Coup de projecteur sur cette réalisation singulière baptisté “Connected”. Sa créatrice Kasey McMahon a décidé de créer son autoportrait à partir de câbles informatiques (catégorie 5). Plus de visuels de son travail original, dans la suite de l’article.
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pNow that I’ve had my iPad for awhile, I’m less and less interested in downloading, testing and reviewing new apps. But a href=”http://www.shift-apps.com/”Digits/a, an app for the iPad based on a tape calculator, is worthy of a mention. The app takes graphic cues from a href=”http://www.vignelli.com/”Massimo Vignelli/a and makes good use the iPad’s new real estate by adding a ticker tape that records and saves your calculations. The history can be emailed, making it easy to work out and verify household expenses, personal budgets, or fabrication bids on the fly (or while worrying about them on the bus, for example). /p
pSee a demo above. Only $.99 in the iTunes app store. /pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/technology/digits_a_tape_calculator_for_the_ipad_16453.asp”(more…)/a
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What stumbling blocks have you found that are guaranteed to clutter up your day? Add to the comments any problems you’ve encountered and the solutions you’ve discovered.
Voici ce nouveau roadster splendide conçu pour Alfa Romeo, repris sur le concept Pininfarina Duettottanto qui a pu être vu au salon de Genève au mois de mars dernier. Un modèle unique dévoilé dans le cadre du centenaire de la marque. Plus d’images dans la suite dans l’article.
 | I would be the first to tell you that a job in fashion is super fun and rewarding. I mean, you can’t beat discovering up and coming designers, going to cool events, and getting a sneak peek at cool products not even in stores yet! It almost makes me embarrassed that I get paid to do all this. Almost. On the flip side, it’s not all glamour. I have the habit of lugging around my laptop everywhere to blog at a moment’s notice and I know all the cafes with free wi-fi by heart. Sometimes there are days where both my laptop and iPhone are dead and I desperately need to send off an email (RSVPing to every invitation is the polite thing to do, you know) and there’s a crusty computer at the cafe. No worries, I just roll out the Roll n€™ Go Keyboard from PB Teen for a portable and sanitary keyboard on the go. I’d also leave it in the office just in case someone spills coffee over their keyboard and is in need for a temporary replacement!Price: $29 Who Found It: facadeindreams was the first to add the Navy Roll n€™ Go Keyboard to the Hive. |
Dans le cadre du concours Fermi imaginé par les logiciels de rendus Refractive Software, voici ce travail graphique par le designer polonais Artur Szymczak autour d’un concept-car de la marque Lexus. Une utilisation spécifique d’Autodesk Softimage 2010 et d’Octane Render.
The video exhibit “Ouroboros” at ISE Cultural Foundation explores the creation and history of the universe, using the iconic image of a snake eating itself as center to the work. The piece consists of six projections in 3-D, using geometric shapes and imagery to transform the space.
This compellingly unique mix of science and art fits the talents of Ourobos’ creators exactly. Renaissance man Ali Hossaini, and video artists/programmers Blake Shaw and Bruno Levy of Sweatshoppe, collaborated on the piece. Ourobos combined Hossaini’s “investigations into the psychology of vision” and Sweatshoppe’s software and tech know-how.
In an interview with the artists, they discussed the project.
Ali: It was an ode to the history of the universe in three layers: the physical, the biological and the psychological. The material world, the life world and the cultural world. I did about 30,000 into different files, just arranged them sequentially. And then we talked about what would work where.
Bruno: When we came down to the gallery, we realized there’s more of a story that can be told. We had been doing this basic geometry and these shapes for awhile. And what we really liked about them was they had this energy, and this thing where you look at them and you become entranced.
Blake: We started trying to figure out a way to create 3-D video in real time about a year ago, writing a piece of software that allowed us to create anaglyph video, which is like the red and blue glasses. But we quickly realized that that effect is old and outdated, and it also gives you a headache quickly. So we started working with ChromaDepth. Right about the time that we finished the software, we were doing a performance at Jonathan LeVine Gallery. And it was an event that Ali was producing for the Metropolis Art Prize. Instantly when he saw our effect he went, “Oh man, that’s awesome!”
