You've probably heard about The National Theatre's new production of Frankenstein but if (like me) you missed out on a ticket you're in luck, it's playing at Odeon cinemas on 17th March (with Benedict Cumberbatch as the Creature) and 24th March (with Jonny Lee Miller as the Creature):
I like the way that this trailer sums up the character's story but it doesn't give away any content, the only reference to opera is in the opening credits. It is a brave advert and I think it works really well, I would love to see how it works on stage.
A bench that comes to life in the evening, playing games with passersby, has been created by Danish technological and architectural agency MAPT and designer Sune Petersen.
Situated in Islands Brygge in Copenhagen, between 5 and 10pm the interactive bench can play 3 games: you can paint it different colours using the power of touch and you can run past it at different speeds triggering codes to flash up on the bench simultaneously. If you are feeling less energetic, you can take a seat and wait for the game to reach you, light particles will slowly approach your body, creating a 'wall of light' when they reach you.
This project turns an aspect of public space which is seen as purely functional into something fun and magical. I like the fact that it goes 'off duty' after 5pm, fulfilling its role as a standard bench for the rest of the day and then having fun when it clocks off. This gives the bench an element of personality and also illustrates that it is aimed at adults, encouraging workers to unwind in the park.
This bench reminds me of Bins and Benches by greyworld, which brought moving and singing bins and benches to Cambridge in 2005. These each had their own characters and reacted to external stimulus, such as huddling under trees in the rain.
Via greyworld These projects are good examples of public architecture that encourages people to switch off, as mentioned in a previous postthe difficulty of doing so has been parodied by Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, and to interact with the world around them.
A car in the hand One place where there is not much to catch one's eye is the humble shopping centre but luckily Ogilvy and Mather, Ford and Grand Visual are changing this. Shoppers can now play with the new Ford C-MAX via augmented reality posters at shopping centres around the UK.
I would try this out even though I can't drive and can't afford to buy this car so it's a successful way of driving (excuse the pun) brand engagement.
It is also a good place to park your boyfriend/dad/brother for on shopping trips when it looks as though they're losing the will to live (incidentally, there's an amusing article about the difference between the way men and women shop on David Trott's blog).
The big rectangles also act as storage compartments for all your prehistoric apparel needs and the little ones have a fold out beds for when your neighbouring tribe comes to stay.
This program learns to associate two different thought patterns via electro magnetic sensors with left or right directions. What I find surprising about this project is that the computer is trained to interpret the thoughts of the user, rather than the other way around. Usually when I think of computers programs I imagine something that has to be learnt, but in this case the program learns the user.
This links to my previous posts on Twitter and Google on the way that advances in digital technology are subverting the subject/object relationship between computer and user. Increasingly, we will not be adapting to the machines that surround us, they will understand and adapt to us.
Here are some of the weird and wonderful things I've stumbled upon today:
Brain Food
The School of Life has teamed up with Morgan's Hotel Group to form a global partnership. One of the first tasks has been the creation of a cerebral alternative to the traditional minibar:
And the promise of sparkling conversation at dinner with these conversation menus for the hotel restaurants:
I think this is a fantastic collaboration and these products are pitched brilliantly. They caters to the increasing desire among consumers to learn and improve their skills in an entertaining way so that it seems like more of an indulgence than a chore, the learning is packaged as a luxury. I am excited to see what else this partnership comes up with.
Personal Touch The Noteslate concept is a tablet which you can draw and write directly onto with a pen. This lets you literally put your signature on any information you share using the device, adding a human element to it that is lacking in computerized fonts.
Sign of the times Being married, in a relationship or single aren't the only options for adults these days according to Facebook. Now users can choose 'in a civil union' or 'in a domestic partnership' as a relationship status.
This follows a recent call by a top British judge for unmarried couples who separate to have new legal rights, as reported by The Telegraph.
Up Your Street Speaking of education, the website How to Homestead by Melinda Stone encourages neighbours to get together to learn traditional skills such as composting, keeping chickens to produce eggs, brewing beer and creating stock.
This encourages people to get to know those that live nearby and thus to feel more connected to their local community. It also helps people to become more self-sufficient, often as a collective, by learning how to grow, make and do things for which they would usually rely on a supermarket or handyman.
