Archive for October, 2004
Treo 650 has arrived!
Oct 26
Tag The System NYC
Oct 26
Over 150 of the World’s Leading Artists and Designers have come together to celebrate the New York City Subway Centennial with Tag the System NY. Each artist was given a blank subway car, and asked to lend their own creative style and vision to designing their own unique interpretation of a New York City Subway Car. The cars, almost 2 foot wide, were designed by Klim K and manufactured by Drastic Plastic. The artists participating include a very diverse set of styles, from old school to current grafitti artists, to comic and animation artists, to sculptors and even traditional companies including Nike and the Mattel Hot Wheels Team.
Tag The System will be opening at NYC Showroom at 117 2nd Ave, NY, NY, 10003, Friday October 29th thru November 21st 2004.
Admission is Free. Most original pieces of art will be for sale. A portion of the proceeds will go to charity.
“The results of a Sony Ericsson design competition for students in China are in. The results are not very surprising. Most of the designs are very similar to existing mobiles and surprisingly enough, to Nokia designs. I wonder if brand awareness and authenticity were part of the competition brief. There are still quite a few nice design ideas however. Especially on the gadget front.” — via reluct
[from Adweek]
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is upset with Burger King about the www.chickenfight.com promotion created by Crispin, Porter + Bogusky. The site allows users to pit two guys in chicken suits — representing different chicken sandwiches — against each other in a cage match. Not funny, according to HSUS president and CEO Wayne Pacelle, who says in a statement, “Whatever the intent of this promotion, the effect is to make light of chicken fighting. Cockfighting, which is illegal in 48 states, is a disgraceful practice not only involving animal cruelty, but drug trafficking, illegal gambling and human-on-human violence.”
[from marketing vox]
Mazda’s new blog-cum-viral marketing effort proved to be pretty lame, and its failures reveal one of the dynamics limiting large advertisers in their exploitation of new forms of marketing. The campaign takes an old set of video “viral” ads that never became very popular months ago and attempts to rejuvenate them by creating a fake blog to tout them. Compounding the first failure (not understanding that a viral ad isn’t just a :30 – perhaps with a dirty joke or a flash of skin – that gets streamed onto the internet) Mazda committed the same mistake with the blog.
In the first instance, it thought its TV ad could become a viral spot. In the second instance, it thought it could suffice as the main content of a blog. Viewers may begin to think that perhaps there’s a creative director in Mazda’s ad agency that has a bias toward canned video. It appears that in neither case did Mazda consider putting the vast resources required to create a well-produced video spot toward creating a well-produced online campaign. Or, if it did, it paid too much.
[via Mauro Cavalletti]
Located in the new Time-Warner Building in New York City, the 10,000 square foot showcase features all of Samsung’s latest technology presented as luxurious design integrated into one’s lifestyle. There are large-scale interactive works utilizing Samsung products throughout the Brand Experience. Spatial Narrative is the largest of the four, located at the entrance of the space.
SPATIAL NARRATIVE AT THE SAMSUNG BRAND SHOWCASE
The first commercial realization of Spatial Narrative is up and running in the Samsung Brand Showcase! Located in the new Time-Warner Building in New York City, the 10,000 square foot showcase features all of Samsung’s latest technology, presented as luxurious design integrated into one’s lifestyle. To add even more excitement, there are four large-scale interactive works utilizing Samsung products throughout the Brand Experience. Spatial Narrative is the largest, located at the entrance of the space.
This iteration is called ‘virtual speakeasy’ and features the 20’s era-influenced fashion of Ashleigh Verrier, Parsons Designer of the Year. The project is a collaborative effort between Parsons School of Design, Samsung, and Imagination USA. In the role of Creative and Technical Director, I worked with an exceptional team of extraordinarily talented and dedicated individuals. Kindly follow the link below and you will find a list of their names, along with photographs of the exhibit and a current list of press exposure.
New Mobile Messaging Device
Oct 21
[from trendcentral]
With young people so overscheduled – from dinner plans to guitar lessons to job interviews to final exams – they are looking for ways to communicate while on-the-go. To fill the gap, AT&T recently introduced a new mobile messaging device called Ogo, designed to appeal to this IM generation of teens and young adults. The wireless messaging device provides users with unlimited IM, email from AOL, MSN, and Yahoo!, and text messaging, as well as emoticon buttons. Users can also give unique sounds and graphic animations to their IM contacts.