Ali: It was pure chance, actually, because I was producing this art competition and the awards were going to be given at the Jonathan LeVine gallery. And I walked in when they were setting up. I’d been wanting to do 3-D for this concept of Ouroboros, which was a history of the universe told through juxtaposed images, and I’d worked in 3-D before. When I saw what they did, it just seemed so on target for what I wanted to do and I think their work is really expressive and it’s a really powerful aesthetic. I’d never seen anything like it before.
Bruno: we just have these really simple geometric shapes that are being animated through space, or through depth, and they’re connecting and recreating other shapes when they cross. We basically have these three different layers that are looping with different start and end points. So they’re kind of looping on top of another on top of another and creating different shapes. And when they cross, they create different colors.
We’ve been really into mandalas and yantras and all these symbols or these machines that are meant to be these geometric shapes that you look at that elevate your consciousness. But we would almost rejuvenate them or recreate them using this psychedelic, technology driven 3-D media. And try to bring them to life.
Blake: We’re looking at simple geometry as the atomic unit. And we’re moving from simple geometry to more complex geometry. And then from complex geometry to representational imagery. And we’re also trying to address the higher experience of the cosmos. Considering we only can understand the world from our immediate human perspective, we’re trying to break you free of that and open your consciousness to greater dimensions of reality.
Ouroboros runs through 30 April 2010. Read more of the interview after the jump.
Blake: Ali appropriated all these images from the internet. So I thought it would really be appropriate to make the music with audio appropriated from the internet. But we were really trying to create something that was soothing and very meditative, and really something that brings your heart rate down and allows you to relax and be in this heavy space.
Bruno: Since we were sometimes making video for performances, which are live performances which go to a certain bpm. We were looking into different binaural frequencies that affective the brain and stimulated the brain or created meditative states.
That’s also really important when you’re trying to create an environment that you want people to spend time in. I think it’s pretty awesome, people just seem to sit here for along time.
Ali: I think what we’re aiming for here in the installation is a feeling of psychological integration. I think art can connect all the different parts of the universe together. And artists don’t really try to do that. But I think all of us are coming to that place where we feel a social responsibility to make art.
And even the layout of the installation—it’s roughly inspired by a mandala or a sybil, an alchemical walk, or even the stations of the cross where you have a psychological journey. You start with the geometric symbols and then you move to the yantras, and then you move into the scientific or representational world, and then you move back into geometry. As you go to the end of the room and look at this piece it’s completely different. I think overall people seem to have that feeling, peacefulness, when they come out of here, which is what we’re looking for, to feel whole again.
Bruno: We didn’t know how people would generally react. We didn’t know, in the space, if people would pass out on the floor and hang out for a bit, or think it was corny or cheesy in a way. And I think for us it’s really about creating this experience, it’s about art as experience.
Ali: By putting this stuff together, people start to interpret, start to create meaning.
There’s this creative act on the part of the audience that is really, really important too.
Blake: We do this thing where we paint video on the street. like, we roll up to a wall and we plug this paint roller in that we made and it allows us to create the illusion that we’re painting a video on the wall.
Bruno: The reason why we invented that, actually, was we wanted to have this performance where people could come out at some point in the performance and start painting the walls of the space, so that the walls were evolving, and all of a sudden you’d been in the desert, and things flying around and we started playing with mapping software because we wanted to change the environment of the space.
Ali: I think art has to adapt to the time, and people obviously take most of their experiences in from screens. I think if Americans are watching TV screens like six hours a day, they’re comfortable with screens. One of the things that makes me happy about Ouroboros and working with Sweatshoppe is there’s no feeling that people have to be reverent towards the art. I think actually art should be just this thing that you come to when you feel like it, and then you leave, but it’s always there: you can tap into it. Also I love the medium of video and computer digital technologies. I think they’re really empowering and you can do these things that twenty, thirty years ago people couldn’t imagine doing.
