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Wednesday, July 27, 2011

C++ openFrameworks Magic from The Found Collective in Collaboration with MSA Visuals

C++ openFrameworks Magic from The Found Collective in Collaboration with MSA Visuals:


C++ openFrameworks magic from the Found Collective in collaboration with MSA Visuals.


Apple Charges Customer 122 Times for Lion "EPIC FAIL!!!"

Apple Charges Customer 122 Times for Lion:




John Christman purchased OS X Lion on July 23, and paid $31.79 after sales tax. Then, his PayPal account was charged $31.79 an additional 121 times, for a total of $3,878.40.


Clearly Mr. Christman didn't need 122 copies of Lion, and something has gone awry. John got in touch with both PayPal and Apple support, but said both sides pointed fingers at each other. 'Apple Blames PayPal, PayPal blames Apple. They both are claiming to investigate, but I am stuck broke for three days now.'


Christman thinks it is related to the new iCloud feature that allows iTunes to automatically download previous purchases:


I fresh installed Lion, because the upgrade caused a lot of problems. My system needed as fresh start anyway.





I logged into our developer account and got the latest iTunes Beta, and installed it. iTunes has a cool new feature to download all your purchased apps for you.


I clicked download all.





As each download started it charged me $31.79. Some apps came fast, some took longer, but the timing was directly related to when a new app started to download.
He downloaded 116 apps total, but noted that several apps failed to download and needed to be restarted. 116 apps downloaded and 121 extra charges seems too close to be mere coincidence.


Christman isn't the only person to face these issues surrounding Lion and PayPal. There is a lengthy discussion on Apple's support website about the issue, and other bloggers have run into similar problems.


Even though the purchases above say 'refunded', Christman says he hasn't seen a dime. 'Apple claims there was only one transaction. When I told PayPal to dispute them, they closed the cases and marked the items as refunded on the 23rd. Bear in mind all this money was taken and never returned yet.'


'My mortgage is due in 2 days, and thanks to them, I don't have the money.'


MacRumors reached out to Apple for comment, who said they would work with John directly to try to get his issues resolved.


Sunday, July 10, 2011

FREITAG – F49 FRINGE Backpack

FREITAG – F49 FRINGE Backpack:reblog from Polkadot


FREITAG - F49 FRINGE Backpack from FREITAG lab. ag on Vimeo.


The new F49 FRINGE backpack has been put to the test like no other FREITAG product before it. …to the fringe of sadism! Take a look!





Hoverbike Flying Machine

Hoverbike Flying Machine:reblog from TheCoolist



If inventor Chris Malloy has his way, we’ll all get a chance to take to the skies with his Hoverbike Flying Machine.  This motorcycle-inspired flyer uses a pair of caged rotors to create the downward thrust necessary to achieve real flight.  A single pilot hops aboard just as they would a motorcycle, and a twist of the throttle will take the Hoverbike to heights up to 10,000 ft.  While experience flying a helicopter or propeller plane will help, the Hoverbike is to be classified as an “ultralite” in the US, meaning owners will not need a license to fly as currently planned.

Sound like a pipe dream? Note that these pictures aren’t renderings, the Hoverbike is a very real machine.  The Hoverbike is approaching its first untethered test flight, a giant leap forward for individual aviation.  It has been a stable test subject when tethered, and Malloy is raising funds to perform the final tweaks before Hoverbike takes to the skies untethered.
Once the prototype is complete and the Hoverbike is ready for the market, Malloy hopes to begin by selling 100 Hoverbikes per year.  At that rate, they’ll be priced at around $50,000 USD per unit.  Once he can boost production accordingly, he hopes to bring the price down to a rate similar to common motorcycle prices.  Hey, we may still be a ways away from flying cars, but I’ll gladly be pacified with a flying motorcycle.  Check please!


Sehsucht for O2: “Think Big”

Sehsucht for O2: “Think Big”:reblog from Motionographer


Sehsucht’s Berlin office crafts a charming lo-fi wonder for O2. Directed by Lucas Zanotto.




