We love to share all things good here at Visual Jazz, and whether it’s an awesome piece of design work, a creative and innovative marketing campaign or just a hilarious gif, we are always looking for inspiration and knowledge to help make our work ever better.

With this in mind we’re bringing you a weekly blog post to share our collection of interesting and insightful articles, inspired by Dan Calladine – Head of Media Futures at Carat in London and a member of our Aegis Network.

Thanks for reading VJs Global Snapshot, bringing you the best in all things digital.

Youtube

One hour of content is uploaded to YouTube every second

YouTube, Google Inc’s video website, is streaming 4 billion online videos every day, a 25 percent increase in the past eight months, according to the company. The jump in video views comes as Google pushes YouTube beyond the personal computer, with versions of the site that work on smartphones and televisions, and as the company steps up efforts to offer more professional-grade content on the site.

According to the company, roughly 60 hours of video is now uploaded to YouTube every minute, compared with the 48 hours of video uploaded per minute in May. YouTube, which Google acquired for $1.65 billion in 2006, represents one of Google’s key opportunities to generate new sources of revenue outside its traditional Internet search advertising business.

Last week, Google said that its business running graphical “display” ads – many of which are integrated alongside YouTube videos – was generating $5 billion in revenue on an annualized run rate basis. Have a look at some visualisations on Google’s site to put it into context.

Google

Google update their privacy policies across products

 From the Google blog

What does this mean in practice? The main change is for users with Google Accounts. Our new Privacy Policy makes clear that, if you’re signed in, we may combine information you’ve provided from one service with information from other services. In short, we’ll treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience.

Our recently launched personal search feature is a good example of the cool things Google can do when we combine information across products. Our search box now gives you great answers not just from the web, but your personal stuff too. So if I search for restaurants in Munich, I might see Google+ posts or photos that people have shared with me, or that are in my albums. Today we can also do things like make it easy for you to read a memo from Google Docs right in your Gmail, or add someone from your Gmail contacts to a meeting in Google Calendar.

Social media

Elsewhere in Google, Obama plans a Hangout

President Barack Obama plans to ‘hang out’ in a video chat room next week to answer questions about his State of the Union address. Google announced Monday that Obama will participate in a 45-minute live video chat room known as a ‘Hangout’, part of the online search giant’s social networking site Google Plus.

The chat will take place Monday afternoon, Jan. 30, capping a week of social media engagement the White House is planning around the State of the Union speech. Google Plus will solicit questions over the video sharing site YouTube, and users will then vote on their favourites. The president will answer some video questions, and will also chat directly with a group of the questioners.

And more links to digital we think is delicious:

When Larry met Sergey – the evolution of Google visualised

Coke Polar Bears will react to the Super Bowl in real time

Beautiful musical visualisation – the New York subway as music

With this in mind we’re bringing you a weekly blog post to share our collection of interesting and insightful articles, inspired by Dan Calladine – Head of Media Futures at Carat in London and a member of our Aegis Network.
Welcome to VJs new Global Snapshot, bringing you the best in all things digital.

Facebook

Facebook introduces new lifestyle apps to become someone’s de facto online presence

Facebook is adding a slew of new apps and services to its site in the hopes that visitors never ever leave—or at least extend their stay on the site as long as possible. Some of these—such as new tools for cooking and fashion applications–were unveiled last spring.

Now, a number of additional ‘lifestyle apps’ are joining these, for a total of 60. These are provided by such companies as Ticketmaster, Rotten Tomatoes and travel site Gogobot. Information posted in these apps will also appear on the Timeline.

Marketers will find the information about Facebook users significantly increasing–such as detailed information about their leisure time activities–as more developers build apps for the site. Facebook has opened its platform for all developers, not just the 60 apps that have launched. “Soon, there will be apps for all types of interests, as more apps will launch over time,” Facebook’s director of platform Cal Sjogreen wrote in a blog post. “Whether you love snowboarding, gardening, hiking, or knitting, or something else, there will be an app for you.”

The growing number of apps will also position Timeline as users’ de facto online presence—a role Facebook clearly expects Timeline to assume if it hasn’t already.”

Facebook gets even more sticky!

See them all here

eCommerce

Amazon sells the Kindle Fire at a loss, but…

During the holiday season Amazon used its massive sales channel to push the Kindle Fire hard. It moves millions of units, and according to studies from IHS iSupply, was losing about $2 per unit. That’s a big difference from Apple, which makes a healthy profit on sales of its iPad tablet.

