Flux: Short Animation Inspired by İlhan Koman

in Art | April 28th, 2011

Sit back and enjoy Can­daş Şişman’s video ded­i­cat­ed to the influ­en­tial Turk­ish sculp­tor, İlh­an Koman (1923–1986). Rodin, Gia­comet­ti, Bran­cusi – they all informed Koman’s work, and now fil­ter back into Şişman’s video instal­la­tion, which went on dis­play at last year’s Hul­da Fes­ti­val.

The fes­ti­val, fea­tur­ing Koman’s sci­en­tif­ic sculp­tures, ran from March 2009 until Novem­ber 2010, and trav­eled to Stock­holm, Ams­ter­dam, Antwerp, Bor­deaux, Lis­bon, Barcelona, Naples, Mal­ta, Thes­sa­loni­ca and final­ly Istan­bul. You can find more of Şişman’s work on Vimeo here.

via @kirstinbutler

by | Permalink | Make a Comment ( 4 ) |

The Hourglass: A Short Film that Celebrates Time, Slowly

in Art, Video - Arts & Culture | April 25th, 2011

Marc New­son is one of the world’s most respect­ed, exhib­it­ed and award-win­ning design­ers. Accord­ing to his web­site, he’s also the most high­ly-val­ued. New­son’s pieces have set so many records at auc­tion that his work now accounts for almost 25% of the total con­tem­po­rary design mar­ket. It there­fore comes as no sur­prise that the hour­glass­es he has designed for Ike­pod’s reboot cost any­where from 9,000 to 13,000 Euros.

It’s tempt­ing to dis­miss Ike­pod’s new Hour­glass video as a sleek ad for an over­priced prod­uct, espe­cial­ly since that’s exact­ly what it is. But the video is also an ele­gant, visu­al­ly strik­ing trib­ute to a van­ish­ing world, in which time (and time­pieces) seemed to move more slow­ly.

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly

by | Permalink | Make a Comment ( None ) |

A Perfect Springtime Animation: The Windmill Farmer by Joaquin Baldwin

in Art | April 24th, 2011

April may be the cru­elest month, mix­ing mem­o­ry and desire, etc. But Mr. Eliot nev­er depend­ed on sea­son­al change for his liveli­hood, except per­haps in the vaguest metaphor­i­cal sense. For a more uplift­ing take on spring, here’s The Wind­mill Farmer, a charm­ing short film by one of our favorite young ani­ma­tors.

Joaquin Bald­win, 27, earned his MFA at The UCLA Ani­ma­tion Work­shop. He was born in Paraguay to an envi­ron­men­tal activist moth­er and an artist father, and you can see the influ­ence of both voca­tions in his shorts, which have already won over 100 awards, and often have an envi­ron­men­tal theme. For more infor­ma­tion about his work and back­ground, check out our edi­tor’s 2010 write-up over at Brain­pick­ings. And enjoy those lilacs while they last.

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.

by | Permalink | Make a Comment ( 10 ) |

Kevin Spacey & Alec Baldwin Go to Bat for the Arts

in Art, Current Affairs, Video - Politics/Society | April 22nd, 2011

Both Alec Bald­win and Kevin Spacey are long­time advo­cates for gov­ern­ment fund­ing of  the Arts. If you missed their tes­ti­mo­ny before the House Appro­pri­a­tions Subcom­mi­tee on the Inte­ri­or ear­li­er this month, you aren’t alone. They were kicked off the sched­ule because of prepa­ra­tions for a con­gres­sion­al shut­down. These speech­es were deliv­ered not to the sub­com­mit­tee but to a crowd of advo­cates and fans.

Both are well worth watch­ing. Spacey, who is also the artis­tic direc­tor of Lon­don’s Old Vic The­atre, has long been one of the most respect­ed and artic­u­late actors in Hol­ly­wood. (See his inspir­ing pep talk to a young actor on Inside the Actor’s Stu­dio here.) He packs more wis­dom in these 12 and a half min­utes than some per­form­ers do in a life­time.

