Man decorates basement in Sharpie

Ususally I'm wary when I hear about projects done in sharpie or duct tape. There are a lot of people doing really cool things with both materials, but there are also a lot of people making complete crap out of both materials.

This guy, I must say, has done a real classy job with black sharpie.

"When Charlie Kratzer started on the basement art project in his south Lexington home, he was surrounded by walls painted a classic cream. Ten dollars of Magic Marker and Sharpie later, the place was black and cream and drawn all over. . .

Says Kratzer, 53, the associate general counsel for Lexmark: "People are amazed that with something as simple and inexpensive as a Sharpie, you can decorate a whole basement."

How did this Sharpie world start? With a single swipe of the marker.

Kratzer started mid-wall, with the Salon by Picasso. Then he thought, well, taking a design out to the edge of the wall wouldn't be overwhelming.

Then the rest of the basement flared off that first wall."

Check out the rest of the really cool article, and the cool rotating photograph showing all 360 degrees of his sharpie-done basement.

http://www.kentucky.com/181/story/532854.html

Anti-Theft Lunch Bag

New York-based Sherwood Forlee came up with a lunch bag that will stop would-be lunch thieves dead in their tracks. How? By printing "mold" onto a ziploc bag. The printed mold (ink) would deter anyone from trying to swipe your delicious lunch.

(From an art standpoint, this is a really cool idea, although it might lack some of the kick that leaving a sandwich baited with something nasty in it for your lunch thief to find does.)

http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=89418&catid=58

Kung Foo Fighter

Animated Optical Illusion

Animated Optical Illusion! - video powered by Metacafe

Britain from Above (WAY above)

"A new BBC series makes use of satellite technology to create stunning images of Britain from above. Mark Sanders reports. Andrew Marr presents the series Britain from Above, the first episode of which will be broadcast on Sunday 10 August at 2100 on BBC One. "




Video and photo have always had a strange relationship. Sometimes a video can show things that a photograph can not, but sometimes a photo can show things that a video can not. Specifically, a video is many, many photographs shown in rapid succession - one after another. What you see looks like smooth motion, but every frame (still image that makes up the video) shows only one moment in time. There are a couple ways to alter this - slow motion takes many more frames, and then plays them at a slower speed, so what we see on video appears to happen slower then it does in real life (in some cases,thousands of times slower - like popcorn popping.) Video can also be done in time-lapse, where frames are removed, so that action happens faster then it does in real life - such as taking the construction of a building shot for a year, and condensing it down to an hour-long video.

This video take yet ANOTHER approach. This video tracks the flight paths of airplanes, the connections of cell phones, and the paths cabs take through London, and shows it on a map. Eath path is shown by a line drawn on the map, like the path was actually drawn on the map. But instead of leaving each path on the map, even long after the airplane has landed, or the cab reached its destination, the paths fade away after a time. The result is a great composite, and a really cool video. Check it out here


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7539529.stm

Barcodes can be art too!

Barcodes. Those simple series of little black and white lines that let you scan things in at a cash register.

These things. Not very exciting, right?







Wrong. How about this instead?

The barcode is the (aptly-named) row of black and white bars that run along in a row and get scanned in by the computer at the cash register. A japanese company realized that as long as the barcode is readable by the computer, nothing else matters. The running dude in the barcode above doesn't even register to the computer scanner.

"In Japan nowadays, artistic barcode labels grace everything from soup to nuts. The theme typically matches the actual product inside but just as often it doesn't. No matter, the theme is secondary to the thoughts of the artists who, though limited by the need to retain the barcode label's original purpose, still have enough leeway to surprise and delight."


Quote, information, screencaps (and more cool barcode art) here :
http://inventorspot.com/articles/barcode_art_from_japan_black_white_can_get_along_12735

I really feel sorry for this guy

Han Meilin is the designer of the Chinese Olympic Mascots. He not only endured the rigors and pain of having to re-design his characters, but he's now faced with a slightly larger problem:

"Now we learn that a growing number of people in China have started letting superstitions get the better of them and believe that Meilin's Olympic mascots are the fulfiller of horrible prophecies or somehow responsible for the recent natural disasters that have plagued the nation."



Man, that stinks.
I really feel sorry for Mr. Meilin.

Photo and quote from
http://www.mediabistro.com/unbeige/branding_identity/
beijing_olympic_mascot_designer_blamed_for_natural_disasters_in_china_
87288.asp?c=rss

Cool art from MS Paint. . .or, what you thought wasn't possible :P

powerdraw by ~Diamonster on deviantART

Buildings of the Old World

In thought that this poster was really interesting as an illustaration/drawing, done in ink (I think), and as a chart showing the tallest buildings of the old world, with the Washington Monument being the tallest at 555 feet tall.

Take a look here
http://www.infocustech.com/skyscrapers/worlds%20tallest%20buildings.jpg