p x l p a r k

Happy Guy Fawkes Day 2009

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:35:43 GMT

The 1st AR Analog Paper Drum Sequncer

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:09:16 GMT

More about this from Mike & Markus of Hochschule Hof here.

WHile you are there, check out their Holz Case sequencer as well. It's a more tangible version of this sequencer using small beads.

Brett Domino Trio vs. Stylophone Beatbox

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:44:07 GMT

Brilliant. These guys would easily fill clubs weekly in 11211. More on the trio here

Oh right, this is the newly released Stylophone Beatbox. Amazing little box for $25 US.

Bell & Ross Radar

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 07:53:31 GMT

B&R have made several of my favorite minimal yet functional watches for several years now, and the 2009 limited edition Radar definitely got my attention. It's by far the most minimal design B&R have ever done.

And funny enough they have now done an iphone app for the BR1. Rumour has it that Android copied the style for their clocks, so it's only fair that B&R have an official BR1 app for the ipone.

Zen Bound - A Curious iPhone Game

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:27:11 GMT

Zen Bound is easily one of the most curious iphone "games" around this year.

An explanation here will do it little justice, but essentially it is a game of stone, wood and rope that came out in late march (i haven't had much time to blog these days). i will follow up here soon with a rundown of several recenlty found iphone games and music apps (like the recent Star6 app.

Fujifilm 12mp 3-D Twin Lense Digital Cam

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 15:07:38 GMT

The new camera creates 3D pics that don't need proprietary glasses to see the images... Called the �FinePix Real 3D System�, it seems like it will also do two point panoramic shots, and some other odd things, like really fast time lapse photos, and the concurrent wide and zoom shots, which are really nice (though it must take some serious time to save dual 12mp sized photos...),.

No pics as of yet, but i am thinking the effect is similar to that of a TTL, like a Rollei, in that it will create a slight depth of field that you just can't get with a SLR or single lense.

I can also imagine this cam will be hacked in no time, allowing other interesting things to be done, like with CHDK on Canons.

more info at Time, CNET Asia and PSFK

Happy Birthday Mr. Tesla

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:24:01 GMT

Right, better late then never... Happy Birthday you wacky guy you.

ConEd indeed.

Monica Zetterlund with Bill Evans Trio -

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 08:48:28 GMT

Bill Evans, Eddie Gomez, Alex Riel w. Monica Zetterlund

Recorded in Copenhagen Oct. 1966

How far away it all seems. These diamonds flowed like a river back then, and in America almost no one cared.

The Art of Penguin Science Fiction

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 07:58:02 GMT

Looking for some works of Franco Grignani the other day, I came across this excellent gallery of Penguin Science Fiction book covers, with most of these being designed by David Pelham. It's quite interesting to see the various styles change over the years, to emulate the style of the day.

AR proper finally meets the iPhone w. Tw

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 08:08:54 GMT

Those of you who know me, know my obsession with AR (proper, meaning real world video with GPS). This month brings two just released iphone apps to my attention.. TwittARound and New York Nearest Subyway.

They both basically do the same thing � use the iPhone 3GS GPS and Video to overlay data (via GPS coords) on top of whatever you�re pointing the camera at.

Mike you may remember talking about this very idea waaaay back in 1987 ad nauseam as we were coming back from the North Point Flea Market... except I preferred it with HUD glasses.

TwittARound by far has the most commercial potential, and will likely in short order be utilized by someone like Starbucks (and hopefully smaller independent companies) to show their various locations around a city. All they would need to do is create a simple list of tweets of each of their locations, and some custom icon perhaps, and voila... point your phone towards the sky and free location adverts everywhere. (Bye bye Viacom roadside signs, Hello beautiful scenery!)

But the most creative and interesting uses for me are that of things like Graffiti, youth culture and things like Yelp. Imagine being able to see reviews of restaurants in real time in their front windows. Imagine being able to see cool and custom burners of local artist on their favorite buildings, 600 feet in the air.

Beyond that imagine you are going to a secret party, or a friends house, and as you approach the city, 300 feet in the air is a beacon that says "The party is here", with messages on each corner saying turn here for the party, and so on. Or secret notes friends about a club / store / gallery that you must go to when visiting a new town.

This will revolutionize so many industries in the coming years, and I can even see a place where once again the iPhone leads the way, with iphone driven HUD displays and appliances in cars and everywhere we go.

There are just soooo many uses for these kits, both commercial and personal, that I can't wait to see what develops next.

Universal MTV Mister International Furry

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 06:14:52 GMT

Matt Pike and UE strike again. one of a set of new promos for MTV International.

Enjoy the whole set here.

Happy 4th (from PES)

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 06:08:25 GMT

Thank You MJ, RIP

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:44:36 GMT

the turn ... a new way to view video

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:56:34 GMT

this just in from ak,

Theturn.tv is an interactive site framing the music and visual work of Fredo Viola. It's just too bad mr Stockhausen isn't around to see this, me thinks he would indulge.

Moon

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 03:16:22 GMT

What do you get when you cross "Solyaris" w. "2001" you get "Moon" it would seem, Directed by Duncan Jones, starring Sam Rockwell. looks very promising indeed.

Astronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where he, working alongside his computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet's power problems.

In theaters June 12th, 2009. Probably in NYC earlier.

Rumor has it Mr. Duncan will next attempt to create a little Sci-Fi noir flick based in future Berlin � Blade Runner will be his muse on this one. Can't wait to see taht one for sure.