But according to a new poll from RBC Capital, Amazon stands to earn about $136 in additional revenue from every customer who bought a Kindle Fire. So while the hardware might be a loss leader, overall the Kindle Fire is a win for Amazon’s bottom line.

Read more here.

Ralph Lauren’s growth attributed to digital activity

Ralph Lauren Corp. reported a telling figure in its latest financials: Online sales increased 25% in the second quarter. In general, Q2 sales jumped 24% to $1.7 billion.

This growth was fueled by a number of cutting-edge online ad initiatives, the Star Tribune reports. These initiatives included a 24-hour, touch-manipulated storefront window a la sci-fi thriller “Minority Report.” In 2010, it held Ralph Lauren “4D” events in New York and London in which it beamed giant, high-resolution holographic images onto a building.

These images, first of polo players, then transformed into perfume bottles. The actual fragrances were released into the crowd. Despite the recession and its lingering aftermath, luxury shoppers have been a constant for retailers.  Growing transaction size increased year-over-year spend in the luxury jewelry, apparel/accessories, and department store sectors during Q2 2011, according to the American Express Business Insights Q2 2011 Spend Sights Report.

Read more here.

The new, new thing

Nike FuelBand

Using their new universal measurement system called Nike Fuel, you can compete against anyone with any body type at any skill level. As you accomplish each goal, the FuelBand’s LED lights turns from red to yellow to green. By providing this simple meter, the wearer can check their activity status with a mere glimpse. For more detailed queries the band’s display can toggle between time, distance, calories burned and Fuel. By creating a normalized metric, Nike hopes to make collaboration and competition among users of different athletic levels more fun.

Read more here.

More links to delicious digital things:

VW’s Dogs do Star Wars

Fun promo for Google Maps

Cadbury launch a new chocolate bar on Google+

Whether it was for art, for marketing, for fun or anything else, interactive installations popped up everywhere around the globe last year. The basic concept usually consisted of a projector, a surface to act as a display and a sensor (such as the Kinect).

The problem with this is that it can limit your technical and creative teams, especially if you want your software to interact with the physical world in an engaging and meaningful way.

The answer to that problem is Arduino.

So what is Arduino?

The official definition for Arduino is “an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It’s intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments”.

To put it simply, it’s a tiny programmable computer that can do anything you want it to with the help of buttons, sensors, diodes, servos and much more. And everything is open source!

Arduino can be broken down in two parts: the software and the hardware.

The software is an IDE written in Java and looks very much like the Processing IDE.

The language you use is the Arduino Programming Language, which is based on Wiring, a C/C++ framework for microcontrollers.

There are 13 different Arduino boards at the moment, each with their own specs.

The board’s main part is the microcontroller, which is the part you will program using the Arduino IDE. You also have the programmable input/output pins that allow you to connect all of your components, including buttons, sensors, LEDs, servos etc.

On top of that, you can hook up compatible ‘shields’. Shields are boards with a specific purpose that you can plug into your Arduino, like an mp3 player, a joystick or an LCD screen.

So Arduino’s goal is to make dealing with electronics a simple matter. In fact, you don’t even need to know much about electronics or microcontrollers to get started! And the awesomeness doesn’t stop there –  you can get a basic Arduino board for around $25!

What can you do with Arduino?

ANYTHING! Arduino opens up an infinite number of amazing possibilities. In fact, the only limitation is your own imagination. I mentioned interactive installations earlier, like this awesome wooden mirror.

But Arduino can be used for much, much more. It’s probably easier to show you examples of what people have been using it for.

Want to build an open source game boy?

Use servos, a GPS unit and a battery pack to make an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle?

Or a laser harp…?

So, you see, the possibilities are endless. Check out this link for more examples, a great place to start with the top 40 Arduino projects list (dating from 2009).

Arduino connectivity

Another exciting side of Arduino is the connectivity options. The board on its own can do a lot, but by using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or a USB connection you can add to that the power of external hardware or software.

You could, for example, connect an Android device to use the phone’s touchscreen as an interface or to use the phone’s sensors (accelerometer, compass, light sensor) to send data back to the board. Like this RC car controlled from an app on the phone.

Using a serial to socket server you can also link your javascript or flash code to interact with Arduino. That’s a load of possibilities for such an inexpensive little piece of electronics.

