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amazing stuff...
{to me at least}
Posts are in reverse chronological order and numbered for easy reference... Enjoy:
44
Too often we talk in overly simplified terms about the ‘Left Brain’ and the ‘Right Brain’, frequently we re-enforce unhelpful stereotypes about this inherently interlinked and complex organ. – Renowned psychiatrist and writer Iain McGilchrist explains, so very brilliantly, how our ‘divided brain’ has profoundly altered human behaviour, culture and society. This RSA Animate video is a whirlwind (12min) summary of the full 32 minute lecture. If you have ever heard anything about the two halves of the brain then this (in full!) is a ‘must see’.
43
The power of the photograph to concentrate memory, and channel emotion is quite astounding. This simple site takes one idea (take a picture of a picture from the past, in the present) and gives it life.
The change which our internal and external worlds are exposed to is laid bare in poignant images which try to cross the chasm of time, and in many ways succeed.
The simple ideas are always the best..
42
If ever a site could help you to stitch together the disparate clumps of understanding which you have manage to gather about Art History, then this is it.
Search by date, theme, artist, and choose from over 300 videos.
There are some holes in the resource, namely pre-Renaissance and non-Western art, but this is by far the best collection of knowledge on Art History that I have ever found on-line, and it’s well presented too.
41
A very well intentioned website. I am still unsure if it’s really for me, but I guess that anything which might get you to know your family better, and punch beyond the routine, superficial conversation / norms of close relationships must be a good thing.
It’s not always easy to ask the bigger questions, and it’s sometimes the smallest questions which open up the bigger truths.
40
Just maybe, Google is not the best search engine out there: DuckDuckGo has taken the search engine back to its roots by taking away the clutter, and NOT tracking your every move (click). It also boasts that, unlike Google, it will not Bubble (which basically means they will not allow your past search history to alter you future search results)…
With no ‘pay per click’ advertising, zero clutter, and a MUCH better privacy policy it appears that there is still room for innovation in the Search sector.
39
This has to be the very best way for most of us to get a book published. Blurb works like this: Download the Blurb software, make a book (using images AND text) click ‘Order’, type delivery address, book(s) arrive in 7-10 working days. AND you can even sell your books in Blurbs own on-line shop. AND you get 100% of the mark-up. And they have an Adobe InDesign plug-in. AND the print quality is first rate. AND they have loads of marketing tools for social media sites…
Hear Eileen Gittins, founder and CEO, talk about Blurb on YouTube.
38
Google’s image search has always been pretty powerful when combined with the size and colour filtering, but things just got a whole lot better! – The tool now seems to search the image title, metadata, colour, size, content and composition. The upload and analysis can take a while (depending on the resolution of the search image) but the results are worth it..
I tried it with a random image of a castle which I took years ago and Google’s ‘Search by Image’ correctly identified it as Dover Castle. (!)
This tool has opened up a whole raft of new possible ways of finding information and, in my book at least, that’s a good thing.
Find more detailed info and help on Google’s Search by Image.
37
This is a truly excellent source of inspiration, advice, motivation and resources for all those who care deeply about education.
World class speakers, global events, and insightful debate come together in this one site.
In their own words they are “a global platform for disruptive thinkers and practitioners from the education, digital media, technology and entertainment sectors who come together to explore how new disruptive technologies can drive radical efficiencies and improvements in learning whilst providing equality of access.“
Let’s get disruptive…
36
Susan Schaller book ‘A Man Without Words’ is probably the most fascinating and thought provoking insight into the mechanisms and consequences of Language you are ever likely to read.
Jad Abumrad & Robert Kurlwich from RadioLab investigate the subject in their brilliant hour long podcast entitled Words.
35
This is a truly beautiful idea: We all know about Open Source successes in the field of software, and we (especially the British) know how many mad inventors there are out there; Open Source Hardware just has to be the next big thing. – Decentralising the means of production is like a kid in a political sweet shop mixing the best of Democracy with a hint of Communism(!).
The full Wiki (including the ‘“Global Village Construction Set(GVCS)”:http://opensourceecology.org/gvcs.php’ or GVCS) can be found here.
Also hear Marcin Jakubowski talk about his amazing creation in this fascinating TED talk from April 2011.
34
Kathryn Schulz is a journalist, author, a public speaker, and a graduate of Brown University. In this fascinating book she researches the full spectrum of facts, feelings consequences and, most interesting of all, benefits of Being Wrong. Hear her speak about the subject in this brilliant TED talk from April 2011.