As for Alec Bald­win, his speech is short­er, but equal­ly com­pelling. If you’re in a rush, head straight to minute  4:00, which begins with this teas­er: “I come from a busi­ness where we all know a great secret …”

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.

by | Permalink | Make a Comment ( None ) |

El Teide in Time Lapse

in Art, Video - Science | April 16th, 2011

It’s the sec­ond time we have Spain in time lapse video this week. First, the his­tor­i­cal land­scape of Cen­tral Spain. Now El Tei­de, Spain’s high­est moun­tain, and the home to one of the world’s best obser­va­to­ries. This drop-dead gor­geous footage (click here to watch expand­ed ver­sion) was cap­tured just days ago by Ter­je Sorgjerd, whose work can be fol­lowed on Face­book here. And, don’t miss our Face­book page, where you can get our dai­ly posts and share intel­li­gent media with fam­i­ly and friends…

via Metafil­ter

by | Permalink | Make a Comment ( 6 ) |

Billy Collins Poetry Brought to Animated Life

in Art, Literature, Poetry | April 7th, 2011

Who does­n’t love Bil­ly Collins, the for­mer US Poet Lau­re­ate? The actor Bill Mur­ray reads his poet­ry at con­struc­tion sites. Adorable tod­dlers recite his poet­ry from mem­o­ry. And now artists have cre­at­ed ani­mat­ed videos that bring 11 Collins poems to life. You can find the ani­mat­ed ver­sion of “Budapest” above, and the remain­ing poems at Bil­ly Collins Action Poet­ry.

by | Permalink | Make a Comment ( 1 ) |

Night Photography: Painting Darkness with Light

in Art | April 6th, 2011

Ter­lin­gua was once a min­ing vil­lage in Texas. Now, it’s an old ghost town where Scott Mar­tin and Lance Keimig host The Full Moon Night Pho­tog­ra­phy Work­shop, a field sem­i­nar that teach­es pho­tog­ra­phers to “see” in the dark. Need­less to say, there is an entire­ly dif­fer­ent art to cap­tur­ing images at night, a bun­dle of dif­fer­ent tech­niques and approach­es to mas­ter, includ­ing know­ing how to paint the dark­ness with light. This video runs 6:30 and gets par­tic­u­lar­ly good around the 2:50 mark…

via @MatthiasRascher

by | Permalink | Make a Comment ( None ) |

How Walt Disney Cartoons Are Made: 1939 Documentary Gives an Inside Look

in Animation, Art, Film | April 3rd, 2011

Walt Dis­ney’s 1937 pro­duc­tion, Snow White and the Sev­en Dwarfs, broke new ground on a num­ber of fronts. It was 1) the first cel-ani­mat­ed fea­ture film ever pro­duced; 2.) the first ani­mat­ed film made in col­or — tech­ni­col­or actu­al­ly; and 3.) Dis­ney’s first ani­mat­ed film, one of many com­mer­cial and artis­tic hits to come. (Catch a quick clip here.)

Two years lat­er, Dis­ney pro­duced an in-house doc­u­men­tary, How Walt Dis­ney Car­toons Are Made, that walks you through the stages of Snow White’s devel­op­ment – the writ­ing of the first sto­ry lines, the draft­ing of the ani­ma­tion sequences, the hand paint­ing of 250,000 cel­lu­loid frames (done by “pret­ty girls,” as they say) and beyond. Back in the day, Amer­i­can film­go­ers watched this footage in the cin­e­ma, the trail­er before the main fea­ture film.

Mean­while, you can also watch online Para­moun­t’s 1939 answer to Dis­ney’s big hit — Gul­liv­er’s Trav­els, anoth­er cel-ani­mat­ed Tech­ni­col­or fea­ture film direct­ed by Dave Fleis­ch­er, who lat­er brought us an ani­mat­ed ver­sion of Super­man (1941).

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. It’s a great way to see our new posts, all bun­dled in one email, each day.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Don­ald Duck Wants You to Pay Your Tax­es (1943)

Disney’s Oscar-Win­ning Adven­tures in Music

Don­ald Duck Dis­cov­ers Glenn Beck: A Remix

by | Permalink | Make a Comment ( 6 ) |

« Go Back — More in this category... »
Quantcast