Space. It’s big, and it’s deep, but as far as we humans here on Earth are concerned, it may as well be a perfectly flat picture painted up there across the sky. It’s hard to get much in the way of depth through a telescope, but with a little bit of creativity and artistic license, it’s possible to 3D-ify some truly beautiful nebulae.
Read the complete article at DVice.
Click around on different parts of the photo to bring it into focus.
Today the Lytro Light Field Camera is receiving a firmware update that unlocks manual controls such as ISO sensitivity and shutter speed.
But just in case you haven’t heard of it yet, the Lytro is a revolutionary device. Instead of capturing one moment, one angle, and one set of light, you capture everything within frame, and are able to change the focus of the image after the fact.
But there are two major complaints with this new technology: one is that the images taken aren’t that high quality (currently just 1080×1080) and that more serious photographers don’t have any manual controls over the device.
See, the Lytro is a bit like a Christmas present to a photographer. There are a whole new set of rules, an entirely new world of photography to explore with this technology, and changing focus is only the beginning. But to make the Lytro accessible to everyone, from a pro to a novice, the original implementation excluded any manual controls, like ISO or Shutter Speed.
Read the complete article at TechCrunch.
The wearable camera “Autographer” provides a new twist on photography by taking the camera out of your hands and intelligently taking the snaps for you. It can capture up to 2,000 high-res pictures per day using its array of tools and then surprises you with a chronicle of your day.
Designed by British stop-motion specialists OMG, the camera is loaded with features. It has a 136-degree wide-angle lens designed to mimic the human eye so the shots would be seen as from your perspective. It also has five sensors — a magnetometer, color sensor, infrared detector, accelerometer, and temperature sensor which helps the camera identify when to take a snap based on subtle changes in the environment.
Read the complete article at DVice.
the3d.me transforms you (and a friend) in a truly unique way – reveal yours with an iPhone, iPad or Android Device – the first app for Facebook of its kind. Just log into Facebook to get started with the app, pick a couple of photos, grab your phone and find out if you’re a cowboy, vampire, pop star or something even more fantastic!
When you use the onvert app your 3D.Me image comes alive with sound and movement, from smoke rising from a campfire, water dripping from your screen or bats flying through your phone.
Read the complete article at QR Code Press.
Still longing for the good old days when you were taking pictures with your beloved Polaroid camera? Do you wish you could have those beautiful Instagram pictures in your hands in an instant? Well, it’s your lucky day. Impossible Instant Labs might soon let you turn your iPhone pictures into physical Polaroid-style prints.
The Impossible Project, started by 10 former employees of the historical company, was launched in June 2008 after Polaroid announced it would stop production of instant analog film. Impossible even bought the last Polaroid factory in Enschede, Netherlands, to keep the legacy alive.
Read the complete article at Mashable.
We know what you’re thinking… “Where are those 3D glasses I had laying around?” But the images you see here were not digitally manipulated to render that effect. Though American artist Adam Ferriss admits that they are “reminiscencent of 3D images,” his photos are produced by tri-color separation. According to Young-Helmholtz’s theory of trichromatic color vision, the human eye has three types of photoreceptors, each of which is sensitive to a type of light. They were classified as red, green, and blue—and that’s where that RGB acronym used to define color patterns on image software comes from, for instance.
Read the complete article and view the entire gallery at The Creators Project.
There’s no better sign of something becoming too popular, mainstream, than a parody or satire.
Earlier this month, David Johnson found himself at the International Fireworks Show in Ottawa, Canada. Johnson, being a photographer, wanted to capture images of the proceedings. Being a photographer, though, he also couldn’t resist tinkering a bit with the explosive images before him. When Spain’s delegation began its show, Johnson decided to try an experiment: He took long exposures, then adjusted his focus — in the middle of the shot.
The resulting images, which I first saw on the blog This Is Colossal, are mesmerizing. Fireworks, their familiarity made less so by their resemblance to ordinary images. Ordinary images, made less ordinary by the fact that, in this case, they’re actually fireworks.