From my point of view her thesis is particularly important in relation to the teaching of Drawing: As with many iterative artistic activities, and especially with Drawing from Life, Drawing can be thought of as a process of repeatedly getting things slightly less wrong, and the acknowledgement of what is ‘wrong’ is essential before you are able to ‘correct’ the discrepancy between what you see on the page and in real life.
In practice her thesis is very interesting for anyone and everyone… Take a look!
33
This brilliant idea “arose from an understanding of how provocative, challenging and entertaining questions, communicated by innovative multimedia, can inspire new thinking“. It is one of Mindpirates' many projects. (Mindpirates are, in their words “A sustainably not-for-profit ‘anti-agency’, the Mindpirates are an international band of creative outlaws out to hijack your imagination”.)
OK, if you say so…
32
This fascinating little website is an interactive mine of information on philosophy and art. In a dry, poetic way the film and animation based clips play out the life and work of Ludwig Wittgenstein, an influential Austrian philosopher.
The site is cleverly structured around 88 interactive flash animations that correspond to 88 constellations of the night sky.
In short it is a story of Wittgenstein’s life retold in tantalising fragments.
31
In 1976 an Argentine couple, Diego and Susy began a lifelong photographic project: Each year on 17th June the family goes through a private ritual. They photograph themselves in order to “..stop, for a fleeting moment, the arrow of time passing by.”
Despite the bare, raw, even empty stare of these faces as they look boldly back into the lens, and the tiny scale of the moment being captured, we can see their lives unfolding. We empathise intimately with the passage of time in their faces, and connect with their plight. This universal omnipresent force of time, and its relentless passage binds us all. I have to confess that I find this simple, determined piece of work deeply and truly moving.
AND
Take a look at this amazing project by Irina Werning another stunningly poignant reminder of the melancholic character of our relationship with Time.
30
I still remember drawing my solution to the world energy crisis at age 7: An electric car with a wind turbine strapped to the roof (!?). The Law of Conservation of Energy had not been explained to me at the time so it seemed utterly plausible. And it must have seemed equally plausible to Mariano di Iacopo and Leonardo da Vinci…
Check out these attempts at Perpetual Motion Machines, truly inspirational.
29
In web-design I have one simple maxim “Under promise, over deliver” and it works; people are happy to get more than they expected. In teaching, things are slightly different: At this conference in Toronto Viktor Frankl, in an albeit limited way, makes a case for always believing the very best in others. More recently Sugata Mitra speaks of how an investment will glean exponentially more return when made in the lowest achieving students than the highest achieving students. I find that it pays to never assume that you know the potential of any given student: Given the belief of those around them, students invariably surprise…
28
NASA describe their vision as to “reach for new heights and reveal the unknown so that what we do and learn will benefit all humankind.”
What if everyone had a personal life-goal which sounded like that?!
Check out the NASA video gallery, and their 3D resources such as Eyes On The Earth.
27
“A vast treasury of wildlife images has been steadily accumulating over the past century, yet no one has known its full extent – or indeed its gaps – and no one has had a comprehensive way of gaining access to it. ARKive will put that right, and it will be an invaluable tool for all concerned with the well-being of the natural world.”
Sir David Attenborough
Wildscreen Patron
A Nobler project I have yet to see, and what a resource!
Jump straight to the Species Library and search through the thousands of images and videos.
26
A little dry at times and satisfyingly Low-Fi, but there is some great stuff out there on this YouTube Channel.
From Climate Modelling, to Tibetan Debate (amazing!) all with a technical slant, of course…
Ever wondered how space flight is powered for example? – Well that’s just the tip of the iceberg in this particular talk about Uranium-233.
25
From basic addition to University level Physics, this amazing library of 10 minute video tutorials takes you through much more than most of us will ever need to know about Maths, the Sciences, and Economics. Forgotten your high school algebra? – It’s here, and more, and it’s all delivered “one concept at a time”.
24
This IS (at it’s best) what teaching is, and should be, all about. The Big History Project is encouraging students and teachers to step across the boundaries of their subject and begin to weave Physics with Languages, and Maths with Art. Biology, Geography, Philosophy, Ecology, History, Economics, they are all part of the same big picture and can all inform each other in utterly astonishing ways… Could this be the most richly researched Origin Story yet written?
