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Tuesday, April 26, 2011
GoPro HD: Avalanche Cliff Jump with Matthias Giraud
Sunday, April 24, 2011
What We've Lost With Anonymous Designs Like The Kindle | Co.Design
Accustomed to showing off his reading tastes with book covers, Harry West bemoans the anonymity of his Kindle.
Emily Dickinson is disturbing me. It seems that whenever I pick up my Kindle, there she is staring back at me. And when I think of the thousands of other readers with the identical Kindle and the identical screen saver I feel diminished. I have nothing against Emily Dickinson, but I am reading David Mitchell. The different covers of the books I used to read, with their different typefaces, designs, and colors, added to the richness of my life and connected me to others. I want to show off what I am reading; it is one of the ways I express myself.
We all express ourselves in the products and services we use. The most obvious forms of this type of material expression are the clothes we choose to wear, clearly showing off our tribal allegiance. Clothes are even part of the language we use to describe people: “he is very buttoned-down” or ”she is straitlaced.” Similarly, the car we drive sends out clues about us, as does where we bank, whether it's with Chase or Belmont Savings Bank. Even our breakfast cereal has implications about who we are (“she is so granola,” we'll say). When we are choosing a product or service, we do so not just for its intrinsic benefit or its utility, but also because of what it says about us. We are all looking for ways to both show our uniqueness and connect with others.
As products are produced on an ever-larger scale and as competing designs converge on that sweet spot in the market, the things we buy become more alike. The ubiquity of technology is only accelerating this trend--my iPhone used to make me feel cool, but now everyone seems to have one, and to make matters worse, at a distance I can’t see the difference between it and a Samsung Galaxy. Antitrust laws protect us from monopolies that limit our choices, but the convergence of design is equally limiting.
Personalization becomes more important as more of our world goes digital.
As a way to address this challenge, some companies have come up with clever ways to allow consumers to personalize their products. You can choose among more than 100 different cases for your iPhone and you can order the Mini in a gazillion different combinations of colors, trim, and features. Personalization in this way increases the value of a product not only because it makes it more unique, but also because most of us like things that we have helped to design. The effort we put into deciding what color roof to get for our Mini increases its value to us--it is a way of self-actualizing. The meal I cooked tastes better to me, the compilation of my playl ist is more meaningful to me, and even the simple arrangement of my apps on my iPhone adds value to me. This is design genius, because as consumers, we do the work and we are then willing to pay more for it.
Personalization is going to become increasingly important as more of our world goes digital because customizing in the digital space is so much easier and cheaper. Smart companies are looking for ways to facilitate digital customization.
Which brings us back to the Kindle: A paperback is personalized, with a cover specially designed to showcase the book I am reading. Why can’t my Kindle do that? Using its E Ink screen, it wouldn’t cost more and it would add a lot of value. I love being able to have War and Peace and Freedom in my pocket, all on my Kindle, but I wish the experience were more personal.
[Top image: A detail from A Young Woman Reading by Gustave Courbet]
via fastcodesign.com
Rushdie’s Reading List for The Standard Hotel
By Cayte Grieve
April 22, 2011
While most hotels are bending over backwards to give their guests the latest in-room technology, The Standard Hotel is going back to basics. They're certainly not removing the hi-def flatscreens or Apple Docks, but they'll be adding good old-fashioned paper-pages books (not Kindles, not Nooks) to each of their 337 rooms. If it doesn't sound flashy enough, wait—there's more. They've tapped none other than celebrated novelist Salman Rushdie to do the curating.
Rushdie’s reading list, comprised of 13 American selections, is not a marketing ploy to sell more copies of his Booker Prize-winning Midnight’s Children. Instead, the in-room book program is timed to coincide with PEN’s World Voices Festival of International Literature, which is being held at the Standard along with other venues around the city from April 25th to May1st. Rushdie is the chairman of this year’s PEN festival, the literary and human rights organization that brings together more than 100 writers from 40 nations for this event each year.