It becomes very interesting for us when exploring new ideas for our clients, and finding more interesting and interactive ways to promote a brand or an event.

What do I need to get started?

So you’re hooked and feel like giving it a try? You’ll need to start by getting your hands on an Arduino board. You can find a lot of introductory packages online that also come with the essential components.

Then follow the instructions on the ‘getting started’ page of the Arduino site to install the software.

And that’s it! There’s nothing more to it – the set-up is extremely quick and easy. If you don’t already have an idea on what to work on you can find thousands of project guidelines online to help you build amazing things, step by step. Enjoy!

In summary

Download a PDF of this report here

A new wave of domains is coming. It could change the way people engage with the internet and technology but it’s all speculation for now. Due to costs, rules, the technical skills required and the lack of clear benefits, most brands in Australia should hesitate before getting involved in this round of generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs).

For government, regions, technology, domain registrars and hosting companies it is worth considering.

However, every business and category is different so you should definitely think about it.

This round of applications runs from 12 January to 12 April and it takes about nine months before successful applicants are issued their domains. And there will be more rounds of applications. For full details visit ICANN’s website http://newgtlds.icann.org/en

Not owning a Top Level Domain isn’t the end of the opportunity. There will be a whole new type of domain that brands can purchase and use. For example, Qantas could potentially buy www.qantas.fly from whomever sets up the .fly domain. (.travel was registered in the last round of applications)

And the big caveat – computers, browsers, mobiles and social media are becoming increasingly intuitive to the point where one day domain names might become redundant… It’s a big call but worth considering if you’re making a long term play like this.

gTLDs are a high risk investment relevant for brands with a 5-20 year vision and the ability to wait for the potential return on their investment.

MelbourneIT have put together this helpful guide to evaluate if gTLDs are something you should consider.

As an absolute minimum all brands should review gTLD applications (which are made public) and contest any that they feel breach trademarks.

If you’re not sure if it applies to your brand, Visual Jazz can provide a comprehensive analysis for your consideration.

Full story

Download a PDF of this report here

There’s a new wave of domains coming. Domain’s that let organisations kick the .com to the curb and have a .anything they like – www.google.com could become www.google or w.google or go.google

Think local - .melbourne .sydney .fitzroy .australia .outback .barrierreef .moon .earth .milkyway

Think brand - .mcdonalds .dell .theage .sony .disney .asx .amazon .google

Think big - .food .time .now .secure .2050 .event .movie .comedy .fashion .car .pluto

No matter what you’re thinking you’ll need to meet a range of criteria to be able to apply, along with a fee of $185,000 (plus hosting costs.) And your application is not guaranteed (you’ll get a partial refund in that case) – in fact anyone can dispute your application based on four criteria, most notably ‘legal rights’ like trademarks. If successful there are ongoing hosting and registration fees to maintain the integrity and security of the domain also need to be factored in (MelbourneIT & AusRegistry can help with this).

The main criteria (which prevent most brands) are:

• Sophisticated domain management IT infrastructure (most will outsource this to someone like MelbourneIT or AusRegistry. Costs range depending on a number of factors, including if you intend to sell domains or not)
• To be a fully formed and operational entity before applying
• Have a clear business case and plan for how you’ll use the domain
• Not competing with government, community or geographic applications (they all beat brands)

Many industry bodies are proclaiming this is a money grab by ICANN (the company that gets the $185k) and that it will ruin the internet (for a number of complex reasons). However, the intention is right. We’re running out of xyzcompany.coms (there are 90 million already registered) and something needs to give. But this solution might do more harm than good.

But let’s look at the potential upsides from the investment

• Opportunity to generate revenue by selling domains

For example, the owner of .food could sell woolworths.food to Woolworths, coles.food to Coles, etc for whatever fee they negotiate. The risk here is that with such a dramatic increase in the number of top level domains, Woolworths could possibly buy woolworths.shop, woolworths.food or woolworths.fresh and etc, resulting in an oversupply of options for brands and therefore the value of each individual .food .fresh .shop could be dramatically reduced.

And in reality this approach is nothing new – Flight Centre could sell Qantas.flightcentre.com.au to Qantas right now.

