Exploring the ways in which artists, artisans and technicians are intelligently expressing their creativity with a passion for culture, technology, marketing and advertising.
In a fun back-and-forth conversation two of my favorite producers, J.J. Abrams, film and Gabe Newell, games, give the keynote speech at the 2013 D.I.C.E. SUMMIT and discuss how different platforms change storytelling.
For more than 2,000 years, philosophers, mathematicians and artists have marveled at the unique properties of the “golden rectangle”: subtract a square from a golden rectangle, and what remains is another golden rectangle, and so on and so on — an infinite spiral. These so-called magical proportions (about 5 by 8) are common in the shapes of books, television sets and credit cards, and they provide the underlying structure for some of the most beloved designs in history: the facades of the Parthenon and Notre Dame, the face of the “Mona Lisa,” the Stradivarius violin and the original iPod.Experiments going back to the 19th century repeatedly show that people invariably prefer images in these proportions, but no one has known why.
Then, in 2009, a Duke University professor demonstrated that our eyes can scan an image fastest when its shape is a golden rectangle. For instance, it’s the ideal layout of a paragraph of text, the one most conducive to reading and retention. This simple shape speeds up our ability to perceive the world, and without realizing it, we employ it wherever we can.
Lance Hosey, author of The Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology, and Design, exploring the beauty of the golden ratio and fractals in The New York Times.
Author and illustrator Maira Kalman on The Paul Holdengraber Show.
Meet Meg and George, the two leads of Disney/Pixar's Paperman. Introducing a groundbreaking technique that seamlessly merges computer-generated and hand-drawn animation techniques, first-time director John Kahrs takes the art of animation in a bold new direction with this Oscar®-nominated short. Using a minimalist black-and-white style, the short follows the story of a lonely young man in mid-century New York City, whose destiny takes an unexpected turn after a chance meeting with a beautiful woman on his morning commute. Convinced the girl of his dreams is gone forever, he gets a second chance when he spots her in a skyscraper window across the avenue from his office. With only his heart, imagination and a stack of papers to get her attention, his efforts are no match for what the fates have in store for him. Created by a small, innovative team working at Walt Disney Animation Studios, Paperman pushes the animation medium in an exciting new direction.
PBS Idea Channel began this year with a quick look at New Year's resolutions and has continued the work they started last year, asking interesting, eccentric and often hilarious questions and pretty much twisting the worlds of pop culture, technology and art. Needless to say, I love the Idea Channel.
Video Games have finally made it to the Museum of Modern Art, so we thought we'd celebrate and put together a list of our top 5 most artful video games! Not our favorites, mind you. These are the ones that are packed with significance and emotional weight. How does your own list compare with these 5?
We all hate hipsters, right? They seem so smug and arrogant, with their ray bans and scarves and ironic t-shirts. Even those who clearly are hipsters still recoil at the label. Embracing irony over earnestness, the key to hipsters is not just what they enjoy, but how they enjoy it. Borrowing from other subcultures, (see: Handlebar mustaches and flannel shirts), hipsters reappropriate these fashion elements as their own. But don't we all do that? Our own fashion came from somewhere, and certainly has been refined. Do we all have a little bit of hipster blood in us?
Will Space travel change our perspective on the human condition?
Space, also known as The Final Frontier, has been in our collective dreams and fantasies for decades. Who wouldn't want to blast into space, experience zero gravity, or walk on the moon? But with limited funding to NASA, the day that had been promised to us for years (in addition to flying cars and hover boards), seems no closer now than it did 30 years ago. Could private research and funding be the future of galactic exploration? And maybe once we are all able to see the earth from a distance, we'll all gain some much needed perspective. So keep on truckin' Elon Musk, for humanity's sake.
New Year's Resolutions are incredibly hard to keep. Watch this special episode to find out why!
Super Mario Brothers Is The World’s Greatest Piece Of Surrealist Art
A collection of links, ideas and posts by Antonio Ortiz.
What are you looking forward to?
What has surprised you?
What have you learned today?
Copyright © 2009-2024, Antonio Ortiz. All rights reserved. Shop at Amazon.com and support Smarter Creativity.
