Color City

Paintings inspired by Famous Movies (created by Alice X. Zhang)

2013-06-28T20:10:00.001+01:00

Brave

Alice X. Zhang has created this series of paintings inspired by famous movies. The New York-based artist recreates famous charactes from the big screen. Always with her touch and eye, she captures the feeling of each character and movie in this beautiful series of paintings.

Check some here:

Les Miserables

In the mood for love

Leon the professional

Gladiator

Lost in translation

Moonlight Kingdom

Pulp Fiction

Slumdog Millionaire

The Dark Knight

Lord of the Rings

The Prestige

There will be blood

via Mymodernmet.com

Alice X. Zhang website
Alice X. Zhang on deviantART

Taman Shud Case - One of the most mysterious and still unexplained deaths

2013-06-28T01:15:00.002+01:00

On December of 1948 a dead body was found at 6:03am on Somerton beach in Adelaide, South Australia. The police soon arrived.The body of the unidentified man, was lying on the sand with its head resting on the seawall, and with its feet crossed and pointing directly to the sea. The first research showed no disturbance to the body. His left arm was in a straight position and the right was bent double. In his pocket, police found a used ticket from the city to St. Leonards in Glenelg and an unused one from the city to Henley Beach. They also found a half-empty pack of chewing gum, cigarette packet and a box of matches. There was also an unlit cigarette behind his ear.

Witnesses claimed that they saw the man the previous afternoon around 7 on the same position lifting his arm. Another witness said that around 8 p.m they also saw the man there, but he was not moving. They also had the opinion that the body's position has been changed. Although they thought that he might be dead they did not mention anything earlier cause they though that the man was probably just drunk.

The man carried no identification, which led police to believe he had committed suicide.

Sir John Burton Cleland , professor at the University of Adelaide mentioned that the man was probably 40 to 45 years old and had a "Britisher" appearance. He had fair to ginger-coloured hair and was in top physical condition. He had hazel eyes and was about 5ft 11in tall. He was dressed formal, wearing a white shirt, red and blue tie, brown trousers, shocks and shoes.He was also wearing a brown knitted pullover and fashionable European grey and brown double-breasted coat,despite the fact that it was a hot day.

And now for the weird stuff.

All labels on his clothes were missing. There was also a suitcase found later that belonged to the man. In the suitcase more clothes were found and yet again all labels were missing.

After the autopsy, examiners found congestion throughout the brain and body, blood in the man’s stomach and liver, an extremely enlarged spleen etc. All these suggest one thing: Poisoning. Although it was clear that the man was poisoned. No poison was found in his system to back up the theory.

Going through his staff police was able to find deep in one of his pocket a little piece of paper. The paper seemed to be cut off out of a book and there were only two words printed on it:

"Taman Shud"

Officials quickly ordered an investigation on the meaning and from which book it was cut off. The answer came soon enough as the words came from a book called "The Rubaiyat" written by Omar Khayyam. It were the last two words on the book meaning "The End".
These last two words were under a poem of Khayyam about living life to the foolest with no regrets even when it ends.

A big search for the book with the "lost words" started. That was the time when a photographer that had parked his unlocked car close to the area that the victim was found called them. He told the police that he read in newspapers that they were looking for a book named "The Rubaiyat" and that he had in his possesion what they were looking for. The young photographer, who wished to stay anonymous, explained to the authorities that he found a very rare first edition copy of Edward FitzGerald's translation of The Rubaiyat in the back seat of his car. As it was natural he never though that was connected to the case until he read about it. He handed the book to the police.

The book was examined thoroughly and it was found that it was indeed the book they were looking for. In the back of the book were faint pencil markings of five lines of capital letters with the second line struck out. The strike out is now considered significant with its similarity to the fourth line possibly indicating a mistake and thus, possible proof the letters are code:

WRGOABABD

~~MLIAOI~~

WTBIMPANETP

MLIABOAIAQC

ITTMTSAMSTGAB

(unclear if the second line was underlined or erased)

They soon realised that this was some kind of a code. They called everyone and even gave it to the public, but until today noone was able to crack it. The code was also analysed by the Australian Department of Defence in 1978, they made the following statements about the code:

There are insufficient symbols to provide a pattern.

The symbols could be a complex substitute code or the meaningless response to a disturbed mind.

It is not possible to provide a satisfactory answer.

However, this was not the only thing found in the back of the book. A telephone number was found as well.It belonged to a former nurse who lived in Moseley St, Glenelg, around 400 metres.The woman said that while she was working at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney during World War II,she owned a copy of The Rubaiyat but in 1945, at the Clifton Gardens Hotel in Sydney, had given it to an army lieutenant named Alfred Boxall who was serving in the Water Transport Section of the Australian Army.

