photo: chlorophyll radiation

Yeondoo Jung's Wonderland

basically, korean photographer yeondoo jung's series entitled 'wonderland' takes children's crayon drawings and tries to recreate it irl ("in real life" for you n00bs). some of them are spot on, with some artistic deviations, i.e., color choices and additional compositional elements. there are some really creative solutions in terms of interpreting some of the things in the drawings that are unclear and just plain weird.

it's just really endearing and cute. sometimes ultra bizarre, haha. there's one photo with a gay couple getting married, and a baby on the carpet, hahah. i have no idea what the kid was thinking, but it's hilarious that jung read it as just that. i dunno.. take a look.

go to the gallery

Joshua Hoffine's photography gallery

The cool thing about Joshua Hoffine's photos is that he doesn't use Photoshop to create the scenarios, only to touch up color/saturation/etc. That being said, I assume he's got mad hookups in the taxidermist and makeup industries.

Most of the photos in his gallery involve death, doom, or childhood fears. "I believe that the horror story is ultimately concerned with the imminence and randomness of death, and the implication that there is no certainty to existence. The experience of horror resides in this confrontation with uncertainty. Horror tells us that our belief in security is delusional, and that the monsters are all around us."

One look at his photos and my mind immediately comes up with a story, of what's happening in the photo, the events leading up to it, and what happens afterwards. Here's my take on this photo: This lady was a skank. On the day of her wedding she consorted with an old flame, or even the Best Man. Unfortunately for her, the hotel where they had the wedding was possessed (a la The Overlook Hotel) and started eating up everyone. Based on the rules of horror movie making, the skank was one of the first to get her due.

Childhood Fears
Joshua Hoffine Website

He's also got a great blog that details the behind the scenes process of these photos.

photo: like a cast shadow

MY NAME IS RAIN.

so i first saw this commercial while i was in the philippines. i was so excited to see his babyface on tv, and then aghast when i realized it was a dandruff shampoo he was endorsing. but i've been raving about his one-liner in this commercial to my US friends who remotely know rain. thank you, youtube.

holy moly. the type in this is alright for the most part. i just don't know why there are a billion different treatments for the type's motion; there's no system in place -- that's the biggest issue here. it's hard to read during some moments. and why in the world do they had to plug their logotype in with the rest of the type. advertising is the devil. white text on black is like dandruff, now that i think about it.

this is the most ridiculous shampoo commercial i've ever seen, but i have to admit that i LOVE IT. whoever wrote the script is a genius. hey, rain gets dandruff too.. and that's why he uses Clear. because DANDRUFF NEVER COMES BACK. CONFIDENCE MEANS NO DANDRUFF. MY NAME IS RAIN. (he likes black.)

Cake Wrecks

I love eating cake. It's even better when a culinary artist designs a cake, and it looks as great as it tastes.

Unfortunately, for every perfect, well-designed cake, there is a shadowy bastard-cake that nobody wants to eat.


Cake Wrecks is a blog that highlights these imperfections and gives them the Project Runway treatment. What's sad is that these are professionally-made cakes. Someone out there unknowingly (or otherwise) PAID good money to have these made! For weddings! For baby showers! For birthdays! For shame!

(Image taken from Maniac World)

Jib Jab

I know some of us may have heard of Jib Jab before, but I am writing about the site because I need to somehow shoehorn their new animation into today, because I couldn't wait till Monday to show it off!



I love the animation! Especially when Obama is galavanting through the forest. Also, if you have followed the election, it's a lot of fun to spot the surrogate cameos. They have come a long way since they first became famous for their animation, "This Land" which poked fun at both John Kerry and George W. Bush during the 2004 elections.

If you pay attention to news, politics, pop culture, then their songs, animation and humor will surely delight you. Also! You can go to their site and paste your own pictures into some of their animations, since it is flash.