While it remains to be seen if the Ogo will become the younger generation’s answer to the Blackberry, keep an eye out for more specialized mobile devices that cater to the IM generation.
Vote for BIX media facade
Oct 21
[message from the group]
We– more precisely the Berlin based young architects Jan & Tim Edler have been nominated with the BIX media façade at the new Graz Art
museum for the 50.000 Euro ‚Inspire-Award’ given by the Deutsche Telekom. The award is given for the third time. Altogether 5 nominees from the realm of ‘Art-Culture-Media’ have been chosen among which now is also this very special low tech media façade, which is made up solely by conventional fluorescent lights.
The important thing about the award is: an online vote will decide who will get this prize. From now until approximately December 15th. At www.bix.at.
For the first time ever an architectural project that does not deal with conventional topics, entered the final round of such an award. We are delighted to have come that far but would enjoy it the most if you would join in. Due to the nature of the voting-system and the tough challengers, that move in a well known, much more commercial area, we need your support and the one of people that art interested in new stuff.
Of course it would be very nice, if you went ahead to personally vote
for our project. It takes 20 seconds.
Further material about the project and the award can be downloaded on:
http://www.realu.de/vote/index-press.html , at www.inspire-award.de ,
and of course at:
Thank you very much for your support.
Yours sincerely, Carla Eckhard ->ce@realu.de
Nissan Maxima Urban Meltdown
Oct 21
Starting today, the 2005 Maxima will be positioned in live street scenes that will create an effect of an urban meltdown, causing nearby objects — such as street lamps, trash cans and parking meters — to melt and droop. The Maxima will appear at prime locations in New York and Los Angeles, positioned beneath backdrops of large print ads that portray a burned, charred effect caused by the “hot” Maxima. In New York, heaters and glowing lights will be placed around the vehicles to enhance the ultra sensory effect.
If you’ve been watching any baseball lately on Fox Sports, you probably have seen the Aquos advertisements with URL placements leading users to moretosee.com. It’s a Sharp integrated ad campaign that was developed by Weiden and Kennedy. The site content consists of tons of product info, but also has a few unique blogs from three different personas. It also seems like one big puzzle with, of course, your now ubiquitous faux content section in the form of a message board.
Nintendo Game Handhelds
Oct 19
During the early 1980’s Gumpei Yokoi was asked to create a new toy for Nintendo which would result in the Game and Watch pocket systems. The small handhelds similar to the Tiger brand LCD games. The Game and Watch were a small pocket sized system that often folded in half to protect the LCD screen it contained and many popular games were created utilizing the Nintendo trademark figures such as Donkey Kong, Mario, and Zelda. Some systems, like Zelda, contained a double LCD screens. From this achievement, Yokoi also patented the Directional Pad or D-pad that Nintendo has used for many years. At the time of production for these small units, a joystick would be too difficult and clumsy to incorporate into a small system, so Yokoi, the great inventor created the D-pad, he called it ‘control cross’, which provided the most reasonable and accurate movements. The production line lasted from about 1980-1989 and produced about 60 or so different games. Two LR44 batteries are required for play. From my stand point, because of it’s historical significance, one can argue that a collection of Game and Watches (1 or more) could be counted as one system total, but this does not include the Tiger games. A series of three Game and Watch Galleries was released for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color which include ‘generic’ Nintendo titles such as the Octopus game.
[by Ross Fadner]
New figures from the Yankee Group claim the U.S. video games industry reaches more than 108 million gamers 13 years of age and older, who will have spent $7.4 billion by the end of the year. Advertisers have long wanted to penetrate the gaming market, but haven’t yet been able to in any meaningful way. Despite the video games industry’s size, advertisers only spent a meager $79 million on placing ads in games last year–a number the market research firm anticipates will grow to $260 million by 2008, according to the Yankee Group report.
