The Eyewriter from Evan Roth on Vimeo.

The site explains:

Members of Free Art and Technology (FAT), OpenFrameworks, the Graffiti Research Lab, and The Ebeling Group communities have teamed-up with a legendary LA graffiti writer, publisher and activist, named Tony Quan, aka TEMPTONE. Tony was diagnosed with ALS in 2003, a disease which has left him almost completely physically paralyzed… except for his eyes. This international team is working together to create a low-cost, open source eye-tracking system that will allow ALS patients to draw using just their eyes. The long-term goal is to create a professional/social network of software developers, hardware hackers, urban projection artists and ALS patients from around the world who are using local materials and open source research to creatively connect and make eye art.

Eyewriter is a new collaborative project in a long list of urban communicative design from G.R.L. For anyone not familiar with the Graffiti Research Lab; they use open-source tech to expand the creativity of urban art. They have completed dozens of projects from the first LED throwies, to 3D laser projections. Their site is definitely worth a long visit.

More pics from Tempt One below-

Art is a tool of empowerment and social change, and I consider myself blessed to be able to create and and use my work to promote health reform, bring awareness about ALS and help others – Tony Quan, aka Tempt One

Visit Eyewiter.org for more info, or to get involved.

“More than 70,000 advertising professionals have lost their jobs in this Great Recession. Lemonade is about what happens when people who were once paid to be creative in advertising are forced to be creative with their own lives.”

The old adage goes, ‘when life gives you lemons, make lemonade’.

Erik Proulx was a copywriter working the 9-5 and when he joined the rank and file of the millions of others that are currently unemployed he didn’t let the time go to waste. Erik created the blog Please Feed The Animals for ad industry creatives who were laid off to come together and create a larger community for themselves.
But over the past while he has added screenwriter to his resume. On top of the new title, he’s also added the beginnings of a great film to his portfolio – a film who’s trailer can be seen above.
Watching this adventure unfold from afar has been inspiring on many various levels – but we especially can’t wait to see the full movie as it matures.

Film’s Official Website
Great Blog Post/Commentary by the director.
Follow the Twitter #lemonademovie for live discussion.

In a world in which information is like air, what happens to power?

New technologies and a closely related culture of collaboration present radical new models of social organization. This project brings together leading practitioners and thinkers in this field and asks them to determine the opportunity for government.

This hour long film, while focusing on government, gives a good introduction to social collaboration through the internet. Social collaboration, while not a new concept, is starting to pick up mass acceptance on a larger scale.  For those that don’t know, it’s the concept of being able to use the power of numbers to distribute the work load and gain a better end product that ends up helping the rest of the society. While watching this documentary (in full or in part), remember to apply the basic concepts to all areas of a process. The entire documentary can be seen embedded above. In the event that you would like to watch it at your own leisure, there is a torrent of it here.

Beyond just the video, the site also opens up the conversation to the twitterverse through #hashtags. These conversations can be seen on their website here.

For me this was a bit inspiring to see the topic being discussed in a more traditionally covered medium – the documentary. I love the concept and hope to integrate it in a lot of the work that I do personally. I hope that you’ll find it influential as well.

Us Now from Banyak Films on Vimeo.

Buy the DVD here http://banyak.co.uk/shop-usnow.php

For more information, extra clips and reviews please go to usnowfilm.com

UPDATE: If you find yourself interested in this topic, Wired just released a really good article on it as well entitled The New Socialism: Global Collectivist Society is Coming Online

Objectified – A Documentary Film by Gary Hustwit from Selectism on Vimeo.

Official site: www.objectifiedfilm.com

“About the trailer: the voices belong to Jonathan Ive, Andrew Blauvelt, Marc Newson, and Karim Rashid. The song is ‘I Like Van Halen Because My Sister Says They Are Cool’ by our friends El Ten Eleven, from their new record These Promises Are Being Videotaped [get it on iTunes]. And the font used in the trailer is… Akzidenz Grotesk! [Shout out to Paula Scher!]”

We recently had the opportunity to view Objectified at the Plaza Theatre in Atlanta with introductions and afterward by director Gary Hustwit. Yes, the same Gary who brought us Helvetica. Objectified, covers the human side of objects; the people, the processes and the aftermath. A must see for designers of all fields, but also a must see for anyone who appreciates design.

If you want some spoilers and a great write-up, read Core77’s review here.

If you haven’t seen it yet and you want to, view their schedule of upcoming screenings here.
If you’ve missed out on the chance to see it in a theatre, the DVD is set to be released sometime this summer.

Fifty People, One Question: New York from Fifty People, One Question on Vimeo.

We asked the same question and it took us somewhere new. Gone were the lazy days of summer. A cool breeze swept the streets with leaves under foot and the familiar hustle of the city. Welcome to autumn in New York.

It’s a simple question and the answers can lead us anywhere. So go ahead, ask yourself…

Visit http://fiftypeopleonequestion.com and post your response.

Take Away
Watch this when you’re looking for inspiration; and when you need a refresher on the types of people you could possibly be designing for.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

This struck a huge cord with me. I have relatives that left their families in Europe, in search of a better life in America. I have relatives that fought and died in World War II. I have relatives that marched alongside African-Americans for civil rights in the 60’s. I have relatives that were imprisoned for their philosophies. They all go off their asses to make a change in their lives, not knowing the outcome. They stayed true to their heart, right or wrong. I look at all they tried to accomplish in their life, and am greatly humbled and thankful.

