MUSIC: Xilent - Boss Wave (8-bit dubstep)

Kristofer has now stepped up to CGI for his latest wubwub video extravaganza, for upcoming dubstep producer Xilent’s Boss Wave. In fact, with the help of CG animation experts Erik Buchholtz and Mikael Pettersén, he’s created a high octane action thriller combining live action and slick CG – and taken that trademark Ström taste for blood and gore to a new level. (more at promonews.tv)

Xilent-Boss-Wave-by-Kristofer-Ström


ELDER SCROLLS: Beta applications and FACTIONS TRAILER

elder-scrolls-beta-online

Right before finishing the Damage Report came Skyrim and finishing up the manuscript on time just got a lot harder. Now we have Elder Scrolls Online coming sometime this year and all my projects look prematurely violated. Here's the beta signup link.


HARDSTYLE: Official Q-dance 2012 Year Movie

The year 2012 has been a fierce one! We've shared beautiful and magical moments with you. To relive all those moments to the fullest, gather your party friends and pour yourselves a drink. Because this is the Q-dance 2012 Year Movie!

0


PATH OF EXILE: new rival up against Diablo III and Torchlight II?

Path of Exile's open beta starts January 23rd! You can download the free to play game here: http://www.pathofexile.com/

act3_screenshot4


TED VIDEO: Ellen Jorgensen: Biohacking -- you can do it, too

We have personal computing, why not personal biotech? That's the question biologist Ellen Jorgensen and her colleagues asked themselves before opening Genspace, a nonprofit DIYbio lab in Brooklyn devoted to citizen science, where amateurs can go and tinker with biotechnology. Far from being a sinister Frankenstein's lab (as some imagined it), Genspace offers a long list of fun, creative and practical uses for DIYbio.

Ellen_Jorgensen_Biohacking__you_can_do_it_too__121183


LINKBOX 2013 Week 3

skullblast_3

GAMA-GO Skull Ice Cube, definitely loving its sharp geometries, Tumblr- and hipster-compatible, wonder when the ice skull shooter nerf gun comes with it. (via store.gama-go.com)

  • When the Internet Is Your Hometown: For post-Internet people, the digital natives, the Internet has the potential to become a hometown that you can never leave.
  • Pacer - Sound Making Suit: The “pacer“ suit receives electro impulses which appear when the muscles are activated, (movement), amplifies them and turns them into sound with the help of the sensors attached to the muscles. it is possible to produce harmonious rhythm and melody by dancing i.e. moving certain muscles (activating the sensors).
  • Dead Girls #5: Like A Bad Girl Should: What’s five-feet-four-inches tall, has a bottle-blonde mane, luminous green eyes, and a body that – if superficially that of a human girl’s – has been infected, and robotically enhanced, by a nano-tech virus, so that its humanity is compromised by the superhuman?
  • Elder Scrolls Bundle - Oblivion GOTY, Morrowind GOTY, Skyrim, Hearthfire and Dawnguard

  • A rather graphic look at the smog in Beijing, China.


  • MUSIC: Aaron Potter of Empty launches EP for new project `SLEEPLESS`

    Sleepless began in late 2011 as an experimental sound outlet for Australian producer Aaron Potter. Combining layered electronics fused with raw human emotion, the music can be described as a hybrid of Electro-Industrial with elements of IDM and Drum and Bass.

    1625447103-1

    Australian electro-industrial could never go wrong (Angelspit, New Project, Tankt, The Crystalline Effect, just to name a few projects of ROCK) - this time it's Aaron Potter to show some light in the darkness with his new EP Decision. (If you don't know who he is, I'll tell you. He's the guy who put cyberpunk back on the maps with Empty and his track Centre is just MAD MASSIVE INSANE FUN.)

    667871327-1


    New Ghost in the Shell anime ARISE in 2013

    Ghost-in-the-Shell-ARISE-650x350

    GHOST IN THE SHELL ARISE INFO MORSELS:

  • Info comes from the February issue of Kodansha's Monthly Young Magazine
  • Arise comes out in 2013
  • Chief director will be Kazuchika Kise (involved as animation director with the Blood anime series, the Neon Genesis Evangelion movies, and more) (read more at siliconera)
  • Supervisor and lead writer will be Tow Ubukata
  • Kenji Kamiyama will not be involved with the project
  • ARISE composer will be Cornelius
  • this is the ARISE sitewith the official Twitter channel and the official Facebook page
  • a "Ghost in the Shell Arise Production Presentation" will be streamed live worldwide on February 12 at 9:00 p.m. in Japan (7:00 a.m. EST) on Niconico, Bandai Channel, and YouTube. The event itself will be held at the nicofarre event hall in Tokyo. (read up on more events at animenewsnetwork.co.uk)
  • 2013115_arise


    WALLPAPER: The Lord Inquisitor / Burn Heretics

    BurnHeretics1600x1200

    Burn Heretics Wallpaper Pack for the Lord Inquisitor unofficial WH40K movie (thx Ripla!)