• Potential to have a shorter domain name

The most obvious benefit is being able to have a shorter domain name like www.google which might increase visits to a given site as it’s easier to remember and type. However, the reality is that Google is the number one source of traffic to most sites in Australia, and if people can’t remember your campaign or website because of .com on the end maybe you need to create a campaign that’s more memorable.

The question here is what’s the real benefit in having a shorter domain name?

• Search engine optimisation

Domain names are really important when it comes to ranking a site in Google for a given keyword, so potentially having more control over your domain name will improve your rankings. For example, if Bunnings had .hardware they could create bunnings.hardware or even paint.hardware, improving their rankings for the term ‘hardware’. Alternatively, if Bunnings owned .bunnings that would improve their brand keyword ranking, but they would already be number one for the term Bunnings.

The big caveat with SEO is that Google haven’t revealed how they’ll respond to these new domains, but history tells us that Google doesn’t reward tricks, quick wins and miracle cure similar to the above.

If you’re struggling with SEO this (most likely) won’t be the miracle cure to fix it – you’re going to have to put in the hard yards like you always have. (Plus, buying .hardware would be highly competitive and probably very expensive, and it’s unlikely Bunnings would win against big multi-nationals.)

• Being seen as progressive

Having a .brand or .category would take time to get picked up by consumers who would need constant education, but potentially the outcome would be being seen as a progressive company.

But if a progressive domain name is your advantage over competitors then you’re clutching at straws. Genuinely innovate your service, products and brand and that will probably work harder for you than any domain.

• Multi-brand multi-regional organisations

For multinationals or houses of brands this makes some sense .disney would work for mickeymouse.disney for example, or .kraft could work for Australia.kraft or uk.kraft.

But how much better is this than mickeymouse.disney.com or kraft.com.au or kraft.co.uk?

So if not brands, who could this work for?

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but gives you an idea of the potential.

• Geographic regions
  Tourism bodies or governments could sell off domains under these to create more localised URLs for example bensfishing.nt or crown.melbourne. However, for this to be successful a well-defined communications strategy is needed to educate the relevant audience that the gTLD exists, and all owners of domains within a gTLD need to promote them consistently.
• Tech companies
  Potentially having a domain name such as .wifi or .samsung could work well for physical devices.
• Media/publishers
  For example, .food for recipe publishers, tennis.sport for Channel Ten, richmond.afl for the AFL. This makes sense as it relies on consumers understanding and remembering to use them (.sport for example) which publishers can achieve easily.

You shouldn’t do it if…

• search engine optimisation is your objective. There’s no guarantee and Google tends to ignore quick tactics like this, and you’d need to secure a category like .cars, which will  be highly contested.
• you are looking to differentiate your brand. If you’re relying on a slightly shorter domain to differentiate from competitors you’ve got bigger problems, and we don’t even know if consumers will be more likely to visit your site (in droves) if it’s a bit shorter. You could even argue it could be counterproductive.
• you are trying to be ‘progressive’ – Be progressive by innovating your product and service.
• you’ve got a hunch. It’s a lot of money to apply and it’s not guaranteed you’ll get it, and it will take quite a bit of resource to manage administratively and technically.

When should a brand consider registering a gTLD?

Well, if you’re a long term future-focused company, have the capacity to sit on the investment for a few years while consumers learn what this all means, have a large portfolio of products, brands, content or are across multiple markets, or if you think you can sell lots of domains underneath your targeted domain, you might want to have a think about it.

Either way, it’s high risk and you’re betting on a lot of unknowns with a fair amount of cash.

“Ok we’re in, what next?”

The application process involves quite a bit of heavy lifting – lots of documentation, and you’ll need a technical partner to be part of your application (i.e. MelbourneIT or AusRegistry).

The current round of applications closes on the 29^th of March so you’ll need to get ready quickly or wait until they open the next round of applications.

Every brand MUST do the following:

All applications are made public, and legal teams should monitor these to file objections against any applications you feel breach your legal rights like trademarks (From the 1st of May until end November).  You should put together an ‘objection strategy’ to ensure you monitor the correct phrases and terms.

Organisations are able to formally object to the creation of domains if they infringe on:

• String Confusion – the url string causes confusion
• Legal Rights – infringement of objector’s rights
• Limited Public Interest – violates principals of international law
• Community – misappropriation of a community label

All new gTLD’s will be publically posted on May 1. You will have 7 months to file an objection based on the above inflictions.

