Skywhale Rises Over Australia

The Australian state of Canberra is 100 years old this year.  As part of the on-going celebrations the Skywhale – a 34 meter long hot balloon was commissioned to symbolize… well, a lot of Canberrans aren’t exactly sure what.  Skywhale has hardly gotten off the ground before she is the center of very divided opinion.

Image Credit Flickr User Spelio

(S)he's Right Behind Me, Isn't (S)he?

This has happened to a lot of people. It may well have happened to you. It has certainly happened to me. If you are an innocent here, then take this great mashup by Plot Point Productions as a piece of visual advice: never badmouth someone with your back to the door through which they may enter. It doesn’t have to be a door, either, as you will see.

This is a great collection of those moments when someone says something about someone else and that person is right behind them.  It takes in a number of films: Miss Congeniality, City Slickers and Goldeneye to name but a few. TV shows are also well represented, with Supernatural, Justice League and Crossing Jordan among others. What is that German word again? Ah yes, schadenfreude...

Worlds Apart

A young family live on a small farm in central California.  Although they have only a single child his imagination and the love of a good teddy bear keeps him from feeling any loneliness. Their life is a good one until a global environmental catastrophe means that everything will change.  Many years later their homestead receives some extra-terrestrial visitors…

Worlds Apart was created by a very capable and motivated group of Cogswell Polytechnical College students (which is based in California where part of Worlds Apart is set). State-of-the-art software and studio techniques were employed in the making of this animated tour de force.

This is an exceptional short film with production values rarely seen at undergraduate level.  It was written, produced, and directed by Michael Zachary Huber.

HIV: The Musical – Starring Martin Freeman

If you are a fan of Martin Freeman at his most deadpan and droll then settle back for you are in for a treat.

Here he plays a struggling writer who has finished his play about people in the Sudan living with HIV and is now looking for a producer.  He finds one but before very long his earnest and intense work has been transformed in to a frivolous, über-camp West End musical.

HIV: The Musical also stars Julian Barratt as the monstrous Myles, every aspiring writer’s nightmare.  It was written and directed by Joseph Patrick and Tim Woodall. 

Svolværgeita: Jumping the Goat's Horns

If the first words that just came in to your head were never in a million years, then you are probably in good company.  The Svolværgeita mountain in Norway was first climbed just a little over a century ago in 1910.  Yet since then a tradition has emerged among the mountaineering fraternity: those who reach the goat’s horns jump them. Because they can.

Image Credit Flickr User Sonia Marotti

The town of Svolvær in Norland County nestles below the mountain. It is situated in Lofoten (which we have visited before on Kuriositas) on the south coast of Austvågøy, and faces open sea to the south with the mountain directly to the north.   It is easy to see where the goats horns got their name. There are two spiky rocks which only the most experienced rock climbers can (safely) reach.

Future.Inc

Steven Moffat, the executive producer of Doctor Who called Future.Inc "Terrific. Really clever and really sad". And it is.

Set just a few years from now, this short film turns our present ideas around social media on its head.  Whereas today we join Facebook and the like and make contact with friends of yesteryear, Future.Inc suggests the opposite.  What if, instead of making contact with friends from the past we can, instead, establish a connection with those from the far future?

Written by Andrew Ellard and directed by Martin Stirling (whose website describes him as director / writer / douchebag!), Future Inc features Hils Barker as the hapless Rose, the awkward office worker who gains a new lease of life thanks to the new social network.  Be warned, though, you may need a hanky if you are of a lachrymose nature. Unsurprisingly, Future.Inc won the Sci-Fi London 48 hour film challenge last year.

Eurovision Presenter Petra Mede Steals the 2013 Contest with Comedy Show Song – Swedish Smorgasbord

If you are not European then this video presents you with an opportunity to take a glimpse in to the rather silly heart of a continent… thanks to Swedish Smorgasbord, comedienne Petra Mede and of course the Eurovision Song Contest..

When Ireland astonished a slack-jawed Europe with Riverdance at the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest it set the bar with its amazing but nevertheless somewhat po-faced interval act showing Irish history and folklore. Since then each host country has done its very best to promote itself through the medium of song and dance. It has become, if you like, something of a competition within a competition.

Baby Boom

This goes out to each and every parent reading this.

Although you may not have quite the same problems as the rats in this animated short, you probably have a good idea how they feel – generally overrun!

The inspiration came from the self-taught artist Ptiluc who has been drawing rats for decades.

