Concepts
Just a few concepts that I’ve come across lately, and/or that I’ve been thinking about a fair bit. I’m jotting them down here in the hope that something more concrete comes of them in the near future.
In gaming, and network based computing in general, the term that describes the lag between a cause and effect, between the moment when something is initiated and the moment one of the effects, can be perceived is called latency.
The lower the latency, the faster the distant computer responds, the faster you see an effect and can respond and so on. This is a good thing–it means you don’t get killed in the game because your character didn’t move when you told him to.
As communication technologies become faster and more pervasive, the latency of culture is actually decreasing.
“HateSurfing” is a term that describes the act of going online specifically to read as many negative comments, blog posts, tweets and messages as possible to generate insights that can help you run your business better.
When the name of a color (e.g., “blue,” “green,” or “red”) is printed in a color not denoted by the name (e.g., the word “red” printed in blue ink instead of red ink), naming the color of the word takes longer and is more prone to errors than when the color of the ink matches the name of the color.
…it is a sentence which does something in the world rather than describing something about it. For example, the statement “I now pronounce you man and wife,” is not true or false but instead ‘happy’ or ‘unhappy’, depending on whether or not it is performed properly (by an ordained minister, before a single man and woman, etc.).
Of shadow puppets, clouds and the Kinect
As a child, shadow puppets used to fascinate me, as they probably did a lot of kids. It’s a lovely way of letting the imagination loose – probably why being an amateur nephologist is everyone’s favourite pastime on a sunny, cloud-filled day. (For more serious fans of clouds, consider joining the Cloud Appreciation Society, which I only found about last week).
The Kinect is taking shadow puppetry to a completely new level. Puppet Parade is an installation that premiered at Cinekid Amsterdam last year. It allows kids to control animated characters on screen – watch the enchanted faces of the kids in this demo:
Puppet Parade – Interactive Kinect Puppets from Design I/O on Vimeo.
There was an interesting Kinect demo during a keynote at CES last week too. Microsoft’s Jaymi Bauer, senior director of product marketing, gave a glimpse into what they’re going to be doing with Sesame Street and the Kinect later this year, along with a young girl.
It’s a whole new world out there for kids these days.
I just hope they don’t forget the charm of the original shadow puppets!
‘A film about hope, fear and digital culture’ now streaming on Vimeo: @presspauseplay
If you have 1 hour and 21 minutes to spare, Press Pause Play is now available to watch online for free from Vimeo.
PressPausePlay from House of Radon on Vimeo.
The Icecreamists – agents of cool. Now that’s a brand name and tag line. #picpost
Ways of working #picpost
Image from an exhibition on Annie Leibovitz’ book Pilgrimage. Did the bulk of old TVs add an aura of ceremony to the process of watching TV? #picpost
.@jeremiahjw’s videos are pretty cool – here’s a short history of the calendar
Videographer Jeremiah Warren has a whole host of cool videos ‘all for one low price of free’ up on his YouTube channel. This is one of my favourites (he’s done his Wikipedia research alright, if you look at his sources).
Via the Boston Globe.
A location-aware music app? Yes, thanks to @bluebrainmusic
What if you could hear different kinds of music, created for the different corners of a park, as you rambled through it?
Ryan and his brother Hays Holladay did just that for Central Park in New York, with their free location-aware iPhone & iPad app Central Park (Listen to the Light).
The New York Times has a story on the electropop duo who go by the name Bluebrain Music.
And this is a lovely 12 minute video with the ‘making of’ story:
The Making of Listen to the Light by BLUEBRAIN from BLUEBRAIN on Vimeo.
Via CNET.
Have a mobile phone, be a film director
An international festival showcasing films on fashion has opened up submissions to films shot using mobile phones, for the very first time.
Last year, Hooman Khalili’s ‘Olive’ got a theatrical release in the US, and was the first feature film to be entirely shot using a Nokia N8.
Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen Gulp and Dot, two lovely stop-motion animated short films shot entirely using the N8 as well, done by W+K for Nokia with partners Aardman. Gulp was billed as having the world’s largest stop motion animation set, and Dot as having the world’s smallest stop motion animation character. They’re both quite fun to watch, if you haven’t seen them yet.
Famed Korean film director Park Chan-wook, whose credits include the critically acclaimed Oldboy, made a longer 30-minute movie, the thriller Paranmanjang, using the iPhone last year as well, which mooted a competition during the London Korean Film Festival recently around the theme of one-minute films made with mobile phones.
The ongoing London Short Film Festival doesn’t have a mobile phone category, but I wonder how much of an influence the advertising industry’s work has had on the decision to introduce an entire category in A Shaded View on Fashion, the Spanish film festival, and how long it will take for more mainstream festivals to recognise the immense impact of everyone’s favourite handheld device.
