course you can bury yourself in own little world because there would be the media to support it.

The consequence is that everyone lives in his or her own self-defined bubble and no one can agree on a shared reality. Isn’t that ironic? The vehicle that brought us closer together is driving us farther apart as well.

Zelda Hip Hop

Remember Zelda from the Nintendo days? Team Teamwork remixed a few songs with sound clips from Zelda. It's sweet. I remember Zelda from the SNES days when he was a little 16 bit dude who was more cute than fearsome. The video game music was the same way for me so it's interesting to hear paired up with a song about cooking meth.

SMS Guerilla Projector

A couple of artists developed a portable projector that displays SMS messages on any flat surface. It can be an interesting mix of displaying very private content in very public spaces. But the way they are demonstrating the product, it looks like the portable feature is good for taking advantage of the context of a situation.

via PFSK

Cute Robots in NYC!

An NYC art student built a little robot that that only moves in one direction. She set it up on one side of a park and attached a flag letting people around it know where it was trying to go. The idea is to see if people will help it along it's course. The video shows that it did.

But what's interesting is that the robot is damn cute. If it was an ugly beast of a machine, would people still be inclined to help? Or if it's intentions were a little bit more complex, would people still help? I think there is something in how people relate to simple, harmless (and helpless) things - like babies, puppies and kittens. this little robot is showing (might be a stretch but...) that we can impart affection and care that's usually reserved for living things on to objects.

via Engadget

Augmented Reality Cube!

levelHead v1.0, 3 cube speed-run (spoiler!) from Julian Oliver on Vimeo.

This is a game called levelHead designed by Julian Oliver. Below is his write up of what it is:

levelHead uses a hand-held solid-plastic cube as its only interface. On-screen it appears each face of the cube contains a little room, each of which are logically connected by doors.

In one of these rooms is a character. By tilting the cube the player directs this character from room to room in an effort to find the exit.

Some doors lead nowhere and will send the character back to the room they started in, a trick designed to challenge the player's spatial memory. Which doors belong to which rooms?

It was just yesterday when augmented reality on paper was an amazing feat, now people are pushing the boundaries so fast. As these new technologies are flourishing, one way to keep one step ahead of the game is to think about interfaces and how we can make the interface interesting instead of focusing on content. Content is a story that we have probably been exposed to at one point or another. What's new and exciting is how we interact with that content. Because a different way to interact with content can give us a new perspective on it.

Posters of NYC

Kenneth Goldsmith has been collecting the flyers and posters that he sees around NYC for the past 25 years. He picked a few of the best and scanned them in for everyone on the interwebs to take a look. Check out his collection here. Some of it is NWS. Some of it is hilariously insane. But it's all good.

From SF to NYC

Two DJs, spinnerty and d.Lo from San Francisco and NYC respectively, created a soundtrack to the respective cities that they live in. The project "san york" takes us from San Francisco's Mission District and Golden Gate in the morning and drops us off in the middle of NYC at night. Click here to check it out.

Knife Combs

Italian designer Lorenzo Damiani created these knife combs for the purpose of self defense. They're apparently light and sturdy, much like a shank that you would make while in prison.

via delicious/di.brost