Michael Goodman, senior analyst for the Yankee Group and author of the report “Marketers Look to Video Games to Drive Their Message Home,” said that ad dollars have become “a very necessary revenue source” for game publishers as the cost of development for new games continues to rise.
Goodman pointed out that most games currently cost between $5 million and $15 million to produce, but that costs will increase as technology improves. Meanwhile, Goodman said that only 10 percent to 20 percent of games break even. “It’s a hit-or-miss market,” he said, adding that consumers will not be willing to spend more than the $50-per-game they are used to paying, so game developers will need to learn how to monetize their available inventory.
Conqwest
Oct 15
The application: More than a hundred players and phones, 5-meter tall giant inflatable animals designed by an artist in the UK, $5000 prizes, semacodes nodes on billboards, on buses, and on a taxi navigating the streets.
RELATED LINKS
Semacode hits the street.
The Conqwest case study.
The Conqwest web site.
DJ Krush – Jaku
Oct 14
[from earplug]
For his eighth record, DJ Krush turns to his native Japan for inspiration, substituting shakuhachi flute and taiko drums for the quotidian MCs who have plagued his last few records. Krush had drifted away from the sublime instrumental work of his early records, but Jaku — Japanese for “peace and calm” — finds him merging the sum of his hip-hop experience with the cultural heritage of his native land. A delicate wooden-flute melody soars over the placid beats of “Still Island” like a breath of mist obscuring the horeline. “Univearth” sets Krush’s downtempo beats against Tetsuro Naito’s (lately of Kodo) sparse percussion and whistling flute in a spine-bending fusion of East and West. “Slit of Cloud,” with Akira Sakata providing saxophone and Shinto lament, attempts to capture the electric majesty of a sun break on the slope of Mt. Fuji. Can you achieve satori through music? DJ Krush’s Jaku certainly tries. (MT)
[By James Ransom-Wiley]
Majesco resorted to the oldest trick in the book when it came to publicizing its vampire-vixen sequel: sex sells. Yes, the boys (and girls too?) over at Majesco broke some serious boundaries while generating hype for BloodRayne 2. We’re talking digital boobies, Playboy: October issue. But if you’re anywhere half-way-interested in videogames, you already know that. You may have even spotted Rayne’s handiwork in the latest Evanescence video, appropriately titled, “Everybody’s Foolâ€. And so, as expected, BloodRayne 2 is simply the latest offering of style over substance. It’s a game plagued with bugs (of the programming sort) and mindless violence. But it sure is pretty, and the type of game that anyone can pick up and play. So, while it’s still a bit early to judge, we’re betting that BloodRayne 2 will sell. And that’s just the current state of the industry.
Air Sabaku Mid
Oct 14
The Air Sabaku Mid is supposed to be a Japan only release for the Fall Season. They come with Zoom Air in the heel.
[by Dan Wu from Joystiq]
An interactive gimmick that’s definitely designed to get asses in seats, Nintendo says that you’ll be able to wirelessly download extra characters and data if you bring your new Nintendo DS portable game console along with a Gameboy Advance Pokemon title with you to the theater showing the new Pokemon movie that opens next summer (and by “you†we mean all of our gradeschool readers out there—we hope). Sounds like someone will be setting up a lot of wireless hubs, but the one thing we don’t know quite yet is whether they’ll be doing this in theaters anywhere besides Japan.
red | blue
Oct 13
[By Jon Lebkowsky on The Era of Sentient Things]
Gravity Monkey announces a free Java application that finds where you are and determines the location’s political climate based on partisan affiliation of campaign donors in the area. red|blue is an extension of fundrace .
Mobileart 05
Oct 13
Today in Paradise – Genetics & Art
Mobileart 05
Goteborg New Media Art Festival
at Roda Sten, Goteborg, Sweden
Submission Deadline: 24 November 2004
www.mobileart.se
The call for works is open to artists, designers and performers both
internationally and from the Nordic region willing to engage in the theme “Today in Paradise – Genetics & Art”.
Mobileart is announcing a call for works for its exhibition and
festival which will open on the 1st April, 2005. This will consist of a 3-day festival/symposium held on Friday 1st April to Sunday 3rd April, concurrent with an exhibition at the same venue from Friday 1st April – Sunday 17th April.
