The collaboration of technology, art, activism and marketing in one brings us a campaign, which–I think–has analyzed and strategized their target group and their perceptual categories: a homeless person that they cannot ignore as he comes through the medium that they can see.

Sarkissian Mason bring to light the reality of homelessness with virtual reality in this new outdoor effort for Pathways to Housing. Pedestrians encounter a life-size digital projection of a homeless man, shivering as he sleeps on the street. A message then pops up, asking people to move the virtual person via text message. Once they do, a program activates another video loop that presents a door on the wall—an entry point for the sleeping man into a new home. The passerby then receives a text message with a code that allows them to donate to Pathways to Housing.

Sarkissian Mason created this effort in response to what they observed after relaunching the Pathway to Housing website and saw that a growing number of charitable donations were being made via mobile text codes. The projections will appear on New York buildings throughout March. Location details can be found on Pathway to Housing’s Facebook page.

Full Credits:

Agency: Sarkissian Mason Client: Pathways to Housing Category: Ambient!, OOH

FinansBank of Turkey has launched an ad campaign for its new age investment opportunities. It is said in the video and in print that the time has changed, so are the economy. There is a new economy in the world today, therefore FinansBank has developed new investments.

Please ignore the information, as I do not want to market the bank and its products. But to make a greater impact, which they are successful at, they shave and hairdress Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill and Friedrich Engels both in print and on TV commercials.

That is creative and it generated both a great impact as well as a controversy. As you may imagine the controversy was from the Socialist and Communist side–I do not criticize them–since it is quite like the Muslims’ outrage to Danish press for caricaturizing Prophet Mohammad. But I may criticize them all for being so easily teased by such banality. They even started a blog.

Anyway, I was thinking of writing about this ad campaign for a long while, but somehow it slipped out of my mind each time. I could only find the Engels video. It is in Turkish, but I already summarized it for you. So you miss almost nothing in the voiceover. I would have written the credits, but we do not have that understanding in Turkey–yet. In short, there are no credits. I am working on it.

This is Real Art, a creative company, is–as quoted in the Creative Review Magazine–one of the first significant companies to bridge the gap between design and advertising. A move that in today’s world of multi-platform campaigns and branded content seems long overdue.

These two videos (and there are more) will show you how correct thereof definition was, because they are indeed bridging the gap.

It is stated in Creative Review:

The films were made for Astra, the European satellite manufacturer not the reasonably priced car, and will be used both internally and to educate potential clients about what the company does.

There are seven films in total, covering everything (and indeed slightly more than) you might want to know about the operation of a satellite. Including sections on history, physics, control, launch, why we need satellites, business and the future.

Other than these, another personal reason for me–since it is expected from bloggers–to like the videos was: it made me feel like I was watching a great excerpt from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It is partly due to Johnny Ball’s voiceover, however it was Stephen Fry in the movie, but their tones were resembling. The visuals were indeed resembling. Maybe they were the ones who made the actual book in the movie, were they?

R. Crumb’s The Book of Genesis, which I issued here before, was published in October 2009. It must have made the desired effect on the readers and cultural spheres, therefore, it has been opened on March 4 at Chelsea’s David Zwirner.

Arrested Motion informs us:

For this show, Crumb will have drawings from his controversial comic version of the first book of the Old Testament, entitled “The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb,” which after a half decade in the making was released late last year. This exhibition was previously at UCLA’s Hammer Museum.

So, if you are around in New York drop by to see the controversial illustrations of the infamous cartoonist R. Crumb on the walls of the gallery. It’s worth to see. Wouldn’t you like to view all Biblical characters as a comic strip. I would.

Sam O’Hare, a director, photographer and visual effects artist from New York, released this miniaturistic video of New York City daily life just a few days ago. O’Hare is

currently represented for commercial directorial work through Aero Film, and examples of my commercial and film work can be found at www.oovfx.com.

Here you can find detailed information about the material and cameras that are used in shooting the film + an interview with O’Hare at Aero Film’s blog.

The original music is by Human, co-written by Rosi Golan and Alex Wong. The piece was created for and inspired by the film.