Starting on Monday, guests will find one copy from Rushdie’s selections in their rooms. The copies are worn-in donations from Housing Works, the charitable thrift store chain. “The core element of literature is what? It’s a used, worn copy of a book. So nothing can beat that,” Laszlo Jakab Orsos, the festival’s director told Reuters. “These books are going to be on the nightstands until they disappear.”
Rushdie’s Reading List:
Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass
William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury
F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
Eudora Welty: The Collected Stories
Bernard Malamud: The Complete Stories
Saul Bellow: Humboldt’s Gift
Philip Roth: Portnoy’s Complaint
Flannery O’Connor: Everything That Rises Must Converge
Kurt Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse-Five
Thomas Pynchon: V.
Joseph Heller: Catch-22
Toni Morrison: Beloved
Michael Chabon: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
via blackbookmag.com
http://jantervonen.com/rushdies-reading-list-for-the-standard-hotelMorgan Spurlock on His New Movie ‘The Greatest Movie Ever Sold’
April 22, 2011
In Morgan Spurlock’s latest documentary, POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, he exposes the wonderful world of product placement by financing the movie solely through product placement. After endless rejections from suspicious companies, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker ultimately scored loot from major brands like JetBlue, Ban, and POM Wonderful, who've made this film their own. “When I was twelve years old, I remember going to see E.T.,” Spurlock says. “E.T. was eating Reese’s Pieces that were thrown on the ground. I remember coming out of the theater and getting my mom to buy me Reese’s Pieces because I had never eaten them. So it obviously works!”
Why the subject of product placement for a documentary?
The film was actually inspired by seeing so much terrible in-your-face product placement in TV shows and movies. My producing partner and co-writer Jeremy Chilnick, started talking about all of the movies that do this. The more we talked about it, we said it would be interesting to make a movie that rips open product placement, to show what goes on behind the scenes and actually get companies to pay for it. We didn’t know if we would actually get people to pay for it, or if anybody would even want to come onboard, but that was kind of a jumping off point.
Have you ever used product placement in your previous documentaries?
Well, some people would argue that Super Size Me was a movie filled with product placement. Maybe not paid placement. No, I had never done anything where anybody had paid to have their product in a movie. People don’t really view documentary films as being the most lucrative or visible place where you want to pay to put a product anyway.
You’re an Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker, so you can get a company’s attention. On the flipside, you exposed McDonalds, one of the biggest brands in the world. Were companies hesitant about getting involved with your latest doc because they didn’t how they would be portrayed?
We had companies that said that they want to do this, but they wanted to have final cut of the movie. We said, Absolutely not. You get zero control over the content. We can talk to you and we will tell you how we are thinking of integrating you into the film and how it’s going to work out, but you’re not going to tell us how to make the movie. A lot of people were very very scared of that. A lot of companies balked and said they want nothing to do with this film because they had no control over what we were going to say about them. All of the contracts that we made had non disparagement clauses in them. We weren’t going to disparage them because they were ultimately our co-promotional partners with the movie. At the same time, we wanted to maintain artistic integrity and tell the story we wanted to tell.
Tell me about the pitch process with companies.
First off, we started calling ad agencies. Every ad agency, no matter who they were, wanted absolutely nothing to do with this movie. They were scared what this would do to their cash cow business. Then we started going to product placement companies and they didn’t want anything to do with the film. We actually had two product placement guys do an interview in the film, but nobody to help us find product. My friend Richard Kirshenbaum literally had the only agency that would come onboard and think about helping us. I went to see Richard and Jon Bond, and they were the guys who got us in the room with our very first company, which was Ban. At that point, we had already started contacting companies on our own – literally cold calling CMO’s. We probably cold called between 500 and 600 companies to try to get them onboard for the movie. With the exception of Ban, every other brand that came onboard was because we called them directly. We didn’t deal with their agencies and that was literally the only reason that it happened.
