Bjork: The Billboard Cover Story | originally a 3D movie, now apps & soon to be a stage show - love

For those who don't own Apple's tablet computer, "Biophilia" will exist as a gargantuan live show that features one-of-a-kind instruments, an educational program that teaches abstract musicology to kids, a 90-minute documentary that captures the making of the project and a relaunched website-the design mirrors the experience of the apps. "Biophilia" will also be released on CD through Nonesuch/One Little Indian, and first single "Crystalline" has be pushed to radio before the premiere of its breathtaking music video.

 

New Bjork Single, 'Crystalline,' Leaks Online: Listen

 

At the center of it all, of course, is Björk, whose cavernous, emotionally stirring follow-up to 2007's "Volta" is her most immediate album since 2001's "Vespertine." "This project is led first and foremost by Björk's music," says Michele Anthony, Björk's co-manager with Derek Birkett and former president of Sony Music. "The apps and the live show are just different mediums of expressing the heart of the project."

THE ART OF NOISE

Before "Biophilia" came to fruition, Björk was working on new music in a Puerto Rico beach house with engineer Damian Taylor, writing songs on pre-iPad touch-screens and forging new sounds with organ pipes that they had bought on eBay. After an extensive 18-month tour for "Volta," which included 10 U.S. shows that grossed a combined $3.5 million (according to Billboard Boxscore), Björk was ready to experiment. "We were making pendulums with elastics, rope, magnets and buckets . . . we were building something from the ground up," she says.

 

Bjork's 'Crystalline' Video: Michel Gondry Offers an Inside Look

 

The album was originally conceived as a 3-D movie to be helmed by longtime collaborator Michel Gondry, but around the same time the director bowed out to finish "The Green Hornet" last year, Björk had become fascinated with the capabilities of the recently released iPad. Björk reached out to a collection of her favorite app developers through email and presented them with a unique financial opportunity: Without a major label attached to her next project, the apps would be self-funded and the developers would reap the majority of the revenue.

2011 San Diego Comic Con: “Putting the ‘Epic’ in Epic Fantasy” Panel via TorCom

Media_httpwwwtorcomim_wjtvg

I like Brandon Sanderson's definition!

"...The discussion began with the panel trying to define what made something epic. I suspected it had something to do with having a mighty beard, as most of the panelists did. (Christopher Paolini expressed his envy.) Patrick Rothfuss said that being called an epic fantasy writer was more people seeing his big, heavy book and deciding that that’s what it was. While most of the panelists agreed that the length of the story was crucial to epic fantasy, Paolini pointed out that A Wizard of Earthsea was only forty thousands words long, tops, but no one would say it wasn’t an epic. The most agreed upon shared trait between the panelists’ books was that each novel contained many smaller stories that were part of a larger one. Sometimes with dragons. “The main character is the story itself, moving forward chapter by chapters,” said Kevin J. Anderson.

For Brandon Sanderson, epic fantasy is a matter of immersion in a world, through many inhabitants’ eyes. Their dramas, choices, failures. It’s a cycle that is never-ending. (Much like The Wheel of Time series, the moderator, Michael Spradlin quipped, to thunderous applause.)

For George R.R. Martin, epic fantasy is mostly a marketing category, shorthand to distinguish their books from others in the genre...."

Bla Bla: An Arcade Fire collaborator Vincent Morisset gets into baby talk - New NFB interactive launches!

Screen shot from nfb's blabla.nfb.ca site. - Morisset’s new interactive work explores language and communication in a format that speaks to kids and adults.

Film

Bla Bla: An Arcade Fire collaborator gets into baby talk

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

"Bla Bla, a new interactive animation piece by Montreal film director Vincent Morisset, defies easy description. There’s no dialogue, but it's about language and communication. It’s made for adults, but it’s one of the best recent works of media art for children.

Produced by the National Film Board of Canada, Bla Bla (blabla.nfb.ca) focuses on an animated boy with a large, pancake-like head. Everything he does is a surprise: In one chapter of the approximately six-minute work, the boy says babyish abstract words when you feed him little coloured discs, as if you are feeding him ideas. In another, a mouse click makes the boy butt heads with his mirror image, sending colourfully drawn epiphanies shooting from their joined heads, along with harmonious tones that they say in unison; other segments have the boy falling through the air and being struck by ideas like lightning bolts, depending on where you click your mouse on the computer screen.