To me it’s been really liberating working in this medium, but I do want to push the boundaries of what we’ve done here. Ok, people can make YouTube videos, but how do you make a whole video environment? That’s something that really intrigues me. I think we’re going to be living in these video environments more and more.
Ali: There’s three layers: matter, life and spirit. Originally, I’d assigned each one to a color. But then I found that got really monotonous, and originally this was supposed to go from the Big Bang up to the present day, and go chronologically. But that felt really didactic and monotonous, too. So, that’s were the poetry of it came in.
If you try to be too conceptual or consistent then it just feels sterile. The technology is really fresh, the techniques, this stuff is just being created as we were making the installations. So there was this feeling of discovery throughout.
Ali: It’s supposed to be a history of our environment, and logos are so much a part of our environment; they represent the rise of corporations. The logos actually evolve. You see these organic forms like vegetables, and then leaves and flowers, and then you’ll see these japanese crests, which are based on organic forms. And they’re early logos. And then you see actual designed logos. But below that you’ll see the development of agriculture, and the corporitization of agriculture that goes on. So the logos actually encroach on a lot of things. And then at some point it’s just all logos.
Corporations and these imperative are about the colonization of the life world, and the mental world. And I’m not saying corporations are all bad, but they are related with a lot of the developments, like war and things. I thought that was just an integral part of the story—of our universe, anyway.
Scot Hacker is the author of O’Reilly’s MP3: The Definitive Guide, and writes about music for Stuck Between Stations. By day, he’s a webmaster and trainer for the Knight Digital Media Center at UC Berkeley.
A few weeks ago, during a spell of unusually dry winter weather, I went to unplug a pair of Grado SR-80 headphones from my iMac. A spark of static electricity leapt from my fingers, I heard a brief crackling sound, and then… [silence]. From that moment forward, the headphone/speaker jack on the back of the Mac has refused to work, and only “Internal Speakers” showed up in the System Preferences Sound panel. My trusty work Mac had gone mute.
My only options were either to send the Mac in for repair or switch to USB audio output. I couldn’t afford to be without the Mac, and I was interested in hearing what kind of audio upgrade I’d get by bypassing the Mac’s internal Digital Audio Converter (DAC), so I hit up an audiophile friend for recommendations. I hit the jackpot when he suggested the NuForce μDAC (aka microDAC) — a handsome $99 outboard DAC that’s both minimalist in design and smaller than a pack of smokes.
The unit arrived a few days later, and turned out to be even smaller than expected (around 3″x1″). The two-tone rust and flat-black anodized aluminum casing looked distinguished, and well-crafted; NuForce really put some effort into the aesthetics on this one. The design is simple, with no unnecessary controls. Just a volume knob and a headphone output jack, nothing more.
I was blown away from the moment I plugged it in and enabled it in the Sound prefs Output panel. Digital audio has never sounded better on a computer I’ve owned. But since the original analog jack was fried, I had no way to directly compare the quality of the Mac’s native DAC with the new outboard. Today I sat down at someone else’s work Mac and did some A/B testing.
For the test, I chose two recordings:
(I chose these two because A) I love them and B) I had them on hand at 256kbps AAC, for best possible resolution).
Note: I appreciate great-sounding audio, but I’m far from a hardcore audiophile. For an audio tweak’s perspective on the μDAC, see HeadphoneAddict’s review at head-fi.org.
Just a few minutes into Cowhand, I noticed something I’d never heard before: The sound of the cork linings of the valves of Rollins’ saxophone tapping away as he played. It was subtle, but it had been there in the recording all along – I had just never noticed it. And that’s exactly the point – the differences are subtle, and you may not notice all of them unless you’re listening for them, but they’re present. And that subtlety adds up to an overall experience that’s simply more realistic, more nuanced than what you get with the cheaper DAC built into consumer PCs. It’s all about presence.
