Nerd Arts

Danton D makes fabous digital paintings. Drawing from a ecclectic range of styles. Imagine if there were some young taggers running around the inside an old commodore vic 20 tagging the shit out of the SID chip and you’ll have an idea of what I’m talking about. Besides his digital art which can be viewed at his flickr pool he also bangs out some pretty clean flash sites. Keep it up Danton. I want to see more robots!
check his main site here

So a few years ago my friend in the states sent me a care package full of movies she had from her childhood. Among them was Tron. Tron is kind of the perfect movie for me, it’s from 1982 (I was five when I saw it in the theaters) and therefore from an influential time in my life. It involves computers. It involves fantasy and creativity , and it involves gaming. So, anyway I’ve probably watched TRON more than any other movie I currently own. It’s the perfect movie to watch while falling asleep. Last night I finally made it to bed after working on various websites for hours. I popped in Tron (yes I still have a vcr) however the bright blue lights on the costumes were too much for my eyes. I turned the color all the way down, took the brightness down, and then took the contrast up a bit, and to my surprise I saw that TRON looks great in black and white. Since much of the film is shot using blacklights all of the surfaces have this uneven undulating radiance. These textures and uneven lighting are actually very reminiscent of old black and white movies. After watching the entire film in black and white I must say that the fluorescent blue that bombards the normal film is a bit overbearing. The computer panels look especially gorgeous when viewed in black and white.

Secondly I have another theory on why Tron had to be made. In 1982 the idea of owning a computer in your house was just beginning to filter into mainstream America, and computers made no sense. Tron was a reflection of how most people wanted to think about computers. They liked the idea that there was stuff actually happening inside which was very concrete. This theory is compounded by an early scene in the film when Kevin Flynn is trying to break into the ENCOM mainframe in an attempt to retrieve the data which will prove that Dillinger (a co worker) had stolen his ideas for video games which had become popular, resulting in Dillinger’s rise in the company. Anyway, Flynn is trying to break in, and while he’s hacking away at the ENCOM mainframe we see a split screen of a tank trying to break into the system. This illustrates my previous point that people were desperately trying to figure a way to visualize what was actually happening inside computers.

The third part of the Tron legacy is the element of gameplay. This also corresponding exactly with the rise in video games. Tron is an important film in the realm of ludology because the players of the game actually become fully imbibed into the envornment. This represents the narratavist approach to gaming, and is in my view the most romantic of what players are thinking while they are playing.

So go out and rent Tron, or download it, or whatever you kids do these days. But watch it in black and white. Trust me, it looks gorgeous:)

Remember when these little gifs, and the hamster dance were the cutting edge. Whenever I stumble upon one of these old gif I just can’t resist saving it. I’m sure there is a large archive of old gif files, but I still like finding mine on my own. Kind of like using a metal detector. Most of what you find is crap, but for some reason you keep on colelcting it.

Download Trailer for Stolen Life

Directorial Statement

STOLEN LIFE is a script written in the tradition of film noir, with PI in the leading role as the detective, and KIERU, in the supporting role as the femme fatale. Of course the twist here is that both characters are robots, and the film is not set on 20th century planet earth, but instead is played out on a far flung asteroid, some time in the future.

For me the appeal of the script lies with the clever juxtaposition of a well-worn genre and all its attendant conventions, with an entirely new world. In considering the direction, I aim to find a balance between honouring the conventions of the film noir genre and play with and against these conventions in both the performance and the stylistic look and feel.

In terms of story, the compelling mystery of the accident and Faraday’s “death” draws us into the complex web that is the bots’ desire for autonomy.

Although the film is 3D animation, the directorial approach to the performances is not that different from live action. The back stories of the characters, their motivations, inner conflicts, desires and obstacles will be explored and communicated to the actors. With animation, and especially here where the characters are not human, voice becomes even more important in communicating character. I will be spending a lot of time with the actors getting the tone and performance right, finding the balance between the film noir archetype and a more naturalistic delivery. My goal in directing the voice records is to create entirely dimensional characters, with humanesque needs, desires and motivations, even if embodied by robots.

In terms of the style and design of the characters and location the use of Machinima poses particular challenges. Whilst the images will not have the high resolution of animated feature films such as those being produced by Pixar (Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Nemo), the graphic quality and attention to camera angle, movement, editing and soundscape will more than compensate for any reduction in visual detail. Lighting and design will follow the film noir style and the use of music and sound design will be employed to create a rich and ambient sound track. As demonstrated in KILLER ROBOT, a strong script more than makes up for low production values.

Ultimately what Machinima allows Peter and I to do is to make an animated feature film based on a compelling story, with strong characters who engage, entertain and move us, for a very low budget. In terms of professional benefits, STOLEN LIFE pushes us into an exciting new medium that hones our existing skills and challenges us to discover and develop new ones. I am very excited about working on STOLEN LIFE and see it as a quantum leap in my work as an animation director.

Jacqueline Turnure

stolen life

I’ve been searching forever to download an mp3 of I want candy by Mc Pee Pants (MC Chris) and I finally found it! Now I’m going to put it on a loop and see how long it takes to make my girlfriend go insane:)
Download Mc Pee Pants I want Candy

The Adventures of Bill & John were produced using the Lock On: Modern Air Combat fighter simulation game.

Bill and John have taken home many accolades, and recently were awarded four awards at the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences’ 2006 Machinima Festival, among them was the award for best picture.

The videos are a parody of a wide variety of American films featuring fighter jets. These would include Top Gun, Dr. Strangelove, The Shining, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Download Adventures of Bill And John for free from their site

Newsweek had a good article about nerdcore hip hop. Surprisingly it focused more on the exploits and story of YTCracker (a man I believe to be at the forefront of the Nerdcore hip hop Genre) than MC Cris and his Bobba fett? bobafet? bobbafette’s? vette ( You can still download it in mp3 form from his mysace page) which will go down in history as the nerdcore anthem.

Link

Dr. Augustine Fou who is also known for his work on contextual commerce has created a site called FlickrCash which is a powerful search engine for Flickr. Sounds normal so far right?? well just wait a second. And you’ll see why this guy totally Pwns. Once a term is entered into the search box and queried one will receive thousands of thumbnails on your screen relating to your search topic. So, now you’ve got a bunch of thumbnails, and you want to use one legitimately on your site (or you could search for those images within the creative commons). What Dr. Augustine Fou has done now is basically merged his Flickr search engine with what basically amounts to a peer to peer shopping cart. Another reason this is so cool is that Fou doesn’t own the photos, or pay for their hosting, he just found a way to utilize an existing service and merge it with e commerce. We’ll see what Yahoo has to say about it:)

A word from Dr Augustine Fou
“I created FlickrCash because I found many really beautiful photos on Flickr but could not use them for “commercial” purposes like design work for clients, because there was no way to document I had a license to use it. FlickrCash is BOTH a search/find interface to more quickly find images on Flickr, and also a way to document that you have a license to use a specific image.”

FlickrCash

Story Chain GameboyGenious to PlasticBamboo

gameboy chiptune

Bakiri are a band from Japan I found on Myspace, and goddam these muthfukas PWN! I don’t know what city they are from, all I know is that I love their melodic minimalist chiptune rhythms, and want more!!1! Add these bitches for the love of god. Also love the drawings. I want to know more. ??? catapult

Listen to Bakiri Chiptune now!