No One Does It Like You

The use of childish toy soldiers, ballerinas, and ghosts along with very graphic violence at the end really drew me in and shocked me at the same time. This video debuted at the MoMA in NY last week. What does this video convey to you?

British University Offers Master's Degree in Facebook

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,511647,00.html

They Almost Convinced Me....

Here is one a of a series of videos called "Household Hackers"- a collection in which the authors teach you new and amusing ways to use the objects around your house.  Unfortunately- they're all phony!  I recommend reading the comments on YouTube- it's really funny to see the reactions, especially those of people who actually tried to charge their iPod using an onion.

Where the Wild Things Are

I just saw this trailer, and I think it's rad.

Everyone read the books when they were little. When I saw they were making a movie I thought it would ruin the original, but this trailer gives me hope. Also, I think it's cool that the Wild Things are done using costumes rather than CGI, which seems to be the trend these days.

Anyways, here's the trailer. I recommend actually clicking it to go to YouTube, and then viewing in HD.

Bathtube II

Shot by Keith Loutit, this video uses a tilt-shift effect to make images of life-size objects appear as miniature scale models. According to Wikipedia, this effect is achieved by altering the image's focus to simulate a shallow depth of field.

Changing the world, one bad habit at a time.

"Ready to finally stickK to your commitments? Then stand up, and put your reputation, or even your money, where your mouth is, and change your life. Reap the rewards of your hard work."

Here is the tagline to a really fantastic idea thought up by a young economist. Basically, you bet to yourself that you can commit to a goal. If you do not fulfill your goal each week, you lose the money. The money goes to charity- This group has raised over 1.5 million for charities and there is now some 600,000 on the line that people are betting. Change your life, become a better person, and if you fail, you still are improving yourself-- failure is success, but it is trying to succeed that is important....

This site just really got to me, and challenges me to either change myself or change the world, or something like that. I have been thinking on this one for a while, help me out!

I think this could be BIG.

www.stickk.com

Waltz with Bashir

So I came across a trailer for the new animated feature "Waltz with Bashir" that should come out in the states sometime soon. It's supposed to be some sort of anti-war story about a guy recollecting his time in the Lebabnon conflicts.

What I am really interested in is the animation- I think it is brilliantly combining raw images with reality, in the same way that Andy Spiegelman created Maus I & II. Animation allows the viewers to face harsh facts of life- photographs can do it too, no doubt, but there is something so telling in forcing truth to be told in such a visually altered environment.

What do you all think?

photo a day

I recently fell into an obsession with these "take a picture of yourself everyday" videos. I think they are completely awesome, especially the ones that track a long period of time and you can see their faces change.

The Great Swallow

I think this is a very cool installation/performance piece.  It seems almost humorously simple, but it taps into issues of security and privacy, animal-human interaction, and the precariousness of such cohabitation.  And the nest plays off of the glass of the buildings very nicely.

David Robbins talk at MIT's Center For Advanced Visual Studies and The Ice Cream Social

Here is a great 10 minute video of a lecture by David Robbins from 2007 at MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies. David Robbins is an artist and writer who wrote "The Velvet Grind," the book of contemporary criticism that Art280 is reading this semester. Though some of you may find this video un-exciting in its lecture format, anyone worth their salt in this or any other "art" class (or just any class) should watch it with rapt attention. Maybe you'll disagree, but Robbin's ideas really strike a chord with the new way that we can think about being creative in this era. I like how he eschews the term "artist" in favor of "independent creative." I feel similarly about the need for revision in the way we think about these descriptors. Below this video I have posted a piece of a creative project by Robbins, a fantastic video from his work, "The Ice Cream Social," which was a conceptual project that involved regular public socials at Baskin-Robbins' ice cream parlors, where Robbins would hang paintings designed specifically for the space. The project spurned a television show, music (some of which can be viewed at the end of the video) and numerous other bi-products.

Video description from Youtube:

Visiting artist and writer David Robbins will talk about "high entertainment." A practice for the future that combines the critical capacity of fine art with the pleasures and reach of show business, "high entertainment" could be what you are already making. Robbins's objects, images, and writing reflect on spectacle and the position of the artist in the visual system, and suggest possibilities for a new relationship between art and the entertainment industry.




TV Dance Party Talk Show, "The Ice Cream Social," by David Robbins.

Circuit Bending and Chiptune

Two new music genres all about electronics, deconstructionism and creative re-invention. I think they are fascinating; last semester I tried some circuit bending on some toys I picked up at K-Mart and didn't have too much success with creating new sounds but it was fun nonetheless.

This first video is an overview of Circuit Bending:


And if you doubt the musical potential, check out Chiptune:

LED Sheep!

