Exploring the ways in which artists, artisans and technicians are intelligently expressing their creativity with a passion for culture, technology, marketing and advertising.
Sight is a fantastic short futuristic student film by Eran May-raz and Daniel Lazo. It presents an interesting possibility of a world governed by augmented reality and gamification. It made me think of Google's Project Glass and Foursquare.
It's time again to catch up with Idea Channel (seriously, subscribe.) This time host Mike Rugnetta explores the boundaries of what we can imagine, create and do, plus makerbots.
From the Jetsons to Cory Doctorow, science fiction writers of all stripes have imagined a world where any object could be instantly created. Modern economics on the other hand, is built on the principle of competition for scarce resources. And while it may not seem like a video game and printer could alter this economic reality, we beg to differ. Minecraft's creative mode is the perfect vehicle for understanding a Post-Scarcity world; a place where resources are permanently available and constantly regenerated. It shows that with unlimited resources, people end up creating amazing digital structures! Of course, a world of infinitely available resources seems pretty fantastical until you consider the Makerbot and the future of 3D printing. The Makerbot is an at home device that allow you to print real three dimensional objects, meaning a Minecraftian future where you can print anything you want at anytime might not be that far away.
Dubstep. Is. Awesome. While some people may hear noise, we hear amazing musical genius. The aural creativity of Dubstep, and its embrace of inharmonic sounds, makes it the most recent member of the long-established Avant Garde community. There is a long history of avant garde musicians and thinkers promoting the concept of noise and non-instrumental sounds as MUSIC, much to the horror of their audience. But over the past century, changes in technology and music genres have primed listeners, allowing mainstream audiences to enjoy the beautiful noise of Skrillex, Bassnectar & the whole Dubstep movement.
Everyone is obsessed with the Olympics right now, watching these geniuses push the boundaries of their field. Wait, did we say GENIUSES? Yes! We normally associate the word "genius" with intellectual accomplishments, but athletes are geniuses at pushing their bodies to new heights, making the impossibly difficult seem easy and effortless. While it might not seem like it, genius of any kind requires financial and cultural support. In a world where athletes are developed and celebrated, more so than scientists or artists, it makes sense that we turn to the Olympics as a model for fostering genius.
Here's an idea, PBS Idea Channel is TED Talks from the fringe
What are bronies, and are they changing the definition of masculinity?
PBS Idea Channel: Are Hologram Tupac And Hologram Freddie Mercury Nostalgia Or New Aesthetic?
Superflat Epic Minimalism And Hello Kitty
Is Instagram The Best Thing To Ever Happen To Photography?
Is “Texts From Hillary” Art?
Authenticity In Pop Music: Computer Generated Miku Hatsune vs. Marketing Generated Lana Del Rey
Super Mario Brothers Is The World’s Greatest Piece Of Surrealist Art
If I'm honest, my son – and even his sister, who's one and a half – have an ease around technology that I find scary sometimes. The baby scares me because she keeps deleting stuff off my iPad. Patrick scares me because he could use the Nintendo Wii controls, shift from game to game, choose players, set up teams by the time he was four. He still can't tie his shoelaces. There is research that says he is not alone: a survey of 2,200 mothers in 11 countries found that 70% of their two- to five-year-olds were comfortable playing computer games, but only 11% could pass the shoelace test.
Miranda Sawyer, writing for The Observer, takes a look at children's natural affinity towards technology and innate understanding of interfaces particularly complex ones found in video games.
I recently saw a very young child, she must've been about 4, get her mom's iPad, push the home button, enter the lock pin code, find the video app by scrolling through several screens, find the video she wanted to watch and then scrub the video to the right location she wanted to see again. The whole thing was perfectly natural to her. I was floored that she understood how to slow down and speed up her scrubbing by how she dragged on the timeline.
Beginning with early Atari and Nintendo video games, the 8-bit aesthetic has been a part of our culture for over 30 years. As it moved through the generations, 8-bit earned its independence from its video game roots.
Is it really nostalgia if the creators of the 8-bit work didn’t originally experience what we are supposed to be feeling nostalgic about? That’s what comes to mind as I watch PBS Off Book latest episode: The Evolution of 8-Bit Art.
Beginning with early Atari and Nintendo video games, the 8-bit aesthetic has been a part of our culture for over 30 years. As it moved through the generations, 8-bit earned its independence from its video game roots. The idea of 8-bit now stands for a refreshing level of simplicity and minimalism, is capable of sonic and visual beauty, and points to the layer of technology that suffuses our modern lives. No longer just nostalgia art, contemporary 8-bit artists and chiptunes musicians have elevated the form to new levels of creativity and cultural reflection.
For complete credits visit (and subscribe to) the PBS Off Book YouTube channel.
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
It would be easy to think that when I say PBS is having a renaissance that I mean the recent success of tv shows like Downton Abbey and Sherlock. Yes, Downton Abbey had better ratings than many cable darlings, including Mad Men and the truly clever modernization of Sherlock Holmes has led to CBS launching their own version of the Holmes stories, with Lucy Lui cast in the role of Watson for a twist.
But the renaissance I am talking about is how PBS has embraced the internet. For more than a year PBS.org has been the home to some fantastically produced online-only programming that enhances the vision and mission of the tv channel exploring relevant cultural and technological themes and ideas in ways that would not necessarily make sense on the tv channel.
Until the end of the month they are hosting the PBS Online Film Festival. They have already produced a season of Off Book, an original series that expands on the definition of art, and have released the first episode of the second season. Recently they launched the Idea Channel, a new show that examines the connections between pop culture, technology and art. Watch the premiere episode below:
We all know who the Mario Brothers are but have you ever stepped back and tried looking at those games from a fresh perspective? Like you've never seen or heard of them before? They're bananas! There are armored turtles who stand on their hind legs and steal princesses!
We all know who the Mario Brothers are but have you ever stepped back and tried looking at those games from a fresh perspective? Like you’ve never seen or heard of them before? Pause for a second and don’t think about the gameplay you remember fondly. Think about it. There are armored turtles who stand on their hind legs and steal princesses. There are bullets with faces. Mario Bros is not just a game or nostalgic memories of playing with friends, Mario Bros is surreal art at its best. Surreal art you can play.
Hosted by Mike Rugnetta
Made by Kornhaber Brown
(Thank you Lisa Romagnoli for the introduction to the series.)
A collection of links, ideas and posts by Antonio Ortiz.
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