Aram Squalls

Tiger Woods voicemail slowjam remix

I'm not normally a fan of Schadenfreude humor, but this slowjam remix of the now infamous Tiger Woods mistress voicemail is too good not to share.

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.

If Terry Riley and Kutiman had a baby

Bassist and composer Darren Solomon very cleverly married Terry Riley's "In C" with Kutiman's Through-You, and added interactivity, producing a hypnotic, finite-yet-infinite YouTube mash-up site called "In B Flat."

It's delectably simple, yet wonderfully compelling. Kind of like a sonic chocolate-chip cookie.

Gorgeous trompe l'oeil digital projection

Some really creative folks in Germany used a high-definition digital projector to produce amazing trompe l'oeil effects on the side of the Hamburg Kunsthalle. The animation takes its cue from the gridlike pattern on the face of the building, and builds from there.

Kind of reminds me of the in-station subway advertisements for New York's New Museum last year.

Nirvana gets Rick Rolled

Yes, yes, I know, Rick Rolling was soooooo 2008. But this new video mash-up by DJ Morgoth was just too good not to post. The video mix isn't much to look at, but the musical juxtaposition really works.

Previously:
Obama + Rick Astley = lulz
Memetic hybridization -- or, Hitler gets Rick Rolled

Glenn Beck freakout remix

Glenn Beck's Wednesday on-air freakout about vampires has already been remixed into an awesome rockabilly song/video. It's a must-watch.

Previously:
Bill O'Reilly f-bomb remix
Christian Bale flameout remix

Thriller flashmobs

Michael Jackson is dead, and America the world is celebrating the man who more or less invented the music video by getting together for impromptu Thriller flashmobs, then uploading the video to YouTube. It's kind of cool that we can collectively preserve the his cultural memory from the ground up, rather than relying on the dainty official hagiographies we're bound to see on MTV and network news.

I was lucky enough to walk into one of those flashmobs tonight. Here's my video. Rest in peace, oh gloved one. You rocked a lot of worlds.

Previously: Indian Thriller: Hooray for Hybridization!

Auto-tuning the news

If you've ever found the robotic, pat intonations of TV commentators and their limited list of talking points and phrases cloying or off-putting, you'll probably get a kick out of this video. The Gregory Brothers have "autotuned" and mashed up TV news footage with their own song lyrics, turning the unidirectional drone of punditry and commentary into a funky Q-and-A.

Previously:

• It's like Milli Vanilli all over again...
• Palin's musical cadences, set to piano

(Thanks for the link, David!)

Take our Online Video Advertising Survey, win an iPod

My consulting firm, Radar Research, is doing a new project on Online Video Advertising -- trying to figure out which business models, price points, feature sets, and publishers are best suited to this emerging platform. If you're involved in the business, either as an advertiser, a buyer or an agency executive, we'd love your feedback.

The survey's very short, and you could win an iPod Touch. Plus, we'll be publishing the topline findings in an article.

Here's the link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Vmt3J9wVh0nwiqTRucgxqg_3d_3d

Configurable building blocks

I love this project by MIT Media Lab grad student David Merrill. They're computerized, self-aware, socially-aware, manipulable blocks. Depending on the software you run through them, they can be an audio sequencer, an interactive storybook, a spreadsheet, or a visual art program.

Can't wait to see what Nintendo does with this technology in 10 years!

(Thanks for the link, Mike)