Read the complete article and view the full gallery at The Atlantic.
PSFK spoke to Patrick Runte, a photographer exploring the intricate relationship between the digital world and the physical one. His project, Jump and Run, stages life-sized figures from classic video games such as Pacman, Tetris, and Pong in real-world scenarios. He explained to us how he reimagines the quotidian tree, road and playground by making it his own setting for a videogame. By exploring the wondrous aspects of the everyday he celebrates the act of play as an end in itself.
Patrick, tell us about yourself and what you do.
I work as a freelance photographer based in Hamburg, Germany.
How long have you been doing that?
For a living? Since 2009, but I started to be fascinated by photography in my freshman year in high school, I believe. After my alternative civilian service I decided to study photography. I graduated from university in 2008 and during my studies I worked for several photographers as an assistant to improve my skills. I believe university is really good for gaining theoretical knowledge, but I was more focused on how photography works in real life situations, talking in terms of lighting, setting, choosing a moment of exposure and so on.
Warning: a new app can make you look more pimply and less hipster-chic.
That is, if you’ve come to associate how you look in real life with Instagram-filtered 70s-inspired photos of yourself.
Normalize, a new iOS app from developer Joe Macirowski, restores photos to “what they’re supposed to look like.”
“Normalize is the fast, easy way to bring new life to dull photos! The image-improving techniques used by this user-friendly application make colors more vibrant and hard to see details stand out like never before,” says the app’s description in the iTunes store. “The smart algorithm that powers Normalize automatically improves your photo without you ever having to make tedious manual corrections.”
However, if you take a look at a February blog post from Macirowski, detailing his reasoning for creating Normalize, it’s clear the developer has some pent-up frustration with now-ubiquitous, filtered photos.
Read the complete article at Mashable.
Image source: Daily Mail
By Eduardo Navas
Note: This text was previously released on the Huffington Post on August 31, 2012. A week before the NFl began their official season.
The NFL prepares for its upcoming season, and during exhibition games on television, as wide receivers go deep for spectacular catches, I cannot help but be reminded of exciting moments from the London Olympic Games, particularly in track & field — when Usain Bolt ran to take three gold medals in the the 100 m, 200 m and 4×100 m relay.
Coincidentally, there has been speculation that Bolt may transition to professional sports such as football in the NFL, although he may prefer soccer. The main reason behind his potential future in either sport is not because he is a good ball handler, in fact, the ball is hardly mentioned. What matters is that Bolt is fast.
Image: Huffpost
By Eduardo Navas
Note: This entry was updated on August 19, 2012 with an extra commentary at the end of the main text.
As an educator in higher education and researcher specializing in remix culture and authorship, when I first learned about Zakaria’s admission to plagiarism, I was very disappointed in him, and thought that there was no way around it, that his admission of plagiarizing parts of Jill Lepore‘s work on gun control written for the New Yorker puts into question his intellectual integrity.
I thought that his apology was quick and to the point, but that somehow it was not enough. I thought that it was necessary for Zakaria to come forward and explain in as much detail as possible the reasoning for his behavior. And I thought that I wasn’t alone in hoping for this to happen–that if an actual explanation was delivered, it would all serve the constructive purpose of discussing the seriousness of plagiarism with students while providing a concrete example of a public intellectual who committed such an unacceptable act.
Image source: Washington Post
By Eduardo Navas
Note: This text appeared previously on Huffington post. Since its original publication on August 8, 2012, NBC decided to at least make available live streaming of the closing ceremonies. Other than this, much of what is observed in the following commentary remains relevant.
Viewers well versed in media expect delivery-on-demand for major events. This has created a peculiar tension when viewing prime-time Olympic coverage consisting of competitions that previously took place throughout the day, but which were not broadcasted live on TV. After the first week of events, it appears that audiences are tuning-in to NBC’s evening broadcast in larger numbers than previous Olympics, and this has become the network’s main justification for holding out on selected events until prime-time.