The Resale Right

The Resale Right:reblog from Motionographer



Le droit de suite (The Resale Right) — VA from Pierre-Emmanuel Lyet on Vimeo (via Drawn).

Time and again I have been moved by the sense of solidarity that comes across from various discussions on Motionographer about protecting the rights of designers and artists (i.e., How do we look out for one another?). This is why when I came across this piece, I simply had to share it with you. It is gorgeously arresting in its simplicity, and informative. It’s been a while since I saw typographical-pictorial animation handled so well. So, enjoy!

According to Pierre, “The ADAGP is the French collective rights management society in the field of the visual arts (painting, sculpture, photography, multimedia, etc.). It represents almost 80,000 artists. They asked for a film that explains what the resale right is.”

Directed by Pierre-Emannuel Lyet, and made at French animation studio doncvoila.

Full credit list can be found on the Vimeo page.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Sleight of Hand with Screens, iPod Magic, and Marco’s Ruminations on the Power of Deception

Sleight of Hand with Screens, iPod Magic, and Marco’s Ruminations on the Power of Deception:re-blog from Create Digital Motion


Techno-wizardry and eye candy aside, make no mistake: as artists, we engage every day the essence of truth and deception. So, while magician Marco Tempest’s hands are fleet, his magician-trained choreography slick, and his coordinated mobile screens impressive, it’s the message behind the medium that’s most poignant. To me, at least, Marco has something to say about the nature of deception, something as much about artifice of humans as about the artifice of screens, that is complex, beautiful, and moving.



Image courtesy Marco Tempest.

Naturally, that raises the question: what is this, exactly? Marco tells CDM:

I am not really sure what to call it. It originally started as a magic routine, but very early in the project it seemed like the magic was too distracting from the story. I decided to take the “how did he do that?” out of the equation and make it more of a “magical” piece. I do not want to challenge the audience to figure out how it was done, but rather emotionalize the message with some of the softer devices of my craft.

Magic really has the power to re-enchant us. It’s a wonderful medium to convey a message or a story and technology just happens to be the vehicle I use to get the initial attention.

Marco also encapsulates on video his thoughts on open source magic. That idea itself is a seeming contradiction, given that most people assume magic somehow crumbles when its secrets are revealed. But Marco is to me part of a bright, experimental movement in visual technology and magic alike. The technologists, like the magicians, are finding expressions that hold up to scrutiny, that remain magical even under the harsh spotlight of knowledge.





http://marcotempest.com/

You can also find the free software by which Marco created the effect, synchronizing multiple screens:

http://marcotempest.com/screen/Public_MultiVid

Plus our previous coverage:

Syncing Multiple Small Screens: iPhone, and Now Blinkendroid for Android

And it really is true that Wikipedia – like all human knowledge – leads back to mathematics and philosophy. (Hint: even math is philosophy, not truth. If that isn’t relevant to mixing computation and art, I don’t know what it is.)

Putting the digital in prestidigitation, as always…

Teaser: Gestural Tablet Control for Video Sequences, Scratching, Sound

Teaser: Gestural Tablet Control for Video Sequences, Scratching, Sound:re-blog from Create Digital Motion


get control from pixel noizz on Vimeo.


Berlin- and Budapest-based artist pixel noizz sends us “Get Control,” original software that turns tablets into visual instruments, chopping, scratching, and reassembling visuals and sound in live performance. That’s all we know at this point, but the video is already worth a watch – some promising stuff, and likely to be one of many experiments in this area. (In fact, to bring video performance back to the forefront, we’ll need more! Get hacking / practicing!)

Yarn, in Motion: Projection and Virtuality, Crocheted and Electronic, by Olek and Dev Harlan

Yarn, in Motion: Projection and Virtuality, Crocheted and Electronic, by Olek and Dev Harlan:re-blog from Create Digital Motion






Electronic aesthetics have been deeply rooted in live visuals, but that’s even greater reason to explore materiality. Dev Harlan, a New York-based artist working in sculpture, light, and projection, has built a collaboration with the now-legendary Polish-born, New York-crocheting Olek (aka Agata Oleksiak).