View the objection procedure here
http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/applicants/agb/objection-procedures-11jan12-en.pdf

Unfortunately, there is no automated notification process that will outline a potential trademark breach. The responsibility will rest with brands to highlight what strings will breach trademark and manually review the submitted applications within the defined timeframe.

If you identify a breach of trademark and wish to make an appeal you can do so through the ICANN website. There is a $2,750, non-refundable fee involved in filing an objection and an extra $1,250 if your appeal goes to hearing.

So let’s start by describing what “The Fold” concept is:

Basically is where the Newspaper is folded, dividing the page into 2 main segments: above- and below-the-fold. Using the same principle in the online marketing means that every single element users can observe without scrolling is above-the-fold, and everything else below-the-fold.

However, many people have transferred this concept into ‘let’s squeeze in as much as content as possible above the fold’ and I think it shouldn’t be like this. For instance imagine you’re walking in a shopping centre looking for a new pair of shoes, how do the window designs looks like? They tease you by showing the best shoes they have and encourage you to get in the store to see more. A website homepage plays the same role; it should show you a snapshot of the site and encourage you to find out more [find out more = more time spent on site therefore a better likelihood to convert].

So why would you want to give away everything at once by squeezing in as much as possible because of the belief content below the fold will be missed out ? If you are putting all your content above the fold you may be encouraging your visitors not to explore further, thus closing the path to conversion!

OK, but you need data to back this up right?

• 76% of the page-views were scrolled to some extent and 22% of the page-views were scrolled all the way to the bottom – ClickTale Scrolling Report 
• 80% of the time spent on a page is focused above the fold, nevertheless people do scroll down if they page encourage scrolling – Scrolling and Attention, Nielsen report 

• Users can read long, scrolling pages faster than paginated ones – The impact of Paging vs Scrolling  on Reading Online Text Passages

Now that you’ve reached the bottom of the page you deserve the key takeaways

• You don’t have to squeeze everything into the top of your page
• Don’t give it all at once, tease and encourage to explore your awesome content
• Scrolling down the page is very common thing but hey, be smart and show some signs that indicates more content is below the fold
• Scrolling is the next click, it can be an indication of engagement

Thanks to http://kylemonolouge.wordpress.com/2011/04/29/above-the-fold-or-below-the-fold/ for providing the image.

More info and resources:

http://iampaddy.com/lifebelow600/

http://blog.clicktale.com/2007/12/04/clicktale-scrolling-research-report-v20-part-2-visitor-attention-and-web-page-exposure/

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/scrolling-attention.html

http://www.cxpartners.co.uk/thoughts/the_myth_of_the_page_fold_evidence_from_user_testing.htm

With this in mind we have decided to pull together a weekly blog post and share our collection of interesting and insightful articles with all of our VJ friends.

For our first post we hope to provide you with a better understanding of how content, people and relationships are changing thanks to Google Search.

Google’s Search plus Your World

-Google add results from contacts to search results

“We’re transforming Google into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships. We began this transformation with Social Search, and today we’re taking another big step in this direction by introducing three new features:

- Personal Results, which enable you to find information just for you, such as Google+ photos and posts—both your own and those shared specifically with you, that only you will be able to see on your results page;

- Profiles in Search, both in auto complete and results, which enable you to immediately find people you’re close to or might be interested in following; and,

- People and Pages, which help you find people profiles and Google+ pages related to a specific topic or area of interest, and enable you to follow them with just a few clicks. Because behind most every query is a community.
Together, these features combine to create Search plus Your World. Search is simply better with your world in it, and we’re just getting started.”

It will make search more personal to you

See here

“Say you’re looking for a vacation destination. You can of course search the web, but what if you want to learn from the experiences your friends have had on their vacations? Just as in real life, your friends’ experiences are often so much more meaningful to you than impersonal content on the web. With your world in search, you can find:
Google+ posts. You can find relevant Google+ posts from friends talking about an amazing trip they just took, whether they’ve shared privately with you or publicly. You’ll find links shared by your friends, such as activities, restaurants and other things they enjoyed on their trip.
Photos. You can find beautiful vacation photos from your friends right in your search results page. You can also find your own private photos from Google+ and Picasa, based on captions, comments and album title.”

But – is it fair?  They seem to be favouring G+ in general search results

“Why does that matter? It’s Google’s search engine, after all! Two reasons.

