Machinima (pronounced [mə.ˈʃiː.nə.mə] or [mə.ˈʃɪ.nə.mə]), a portmanteau of machine cinema or machine animation, is both a collection of associated production techniques and a film genre defined by those techniques. As a production technique, the term concerns the rendering of computer-generated imagery (CGI) using real-time, interactive (game) 3D engines, as opposed to high-end and complex 3D animation software used by professionals. Engines from first person shooter and role-playing simulation video games are typically used. Consequently, the rendering can be done in real-time using PCs (either using the computer of the creator or the viewer), rather than with complex 3D engines using huge render farms. As a film genre, the term refers to movies created by the techniques described above.
Usually, machinima productions are produced using the tools (demo recording, camera angle, level editor, script editor, etc.) and resources (backgrounds, levels, characters, skins, etc.) available in a game. Although the topics are often based on male-oriented shooter scenarios, others have been made with romantic or dramatic topics as well.
Machinima is an example of emergent gameplay, a process of putting game tools to unexpected ends, and of artistic computer game modification. The real-time nature of machinima means that established techniques from traditional film-making can be reapplied in a virtual environment. As a result, production tends to be cheaper and more rapid than in keyframed CGI animation. It can also produce more professional appearing production than is possible with traditional at-home techniques of live video tape, or stop action using live actors, hand drawn animation or toy props.
Hacks
A hacker is often someone who likes to create and modify computer software or computer hardware, including computer programming, administration, and security-related items. A hacker is also someone who modifies electronics, for example, ham radio transceivers, printers or even home sprinkler systems to get extra functionality or performance. The term usually bears strong connotations, but may be either favorable or denigrating depending on cultural context
Video Mash Ups
The video mashup has come of age thanks to the likes of YouTube. This is where videos from multiple sources are edited together into a new video. To date, many of these video mashups have been parodies, but even music mashups are being integrated with them to make combined audio-visual mashups.
Mashup films can be broken down into several predominant styles and tropes. Most of the Mashups found on the internet fall into one category and more or less obey the unwritten rules of that class of film. These categories, are: word associated mashups, which like Danger Mouse’s “Grey Album” unite two disparate source materials by a pun or joke found in the name; transgressive mashups which transgress the sexual norms put forth in a film, often subverting hetero-normative portrayals; and overdubbing mashups, which use the images from a film and replaces the soundtrack with new dialogue or dialogue from another work, which undermines the original narrative
Audio Mash Ups
Mashup, or bootleg, is a musical genre which, in its purest form, consists of the combination (usually by digital means) of the music from one song with the a cappella from another. Typically, the music and vocals belong to completely different genres. At their best, bastard pop songs strive for musical epiphanies that add up to considerably more than the sum of their parts.
Nerd Sculpture
Nerd Sculpture is an emerging genre of Nerd Art where the artist utilizes common characters generally from video games, and creates soft sculptures of them. The sculptures generally utilize previously outdated methods of knitting, and cross-stitch to make new digital looking motifs which are not common to fabric or thread.
Nerd Painting
Nerd Paintings are paintings of classic video games, HTML code, television, and film. By painting these digital images a permanent replica of the original image is made. This negates the way one generally looks at digital media, and forces the viewer to confront the subject matter in a new and interesting light. If you haven’t noticed I make a lot of these paintings, and they are for sale too:)
Chip Music
Chiptune, or chip music, or micromusic is music written in sound formats where all the sounds are synthesized in realtime by a computer or video game console sound chip, instead of using sample-based synthesis. The "golden age" of chiptunes was the mid 1980s to early 1990s, when such sound chips were the most common method for creating music on computers. The restrictions the medium posed forced composers to become very creative when developing their own "electronic sounds". This is due to the early computer sound chips having only simple tone and noise generators imposing limitations on the complexity of the sound. The resultant chiptunes sometimes seem "harsh" or "squeaky" to the unaccustomed listener. Chiptunes are closely related to video game music. The term has also be recently applied to more recent compositions that attempt to recreate the chiptune sound, albeit with more complex technology.
Nerdcore Hip Hop
Nerdcore hip hop, or geeksta rap, is a subgenre of hip hop music that is performed by nerds or geeks, and is characterized by themes and subject matter considered to be of general interest to nerds. Self-described nerdcore musician MC Frontalot coined the term in 2000 in the song "Nerdcore Hiphop". Frontalot, like most nerdcore artists, self-publishes his work and has released much of it for free online. As a niche genre, nerdcore generally holds to the DIY ethic, and has a strong amateur tradition of self-publishing and self-production. The only things required to enter the nerdcore community are a microphone, a computer, and a webserver. No recognized nerdcore albums have ever been released on a major record label, and MP3s, not CDs, are the primary means of distribution
Science Fiction
In the spirit of releasing works of art online for free. There are a handful of writers who release their entire books for download for free. This spits in the face of those who believe that downloading, and file sharing are hurting the major corporations that control them. Instead it has been shown to do just the opposite. Making works available for free on the internet expands readership, and creates a buzz around the book. Not to mention the fact that if an item is free, one will get tons of free links to your website. Cory Doctrow of Boingboing.net is the most well known science fiction writer who releases his work for absolutely nothing online.