Just when everyone though that Boxall was the victim and the case was moving to an end , they soon discover that Alfred Boxall was still alive and had still his own copy of "The Rubaiyat" that was given to him back in 1945.

The case has remained unsloved until today although in 2011 a lead came up about a man called H. C. Reynolds. An identification card, a document issued in the United States to foreign seamen during WWI was given to biological anthropologist Maciej Henneberg in October 2011 for comparison of the ID photograph to that of the Somerton man. While Henneberg found anatomical similarities in features such as the nose, lips and eyes, he believed they were not as reliable as the close similarity of the ear. The ear shapes shared by both men were a "very good" match, although Henneberg also found what he called a "unique identifier;" a mole on the cheek that was the same shape and in the same position in both photographs.

"Together with the similarity of the ear characteristics, this mole, in a forensic case, would allow me to make a rare statement positively identifying the Somerton man."

They are still trying to solve the case but as of today it is still a mystery and full of questions and coincidences...

Sources: Nowiknow.com,Wikipedia,Cracked.com

Ben Torode photographs his cute kitten

2013-06-25T22:33:00.002+01:00

The name of this adorable kitty is Daisy. Daisy got photographed by her owner Ben Torode, who is a Japan-based translator and photographer. His work with this little beautiful creature was amazing.

Check some of his beautiful photos:

via slrlounge.com

Portraits of Famous People made from Thousands of Words

2013-06-25T18:50:00.001+01:00

Ralph Ueltzhoefer is a german artist that takes photos of famous people and recreates them using nothing but words.
Check some of his amazing creations:

“The art project text portrait exclusively works with personal data in most different combinations on thousands of websites. Text portrait is not as usually limited to only one internet website, but spreads out to in the meantime hundreds of websites worldwide. Thousands of clicks daily grant this project great power of information. The art project text portrait purposefully abuses personal data and links these directly to the TEXTPORTRAIT project. As the art project, due to its capacity, reproduces itself independently through the net, there has been no way to end this project promptly for some time”, the artist states on his website.

as presented on odditycentral.com

Cloned Video Animation Art

2013-06-24T12:30:00.000+01:00

Filmmaker, graffiti artist, and photographer Erdal Inci lives and works in Istanbul, Turkey where he has been experimenting with cloned motion in video since 2004. Over the past few months Inci has converted several of these hypnotic videos into gifs and posted them online.

as presented on thisiscolossal.com

Illustrations: Thread Drawings Suspended Mid-Air

2013-06-23T19:01:00.001+01:00

Amanda McCavour is a toronto-based artist that has created these little thread miracles. Suspended Mid-air to create a scenery like no other the artworks of McCavour are not to be missed.

Check some here:

via mymodernmet.com

When Photo Collages become Art

2013-06-07T12:00:00.002+01:00

Mareen Fischinger takes hundreds of individual photographs of one view then by making semi-transparent layers she recreates the scenery by making a huge photo collage.

“These are not panoramas in the normal sense,” Fischinger explains, “but more the result of a new kind of photography – one that captures the flow of time and the accompanying changes of scene on one surface.”

Mareen Fischinger's website

story as presented on mymodernmet.com

Child of the 90's - Nostalgic Ad by Microsoft (Video)

2013-05-31T11:32:00.000+01:00

This was released as part of the promotion campaign of the new Internet Explorer. Microsoft created an ad about ... 90s. It is very nostalgic and moving.

Check it out (Especially if you are a kid of the 90s):

Man plays piano to blind elephants

2013-05-29T13:18:00.001+01:00

Mr Barton moved to Thailand with his wife 16 years ago so they could be closer to the elephants. Barton took also his piano in the the mountain of Kanchanaburi to help raise money for blind elephants

'It was a 50th birthday present to myself. My wife and I have been working with blind elephants for many years, and I thought it might be something they would enjoy to listen to. I sat down and thought, what do you play to an elephant? You only get a short time, so I started trawling through my books and then Slow Movement 2 from Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata just stuck", he said.

Check him in one of his performances:

via www.metro.co.uk/

If Cartoons were part of The Real world

2013-05-29T12:51:00.001+01:00

Have you ever thought were our Cartoon Friends will be if they were part of the real world?...

well, here are some possible photos of the places we might have seen them:P

via chiloutpoint.com

Prom Dress out of Coffee Filters

2013-05-29T11:10:00.000+01:00

A young, inspiring fashion designer created her prom dress using nothing else but coffee filters.18-year-old Aimee Kick, from Missouri spent an entire month making her own prom dress out of coffee filters.

Check her insped creation:

as presented on odditycentral.com

Surreal Photography by Hossein Zare

2013-05-28T19:00:00.003+01:00

We've seen part of Hossein's Zare work in the past, with his outstanding minimalistic Black and White Photo Collection. This was not the end. This time, the Iran based artist takes his camera and travels with us in faraway lands of mystery and surrealism with the help of photoshop.

