A tree’s year rings are analysed for their strength, thickness and rate of growth. This data serves as basis for a generative process that outputs piano music. It is mapped to a scale which is again defined by the overall appearance of the wood (ranging from dark to light and from strong texture to light texture). The foundation for the music is certainly found in the defined ruleset of programming and hardware setup, but the data acquired from every tree interprets this ruleset very differently.
The Aurora Borealis as seen east of Martin, Michigan on October 24 2011. The timelapse spans 2h 20m from just after dusk to around 10:30 pm EDT.
The YouTube video also come with tech details, which is something I like to nerd out about: ~280 15MP images taken with a Canon T1i. Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 set @11mm f4.0 ISO 400. 25 second exposures every 30 seconds.
Taken from Wikipedia: Auroras result from emissions of photons in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, above 80 km (50 mi), from ionized nitrogen atoms regaining an electron, and oxygen and nitrogen atoms returning from an excited state to ground state. They are ionized or excited by the collision of solar wind and magnetospheric particles being funneled down and accelerated along the Earth’s magnetic field lines; excitation energy is lost by the emission of a photon of light, or by collision with another atom or molecule:
oxygen emissions
Green or brownish-red, depending on the amount of energy absorbed.
nitrogen emissions
Blue or red. Blue if the atom regains an electron after it has been ionized. Red if returning to ground state from an excited state.
This is the Beardcap. It is what it looks like in that you have a cap, attached to a beard. I read that it refers to the traditional “lambshed-hood” used by Icelandic farmers walking long distances in below freezing temperatures through heavy snow-storms. Designed by Vík Prjónsdóttir in 2005, this cap is made with 100% Icelandic wool and is available in five different colours. For the facial-hair-challenged among you don’t worry, you can get one too.
Internationally renowned photographers Tim Navis + Kim Høltermand have started a new project with film collective Scenic Studio and composer Deru. They’ll set out on a journey to explore the remote and beautiful countryside of Iceland to document their experiences with the landscape, residents and traditions. The end result, a beautifully packaged box set of the film and companion soundtrack, will be released to backers of the project as a physical artifact of the unique and awe-inspiring experience.
Tim + Kim will film at various locations throughout the island, inspired by moments of discovery and chance occurrence.. Scenic will edit the series into short films, featuring an original score by Deru and a full-length soundtrack (the first single is available now) featuring contributions from select musicians and contemporary composers.
A Continuous Lean‘s Michael Williams was in Europe for meetings recently and was able to spend a bit of time and a few days in the South of France. He was kind enough to take some photos with a Fujifilm X100 and a bit of post tweaking.
This morning I turned the first pair of Nudies I ever purchased (from back in 2007) into a pair of shorts. 1 less pair of pants and 1 new pair of shorts. My Mom couldn’t believe the price of the denim and I explained ‘they’re built to wear in and to last,’ and to wait and see them in five years. She scoffed and said I wouldn’t be wearing them in five years, which at this point is only 8 months away.
It’s easy to forget all the horrible things that are happening everywhere basically all of the time. That’s just how our feeble human minds work, out of sight is literally out of mind. Especially in British Columbia and Canada where we’re more focused on going to the polls. Again.
George Stroumboulopoulos posted this video this morning showing just how fast the waters come, and how powerful it is. It’s just completely surreal.
One of my closest and dearest friends moved to Montréal a couple years back to focus on Modeling, fire-hooping and marine biology. No jokes. I’m very proud of him.
At the “Une Histoire d’Homme” auction by Parisian auction house Artcurial, Lot 202 is a commemorative box set of 20 colored prints during the period of Apollo 11′s mission, July 16th—24th, 1969. Published by Omega, the above shot is of Edwin Aldrin Jr. on the lunar surface and was taken by Neil Armstrong.
The box set has an auction estimate between €1,000 to €1,500 (about $1,340 to $2,000 CAD).
Russell Leng is an artist living in Vancouver. His work is inspired by the relationship between natural and built environments, which is expressed in this explanation of his work.
My work is characterized by geometric forms interacting with organic marks. This is seen in a variety of ways, such as a rigid line next to a loose application of paint or gradient. I notice these relationships in nature as well; a tree breaking through a concrete sidewalk, or a housing development by a river. I want to examine these relationships between natural and built landscapes, conjuring a new sense of place. By confronting the viewer’s perception of landscape, I aim to question how these unceasing amalgamations change how we identify with our environments, and perceive ourselves in them.
Reading on, it’s eerie how many similarities I feel I have with Leng, his time is often spent daydreaming about cabins, neon lights, and the feeling he gets while hearing the ocean before seeing it, feels like a page taken out of my own book. Perhaps it’s just impossible not to feel this way living in BC?
