What other products in our lives have warning labels? Cigarettes. Alcohol. Toxic substances. High doses of radiation. Medication.
It is telling that labeling media with similar warnings seem to ring true with so many, and that is hopeful because it means that people recognize the compromising influences on journalism.
If you'd like to print these labels, there are PDF versions for the UK and the US; volunteer translators have also created them in nine additional languages — check them out here. (The original Illustrator file is available for additional translations.)
Hilarious. A few questions: ° How do you get your paper tweet to your followers? Some tweeters have hundreds of thousands, even millions. Mailing them would certainly help the U.S. Postal Service cover its budget shortfalls, though regular paper-tweeting would bankrupt the average tweeter. ° How would paper tweets go viral? Would followers then have to get out their tweet pads and then mail tweets to all of their followers to pass on the info in the first tweet? And so on... ° How would tweeters — both private citizens and news outlets — share breaking news? Paper tweets would certainly slow down that process, moving it back to the age of paper newspaper domination, which was not so long ago. (This makes me view tweets as more akin to radio and TV announcements than paper papers.) ° How do you retweet a paper tweet? I'm assuming a photocopier would be involved.
Thinking about the humor of this actually brings up many differences between print and digital communication methods and how moving from print to digital has affected society.
Photo: "Berlin 1945/2010. Wrecked tank "Tiger" in Tiergarten park" by Sergey Larenkov
This photo set by Sergey Larenkov stunningly shows how even though time passes, ghosts or echoes of past events remain. Larenkov's images, including the one featured above, provide eerie glimpses of the violence and cost of World War II in Europe (his pictures focus on Berlin, Moscow and Vienna) merged with contemporary life that has clearly moved forward.
Using these with students could prompt a lot of understanding and discussion about historical events and the nature of history itself. Perhaps the photographer/artist should consider creating an educational book with historical commentary about the events and locations he shows.
A technically masterful use of the powerful tools and artistry in Photoshop, too. Compelling.
Found via Google Reader's shared postings stream — glad I happened upon it!
I found "Stop motion with wolf and pig." (see above) in a round-about way, one which has brought up some interesting considerations about Web culture.
While visiting swissmiss, I saw The PEN Story, a stop-motion video with a very distinctive style. I tweeted about it, I was so impressed by it. Then I read the comments associated with the post, and two commenters said that The PEN Story was a copy of "Stop motion with wolf and pig." I went to YouTube to see if that could be true.
I looked at the YouTube upload dates:
°Wolf and pig. — April 9, 2009 °PEN story — July 2, 2009 (almost 2 months later)
Countless animators use stop-motion techniques, and PEN clearly isn't a copy of Wolf. However, the visual narrative of PEN so completely mirrors Wolf that I'm surprised the follower didn't credit or reference the originator in some way.
Am I missing something? Is there a video created in this style with the same visual anchor points (i.e., envelope, table, room, water, path) even before Wolf? Are so many photographers/animators making videos in this style that its hard to find the precise starting point?
This raised many questions for me about inspiration, remixing and Web ethics in this closely connected and highly fluid digital environment. Anybody have details or thoughts which could help clarify this?
In 2007, I started a blog category
called “bookshelf furniture.” I wrote ten entries through 2008,
and then my blog's focus turned to other topics.
Last week, I found a wondrous Tumblr blog titled Bookshelf Porn, and I've been inspired to feature them again. (The above image is from BP via Book. Book. Book.)
In spite of its title, there's nothing indecent about the site, though it does feature an obscene
amount of bookshelves and related insights, quotations and links to
articles. It's a primarily visual and incredibly thorough catalog. Check out its extensive archives.
New question, as we move steadily from print to digital: What could virtual bookshelves for
e-books look like? (If a blog paying homage to them existed, it'd probably be pretty short.)
Mashups are, according to a Wikipedia entry which needs some editing and discussion around its content, almost a decade old. (Music sampling has existed for decades.) The genre continues to evolve, with stand-outs going viral and their creators/DJs gaining worldwide recognition.
