"Chinese scientists said they have succeeded in an experiment to remotely control the flight of a pigeon with electronic technology.

Scientists with the Robot Engineering Technology Research Center of east China's Shandong University of Science and Technology say they implanted micro electrodes in the brain of a pigeon so they can command it to fly right or left or up or down.

The implants stimulated different areas of the pigeon's brain according to signals sent by the scientists via computer, and forced the bird to comply with their commands." Read More

Image courtesy : Colin Gregory Palmer

Update: Actual images of implanted pigeon and the microelectrode device on c|net

‘It’s Pop It’s Art’ is built upon a passionate love both of music and art. Taking their lead from the world’s influential musicians, typographers and the pop art icons of the 1960s. They aim to visually celebrate the many bands that can catapult our emotional states any-which-way with the use of microphone, guitar, drum machine and a trusty pen & paper. The song is where the emotional connection sparks and the lyric is where that whole trip begins.

All fonts have been hand drawn and designed especially for this project. All prints are signed by the designer, numbered, limited to 300 and printed on high-grade 216g astrolux paper. Each print is 100cm x 70cm and fits neatly in a Habitat ‘Birch’ frame. We use the same printers as Damien Hirst and London’s Serpentine Gallery.

They have also started doing custom prints for that special track of your choice. ‘It’s Pop It’s Art’ is a collaboration between Airside and EMI Music Publishing UK. Check out www.itspopitsart.com for more information.

Indeep - Last Night a DJ Saved My Life Print

VBS.TV have been on air since Feb 5th 2007 and have already got some excellent productions online. Most TV makes me want to paint my face blue and repeatedly pound my head with oranges. This is a station with attitude with programmes that really made me sit up and pay attention. Oh and its true what they say, they really do save your eyes from the blinding pain of television.

”This new series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics tend to feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or $12.5 million spent every hour on the Iraq war. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs.

My only caveat about this series is that the prints must be seen in person to be experienced the way they are intended. As with any large artwork, their scale carries a vital part of their substance which is lost in these little web images. Hopefully the JPEGs displayed here might be enough to arouse your curiosity to attend an exhibition, or to arrange one if you are in a position to do so. The series is still in its early stages, and new images will be posted as they are completed, so please stay tuned.” ~cj, January 2007

For more information and more examples of Chris Jordan’s work visit www.chrisjordan.com

Handguns, 2007
Digital C print, 72x94"

Depicts 29,569 handguns, equal to the number of gun-related deaths in the US in 2004.

Partial zoom

Detail at actual size

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An American duo have managed to create comic capital out of the lighter side of Star Wars with their creation of Chad Vader, younger brother of Darth. Unlike his more successful elder brother, Chad is reduced to working in a supermarket, where he battles shoplifters with his light sabre and attempts to convert complainants to the Dark Side. The sketches, which have had 9.5 million people watch them on YouTube, have led to a major deal for their creators, Aaron Yonda and Matt Sloan.

For more info go to their site at YouTube

Check out this really cool animation / stop motion video.

Ljudbilden & Piloten made this stopmotion video for minilogue in summer '06, this is the short version above.
All made on whiteboard so no undo/redo. The long version will be available on the DVD next year, released on crosstown rebels.

SneakerPlay have teamed up with NIKEiD to bring you 'The AF1 Playoffs'.

This exclusive release of the new Air Force 1 is not available to the public. Only Sneakerplay members can participate. Starting March 6th you'll have the chance to design your own AF1's. If the community picks your designs, you could win an exclusive pair of the new Air Force 1’s - complete with rolled leather edges, a re-engineered interior, matching silver or gold accessories and a polished metal deubre declaring 'AF1 82' - in your winning design. (This shoe is not available to the public!)

To get in the game, visit NIKEiD.com and login to teamLOCKER. This new feature allows you to create designs with fellow aficionados in an invite-only space. It's a great way to see what people really think of your style and design. Once you've created and placed your AF1 masterpiece(s) in the Sneakerplay teamLOCKER, you'll have the opportunity to vote on other designs. Each member can submit up to five designs and the most popular, as voted by you and the other members of Team Sneakerplay, will win. You can only vote once per design, but you can change your vote as often as you like.

First place winner as voted by Team Sneakerplay will take home two pairs of their winning design, one to wear, one to archive. Two runner-ups as voted by Team Sneakerplay will take home a pair of their winning designs. Two additional winners will be chosen by Sneakerplay staff, each taking home one pair of their winning designs.

You can register to get on team Sneaker play at http://www.sneakerplay.com/contests/

Image Source : TheeErin

"'Here is evidence it [the pattern] was being used, if not understood, 500 years ahead of when we had any idea what was going on with [it] in the West,' says physics graduate student Peter J. Lu of Harvard University. Lu began poring over photos from Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Afghanistan after seeing hints of the pattern while traveling in Uzbekistan. The Islamic artisans seem to have spun a wide variety of symmetric traceries from a set of five shapes, according to a report Lu co-authored, published online February 22 in Science." Scientific American

The designs are very close to Penrose tiles,  discovered by Rodger Penrose in the 1970's.

