The Art of Animation, Motion Graphics, Tech Gone Wrong & Why They Go Viral

PBS Off Book continues with another set of thought-provoking videos that take a look at animation, what happens when  you decide to make art when technology goes wrong and why those videos go viral. ​

The Art of Animation and Motion Graphics

Animation has been captivating audiences for more than a hundred years. From classic forms like hand drawn and stop-motion, to cutting-edge techniques like motion graphics and CGI, animation has a long history of creating style and poetry unachievable through live action filmmaking. It is a tool for educating, a place for experimentation and play, and a way of telling personal stories that reach the viewer with powerful visual metaphors. 

Featuring:
​John Canemaker
​Jesse Thomas, Jess3 
​Justin Cone
​Julia Pott 

The Art of Glitch

Glitches are the frustrating byproduct of technology gone awry. Wildly scrambled images, frozen blue screens, and garbled sounds signify moments where we want to throw our expensive computer products out the window. Many artists and programmers, however, have embraced these crisis moments and discovered beauty in the glitch. By hacking familiar systems, they intentionally cause glitches, and manipulate them to create art. Enjoying the aesthetics of technological mistakes defies the notion that technology and entertainment has to be a seamless experience. Most importantly, glitch artists reveal a certain soulfulness that emerges when complex streams of information, visual media, and our own lives converge in the chaos of the glitch.

Featuring:
​Phillip Stearns 
​Scott Fitzgerald 
​Anton Marini 
​Daniel Temkin 

Additional artists featured: 
​Antonio Roberts and Jeff Donaldson
​Gustavo Fajardo

The Worlds of Viral Video

"Viral Video" is the signature phenomenon of internet media. Something akin to pop songs, these videos with irresistible hooks have saturated video culture online and have now evolved into a multitude of sophisticated forms. Whether rooted in comedy, spectacle, schadenfreude, cuteness, politics, performance, or deep meaning, the idea of viral videos, and the huge audiences they generate, have forever changed the values and potential impact of video online. 

Featuring:
​Jonah Peretti, Buzzfeed
​Kevin Allocca, YouTube
​Brad Kim, Know Your Meme
​Dan Gurewitch, College Humor
​Mark Douglas and Todd Womack, Key of Awesome
​Michael Learmonth, Advertising Age
​Casey Neistat

List of Featured Viral Videos​

Previously:

The Art Of Logo Design: PBS Off Book
​Seeing Beyond The Human Eye
​​Pop Culture Through The Lens Of Nostalgia: The Evolution Of 8-Bit Art​
​​The Culture Of Reddit
​The Vast World Of Lego Art
​Three Points Of View On Fandom, Fan Fiction & Fan Art
​The Art of Film & TV Title Design: PBS Off Book
​Tattoos: Pop Portraits, Japanese Traditional, American Eclectic
​Art In The Era Of The Internet: The Impact Of Kickstarter, Creative Commons & Creators Project
​Animated GIFs: The Birth of a Medium
​Off Book Series One: The Complete Series

Embracing The Remix: An Act To Promote The Progress Of Useful Arts

We are not self-made. We are dependent on one another. Admitting this to ourselves isn't an embrace of mediocrity and derivativeness, it's a liberation from our misconceptions.”

Kirby Ferguson

Related:

• Copy, Transform, Combine: Everything Is A Remix, The Complete Series
  
• All Creative Work Builds On What Came Before
• ​Well done is better than well sued
• Storytelling (A TED Remix)​

A year inside The Australian Ballet: Episode 5 Music of the Classics

During rehearsals for Onegin at The Sydney Opera House, Senior Artist Amy Harris and Corps de Ballet member Jake Mangakahia talked about a dancer's connection to music and the excitement of performing with a live orchestra. Featuring rare footage from within the pit as the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra play Tchaikovsky and wing-side views of Onegin dress rehearsals.

Previously: 
​A year inside The Australian Ballet: Boys' Day, Episode 4
​A Year Inside The Australian Ballet: On The Road, Episode 3​
​A Year Inside The Australian Ballet, Episode 2
​The Secret Life Of Dancers

Michael Bierut On The New Philbrook Museum of Art Brand

Michael Bierut of the New York City-based firm Pentagram discusses his work with Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It's always fascinating to see where inspiration comes from. Earlier we covered Beirut and the creation of the logo for the Frank Gehry designed New World Symphony.

Click Here If You Are You Missing Out

FOMO and Social Media by Caterina Fake

FOMO [fear of missing out] is a great motivator of human behavior, and I think a crucial key to understanding social software, and why it works the way it does. Many people have studied the game mechanics that keep people collecting things (points, trophies, check-ins, mayorships, kudos). Others have studied how the neurochemistry that keeps us checking Facebook every five minutes is similar to the neurochemistry fueling addiction. Social media has made us even more aware of the things we are missing out on. You’re home alone, but watching your friends status updates tell of a great party happening somewhere. You are aware of more parties than ever before. And, like gym memberships, adding Bergman movies to your Netflix queue and piling up unread copies of the New Yorker, watching these feeds gives you a sense that you’re participating, not missing out, even when you are.

JOMO! by Anil Dash

Sometimes, you don't go to that amazing event because you're just going to stay home and read a book or watch TV or flick away idly at your phone, only realizing you've missed the moment when it's already too late. And then, when you get old and wonderfully, contentedly boring like me, you stay home because you'd rather be there for bathtime and bedtime with the baby than, well, anywhere else in the world.

This is the Joy of Missing Out.

The Sad, Beautiful Fact That We're All Going To Miss Almost Everything by Linda Holmes

It's sad, but it's also ... great, really. Imagine if you'd seen everything good, or if you knew about everything good. Imagine if you really got to all the recordings and books and movies you're "supposed to see." Imagine you got through everybody's list, until everything you hadn't read didn't really need reading. That would imply that all the cultural value the world has managed to produce since a glob of primordial ooze first picked up a violin is so tiny and insignificant that a single human being can gobble all of it in one lifetime. That would make us failures, I think.