Ideas. Hyper Island Kids Hack the Post Office Queue.

Mai 15th, 2012 • 1 comment Experimental, Mobile, Tools, We like
Tags: Cool, Creativity, Experimental, Hyper Island, Ideas, Mobile, Tech, Tool, We like

Many of you have probably heard about Hyper Island. The Swedish educational concept essentially promotes life long learning and has “produced” some of the most talented creative young talents I ever worked with. Hyper Island was always much more than a school. It is an attitude, a network, a way to see the world. And beyond  the original school in Karlskrona they now also offer Master Classes in Stockholm, London, Manchester and New York.

Hyper Kids like to play with things and experiment a lot. And most of the solutions they develop is a lot more than just aesthetically creative but a creative solution for a problem.

I just stumbled upon this little gem – a rather smart mobile way to hack the queue (link). It was developed by students from Hyper Island Manchestere and I thought you will like it…

Study Proves: Yes, Money is the Root of all Evil.

Mai 7th, 2012 • Allgemein, Experimental
Tags: biology, Business, Creativity, crime, ethnology, Experimental, Experiments, Funny, Money, monkeys, science, World

Marketing would only be half the fun if people were not as greedy as they are – even though the world would be more fun I guess.

One of the funniest most interesting research pieces in this field was conducted by Dutch primatologist and ethologist Frans de Waal. He and others (like M. Keith Chen and Laurie R. Santos) taught Bonobos and Capuchin Monkeys the value of currency to better understand moral behaviour and sharing. And they behaved quite human-like:

The monkeys learned how to gamble, and showed a human preference for bets with an apparent upside. They tried counterfeiting the money with cucumber slices. They stole coins. And when a riot broke out, one enterprising female found a way to capitalize…

How? That’s simple.

As soon as they learned that coins had value, one of the male capuchins gave a coin to a female in exchange for sex.

So yes: Essentially money is the root of all evil. It turns peaceful primates into criminals with a clear preference for bitches and bling exchanging food for sex.

Oh…and then there is greed. The following clip, which is by Frans de Waal, shows two different monkeys eating two different foods. The first monkey, is given cucumbers and the second monkey is given grapes. After the first monkey sees that the other is getting grapes guess what happens next? Exactly: they essentially turn into members of the board of the Bank of America in less than 5 seconds.

Good news is: we may not be so bad after all. According to de Waal monkeys and apparently even us show some sign of morality and a sense of sharing if they perceive injustice. Read more about his study results here.

The Jig Is Up: Time to Get Past Facebook and Invent a New Future.

April 19th, 2012 • Allgemein
Tags: Experimental, Facebook, Future, Ideas, People, Prediction, Social Influence Marketing, Social Networks, Tech, Tools, Trends, Truth, World

From the great article ‘The Jig is Up: Time to Get Past Facebook and Invent a New Future‘ (The Atlantic)

‘It slipped into parody late last year with the hypothetical app, Jotly, which allowed you to “rate everything” from the ice cubes in your drink to the fire hydrant you saw on the street. The fake promo video perfectly nailed everything about the herd mentality among startups. Its creator told me to watch for “the color blue, rounded corners, SoLoMo [SocialLocalMobile], ratings, points, free iPads, ridiculous name (complete with random adverbing via ‘ly’), overpromising, private beta, giant buttons, ‘friction-less’ sign up, no clear purpose, and of course a promo video.”

And then, the hilarious parody ate itself and my tears of laughter turned to sadness when the people behind the joke actually released Jotly as a real, live app.’

Here is the original video. Isn’t it ironic? Revolutions always eat their own children. Did anyone say google Glass?

Jotly, the Ultimate App for Sharing Everything with Everyone (Psych!)

Animated GIFs. The History of an Almost Art Form.

März 12th, 2012 • Experimental, Media
Tags: Cool, Creativity, Experimental, Funny, Gifs, hipsters, history, Meme, People, Tech, Tools, visual

Okay, let’s just get one thing straight: Animated Gifs are the best thing since sliced bread. And if you don’t agree you are worse than Kony which is pretty bad.

