Another fantastic video.  “Vanishing Point” from Bonsajo. They apparently  are VJ’s in Japan. It seems to mash a lot of contemporary /trendy graphics together to make a visual feast.

One Minute Soundsculpture from Daniel Franke on Vimeo.

Born 1982 in Dresden, Germany. Studied Art and Media at the University of the Arts in Berlin. He currently lives and works in Berlin and is a  Member of WeAreChopChop Collective. he regards himself an Artist / Designer / Filmmaker. At the moment he is preparing his Diplom about the “mobile Observer” at the University of the Arts.

This video stood out as an amazing mix of graphics and video work. The intriguing element being its use of the music to initiate the expansion of the graphics.

Rex The Dog returns with another single, the second track to be taken from his debut album released earlier this year “The Rex The Dog Show”.

Moving on from one music video to another, and a really interesting video. All The characters being created out of paper, multiple versions being created so that the characters can move mouth and sing and play along with the music. To accompany the main character is the very cute dog that plays the Keyboard. With everything created with paper, and then stop motion techniques used to make a funny and quirky animation .

In music, timing is everything. When you’re dancing with an enormous machine, it’s even more important to get the timing correct, down to the microsecond. For its latest video, released on YouTube Monday night, pop band OK Go recruited a gang of very talented engineers to build a huge, elaborate Rube Goldberg machine whose action perfectly meshes with the band’s song, “This Too Shall Pass,” from the band’s new album, Of the Blue Color of the Sky.

For nearly four minutes — captured in a single, unbroken camera shot — the machine rolls metal balls down tracks, swings sledgehammers, pours water, unfurls flags and drops a flock of umbrellas from the second story, all perfectly synchronized with the song. A few gasp-inducing, grin-producing moments when the machine’s action lines up so perfectly, you can only shake your head in admiration at the creativity and precision of the builders.

Those builders were Syyn Labs, a Los Angeles-based arts and technology collective that has a history of doing surprising, entertaining science and tech projects that involve crowds of people, at a monthly gathering called Mindshare LA. OK Go developed a reputation for making catchy, viral videos four years ago with the homemade video for “Here It Goes Again,” which features the band members dancing around on treadmills. The company ran afoul of music label EMI’s restrictive licensing rules, which required YouTube to disable embedding, cutting views to 1/10 of their previous level. Now, the new video is up — and it’s embeddable, so the band seems to have won this round with its label — and is already generating buzz on YouTube and on Twitter. Planning for the video began in November, when Syyn Labs secured a warehouse in the Echo Park area of L.A. But it wasn’t until January that work really got going. The video was shot on Feb. 11 and 12.

“A Rube Goldberg machine is in its essence a trial-and-error thing,” Adam Sadowsky, the president of Syyn Labs, told Wired. Sadowsky explained how many tiny details needed to be just right for the machine’s timing to work out. For example, the wooden tracks used to guide metal balls at the beginning of the video had to be cleaned and waxed to keep dust from slowing down the balls and making them stick. And the angle of that board was set at a precise 3.4 degrees of incline, which was perfect for the timing but sometimes led the balls to jump the track. Given that each of the machine’s dozens of stages need comparably precise adjustments, it all adds up to a lot of labor by a lot of people.

“It took about a month and a half of very intense work, with people on-site all the time,” Sadowsky said. He estimates that 55 to 60 people worked on the project in all. That includes eight “core builders” who did the bulk of the design and building, along with another 12 or so builders who helped part-time. In addition, Syyn Labs recruited 30 or more people to help reset the machine after each run.

Because of the machine’s size and complexity, “We needed to bring in every resource we could to help reset,” said Sadowsky. Even with all those people helping, resetting the whole machine took close to an hour.The video was shot by a single Steadicam, but it took more than 60 takes, over the course of two days, to get it right. Many of those takes lasted about 30 seconds, Sadowsky said, getting no further than the spot in the video where the car tire rolls down a ramp.“The most fiddly stuff, you always want to put that at the front, because you don’t want to be resetting the whole thing.”

OK Go hired Syyn Labs to produce the contraption according to certain specifications. One example: The machine couldn’t use any magic.“That was really important,” said Sadowsky, “because we are all engineers, and we love magic. We love computers, and servomotors, and fire, and all of that stuff.” All those “magic” tricks — basically anything your mom can’t understand — couldn’t be in the machine.

The band was also heavily involved in the project for the final two weeks of its construction, and the band members are right inside the machine during the video, of course.“We wanted to make a video where we have essentially a giant machine that we dance with,” said the band’s Damian Kulash, Jr., in a short “making-of” video posted on YouTube. Otherwise, Synn Labs’ engineers went to town, dreaming up the most outlandish and elaborate mechanisms they could to “dance” along with the music. The results are impressive.

I started this project as I would most projects nowadays, as they tend to be site specific. This started with the word ‘substance’, The name of the show. I knew what the word meant but only in its common language usage, and so I looked at the meaning of substance:

It is a noun, From Middle English, or Anglo-French and derived from Latin substantia, from substant-, substans, present participle of substare to stand under, from sub- stare to stand.

It originates in its common English form in the 14th century, but has been found in documents in the early 12^th Century

However has come to mean:
1 a : essential nature : the essence or fundamental or characteristic part or quality
2 a : ultimate reality that underlies all outward manifestations and change
b : practical importance: usefulness
3 : material possessions : property <a family of substance>
4 a : physical material from which something is made or which has discrete existence
b : matter of particular or definite chemical constitution
c : something (as drugs or alcoholic beverages) deemed harmful and usually subject to legal restriction <possession of a controlled substance> <substance abuse>

After reading this I became far more aware of the process of making words, I did not know that substance is loosely derived from the word to stand…This became interesting to me. I am constantly fascinated by histories. The processes and procedures that I go through, as a person, especially in terms of my art making, the processes that objects go through, even ones that words are propelled through.

And so I wanted to make a piece of art about the word substance, but wanted to include my interest in Etymology as a process, within the artwork whilst also skewing  the viewer’s perceptions and understanding, whilst subverting their tacit knowledge. But the question for me was how to do that using ‘substance’, as a framework. This is where I struck upon the idea that the understanding would be about a substance that is used and under appreciated daily. So I decided to engage with a material. The question was which?

Firstly I wanted to make things out of cocaine, which was one of the dictionary definitions for substance abuse, but it seemed too obvious… So, eventually, I decided to create an object out of paper that would stand up on its own tensile strength. Its own constitution.

I wanted the object to be amusing, stupid, and useless because the art piece could not function. But is representative of that object. Just like a word…

I am constantly blathering on about the framework for art making and appreciation. Therefore It made sense for the object to critique the artworld in some fashion. This is where I realised that a beautifully simple display case would fit the bill.

It was simply made from a single sheet of paper, that measured 150 cm by 300cm I then cut out spaces for the legs and all the tabs, so that it could be securely held together. The 1^st attempt used 120 gsm paper, which fell in on itself so, the 2^nd attempt used 200 gsm paper which held up for the two weeks of the show.

1. Don’t just dive in

2. Build networking into your overall marketing and business plans

3. Understand how to explain what you do

4. Don’t ignore your existing network

5. Work out who you need to add to your network

6. Find the networks that suit you

7. Commit forthe long term and follow up

8. Meet one2one outside the group

9. Use Online Networks to support your offline networking

10. Become an advocate for others first

1. Don’t just dive in

The people who make networking really work have people advocating them when they are not there. They get a constant flow of business, support and opportunities through these ‘Advocates’. Like anything worthwhile, networking takes time and application. You need to be committed to investing the time to develop relationships and create a network of advocates.

This means finding other business people who operate in similar markets to you. Then helping them and building relationships to earn that trust so don’t expect instant results. Don’t expect to walk into a room of strangers or simply post a profile online and come away with business – it just doesn’t work like that!

2. Build networking into your overall marketing and business plans

“It pays to plan ahead it wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark”

If you don’t know what you are trying to achieve with your networking how can others help you? Plan how much business you are looking to generate via word of mouth and how much time you can devote to your networking activities.

The more you niche your target market or markets the better. This means you can identify those other business people or categories likely to have access to your target market. Joining networking groups with these people means you can build relationships with the right people. People operating in your target market will be able to provide access to the opportunities you want.

3. Understand how to explain what you do

When asked “what do you do?” present your proposition confidently & consistently – your target market, the problems you solve and your stories. People do not buy what you do, they buy into why you do it. It’s your passion and enthusiasm that engages and not a clever elevator pitch.

4. Don’t ignore your existing network

The cornerstone of your networking activities should be the people you have worked with or already done business with – Colleagues, Customers and Suppliers. Invest time in these important relationships. Catch up with them and find out if there is anything you can do to support them.