    MUSIC VIDEO: Angelspit - Defibrillator

    Directed by The Liar & Angelspit
    Footage Provided by
    Luke Haughwout @Regen Magazine (Allentown, PA)
    Tommy Wilde @The Rave (Milwaukee, WI)
    Aaron Saye (Denver, CA)
    Katherine Vega @Kataklizmic Design (Tucson AZ, Phoenix AZ)
    Graphics by
    Chris McCard (Noblerot)
    Walt Watts (Creative Distortion)
    Bunny Design by Jessii Addiction
    Japanese translation by Briony Mamo
    Shot live during the ALL THE RAGE North America Tour, 2011.


    BOOKMARKS FOR January 15th, 2013

    Sabled Sun - Signals, is a series of space ambient works that portrays signals that the protagonist from the albums 2145 and 2146 finds on his journey to find out what happened to humanity after waking up from hibernation deep sleep to an empty world void of human life. (find more stuff at cryochamber.bandcamp.com)

    >il_570xN.391041253_5zge

    • LAMINA NIXIE CLOCK: Fully handcrafted clock with old stock of Russian Nixie vacuum tubes. The clock is made from stained american walnut and natural maple wood in glossy lacquered finish. The high polished brass gears and disks are custom cut pieces. (more on etsy)
    • Ambivalent Sexism Inventory: The statements on this page concern women, men, and their relationships in contemporary society.
    • GoFlow: a DIY tDCS brain-boosting kit: Basically, you can buy tDCS machines today, but they’re not cheap (on the order of hundreds or thousands of dollars). GoFlow wants to create a kit with all of the necessary parts for $99, with a simple, solderless schematic that anyone can put together. You can’t buy GoFlow yet, but you ask to be notified when it is.
    • Maura magazine 01: How can we make sure that writers are given resources to dive into stories that might not be obvious after a cursory Google search?
    • IllumiRoom is a proof-of-concept Microsoft Research project designed to push the boundary of living room immersive entertainment by blending our virtual and physical worlds with projected visualizations. The effects in the video are rendered in real time and are captured live -- not special effects added in post processing. IllumiRoom project was designed by: Brett Jones, Hrvoje Benko, Eyal Ofek and Andy Wilson. (more at creatorsproject.com)

    INCOMPLETE MANIFESTO FOR GROWTH by BRUCE MAU

    I will post now something in its metaphorically cogdis entirety, the Incomplete Manifesto for Growth by Bruce Mau. It is his stuff but it hits me at the right time and in the right mental pressure points, so I feel I have to reflect this further. Have as much of a happy breakdown and chain of realizations as I've had with this. Good luck. (found on kafka dreams and brucemaudesign)

    Allow events to change you.
    You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.

    Forget about good.
    Good is a known quantity. Good is what we all agree on. Growth is not necessarily good. Growth is an exploration of unlit recesses that may or may not yield to our research. As long as you stick to good you’ll never have real growth.

    Process is more important than outcome.
    When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we’ve already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there.

    Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child).
    Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.

    Go deep.
    The deeper you go the more likely you will discover something of value.

    Capture accidents.
    The wrong answer is the right answer in search of a different question. Collect wrong answers as part of the process. Ask different questions.

    Study.
    A studio is a place of study. Use the necessity of production as an excuse to study. Everyone will benefit.

    Drift.
    Allow yourself to wander aimlessly. Explore adjacencies. Lack judgment. Postpone criticism.

    Begin anywhere.
    John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.

    Everyone is a leader.
    Growth happens. Whenever it does, allow it to emerge. Learn to follow when it makes sense. Let anyone lead.

    Harvest ideas.
    Edit applications. Ideas need a dynamic, fluid, generous environment to sustain life. Applications, on the other hand, benefit from critical rigor. Produce a high ratio of ideas to applications.

    Keep moving.
    The market and its operations have a tendency to reinforce success. Resist it. Allow failure and migration to be part of your practice.

    Slow down.
    Desynchronize from standard time frames and surprising opportunities may present themselves.

    Don’t be cool.
    Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Free yourself from limits of this sort.

    Ask stupid questions.
    Growth is fueled by desire and innocence. Assess the answer, not the question. Imagine learning throughout your life at the rate of an infant.

    Collaborate.
    The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential.

    ____________________.
    Intentionally left blank. Allow space for the ideas you haven’t had yet, and for the ideas of others.

    Stay up late.
    Strange things happen when you’ve gone too far, been up too long, worked too hard, and you’re separated from the rest of the world.

    Work the metaphor.
    Every object has the capacity to stand for something other than what is apparent. Work on what it stands for.

