Stunning Construction Paper Cut-Outs

Detail: Assorted Explosion – Jen Stark

Jen Stark is an incredible construction paper artist. She sculpts by cutting away layered construction paper with unbelievable precision. The bold color palettes she selects really add to the dynamic nature of her work. I’d love to see these pieces in person!

Ms. Stark’s website is also a great example of a good portfolio. Landing on any page, you immediately know that she’s an artist, what she does and how she’s different. Great work Jen!

Cylinder:Paper Cut – Jen Stark

– chris

Daily Monster

This past Sunday, the ever amazing Stefan G. Bucher revealed the last monster in his Daily Monster series. We’re a few days late with this, but that’s just because we’ve been trying to recover from how shockingly good it is.

Daily Monster 100 (of 100)

Brendan

Automated Grafitti Robot

This graffiti robot is an interesting extension of the plotter concept. The robot whirls around in front of a canvas and spray paints a scene. The piece created in the video is titled “in a Beautiful Place Out in the Country” and it was done at the Kunstmuseum Solothurn in August of 2005.

This installation brings up questions about uniqueness. Is the 20th version of this painting the same is the first?

– chris

A Mobile Drive-In

It’s hard to find a good drive-in theatre these days. Fortunately, the mobile drive-in has been invented. Attach a projector to your car, broadcast the audio via radio to your friends’ cars, and enjoy a drive-in movie wherever and whenever you want.

A group called MobMov stakes its claim as the pioneers of this concept. Check out their site for documentation of their exploits and a tutorial on how to set up your very own on-the-go drive-in. Brendan says he invented this concept independently of MobMov in March of 2005, although no one seems to believe him since he never did anything about it.

I’m a big fan of house-side projections, it’s a great way to spice up a summer party. We’ll be organizing a few of these this summer, so get ready.

– chris

An Excellent HDR Tutorial

Trey Ratcliff has an impressive portfolio of HDR photography. HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography is a technique in which several exposures of the same shot are combined to produce one image. The results are often quite stunning, as evidenced in Trey’s photo above.

Trey has put together a great tutorial using his work as examples. Getting started with HDR photography can be intimidating, but his tutorial is very approachable. HDR effects are often used more subtly than they are in Trey’s tutorial, but learning the extremes ain’t a bad starting point.

– chris

A Shark in the Oscar Pool!

‘Ariel’ has proven victorious in the first annual Tropist Oscar pool with a total of 16 correct picks. Congratulations Ariel! As the lucky winner, she receives a free dinner and exclusive interview with the creators of Tropist. I hope she likes extremely expensive steak and fine wine — cause that’s pretty much all we can stomach over here. That and ramen.

Some big highlights for those of you who missed the show: Gore made a huge announcement, Ellen was hilarious, Jack is now bald, and Scorsese has finally won (way to go buddy).

Here are the final standings for the pool:

• Ariel – 16
• Coachella – 15
• Jie – 15
• Juliana – 15
• V-Money – 14
• Alexandra – 13
• Brendan – 13
• MA to the double T – 11
• Andrew, the… – 11
• Elizabeth – 11
• Emily – 11
• Chris – 10
• Dave – 10
• Ezra – 9
• R_W_ – 8
• Drob – 4

Want to see the intimate details? Head here.

– chris

Robots to Park Your Car

Today’s New York Times has a great article that delves into the future of automated parking garages. Automated garages take up less space, use less energy and don’t require patrons to circle the garage for 30 minutes just to find a spot.

These garages are already popular in Europe and Asia, but they have yet to catch on in the US. One of the first, in NYC’s Chinatown, will begin storing and dispensing cars within the next couple of months.

Looks like a special trip to Manhattan is in order. I mean, who could possibly pass up an opportunity to have their car flung about by giant robots? Now all I need is a car.

– chris

The Russians Build A New Time Machine

You may have heard of the Art. Lebedev Studio, which is known for its Optimus keyboard and Tersumus eraser among other ingeniously designed products. It has just released a nifty new time keeper.

Verbarius, as the clock is called, displays the time “in a humane way”. Verbarius is like a companion that tells you the time without ever being asked. How much better does “Quarter Past Ten” sound than “10:15”? To keep things interesting Verbarius displays the time in as many varying ways as humans answer the question “What time is it?”

If only it woke me up with a latte at “Half Past Six” it could replace my girlfriend.

– Chris

Jaw Dropping Motion Graphics to Pulp Fiction Lines

Jarratt Moody’s Intonation has already been covered on a number of huge blogs, but it’s so good we can’t pass it up. This is motion graphic Typography at its best.

Intonation – Jarratt Moody

Watch it here (or here). Be careful you kids, there is quite a bit of R Rated language.

For the right price, I’m positive Jarratt could make some amazing Opening Titles.

– chris

Procrastination Friday: PES’ Amazing New Stop-Motion Commercial

PES is one of our favorite web short directors. They specialize in stop-motion and their work is consistently off the chain. Their new commercial for Sneaux (yes, the shoe promoted by Steve-O of Jackass fame) certainly doesn’t disappoint.

Their official site, EatPES, has over 20 bitchin’ videos. By our measure, that’s enough material to keep you from doing work for an entire afternoon. We recommend grabbing a cold brew from the boss’s mini-fridge, sitting back, and enjoying the world of high-quality stop-motion video. Some of the videos are “Not Safe For Work”, but subtle names like Roof Sex should clue you in.

If you want to prolong your procrastination and you’re inspired to make your own stop-motion flick, Photojojo has a great tutorial here.

– chris