23
This is another brilliant and logical extension of the technology which brought us Google Street View.
Check out their YouTube channel for more info and videos, and learn more about the Google Art Project on the site itself here.
This site will bring some of the world’s most treasured and breath-taking works of Art to a phenomenally large audience, and for the first time ever these astonishing pieces of culture can be examined in crystal clear, high resolution, detail showing a hitherto unseen side of each work to the general public.
22
Repper is (apparently) “…a pattern creator that turns your images into eye-catching designs. It’s the easiest way to create beautiful patterns for website background, fabric prints, products decorations and graphic design.” Made by Studio Ludens it’s a great example of the kind of on-line ‘app’(lication) which should, I think, be more prevalent on the web these days. The same studio have also developed Epa:Kato (for designing and making coasters!), Elise (A fractal design tool), and Magic Box (for designing your own customised boxes..)
This is a brilliant suite of little (but very clever) solutions which are, in themselves, beautifully designed. – Very handy and well worth a look!
21
This great little (and powerful) web-app from Adobe is a must for anyone who uses or thinks about colour. Designed for generating 5 way colour themes, users can create, comment on, favourite, share and download their own themes. Learn How To Use Adobe Kuler at Adobe TV in this 4min tutorial.
20
David McCandless, perhaps of the back of Hans Rosling’s Gapminder, has produced Snake Oil, an interactive online data visualisation app which looks at the amount proven efficacy of, and the popularity of various health supplements.
This is the way of things to come: With so much ever changing data ‘out there’ we all need ways of digesting (and visualising) it. Check out some of his other work at davidmccandless.com.
19
What an incredible man! As his website says he is “..a physician, best-selling author, and professor of neurology and psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center” He is also, perhaps more significantly, faceblind and experiences geometric hallucinations owing, in part, to his visual impairment.
He is THE man who will open your mind to the true nature of your mind, and his books and interviews are utterly fascinating to say the least.
Our visual cortex has been so heavily developed through evolution that Oliver Sacks’ research is not only noteworthy for Scientists and Artists but for us all. Listen, read and learn.
18
Need your brain stimulated? Like the big questions in life like ‘What is thought without language?’ and ‘Why do we laugh?’ or ‘Why do we blink?’ or ‘What are our human limits?’. Jad Abumrad & Robert Kurlwich present beautifully edited interviews and direct superbly crafted debate which, while being delivered in an approachable style, probe beyond your initial questions to get under the skin of some fascinating subjects. Mainly Science based (as ‘Lab’ suggests) and mainly audio (as ‘Radio’ suggests) with a few intriguing video sprinkled in too: You can access the Podcasts at radiolab.org and at www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab or via the iTunes Store.
Long live radio debate!
17
Sugata Mitra talks at TED in February 2007. He reveals some fascinating insights into how children teach not only themselves, but each other. His research asks questions about the way we pilot Educational Technology (ET) and shows the astounding leaps which children can make when left (importantly in groups) to get on with it.
UPDATE! – In July 2010 Mitra reveals (to the TED audience once more) the latest developments from his continued research into how to solve this basic problem in Education: “The best teachers and schools don’t exist where they’re needed most”.
For me, Mitra’s research underlines how we have lost our respect for,and understanding of, group or community activities, and how we would be wise to redress the situation.
16
For the hardcore learners amongst you: A collection of truly incredible university lecture series. These are definitely not for the faint-hearted but as a teacher I have to applaud the concept of sharing great practice with as wide an audience as possible. When you do something well you have nothing to hide. If you are original and honest then there is no need for secrecy. Maybe all teaching should be Open Source...
15
See it here, without the crowds, in all its splendour.
This site is a great way to see this masterpiece as a whole and in close-up detail, something which a book can never really do. (!)
(the panoramic image technology used here was the forerunner of PhotoSynth)
14
This has to be one of the most highly ambitious Lo-Fi harebrained videos ever filmed. Like a primary school kid on acid reworking the Honda Cog advert.
They took 85 takes to get only 3 in which the machine ran all the way through… “Perfection is 99% failure” and thank god that there are people out there with the vision and drive to make things like this happen. Oh, and the music’s not bad either.
