Whale hunt

An' experiment in storytelling', Whale hunt is a project by one of my* favorite interaction designer/artists, Jonathan Harris. An ex-fabricante, he 'designs systems to explore and explain the human world combining elements of computer science, anthropology, visual art and storytelling'.

I remember seeing two of his pre-fabrica projects, 10X10 and Wordcount long time back and it had fascinated me with its smartness. Most of his projects stimulates our basic instinct of wanting to know, which the seniors say killed the cat. They allow you to play and yet not feel like a stereotypical addict (O.K, read bum) whose thumb can't forget the joystick even while its holding the mandatory burger.

'Whale hunt' retains these attributes but takes us on a journey and offers space (And what a space it is!) to create an experience different from the rest of his works. It is documented like a journey and hence takes us on one too, not necessarily the same for each one. It introduces us to Inupiat Eskimos in Barrow, Alaska, and captures a thousand-year-old tradition, the Inupiat whale hunt. The law allows the community to hunt 22 whales every year to maintain their food supply.

Check it out and see the primeval reds stirring up the dead greys.

*I am that you are not.

Polish Film Posters

A post on Polish Posters is the sanest thing to do if your webpage is in need of some jazz. Look how mine shines. Anyway, the reason behind this is an accidental discovery of a folder containing images of posters designed by Eryk Lypinski, who alongwith Henryk Tomaszewski and others, revolutionised the art of film posters in a Poland ripped apart by WW II. A condensed history of what followed is here.

Prominent among the ones who came later and are now names, are Wiktor Sadowski and Wieslaw Walkuski.

Once you have figured how all the names are pronounced, check out a great collection of Polish film posters here.

Frequent Flyer

This is a story worth remembering for our grandchildren's sake. On a drunken night, Paul's shoe (the one for the right leg) was stolen by a friend. And ever since, it's been a world of epic revelations for the free and single stud.

It's on a trip of a shoe's lifetime which is only getting better. I dont think Columbus's shoes would have enjoyed all those days around the world because it were on his feet and not safely wrapped in a nice polythene bag. My friend Satish and the fortunate thing spent a nice evening at the Gateway of India a week earlier. This was probably the 15th(!) country Paul's shoe was visiting. Enough to put any travelling gnome to shame. Ever heard of a shoe getting the better of its owners legs?

Find out Where is Pauls Shoe.
I like the Paris picture.

See beyond Technology

My Transparent Screen.
I had some fun doing it up like this. Of all the posts I've tagged 'useless', this one takes the cake. Discover Mighty Optical Illusions, for they run a step ahead of Photoshop. My friend Mochu made me look up Rene Magritte's works after seeing this. I suggest you do the same.

Art by Film Directors

I picked this book off the footpaths of Flora Fountain and that too for less than what I pay to borrow two DVDs. I tried to articulate the experience of reading it in many ways only to be embarrass myself after knowing the amount of clichés in my jargon.

'Art by Film Directors' has been compiled / authored by Karl French, undoubtedly the least known name in the book. It features 23 filmmakers in the likes of Jan Swankmajer, Jean Cocteau, Peter Greenway, Alan Parker, Stanley Kubrick, Federico Fellni, Wim Wenders, Satyajit Ray, Fritz Lang and their artworks—Photographs, Paintings, Illustrations, Sculptures etc. Featured above is a ‘reimagined map’ and a ‘fused creature’, both by Swankmajer.

Colors

The 73rd offering of the Quarterly that was created in 1991 by Tibor Kalman and Oliviero Toscani (who also funded the venture) is out. The issue is called MONEY and talks about all the many forms the same exists in. The magazine had gone off its provocative ways since the first few issues but nonetheless, has been bringing out well designed / compiled editions on pertinent issues dealing with human rights, value systems and various forms of discrimination.

Their website offers articles as pdf's. It will take a while to load , make sure your browsers are updated. Also, do check out the some additional info including earlier covers, here.

N.B: Michael Bierut cites Kalman and talks about a few of his interesting ways in "Thirteen ways of looking at a Typeface" posted down.

Moto sans Foto

I am sorry to inform the Motorola company and the rest of the world that I famously put my much defaced MotoRazr phone inside a toothbrush-holder half filled with waters of bygone time in a very basic bathroom of a new hotel that actually looks pre-independent in a non offensive small town called Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh. Thus, I managed to seriously damage its mic. which resulted in the callers not being able to hear me even after I woke up half the occupants of the nice hotel.

The first thing I did was removing the water from the toothbrush-holder. Then I rushed to the best repairman in Vidisha who opened the handset with his bare hands. I, not able to withstand the sight, told him to carry on and went to work. When I got the cursed piece of instrument back , I noticed a couple of badly torn strips of Scotch tape holding its insides. Right after, I was told that it was out of the skill sets of the unassuming but undoubtedly competent technician and I would need to go an ‘original’ service centre to be heard. The technician took Rs. 300 service charge without even a hint of smile. The ‘original’ service centre informed me two weeks down the line that the cost of repair would be slightly lesser than the cost of a new handset of the same model.

The point is I miss the camera in that handset. So, I thought of compiling some photographs taken using the same and putting them up for your kind notice. They might be small to look at here but if you let it grace your computer by saving it on to the desktop or something, you will see they’re a little bigger.

N.B : For all the challenged brains wondering why can’t the camera be used if just the mic. is conked, please understand the silly thing won’t start up without a SIM card. You might also want to know that I am not the kind who carries three spare ones in my wallet.

Inert and proud of it.

What better way to restart an idle blog than doing it without excuses. Read on.