Dreams Come True

Do you really think Man is the only one capable of dreaming? I know it isn´t so…

This is quite extraordinary.  Combining time-lapse and HDR techniques, Dreams Come True is a visual poem voiced by a city.  A what? You may well ask, but the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in the autonomous community of the Canary Islands delivers a message to the rest of Europe.  She is ancient but still thrives, she looks back but forever walks forward – and she wants something.

The something in question is the position of European Capital of Culture 2016.  For those of you outside the continent that when a city is designated by the European Union for a period of one calendar year throughout which it organizes a succession of cool cultural happenings with a strong European element.  It is quite the coveted title: previous winners such as Liverpool in the UK have seen their city’s cultural life reinvigorated and strengthened.

The Dreams Come True was imagined, produced and directed by Damián Perea Lezcano. I can only say that with this innovative and truly imaginative approach to applying for the title, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria gets my vote!

The Lonesomeness of Mazinger Z

When Professor Juzo Kabuto built the super robot Mazinger Z he envisioned a world protected from the forces of Dr Hell and his mechanical beasts by this, his ultimate invention.  Made from Japanium (found only on the slopes of Mount Fuji) Mazinger B’s sheer size and power would defend humanity against evil for generations.  He never imagined that his gargantuan brainchild would end its days in an unfinished suburb of a quiet Spanish town, rooted to the spot and silently, gently decaying.

Image Credit Flickr User Bioowloot

Yet that is just what happened. Returning to the real world (for however short a time), just how did this mountainous monument to Manga finish up in Tarragona, a Spanish city better known for its Roman ruins than robot remnants?

Does the British Government Really Care?

In my real world life I teach teenagers at a college in South East London. I mostly deliver a range of IT subjects and a recent addition to the curriculum has been designing and running a blog. My group this year created 2wenty4se7en.com as a two month project and it has been (at least in my mind!) successful: it has generated income, and enabled my students to learn more about blogging from a personal and business perspective. Another benefit has been that it has encouraged the students to look closely at their literacy skills and work towards producing good copy.

So, take a look at the latest post by one of my students, Louis Christodoulou (pictured left) by clicking on any of pictures or the link below. Like many in the UK the recession has hit his family hard and he has not escaped its ravages either, finding it impossible to get even a part time job. You may agree wholeheartedly with his sentiments or you may disagree entirely – it will all depend on your politics. Yet I am very proud of his feature on Does the British Government Really Care?

This isn’t a two minute talking hoodied head on the TV, it’s not a sound bite gathered quickly by an anxious journalist in the darkest depths of South East London. This is the real deal. This is a British youth beginning to find his voice, one which speaks for his generation through online journalism (which you would probably agree is better than a brick through a window). As such it is both a plea and a warning.

If you are reading this and you are an employer in London and you want to give a hard-working and diligent young man a start in life by offering him a meaningful job (or an interview!), then drop me a line!

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

Can you name the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World? If not, this animation may well form a visual and literal mnemonic to aid your memory. After all, you never know when you are going to asked to name them. We have them all here, each presented in a different and individual style.

It is the work of a group of students from Supinfocom Arles (in France) who rather than work collectively on the piece have created a chain animation – a form which is enjoying its moment in the sun at the moment. Small groups of three or four students worked together on each individual wonder and then the seven resulting clips were sewn together to make this fantastic animated montage.

In case some of these have left you scratching your head they are, in order presented here: the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and the Statue of Zeus at Olympia.

My Face is in Space

When NASA launched Voyager in 1977 on board was a gold record.   The record held information about our history and our achievements, our location and our DNA.  It also included photos – lots of them.  One of them was a photo of Larry, a young American teenager whose life was changed irrevocably by the inclusion of his image on board Voyager.

Yet, to paraphrase Bentham, stretching up to touch the stars, young Larry forgets the flowers at his feet.

My Face is in Space was created by London based animator, writer and director Tom Jobbins. 

Sincerity

Lunch is over and David finally has to tell his parents the secret that he has been keeping to himself.  It is something that he feels he has to tell them even though the news will have a profound impact on the family.  Yet it is something that he has to do: he simply cannot live a lie any longer.

If you think you know what this (very) short Spanish comedy is all about from the paragraph above, then perhaps you should reconsider – and press the play button!  This little gem was directed by Andrea Casaseca Ferrer and stars the fabulous Kiti Manver as Mom, Javier Laorden as Dad and Gerald B Filmore as the son with the terrible secret. 