Full Scientific American article here

Decagonal and Quasi-Crystalline Tilings in Medieval Islamic Architecture - Peter J. Lu and Paul J. Steinhardt. Full text PDF with great images.

Assembling approximately 400 figures from the world's leading figure creators, Full Vinyl presents an omnibus survey of this burgeoning field. Geared toward garage kits, character figures, subculture figures, limited editions, and extreme figures by master creators, this book satisfies the appetite of the figure aficionado with a continuous stream of figures and vast and comprehensive selection.

Full Vinyl covers mass-produced popular favorites (such as Homies), sub-culture figures, Anime-inspired figures (such as Bome), category-defining "thingies", Hong Kong luminaries (such as Eric So and Michael Lau), figures based on the work of hugely popular artists (such as Gary Baseman or Yoshitomo Nara), and artists that take figure making to the next level (such as Shinichi Yamashita).

Go buy it here

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Just seen this on engadget.com

"No, we don't expect the vast majority of elderly folks kickin' it in a retirement home to honestly show any interest in video games (right?), but apparently, the Wii's at least making some minor strides in getting the geriatric set up and active with virtual sports. While we assume those suffering from lingering hip injuries are apt to join the (admittedly quiet) cheerleading section, a group of athletic 70-somethings from Sedgebrook retirement community are "hooked on Wii Sports," with bowling being the unanimous favorite. The response has been so positive that the locale is actually cranking up a 20-person tournament for an undisclosed reward, and while the residents have often commented about how "realistic" the Wiimote was in tossing the ball, the community actually has a fan for folks to dry their hands off before rolling a strike -- which is probably a smart move considering the potentially fatal injuries that could occur from slippage."

To Read More Click Here

Earlier today the Engineer Online published an article on Engineered Fibre Structures innovative new knitted control interface.

"The glove is produced from standard acrylic or stretch-nylon base yarn and it can be made on a conventional industrial knitting machine. The wearable device looks and feels like a normal glove, except it has conductive pathways knitted into the material. The fingers are tipped with contactors, so if a user puts his or her thumb together with any other finger, they will create an electric circuit. The glove is completely wireless and its power pack and Bluetooth device is mounted at the cuff." Link

The Engineered Fibre Structures team hope to see applications in medicine, game controllers, general computer interface and "... a communications device, for industrial, security and military applications" Link

Read more

In 1998 Nina Braun founded the first and still the only, female owned and operated company in the German skateboarding scene. The idea was to create a lobby for the women in the sport, who at the time remained completely unrepresented, and naturally, to produce the proper equipment. The Sumo Clothing Project took of from day one and could be found in skate shops throughout Germany, as well as in few places in Switzerland, Austria, U.K. and Italy.

Photos from the exhibition at heliumcowboy.com
Nina Braun: sneak like a panther

Since it’s formation, the company has developed into more of a forum in which women come together and express themselves through a very diverse mix of talents such as rap, dj’ing, laying beats, boxing, dancing, soccer playing, skating (of course), writing, thinking, drinking, originating visual or applied arts and many more. Common sense: Don’t be a pussy, be a Sumo!
By the end of 2004, after six quite successful years in the label business, Nina decided to quit.

Photos from the exhibition at heliumcowboy.com
Nina Braun: sneak like a panther

First of all she wanted to work more freely and creatively again, mainly as an artist, not as a designer and chief clerk.
Secondly the handling of the balancing act between economic efficiency and her personal political and artistic demand had gotten from bad to worse.

www.ninabraun.net

The art of camouflage...

Available at www.camoart.com

Design is Kinky was created by Andrew Johnstone in mid 1998 in a small flat in Sydney, Australia. His main reason for starting Design is Kinky was simply to get involved in the design community that he saw beginning to grow online. Influenced by sites such as Digitalthread, Zeldman.com, Shift and the K10k crew, as a designer Andrew was excited at the potential that the community showed and decided to jump on board and become a part of it.

So over a few sleepless nights Design is Kinky was born. At the time no one was really interviewing designers, Andrew found the few interviews he had read really interesting, so he felt that this would be a good theme to base the site on. The first Profile was on Niko Stumpo, an Italian designer who Andrew greatly admired (and still does). Niko's Profile set the scene for the following profiles of which there are now over forty.

www.designiskinky.com

CustomToyLab.com has been created to support all artists involved in the custom toy scene. The site is created by Tahir of www.urbanretro.co.uk + www.urbanretrolifestyle.com and Andy of www.toysrevil.blogspot.com as a way for people to view all the great custom toys in one place. To celebrate the launch they are giving away a custom set of ZLIKS created by Bil Bets Ovic. To enter the competition all you need to do is lave a comment on the following post.

