Cool

7
Mar 10

The Clavlilux 2000

From the creator of The Clavilux 2000:

The Clavilux 2000 is an interactive instrument for generative music visualization, which is able to generate a live visualization of any music played on a digital piano. The setting of the installation consists of three parts: A digital piano with 88 keys and midi output, a computer running a vvvv patch and a vertical projection above the keyboard.

For every note played on the keyboard a new visual element appears in form of a stripe, which follows in its dimensions, position and speed the way the particular key was stroke. Colours give the viewer and listener an impression of the harmonic relations: Each key has it’s own color scheme and “wrong” notes stand out in contrasting colors.

All stripes stay and overlap each other in an additive way, so at the end a kind of pattern remains – a summary of the music – which will be always unique since the notes of the composition aswell as the interpretation of the piano player are influencing the outcome. Furthermore the piano player can switch between the standart 2d view and an additional 3d view of the visualization while playing.

More information


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5
Mar 10

The Sandpit

The Sandpit is a fantastic video by Sam O’Hare. The image style reminds me a lot of Susan Wides‘ photography.


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22
Feb 10

Sites and Sounds

codeorgan.png
Ever wonder what your website would sound like if translated to music? Probably not. Well, anyway, codeorgan is a website that will take any url and convert it to music using algorithms based on the content it finds there. (Thanks to Carl Lorentzen for sharing this little distraction with me.)


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17
Feb 10

Cinema Redux Print

Brendan Dawes' Cinema Redux Print


Coudal is selling what I think might be one of the coolest prints I’ve seen. Here’s their description of it:

“Brendan Dawes’ very special limited-edition based on our unending obsession with 2001: A Space Odyssey. Brendan explains, ‘A specially written piece of software takes a tiny snapshot of the film every second. Each row contains sixty of these frames, representing one minute of film time. This process continues for the whole movie resulting in an image that becomes greater than the sum of its parts, in effect creating a unique visual fingerprint of the film.’ Kubrick geeks must have this.”

In particular, I liked Dawes’ description:

“Cinema Redux is an attempt to make a physical visual representation of an entire movie in the hope that you can show the world – or the visitors to your home at least, your passion for a certain film. Not just a certain scene. Not just one single frame. But the entire film, represented in a new visual form, a kind of cinematic DNA. It’s made entirely from a digital ‘machine’ process. But it’s made for an analog ‘human’ world.”


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2
Jan 10

Wordle

Wordle is cool.

Wordle will generate those interesting word-cloud images you see around the Web from words you paste or URLs you provide. On top of that, you can modify a lot of settings to customize your image. The cloud above was generated from the words on the home page of this blog as of January 2, 2010.


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16
Jun 09

Color Scheme Designer 3

Hue-rah!

Hue-rah!

While I firmly believe a talented designer / artist can and probably should create their own color schemes, Color Scheme Designer 3 is an incredibly robust and surprisingly intuitive Flash-based color palette creator that can really help out in a pinch.


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11
Jun 09

Rethinking the Agency Web Site

Thinking outside the box.

Thinking outside the box.

I was impressed with Modernista’s daring Web site, which was basically a feed pull of Flickr, Wikipedia, Google News, etc.  It embraced the idea that the medium is the message, and that you can’t really control your message, so you might as well sit back and enjoy the ride.

And when it launched, I also thought it couldn’t be replicated. I mean, the idea is so unique that it can really only be done once; copycats would be just that, copycats.

Then I saw BooneOakley’s new site, which is simply an interactive (navigable) YouTube video. It’s not only quirky and interesting, it’s perfectly-suited to their audience, people considering an ad agency who understands new media.

Nicely done!


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31
Mar 09

I Have a Hunch I'll Love Hunch

I am free from having to make my own decisions about my life!

Have a hunch? Need a hunch?

Okay, this is cool. The beta of hunch.com launched, and I’m loving it!

On the About page of the site, Hunch is described as being “…started by clever folks who were exploring how machine learning could be used to guide practical decision-making.”

Relying on input from users (the more contributors, the better the hunches), the promise is simple: in 10 questions or less, Hunch can help you make almost any decision. “What laptop should I buy?” “Should I join a startup?” “What blog should I read?”

Finally, the promise of the Internet might be realized: we don’t need to think for ourselves! We can just rely on fantastic, sweet, sweet group-think to help us make all our critical life decisions.


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6
Feb 09

Christoph Niemann Legos N.Y.

Lego of my taxi!

Lego of my taxi!

Legos were, by far, my favorite toy growing up. Were I given the task of rendering NYC with them, I probably would have asked for boxes and boxes of the little bricks. That’s why I find Christoph Niemann’s interpretation of iconic NYC themes compelling: he explained so much with so little.

Brilliant.


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4
Feb 09

Jet-Puffed Mordacity

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Not only is this video darkly funny, it was created by my wonderfully talented 16-year-old niece, Zoe McWatters. (She has a lot more talent than I did at her age!)

I’m the proud uncle, in case you couldn’t tell.


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28
Jan 09

Danger, Will Robinson!

Better than Futurama!

Better than Futurama!

If you’ve never seen Gordon Bennett’s robot sculptures, you’re missing a rare treat. These are not futuristic, polished droids. No, these are scultpures “made from a mixture of found objects both old and new.”

IMHO, they are fantastic. And, I swear, before 2009 is over, I will own one!

(I particularly like this one, and this one, if anyone is looking for an early birthday present for me!)


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26
Jan 09

8 Years Later

Then and Now

Then and Now

Here is an interesting information graphic in The Atlantic which compares the State of the Union in 2000 to 2008.


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23
Jan 09

A Bird's Eye View of the Inauguration

Those are people, not ants.

Those are people, not ants.

Visit TechCrunch to see some great photos from inauguration day, taken by a Geo-Eye satellite.


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