inner nerd » Art + Design

Dans La Rue: Bay Area Maker Faire 2010

beaker — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 07:05:29 +0000

The Maker Faire is like an engineer’s craft show on acid. There’s dudes riding around in go-carts that look like cupcakes, sixty-year-olds playing Jules Verne in the Steam Punk pavilion and lots of fire. This first video features Mark Galt’s intoxicating “Quadruped” kinetic sculpture at the Bay Area Maker Faire in May 2010.

SCHEMATIC: More videos and photos from Maker Faire 2010…

Mark Galt – Electric Motor Man

Atoms & Electrons – Apple IIe + Twitter

So this fellow bought an Apple IIe for $15 and rigged it up to turn twitter avatars and feeds into 8-bit artwork. Wicked!

Life-Sized Mousetrap

Remember that game mousetrap? How about a life-sized version for your backyard?

Purincess Labs – Deathwheel 3000dx

With a perverse sense of humor and penchant for fun, classmate Purin’s Deathwheel 3000dx was a huge hit at Maker Faire.

Goligorsky Laboratory – Super Relax Concept Electric Research Vehicle (Tandem Bicycle)

David Goligorsky, Design’s Oscar Wilde, developed this electric tandem as part of his graduate thesis project at Stanford’s Design Program. Also shown is a road bike David designed and built, as well as “Hyper-Lincoln” whose red LED eyes signal out The Gettysburg Address in Morse code. This guys is off the chain. Sorry, bad joke.

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VIdeodrome: Patrick Jean – PIXELS (2010)

beaker — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:14:07 +0000

This video is remarkably awesome.

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Robot Rock du Jour: Justine and the Victorian Punks – Still You (1979)

beaker — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 00:47:45 +0000

This track treads a fine line between funky disco and satin-smooth pillow talk. This particular cut is actually experimental composer/saxophonist Peter Gordon’s lovely re-arrangement of Battisti Lucio’s early Italo track, Ancora Tu, with some lover’s chat provided by pioneering NY-based designer/artist Colette.

SCHEMATIC: Battisti Lucio’s Ancora Tu video and photos of Colette’s work…

Battisti Lucio – Ancora Tu (1976)

Regardless of what on Earth this dude is running from, this video is unmistakably Italian.

Deadly Feminine Installation at Fiorucci (1978?)

Living Environment (1981)

Art on Stage at Danceteria (1983)

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Robot Rock du Jour: Thomas Dolby – She Blinded Me With Science (1982)

beaker — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:03:12 +0000

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…

Hyperactive! (12″ Version) (1984)

The beginning of this track always makes me think of The Bestie Boys. Great video.

Hyperactive! (Album Version) (1984)

Taken from Beta tapes, which is really cool. This version is much more in the vein of The Talking Heads.

One of Our Submarines (Live) (1982)

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Snort: Domestic Stormtroopers

beaker — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 23:08:28 +0000

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.

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Robot Rock du Jour: Medio Mutante – Corre Corre (2008)

beaker — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:54:26 +0000

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…

Medio Mutante’s first release, Inestable, is a 6-track EP published on Cititrax, a Minimal Wave sublabel. They only pressed 600 copes on 160-gram vinyl, which makes it a pretty good buy at $16.00 + s&h.

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Robot Rock du Jour: Kraftwerk – Autobahn (1974)

beaker — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:54:01 +0000

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…

The title track off Kraftwerk’s 1974 LP Autobahn was a genesis moment in nerd music, marking the completion of Kraftwerk’s robotic transformation. Without this band or track, electronic music would probably not be what it is today. It represents the seemless merging of musical genius with avant-garde technology. The entire album is available on iTunes for only $3.49!!

Mainwood discussing the history of the film:

No, I never made contact with Kraftwerk, and they had no input into the film images themselves. John Halas got the commission from Kraftwerk’s record company, and it was deliberately experimental in nature and designed to be released on one of the first ever laser discs. Unfortunately the laser disc technology never took off. The film was entered into various film festivals around the world and won a few prizes, but it never got a commercial release in cinemas but was shown on the TV a bit in the UK and I presume in Germany too. I have no idea what Kraftwerk think about it or whether they have even ever seen it.

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Eames – The Information Machine (1957)

beaker — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:37:14 +0000

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.

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