Joe Mills

Lightning Doodle Project

I have the video above for this project, but there is also a site for it as well. I wish that I could read Japanese so I knew exactly what they are doing, but it certainly is fun to watch. I remember taking sparklers when I was a kid and trying to write words in the sky with them. It was a very satisfying activity that I’m glad someone was able to capture in such a fascinating way.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Don’t Click It

Image courtesy of dontclick.it

I’m not that big in to great web design any more, but I really liked this site. Basically, the navigation of the whole site uses no clicks. As you move your mouse over different icons, you move to different parts of the web site. I’m not sure if this type of web design will ever find a home (People love to click!), but at least it gets me thinking that creative solutions still exist for the things that we think will never change.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Illini Vs. Georgia Southern

I got my first chance to watch the Illini on Friday night and here are my impressions. Considering it has been a hard luck few months with the recruiting woes and the loss of Smith and Randle to injury, I think this team looks good. This could easily be a fun team to watch or a difficult team to watch. It is a blessing and a curse that we don’t have that one go to guy. Instead of everyone watching to see what Dee brown does, we have a team that will struggle to find their identity. We are making our share of early season mistakes but the defense looks really good and the offense looks better than I thought. Here is where I see the players at this point:

Chester Frazier: I like Frazier because you need guys on your team that give energy, but he makes too many mistakes. He is like an out of control Dee Brown.
Trent Meacham: Impressed. He is the anti-Frazier. He handles the ball well, doesn’t make a lot of mistakes, passes the ball effectively, and shoots well. For a short, skinny white guy, he is not afraid to take the ball to the basket. We will see how Big 10 play goes.
Calvin Brock: I’m glad he is getting minutes. His shot looks good and he looks much more comfortable than he did last year. I think the injuries have allowed him to prove he deserves minutes.
Shaun Pruitt: Seems to have taken a step back. He really needs to be a force but seems like he is not all there yet.
Warren Carter: Seems to have made quantum leaps forward from last year. He has the air of senior leadership around him. Unfortunately, he has been getting into foul trouble a lot recently which does not bode well for Big 10 play.
Richard Semrau and Brian Carlwell: Seem overmatched early even against mid-major opponents. I will need to see more.
Chris Hicks and CJ Jackson: When McBride, Randle , and Smith come back, they will most likely not be seeing a lot of time. I’m glad they are getting it in now.
Marcus Arnold: I expected a lot from him when he came over from ISU, but he just looks old right now. We need are inside game to have a major presence, and he is not fitting the bill.

I saw we also won this afternoon against Florida A&M, so we are on our way to making our name heard in the Big 10. Hopefully, McBride will not upset the chemistry this team has already built up.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Google SketchUp

Image from Google SketchUp

This is just great program that I came across recently. It is a free 3-D modeling program through Google. Here is what they say about it:

Google SketchUp (free) is an easy-to-learn 3D modeling program that enables you to explore the world in 3D. With just a few simple tools, you can create 3D models of houses, sheds, decks, home additions, woodworking projects – even space ships. And once you’ve built your models, you can place them in Google Earth, post them to the 3D Warehouse, or print hard copies.

It is very simple to use, but you could spend hours just playing with it. I want to use this more with my students because it opens up a whole world of design and architecture that I don’t think is available to them in this format. It can be downloaded here.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Andrew Davidhazy

Image from Andrew Davidhazy

I’m so glad I stumbled across this “artist” while at the Massive Change exhibit. I was thinking about doing my own artwork based on these “exploding images” but didn’t know where to look. Well, Andrew Davidhazy has a whole series of photographs based around this idea of “seeing what happens when you shoot a bullet through stuff”. Davidhazy is a professor of Imaging and Photographic Technology at the Rochester Institute of Technology, but he has really created some dynamic and beautiful pieces of art with these experiments. It has a tremendous amount of movement, but at the same time, it feels like it is standing still. Now that is hard to achieve…

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Massive Change

I wrote about the Massive Change exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago since I was anticipating it before it opened. This weekend, I finally got a chance to check it out, and I was not at all disappointed. It is hard to describe this exhibit in a blog post or through examples, but I will try my best. As I understood it, we are living in a world where design is becoming more important. And when I say design, I do not merely mean graphic or industrial design. As it states for the Massive Change web site:

No longer associated simply with objects and appearances, design is increasingly understood in a much wider sense as the human capacity to plan and produce desired outcomes. Engineered as an international discursive project, Massive Change: The Future of Global Design, will map the new capacity, power and promise of design.

How can we as humans design the world we live in so everyone has clean drinking water, a place to live, and have access to information? How can we as humans create sustainable design so natural resources are not eaten up, and we are able to reuse and recycle everything? How can we design a world where everyone can live comfortably? I believe that a lot of the ideas presented in this exhibit require an enormous amount of cooperation throughout the “global city”. We, as Americans, tend to ignore the outside world, but I hope that day comes to an end soon. I feel it is only right that this movement take flight, so I’m glad that someone has started the conversation.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Cog

Cog is easily the best commercial I have ever seen. (As you can tell, I’m on a video kick here recently since Edublogs updated their site.) Anyway, the Rube Goldberg styled, CGI-less advertisement for Honda Accord is a study in extreme detail and patience. They even created a “Making of Honda Cog” video to show what went into making this commercial a reality. Here is a quote from an article on the making of the commercial:

The clever two-minute Honda “COG” commercial is a real-time creation that took seven painstaking months to prepare – and 606 video takes – that results in a mesmerizing chain reaction that will leave you scratching your head.

This commercial is a few years, but I’m surised it never made its way to the States. It is shame because it is mesmerizing and I could watch it repeatedly.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Playstation 3 Commercial

I’m not a gamer at all, but I love this commercial for the new Playstation 3. It gives a retro nod to the Rubik’s Cube as the pinnacle of intelligence. Then, the PS3 controls the Rubik’s Cube, quickly solves it, and makes it explode throughout the room. Not only is it extremely clever, but the comical violence of the Rubik’s Cube exploding is excellent. Take a look for yourself…

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Studio Output

Image from Studio Output

In the newest issue of Computer Arts, they have an article about how to stay creative. They highlighted a couple of recent designs that they felt were “inspiring”. I thought these advertisements by Studio Output are just excellent. They remind of a diorama I might have made while I was in grade school, but they are on steroids. They are just extremely playful, well thought out, and well executed. I want to see more…or make one myself…

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Cardboard Stuff

Image from Senor B on Flicker

I wish I knew the exact name of the artist who did these cardboard box sculptures. He is only listed as Senor B on his Flickr account. They are very simple, but very expressive caricatures made out of cardboard. You might never see these in an art gallery near you, but that is one of the reasons I like them. Besides, some of the stuff I see in contemporary galleries nowadays is downright stupid. As I’ve mentioned before, I like simple ideas that are executed well. It doesn’t need to be high concept or extremely thought-provoking. Sometimes, all you need is a good idea, some talent, and a little bit of hard work to make a good idea really come alive.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites