Ursus Wehrli presented at the TED conference recently and I have to admit, his book on “Tidying up Art” is a virus. The basic principle is to take great masterpieces in art and destructure them to the simple elements that they are mad up of. A signiture becomes 30 broken branches, a painting of a person becomes 15 fruit shaped objects, etc. After seeing him lecture and glancing through his book, I’ve been infected and try to tidy up everything I see now.
Buy here
Want to tumble down a steep hill at 30 mph while soaking in a swirl of spashing water!! If so, give the ZORB a try.
I’ve always wanted to give these spheres a try, but I never knew where. Besides New Zealand, there seems to be a place in Austin you can give these wild orbs a spin. Let me know if you get the chance to.
Google Video has a clip of Seth lecturing and a Q&A with Googlers after wards. If you haven’t read his books, go get them, cause it’ll make ya rethink how the world of marketing works. I realllly hated the idea of marketing at first, but now I’m hooked!! I’ve read “Purple Cow” and “All Marketers Are Liars”. He really points out small details that make a huge huge difference. Why does sushi taste better when a japanese person rolls it, rather than an American, even if it’s the exact same roll? Why does a BMW drive better than a Lexus? Why does wine taste better in this glass instead of the other? He’s even made his books free online, and they still sell like hotcakes!!
Seths Blog
Seths Speaks Video
Buy “All Marketers are Liars Book”
Sandscapes is addictive simulated tangible interface designed to help users understand landscapes through a projected surface of sand. Simulations range from height, slopes, contours, shadows, drainage, and also has the ability to interact with physical models such as buildings cars or whatever else you program into it.
I’ve played around with Sandscapes and its pure joy. Swing by the MIT MediaLab when you have the chance to check out their other great projects!
MIT MediaLab(Tangible Media Group)
SandScapes
Want to see the other side of the Natalie Portman…well, hold tight, this rap rappin video on Saturday Night Live throws a real curve ball into the sweet, elegant, cute, and sexy queen of Star Wars.NBC
via BoingBoing
Who says cats don’t appreciate great designs. Cat Interiors is a company in Germany with a wonderful assortment of cat pads, my particular favorite is their wall mounted homes.via DesignSponge
Cat Interiors
I’m a huge fan of scribbly sketch books. Peter Hoffmens got a variety of great illustrations, sketchbooks, and graphics.
Glashaus
A few bored girls in Ohio took the opportunity to make physical replicas of those “coin boxes” from the classic game “super mario brothers” and place them in random parts of their city, trees primarily. Personally, I think they rock!!! Nothin like jazzin up a city scape with a bit of mario action. Then again, they are being arrested for this prank for reasonable terms.
It’s great to see over time how the digital 2D world has influenced our 3D society. There’s the pixelated tv screen, pixel art, pixel shirts, these boxes, wallpaper, pixel watch, and tons more out there.
TED TED TED. What more can I say. It is by FAR THE BEST brain charging, mind-boggling confernece I have ever been to. It’s a life changing experience that is hard to explain. I’ve been fortunate to attend the last 4 TEDs (Technology, Entertainment, Design) and just returned from TED2006. Instead of writing about every single amazzzzing event, I’ll link to some other blogs articles on the conference. Otherwise, some of my highlights were:
1. AL GORE (he is seriously funny)
2. Tony Robbins (what an energizer)
3. Ken Robinson (Man with wonderful words)
4. Playing in a Drum circle at midnight with a bunch of CEOs, Directors, managers, all from fortune 500 companies.
5. Drinking, eating, chillin, with those same people at a private monterey aquarium party.(FABULOUS!)
6. Drinking, chatting, brainstorming with the same peeps at the bar across the street.
7. Watching, listening, laughing, at Charles Fleisher. (Probably one of the most talented, smartests, and funny people on earth)
8. Listening to an 11 yr old violinist zip through some tough classical pieces.
9. TOM RIELLY (As always, a man that sees it all)
10. Beach Party. Great converesations, great weather, great people!
11. Being amazzed at Dynamo.
12. Sitting next to Sergey Brin, Charles Fleischer, Danny Hillis, Peter Gabriel, and Chee Pearlman, all at the same time, watching a session.
13. Watching the Children of Uganda dance!!!!! Unbelievable!!!
14. Listening to Larry Brilliant. Watch the webcast with the other 2 winners.
15. Realizing I was at TED again…TED’s a knowledge heaven that really exisits.
Too many highlights to talk about, but here are some other blogs to check out.
TED blog
Ethan Zuckerman
Bruno Giussani
Tom Guarriello
Lone Ronin
Kate Trgovac
Loic le Meur
Renee Blodgett
This video has surfed the web for the past few weeks, but I had the wonderful opportunity to meet and hear from the creator, Jeff Han, about his multi-touch screen interface at the TED conference. Check out the video and be prepared to be awed.YouTube video
update:Â a nice article on Jef’s developement with the multi-touch screen from FastCompany which includes an exclusive video on the newer larger version here.