Olek’s work has included what might best be described as crochet interventions. Whether in a gallery setting or working with the city streets and objects as her canvas, she wraps people and things in crochet. The work has become a ubiquitous part of life here in New York; on the way down Wall Street yesterday, I was greeted by two performers wrapped in full crochet bodysuits with their hand through a canvas, shaking hands with passersby. (Most of the Wall Street tourists and workers ignored them; I found, on a difficult day, the gesture of shaking their hand to be transformative.)

Dev Harlan faces the tantalizing challenge of translating this fiber virtuality into digital transformations, rather than only crocheted ones. What’s nice about the approach is that Dev’s work combines Olek’s crochet process, captured in stop-motion, with fanciful all-synthetic imagery. Dev’s own penchant for bright colors and patterns is the perfect electronic match to the charged, magically-cheery patterns in Olek’s artwork. A five-minute DVD of “artifacts” from the collaboration is available in a limited run, covered, naturally, in a crocheted sleeve.

Projection mapping, aside from being a practical solution, envelopes objects in much the way Olek’s all-covering crochet installations and suits do. In fact, it seems to me just as appropriate to include here solo work by Dev Harlan: “Star Geode I,” for the New Museum’s Nuit Blanche in May, has much of the same feel to me as the crochet works.



Dev Harlan, "Star Geode I" from Dev Harlan on Vimeo.



"Any Colour You Like" (Pyramid III) from Dev Harlan on Vimeo.


See also wonderful uses of color and pattern in the Pyramid series of the last couple of years, which has been shown in the Christopher Henry Gallery in NYC’s SoHo.


More on Dev Harlan:

http://devharlan.com/

Deluxe Bicycle Video Artifacts (Editioned DVD)

http://vimeo.com/devharlan

And while it’s not strictly relevant to Create Digital Motion, I find the spirit of Olek’s work to be inspiring, in terms of how it relates to the world. A documentary video is in the works, funded by Kickstarter:


Olek’s work:

http://agataolek.com/home.html

Guerilla Sculptural Visuals: An Intervention with Sol LeWitt, a Backpack Projector

Guerilla Sculptural Visuals: An Intervention with Sol LeWitt, a Backpack Projector:re-blog from Create Digital Motion



Art Intervention: Sol LeWitt Structures 1965-2006. City Hall Pak, NYC. from Integrated Visions Productions on Vimeo.


Buckle up and project: that was the mission of a group of art “interventionists”, firing guerilla projections at the public installation of artist Sol LeWitt in Manhattan’s City Hall Park. The weapon of choice itself is one of interest: a self-powered mobile projection rig means live visuals can appear anywhere.

The production team describes the project:

Wikipedia defines an art intervention as ‘an interaction with a previously existing artwork, audience or venue/space.’ Integrated Visions Productions and National Media Services approached the Sol LeWitt exhibition ‘Structures’ in New York’s City Hall Park (sollewitt.publicartfund.org​) with this concept in mind. Utilizing one of NMS’s ProjectionMan self-powered mobile projection units to redefine the idea of guerilla videomapping, the IVP/NMS team was able to line up the template and accurately videomap the three sculptures seen in this video with about 5 minutes of on-site prep per piece. The results are stunning; the sculptures come, literally, to life. [Ed.: Uh -- literally, they come to life? That's terrifying. -PK]

Creative Team

Producer: Brian Blessinger

Animation and Art Direction: Michelle Dodson, Bryan Dodson

Soundtrack: Crawwwl by Big Friendly Giant [on SoundCloud]

ProjectionMan by

National Media Services Inc

and

BlueBlast Media

ProjectionMan operated by Tyrone Tanous

I asked producer Brian Blessinger to tell us more about the backpack projection setup, pictured below:

As far as the ProjectionMan rig, it was designed by our logistics partners at BlueBlast Media and National Media Services. It’s battery-powered and is designed to be fully mobile. The rig is built as a suit that fits around the operator. The 12 volt battery is worn like a backpack. Each battery lasts about an hour before it has to be swapped out. It supports a 2500-lumen HD projector.



You’d think a man with a projector on his back would look happier, but… Photo courtesy Brian Blessinger.