MelGeek has created this beautiful numpad that reminds me of some of the cool, clean designs coming from Teenage Engineering.
It looks like it would pairs with their Mojo68 and Mojo84 mechanical keyboards really well.
I’m glad we’re still seeing some beautiful industrial design going on. While Apple has done a good job elevating computing devices, I think we have a TON of room yet to go. I think some of the older pc’s from the 50’s and 60’s were things of beauty we still haven’t reached.
Did you know Japan made 50’s style musicals? I was recently introduced to Kimi Mo Shusse Ga Dekiru – 君も出世ができる – or it’s English title: ‘You Can Succeed, Too!’. It follows the adventures of some aspiring young professionals trying to make it in the business world that’s split between tradition and modernity. Even though the movie is 60 years old, if you’ve ever worked in corporate world you’ll recognize each of the characters: the over-zealous corporate climber, the guy just trying to do the right thing, the aging boss, and the up and coming VP trying to apply the latest corporate techniques learned abroad.
It has some absolutely AMAZING set and costume designs, the music is composed by a famous avant-garde composer and famous jazz performers to the lyrics of a renown Japanese poet Shuntaro Tanikawa. The story is even more fun if you understand the traditions embedded in Japanese corporate culture.
The whole thing is astounding, super-catchy, and fun. I’m shocked it hasn’t gotten more recognition elsewhere.
You can watch it here on Rarefilm and at the Internet Archive. I only wish it were available on DVD/Bluray somewhere.
I found out about this gem from the guys over at Important Cinema Club podcast when they broadcast on Twitch (and then were promptly banned for a copyright strike)
Abandoned Films is back with another trippy, AI-generated movie trailer. This time, they took the 1997 sci-fi classic The Fifth Element and applied a 1950’s big-screen aesthetic.
While definitely not perfect, these AI generated trailers are amazing ways to generate and explore artistic concepts.
Creating Augmented Horror experiences – in your own home
We’ve all seen the low-budget horror movie where a killer chases down their victim in their homes. Imagine if you could don some AR goggles and live that experience in your own home.
David Montecalvo has made a name for himself experimenting with mixed reality experiences. His YouTube videos explore a lot of his interesting ideas such as hoping on a real motorcycle and creating mixed reality teleportation:
He started with the Quest 3 and created experiences as Hauntify and FPS Enhanced Reality in which ghosts and soldiers appear in your home to hunt you. You run around your real-life house trying to escape them. It’s quite amazing and scary:
He recently moved onto the Vision Pro since the Quest 3 has limited augmented reality capabilities. The Vision Pro was better and now he has made an experience of creatures following you in the real world. It reminds me very much like the movie It Follows.
He’s experimented in large outdoor environments like a forest and apparently the Vision Pro does an amazing job automatically mapping the terrain and calculating occlusions and lighting. It’s pretty scary!
‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands has a canal art boat float called the Bosch Parade. Some pretty interesting, and bizarre, boats. Looks like they’ll be doing another float June 20-23 this year if you’re in the area.
Massive in the 90’s, Demoscenes are not dead. Revision 2024 demo party just took place March 29th to April 1st in Saarbrücken Germany.
There was music, seminars, videos, livestreams, a 5k run, and of course – amazing code demos. This included some competing 256-byte demos here. One of the best was a post-apocalyptic black-and-white city created with just 256 bytes of Gopher code running on DOS.
While most of VR is focused on creating 3D worlds like we currently know them – some artists are experimenting with mathematically generated audio-visual journeys.
