Blogbook
Called 2ch, the sculpture is by artist Dmitry Morozov, an ambitious art project created to be a brain-to-brain interface. Via FastCoDesign:
In 2ch, the machine is not the end point for your thoughts, but the mediator to another person.
Maybe that sounds a lot like existing technologies—the telephone comes to mind! But what’s different about 2ch is that the machine uses an EEG reader—a skull-worn sensor that can measure the electricity in your brain—to measure your brainwaves, essentially reading your thoughts directly. Then two users can both wear headsets to connect to the machine at once, each trying to coax their half of the machine into working in tandem with the other, matching the same pitch, lining up a robotic arm at the same angle, or playing an abstract video in sync.
There’s no tutorial on how to think to make these things happen, however, so learning to communicate via your mind with someone else necessitates time. “It takes around two to three hours to get some clear result, but you feel changes even from the beginning,” says Morozov. “It’s good to be in mood to work with it, not very tired or irritated. But anger or any other strange state of mind could be fun, too.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sFSelSVFlo
In Dove Chocolate’s new ad campaign, its heroine lives an entire life within a single day. Strange and strangely compelling. Via Adweek:
“Edith Piaf’s lyrics of enjoying life without regret are as true today as they were when she first performed the song,” says brand director Kerry Cavanaugh. “We all need to be reminded to take a moment to savor life’s everyday pleasures, big or small, like unwrapping and enjoying the signature taste of Dove Chocolate.”
We do that with Reese’s. Hope Dove doesn’t mind!
What’s pleasant about “This and Every Day” is that it isn’t trying to find the best possible speech to get our minds right (recent work from Unilever’s Dove, the beauty brand, comes to mind—though there’s no relation to Dove Chocolate). It’s a small, emotional glimpse into a life punctuated not by battles or benchmarks but by small delights—a game of darts with friends, cutting your own bangs (a dangerous pastime), skateboarding down the street, eliciting smiles from strangers, chocolate.
The woman isn’t conventionally pretty, but neither is she unconventional. She’s slim and smiling, the way a lot of people think (and will often say) women should be as they go about their business in public. And it’s true that all the passersby she charms—teetering over bannisters, gliding into buses and skipping through protests—are men and boys. Some vestige of a male ideal lingers here, thick but insidious under the tale of a free feminine spirit.
The Humane Society has a new ad about puppy mills that asks kids where puppies come from. Via Adweek:
While children have one way of looking at the world, the truth is many puppies come from puppy mills where, as one kid puts it, dogs “don’t get kisses, they don’t get good nights, they don’t get nothing.” It’s a heartbreaking message to have the youngsters deliver, especially after their fantastical descriptions at the beginning.
“Ask a child a simple question, and you’ll get answers that are unfiltered, strange and beautiful,” said Rokkan CCO Brian Carley. “These are the kind of answers we all wish were true. With these films, we take our viewers on a journey that’s fantastical and silly, but it also makes it easier to tell the actual origin story that is cruel and hard to swallow.”
The campaign, “Don’t Buy Into Puppy Mills,” also includes three 30-second spots. Those looking to contribute in some way can sign a puppy pledge promising not to buy dogs online or from pet stores and to always consider pet adoption.
“The work is meant to appeal to anyone who has the tiniest compassion for animals and care about their ongoing welfare,” said Rokkan CEO John Noe. “From a more actionable point of view, we also wanted to reach people actively looking to purchase a dog as a pet.”
Nike has a new Just Do It ad for China is a high energy, kinetic Asian celebrity-studded affair, made with Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai. Via Creativity Online:
Along with Wieden & Kennedy Shanghai, the brand debuted this stirring film introducing the “Just Do It” campaign to the country. It begins with a simple scene of a boy practicing some fine soccer footwork throughout his school halls. But that’s just the kick-off to what plays out as a continuous, single take capturing athletes of all kinds showing off their prowess throughout the streets of Shanghai — tennis players, motocross riders, parkour athletes, runners, basketball players.
Featured are cameos from famous pros, including retired national hurdler Liu Xian, former national tennis player LiAn, marathon runner Mr Sun and Taiwanese singer Selina.
A voiceover throughout urges them not to “do it” for any reason — whether it’s for the glory, the fame or the attention. “Just do it,” it says.