Politics
There are many various political struggles which face the online community. One of the most popular was the issue of Net Neutrality. Basically the major telecommunications companies wanted to choke the internet, and privatize it, thus making much of it unavailable. Thankfully a grassroots surge of bloggers, and activists put an end to this but the issue has not yet gone away. Another issue which faces a lot of Nerd Artists are copyright issues since much of their work has been appropriated from mass media. I believe that if we have to watch it, or listen to it, we have the right to react to what we see or hear just as many other artists throughout the years have done.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is a non-profit advocacy and legal organization based in the United States with the stated purpose of being dedicated to preserving free speech rights such as those protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution in the context of today's digital age. Its stated main goal is to educate the press, policymakers and the general public about civil liberties issues related to technology; and to act as a defender of those liberties. The EFF is a membership organization supported by donations and is based in San Francisco, California, with staff members in Toronto, Ontario and Washington, D.C
Robots
For many years now scientists have been making large moving robotic sculptures. While many would say that these objects are being designed for more practical purposes I would propose that many are being made just to be made. Robots for Robots sake. A perfect blend of aesthetics and science
Street Art
There are many different ways that nerd artists have taken their work directly to the streets. These can be anything from stickers, stencils, to led graffiti, to the laser graffiti which was breathtakingly created by the Graffiti Research Laboratories in the Netherlands. I love walking around Prague and seeing the new creative ways that nerdy street teams get their message out to the public in the most straightforward way possible.
Vintage Computers / Classic Video Games
Many Nerd Artists have a general affinity for vintage computers and classic video games. This could be due to the fact that many who are now creating art around this subject matter grew up on these systems, and games. The first generation of gamers and computer users need to find ways to immortalize the digital era in traditional formats. Among the most popular are the Commodore 64 computer as well as Atari, and NES 8 bit games.
Ludology
Like most academic fields, those who study video games often have differing approaches. While scholars use many different theoretical and research frameworks, the two most visible approaches are ludology and narratology.
The term ludology arose within the context of non-electronic games and board games in particular, but gained popularity after it was featured in an article by Gonzalo Frasca in 1999.[1] The name, however, has not yet caught on fully. Major issues being grappled with in the field are questions of narrative and of simulation, and whether or not video games are either, neither, or both.
The narrativists approach video games in the context of what Janet Murray calls "Cyberdrama." That is to say, their major concern is with video games as a storytelling medium, one that arises out of interactive fiction. Murray puts video games in the context of the Holodeck, a fictional piece of technology from Star Trek, arguing for the video game as a medium in which we get to become another person, and to act out in another world.[2] This image of video games certainly recieved early widespread popular support, and forms the basis of films such as Tron, eXistenZ, and The Last Starfighter. But it is also criticized by many academics (such as Espen J. Aarseth) for being better suited to some linear science fiction movies than to analysis of interactive video games with multiple narratives.
Here is a truly strange creation, made upon orders of the president of Belarus. It is the new National Library for Belarus, but some people say that it looks like the Death Star. The oddly shaped building was made with public tax money and involuntary contributions from teachers salaries and school children.
Internet addiction more serious than OCD Internet addiction should be grouped with extreme addictive disorders such as gambling, sex addiction and kleptomania, an Israeli psychiatrist said. Dr. Pinhas Dannon of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine said 10 percent of Internet surfers are afflicted with "Internet addiction disorder," which can lead to anxiety and severe depression.
Internet addiction is classified by mental health professionals as an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, a mild to severe mental health condition that results in an urge to engage in ritualistic thoughts and behavior.
"Internet addiction is not manifesting itself as an 'urge.' It's more than that. It's a deep 'craving.' And if we don't make the change in the way we classify Internet addiction, we won't be able to treat it in the proper way," Dannon said Friday in a release.
He said the two groups at greatest risk from Internet addiction disorder are teenagers and people in their mid-50s suffering from the loneliness of an empty nest.