When I saw President Obama step out of his car during the Presidential Parade today, I was humbled once more. This was a huge risk, considering America’s history of assassinating great leaders. It is one thing to stand up and make an amazing speech about taking chances; but it is another thing to show it.

I spent years taking risks in my career, but not in my life. I had one of those moments a few years ago when my whole life flashed before me- and I ran away from everyone. I realized I hadn’t done anything that amounted to anything in my life; and I had wasted a portion of that on false hopes and false people.

Every day since then has been a day of discovery and choices. I make decisions quickly, and act on them right away. I came to the hard realization that life is way too short, and I didn’t want to waste another minute not being true to my heart. If my heart isn’t in something now, I just walk away.

To take a risk in your life, you heart has to be in it. I saw real heart today by President Obama.

Which brings me to my next thought. Do you have to have a 20 page thesis for something that just looks pretty? Everytime we see a digital piece, we get bored with the story way before we even get to the compostion. One could argue that this is part of the piece; but that is usually the artist.  When I do a spot for television or even a painting, I have many inspirations.  Do I need to list them out as subtitles so the viewer gets it?  Did Dali or Picasso write a structured thesis on their greatest works?  The titles and short blurbs used to be enough; and some would argue still are.

So… Software as art.  This is what Casey Reas explores in a recent comission for the Whitney called {Software} Structures. Casey implements and reinterperets three of Sol LeWitt’s works into software based compositions.  Sol LeWitt is a conceptual minimalist american artist who was best known in the Late 60’s. 

Here is an exerpt from Casey Reas about the pieces:
“Without diverting into a didactic text about Structuralism, I will simply state that a structure is a relationship among elements. Within disciplines such as linguistics and anthropology, structures exist but are open to re-interpretation, but in computer science, structures are by necessity extremely precise. Computers are machines designed for their reliability and accuracy and while these characteristics make computers valuable to the scientific and engineering communities, they are not necessarily important characteristics for an artist. Artists such as Takashi Murakami use the computer as a precise tool, but it’s not possible to imagine the work of Anselm Kiefer put through the filter of a precise computing machine…”

Boring.

I go to alot of museums and to many gallery openings on a weekly basis. And I have to say that digital artists write the most boring unbelievable shit. I used to be one of those artist/writers/waiters/teachers.  After you scan over the various links and sub-links on the explanation site, you get to the heart of the art; and it is beautiful.  Click through the thumbnails and have a look. We found that mouse movements create a slight change to each piece, which is a nice touch.

Click Here to View {Software} Structures

Take Away
This is the kind of work I love to look at on a Sunday morning to get my mind working in new creative ways for the week ahead.  I just wish we as digital designers, didn’t feel the need to over explain ourselves so that people would understand our work.  I have learned recently that a visual representation is the best way to get creative ideas across to other people. Lengthy write ups get glazed over as art-speak, even if they are written with the best creative intentions.

The Lego and Lincoln Logs are the only toys I can remember playing with at a young age. I would spend hours creating entire towns, vehicles, creatures, whatever. These toys where literally the building blocks for every future creative outlet that I have had to this day. Today, every piece I create is modular and editable after production.

There has been a huge resurgence in Lego activity in the past few years. I see a handful of posts a week about people recreating buildings or pop culture items to an exacting degree. Some lego artists are even removing existing cases on products, and re-covering them with legos. And a few are actually creating something entirely new, like artist Nathan Sawaya.

This brings me to a beautiful Lego Lamp piece by Tzuwei Tai.  It has all the ideals I covet in a product. The best part is that it actually look like a Lego.  So for me, just looking at it makes my heart smile.  One added benefit to this piece in relation to Lego, is that it actually performs a real world function- light. [via DesignZen]

While doing a search for more info about this design, we ran across some other notable Lego lights. Here they are:

These lamps could be a nice addition to any one’s desk or entertainment area. More info via Technobob.

The next set is definitely the most sculptural of the grouping. You have over 200 pieces to work with to create your ultimate R2D2 or Cartman Lego light. This looks like a fun rainy day project, with an A+ for the instant gratification perk. This can purchased  from Red 5.

The last set I would call “kind-of”  lego. The Brick Bright from OutofStock Studio reminds us more of old 8-bit icon design. This is the type of product that Susan Kare should be producing. She is most known for designing the original Mac OS icons.  More info via Yanko Design.

I do know that lego uses 100% of its plastic in all their products. In other words, there is no wasted material. I would like to imagine that the products above do the same. Another thought… are these lights keeping with the spirit of Lego? I know that with some of the ones mentioned above you can form different shapes with them. Can you make a table lamp into a sconce, though? Or even make a sconce into a flashlight? Are they building blocks or just molded plastic?

Take Away
The concept of using Legos as a design foundation seems so simple, and yet brings to light huge ideas to consider when creating a product. How can it be created without any excess waste? How can it be purposed and re-purposed after it’s created? And, how can it do all that while keeping a permagrin on the end-users experience?

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ISAIDIF

Reminiscent of early Joshua Davis, but with a more minimalist approach; this work is worth the hour we speant interacting with it.  Don’t overlook the audio work on this as well, very Brian Eno’s Bloom.  This will definitely take up real estate on our flat screen during our next soiree.

Poke around LIA’s site as well. There is great work on there to explore.

Take Away
Though we love this piece, we found it hard to figure out what the bottom icons did- if anything.  We understand this is an art piece, but once you involve another user besides the creator, the interaction should be self explanatory.