Herding sheep covered in webs of LED lights: I have no idea if I really buy this or not, but it's pretty incredible either way.



Anyone remember Lite-Brite? It's living, ambulatory Lite-Brite!

Target: Women

This is a series of short videos by Sarah Haskins, called "Target: Women" which talks in a satiric manner about how popular culture, and advertising in particular, patronizes a whole gender. They are, in my opinion, HILARIOUS. (But then, I'm just a woman.)

This is the first one, I think, which gives a little introduction:



These are segments from the site infoMania, which I highly suggest checking out as another source of news commentary on all parts of popular culture.

artist or ape?

Kind of a fun little quiz to differentiate abstract expressionist paintings from ape-made paintings. It reminded me of Ben and his student's gorilla portrait-making performance. How much of art's legitimacy is in personality cults?

The Battle Against Exuberance....FDA Approved Despondex

This is hilarious and extremely deadpan. The format is exactly the one we know from experience, but the content is brilliantly supplanted. Gotta love The Onion.

Kutiman - Thru You

The following post was taken from the following location:

http://dadarobotnik.blogspot.com/2009/03/kutiman-cuttin-up-tubes.html

I'm re-posting it here because I think it:
a) is very fun to watch and listen to
b) is introduced in a way that makes us readers think more deeply about what is going on.

Take note!

"The internet's been humming today with the music mashups of Kutiman, an Israeli artist who's been using Youtube to the fullest breadth the website has to offer. It's pretty cool stuff:

He's a mashup artists along the lineage of Too Many DJ's and more recently the bombastic dancehaller Girl Talk, but the samples Kutiman uses all come specifically from Youtube and incorporate the video portion as well. This tiny distinction makes Kutiman's songs that much greater, because the humble bedrooms, basements, and streetcorners that youtubers broadcast from, complete with crappy lighting and personal sillinesses, become a cohesive song that maintains the tie to its composite parts. Like Daft Punk's Around The World we get a visual for every sound, but in this case the visual was born with the sample. So we get a backstory to every note, scratch, and vocal, an insight into how it was manipulated for the final song. In his amazingly simple way, Kutiman taps into the layering and wealth of information on Youtube and repurposes it into an anthemic readers digest of DIY creativity.

This is what I love about Youtube: It is a constant stream of lo-grade creativity, which cumulatively adds up to something exciting and fresh about the 21st century. Anyone with a cameraphone and a personality (or lack thereof) can be a player. And though Kutiman purposed this creative energy towards music, the possibilities are pretty much limitless. Imagine a screenplay written out of youtube confessional 1-liners with some kind of connecting theme, or a choose-your-own-adventure style argument that links contrasting views of different videos in a continuous point-counterpoint.

The infinite beauty on the net is sometimes buried under ceaseless comments and driveling myspace profiles, but jesus it's a powerful source. Omniscience via the terminal makes us quiet individual gods. Let us create."

Cats inspired by Cats

Really bizarre imitation of "kittens inspired by kittens"

Porn and Animation

I just stumbled on this video and it reminded me of the Dance Floor Dale video. There's something really artistic about these but I'm not so sure people are completely comfortable with them. I don't know, I thought it was cool.

That's Ricockulous!

Indeed it is.

Roommate On Wire

I woke up on my roommate's 21st birthday only to look out my window and see him doing this!

Dancefloor Dale

Hmmm... I debated for some time whether or not to post this to the blog. I mean, it's fairly graphic and obscene, but it's also pretty entertaining. Besides, we're all adults here, right? It's from Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. Personally I think it's pretty rad, but I'd love to hear what other people think of it.



Directed by Eric Wareheim (Tim & Eric) in association with Warp Records and Warp Films. Music by Flying Lotus. Co Directed/ Animation by Devin Flynn. Co Directed/ Edited by Eric Fensler. More info at dancefloordale.com

Eating Out of The Toilet

The Japanese have a saying that says something to the order of:
"More pleasant to s**t together than eat together." In this instance I think we may have a happy medium. Very provocative design/concept by this restaurant. However, I think the menu remains appetizing on account of the sharp execution. What do you think?

THIS IS REALLY COOL.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/09/nyregion/09stars.html?_r=1&hp

Ok, so here's the deal: Two complete strangers are both trying to darken the New York sky for 1 minute in Times Square and for 15 blocks in Inwood. They want to show people who have never seen the stars what they are missing. What an amazing thing to do. I really hope it is realized, it would have such a huge impact on hundreds of people. Perspectives on life would change.
They have to get permission from the city and all the landlords in Times Square. Wow, tall order.

