The San Francisco Bay Area hardly needs any dressing up. Its natural beauty speaks for itself. But this short HD film by Simon Christen, a professional animator and aspiring photographer, certainly gives artistic expression to the alluring landscape of this coastal region. Clouds take on the appearance of waves, and lights look like lava, as the collection of time lapses roll by. The film (which you can catch in a striking large format here) comes to us via @AndrewHazlett. Nick Cave provides the accompanying music — “Mary’s Song” from the soundtrack of Assassination of Jesse James.
The Unseen Sea: San Francisco Natural Beauty in HD
Free Online: The Original Superman Cartoon Series in Technicolor (1941–1943)
Earlier this week, we flagged a digital archive of comic books from the Golden Age. Now we stumble upon this nugget from the same era: A video archive that showcases the complete Superman animated cartoon series from the early 40’s, all in Technicolor. Based on the original DC Comics character, these 17 episodes appeared on American movie screens (before the showing of feature films) between 1941 and 1943. And they were taken seriously as an art form. The first episode, commonly known as “The Mad Scientist” (watch above), was nominated for an Oscar in 1942, and, in case you somehow missed it, it spells out the whole premise/backstory of the Superman saga. These episodes – all now in the public domain – can be viewed on Youtube. Wikipedia provides some other options for watching/downloading these vintage bits of Americana media.
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Everything is a Remix
“Remixing” has figured centrally in the Web 2.0 vocabulary. But, remixing isn’t new. It has a long history, going back as long as we’ve been making art. Artists have always been collecting material, combining it, and transforming it into something new. Kirby Ferguson’s new video, Everything is a Remix, teases this apart as he brings you back to 1960s Paris and London – to the cut-up literature of William S. Burroughs and the songs written by Led Zeppelin with a liberal amount of borrowing. This video, the first in a series of four, appears on Ferguson’s web site in a nice large format. Have a look and consider donating to his Everything is a Remix project.
How To Photograph an Atomic Bomb
Now showing on the New York Times web site, a haunting video slideshow called “Capturing the Atom Bomb on Film.” It features 23 arresting images of atomic bomb tests conducted by the US military between 1945 and 1962. The images (all originally published in the 2007 book How to Photograph an Atomic Bomb) are accompanied by an audio recording of George Yoshitake. Now 82, he’s one of the few surviving cameramen to capture these destructive weapons in action.
via @palafo
Bombing Warsaw … With Poems
Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939 and began a terror bombing campaign of Warsaw, the nation’s capitol. In total, the Nazis dropped some 500 tons of high explosive bombs and 72 tons of incendiary bombs on Warsaw, beginning the planned destruction of the city.
Now fast forward to 2009, and we witness (above) Warsaw under literary assault. Last August, 100,000 poems written by Polish and Chilean poets rained down on the city. The literary strike came at the hands of Casagrande, a Chilean art collective that has staged poetry bombings of other formerly bombed out cities. Dubrovnik, Guernica, Berlin, etc. Needless to say, the project marks a protest against war, a call for peace, and a celebration of poetry. The Guardian has more on last month’s poetry bombing of Berlin here. H/T to MS…
Take it Easy: Sand Animation Splendor
It took Cesar Díaz Meléndez three months, using only a camera, light table and sand, to produce this sand animated film that serves as a video for the song, “No corras tanto,” which loosely translates to “Take it Easy.” And, rather strikingly, Cesar made the film using no added effects or post production. The Making of No corras tanto gives you a good look inside the production process. Other videos by the Madrid-based artist can be viewed here.
A quick PS: The song accompanying the video was written by Cesar’s band, El Combolinga. Visit the band’s MySpace page.
3D Light Show from Ukraine to Your Living Room
Building becomes canvas. Give it a minute to get going. According to an OC reader, the show was organized to celebrate the independence of Ukraine (August 24th). Thanks Olga!
via metafilter
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