Shepherd's Pie

Easy, Cheap, Animated Cartoon in 10 Minutes

A Great new "Instructable" from Leevonk suggests using a whiteboard and webcam for an ultra minimal form of animation.

The Only Art On The Moon

The only piece of art on the moon (depending, we suppose, on one’s definition of art) is a 3″-tall aluminum sculpture titled “Fallen Astronaut.” It was created by Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonck and installed by Apollo 15 astronaut David Scott, along with a plaque bearing the names of the 14 astronauts and cosmonauts who died in the service of space exploration.

In 1972, against the crew and NASA’s wishes, Van Hoeydonck created 950 signed replicas of “Fallen Astronaut” and sold them for $750 a piece.

a comment made...
Moon Says:
August 7th, 2006 at 9:38 pm

I’m not in favor of putting ANYTHING on the Moon, except maybe beautiful women!!!

Signed,

Moon

Mr. Rogers Goes to The Senate 1969

"In 1969 the US Senate
had a hearing on funding the newly developed Corporation for Public
Broadcasting. The proposed endowment was $20 million, but President
Nixon wanted it cut in half because of the spending going on in the
Vietnam War. This is an video clip of the exchange between Mr. Rogers
and Senator Pastore, head of the hearing. Senator Pastore starts out
very abrasive and by the time Mr. Rogers is done talking, Senator
Pastore's inner child has heard Mr. Rogers and agreed with him."

See Clip here (YOUTUBE)

"Destination Earth" fantastic 50's animation

"In this corporate-sponsored cartoon, Martian dissidents learn that oil and competition are the two things that make America great."

From the Internet Archive I found these great short films many which featuring the work of Tom Oreb and Vic Haboush who, I am finding, are masters of classic animation.

I cannot explain how fantastic all the animation concept work featured on Cartoon Modern and Cartoon Brew is.

Also check out Ward-O-Matic, for Ward Jenkins who is a heavily 50s influenced animator who includes a lot of process and devolpment work on his site.

Guilherme Marcondes' animated Short "Tyger"

From Drawn...

"In Tyger, an animated short by Guilherme Marcondes, a giant jungle cat roams the city and transforms the urban jungle into a actual one, illuminating everything in sight with magic and wonder. Tyger combines puppetry, photography, and animation into the most original animated short I’ve seen in a long time..."

This film is gorgeous and brilliant! Absolutely orginal Guilherme Marcondes' entire reel is worth checking out. This man is a incredible designer. He used to be with Lobo, another graphic/animation studio with a beautiful reel.

Plusminus: Revolutionary electronics designs

"Plusminus" seems to made entirely of one man, Dima Komissarov and the few examples of his work on the site are pretty exciting.

the Flashbag is a usb drive which inflates depending on how much content
is on hand.

The Flashbag was a bunch of blogs a few weeks back and was I how I can to Plusminus... but
most all I was blown away by the "Remobeads"

a TV remote which you rotate in your hand like meditation or rosary beads...

"Nowadays TV-set is not longer accepted as a mere reciever - it had transformed into a cult object, the thing we can watch and interact with for hours, the source of our knowledge and inspiration. If you accept this statement with humor, as a matter of fact - go after our new design of TV remote - remote control combined with beads (remobeads). Now you can shift between channels effortless - just slightly pressing the beads. The beads are glowing, so you can easily see them in the darkness. As an option you can add a sound - enjoy listening to your favourite mantras while switching the channels. "

I love this image from italian advertising/graphic agency Keller. Its unfortunate that it is not a real object. I think it would so amazing on a giant scale in a public library, or small scale in a home library.

Coyle & Sharpe

"To look at them, you'd think them two well-educated, well-read, well-spoken, audacious young men. They are. They are also two young men who've rejected a conventional way of life in order to tape absurd, impromptu conversations with the innocent passer-by on a hidden tape recorder. Or, to put it another way (their way), 'We're just Renaissance Men who like to bug people.'"

Coyle & Sharpe made absurd style victimless prank comedy in the 1960s. They were shockingly ahead of their time and their work is still hilarious today.

Check out"The Efficiency Experts" from a television pilot they produced!

The "Turntable"

This table design by Wiedenmann & Averdiek
blew me away. I would love to see this concept on a smaller scale like a school chair-table. I am a sucker for anything that can be both entirely conceptual and minimal at the same time... I think this table definitly succeeds!

via mocoloco

Carmen D’Avino began his career as a painter in the 1930s. He’s been a World War II military filmmaker, a sculptor, and an avant-guarde animator in New York City.

more

PublicRadioFan.com

Publicradiofan.com is a pretty great resource I found a couple minutes ago. It provides direct links to radio streams. I have been listening to a lot of wbez and wfmu live over the internet. Its great because its live radio, but you can see live playlists updated while you listen. And are an input freak and need to google and information attack any new piece of content you encounter.

