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The Brick Thief: A LEGO Short Film
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Hans Rosling: The Joy of Stats
This one-hour documentary takes viewers on a rollercoaster ride through the wonderful world of statistics to...
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PES: The Deep
Metal objects of the past come to life in the depths of the sea in this beautiful stop motion film by PES. -
California Redwoods: Growing is Forever
Humanizing the Web
This is a guy who’s got it - storytelling is the way we share. In this talk he demonstrates his journey to cowbird.com. I have always been a bit annoyed with the fact that a lot that is designed out there doesn’t seem to take into consideration how we would instinctually interact with our surroundings, and share Jonathan Harris view that there are a few people out there that get to have a huge impact on how we behave. I’m talking about the Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter UX designers.
So here is his attempt to make something that emulates the human experience a little more. Honestly, the interface is nothing special, and I think he could take this concept a lot further by breaking what already exists even more. Why not check in with a person that knows nothing about web design and ask about an opinion? I love sitting with my parent in front of the computer for this reason, they would always react to the things we learnt and take for granted. They would react to why the scroller bar is where it is, the windows being designed as windows of information etc.. But I strongly like that he created a platform for us to share stories in a different manner. It’s not a usual blog, it’s a network of stories that serendipitously stumble across each other through loose associations. Just like in real life. I highly recommend you request an invitation - I’m waiting for mine.
“Put yourselves into unusual situations. Put yourselves into unusual cultures where you don’t belong. Put yourselves among people that you don’t normally hang out with… Get out of your comfort zone, culturally..” - John Jay (Wieden + Kennedy) We kew this. But it’s nice to see it there sometimes.”
To Understand is to Perceive Patterns
“Networks are everywhere. The brain is a network of nerve cells connected by axons, and cells themselves are networks of molecules connected by biochemical reactions. Societies, too, are networks of people linked by friendships, familial relationships and professional ties. On a larger scale, food webs and ecosystems can be represented as networks of species. And networks pervade technology: the Internet, power grids and transportation systems are but a few examples. Even the language we are using to convey these thoughts to you is a network, made up of words connected by syntactic relationships.”
Cultural Phenomena
“Have you seen the keep calm and carry on poster?” I ask about 20 people today. “Why do you think it became so popular?” is my next question. “It’s a universal truth”, “it calms our stressed society”, and my personal favorite “we are herd animals” are some responses I get. But most shockingly, nobody I asked knew where it came from. Am I the only one who finds it interesting that a public safety poster that was designed for a potential major crisis in 1939’s Britain is now suddenly everywhere? That there are only two originals left (one seen here: http://wartimeposters.co.uk/keepcalm) and that one of them was found by Stuart Manley, a bookstore keeper, and his wife when going through a box of hardbacks he bought at an auction. He just saw “A big piece of paper folded up at the bottom. I opened it out, and I thought, wow. That’s quite something. I showed it to Mary, and she agreed. So we framed it and put it up on the bookshop wall. And that’s where it all started.” This was in 2000. Now it’s a cultural phenomenon. Yes - the probability of any individual adopting it has increased with the proportion who have already done so.
So what do I think of this growing popularity? An exciting thought to me is that this rapid adaption and spread could have never happened in 1939 - and a poster like this would never be part of a governments communication strategy today. The fact that people like it so much makes me a bit worried. Obviously it fits well with our zeitgeist and got much attention when the financial crisis hit. It could also have something to do with the occupy movement and the fact that most of us are utterly confused and lack focus in our lives. We obviously crossed the line where the poster has become mainstream and we as a cultural mishmash might need something that gives us a sense of intellectual fellowship - whether that be eating cupcakes or getting excited and making things. So, what propaganda poster would you like to make money on next?
California High Speed Rail
500 million trips around California in one year is a lot - a lot of poisonous gases. There are only clear advantages of California building this High Speed Rail system, including 600 thousand new construction jobs, 450 permanent jobs and state oil dependence reduced by 12.7 million barrels/year. If that’s not enough, you will be able to hop on a train in downtown San Francisco and arrive in downtown LA 2 hours and 40 min later. Hope I’m still here by 2020.
Meatball landing system
Before technology was advanced enough to be able to calculate an aircrafts exact landing position, the meatball system was used.
“Ball (or “meatball”; also known as “the source”) — indicates the relative position of the aircraft with reference to glide slope. If the aircraft is high, the ball will be above the datum lights; if the aircraft is low, the ball will be similarly below the datums. The further the aircraft is from the glide slope, the further the ball will be above or below the datum lights. If the aircraft gets dangerously low, the ball appears red. If the aircraft gets too high, the ball appears to go off the top”. -Wiki
Also, the Nasa logo is called the meatball because of this.
Here is a personal take on what account planning means for us. The creative team gets lost in the woods because they don’t have a proper brief to follow - no sense of direction. They end up throwing a party while the account planner needs to go on his explorer journey to find the best idea on how to solve this problem. The compass eventually finds the right direction after a random set of events and some wise comments from Gareth Kay and Joshua Brandau.
Be prepared for a lot of metaphors. Enjoy.
HOW TV CONTENT WILL BE WATCHED
It’s funny, me and a friend had a conversation the other day about how TV content is going to be watched, and today I find this movie illustrating many of the point we brought up. First of all, the reason I say “TV content is being watched” and not “watching TV” is simply because the TV is transforming itself to nothing more than a bigger screen. The content is what is important, and only as long as the TV networks have a lot of power…
Secondly, shows and movies will be direct portals for advertising, as they illustrate in this movie. You will be able to buy that dress your favorite actor is wearing, or sofa you see in the living room just with one click.
The fact that your device knows what you are watching is already possible through apple TV - simply pick up a movie you started on the train and watch it on the big screen. However, to what extent your phone/tablet will be able to provide additional information, a platform for discussion and live interaction is fascinating. TV program app developers, start thinking about how you can provide a tool for leveraging the content already being shown in real-time.
The Internet in Society: Empowering or Censoring Citizens?
Exposing some idealistic myths about freedom and technology (during Iran’s ‘twitter revolution’ fewer than 20,000 Twitter users actually took part), Evgeny argues for some realism about the actual uses and abuses of the internet.
“Every problem, every dilemma, every dead end we find ourselves facing in life, only appears unsolvable inside a particular point of view.”
Rosamund and Benjamin Zander, The Art of Possibility
MAKING STUFF
There are so many complex systems out there made by us, that not many people understand the basics of. As Matt Ridley points out, no single person knows how to make a computer mouse: we all collaborate to design it, engineer it and even get the oil to make the plastic part of it. Understanding the basics of how things work lets you create your own complexity, and I realize more and more how important this is for innovation and original thinking.
I discussed this issue with a friend the other day, coming to the conclusion that this could be one of the reasons even a lot of people feel depression nowadays - we don’t create stuff with our hand anymore, so there is no physical experience of accomplishment. All is on paper, stored in records through data. We don’t see a project being made, only by ourselves from beginning to end.
Building things like this fox hole radio connects you to the nature of things - the true origin of creativity. Mine doesn’t work yet (have to trouble shoot a bit more) but when it does I will post it up. The journey is just as important.
There is so much talk about thinking outside the box.. often we get assigned tasks where there isn’t even a box - which simply makes it harder. This video is a great parody of all this talk and snobbery around creative people.