    Be careful to take risks.
    Time is genetic. Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow. The work you produce today will create your future.

    Repeat yourself.
    If you like it, do it again. If you don’t like it, do it again.

    Make your own tools.
    Hybridize your tools in order to build unique things. Even simple tools that are your own can yield entirely new avenues of exploration. Remember, tools amplify our capacities, so even a small tool can make a big difference.

    Stand on someone’s shoulders.
    You can travel farther carried on the accomplishments of those who came before you. And the view is so much better.

    Avoid software.
    The problem with software is that everyone has it.

    Don’t clean your desk.
    You might find something in the morning that you can’t see tonight.

    Don’t enter awards competitions.
    Just don’t. It’s not good for you.

    Read only left-hand pages.
    Marshall McLuhan did this. By decreasing the amount of information, we leave room for what he called our "noodle."

    Make new words.
    Expand the lexicon. The new conditions demand a new way of thinking. The thinking demands new forms of expression. The expression generates new conditions.

    Think with your mind.
    Forget technology. Creativity is not device-dependent.

    Organization = Liberty.
    Real innovation in design, or any other field, happens in context. That context is usually some form of cooperatively managed enterprise. Frank Gehry, for instance, is only able to realize Bilbao because his studio can deliver it on budget. The myth of a split between "creatives" and "suits" is what Leonard Cohen calls a ‘charming artifact of the past.’

    Don’t borrow money.
    Once again, Frank Gehry’s advice. By maintaining financial control, we maintain creative control. It’s not exactly rocket science, but it’s surprising how hard it is to maintain this discipline, and how many have failed.

    Listen carefully.
    Every collaborator who enters our orbit brings with him or her a world more strange and complex than any we could ever hope to imagine. By listening to the details and the subtlety of their needs, desires, or ambitions, we fold their world onto our own. Neither party will ever be the same.

    Take field trips.
    The bandwidth of the world is greater than that of your TV set, or the Internet, or even a totally immersive, interactive, dynamically rendered, object-oriented, real-time, computer graphic–simulated environment.

    Make mistakes faster.
    This isn’t my idea — I borrowed it. I think it belongs to Andy Grove.

    Imitate.
    Don’t be shy about it. Try to get as close as you can. You’ll never get all the way, and the separation might be truly remarkable. We have only to look to Richard Hamilton and his version of Marcel Duchamp’s large glass to see how rich, discredited, and underused imitation is as a technique.

    Scat.
    When you forget the words, do what Ella did: make up something else … but not words.

    Break it, stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it.

    Explore the other edge.
    Great liberty exists when we avoid trying to run with the technological pack. We can’t find the leading edge because it’s trampled underfoot. Try using old-tech equipment made obsolete by an economic cycle but still rich with potential.

    Coffee breaks, cab rides, green rooms.
    Real growth often happens outside of where we intend it to, in the interstitial spaces — what Dr. Seuss calls "the waiting place." Hans Ulrich Obrist once organized a science and art conference with all of the infrastructure of a conference — the parties, chats, lunches, airport arrivals — but with no actual conference. Apparently it was hugely successful and spawned many ongoing collaborations.

    Avoid fields.
    Jump fences. Disciplinary boundaries and regulatory regimes are attempts to control the wilding of creative life. They are often understandable efforts to order what are manifold, complex, evolutionary processes. Our job is to jump the fences and cross the fields.

    Laugh.
    People visiting the studio often comment on how much we laugh. Since I’ve become aware of this, I use it as a barometer of how comfortably we are expressing ourselves.

    Remember.
    Growth is only possible as a product of history. Without memory, innovation is merely novelty. History gives growth a direction. But a memory is never perfect. Every memory is a degraded or composite image of a previous moment or event. That’s what makes us aware of its quality as a past and not a present. It means that every memory is new, a partial construct different from its source, and, as such, a potential for growth itself.

    Power to the people.
    Play can only happen when people feel they have control over their lives. We can’t be free agents if we’re not free.


    ROBOTROCK: Compressorhead - Ace of Spades

    I have no words for this. Maybe it's because I am seriously lacking coffee and/or Rockstar Recovery but I seriously feel and look like a Winamp visualization now.