Image source: E News
By Eduardo Navas
Posted on August 1, 2012 on The Huffington Post
Social media spoilers are inevitable when the broadcasting network decides to block-out selected events and save them for primetime. This became evident to me as I experienced the Olympics during the first three days.
It began on Friday when I settled to watch the opening ceremony. At this time I briefly considered the fact that the broadcast was not live on the East Coast of the United States, where I live. I also realized that people on the West Coast would see the opening extravaganza three hours after me.
I said to myself that it did not matter because viewing a delayed broadcast of an opening event, sure to be considered historic, would not change my viewing experience. Such a situation is equivalent to one’s willingness to watch a television series knowing that it is a recorded production.
Things were different when I selectively viewed the first events on Saturday live on Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC, and NBC Sports. The multiple broadcasts were also complemented with apps for mobile media, well supported with the nbcolympics.com website.
Throughout the day I checked twitter and Facebook for updates and comments. I soon learned that Michael Phelps took fourth place in the Men’s 400m Individual Medley, while Ryan Lochte took first, winning the gold. However, I was not able to experience the historic moment until primetime on NBC. At this point I was more interested in knowing how it happened, and was no longer invested in the event as I would have, had it been live.
The same thing happened again on Sunday when Lochte and Phelps participated in the men’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay only to come second to France. Again, I learned about this in the late afternoon, but I waited to view it during primetime on NBC.
The decision by NBC to select certain events, from earlier in the day, and broadcast them during primetime began to be discussed as soon as Saturday, and by Sunday, stories were written on different online publications. Entertainment Weekly, in particular, ran two extensive stories. NBC apparently made its decision in order to attain higher ratings during its primetime broadcast. Understandably some people are quite unhappy about NBC’s decision, which is why, as I write this, the hash tag #nbcfail is still going strong with rants.
After viewing the events on Sunday night, however, I don’t think that the problem for NBC is that selected events are shown well after they take place. The problem, in my view, is that NBC appears to be selecting the wrong events for delayed broadcast at night.
To be specific, both on Saturday and Sunday during primetime, NBC went back and forth between gymnastics and swimming. When swimming came on, I could not help but think that I was about to see something which had already taken place. But with gymnastics, I did not mind the delayed broadcast at all. Why, I thought? I came to the conclusion that it has to do with the type of sport.
Swimming is an action sport, which deals with extreme physical performance dependent on time. It is defined by exciting moments such as when your favorite athlete does not even take third place. Add to this the possibility of breaking a world record, and you are sure to have a nail-biting experience as a viewer. Such thrill is unlikely to happen with a delayed broadcast of a major swimming competition such as Lochte’s and Phelps’ once it has been spoiled earlier in the day due to social media and online news sources.
Gymnastics, on the other hand, is a sport about physical strength, precision and gracefulness. Add to this the fact that it depends on points given by judges who, in large part, rely on aesthetics, and we have a dynamic that is closer to viewing a theatrical performance, and not so different from viewing the opening ceremony. Gymnastics is one of my favorite categories in the Olympics, and I don’t think I have ever experienced them live.
NBC’s situation actually makes apparent the fact that major networks need to better understand how to create a worthwhile experience for viewers who are likely to know already much about sporting events that took place early in the day (in this case the Olympics) which they decide to deliver during primetime.
If a network decides to hold out on a sport defined by its physical excitement, such as swimming, then an effort should be made in creating a viewing experience about how and why something happened and not “what will happen.” This approach would then make the juxtaposition of swimming and gymnastics a better fit given their differences as I explained. With this more realistic approach Bob Costas will not have to say “no spoilers” as he introduces the taped segment of Lochte winning gold while Phelps takes none, hoping that the viewers will have a thrilling experience. I did not.
The RE/Mixed Media Festival, now in it’s 3rd year, is an annual celebration of collaborative art-making and creative appropriation. It’s the artists’ contribution to the ongoing conversation about remixing, mashups, copyright law, fair use, and the freedom of artists to access their culture in order to add to and build upon it.