The first is legal. By having a dominant position in search, Google might ultimately be responsible for going above-and-beyond to include competitors. That’s part of what the current anti-trust investigations into Google are all about. One complaint over today’s move — though likely mostly about privacy — is already being readied.

The second is about relevancy. Google’s job as a search engine is to direct searchers to the most relevant information on the web, not just to information that Google may have an interest in.

These suggestions would be better if they included other services, and that’s the standard Google’s search results should aim for, returning the best.”

See here

The exhibition, called Project Underground, is made up of graffiti art painted directly onto the walls of the car park by some of the world’s most renowned artists. The project was funded by Harold Mitchell AC to highlight graffiti as a credible form of art and showcase the talents of the artists from around the world.

Around 90 artists have contributed to the exhibition in total, from all across Australia as well as from as far as New York, Paris and Amsterdam. Contributors include some of the world’s most renowned street artists such as Ces, Sirum1, Phibs and Vans.

It covers more than 800 square metres of wall space and thousands of cans of spray paint have been used. A donated MINI has become a moving piece of art, painted by the artists with a unique and edgy design. It is currently on display as part of the exhibition and will be taken on the road as the exhibition brings graffiti art into the mainstream.

Workshops for young people have been held as the exhibition comes together, helping build confidence and show that the talents of street artists can be used in a constructive and legal way.

Many of the artists are extremely well known in the street art scene and the exhibition has generated national media coverage and a groundswell of foot traffic as visitors seek out the exhibition.

More images and information can be found on Facebook.

VJ launches the Medibank Symptom Checker

Visual Jazz has just helped key client Medibank Private launch their latest mobile app – the Symptom Checker.

Following on from VJ’s successful launch of Medibank’s comprehensive member services app in September the Symptom Checker now sits alongside Medibank’s suite of mobile apps  with the Energy Balancer (built by The White Agency).

Symptom Checker allows users to self-diagnose and then to be triaged to the right method of assistance. The easy-to-understand advice can also be targeted for either yourself or if you are looking after children.

Users search symptoms or browse by symptom or body part. The symptoms are broad ranging: from some very classic Aussie symptoms like ‘snake’ and ‘spider bites’ to ‘swimmers ear’ and ‘sunburn’, to the standard ‘colds’ and ‘back ache’, and the not so standard like ‘jock itch’ and everything else in between.

The app also conveniently provides a facility to store all your health contacts alongside emergency numbers and some great advice.

Go to the Medibank Symptom Checker page to watch the demo and click through to the App Store to download it.

As we ease into 2012 with a belly full of ham (or tofu), it can be hard to kickstart our engines – fear not though as Melbourne has provided a plethora of inspiration directed straight at us. There are music events, design exhibitions, art galleries and Hot Rod shows…. unfortunately Sexpo isn’t until May. See below for a selection of current events and get out there and enjoy….

Sugar Mountain Festival

This festival is a slathering of creative events taking place within the city of Melbourne showcasing the inter-connectedness between visual art, music and parties.

There’ll be a huge line-up of local and international bands and a ten-day visual arts satellite program with various workshops.

Check out the website as there’s HEAPS of musicians, visual installations, art shows & endless creative inspirational goodness.

When: 12 Jan til the 21 Jan 

Cost: some FREE / some not

Location: The Forum Theatre –  Across the road from Federation Square (154 Flinders St)

www.sugarmountainfestival.com

Board

Board is all about the creativity behind skate culture.

Presenting 1970s & 80s skateboards and ephemera from Tony Hallam’s collection alongside contemporary decks created for the exhibition, it explores the evolution of board graphics and design.

When: NOW until February 

Cost: FREE

Location: NGV Studio –  Federation Square

www.ngv.vic.gov.au/whats-on/ngv-studio

Best of Independent Games festival

Dubbed the ‘Sundance of the game world’, the annual festival encourages innovation in game development and recognises the best work of indie designers from around the world.

When: NOW until March 

Cost: FREE

Location: ACMI –  Federation Square

www.acmi.net.au/igf-2011.aspx

Wild Love Imaginariums

Marley, 17, was diagnosed with autism and epilepsy in early childhood. He seems to dwell in a parallel world, but from a certain age he began to gain some understanding of the conventional one. He remains adamant that the feeling of love is not to be restrained, rather shared with every being. Unable to speak coherently for years, he communicates powerfully with color and mesmerizing forms.

