Archive for the ‘Art + Design’ Category
Robot Rock du Jour: Thomas Dolby – She Blinded Me With Science (1982)
This video was an integral part of my nerdlinghood. Visually rich to the nth degree: Besides the sweet sidecar motorcycle and lunatic scientists, you have the superhot lab assistant, Ms. Sakamoto, who doubles as a cello. Classic nerd track. BTW, Dolby has been the Musical Director of the TED conferences since 2001.
SCHEMATICS: Album artwork and other gems from Dolby… Read the rest of this entry »
Snort: Domestic Stormtroopers
For you design nerds, this classic posting on Core 77 chronicles the cartooned adventures of Lunchbreath and Fueledbycoffee at the International Housewares Show in chi-town. Great for a laugh.
Robot Rock du Jour: Medio Mutante – Corre Corre (2008)
There aren’t too many young, contemporary bands that could fool me into thinking their work was good enough to be recorded 30 years ago. Medio Mutante (translation Average Mutant) is one of them. This naughty triad of vintage audio and video synthesizer maestros is putting out really thick analogue music. BTW, they’re using a Fairlight CVI video synth for the visuals. Nerd Approved!
SCHEMATIC: Cover art, release info, more vids and where to buy… Read the rest of this entry »
Robot Rock du Jour: Kraftwerk – Autobahn (1974)
An 11-minute face-melting video edit of Kraftwerk’s 23-minute opus. The real cybernetic acid trip is the five-minute breakdown that beings around 3:06. Animation by Roger Mainwood and John Halas in 1979. The video was posted in two parts, so load the rest of the post to view the second half…
SCHEMATIC: Video part two, Mainwood interview and high res vinyl rip…
Eames – The Information Machine (1957)
Written, produced, filmed, directed and narrated by Charles and Ray Eames in 1957, The Information Machine: Creative Man and the Data Processor was the first film The Eames Office made for IBM. It was commissioned by IBM’s then consultant director of design Eliot Noyes for screening at the IBM pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World Fair.
IBM Pavilion - Brussels World Fair (1958)
Noyes, an accomplished architect and designer in his own right, had been instrumental in promoting Eames’ earliest furniture work while serving as curator of MoMA’s industrial design collection from 1939 – 1946. In fact, Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen won the MoMA Organic Design Competition in 1940, sparking the meteoric rise of their careers.
MoMA - Organic Design in Home Furnishings (1941)
The Information Machine is a 10-minute (mostly) animated film detailing the need for and use of computers as decision making tools. Consistent with all of Eames’ work, The Information Machine presents its subject in a deeply humanistic light, leaving the viewer with the impression that computers are a natural product of human ingenuity and ultimately useful in society. It is, therefore, a wonderfully effective piece of corporate communication that promotes the computer as an accessible piece of technology that empowers man to make better decisions. Apple anyone?
Still 1: The Information Machine (1958)
This was the first of many projects that The Eames Office completed for IBM in a symbiotic relationship that spanned more than 20 years and greatly advanced the popularization of science, math, design and computing in the United States.