    FASHION: Creepy Couture / Robotic Spider Dress

    Exploration within the realms of robotic dresses; a spider dress gave birth. A cute little host creature created by fashiontech designer ANOUK WIPPRECHT and hacker & engineer DANIEL SCHATZMAYR - A prototype of a mechanic dress equipped with sensors indicators and controllers, created with the aim to give more power and 'psychological thrills' to the sugar sweet character that performative wearables often have. Sensoric, servo controlled, mechanic, microcontroller based and reacting//attacking upon approach, inspired by the game LIMBO. (via dvice)

    spdrdrss870afakj8-thumb-550xauto-109071


    MOVIE TRAILER: TPB AFK

    Trailer for the upcoming documentary TPB AFK about the founders of the filesharing site the Pirate Bay. The film will be released for free online at the premiere of a major film festival. Release date to be announced during Jan 2013. You can support the filmmakers by pre-ordering the film on http://watch.tpbafk.tv/buy

    TPB-AFK-logo-bat-cave-1024x623


    ONE TRACK A WEEK #02: Skinny Puppy - Cullorblind (Necro Facility remix)

    One track a week to sum up the track that defined the past seven days. Second badge definitely goes out to an old lover, Skinny Puppy, remixed by a new lover, Necro Facility and in all honesty I couldn't really decide which one's the better - the remix that's been spinned at Tokyo Decadance by cEvin kEy or the original one.

    Skinny_Puppy_2012c


    MUSIC: 7 Ways to Body-Make Beats

    315828574_640

    Just a listen something I posted to the Tastebuds Blog this Friday - stuff about how to make music with your body, Kinect and/or some sensors. Features the V Motion Project (above) and my favourite in the whole bunch, Ethno Tekh (below). Japanese body DJ Daito Manabe also made it to the last with an amazing streetdance/sensormusic project dENiZEN (bottom). Read more about sensor porn here!



    MUSIC VIDEO: Charli XCX - You (Ha Ha Ha)

    Got half an eye on Charli XCX via following up on a few witch house acts, never got disappointed by her constantly changing stuff, not even with her Brooke Candy collab. Notice the Cyberdog top!

    f4c7fad1

    We'd been heavily influenced by the world of Tumblr superstars and the quick click, pop-tastic world of the internet in my previous videos, so this time we decided to look elsewhere," she writes. "We'd been watching a lot of grindhouse movies, mostly with strong female leads like The Pom Pom Girls and Coffy, and there seemed to be a bizarre cross over from that genre of cinema and today's world of pop. Shooting the video in a gun factory seemed like the perfect grindhouse setting for a kick ass, girl power story, with super pretty girls swapping the bullets for lipstick. Cute!"" (more on pitchfork)


    ANGELSPIT: Recording Abandoned Telephone Lines

    Part #1: Zoog is recording the sounds of abandoned telephone lines near El Paso Texas in January, 2013.
    These recordings will be used in Angelspit's new album - due for release late 2013.
    NOTE: Zoog did manage to make the recordings without getting bit by rattle snakes, scorpions, or shot by rednecks (!!).
    Part #2 of this video diary will show how Angelspit used these recordings on their new album.


    GAME TRAILER: Cyberpunk 2077

    Cyberpunk 2077, the next game from The Witcher developer CD Projekt RED, slows things down for its first teaser trailer, showing off the public dangers of wrist-scythe implants. The video introduces the Night City police and the elite takedown force known colloquially as the Psycho Squad, whose duty is to exterminate "psychos," people who take body modification too far and lose their humanity. (more at joystiq and the official cp2077 site)

    THANKS TO EVERYONE DURING THE PAST FEW DAYS WHO SENT IT TO ME. You were so enthusiastic I feel I gotta grab a CP2020 rulebook off a shelf!

    1600x1200_TEASER_CP77

    1600x1200_Art


    DANCE: LilyPad Arduino Wireless Dance Costume Performance

    Performance of Utam Moses (choreographer) and Eric Lindsay's (composer) "The Space Between Us", for computationally enhanced dancers and MAX/MSP. The costumes are embedded with LilyPad Ardino technology; One of the dancers' (with the round skirt) costume combines LilyPad components and a XBee (wireless transmitter) together with pressure and flex sensors connected by conductive thread, which detects and transmits the movements of the dancer to the composer's laptop, which are then used to generate and control sound within a MAX/MSP environment.

    Instead of a dancer's movements being a slave to the fixed constraints of a pre-composed piece of music, the wireless dance costume puts the power of live musical composition in the hands (body) of the dancer, who can explore and improvise new shapes and structures within an otherwise free musical environment.

    216303650_640


    GAME TRAILER: Remember Me

    The player controls Nilin (voiced by Kezia Burrows), an amnesiac 'memory hunter', through the streets of Neo-Paris in the year 2084. This dystopian future features a surveillance state. Nilin's former employer, Memoreyes, erases her memories to neutralize her and she must discover why and how to restore them. The game opens with Nilin in Bastille Prison. Remember Me features exploration, platforming, and melee combat. The game introduces the mechanic of 'memory remixing': entering and rearranging a target's memories to manipulate them. Players accomplish this by replaying a memory and modifying details to change the target's recollection of the outcome. (more)

    da96d53e3142679010d6ffd7ba28e80a1344954274_full
    17vzt2aabxn07jpg
    full