Until you got Ban onboard, it sounds like you were sweating it out.
Who knew Ban deodorant was going to be the lynchpin for this movie?
In an interview, director David Lynch said that product placement in movies is “bullshit.” Do you think that many film directors are opposed to it, or is it a necessary evil if you want to survive in the movie business in 2011?
If you are making huge $200 million films, to get your action figures in a Happy Meal is important. To get that co-promotional cup in a 7-Eleven matters. You want to help create that zeitgeist moment. So I think that with big movies, it becomes more important because you have to do things that are not going to eat into what’s already become an incredibly expensive movie, and now is going to be an incredibly expensive marketing campaign.
These days, do you think movie studios consider product placement before they green-light a movie?
Absolutely. There is a great interview with Norm Marshall, where he says that before scripts ever get made, his company is breaking down scripts going after clients trying to get products in movies, letting studios know where they can kind of make up the budget. It’s fascinating! Is that helping movies get green-lit? You ultimately hope that it’s not why they are green-lighting movies. You hope they are green-lighting movies because it’s a great movie and not because some shoe company is going to give $5 million to have the characters where them in the film. I ultimately think that it does help influence decisions in some way, but I hope it’s not the end-all.
Product placement has always been a hush-hush subject. Do you think you broke one of the taboos with this documentary?
I think we broke a lot of taboos. We’ll see what happens.
Was it harder for you to get product placement than you thought?
We thought it was going to be easy, anticipating that by four or five months we would have all of the sponsors onboard. It took us nine months to get Ban onboard. It took us almost a full year to probably get six or eight sponsors in. It was a much longer and arduous process than I anticipated. But for me, that’s what made the film that much more rewarding, because we ultimately really had to work for it.
You probably have one of the coolest jobs on the planet. If you weren’t doing this for a living what else would you like to do?
I’m such a terrible painter, but I love art so much that I would love to paint. I’d just sit around and be a bad painter. Or, sit around and be a bad banjo player. I have a banjo that I’m also really terrible on. I think one of those two things would be great to do.
At this point are you going to do a Super Size Me-type of documentary about POM Wonderful? You could try to live on POM Wonderful for 30 days?
Well, they have done studies that have shown that it’s 40% as effective as Viagra. So I don’t know if you could, but I might be really happy while I’m trying.
What do you hope will happen as a result of this film being made?
When the movie comes out, what’s incredible is that there are about twenty promotional partners that we now have. We had about five more come on post-Sundance that won’t be in the film, but will be helping with co-promotion and marketing. I applaud the companies for coming onboard and giving up control. By giving up control, they put themselves in a position that was very risky and could’ve been problematic. But by letting someone else have some influence over their brand, I think they benefited. Hopefully, what will happen after this is that more companies will say that if we give up control and if we work directly with artists, great things can happen.
via blackbookmag.com
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Lady Gaga Interview – Quotes from Lady Gaga - Harper's BAZAAR
Anticipation isn't the right word. I'm sitting in a small recording studio's lounge in New York, waiting for Lady Gaga to arrive and play her about-to-be-released album, Born This Way, for an hour. We're on Gaga time here.
Then, in an instant, she appears. The 25-year-old former Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta is petite in stature but gargantuan in charisma. She is scantily dressed in tights, black underwear, and a black bra under a studded, slashed, and shredded military jacket. Her accessories include fingerless gloves, winged boots, and a spike-covered Hermès Birkin. And, yes, the horns that she debuted Grammy week--and the ones you see in this story--are on full display, protruding from her cheekbones and forehead.
"Gaga!" she announces, extending her black-clawed hand in a ladylike manner. "It is an absolute pleasure to meet you." She points toward a studio, spins around, and marches off.
When we are ensconced in this dungeon of sound, the first topic of conversation is the single "Born This Way," which, when it was released in February, set a new iTunes speed record for going to number one (less than three hours) and was Billboard's 1,000th number-one hit. "It broke all the records!" Gaga cheers, bopping up and down, adding that what she found most remarkable was that the song attracted new fans. "I was happy with the fans I've already got. But it opened this new fan base of people who love the simplicity and joyfulness of it."