Hidden Worlds The winners of the eighth annual International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge are busy making the microscopic visible to the human eye:
Mustard DNA 2.0 by researchers at Carnegie Institute for Science
Plush tomato seed by Robert Rock Belliveau
3D portrait of HIV by Ivan Konstantinov and colleagues from the Visual Science Company
In contrast, Elena Semouchkina, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Michigan Technological University, is experimenting with ways to make objects invisible. By using magnetic resonance to make light flow around an object and meet on the other side, she is developing a way in which objects will be invisible to those looking directly at them.
Ken hearts Barbie After being dumped by Barbie in 2004 for Aussie surfer Blaine, Ken has realised that she is still his dream girl and has recently been using social media to win her back. Fans have been voting to decide whether Barbie and Ken reunite and on Valentine's Day we'll find out. We will also be able to buy Barbie and Ken virtual goods on Facebook on Monday, a first for Mattel.
Given that Barbie has had 126 careers including being an astronaut (she reached the moon 4 years before Neil Armstrong), the president of the United States, a CEO and a paleontologist, I always wondered why Ken appealed to her.
Customized content Yahoo's new Livestand app for tablets is a 'digital newstand' that aggregates information from multiple sources. According to the website, the app takes a highly personalized rather than a 'one-size-fits-all' approach to delivering content.
As with News.me, the upcoming New York Times iPad app, Livestand's focus is personalization. News.Me goes one step further by incorporating social networking into content delivery.
According to an exclusive review by Tech Crunch, News.me will display the stories that a user's Twitter followers are reading, based on the number of times they have been viewed or shared. Users will also be able to see what friends of friends (or followers of followers) are recommending.
The fact that Twitter followers on News.me can see what a user reads and shares has huge potential for showing off. For example, I read the Financial Times every day, usually on my 10 mile run to work in via the British Museum while listening to Bach, but that's just normal for me so I wouldn't count it as bragging.
And as we all know, with anything where there's an opportunity to show off, there's an opportunity to compete. I can see News.me leading to a bit of friendly competition among followers on who is the most informed in the Twittersphere/who finds out about stories first/who reads in Russian and so on.
This kind of social competition is illustrated perfectly by the new Nike Throwdown adverts by Wieden and Kennedy:
I love these adverts because they show a challenge between friends, sort of like a relay but where you attempt to outshine the person who passed you the baton.
Maybe that's the whole point of relay races and I never realised? Probably why I never won anything on sports day.
Handmade Hyperlinks German designer Maria Fischer has created a book Traumgedanken (Thoughts on dreams) about dream theory in which coloured threads connect excerpts of the text, like real world hyperlinks. On her website, Fischer explains that these threads express 'the confusion and fragileness of dreams'.
I think this beautifully demonstrates the interconnectedness of information online in comparison to the more linear format of print.
Punchd points Punchd is a new app that means you can get a loyalty stamp on your smartphone instead of using a paper reward card which is easily lost or forgotten.
After downloading the app, you can link it to nearby venues that accept Punchd, activate it at the venue using the in-store QR Code and then automatically have your loyalty card 'punchd' whenever you visit.
Idea deficit There is a creativity crisis in North American schools and No Right Brain Left Behind is recruiting imaginative types to tackle the problem.
A bit about the project:
'In collaboration with Social Media Week 2011, teams from creative industries will have 5 days to concept ideas. On the last day of the week, ideas will be submitted virtually to this site, and an expert panel will pick 3 winning ideas that are to be featured by our media partners. The best ideas are to be piloted in 2011 and 2012.
We are inviting teams of various sizes from advertising agencies, innovation companies, design consultancies, and communication schools. Ideas can be in form of tools, applications, or products, or whatever else we have not thought of.
If adapted, this will be a yearly challenge where creative industries will spend one week out of the year, responding to a burning crisis'.
Finally, if you live in Portland, score romantic and ethical brownie points this Valentine's Day by delivering organic, Fair Trade coffee, vegan chocolates, locally sourced roses and cards by neighbourhood artists to your intended by bicycle. Not only is your gift supporting the local economy and environmentally responsible, 10% of every purchase goes to Portland Women’s Crisis Line.
