Aleph: Reorganizing Vision is a “kinetic reflection display system” by Bengt Sjölén and Adam Somlai-Fischer. It is basically a matrix of car mirrors hooked up to motors that shift individually. Cameras are used to analyze the environment, locating the lights and darks to be reflected toward the viewer. The mirrors are essentially pixels at this point, and images can be created by the matrix.

This is brilliant, and the concept is still in its infancy. With enough funding and development, there are some exciting possibilities here. Imagine the side of a skyscraper where the reflective windows shift, and the light recognition is sensitive enough to create multiple levels of light and dark. The entire building could pulse with visual energy. It could even be used for ad space. I hope these guys can get the resources to see this idea through. For more info, check out the project site.

[Source= Information Aesthetics]

by Chris

Around 4 o’clock this morning, I was sleeping soundly in my bed when I was ripped from my slumber by the sound of glass breaking. That doesn’t quite do it justice… It was really more of a glass explosion. My wife and I instantly sit up, trying for a moment to clear the fog from our minds. I jumped out of bed, asking her if she knew what it was. She didn’t.

Though I had considered the possibility of a break-in, I wasn’t too concerned about it. I opened the bedroom door to find that the large picture frame mounted above my bedroom door had managed to somehow fall off of its nail onto the wood laminate floor. Apparently, when a 20 by 30 inch piece of glass falls a distance of around ten feet, the blast radius of glassy doom is around 15 feet. Needless to say, it was everywhere. After almost an hour of sweeping, vacuuming and even swiffer-mopping, we returned to bed. This however, is not today’s observation. What has me thinking, is my initial reaction to the crash.

You see, at no point did I really think it was a break-in. Given my complete lack of information at the moment, that decision was based on instinct, and instinct alone. Question is… Is that a good thing? Sure, I was right in this case, but what if someone was breaking in? Should I have kicked the door open with a flying Karate kick? I do have a family to protect, after all… Should I just always assume the worst?

Not sure I have an answer for this one. Do I trust my instincts, or start at paranoid, and work back to rational? One thing is for sure… If I had burst forth from my bedroom John McClane-style, I’d still be picking shards of glass from my feet… John McClane-style.

by Chris

This past March, 20-year-old photographer Jessica Williams organized a simple, yet powerful project. The project, called I’m Too Sad To Tell You (after Bas Jan Ader), was an open call to the Flikr community of photographers to submit self-portraits taken while crying.

From her statement:

Crying is a powerful act; taking a photograph of oneself crying and putting it on the Internet is another matter entirely. It is a very specific cultural phenomenon and is in many ways much like a performance. As such, the title of this project is borrowed from a piece of the same name made by the Dutch performance artist Bas Jan Ader in 1970. His piece consisted of a silent 16mm short black and white film of himself crying uncontrollably with no explanation. Regardless of the authenticity of his tears, his grief is overwhelmingly real. It is at once hard to watch, mesmerizing, and beautiful.

Admittedly, I am a sucker for user-submitted art compilations. As long as people participate in the project, it seems you can’t lose. The collection naturally offers a diversity of people and styles, but what keeps me interested is how I am effected by each image. Some instantly strike you as true sorrow, and deliver that satisfying emotional punch. Then you have the fakers.

Looking through these, it doesn’t take Kreskin to see that some of them are simply performances. While that would normally bother me, I find that I am intrigued by these people. The lengths they go through to fake the simplest of emotions is what gets me. The disposal of the melodramatic posing, and theatrics are exactly what made Bas Jan Ader’s piece so brilliant. So actually, I find the fakes unintentionally and brilliantly flawed. I find their inability to express true emotion more tragic than anything.

Psycho-babble aside, I really enjoyed the collection, so check it out.

[Source: Josh Spear]

by Chris

Though I haven’t spoken to Rob Woodrum in a long time, I consider him a great friend. Rob is the pastor of a church that I used to attend while I lived in Panama City Beach, and the pastor in my wedding as well. When I spoke to him more frequently, I was well aware of his artistic talent and we would talk comics often. I have to say though… this thing has blown me away.

The comic is called Rabbi Encounters, and each chapter follows a new character and their experience with a mysterious rabbi. Rob has developed a look that fits perfectly with his story, and has a remarkable ability of discussing religion in a modern untraditional way. I really just can’t get over how great this thing looks and reads. These stories will tug at your heart strings regardless of your beliefs. Check it out!

Rob also has a website containing more of his comic strips and illustrations. Great work, Rob!

This is the first of a slew of doodles coming our way from artist Christopher Burdett! Maybe one day he will invest in some actual sticky notes, but until then, we’ll have to pretend! Thanks, Chris!

[Note: If any artists out there feel like submitting, feel free! I’d be happy to post them!]

Okay, this isn’t exactly breaking news (about a year old), but I thought it was too brilliant to ignore. Christien Meindertsma gathered a ragtag team including a knitter, a graphic designer, spinners, farmers and felters for a project she calls FLOCKS. They take a small flock of sheep, and produce a series of “one sheep” garments. As you can see in the photos here, the sheep’s photo, bio and serial number are included.

I love this concept. It makes me wonder about how many cows are in my shoes, or how many chickens went down for my chicken nugget meal at Chick-fil-a. It gives my perspective a very gentle twist.

I initially meant to write a post about the new Reese’s Ads on TV, and how I love them. How the rich colors and simple concept actually made me want the candy, rather than repulse me with rivers of caramel or simply entertain me with jokes. That for the first time in a while, a candy commercial actually made me want the candy. I was also planning to comment on how the slogan “Perfect” is spot on, yet slightly hypocritical given all the goofy spin-offs Reese’s has out right now. I was even going to tie this in with a Reese’s post I wrote a while back… But I was distracted, and here’s why:

When I went to their site for some images, I found an ad generator and started to play. So now this post is about the ad generator, and the dumb stuff you can do with it. Enjoy the two I have created below, and feel free to share your own in the comment section!

Special Note: The one on the right was a screen cap from before official generation. Why? It would not generate with the word crap included! Can’t say that I blame them on that one.

You can find some incredibly useless things on stock image sites, and this may be one of the most bizarre I have seen. Insect humanoid figures performing basic tasks, most notably the ever dangerous lighting of a fart.

If you are on a project that may need an image relating to fart lighting, and you lack the illustration skills of a chimp, here’s a link to purchase this fine piece of work.

PingMag has a great interview with Australian designer Alex Kubalsky about his work designing toys including the transformations of Transformers Bumblebee and Mirage. Kubalsky talks about his methods and there are some great images showing his process of drawing the entire transformation by hand. He also shares a pretty wild dream about Mary Poppins floating on a cloud, that admittedly give me the willies, yet somehow led him to create transforming toys long before this Transformers gig came up.

Hard to complain about such a great interview including so many interesting pics, but I wanna see more of those crazy prototypes he mentions throughout.