Everything I Have

Designed by Ross Cooper & Nic Woodley. The poster is decorated with over 400 hand-traced silhouettes depicting everything from a private jet to a garden gnome. The ‘scratch-off’ ink can be removed to reveal everything you have ever... loved, lost, created or destroyed. If you have ever played a lottery scratch card then you will be able to make this poster unique.

Via Beyond The Beyond

The Unseen Video

A weather controlled, dynamic music video for Mike Milosh's - You Make Me Feel."

"The Unseen Video is much more than a normal, static music video. It is a video that is affected by the weather and local time from the position of the viewer.

We want to create new synergies between the music, the video and the surroundings of the viewer. Every little change in your environment ensures that you will never see the same video twice. The look of the video might slightly change within an hour, but will have a whole new character in a few months."

via infosthethics

LED Throwies!

The Graffiti Research Lab has a delightful video of their LED Throwies in action. I don't want to ruin this by analyzing it too much... but I can confidently say this project in some way or another combines nearly all of my major interests and joys.

Via MAKE

Retrofuturology!

"...THE SITE OF FABIO FEMINO', ONE OF THE FOREMOST ITALIAN EXPERT IN ASTRONAUTICS, FUTUROLOGY AND SCIENCE FICTION. THIS SITE, SUBDIVIDED IN VARIOUS SECTIONS, WILL MAKE YOU DISCOVER HOW IN THE XX CENTURY, AT THE TOP OF THE SPACE AND NUCLEAR AGE, THE FUTURE WAS IMAGINED BY WRITERS, SCIENTISTS AND ESPECIALLY ARTISTS..."

Feminos collection is incredible! There has to be near 100 pages of content. Unfortunatley, the commentary and captions are in italian. No matter, since the illustrations here are so fantastic.

Via Pruned

Taylor McKimens

I submitted this to Paper Forest, though since it has been posted there... I can't resist sharing Taylor McKimens' work. A very literal feeling of walking into a cartoon.

Remote Controller Spiders

Spider for Cats

Spider for humans

I would love to see how these guys handle!

Neth Creatures

I think the Neth Creatures have to be my favorite designer toys on the market. These things are gorgeous. They have great colors and shapes like many toys. Though the materials in Neth's case are totally unique.

The Neth families are..

Natural: stone and wood patterns
Brushed: painted patterns with loose human style brush strokes
Flora: minimal plant growth paintings

Neth's designer "J," was also gracious enough to include a photo album of concept and manufacturing prep work. For any design student, this is fascinating.

Varini's Perspective

Felice Varini's room and building paintings are pretty entertaining optical art. They are a true testament to how little we see. I think this could make for an excellent home paint job. Imagine seeing one shape from your desk, one from bed, couch, kitchen table, etc...

You have got to explore his site a bit to find the off perspectives. He has a huge collection of work archive. Including some lines that span giant buildings. Its pretty amazing.

Listening At The Border

I really like this radio piece about a literal spy's experience listening to static audio in North Korea.

the PRX description...

"This work examines what it means to monitor airwaves on patrol, listening in from the perspective of a westerner trained in the nuances of a foreign language, navigating the borders of translation.
The piece has been created from a series of extensive interviews with a military linguist. His experiences as a spy and translator forever altered his listening skills and informed his desire to become an actor.
The piece combines the forms of radio documentary and sound collage, and seeks insight into the psychological, moral, and ethical implications of this listening activity."

Evironment Transformers

"The history of Ortner & Ortner dates back to 1970. At that time Laurids Ortner, Manfred Ortner and Günther Zamp Kelp worked together in Düsseldorf as Haus-Rucker-Co. The projects they worked on over the following 15 years shifted programmatically between the areas of free art and architecture. Many of them anticipated later developments and had a sustained influence on tendencies and directions. Major themes, such as 'second nature' – the fusion of the naturally grown and the artificially created – or 'deconstruction' – the taking apart and new composition of buildings – were raised in an illustrative manner in projects and exhibitions."

Here are a few of their fantastic projects
"...Other devices included a collection of bizarre helmets with colored visors, flashing lights and stereo headphones. These plastic headpieces, with the names 'Flyhead', 'Viewatomizer', 'Drizzler' and 'Environment Transformer' (all 1968), were said to isolate the wearer from the outside world. The helmets placed a buffer between the real world and the senses of the person inside."