Some people actually consider animated GIFs as an art form (I prefer to use things like GifShop to create stupid loops like that). And the following 6 minute documentary takes us back to a time when GIFs’ were early crude incarnations (American flags, “under construction” signs, flames) before taking us through to the more sophisticated cinemagraphs around the web today. (via Co.Design).

There is one strangely annoying thing about this film…possibly about Animated Gifs in general. To quote a Youtube comment: if feels like ‘Look at this fucking hipster: the movie. But let’s not get distracted by that. AnimatedGifs are great. And I am not a hipster.

Snake the Planet! An Urban Gaming Experiment.

März 5th, 2012 • Experimental, Games, Urban
Tags: cities, Cool, Creativity, Experimental, Funny, Games, Urban, Vintage

This morning I got an email from my old friend Tim Büsing, Creative Director at Publicis Mojo in Sydney. Tim sent me a link to one of their latest, pretty explorative projects which is a real-world version of the classic Snake game. Yes kids – that’s what we played back in the days.

But Snake the Planet is quite different. It takes the classic Snake game and adopts it to the urban canvas. Each level is generated based on the architecture of the building it is projected onto. Windows, doors and signs become the boundaries and obstacles in the game as animated objects collide with and bounce off them using real-time physics simulation. The multiplayer game also has a Tron-like competitive element, where one player can intentionally block the others’ path to win the game.

Early Adoption. OK Computer, 1997.

Februar 19th, 2012 • Experimental, People
Tags: 1990s, Cool, Creativity, Experimental, Music, okay computer, radiohead

Via Retronaut

Meanwhile in Japan. A Kinect Hack a Day keeps the Doctor away.

November 21st, 2011 • Tech
Tags: 3D, Cool, Creativity, Experimental, Funny, Hack, japan, Kinect, prank, Tech, visual, World

This fantastic looking little Kinect hack is almost too typical Japanese. At least if you consider that it seems to be completely normal (after a little surprise) for Japanese people to pose with your evil Manga-twin in the mirror…

Catvertising. How a small Canadian Agency revolutionizes Marketing (again).

November 14th, 2011 • Experimental, Fake, We like
Tags: Agencies, Cats, Cool, Experimental, Funny, Pink Pony, Viral

Canadian agency John St does it again. After staging Pink Pony, the mother of all award videos, last year they are now ready for the next step: a Catvertising Agency. John St: The time is ripe.

Stuff We Like. Selfcontrolfreak’s Interactive Videos.

Oktober 20th, 2011 • Experimental, People, Tech, We like
Tags: Amsterdam, Cool, Creativity, Experimental, Funny, Gaming, intelligent, Pechakuchanight, People, selfcontrolfreak, Tech, video, visual, We like

Last night I attended Amsterdam’s Pechakucha Night at Roest. Most of you probably know the concept: Random people present their business concept/idea/art theory/whatever on 20 slides and they only have 20 seconds for each page before a heartless Powerpoint algorithm switches to the next one. The one person that definitely stood out for me was Olivier Otten – a young Dutch Creative/Developer who tries to play with very playful ways to interact with video under the name Selfcontrolfreak.

I don’t want to say much more. Just one thing. Gamification is not about badges and check-ins. Traditional playful, interactive metaphors have been around since the 1990s. But even two decades later I know of few platforms which are as much fun as this one.

Check out his 22 simple, playful video examples and start playing with Selfcontrolfreak.

Anrealage. An 8-Bit Showroom in Tokyo.

Oktober 10th, 2011 • Experimental, Retail
Tags: anrealage, Cool, Creativity, Design, diesign, Experimental, Fashion, Ideas, japan, Kunihiko Morinaga, Lifestyle, People, Presentation, Retail, tokyo, visual, World

8-Bit? Yawn. We have seen pretty much everything in 8 Bit already. Except a store concept. Experimental Japanese designer Kunihiko Morinaga has built this showroom for the F/W collection of his label Anrealage in Tokyo. I think 8-bit is pretty close to getting buried very soon – but I think Mr Morinaga’s showroom is a fantastic final scream.

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