5. Work out who you need to add to your network

If your existing network is not big enough to generate enough word of mouth to achieve your plan then you need to build your network. Ask yourself who else is likely to have access to and influence with your target market. Then find where they network and try out those networking groups.

6. Find the networks that suit you

Once you find those networking groups try them out first and only join those groups that you will enjoy attending because if you don’t enjoy it you probably won’t do it. People become advocates for those that they know, like, rate and trust. You have to spend time with people for that to happen so you may as well have fun doing it.

Work can really be an extension to your social life!

7. Commit for the long term and follow up

Take the time to get to know the members and the ways you can help – support, information and introductions. Become an active listener and see how you can help the people you meet. After meeting follow up with a simple e-mail or telephone call confirming where you met and what action, if any, was agreed. Connect them to others and any helpful information. Prompt follow ups are essential! Find out which online networks they use and connect with them if you are also a member.

8. Meet one2one outside the group

You’ve got to like someone and know them a bit. It looks as though they might know your target market. How do you take things forward? Simple, meet with them for a coffee and start getting to know them. What makes them tick, what are their successes, their aspirations, their skills and experiences? What they are looking for? See if you can connect them to one of your contacts?

9. Use Online Networks to support your offline networking

Find out which online networks your influencers and target market use and join a couple. Use the network tools to find the people you already know and connect with them online. Post a profile that is consistent with your personal brand and contribute. Listen for people posting things you can help with and share your stories, hints, tips, & insights.

Contribute to online conversations and share your knowledge and connections. Make contact with like minded professionals. Networking online is just like offline and not about selling – it’s about building relationships. The best business is developed when both parties know, like and trust each other. So take the time to get to know them and establish rapport.

10. Become an Advocate for others first

A networking advocate goes out of their way to recommend your goods and services without being asked or expecting anything in return. Take time to develop the relationships with key members of your network. Go out of your way to connect them to key members of your network and introduce them to people who might benefit from their services. Become

an advocate for them. And, guess what? What goes round comes round. People will eventually become advocates for you – and this is where the networking dividend really pays out!

Finally, in the immortal words of Woody Allen: “80% of success is showing up!”

A really interesting video article about patterns.

If the universe that we live in consists out of particles and forces that can not be destroyed but only changed. And if they work according to fixed laws of nature which are consistent throughout the universe. Then if we had the knowledge of all the particles and all the forces and all the laws of nature. Would you not say that we should be able to predict every interaction between them?

My question is : where does “chance” enter in a universe that works according to a fixed set of rules and a fixed set of particles and energies. I know that these three things are basically one and the same. Or they were one and the same for a split second during the big bang. So if we know the how and what about the big bang, then we should be able to simulate everything else in existence that followed.

At least, that is my current understanding on the matter. And I’m missing the coincidence factor in the equation.

for example the:

Evolving Darwin Play Set, more amusing than scientifically accurate

The Charles Darwin bobblehead

or maybe a Charles Darwin finger puppet

how about a t-shirt?

Charles Darwin “Little Thinker” plush toy

Charles Darwin and friends in the Scientists Collection

or (and this is my favorite) even your own life size cut out! for those long lonely nights at sea…why?

Darwin is the first of the evolutionary biologists, the originator of the concept of natural selection. His principal works,The Origin of The Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871) marked a new epoch. His works were violently attacked and energetically defended, then; and, it seems, yet today.

Charles Robert Darwin was born at Shrewsbury. His father was a doctor and his mother was the daughter of Josiah Wedgwood. Darwin first studied medicine at Edinburgh. Will as they might, it soon became clear to the family, and particularly to young Charles, that he was not cut out for a medical career; he was transferred to Cambridge (Christ’s Church, 1828), there to train for the ministry. While at Cambridge, Darwin befriended a biology professor (John Stevens Henslow, 1796-1861) and his interest in zoology and geography grew.

The question for Darwin was that of process, a question which, for twenty years, Darwin worked on. He considered his own personal experiences which were considerable and the data that he had gathered. He read and read widely; he abstracted the learned journals; he talked to breeders of domesticated animals. And only after years of work did Darwin feel himself ready to express himself. More years were to pass, during which he gathered more and more evidence, when, in 1859, Darwin came out with his scholarly presentation, The Origin of Species.

The question I am sure that you are thinking is what is the relationship to Art? Well I think that very significant cultural shift that he created, immediately springs to mind. Secondly his process, he process of questioning every avenue could be seen as reflective of how Art could be made. And most definitely how art should be written about and appreciated.