Notes & Links by Casey A. Gollan on
art, design, creativity and technology on
television

 

Andra pointed me to this video of a paper-like computer from the sci-fi show Caprica…the Hearst Skiff is getting closer but still no cigar.

See also: Mark Coleran, designer of fantasy user interfaces.

And: I was catching up on 30 Rock tonight, which is (strangely enough?) promotionally furnished by Apple, and I noticed a few design problems. The iMac that Kenneth and Jack are snooping around on has horribly faked interfaces for Photo Booth and iCal.

Also: the iMacs have a webcam built invisibly into the display, hidden behind the glass. However, subtle design does not equal comedic effect, so in the show this computer with a beautifully integrated webcam has a big, clunky prop webcam hanging off the top of it.

Needless to say I was amused and horrified by these design changes. I’m surprised that with their freakish level of control over user experience and image Apple didn’t ask the producers to change these.

I started watching The Up Series a few days ago with some friends and so far I’m through 21 Up. This series is more addictive than reality TV, in spite of being way less junky. Also, it’s available for streaming from Netflix.

The Up Series is a series of documentary films that have followed the lives of fourteen British children since 1964, when they were seven years old. The children were selected to represent the range of socio-economic backgrounds in Britain at that time, with the explicit assumption that each child’s social class predetermines their future. Every seven years, the director, Michael Apted, films new material from as many of the fourteen as he can get to participate. Filming for the next installment in the series, 56 Up, is expected in late 2011 or early 2012. (via Up Series - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Marina Abramović’s 2009 piece The Kitchen I—Homage to Saint Therese

More-interesting-than-you-might-think musings on performance art by James Franco, yes the one that was in Spiderman:

I was instructed to kiss a napkin that had been printed with a square of gold powder that would transfer to my face before eating the dessert. This way the dessert would pass through a golden gateway before it was ingested. I did as told, then suggested to the chef that it needed more chili. Was this art?

As Ms. Abramović told me over our dessert tasting, performance art is all about context. “If you bake some bread in a museum space it becomes art, but if you do it at home you’re a baker.” Likewise, when I wear green makeup and fly across a rooftop in “Spider-Man 3,” I’m working as an actor, but were I to do the same thing on the subway platform, a host of possibilities would open up. Playing the Green Goblin in the subway would no longer be about creating the illusion that I am flying. It would be about inserting myself in a familiar space in such a way that it becomes stranger than fiction, along the lines of what I’m doing on “General Hospital.”

He seems to be teasing that if anything in the right context can be art, can his performance as an artist on the soap opera General Hospital be some kind of meta-art? I’m almost inclined to say no, but sure, whatever.

James Franco on General Hospital and Performance Art - WSJ.com

Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch - NYTimes.com

This wonderful article by Michael Pollan on the state of food in America today & the legacy of Julia Child inspires me to cook more.

I grew up in a chaotic household. Television ordered my attention and gave it flow. Family life couldn’t. This is one reason I study media.
An intense, but very interesting tweet from Jay Rosen, Professor of Journalism @ NYU. I feel like this is true for lots of children. It is very interesting in general to think about how and why TV holds attention.

Imagine Greater. The brand evolution of Syfy (the soon-to-be-former SciFi Channel) takes another leap forward in this playful video tour of their House of Imagination.

For those interested, the song is Goldfrapp’s Happiness.

When the SciFi network announced it was rebranding as Syfy, pretty much everyone in the world who wasn’t involved with the change thought it was a bogus idea. However, I actually like this new-and-expensive-looking-subtly-a-promotion video for the new brand. I am starting to see this working alright.

(via bauldoff)

Gehry on the Simpsons. Excellent.

(via spatula)

Vintage Dharma Initiative Ads

LOST is on tonight!

Oops: Colbert wins NASA space station name contest

WASHINGTON – NASA’s online contest to name a new room at the international space station went awry. Comedian Stephen Colbert won.

The name “Colbert” beat out NASA’s four suggested options in the space agency’s effort to have the public help name the addition. The new room will be launched later this year.

NASA’s mistake was allowing write-ins. Colbert urged viewers of his Comedy Central show, “The Colbert Report” to write in his name. And they complied, with 230,539 votes. That clobbered Serenity, one of the NASA choices, by more than 40,000 votes. Nearly 1.2 million votes were cast by the time the contest ended Friday.

NASA reserves the right to choose an appropriate name. Agency spokesman John Yembrick said NASA will decide in April, but will give top vote-getters “the most consideration.”

Just finished the final episode of Arrested Development, which I’ve seen before but started to re-watch when I was really sick with a cold and had nothing to do. Definitely one of the funniest TV shows ever. Brilliant writing, brilliant acting, and most of all brilliant characters. The rumor that there is a movie in development makes me very, very happy.