"Carpenter's Wonderwall" is one such example: a song/video blend created by DJ Mark Vidler of Go Home Productions. It starts with Oasis's "Wonderwall" and is joined by The Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun," bridging hits from different musical eras. It's brilliant on so many levels — enjoy.
As I follow astronauts like Mike Massimino on Twitter as they tweet from space, it's easy to learn bits of what life is like beyond Earth's atmosphere.
Before Internet access and the development of Web 2.0 and social media, there were few widely available, multimedia records of the astronaut experience. Below is a compelling video clip from the documentary For All Mankind, directed by Al Reinert with a musical score by Brian Eno and originally released in 1989. (Its re-release on DVD is now available.) In a 2009 article, Reinert explained his focus behind the movie:
What I wanted to do was make a film that communicated what it felt
like to go to the moon. Really put you in the shoes of the astronauts.
That's still the kind of movie that I would want to watch.
...And if you're in Earth's southern hemisphere, how is your winter?
...And if you're on another planet, well............... please answer in the comments how you're reading this blog!
This remarkable summery photo, "Wish You Were Here: 1905," found at Shorpy. Click on the image to see more detail — it's not your typical early 20th-century shot.
For the last couple of years, I have been following the original Polaroid film's (and camera's) demise. In 2008, its parent company announced that it would stop making the film, though it would license the technology to others who still wished to make it.
The Polaroid's immediacy was its magic, and when digital photography became affordable and popular, it seemed to decisively prompt its extinction, moving some to hold memorial exhibitions and funerals. While I never used a Polaroid on a regular basis, I have albums
peppered with these special photos from over the years. I felt sad that this technology so symbolic of my childhood was about to
disappear.
Others began to mourn a potential Polaroid loss, too. A dedicated group called The
Impossible Project, which closely monitored the classic Polaroid
denouement, set up a web site and rallied artists, photographers, creatives and Polaroid fans worldwide to figure out a way to preserve this photographic form. The attention it created may have influenced Polaroid's initial decision on its namesake camera's fate.
This past January, at the CES (Consumer Electronic Show) in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Polaroid company announced its next-generation camera, a 21st-century child of classic Polaroid — the Pic 1000. This new camera uses the same Polaroid film as did the first-model camera, the SX-70 (released in 1972), and its successors.
The classic Polaroid camera's lifespan has been extended. In honor of this, I'm featuring an 11-minute film by Charles and Ray Eames that explains how the camera works. Like the images the Polaroid produces, this ad/video is a snapshot of another time and place; there's something sweetly nostalgic about it, yet it also explains the photographic process taking place within the camera in clear, fascinating detail. (At about 4:20, the Eames perspective and illustrated narrative shows distinctly.)
Read more about inventor Edwin Land, who discovered how to polarize light and is one of Polaroid's co-founders, here.
Even if it keeps you up all night,
wash down the walls and scrub the floor
of your study before composing a syllable.
Clean the place as if the Pope were on his way.
Spotlessness is the niece of inspiration.
The more you clean, the more brilliant
your writing will be, so do not hesitate to take
to the open fields to scour the undersides
of rocks or swab in the dark forest
upper branches, nests full of eggs.
When you find your way back home
and stow the sponges and brushes under the sink,
you will behold in the light of dawn
the immaculate altar of your desk,
a clean surface in the middle of a clean world.
From a small vase, sparkling blue, lift
a yellow pencil, the sharpest of the bouquet,
and cover pages with tiny sentences
like long rows of devoted ants
that followed you in from the woods.
My name is Kristin Gorski. I’m a freelance writer and editor. I'm also currently pursuing doctoral studies in technology and literacies, writing in digital spaces, and what social media could mean to education (among other incredibly interesting topics). “Write now is good.” is my personal blog about writing, creativity and inspiration (with healthy doses of technology in relevant places). If you'd like to collaborate on a project, have writing/creativity info to share, or want to say, "Hi," contact me at kgwritenow (at) yahoo dot com.
To read more about me, click on the "ABOUT" link below.
