» Cultural democracy or mediocrity? PressPausePlay Full Movie Online

In February I posted this:

"PressPausePlay, a film about fear, hope and digital culture". The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent of people in an unprecedented way, unleashing unlimited creative opportunities. But does democratized culture mean better art, film, music and literature or is true talent instead flooded and drowned in the vast digital ocean of mass culture? Is it cultural democracy or mediocrity? This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with influential creators of the digital era. To name a few interviewees, Ted Schilowitz, founder, Red Digital Cinema Camera Company, Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster, Scott Belsky, CEO & founder, Behance. The film was shot globally between August 2009 – January 2011, covering more than 150 hours of interview footage with international creatives and thinkers - representing the state of digitized culture today.

Now it's out, you can download it from their website, full HD.

» James Alliban, Konstruct, Augmented Reality App

James Alliban is an augmented reality specialist and media artist. His work is regularly featured or mentioned in design magazines. He is the founder of the company knowned as Augmatic.

His projects include installations, mobile art apps and online tools that employ a variety of computer vision and image processing techniques. His main tool of choice is the open source arts based programming toolkit openFrameworks.

This iphone app is a sound reactive "AR" experience that allows the user to create a virtual sculpture by speaking, whistling or blowing into the device’s microphone. A variety of 3D shapes, colour palettes and settings can be combined to build an endless collection of structures. Compositions can be saved to the device’s image gallery.

Konstruct is a free app available on iPhone 3GS and 4 running iOS 4+. A version for the iPad 2 is planned in the coming months.

» NOVA documentary, 75min online premiere

A documentary film on new art and the young artists behind it. Directed by Isaac Niemand, and produced by Rojo, an independent creative organization, founded in 2001 by David Quiles Guilló, in collaboration with BossaNovaFilms, it was all filmed at Nova Contemporary Culture which happened in July and August 2010, in MIS-Museum of Image and Sound, and SESC Pompeia, in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Starring: Yoshi Sodeoka, Rebecca Ward, Tofer Chin, KRINK, Base V, Yochai Matos, Max Hattler, Lucy McRae, Kit Webster, Jimmy Joe Roche, Flavio Samelo, Matt W Moore, Zeitguised, Mulheres Barbadas, Gustavo Gagliardo aka Defi, Filippo Minelli, Quayola, Javier Longobardo, Renaud Hallée, Mark Jenkins, Ljudbilden & Piloten, Sosaku Miyazaki, Anna Taratiel aka Ovni, Robert Seidel, B. Fleischmann, Koen Delaere, Taras Hrabowsky, Cristopher Cichocki, Yusk Imai, to name a few.

Music by: Bradien, Roll The Dice, Fuck Buttons, to name some.

» Brian Dettmer, book sculptor

Brian Dettmer,1974, is noted for his alteration of preexisting media, such as old books, maps and record albums to create new transformed objects. He lived in and around Chicago, where he studied fine arts at Columbia College. He carves into books revealing the artwork inside, creating complex layered three-dimensional sculptures, he uncovers in his conceptual explorations and sculptural dissections, he manipulates elements as a way to allow new interpretations and ideas to emerge. He use clamps, scalpels and tweezers to recontextualize his found objects and reveal hidden meanings. His work has been exhibited and collected throughout the United States, Mexico and Europe. , He is currently represented by Kinz + Tillou Fine Art in New York, Packer Schopf in Chicago, MiTO Gallery in Barcelona, Toomey Tourell in San Francisco and Saltworks in Atlanta. For additional images of current and cataloged work click here. Also check his website, he has great pieces.

» Shape Shift

ShapeShift is an experiment in future possibilities of architectural materialization. This project explores the potential application of electro-active polymer (EAP) at an architectural scale. It is an ultra-lightweight, flexible material with the ability to change shape without the need for mechanical actuators. ShapeShift bridges gaps between advanced techniques in architectural design/fabrication and material science as well as pushing academic research towards real world applications. The project is being developed by Computer Aided Architectural Design (ETHZ) and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA). I´ve seen different projects with the same principle and purpose but this one is ahead of every one of them. See the team behind this project here.