The largest obstacle around being green seems to be laziness, no one wants to do something if it’s going to be harder than what they’re already doing. This two-tierd system makes the job easy, and it’s called the Trash Classification Bin. The bin-in-bin is used to put in all your organic waste while the bigger bin holds inorganic stuff. A very non-messy and quick way to do your bit.
Based on the 1985 book by Patrick Süskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer was claimed to be unfilmable. The author reportedly thought that only Stanley Kubrick and Miloš Forman could do the book justice and refused to let anyone else make a film adaptation of it.
The story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an olfactory genius on his homicidal quest for the perfect scent translates as a gorgeous movie that, despite many challenges and limitations—imagine trying to build an entire movie around the sense of smell—triumphs over nearly all of them. Using high-energy visuals and impeccable set design to convey every type of smell conceivable, the director Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) is no novice when it comes to quick cuts and expressive film-making. Tykwer said that to him Perfume “was much more a film about the importance of smell in our life than a film that tries to be smelly.”
Seeing so many photos aged through Photoshop, it becomes something amazing to see how folks used to do it the old-timey way where things were much more hands on, where a poster would take a month, not an afternoon, to finish. The images shown here are likely more than 130 years old and, yes, you read that right. Using a process invented in the 1880s by Swiss chemist, Hans Jakob Schmid, these photochroms involve transferring glass negatives onto lithographic plates and then printing these with colored inks. While color photography was indeed around at the time, it was really only available in the labs of researchers. It wasn’t until 1907, almost 20 years after some of these photochroms were probably taken, that color photographic plates became commercially available.
Alex Dent of The Fox is Black shared these in April after he ran across them while perusing the Library of Congress’ flickr site. All three of the moody landscapes above are from around Scandinavia, I imagine anyone producing this quality of image at the time would’ve looked akin to a magician. Looking at these photos even today gives me shivers. Beautiful.
Having a case on your iPhone, for many, is a no-brainer. Keeping your phone protected is a full-time job for some (myself, mostly) and we’ve seen some pretty hideous options out there. Cases that are clunky, unreliable and unattractive. That being said, for every four-cornered tragedy, there arises something innovative and beautiful. I was recently turned onto this great cover that gives your new phone the classic look of an old Leica camera.
Or go one step further and replace getting a case with an entire customized iPhone for only $4,500. PS, this is on my wishlist this season and if you felt the urge to help a brother out, I wouldn’t say no to this under my tree.
A luxurious case made of 200-year-old African Blackwood. It is a rare, exclusive material of incredible strength and durability. Ornament of the case – branded Apple made of 18-karat gold on the back panel.
Kumi Yamashita has a secret power. She can place wood or metal objects in just the right light to make mysterious shadow people show their true selves. The genius of it all lies in the fact that without the lighting and shadows the objects would never give away her secret. These surprising silhouettes only come out when beckoned to do so. Thanks to Shawn (the fabulous producer of the Last Night tracks) for bringing these to my attention!
Ever since I began making these Mixcasts, it was my eventual hope I would be able to co-host and co-curate some of these mixes. In some way, this small dream has come true with the Guest Mixtapes I've been able to share with you; but at the end of the day, it was still my voice. At least in the literal sense. All of that changes today as I'm joined by my friend Erik Jack (@erikstocrat).
We sat down and picked some of the songs we haven't been able to get out of our heads in the past couple months, as ...
Faked Potatoes Mixcast No. 027
Well spring has sprung (if you ask me, and no, no one did) and you know how I feel about warmer weather. Instead of doing a two-parter spring Mixcast this year, I figured I'd just do a double length. I didn't put a lot of effort into narration for this one, so the good news you get to enjoy more music! Get in the mood with these fine musicians:
Amor Fati by Washed Out
Weekend by Class Actress
Young Silence by Echo Lake
Friendship Station by Le Tigre
A Visit From Drum by Liars
Ashamed by Deer Tick
All We'll Ever Know by Parallels
Triceratops (CFCF Rmx) by ...
The Top 10 Songs About Robots
Now this has been a long time coming. The last few months for me have been a ride, to say the very least. January, usually a slow time in my life was quickly filled with personal projects I had been putting off for a long time. I followed up with a lot of people I've wanted to collaborate with, under the assumption about 30%-50% of them would have the time to commit to a collab... imagine my surprise when just about everyone was into working together.
Long story some-what short, I asked my friends in Sex with Strangers (@SWSmusic) to put ...
…By a Fire: Volume 2
I tried something new last year when I gave you the ...By a Fire Mixtape, an alternative—although not entirely disparate—Holiday Mixtape. An hour long, commercial-free Holiday Mixtape where only 1/3 of the tracks are actual Christmas songs. To this day, I've considered producing another Mixtape in a similar fashion. I know it's nice to be able to put some music on and forget about it. I also hate the silence between tracks on regular Holiday albums so we kill two birds with one stone. Now, enjoy ...By a Fire: Volume 2.
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! by ...