The ad targets a young generation unencumbered by their country’s traditions, one more emboldened to be spontaneous and irreverent in pursuing their own paths. “We named the film ‘The Next Wave’ because it’s the perfect metaphor for the youthfulness, optimism and infectious energy of the new generation that’s coming at you at a thousand miles an hour,” said W&K Shanghai Creative Director Terence Leong in a statement.
“Growing up in China, I was surrounded by people who simply used the English words ‘Just Do It’ as a punchline without knowing what it really means,” added Business Director Dino Xu. “In this campaign, the provocative voice-over lines help to define what it is, by saying what it isn’t.”
While the ad appears to be a single shot, it’s actual a feat of production magic. “It took a lot of long shots with very complicated choreography to pull it off,” explained Creative Director Shaun Sunholm in the statement. “That meant we had every day athletes playing side by side with famous athletes, balls flying everywhere, people crashing into each other, it was near chaos at times. But in the end we combined all of their energy into one infectious massive wave of sport.”
Tiger Beer, Marcel Sydney and MIT spinoff Graviky Labs just made ink out of air pollution – and got a few Asian street artists to test it out. Via Adweek:
“The streets are not only a great place to drink Tiger, they’re also the place where creativity, ideas and passion are born,” Mie-Leng Wong, director of international brands at Tiger Beer, Heineken Asia Pacific, said in a statement. “By using our entrepreneurial spirit to repurpose pollution into ink, the lifeblood of creativity, we’re giving creative people the tools to enhance their streets, and empowering inventors like Anirudh to take small but impactful actions against air pollution.”
To bring the ink to life, Graviky Labs founder Anirudh Sharma and his team created a series of tools that attach to pollution emitters like the tailpipes of cars. Once in place, the device captures any raw carbon and soot that might seep into the air. That is then put through a purification process to ensure its safe for anyone to use.
Credits
Agency: Marcel Sydney
Production Company: Goodoil Films
Director: Joel Kefali
Executive Producer: Juliet Bishop
Technology Partner: Graviky Labs
Technology Director: Anirudh Sharma
Location Credits: Jacob’s Garage, Indusspray, Pavithra, 80 Edifice (Bengaluru,
India)
Producer: Andrew McLean
DOP: Lachlan Milne
Editor: Simon Njoo
Post Production: Palace
Client: Tiger Beer
Music Producer: Juan Woodbury & Christine Bilich
Music Company: Squeak E Clean
Productions Creative Director (Music): Justin Hori
Sound Design: Rumble Song
Writers: Justin Hori & Alberto Mejia
Song: “Inked”
Domino’s Pizza test-flies its drone delivery service in Auckland, New Zealand. Via CNN:
“It doesn’t add up to deliver a two kilogram package in a two-ton vehicle,” said Scott Bush, a general manager for Domino’s Pizza Enterprises, which is independent of the U.S. chain and operates in seven countries. “In Auckland, we have such massive traffic congestion it just makes sense to take to the airways.”
A Domino’s customer who requests a drone delivery will receive a notification when their delivery is approaching. After going outside and hitting a button on their smartphone, the drone will lower the food via a tether. Once the package is released, the drone pulls the tether back up and flies back to the Domino’s store.
Initially there may be an extra charge for drone delivery, Bush said, but in the long term he hopes to deliver at no added cost.
Bush said test deliveries to actual customers will begin September 26 out of one Auckland store. The drone flights, powered by American drone company Flirtey, will be automated, but a human will be nearby to supervise. There are limits on how far Domino’s will be able to deliver. New Zealand’s drone rules don’t currently allow a drone to fly farther than the drone’s operator can see, but Domino’s said it’s working with authorities to remove barriers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEf7MoQYgzE
Nike celebrates the 86 year old triathlete Sister Madonna Buder, also known as the Iron Nun, as part of its “Unlimited” campaign. Narrated again by Oscar Isaac, the ad highlights Sister Buder’s achievements in a quirky, frenetic way. More about Sister Buder via the Daily Mail:
This spirited Washington-based senior has completed more than 340 triathlons – 45 of them the notoriously grueling ‘Ironmans’ – and she only started when she was 48.
‘People often ask me how I train for these kinds of these arduous events,’ she tells Cosmopolitan magazine. ‘And to that I say, “I just boogie.”‘
Sister Buder says she was never ‘into’ running as a child, but she was clearly born with a determined streak from the start. She decided she wanted to become a nun at the age of 14, and by the age of 23, she had entered a convent near her home in Missouri.
She later transferred to the Sisters for Christian Community in Spokane, Washington State, where she didn’t take up running as a hobby until she was 48 years old.