13
Ever wondered which is best; scrap your dirty old 1.8l petrol engine car in favour of a new eco-friendly model (In the process digging up new raw materials and expending huge amounts of energy in the production and shipping) – It’s all about the “break even” and, as Catherine Mohr points out, the tiny unseen factors which have a disproportionate influence. Hear her talk at TED and visit her eco-home construction blog for a meticulous and fascinating insight.
12
Stephen Wolfram talks about his vast, ambitious projects and explains how, very often, seemingly unbelievably complex phenomena arise from stunningly basic (and beautiful) maths.
Mathematica and Wolfram Alpha are two of his incredible Computation projects.
I am hopeful that Wolfram Alpha will add real diversity to the way we search for information… (Google is NOT the only way!)
11
An inspirational man leaves behind him an astonishing legacy:
In 2007, Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch, who was dying of pancreatic cancer, delivered a one-of-a-kind last lecture that made the world stop and pay attention. This moving talk will teach you how to really achieve your childhood dreams. This is absolutely unmissable in every way, watch it and talk about it with everyone you know. Watch The Last Lecture at Google Videos
10
Sir Ken Robinson makes a profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity. This talk is one of the most persuasive, funny, and compelling that I have ever seen: A ‘must see’ regardless of your take on teaching.
In this more recent talk from 2010 Sir Ken Robinson speaks about Changing Education Paradigms.
Check out his own website for more on this great man’s work.
9
“An illustrated, mind-blowing magic carpet ride of more than 175 ways to alter human perception and consciousness (without drugs or alcohol).”
This is the very best place to start if you are interested in the peculiarities of perception and the amazing tricks our senses can play on our own minds. It is simply magical how unavoidable and sensate these illusions are.
8
At the World Science Festival in 2009 Bobby McFerrin, of don’t worry be happy fame, demonstrated with very persuasive clarity the undeniable power of the pentatonic scale.
He also demonstrates very convincingly the power of the human mind to see pattern and logic in the present moment, and then use this to predict what is just about to happen. Quite something even if you’re not a musician!
7
“World Wide Telescope (WWT) is a powerful ‘virtual observatory’ for scientists, educators, and the public.”
Taken on face value it seems similar to Google Sky, but WWT is intended as a serious academic research tool.
With technology revealing both the gigantic and the microscopic in ever greater clarity and wonder, Artists are increasingly reassured that their intuition is correct; The very large and the very small in the Universe are intimately linked and structurally, visually and conceptually comparable.
6
Beau Lotto, founder of Lottolab, has achieved some truly fascinating research into the peculiarities of how we see.
The field of Neuroscience is becoming of increasing interest to Artists owing to the work of those like Lotto.
In this talk he picks apart the very nature of an optical illusion and offers insights into WHY we see in that way that we do, rather than simply explaining HOW we see. A ‘must see’ presentation for anyone interested in Colour.
5
Hans Rosling’s amazing Gapminder reveals just how much of what we thought we knew is out dated or simply wrong. This incredible piece of data visualisation software is helping health officials across the world make better, more local decisions which have a more positive impact on the ground. The whole thing relies on countries and organisations sharing Data in digital form: Just think what we could achieve if everyone went Open Source tomorrow! Gain fascinating insights into the history or the world from almost any angle.
4
Process Painting at perhaps its most organic and painterly; like Jackson Pollock constrained by the forces of nature. Shannon is working with the weakest force in the universe, Gravity. – Also reminiscent of, but more sophisticated than Damien Hirst’s spin paintings.
3
“We see with the eyes, but we see with the brain as well.” In trying to understand how we see the world there is much to be learnt from how the brain works. In the visual field of Fine Art it is important to realise that we perceive reality through our senses and our minds, and not simply inhabit reality as if it were an objective, concrete entity. This is a fascinating talk for anyone interested in the visual world.
2
I regularly use Adobe Photoshop, Fireworks, Flash, Dreamweaver and Illustrator, and have found this site totally invaluable in learning how to use the individual programs and about the integration of each program into an efficient ‘workflow’. If you are interested in doing more with Digital Images and Print then these are industry standard programs and this is the site to help you get more from them. CS4 is covered by Adobe TV, and CS5 is launched mid April 2010, so very soon there will be another site for CS5 specific training.
1
TED (Technology Entertainment Design) started out in 1984. It “bring[s] together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).” I think it is perhaps the most amazing, astonishing and inspiring testament to human curiosity and the miracles of the world we inhabit. I challenge anyone, from any field of work or walk of life not to find something utterly fascinating on this site.