Photographer Thomas Allen has an interesting take on the pulp fiction genre. He cuts various characters from a book’s cover, theatrically positions and lights them (often with a tongue-in-cheek response to the work’s title), then photographs the results to create an eerily staged diorama with surprising dramatic impact. To see more of Allen’s work, visit the 1dak.com site.
Another imaginative music video using a pop-up book format for the theme of the animation, Bim Skala Bim’s “Stay in My Memory” combines real footage of a book viewer with creative animated characters that play in and out of 3D pop-up pages. I especially like the tight narrative circle created by the opening and closing night sky sequences!
They’re not a pop-up books, but they’re movable and can “pop-up” anywhere. They’re Scott Wade’s dirty car artworks. Drawn into the dust and grime on car windows, these classic art images evolve with the weather, the elements, and the passage of time. See more of Scott’s ephemeral creations at his web site, www.dirtycarart.com.
One of the highlights of this year’s New Works session at Haystack School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine, was seeing videos of Arthur Ganson’s incredible sculptural machines. This one, titled “Machine with 23 Scraps of Paper,” is cool and elegant. Others are lively, humorous, even touching. They all are strikingly inventive, combining a knowledge of mechanics with theatricality and a bit of dance and mime. You can see several of the videos on YouTube, or link to them through his web site, http://www.arthurganson.com/pages/Sculptures.html
This intriguing film noire animation was done by Australian creator Andrew Buchanan while he was a student at Melbourne’s RMIT University. It has a book-like feel, combining digital backgrounds, cut-outs and objects, all in black-and-white. A deep, deadpan narration adds to the aura of a gumshoe mystery.
It’s fun, it’s easy, and you don’t even have to register! Print this file on card stock and pop the candidate of your choice out of the page and into the White House.
Click here to download the pdf file, print all three pages onto card stock, then follow instructions to assemble your own Campaign ‘08 pop-up card. And don’t forget to VOTE in November.
Want to make more pop-ups? Order Carol Barton’s workbook,
The Pocket Paper Engineer
How to Make Pop-Ups Step-by-Step
http://www.popularkinetics.com/sales_page.html
Chris Northey did this inventive 3-dimensional book animation, called “Start Running Pico,” while living in Japan. It speaks to the dynamic balance between creation and distruction that is part of most mythologies. Watch it here on YouTube.
Robert Lang's Origami BiCurve Pot 13
A new film by Vanessa Gould called “Between the Folds” highlights 10 artists who left behind careers and graduate degrees to become paper artists. Attracted by the relationship between paperfolding, geometry, and the natural world, they work on the cusp of science and art. To preview short clips from the film, visit the 2008 Rhode Island International Film Festival site and click on the “Video” tab above the synopsis.
Austin Library drill cart team
While teaching a class at the Nashville Public Library, we were treated to an audition performance of their library cart drill team. Apparently this is a growing phenomenon among librarians, and there’s a national competition of drill team performances. The Austin Library won this year’s competition. You’ve got to watch this YouTube video; it will make you see librarians in a whole new light. (Hint: the best part’s in the middle).
FreeRice.com
“What if just knowing what a word meant could help feed hungry people around the world? Well, at FreeRice it does…the totals have grown exponentially.”
THE WASHINGTON POST
What a concept: improving your vocabulary while you feed the hungry world. This is one of Popular Kinetics’ favorite sites. Every English word you get right in a multiple-choice format triggers a donation of 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program. Doesn’t sound like much, does it? But the rice adds up quickly, and every grain is essential when fighting world hunger. A brilliant combination of education and activism! Visit the web site and apply your mind to helping in this great cause.