Barbie’s Berlin Brouhaha

My school boy reading of the banners carried by the protestors above translates them as Barbie take off (perhaps they mean get lost) and Hermione Granger did not play with Barbie. True, true – one cannot imagine the Hogwart’s pupil swapping accessories and outfits with her friends even stretching the imagination to the upmost. Not in any shape or form. Yet, surely, haven’t these Berliners had since 1959 to get used to the doll’s somewhat inane take on femininity and, indeed, the female form? What’s got their goat? The answer is this...

Image Credit Flickr User nerxs

Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. At almost 27,000 square feet, the Barbie Dreamhouse Experience, which opened yesterday in Berlin attracted acerbic (not to mention noisy) protests from Women’s Rights groups such as Femen. Even if you are ambivalent about Barbie’s use as a plaything for girls, you can see their point. One can only ponder what horrors of a fuchsia, salmon, or rose hue lie within.

Image Credit Flickr User bildungkatastrophe

Myself, this has made me wonder why these demonstrators were not joined by architecture aficionados who must surely see this monstrosity in pink as the affront to creative planning, design and construction it truly is. Shudder.

First Image Credit Flickr User Libertinus

Villa Epecuén: Argentina’s Pompeii Revealed

Once, people would flock to the small town of Villa Epecuén in Argentina’s Buenos Aires Province to take advantage of the saline, healing waters of its lake. Decades of tourism was wiped away in November 1985.  The rains were unusually heavy and the lake burst its banks.  The entire town of more than 100 blocks disappeared under ten meters of water.

Image Credit Flickr User Pablo Curras

The Body Snatchers: Corpse and Effect

You probably know about the period of British history when medical students were in need of bodies to dissect which gave rise to the rash of macabre thefts known as body snatching.  Perhaps the most famous pair were the notorious were Burke and Hare who ironically did not raid cemeteries but murdered people to provide a local doctor with corpses to dismember.  Fortunately the Anatomy Act of 1832 stopped the ghastly business of stealing cadavers from their graces and allowed for the bodies of the recently deceased unclaimed poor to go under the knife of curious students of human composition.

Yet have you ever wondered where the bodies went after the dissections were over?  Fortunately we have Dr Piers Mitchell of Cambridge University (in the video above) to answer that for us. No need to watch this if you are squeamish but if you are interested in pursuing this then Dr Mitchell and colleagues have published Anatomical Dissection in Enlightenment England and Beyond: autopsy, pathology and display (2012) which is available on a number of websites including one which we won’t mention until they start paying more than 0.1% tax in the UK.

Obsolete

A robot works on a production line – and discovers a sense of curiosity.  That is, plotwise, just about it but watch Obsolete because the colors are simply stunning, evoking a world boiling in heat.  No clues are given as to what caused this environment yet one suspects human hand even if not a single homo sapiens appears.  Yet despite our absence, Obsolete is brimming with pathos.

Obsolete was created by Smoking Robot, aka Lewis Gray and Esra Guldal, two students studying MDes Graphic Design at Sheffield Hallam University, specialising in motion and video.

If F Scott Fitzgerald was One of America’s Greatest Novelists, Why is he Buried Here?

Office buildings and apartment blocks surround the Catholic cemetery in Rockville, Maryland.  Among those interred here is a man whose novels are still read and adored by millions.  Yet you might miss the name on this unremarkable grave, were it not for the occasional bottles and coins that are placed there by visitors.  These additions are the only thing that would otherwise draw the eye to the inconspicuous gravestone of F Scott Fitzgerald.

The Flying Monkeys of Burlington

Even though Burlington is the largest city in the US state of Vermont, its population numbers just over 40,000 souls.  Yet every place needs its guardians and protectors and Burlington has its very own to defend and preserve the population.  The fact that they are winged monkeys conceivably raises few eyebrows in the town: for visitors these primates with plumage are a source of surprise and delight.

Image Credit Flickr User Monekeyswithwings

Image Credit Flickr User monkeyswithwings

Although no one is one hundred percent sure where Burlington acquired its name, the city has a history dating back to 1763 when a land grant was given to one Samuel Willis and 63 others.  Although the winged monkeys are a more recent addition their essentially gargoyle form lends itself well to the town’s European roots.

The Glitched King

I love this time of year!  So many talented students are finishing off their animated movies for their university courses that there is a veritable flood of wonderful work from which to choose.  This is another example of just what today’s students are getting up to while we imagine they are sleeping in, skipping lectures and drinking several gallons of alcohol a week!

A stranded astronaut finds that he has company on the planet upon which he has crashed.  Yet that may be just the beginning of his problems.

Made mostly in Maya, with a dash of After Effects, Flash, and ProTools this is the third year film for Michael Piazza, a student at CalArts.