The festival – which this year will take place at the Brooklyn Lyceum – a 3-floor 10,000 sq. ft. venue on the border of the Park Slope and Gowanus neighborhoods of Brooklyn – will feature performances, panel discussions, live musical collaborations, hip-hop, sampling, film & video, DIY, food and drink, DJs, technology, interactive installations, painting, sculpture, software, hacking, and much more!
Read more at KickStarter and Remixedmedia.org
Post by Eduardo Navas
Note: Previously this entry read “book print.” This was a mistake on my part. It should be “book sprint.”
I recently read the “book print” New Aesthetic, New Anxieties by a group of media researchers, theorists and curators, who got together for three and a half days from June 17–21, 2012, at V2, in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
The concept of coming together for just a few days to brainstorm a book is certainly something worth considering as an act of creative critical practice. The book from this standpoint functions surprisingly well, especially because its premise is delivered to match the speed of change that its subject (The New Aesthetic) experiences in the daily flow of information throughout the global network. I personally find amazing that a book of this sort can be put together with some cohesion.
by Eduardo Navas
Image: inversion Facebook’s front page.
This post also appears on Remixtheory.net
Digging through my archives, I found the list of my early updates on Facebook. When I joined Facebook back in 2008, personal updates read “What are you doing?” prompted with “Your Name is … ” I liked the idea behind positioning the Facebook user in a constant state of action. It was like a performance online. Because of this set up, I found myself always thinking of what I was actually doing at the moment that I entered Facebook, and thought of creative ways to approach the apparent triviality of the updates.
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Dear community,
We are currently conducting a survey for a Remix Studies book project and we would really appreciate your help. The survey is quick and easy and should take no more than a few minutes of your time. Your assistance will be invaluable in the development of the book, which we hope will be of great use to students, teachers, researchers and practitioners of remix alike.
If possible, we would also be very grateful if you could help us to distribute the survey to anyone within your networks who has an interest in remix.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/C9MGRVV
Thank you very much for your time and effort – we value your input.
Kind regards,
Eduardo, Owen and xtine
Eduardo Navas
http://remixtheory.net
http://navasse.net
Owen Gallagher
http://www.remixstudies.org
http://www.totalrecut.com
http://www.criticalremix.com
xtine burrough
http://www.missconceptions.net
Image source: The Atlantic Wire
Written by Yong Kim
Kim Jung Il is dead. Sadam and Kadafi have been overthrown and executed. The model of the old-school dictator seems to be dying. Unfortunately, there’s a new dictator in town. Well, not really new, but its presence has never been more prevalent or obvious. This dictator is not just one person or regime. The neo-dictator is comprised of countless organizations, with its power being shifted and redistributed per agenda, so this dictator can’t ever really be killed off. Like any good tyrant, the neo-dictator is motivated by lust for money and power (the quench for which can never be sated). Naturally the neo-dictator’s most powerful tool is the law, laws like SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act), which are designed so content providers and their bed fellows could hold onto their outdated and dying business models. Perhaps it’s just a tactic to slow down technological advancement while they catch up.
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Image source: Creators Project
Written by Yong Kim
Erik Kessels’ installation shows what 24 hours of photos on Flickr looks like in physical form. The installation got me thinking about the exorbitant amount of pictures we take today. I’ve never been a big picture taker, that was until I got a digital camera. I have a little over a hundred physical pictures I’ve collected over my lifetime, but I have thousands in digital form, most of which I accumulated in a span of 3-4 years, starting about 7 years ago. My physical pictures I view once in a while, with a definite level of fondness, sometimes wishing I had taken more pictures. I took those pictures to commemorate specific events: nieces’ birthdays, the first time I went camping with my nieces, my last weekend in San Antonio before I moved back to LA, my college graduation, nieces’ high school graduations, dad’s 60th birthday, the last party I attended in Boston before I moved back to LA, pictures from my cross-country trips, when the family dog was just a puppy, and so on. Most of my digital pictures, however, are rather insignificant.
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