Developing robots with flea-like attributes seems to be quite popular these days, as researchers at the University of Lucca have apparently created a diminutive bot that was "developed to detect mercury poisoning in the ground and leap from place to place the way fleas or frogs jump." The creature measures in at ten-centimeters long and weighs just 80-grams, and can supposedly cover "vast amounts of land in shorter amounts of time" compared to less efficient pollution-seeking alternatives. Currently, the critters are purportedly being loosed in the wild with "special mercury-deteting sensors," so be sure not to squash any hard workin' mechanical pests if one accidentally hops in your tent.
No man is allowed to make love to his wife with the smell of garlic, onions, or sardines on his breath in Alexandria, Minnesota. If his wife so requests, law mandates that he must brush his teeth.
Warn your hubby that after lovemaking in Ames, Iowa, he isn't allowed to take more than three gulps of beer while lying in bed with you-or holding you in his arms.
Bozeman, Montana, has a law that bans all sexual activity between members of the opposite sex in the front yard of a home after sundown-if they're nude. (Apparently, if you wear socks, you're safe from the law!)
During lunch breaks in Carlsbad, New Mexico no couple should engage in a sexual act while parked in their vehicle, unless their car has curtains.
In Cleveland, Ohio women are not allowed to wear patent-leather shoes.
Clinton, Oklahoma has a law against masturbating while watching two people having sex in a car.
It's safe to make love while parked in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Police officers aren't allowed to walk up and knock on the window. Any suspicious officer who thinks that sex is taking place must drive up from behind, honk his horn three times and wait approximately two minutes before getting out of his car to investigate. [Hmmm... okay, there's one place with a law that makes sense... -psl]
In Connorsville, Wisconsin no man shall shoot off a gun while his female partner is having a sexual orgasm.
In Detroit, couples are not allowed to make love in an automobile unless the act takes place while the vehicle is parked on the couple's own property.
A law in Fairbanks, Alaska does not allow moose to have sex on city streets.
In Florida it is illegal for single, divorced, or widowed women to parachute on Sunday afternoons.
In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania it is illegal to have sex with a truck driver inside a toll booth.
The owner of every hotel in Hastings, Nebraska, is required to provide each guest with a clean and pressed nightshirt. No couple, even if they are married, may sleep together in the nude. Nor may they have sex unless they are wearing one of these clean, white cotton nightshirts.
Another law in Helena, Montana, mandates that a woman can't dance on a table in a saloon or bar unless she has on at least three pounds, two ounces of clothing.
A state law in Illinois mandates that all bachelors should be called master, not mister, when addressed by their female counterparts.
An excerpt from brilliant Kentucky state legislation. "No female shall appear in a bathing suit on any highway within this state unless she be escorted by at least two officers or unless she be armed with a club".
Essay: "I'm the proud owner of Karl Rove’s father’s solid gold cock ring."
Essay: "I'm the proud owner of Karl Rove’s father’s solid gold cock ring."
Shannon Larratt, founder of the body modification online publication BMEzine, pointed us a few days ago to a first-person essay that a person named Yard[D]og was writing, regarding the adoptive father of Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove (shown in the image at left). Yard[D]og claims to have been a close personal friend of the now-deceased elder Rove.
About the essay's contents, Mr. Larratt said:
"Karl Rove's father was not only gay, but a part of the early body piercing scene and a regular at 70s piercing parties... There are pictures of him on BME."
Here is part of that essay. BMEzine just published it in entirety with detailed photos said to depict the elder Mr. Rove's numerous genital piercings.
I have no way of immediately verifying the statements in this essay, or the source of the photos. I am pursuing that now, have received responses which so far indicate that this material is valid, and I will update soon. I do know that Mr. Larratt is a friend of the author (a known participant in the body modification community), that he is personally familiar with the story, and is not given to publishing material he believes to be false. With that disclaimer out of the way, here's an excerpt:
- - - - - - - - - -
Louie loved his piercings, they made him smile. People who are pierced will understand.
So there on the floor in his library, amid teaching videos on piercings and piles of [Piercing Fans International Quarterly], I listened to one man’s account of his travels through the Los Angeles piercing community in the 70’s and 80’s — the “piercing parties” with folks getting pierced on coffee tables in private homes, nurses that helped, and a guy named Jim. I knew about Jim. I had both my nipples pierced at The Gauntlet.
Louie also knew about play piercing; I wanted to learn and so he taught me. And so between splashing in the pool, brunches, visiting his volunteer list of AIDS patients, eating at all numbers of restaurants, visiting friends who lived around the area, birding at the Salton Sea and eating TV dinners, we explored needles and the effect they have on you. Continue
Teen Girls Play with Technology at IBM Camp By Carmen Nobel August 17, 2007
IBM and 30 junior high school girls spend a week crafting "binary code" bracelets, building Second Life projects and, hopefully, falling in love with technology.