As the millions of people who have seen the video for "Born This Way" can attest, Gaga devotes as much artistic energy to her visuals as she does her audio. But today she's still editing the Nick Knight--directed opening sequence, where we meet her newest creation, Mother Monster. She offers a sneak peek but warns, "You're not ready!" presumably referring to its awesomeness. "Nick Knight? He's such an asshole," she proclaims, which means he's a genius. And her inspiration for the video's out-of-this-world surrealism? "A lot of weed."
Gaga is happiest, as she says, "living every day somewhere between reality and fantasy at all times." The only tense part of our conversation occurs when I try to transition her fantasy into reality, asking about the new look--a series of sharp bones that protrude from Gaga's shoulders, cheekbones, and temples. How long does it take to apply the makeup and prosthetics to her face and arms?
"Well, first of all," she says, "they're not prosthetics. They're my bones."
Okay, so when did the bones appear?
"They've always been inside of me, but I have been waiting for the right time to reveal to the universe who I truly am."
Did she will them to come out for this album?
"They come out when I'm inspired."
Is she worried that this new look will inspire other people to "grow" similar bones?
"We all have these bones!" she says tersely. "They're the light from inside of us. Do you mean body modification?"
Yes.
"No, I'm not concerned about that."
The reason I'm pushing this is that in the past, Gaga has spoken openly about her drug use while at the same time being quick to clarify that she doesn't endorse it. So one can't help but wonder if she has considered that some of her Little Monsters, as she calls her fans, may actually hurt themselves trying to emulate her transformation.
"I haven't hurt myself," she says. Then, with her darkened eyes narrowed, she continues, "I want you to be careful how you view this."
Help me view it then.
It's artistic expression," Gaga says. "It's a performance-art piece. I have never, ever encouraged my fans or anyone to harm themselves, nor do I romanticize masochism. Body modification is part of the overarching analysis of 'Born This Way.' In the video, we use Rico, who is tattooed head to toe [including a skull on his face]. He was born that way. Although he wasn't born with tattoos, it was his ultimate destiny to become the man he is today."
And this was Gaga's destiny?
"I have never had plastic surgery, and there are many pop singers who have. I think that promoting insecurity in the form of plastic surgery is infinitely more harmful than an artistic expression related to body modification."
"And how many models and actresses do you see on magazine covers who have brand-new faces and have had plastic surgery, while I myself have never had any plastic surgery? I am an artist, and I have the ability and the free will to choose the way the world will envision me."
But can she acknowledge that some people will misinterpret a woman putting horns on her face?
"Trust me, I know that. I think a lot of people love to convolute what everyone else does in order to disempower women. But my fans know me. They would never hurt themselves. And if they have hurt themselves, they come to me and say, 'Gaga, I want to stop, and your music helps me want to stop. Your music makes me want to love myself.' I am in no way promoting sadomasochism or masochism."
That settled, conversation reverts to safer territory: avant-garde fashion. In her early music videos, before she became the darling of the fashion industry and could show up on morning TV dressed in a condom-inspired latex ensemble (to raise awareness for safe sex, of course), Gaga pushed boundaries. Three years ago, before she was a pop icon, she was known as the singer who refused to wear pants. Her relationship with the stylist Nicola Formichetti is one of fashion's great love affairs; she even closed his first womenswear outing as the creative director of the house of Mugler in March dressed as a club-kid bride. She also greatly admires Hussein Chalayan, who designed her "vessel" for the Grammys and who she describes as "an incredible mind and a genius human being. He truly leads the way in the avant-garde world."
