Going mechanical in a digital world: Gondry for Motorola
Advertising, Design, Interactive
Michel Gondry insisted on going mechanical in a digital world and it resulted in the cutest, most fun video I’ve seen on this Monday. Play hopscotch on a pavement and a building greets you. Dive into a sea of blue coloured people after a concert of your choice. Friends appear a push of a button. Welcome to Gondry’s vision for Motorola RAZR².
» Take a glimpse behind the scenes here.
While visiting the site, I noticed that Papervision (Papercloud to be specific) was employed to display the gallery of stills. Personally, I am pretty disgusted with my fellow Flash designers for getting SO carried away with possibilities of Flash technologies that they utterly forget about usability and branding. While I am a bit irritated with the lack of control of what stills I want to view, (They kinda fly all over the screen), I like how it melds nicely with the whimsical nature of the Gondry’s showpiece. Along with the clouds floating slowly in the background, this is one sweet dream that I wish wasn’t plagued with streaming issues and slow loading.
Dark Side of the Moon
Writings
I can’t even begin to tell you how much, how much I love Pink Floyd’s sixth album without resorting to sugary clichés. It is singularly, THE richest, most expansive, most expressive seamless album ever created. Until now it still amazes me how Pink Floyd managed to create such a masterpiece without a massive bank of pre-recorded sound effects and the help of supercomputers to calculate complex, mathematical formulas for composing music. The quirky sound effects meld so perfectly with the velvety smooth bass, drums and guitars to support the vocals, pushing forth a dizzying, breathtaking song that lasts for the better part of an hour.Much as I hate to admit it, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon artful segue of tracks does outshine Queen’s 1974 Queen II segue on the Black side of the album. As the songs unfold and I lose all ability use words to describe that unyielding attraction that makes me hang onto every word (despite having heard this album through dozens of times). Every time I listen to Dark Side of the Moon, I get so hypnotised I cease to notice anything that happens around me. All I am aware of are the waves of varying beats and sound effects arranging themselves in my frontal lobe, explaining themselves without any words, yet I understand them perfectly. I run after them in hopes of finding out the secrets of the reflecting prism.
It weaves an elaborate, eccentric dream in the listener’s head without making sleep fall. In this dream, opera singers don’t sing intelligible words but we all understand them. In this dream, monetary objects become musical instruments. In this dream, every odyssey is different as each dreamer assigns his own meaning to his experience.
Dark Side of the Moon has a strange, calming effect on me. During periods of great stress, I’d put Dark Side of the Moon on and let it untangle the knots within me, created by the cold hands of panic. My heart revives as waves of pleasure wash over it. As the album fades into silence, I sigh in contentment and go back to real life.
Readymech Cameras by Corbis
Design
Back in school we made pinhole cameras with shoe boxes and tissue boxes for science projects. Now, stock image provider Corbis turns up the style factor of these old skool pinhole cameras with exclusive quirky prints. Each of these camera designs come with names like “Dr. Livingstone” and “Photos of Your Mother” making them seem more like art pieces than flimsy snap-and-forget disposables. So get your scissors and glue ready.
Hello (nonexistent) world!
General
I’ve finally got Wordpress set up, so hopefully this will inspire me to blog more often. While you’re smelling my socks around here, do check out A-SFUG (Another Singapore Flash User Group). Stick around, leave a contact and keep checking back.