When: NOW until 8 January

Location: No Vacancy Gallery, The Artrium – Federation Square

www.marleyjameswright.com

Pipilotti Rist, I Packed the Postcard in My Suitcase

If you like happiness, the colours pink, blue, yellow, red, orange and green and you have a heartbeat – go and see this installation! It’s a goodly dose of screen-based ‘pleasure principle’ at the first major Pipi-art survey in Australia, featuring a new commission that’s almost certain to technicolour your retinas. Lay back, bask in the big screens, let the pixels wash over and get erogenous..

When: NOW until March

Cost: FREE

Location: Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), 111 Sturt St, Southbank

www.accaonline.org.au

Screen Worlds

This exhibition will change the way you think about the most pervasive and powerful cultural forms of our time. With an ambitious scope unlike any other exhibition in the world, Screen Worlds brings together rarely-seen footage, fascinating objects and interactive displays.

When: ALWAYS

Location: ACMI –  Federation Square

www.acmi.net.au/screen_worlds.aspx

The 47th Victorian Hot Rod Show

The hard working team at the Victorian Hot Rod Association is bringing to you the cream of Australias hot rods, customs, street machines, old and new, vans and classic vehicles in a exhilarating collage of color, chrome and class from all over Australia

When: Jan 20 – 22

Cost: $22

Location: Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton +61 3 9270 5000

www.hotrod.com.au

The Art of Stars Wars

he exhibition is titled “The Art of Star Wars” and has taken over two years to put together. It has over 150 pieces in the exhibition such celebrated characters including Yoda, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, R2-D2, Darth Vader, C-3PO and many more will all be on display.

When: NOW

Cost: $10

Location: Silver K Gallery, 1092 High Street,  Armadale Victoria 3143 Australia

www.silverkgallery.com.au  

If you haven’t seen the previous competitions and have no idea what they are about, I’d recommend you start with them:

Code Competition #1 (Spinny VJ logos in 3D!)
Code Competition #2 (Particle weirdness!)

Lots to read, I won’t bore you with any rants this time. Let’s just say the theme was X-mas, and the deadline was the week before we went on our Christmas break!

Entries:

Andrew ‘Sev’ Sevenson

What is it?
A Flash app that plots a route for santa to a destination of your choice. Santa will land at the nearest airport and make scheduled stops at points of interest along the way such as Dan Murphy’s, restaurants and other hotspots a Santa would love. Videocaptured below

www.youtube.com/watch?v=49prDUNE-oo

Anthony ‘Meat’ Mangos

What is it?
Yeah we’re all wondering… x) Ant is part of our Account Service family and took a stab at making the ‘Account Manager game’. What that is, I’m not qualified to judge. All I know is that it’s bananas. Built in Unity, proving once and for all that Unity games can be built with very .. very little experience Fifty thumbs up to Mangos for participating.

Ashin ‘Smashin’ Starr

What is it?
An audioplayer built around the HTML5 audio tag. You can create playlists of tracks on your computer. Because of the unstable nature of this particular tag however, it probably won’t work in anything else but Chrome.

Graham ‘Gbone’ Head

What is it?
You take the reigns of Santa’s sleigh, cruising on top of a winter-afflicted village. To spruce things up there’s a machine gun mounted to the sleigh. Nothing quite beats a Santa with a machine gun.

Andrew ‘Craig’ Greig

What is it?
HTML game built away from the standard Canvas approach to utilize normal HTML elements like divs to create tiles that construct the game. Very early stages, but quite a clever approach.

Michael ‘Richo’ Richardson

What is it?
An HTML animation, essentially showing off the improvements that CSS3 brought to the table, allowing smooth animation without the use of Javascript. Pretty neat. Might not work (read: will not work) on older browsers.

David ‘Wuu-tang’ Wuu

What is it?
iSanta is an iOS app that takes a photo of one or more people and then interprets where the faces are in the photo through clever facial recognition, and then maps a variety of masks, hats and, as seen below, sweet Santa beards.

Billy ‘Holycrapitsbilly’ Chang

What is it?
iPad app that reacts to the orientation of the device to bring in different scenery. Pretty clever, have a look at the video since it’s a little bit hard to explain.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnQtfktk-ZY

Dave Wuu was the overall winner with his iSanta app which created some serious laughter during testing. Grats Dave iSanta may or may not appear in an app store near you!

Thanks for watching! See you next time!