When, a short while later, she approached her bishop, Father John, to seek his approval on whether it was OK for her to enter a race, he replied: ‘Sister, I wish some of my priests would do what you’re doing.’
The deal was sealed then and there, and Sister Buder ran her very first 8.2 mile race, ‘ass-backwards’ she says, because the only place she had ever trained before was on a tennis court.
Behind the scenes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEhKxszMd70
This quirky ad for McDonalds France and its American Summer burgers is strangely entertaining, featuring a pretentious French method actor talking about his process. We’re not sure why, but we want a hashbrown now. Highlighting three popular American blockbuster themes (shark attack, a declaration of love on the beach, a raft adrift in the middle of the ocean), the ad pushes six new products. The spot is by TBWA/Paris and directed by Ben Gregor of Moonwalk Films. This is Ben’s second ad McDonalds – the previous spot parodied the movie “Gravity” for the agency, with a similar theme.
Method acting has taken a bit of heat recently, with the latest criticism from articles such as “Hollywood has Ruined Method Acting” by the Atlantic:
Actors like Leto could take a cue from Rowlands. Her work is proof that performers don’t need to suffer so pronouncedly to move audiences, and, ultimately, to be remembered. Fellow modern method actresses like Tilda Swinton, Marisa Tomei, and Scarlett Johansson—along with non-method actors like Pitt—prove that grace and power can be found in acting without torturing their co-stars or themselves. The unimaginative and overly stylized quirks of Leto’s performance as the Joker is a reminder to audiences, performers, and critics just how unrewarding and empty method acting has become with all its excesses. To buy into it is to limit the discussion about what kind of performances are worthwhile. It is to feed into a culture that lets actors get away with dangerous stunts in the name of ego and marketing—not art.
Credits
ART DIRECTOR: Jérémy Armand
TV PRODUCER: Mathilde Nanot-Lachkar
COPYWRITER: Nicolas Roncerel
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTORS: Faustin Claverie & Benjamin Marchal
DIRECTOR: Ben Gregor
POST PRODUCTION / VFX
COMPOSITOR: Nicolas Neidhardt
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Moonwalk/ Knucklehead
DOP: Stuart Graham
PRODUCER: Gaspard Chevance
We’ve heard good things about the Apple Pencil, although it comes with a hefty price tag ($160+!? for a stylus!?) and works only on an iPad Pro. Here’s some gorgeous calligraphy by Ian Barnard on an iPad Pro, created with an Apple Pencil! Beautiful technique combining handmade and technology. Via DesignTaxi:
The general perception of calligraphy is that it is a handmade art that is made with ink on paper—however, hand-lettering artist Ian Barnard has recently showed that calligraphy and technology can go together very well.
After acquiring an iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil, the calligrapher has started creating his gorgeous work on the tablet—he uses the Procreate app to work directly in Adobe Illustrator.
So far, he has shared several videos of his creative process on the iPad Pro on his Instagram account—they are every bit as satisfying to watch as his videos of “traditional” calligraphy.
More via his Instagram. Check it out!
The first music video you can taste…? Stella Artois and The Roots have collaborated over a beer and music, because why not. Via Adweek:
The video is part of Le Savoir, a multi-sensory entertainment platform and dining experience held earlier this month in Montreal, this week in New York, and in Buenos Aires in September. Sid Lee of New York developed the experience with The Roots, food scientists Bompas & Parr and 45 Degrees, Cirque du Soleil’s events and special projects company.
To develop what it’s billing as “the first music video you can taste,” Stella Artois and Sid Lee created a set of sounds that people associate with certain flavors in a Stella Artois.
“Sounds can influence your sense of flavor,” explained Dan Chandler, executive creative director at Sid Lee. “We found fruity pineapple notes, for instance, and then asked people what sounds they represent. All of the sounds were then added to the video, to bring out the fruity or sweeter notes, or the bitter notes that come from the hops in the beer.”
The Roots created a track for the video that has two different versions: one with higher pitches bringing out sweeter flavors and another with lower pitches bringing out bitter flavors in the beer.
The Le Savoir events include performances by The Roots and a four-course dinner with beer and food pairings. Stella Artois also is partnering with bars and restaurants to host scaled-down versions of Le Savoir, and will create online kits to help people create their own Le Savoir experiences at home.
The goal of Le Savoir is to create an unforgettable experience that will further endear millennials, in particular, to the brand, said Todd Allen, vp of global marketing at Stella Artois.