Click through the vid to the YouTube where there are several more clips of Moon as well.

Baker Tweets

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:40:41 GMT

This just in from @skoch via twitter,

What I think will possibly the best invention of 2009 so far, Baker Tweet is "a way for busy bakers to tell the world that something hot and fresh has just come out of the oven. It's as simple as turning the dial and hitting the button. All of the baker's followers get a Twitter alert to tell them that it's bun-time. Or bread time. Or whatever. "

Bruno Munari: Laboratorio di Sperimentaz

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:17:40 GMT

This is a video of the Experimental Materials Lab in Milano, hosted by Bruno Munari, one of my childhood heroes, who has championed such insanity his entire brilliant career. The patrons of the lab bend, break, burn and confabulate creative contraptions of all kinds.

Part 1

Part 2

Lee Brimelow Flash AR Tutorial

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 23:52:15 GMT

This just in via twitter from @skoch...

Lee Brimelow just posted a Flash AR Tutorial showing you how to create a simple AR scene over at the the flash blog similar to the GE version in my post from a few weeks ago.

Lee also mentions the AR FlarToolkit demo by Mikko Haapoja here.

The Lightbox Clones Matrix

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:02:00 GMT

Yes this sounds like a new Lucas / Wachowski Bros film, but if you have ever found yourself wanting to stick your head in the ovenbox, after dealing with lightbox and ajax lib compatibility issues, then this is the site for you.

url=http://planetozh.com/projects/lightbox-clones/]The Lightbox Clones Matrix[/url] lists a number of ajax libs designed to embed various objects in HTML pages, such as images, flash animations, movies and iframes. Comparisons can be filtered by Library and Features keys, to hone in on just the lib you need to make you ajax-ing less complicated.

The Lightbox Clones Matrix

Ferran Adria vs Charlie Rose

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:53:55 GMT

I love reading/watching stories about Ferran Adria, el bulli and his insatiable desire... nay, absolute need! to be curiously playful with food in order to find out the why of things, like Feynman with physics, or Charlie Parker with his sax, a theme that I have been both fascinated with and imprisoned by since birth, and one that seems to be applicable to every single action in the universe.

In any case foodies enjoy, and the rest of you take note...

ps: interview starts about 30 min into the show, will try to find "just the interview" in time. in the mean time, enjoy the talk about the 5'4" (!) Picasso.

--
UPDATE: This should start at the beginning of the interview now (via initialTime func) about 30 min in.

Geigy Design and Advertising 1940 - 1970

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 03:33:53 GMT

With the recent release of the book Corporate Diversity : Swiss Graphic Design and Advertising by Geigy 1940 - 1970, I finally get to see- in big color prints - some of what I think are some of the best graphic and packaging design to come out of Switzerland ever, which are generally unknown to the public at large, even the design public. The book was released in tandem with the exhibition 'Good Design, Good Business' at the Museum f�r Gestaltung Z�rich (open from Feb 4 / May 24 . 2009).

While Mueller-Brockmann in Zurich had the geometric mathematics, precision and the Japanese sense of space, Max Schmid and the Geigy team in Basel, with the almost unknown Armin Hoffman, the well known color man Gerstner, Markus L�w's clean lines, Rudin, Honegger and others had the organic Style, playfulness and boldness, and the work as a group is well overdue for this recognition.

more pics and a more in depth book review over at things to look at

the book at amazon

Also I just had a a look through a copy of one of the original books about Geigy design, a 1969 version of "Chemie Werbung und Grafik", and highly recommend you have a look at this one as well if you have a chance. The first six or so images above are available in this book.

Kubrick Interview Archive

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 04:05:28 GMT

Whilst looking for the 1962 interview of Mr. Kubrick by the author Terry Southern , (they were partners in crime more then once infact), i stumbled upon this archive of all the interviews Kubrick did over the years (and was up till 4 reading them). It's quite an insane collection.

Chunky Move - Mortal Engine

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 07:25:23 GMT

Chunky Move from Australia are one of the most amazing dance troops I have seen in modern dance since the first day I discovered sankai juku and pilobolus in the 80s. It is so beautiful/haunting/intoxicating, that I can't wait for them to come to NYC.

from the site:
Mortal Engine is a new dance-video-music-laser performance using movement and sound responsive projections to portray an ever-shifting, shimmering world in which the limits of the human body are an illusion. Crackling light and staining shadows represent the most perfect or sinister of souls. Kinetic energy fluidly metamorphoses from the human figure into light image, into sound and back again. Choreography is focused on movement of unformed beings in an unfamiliar landscape searching to connect and evolve in a constant state of becoming. Veering between moments of exquisite cosmological perfection and grotesque evolutionary accidents of existence, we are driven forward by the reality of permanent change.

via fabrik

The Seed

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 06:51:40 GMT

Just posted last week, A two-minute animated voyage through nature's life cycle, following the trials and tribulations of a humble apple seed.

The Seed crated by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners / Johnny Kelly, was sponsored by Adobe to show off the bells and whistles of CS4, and it's nice bit of (incredibly tedious) work (though who needs convincing, and, well, it's not as if there is some other options!).

and the making of, which i actually like more...

Bespoke Laser Cutting at your finger tip

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 06:34:56 GMT

Got a few things you want to have cut by a laser? Projects, patterns and all kinds of other oddball ideas, well this is the place for you.. And until I get that 3D printer I have been jonesing, this will be the next best thing. Give'em a call, or try one of the other options below.