On a recent August afternoon, 30 adolescent girls sat captivated in a conference room at IBM's Watson Research Center in Cambridge, Mass. Wide-eyed, they watched a scientist from M.I.T. (Massachusettes Institute of Technology) dip a pink carnation into a vat of liquid nitrogen, and then shatter the frozen flower against the side of a tank.
In 1278 the Cistercian abbot of Sedlec went to Palestine and brought some of the soil back to what is now Czech Republic. When he returned he sprinkled it around the local cemetary in his home town.
This made many believe that the cemetary was sacred and caused them to bury their dead there since the ground itself contained soil from the "holy land". In the 14th century the Black Death Plague hit and soon there were over 30,000 dead bodies resting with the cemetary. They began to run out of space, so they decided to make an ossuary in 1511. They literally began piling the bones on top of one another which in turn made space for new corpses. However, the Black Death was only the first wave of bodies to hit this sacred ground. Throughout the 15th century the Hussite wars raged, and more dead bodies were packed into the grounds.
In search of finding a solution for the vast amount of bones everywhere, Frantisek Rint ( a local sculptor) was hired to arrange them in an artistic way. Of course this sculpture was to be displayed in a church in honor of the holy land upon which it stood, and today we have the Bone Church in Kutna Hora. All Saints Chapel.
I know this post doesn't have much to do with the nerd arts, but I just had to share it. Sometimes when I get annoyed with the bureaucracy of living in the Czech Republic I have to remind myself that these are the same people who find nothing wrong with making a beer vending machine in the entrance to a hardware store. This makes so much sense, and also this machine also sells Gambrinus, and Staropramen which are Pilsner Urquell's rival brands. Keeps it nice and cold too. hmmmmmm. God bless the Czech Republic.
Local TV reporters are infamous for practicing "ambush" journalism -- but as they try to take their gotcha practices to the Web, increasingly they're the ones ambushed. The first rule of hacking, after all, is "Don't get caught." And Fox newsman Darrell Phillipsmay have broken that rule, says Drew Curtis. Curtis, left, is the founder of Fark.com, a thoroughly juvenile, and entertaining, social news site where users pick the headlines. Phillips, to his right, is the new media manager at WHBQ Fox13, a News Corp.-owned TV station in Memphis, Tenn. And Curtis claims to have assembled all-but-conclusive electronic evidence that Phillips has tried to hack into Fark's servers, potentially breaking several laws.
Fox News Caught editing unfavourable content on Wikipedia
Fox News couldn't deal with the facts that some were putting on the wikipedia page about the cable news network so they decided to simply change the undesirable content. Winston Smith early career lives on, however in this day and age, edits leave IP footprints. Why didn't these idiots just anonymize their identities?? Morons
MR t1 is a project that constantly checks the current speed of the connected network and if it reaches that of a standard T1 line (1.5mbit/sec) or higher then a Mr.T sound sample is triggered in the form of 'I Pity The Fool' or one of Mr.T's other various sayings. The project playfully examines the metaphorical connection between fictional characters from mainstream entertainment media and the naming conventions of modern communication systems such as the Internet. It also stems from the experience of working in many different lab environments where bandwidth speed has always been an issue concerning people using shared Internet resources.
Have trouble finding a use for those old motherboards around? Well, here's an easy way to turn them into a work of art. By burying the motherboard for a few months it will get this weathered look, then you can mount it, and boom you have what appears to be an ancient kingdom.
Fuck Yuo I am a robot releases entire album online for free
Fuck Yuo I am a Robot is an Estonian band which has recently released their entire album for free. That's right, every mp3 is available for download. For free. Electro Beats, and robotic swaths of color follow.
The Telegarden is a system that allows a living garden tended by a robot manipulator to be operated via anyone on the WWW with a desktop (or laptop!) computer and modem. We had three major objectives in constructing it.
1 To integrate natural, organic elements with robots, so that some parts were fixed and others would grow, change and decay; 2 To create a work of art in the interplay of natural beauty and technology, and 3 As an experiment in electronic community where web surfers can gather and interact amongst themselves and with a real environment.
McLeod Mirror Series 1: See Yourself in Others are not actually made of mirrored glass, but an LCD screen housed in a wooden case with a web cam attached to the top. The camera records the viewer and creates a collage of the person’s image along with images of everyone else who has stood before the mirror. The image allows the viewer to “see themselves reflected in others” in a new way. The mirrors bring a timeless bathroom product into the digital age, creating a twist on the staple that is more interesting and dynamic than the original, while perhaps pointlessly complex. The images are not recorded or archived, so the digital artwork created on the spot will never be seen again. Link
