Aram Squalls

So long, Photoshop. You'll be remembered quaintly.

This is so staggeringly simple and such a deft piece of complex engineering, I am blown away. A new program called PhotoSketch turns simple line drawings into photocollages using image search, mapping, cutting, pasting and blending algorithms. In other words, you draw a doodle, and the program turns it into a photorealistic image.

I can easily imagine the day when this functionality is available for audio and video. Without advanced technical expertise, people will be able to create their own films, games, and songs simply by sketching their favorite actors, locales and musicians into the frame. Of course, the Andrew Keens of the world will decry it as yet another victory for mediocrity over greatness. I prefer to think of it as yet another victory for free expression over cultural exclusivity.

Can't wait to play with it.

PhotoSketch: Internet Image Montage from tao chen on Vimeo.

The world's biggest musical collaboration

Today, my client Pepsi released The Ultimate Refresh, a remix project allowing anyone in the world to upload their own accompaniment to a track by LMFAO, and to remix other people's submissions with the original song. It's a pretty cool riff on the Through-you.com aesthetic -- four videos play at once, in a 2x2 matrix.

I'd like to take full credit for the idea, but can't; although I worked on the project, I came in on the tail end of it.

Check it out, let me know what you think.

Like a free copy of GarageBand, in your browser: Myna

Free cloud software consortium Aviary just launched what looks like a pretty cool browser-based sequencing program (think GarageBand online), called Myna. Check it out:

Awesome new video game magazine needs your seed capital

My friend Jamin just sent me this: a very cool-looking new magazine project called "Kill Screen," dedicated to video game culture and commentary. Along with Jamin, who covers games for the Wall St. Journal, other contributors include writers for The New Yorker, GQ, the Daily Show, Christian Science Monitor, LA Times, the Colbert Report, the Onion, and Paste.

They're aiming for $3,500 in startup capital and are about halfway there. Your pledge can help push things over the line.

September Morning

Originally uploaded by Aram Sinnreich

Just a rainy Friday, like any other

No needles to pierce the clutter

No scent of past disaster

In the city of Alabaster

Just wind and clouds and gusts like whispers

Drops like drums on office windows

Shrouds of blistered mist and cinders

Painted over, forced to witness

The city go about its business