Ebb & Flow #1: Interactive CD Cover - today and tomorrow

I woke up this morning thinking about ebb and flow and how powerfully affecting a sense of the organic is when rendered in video or digital media.

I saw this a couple of weeks ago and it reminded me of a number of my favourite works of the past few years.

Here, Hubero Kororo has designed an interactive CD cover that 'bleeds' ink when you break the security tabs. It's a limited form of interactivity & I imagine irreversible. A purely physical rendering of an effect seen in a number of works I will post in a series after this one.

The Pirates Society - Strategy consultants launch ARG

It's better to be a pirate than to join the Navy.

(Steve Jobs)

Strong character is the backbone of a strong organization. Interdisciplinary thinking and the development of creative strategies require people with personality: "It's character that creates impact!" That's the motto of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and is also what explains the attraction of an Alternate Reality Game (ARG). It was therefore an easy decision for Roland Berger to turn to this new genre in its efforts to pique the interest of high potentials for strategy consulting.

Who wouldn't want to be a pirate? Don't you want to play the main role in a business thriller? As fantastic as the story of an ARG may be, players need abilities and social skills to reach the goal. Pirates need the same qualities that set apart Roland Berger consultants: courage and a willingness to take risks in exploring new paths. And of course team spirit – creative solutions come about only from the teamwork of the best people.

The Pirates Society is reality – an organization that shares experiences and writes its own stories. Stay tuned to see when the Pirates Society sets sail again!

Roland Berger Strategy Consultants have created an ARG website 'to pique... interest...'

I'll say! It's a far cry from their business website - if they can maintain the clever pirate front, kudos!

World-Building at Warner Brothers: Chris DeFaria on the Power of Digital

Todd Denis has a great interview with Chris DeFaria on Jawbone.tv on world-building. Two key insights of DeFaria's are, one, on the value of being able to demo a world with a distinct visual aesthetic as a prototype that can communicate the vision for the film.

Referring to an animated film about owls, Guardians of Ga'Hoole, DeFaria describes how, 'It's a kid's book, but it's like owls in a movie like Lord of the Rings. People sort of get that, but what would it look like? So we did a test and built a world, and once the executives saw it, the movie was green lit.'

And second, that 'Clever world-building is just like clever filmmaking ... it's coming up with a very big idea for a world and reducing it down into an experience. If you can do that effectively, you can probably do that cost-consciously.'

What the F**k is T-post?

Swedish T-Post have created an augmented reality T-shirt magazine - T-shirts arrive every six weeks with AR graphic on the front. The inside of the T has the text of an offbeat news story which has been sent to one of their favourite artists who interprets the story as the visual graphic. Very cool.

You can subscribe here: http://www.t-post.se/

Flyar - Augmented Reality Twitter Visualization App

Flyar is a screensaver, Twitter visualization application that uses Augmented Reality and gesture interaction. It enables users to see themselves in real time, inside a pc screen, surrounded by virtual birds that flutter about or fly towards them to deliver incoming tweets. Developed by YDreams.

Thanatorama / You are the dead hero of this story

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Alexandre Brachet, co-producer of the beautiful online documentary Gaza/Sderot, has launched Thanatorama, a webdocumentary that takes you into the world of funerals as the just departed hero. This latest doc won the Grand Prix at the Web Flash Festival.

Brachet's Upian.com will be launching Prison Valley in the spring of 2010, in a co-production with Arte.tv who also co-produced Gaza/Sderot.

An eerie doc indeed - I love the spatial design made bare in the chapters link.