And none of the above really does the plot or feel of the film justice.

“It feels like something intended for kids. Kids were part of the public I was aiming for, but never the centre of it,” Morisset says. He adds that he stayed clear of making it too cluttered, like many interactive games for children, or too dark and stylized like those for adults. “I wanted something a bit bland.”...

Colonial Williamsburg Debuts New Alternate Reality Game for Limited Time Only - Game On!

"RevQuest: Sign of the Rhinoceros" Blends 21st-Century Technology With 18th-Century Conspiracy

WILLIAMSBURG, VA--(Marketwire - Jul 19, 2011) - On July 15, Colonial Williamsburg launched "RevQuest: Sign of the Rhinoceros," an interactive alternate reality game that challenges players to explore secret hiding places, meet mysterious characters, unlock clues and decipher codes to solve a mystery. Players age eight and up attempt to complete spy missions in Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Area. The goal is to avert a crisis that could change the entire course of the American Revolution. The game is free with a Colonial Williamsburg admission ticket, and requires a cell phone capable of text messaging.

"RevQuest: Sign of the Rhinoceros" gives Questors a chance to search for clues in the Historic Area's environment, including its buildings, signage, and costumed interpreters, all while using cell phone technology to text in for messages from a mysterious character known only as "368." Based on historical facts, the storyline educates young visitors about the sacrifices and difficult decisions individuals must make for both America's liberty and personal freedom. "RevQuest: Sign of the Rhinoceros" also teaches the vital role of active citizenship in both the 18th century and the 21st century.

How Angry Birds plans to get to 1 billion fans - via Fortune Tech

"...Rovio isn't putting all its eggs (the ones those malevolent pigs haven't stolen away) in the gaming basket. The company recently acquired Finnish animation studio Kombo and is two to three years away from making its first movie: "There's a lot more to the Angry Birds story than you've seen so far," Vesterbacka said. It's also launching a self-published book line, with its first title -- an Angry Birds cookbook -- due out later this year.

But the company is mindful that each new Angry Birds creation has to feel exciting and original. The wrong sequel model is the one Hollywood uses, when it tries to clone its hits.

"We're not working on Angry Birds 2," Vesterbacka said. "We're working on new Angry Birds experiences." He cited Nintendo's Mario Bros. franchise as a role model, where dozens of installments have lured in new players for more than 25 years.

Watch the whole discussion in the video below:

Nice. National Geographic Google Maps mashup explores flight paths' hidden treasures (Wired UK)

Media_httpcdniwiredco_maozg

Hat tip to Olivia Solon, 22 July 11

"The Royal Geographical Society has created online guides to different flight paths, allowing passengers to learn about the parts of the world that they fly over when travelling on commercial airlines.

The Hidden Journeys Project is a Google Maps mashup that aims to transform the "moving-map" that often features on in-flight entertainment systems. These are currently very sparsely populated, with just a few stats relating to the distance travelled, wind speed and time spent in the air. Hidden Journeys adds reference points of interest along the flight path as part of the Society's public engagement programme to turn the international flying experience into an exploration of people, places and the environments below.

Each of the flight paths can be explored at three different altitudes, each illustrated with photographs, paintings and descriptions of what you can see from the air. At ground level you can explore the culture and granular detail of a place, at the mid-altitude you can appreciate the architecture and infrastructure and at the high altitude you can explore the geography and geology of a location...."

Recap of a great evening: DesignMeets… McLuhan+You | And here I am riffing on my probe

Media_httpdesignmeets_hfgfu

Thank you McLuhan100! A terrific evening with great riffs by all :)

"Though the evening was many things, three specific words can sum up last night’s DesignMeets with McLuhan100: memorable, inspirational, and… perspirational! A record 51°C with humidex was said to have reached the University of Toronto campus earlier that afternoon, but the dedicated McLuhan enthusiasts would not be beat. Attendees filtered in to the historic McLuhan Coach House around 5:30 filled with excitement and true respect for the celebration of the man who is often regarded as the father of understanding media.

Each guest received a McLuhan probe upon registration for the opportunity to read it out loud and share their thoughts with others. Attendees ranged from the fields of academia, graphic design, and film, but perhaps the most fascinating guests were those who were students of Marshall McLuhan himself. In true Monday night seminar fashion, the dialogue that came out of the event was both varied and stimulating..."