Sources of inspiration thread

[jonbro]

All of these musical instruments.

Particularly block jam and tangible sequencer, both listed under "blocks".

[mcc]

So here's a bit on the animations of John Whitney, one of the first people to work with computer graphics in film.



The second video on that page, Matrix III, is what stands out to me, maybe mostly because it's choreographed to a Terry Riley piece (omg <3 Terry Riley). I like the pairing of this very analog-feeling early digital work with a musician who basically wrote algorithmic music.

[NiallM]

Oh, I love John Whitney's stuff. His brother James is worth checking out too: Yantra, Lapis. And his son - John Whitney Jr. - did a 3-screen piece called Side Phase Drift that I've only ever seen stills of (e.g., and).

I'd dearly love to see these films in decent quality without all the youtube artifacting, but it seems like the only chance of that happening is if someone puts on an exhibition of their work somewhere nearby :(

[mcc]

The visuals in this video.

[steverockan]

Sonic Youth is one of my favorite bands, and this song always takes my mind into deep, far corners: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbf5lRbj0VI

[Ian Snyder]

Inspiration for your nightmares, from an early Pixar project: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqiEv22OZc0

[Kor]

Inspiration for your nightmares, from an early Pixar project: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqiEv22OZc0

Extra Credits - Video Games and the Uncanny Valley
io9 - Scientists still aren’t sure why the "uncanny valley" freaks you the hell out

Quantic Dream 2006 - The Casting
Quantic Dream 2012 - "Kara"

[NiallM]

Love these two pieces on music in British children's TV.

And it’s in those refound lost moments, those redug holes in your memory, where stories etch into your skull and songs pluck sobs from your ribcage, that you truly experience this music’s possibilities. Because when you first heard this music you weren’t just the functioning human being you try to be now. You were a silver feather, a surging tiger, a shooting star, a tired cosmonaut, a bloodied Keneivel, an exhausted den-builder, a resting monster.

You might be all made up of lies now, but this music did not lie to you. It gently, persuasively, insisted, whispered in your suggestible ear, that ‘reality’ was not all it was cracked up to be, that points in time could be vaunted via sound, that music could be magical in an entirely practical kids-eye-level sense. And in so doing it put demands, standards inside of you impossible to shake, incapable of dilution in nostalgia’s lukewarm paddle-waters. Because nostalgia is never cosy when you’re on your own. It’s the most heartbreak you can summon up in an instant.

[NiallM]

Via Warren Ellis' blog, I loved this video of how float glass is made.

It's worth reading the post that accompanies it too: GUEST INFORMANT: Debbie Chachra

[mcc]

[mcc]

(source)

[terrawah]

These animal drawings from tudor times are pretty amazing:
http://www.retronaut.co/2011/09/a-tudor-bestiary/

And while I was trying to look for what that book was for (it was a pattern book that was used as a reference for artists, if anyone is interested), I found this website, containing more drawings, but more interestingly, medieval animal descriptions...

http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beastalphashort.htm

Here's an example of a pelican:

As young pelicans grow, they begin to strike their parents in the face with their beaks. Though the pelican has great love for its young, it strikes back and kills them. After three days, the mother pierces her side or her breast and lets her blood fall on the dead birds, and thus revives them. Some say it is the male pelican that kills the young and revives them with his blood.

Pelicans live in Egypt. There are two kinds: one kind lives on water and eats poisonous animals like crocodiles and lizards; the other kind, with a long neck and beak, makes a sound like an ass when it drinks (this kind is called the onocrotalus). Some say that the two kinds are distinguished by other attributes: the kind that live in water eat fish, while the kind that live on islands eat dirty animals. The pelican has an insatiable hunger, and because its stomach cannot hold food for long, everything it eats is immediately digested.

There are some really great ones in there, too many to list. Bees are apparently the smallest of birds, and the ibex uses it's horns to save itself from a fall. I love it :D

[SavageDuck]

Sometimes reading through these old developer logs inspire me. Quotes like this in particular:

"Also keyed in the data for the title screen, with PARADROID written in giant-sized letters. Since this data is only required one in a blue moon, I've found a nice little cubby-hole in the C64 for it, along with some seldom required text. Thus my plan to use 68K of the C64's memory is realised! I'm using the 64K RAM and 4K of I/O devices. Had to do some fancy RAM bank switching during the game, but it leaves more room for important things" - Andrew Braybrook 1985

Read the whole thing here: http://www.zzap64.co.uk/zzap3/para_birth01.html

[Jasper]

It's wonderful to leave this thread for several months, and come back to find it full of sweet sweet inspiration. Thanks for the excellent finds, ladies and gentlemen.

[mcc]