Most Viewed

So I was just looking at the most viewed videos of all time:

We have "Avril Lavigne' Girlfriend" at number one with 116 million views, and the "Evolution of Dance" at a close second:



Mostly music videos and films of children after that.

I encourage all to look at the different filters (i.e. most viewed, most discussed, highest rating, etc...)

How do to these categories affect how we view these videos and the internet culture?

I have to say I was a little disappointed to see Avril at top, but then again, I am sure these ratings will all be different tomorrow.

More Datamoshing!!!

Music video for Chairlift's "Evident Utensil"(produced before Kanye's "Welcome to Heartbreak")




...and "How To Datamosh: Part 1" by Bob Weisz, the man responsible for the datamoshery in the above video. You can view Part 2 by clicking on his face around 5:00 (as he'll explain).

Jessica Alba Staring Competition

I feel like Jessica Alba is, by David Robbins' definition of modern camera culture, extremely successful in this video. She a) uses her celebrity status to attract attention in a mundane context such as this b) captures the camera's attention (it doesn't matter that it is her own camera), and c) posts it on youtube so that millions of users can view it. 

Oktapodi

One of the 2009 Oscar nominations for best animated short, Oktapodi is the story of an Octapus trying to make his way back into the ocean. 

atheists nightmare

My friend showed me this last night, and I thought it was really funny. There are a bunch of responses and original videos on YouTube that create a hilarious dialogue between depictions of the same thing.

There is another one about peanut butter that is pretty entertaining as well.

Amateur - Lasse Gjertsen

My friend Blake showed this to me last semester and it blew me away! Apparently him and Lasse have been in contact for some time sharing their music with one another and I guess this video actually got Lasse kicked out of the art school he was attending when he made it...not sure if its a true story or not but funny nonetheless.

The artist calls his editing style "hyperactive" which I think is pretty fitting. I don't know if this is a term he came up with or something other video artists are thinking about as well but very very creative and opens up new possibilities (i.e. appearing to play a song when you can't play the instrument) for artists.

Lucy Orta

So I was going to follow up my comment on that inflatable trash bag art with a post on Lucy Orta.  However, upon navigating to her site just now, I found that Lycos webhosting has gone under, so it looks like she doesn't have a website right now.  However, I scrounged some images and links to use instead.

Lucy Orta combines clothing with habitation to make political/social statements.  She calls her works 'Refuge Wear', and I think they are pretty provocative.  They provide personal, self-contained environments to give people independent well-being, but also tie people together, sometimes literally.  Anyway, I think she's a great artist, so if you are not familiar with her, I'd recommend looking her up (maybe in an actual library or something..).

short blurb on Refuge Wear/Body Architecture

short blurb on a similar artist

25 Things I Hate About Facebook

So I'm starting to obsess over all the videos coming out which poke fun at facebook, myspace, twitter, etc etc. I love that even while all these new crazy social networking sites are coming out we still maintain that we can (and should) laugh at ourselves.

By the way, the only reason I knew about this video was because it came up on my facebook news feed. Thank you facebook.

If you've ever dreamt of flying....

This clip shows Wingsuit BASE Jumping at its finest. It was taken from the documentary Seven Sunny Days.

In Reference to Commercials

Today during class the power of advertisement in today's television culture was discussed. This is a perfect example: a beautiful video that advertises only at the end. While I enjoy the aesthetic appeal of this video immensely, immediately after finding out that it was an advertisement I was a little disappointed--I just wanted to experience the video without the commercial aspect.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Facebook Gangsta

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Just stumbled upon this video and I thought it was a worthy satire of how some people use facebook and/or see social networking on the internet in general. Sort of a cross between Andy Samberg's videos on SNL and Flight of the Conchords. It made me laugh so I thought you should watch it as well.

Jonathan Glazer Ads

Liz just posted that Sony Bravia runing clown exploding paint ad which I have always loved. Jonathan Glazer, who directed that ad, is quite well known and respected. There is a director series DVD from Palm pictures (the same as did the Box set with collections of Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham, and Michel Gondry) with all of Glazer's work. He has also done a bunch of really strange and incredible music videos for groups like Radiohead and UNKLE, as well as some crazy ads for Guinness Stout, Levi's, Barclay's and more. Here are a couple long versions of the Guinness ads that are tremendous. Youtube his name to watch more stuff by him.

From Trash to Art

Really cool idea. It gives a new outlook to the trash on the streets of New York.

new sony bravia commercial

I really like the idea behind this new commercial, but I feel like it was executed poorly. I would have focused on the paint splashing when it comes down rather than when it's shooting up. I was really let down when I didn't get to see the paint thrown all over the inside of the house, too. It gave it almost an unauthentic feel because you could not see the final effect of the paint. What do you guys think?