Likewise, I found the harmonies in Because fuller, richer, more bodied than they sounded through the Mac’s native DAC. The French horns far more alive and breathy, the harpsichord more twangy. Virtually everything about these two tracks sounded more engaging.
Another thing I noticed: Usually, near the end of a long day writing code, I feel the need to take the headphones off and rest my ears. I didn’t have that sensation today. I can’t say for sure, but I suspect that more natural sound is less fatiguing to the ears (and the brain’s processor).
One caveat: Because there’s no longer an analog sound channel for the computer to manipulate, you’ll lose the ability to control volume or to mute from the Mac’s keyboard. Apparently this is not true of all DACs – the driver for m-audio boxes does allow volume and mute control from the Mac keyboard, so the issue must rest in the generic Mac USB audio driver (the NuForce unit doesn’t come with an installable driver – it’s plug-and-play). In any case, the keboard habit has been ingrained for so many years I don’t even think about it, so retraining myself to adjust audio from the μDAC’s volume knob took some getting used to. However, you can still use the volume control in iTunes itself, and it may be possible to re-map the keyboard’s audio control keys to tweak iTunes’ internal volume directly.
It’s no secret that you can get better sound quality out of almost any computer by routing around the built-in audio chipset. There’s just no way Apple (or Dell, or anyone else) is going to spend more than a few dollars on high-end audio circuitry when most people are perfectly happy with 128kbps MP3s played through cheap-o speakers, and every penny counts in manufacturing bottom lines. But using an outboard DAC for signal conversion can be an expensive proposition, not to mention involving bulky, inelegant, desk-cluttering plastic boxes. The NuForce μDAC gives you high-end computer audio that’s both affordable and elegant.
Another benefit: If you’ve been considering using a dedicated digital audio file player like an AudioRequest connected to the home stereo, you’ll end up having to migrate and store another copy of your audio library, not to mention add more cabling and componentry to your entertainment center. With something like the NuForce μDAC, you can leave everything on your main computer and just route high-fidelity audio to the stereo.
In any case, the NuForce μDAC is one of the best c-notes I’ve dropped on audio gear over the years. Recommended even if you haven’t fried your analog port.
pUnimaginative, purely speculative concept renderings of the iPhone 4G can be found all over the web, and they’re essentially the iPad scaled down, with the aluminum unibody and everything. But one technical problem that makes an aluminum-backed iPhone unlikely is that the metal would block incoming signals./p
pOver the weekend A HREF=”http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/18/iphone-4g-proof/” Engadget posted what are allegedly photos of an iPhone 4G prototype/A, sending the web a’Twitter. Daring Fireball’s John Gruber believes the photos are the real deal, and added this interesting tidbit: A HREF=”http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/04/18/apple-ceramic-patent” He believes the back will be made out of glass/A, or a glass-like material like zirconia, that will be strong, scratch-resistant and most importantly, radio-transparent. /p
pThe iPhone 4G launch date is still a couple of months away, so we’ll hedge our bets. But if there is a glass back, maybe the device will finally have the Mighty-Mouse-like A HREF=”http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/our_wild_and_completely_unconfirmed_apple_tablet_prediction_the_things_gonna_have_backtouch_15751.asp” “back-touch” feature we incorrectly hoped the iPad would have/A.br /
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pa href=”http://www.rationalcraft.com/Winscape.html”Winscape/a, a combination of two 46-inch Panasonic TC-P4610 plasma screens, a Mac, a Wii remote, a custom-built IR-emitting necklace, and an iPhone app, creates a panorama through two virtual “windows” displaying “live” scenes in 1080p video and sound. The system tracks the necklace’s movements in relation to the window, mimicking a realistic view out of the window. A stunning concept at the least (no more looking out on a dingy alleyway!), and it can be yours for the low price of $3,000./pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/technology/winscape_the_future_of_your_view_16411.asp”(more…)/a
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