JESS3, a creative agency that specializes in web design, branding and data visualization, has launched a video that visually depicts the current condition of the movement on the internet now and before. The video summarizes our enormous action on the internet… did you know that 81% of all emails are SPAM? No surprises.

via Fubiz

Luzinterruptus launched an urban art project, Literature versus Traffic, on February 17th at Water Street, New York against “the urban space conventionally reserved for speed, pollution and noise” in order to make it “a place of peacefulness, relaxation and coexistence.” This installation project was an extension of another installation they did for the Guggenheim Museum.

armed with the intention that literature should seize the streets and overtake public spaces, spanish designers Luzinterruptus randomly placed these literary objects in such a way so that people were able to walk among them easily, stop to look
at them and even read them.

They have set up an installation on the street with 800 books that were illuminated by little lights. Luzinterruptus‘ aim is to evoke an awareness about literaturre’s recession from the public spaces and to make literature regain their existence in those areas. They placed the books on the street where people walk so that people could interact with them–touch them, feel them, even read them, if they wanted to.

They declare (as Designboom quotes from their blog post):

We want literature to seize the streets and become the conqueror of public spaces, freely  offering to those who walk by a space free of traffic which for a few hours of the night will succumb to the modest power of the written word.’- L

Designboom goes on to say that

The books consisting of diverse topics will remain on site during the entire intervention, at the disposal of anyone who wants to take them. in doing so, the installation will recycle itself. In the end, the cars will return to occupy their place, but for many, the memory that once books occupied this same space, will change their relationship with the environment.

If you are going to pass by Water Street under the Brooklyn Bridge, you may pick up a book–if they are not already gone. The photographs were taken by Gustavo Sanabria.

Fair Trade (wikipedia):

is an organized social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries and promote sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a higher price to producers as well as social and environmental standards. It focuses in particular on exports from developing countries to developed countries, most notably handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea, bananas, honey, cotton, wine, fresh fruit, chocolate and flowers.

Fair Trade’s strategic intent is to work with marginalized producers and workers in order to help them move towards economic self-sufficiency and stability. It also aims to allow them to become greater stakeholders in their own organizations, as well as play a wider role in international trade. Fair Trade proponents include a number of international development aid, social, religious and environmental organizations such as Christian Aid, SERRV International, Oxfam, Amnesty International, Catholic Relief Services, and Caritas International.

Here is their new video that was posted on YouTube about a month ago. It’s called The Big Swap. Here is their announcement about The Big Swap on their YouTube page:

For this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight we’re asking the nation to join us in The Big Swap. For two whole weeks we’ll be asking you to swap your usual stuff for Fairtrade stuff. Your usual bananas for Fairtrade bananas, your usual cotton socks for Fairtrade cotton socks, and your usual cuppa for a Fairtrade cuppa. This means that every time you go shopping, you can use your wallet to make a stand.
The Big Swap is the home of all things swap, a hub for all your swapping needs. It tells you how to get involved, what you can swap and most importantly, how to register them. Because we need lots of swaps made. One million and one in fact. Every swap will be proof that the people of the UK want producers in the developing world to get a fairer deal.

Join the revolution.

Chris Cairns (vimeo) produced a new video of Neurosonics Audiomedical Labs at a live show with Beardyman (wikipedia), a renowned British musician who is well known for his beatbox performances, with assistance from holographic projection experts, Musion.

Full Credits

Client: Chris Cairns

Director: Chris Cairns

Production Company: Partizan Darkroom

Producer: Bonnie Anthony

Musion Producer: Oliver Gingrich

Musion Producer: Ian O’Connell

Director of Photography: Daniel Bronks

Director of Photography: Luke Palmer

Art Director: Alex Marden

Art Department: Daisy Popham

Interactive Programmer: Neil Mendoza

Motion Designer: Remi Dessinges

Still Photography: Daniel Alexander

Bedük (fan page, facebook, myspace, wikipedia) is an electropop musician from Turkey, who attracted significant attention when he won the Miller Music Factory in 2006, released his fifth album GO and his release video Electric Girl is out. At the weekend he gave a release concert at one of the renowned venues of Istanbul. Bedük is an outstanding Turkish musician, who will probably become  globally known soon. His albums are available in iTunes Store, but GO is not released there, yet.