All artists are invited to get involved and showcase their toy customizing and creating talents. Custom toys can range from custom vinyl toys, hand made plush toys, designer paper toys or any other kind of DIY toy. If artists want their toys to be featured on Custom Toy Lab send them over via Toy Submission Page.

They are also looking for artists to do tutorials in written or video format.

www.CustomToyLab.com

Loads of friday fun stoopid pics check them out... click 'read more' link below...

The Barbican Arts Centre has prohibited anyone under the age of 18 attending its autumn exhibition because some of the images are too explicit. Seduced: Art And Sex From Antiquity To Now will show a range of objects, including carvings, statues and paintings from classical Greece through to more contemporary modern works.

Kate Bush, head of the centre's art gallery, said: "Sex obviously preoccupies us all a lot of the time. But what we understand is explicit now was very different in, say, 19th-Century Japan or 18th-Century France. What I hope it will do is force us to question our own boundaries."

For the past quarter-century, Ron English has been waging a quixotic guerilla war against corporate America by hijacking some of its most visually arresting billboards. Openly declaring that ordinary people deserve free speech, but that corporations do not, his guerilla tactics come in two basic varieties. Sometimes he explicitly repaints (that is, mutilates) advertisements hawking cigarettes, liquor, and fast food, thereby making them seem vulgar or stupid; more often he and his crew swoop down, climb up on to the foot of a billboard, substitute a sign of their own - usually a mordant parody of the original ad - and then high-tail it before the police arrive on the scene. Sometimes he gets arrested; usually he does not.

MC Supersized and Son
   
Spruce up your walls with this supersized offering of Ron English's MC Supersized and son. English's clown prince of a fast food nation gets the royal treatment with this 24' x 36' high-quality art print. Available at KidRobot.com

Ron is widely recognized in the art world as one of the earliest and most celebrated in a line of "culture jammers" — people who utilize the images of popular corporate advertisements and turn them on their head.

Click here for more information on Ron English.

The final colorways of the new Gorillaz figures are here! Rebirthed in new and improved sculpts only 1000 sets of the 2-Tone edition exist.

Because of the success of the last sets of figures which released with their platinum album Demon Days, we have teamed up with Jamie Hewlett and produced a new set of 3D vinyl creations based on the world's first virtual band

For those unfamiliar, the Gorillaz are the creation of designer/illustrator Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn, the lead singer of Blur. This animated band went platinum with their self titled debut and repeated their success with Demon Days last year.

The four Gorillaz characters - 2D, Noodle, Murdoc, and Russel are brought to life in beautiful vinyl. Each comes with various accessories including a wrench, a busted drum, guitar, bass, and microphone stand. Each comes packaged in a semi-transparent display box.

These figures will be released on Thursday, February 22nd at 11am, EST. Due to the limited run of only 1000 of each figure made, Gorillaz 2-Tone will only be available in sets.

Coming soon at www.kidrobot.com

"Two things seem to be clear:

First. That change is inevitable.
And second. That change polarizes people.

They say that things take five years to fully come into their own. And with the street art movement, we see that exactly to be the case. In truth, it wasn't until last week's trip to London that we fully understood how significant the changes have been in the street art scene. It wasn't until last week that it fully hit us how much the movement has finally come into its own on so many different levels.

And one thing is clear - this has polarized a lot of people.

Coming back from London, we started explaining it to our friends as:

"The Banksy Effect"

While we've always been unabashed (and unapologetic) fans of Banksy, we now see Banksy as the single greatest thing that has happened not only to the street/urban art movement, but to contemporary art in general"

Read the full article over at  www.woostercollective.com

Designers, Photographers, Web Developers, Creatives!

Find out how people View your website or image and which areas are getting most of the attention.

The ViewFinder Heatmap service, is an artificial intelligence service which simulates human visual attention and creates an attention heatmap.

Still didn't get that? read more...

Would it not be wonderful to live in a country where drunken panda-seals lounge on peanut snack packages sniffing beer? Well, not all Japanese packaging is that weird, but see for yourself. Here is PingMag’s Best of Snack Characters. Enjoy!

Two lip-sticked seal-panda babes swimming through the seas of dried noodles while having a drink...

Amazingly cute milk bread for children. This one doesn’t actually taste like crab, but since its crab shape makes it easy to take little bites, this is a hit on the shelves of the convenient stores.
Puffy Chips

What is this??? The Nova bunny conquering different kinds of sweets?

For more PingMag’s Best of Snack Characters. Click Here (WARNING: TONS OF IMAGES TO COME)

If you are after a bit of inspiration or simply want to gawp at some really nice abstract flash animation check out the Designgraphik website. www.designgraphik.com