The site is here

And if you just want to watch them on Youtube, their channel is here

totoro forest project

boo urban sprawl! save sayama forest!

remember what happened in pom poko? yup. apparently, there are plans to tear down the forest that was the inspiration behind hayao miyazaki's totoro. you know, the weird but cute cuddly monster that has its own facebook group -- "i want to sleep on totoro's tummy" -- of which i am a proud member. (check out the singing totoro in the tree on the banner of the site; super cute.) this is an international effort to raise money and save this forest.

the website features heaps and heaps of gorgeous art donated from animators, comic book artists, and illustrators all over the globe. the themes deal with the beauty of nature and magical childhood things -- a response to how totoro inspires them. not to mention, pixar is a big sponsor of this project. they will be holding the auction at their studio in september this year. what i'd give to be invited! luckily, a selection of the artwork will be shown in the cartoon art museum in san francisco in the following months, which i will be around for! ooh, excitement!

it's amazing how big miyazaki's influence is on the art and animation world. i just really appreciate how from his films to this project, he's always reminding us to take care of our environment.

http://totoroforestproject.org

philip glass for sesame street

i can't believe i watched this as a kid. i remember seeing it and being a little creeped out by the song, but at the same time it was kinda mesmerizing. now, with a thorough graphic design education, i have such a greater appreciation for this! i was actually being fed something pretty complex in terms of graphic systems, color, and music. it's really quite wonderful. i don't know how much influence philip glass had in the visuals or if he had any say at all on what it was supposed to be, but i think it's really cool how sesame street managed to expose kids to artsy conceptual things like philip glass and design principles without them really knowing.

totally rad, i say.

"House of Cards" - Radiohead

Here's something for the smart (and savvy SIGGRAPH!) crowd.



Radiohead just released a new music video for their song "House of Cards." Unlike most music videos, this was not shot with a camera, nor animated, nor mographed. Instead, the whole video was shot and made made with LASERS. And cold, hard MATHCODESMARTS. In fact, it's a lot like a scanner that effects studios use when scanning maquette models (i.e., Weta), except the output looks like a Winamp visualization.

From the Washington Post article:

It's definitely not your average video considering that there were no cameras or lights used: it's all data. The video uses real time 3D recording, utilizing structured light and laser-enhanced scanners. Google is hosting the interactive video application at code.google.com and providing an iGoogle gadget for the video and application.

Definitely go to the Google site. Not only can you download the source code to make your own visualizations, but you can also check out the "Making Of..." video and see how they actually did it.

http://code.google.com/creative/radiohead/

60s dance parties

there is something special about this amateur video that impresses me, but i can't quite put my finger on it. i love the shaky party-cam thing in high contrast black and white.. it makes it look and feel 60s authentic. not to mention that it is recorded on 8mm. i just think it's pretty sweet, simple, and fun to watch. kinda wish i had friends who did this.

if you want to see a 60s dance party master, watch cassavetes' faces. all his shots are fricking killer. regardless, anyone who loves film needs to watch faces. gorgeous gorgeous film.



how can i not mention godard when talking about 60s dance sequences. i can only think of one real dance party scene that he's filmed (briefly in masculin feminin), but he's more known for choreographed stuff. one of my absolute favorites is of anna karina dancing around in a pool hall in vivre sa vie.



wow. i'm a nerd.

MUTO

Creative stop-motion graffiti animation. I would hate to be the public works department responsible for cleanup.


MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Dear Beautiful

Oh, the power of traditional 2D animation!

Dear Beautiful (by Roland Becerra) is an animated short film about lotion-gulping zombies and a man's failed marriage. While I could go into further analysis of the story and all such metaphors, I want to point out that the art and animation at times is eerily realistic. At times, I feel as if I'm looking at a photo or live-action shot, only to have something move in stop-motion speeds and tell me that I'd been fooled. The lighting is what pulls it off. Not to mention that the faces are incredibly well-drawn.

Oh yeah, the story's kinda scary too. And it's being made into a movie. Oh, and here's the trailer. But I highly encourage you to watch the short film as well.


Trailer for Dear Beautiful from Quiet Earth on Vimeo.