Her other fashion hero is the late, great Alexander McQueen. When McQueen comes up, Gaga leans back and a sense of wonder glows from her face. She thinks that after his suicide, McQueen began working through her. "I think he planned the whole thing: Right after he died, I wrote 'Born This Way.' I think he's up in heaven with fashion strings in his hands, marionetting away, planning this whole thing." Supporting Gaga's claim was the decision by the label--not Gaga herself--to move up the release date for "Born This Way," ultimately to the exact day of the one-year anniversary of McQueen's death. "When I heard that, I knew he planned the whole damn thing. I didn't even write the fucking song. He did!"
If McQueen, from beyond the grave, did help Gaga with this record, he had his work cut out for him. After she unlocks her iPod (with some difficulty, given those claw fingernails), she blasts the entire album. It is epic. Gaga wants the listener to be intoxicated by every song, but in different ways. "'Born This Way' is the marijuana to the heroin of the album. The [album's] experience gets massively more intense as you explore it. All the different songs are different kinds of highs."
The song "Marry the Night," which Gaga wrote once she was this superstar she had always dreamed of being, is particularly memorable. She says that once she had become a household name--after winning Grammys, after wrestling with Madonna on Saturday Night Live, after countless magazine covers--she felt pressured to move to the pop-culture mecca that is Los Angeles. "I had all these number-one records, and I had sold all these albums, and it was sort of this turning point: Am I going to try and embrace Hollywood and assimilate to that culture?" Suffice to say, it didn't work out. "I put my toe in that water, and it was a Kegel-exercise vaginal reaction where I clenched and had to retract immediately," she says in a very vivid metaphor. "I ran furiously back to New York, to my old apartment, and I hung out with my friends, and I went to the same bars."
On a list of Gaga's passions, there's music, then fame and, somewhere lower, material comfort and cash. When she came back to New York, she returned to her studio apartment, which she says is the size of the recording studio we're sitting in, and it's where she still lives. Asked what she spends her money on (upwards of $62 million a year, according to Forbes), she says it goes to her live shows and her friends. She flew about 20 people to L.A. for the Grammys, and if anyone on tour needs equipment, it comes out of her piggy bank. "I spend my money on my props and my creations. I'm an inventor."
Financial freedom has been a tonic for any emotional fatigue. "The true luxury of my success is that I can do it all on my own terms now, even though the roller-coaster ride is still going." But now she owns the roller coaster. "I own the whole theme park, actually."
What Gaga has realized, and what she is extolling in Born This Way, is that there is more to life than the paparazzi (even though she wrote an entire song devoted to the glamour of being stalked by photographers) and fortune. Is it hard to give up the glamorous life? "It's not if it doesn't mean anything to you," she says. "What means something to me is my music. I don't want to make money; I want to make a difference."
She says she doesn't read tabloids but is amused that they have such a vested interest in her personal life. (She's happy to respond to recent claims: "I'm not engaged, and I'm not a drug addict, but thank you for asking.")
But in getting people's attention, Gaga has been universally sensational. In an early video interview, she looks into the camera and uses the word gaga as an adjective. "I've always wanted to be an adjective," she says with a smile. But she adds, "Back then, I was just delusional. I'm going to make a T-shirt that says, I'M NOT A PROPHET, I'M DELUSIONAL."
And what if it hadn't worked out? What if she was still struggling Stefani? Gaga says she'd be just as happy as she is now. "I would still be living next door to my friend Jennifer, playing at the clubs I've always played at. It was never not going to work out for me because I was already living my dream when I was playing music."
Born This Way will have a tour, and after that tour will come another album "and another Grammy performance, and the cycle continues," Gaga says. Is she worried about reaching a saturation point with the media? Nope. "You can quote me on this: People love you when they think you won't be around for very long, and people hate you when they can't get rid of you. But I'm not going anywhere."
Monday, April 11, 2011
Infographic of the Day: Silicon Valley's Nebulous Money Network
via fastcodesign.com
Friday, April 8, 2011
San Francisco to Paris in Two Minutes
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Sunday, April 3, 2011
Simple life Manhattan: a 90-square-foot microstudio
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