Check part of his amazing surealistic photos:

Via: Hossein Zare's Facebook and 500px

Surreal Photo Manipulations of Erik Johansson

2013-05-27T10:46:00.001+01:00

Erik Johansson is a talented Germany-based artist from Sweden that creates these surreal sceneries and illusions. " I create street illusions. I don’t capture moments, I capture ideas. To me photography is just a way to collect material to realize the ideas in my mind " , he says.

Take a look at some of his creations:

Find more of his work on his official website: Erikjohanssonphoto.com

The Giant Rubber Duck of Florentijn Hofman

2013-05-25T11:36:00.000+01:00

A giant rubber duck is making a world tour to big harbors such as Osaka, Sao Paolo and Amsterdam. Since May 2nd, the 54 foot duck is floating in the bay of Hong Kong. It was created by Florentijn Hofman and has been an attraction to every harbor it was released.

Check some amazing photos:

via Inhabitat.com

Coupled: Everyday objects presented with unexpected personalities

2013-05-24T13:31:00.002+01:00

This collection of posters is called Coupled and were created by Safwat Saleem for a love-themed exhibit that opened in February 2013 at the 6th Avenue Gallery in downtown Phoenix.

Check them:

via Safwatsaleem.com/Coupled

Super Mario Meets Real Life (Amazing Video)

2013-05-22T12:30:00.000+01:00

An amazing tribute video to the classic Super Nintendo game created by Marcus and Hannes Knutsson and posted by YouTube user lefvandebilder shows Mario's adventure in completely different landscapes than he used to. Well the video presents super Mario among us :P.

Check the amazing video:

via(cbsnews.com/)

Paintings made on.....Ipod Touch

2013-05-19T01:32:00.000+01:00

Seikou Yamaoka creates painting using his Ipod touch . Yamaika uses ArtStudio a simple ipod touch art application and he also paints actual water color portraits too.

Check the amazing artworks made on Ipod:

via huffingtonpost.com

Balloon Filled Rooms

2013-05-18T00:40:00.000+01:00

This amazing instalation is the work of German Choreographer William Forsythe. Scattered Crowd as the installation is called was made by thousands of balloons that were put in rooms. People are welcome to interact with the installation and be part of it.

Check some stunning photos:

via www.mymodernmet.com/

Portraits made of Powerful Words by Juan Osborne

2013-05-14T10:54:00.000+01:00

Spanish artist Juan Osborne is making portraits out of thousands powerful colored words.

Some of them are so detailed that if you do not take a good look you won't see that it is made of words.

Take a look of the collection here:

via telegraph.co.uk

Lipstick Art by Paige Thompson

2013-05-13T13:45:00.000+01:00

Body paint artist Paige Thompson,better known by the nickname of Viridis-Somnio, came up with the incredible idea of turning her lips into animals using lipstick. Check some of her amazing creations:

via(dailynewsdig.com/)

Alexander McQueen Inspired Dress made of 50,000 Gummy Bears

2013-05-09T12:21:00.000+01:00

This dress, that was in in the Debut issue of Twelv Magazine, was created out of 50,000 Gummy Bears. The dress was made in the memory of Alexander McQueen and. The dress weight 220 pounds and it took three people to move it.

Check some photos (the original dress is shown above):

via (http://www.mymodernmet.com/)

When Big Bang Theory becomes Art the result is explosive

2013-05-07T13:47:00.001+01:00

Zhan Wang created an installation for the UCAA exhibition hall. It goes by the title "My Personal Universe" and represents the Big Bang theory. It was created with 5,000 stainless steel rocks. It's an in interactive form of art that let you be in the middle of the explosion and make you understand that you can find beauty everywhere

Check some amazing photos:

story from mymodernmet.com

Cat meets Domino (Video)

2013-05-06T20:32:00.000+01:00

Looking for an intresting way to keep your cat busy?

Check out this video:

via neatorama.com

Art in a suitcase:Portable Cities by Yin Xiuzhen

2013-05-05T14:32:00.000+01:00

Yin Xiuzhen creates "Portable Cities" by carefully arranging discarded clothes and other pieces of fabric, in suitcases to make a city landscape. The result? Check for yourself the next photos.

via odditycentral.com

New York Then and Now Photography by Evan Joseph

2013-05-04T20:14:00.000+01:00

Evan Joseph, one of New York's leading photographers has prepared a book called "New York Then and Now". Although it has not yet released some sneak peeks were released. Joseph uses the same angle of pictures takes a century ago to capture the exact same landskape of New York. You can see in the photos how New York has evolved through time:

Evan Joseph's site: http://www.evanjoseph.com/
Via (MyModernMet)