Ged Carroll

Search results for: “siggraph”

  • My analogue journey & more things

    I’ve been listening to My Analogue Journey which has got an amazing selection of Japanese music as part of his videos. Check this out. My Analogue Journey pulls together some buttery smooth records; like a high class version of smooth radio.

    Streaming Up From Boston – Info on how to watch here | Dropkick Murphys – what really surprised me is that enterprise software company Pegasystems stepped up to financially support this. Its an amazing concert by the Dropkick Murphys.

    I am a big fan of SIGGRAPH demo videos. They are are an amazing amalgam. Reality and Daliesque surrealism. This video is very much in that SIGGRAPH vein. The physics of this video is amazing, but has a distinct otherworldly quality.

    Huggies candid campaign takes on parent-shaming | Canvas8 – Procter & Gamble have built a stable of expertise in mixing ads with social purpose. Some of these ads have been more effective than others, for instance the Gillette ads have fallen flat with male customers. This reminded me a bit of Brooklyn Brothers work for Water Wipes which hinged around authenticity around the parenting experience. More posts related to Procter & Gamble here.

    ICYMI: Vanilla Ice apologises for crimes against music in this campaign from Virgin to ‘Right Music… | Creative Moment  – using celebrities and getting the balance right is always a tough one. In this particular case Virgin seems to have done a better job rebuilding up the brand of Vanilla Ice than its own brand. It was an interesting insight that consumers no longer know about Virgin’s musical heritage that gave it its original cool factor. I guess its time for Mike Oldfield to release another follow on to Tubular Bells and remind gen Z of Virgin’s relevance. I do wonder if Vodafone had a similar but less extreme issue with its ads that revolved around Martin Freeman.

  • Robots demoralise workers

    Faster Robots Demoralise Coworkers | Careers | Communications of the ACM – If you get the pace wrong would the effect of robots demoralise coworkers limit productivity? Is the future not robots augmenting coworkers, but replacing coworkers a more productive alternative. A Cornell-led team has found that when robots are beating humans in contests for cash prizes, people consider themselves less competent and expend slightly less effort—and they tend to dislike the robots – to be fair I’d expect to see something similar if the same person kept winning employee of the week. I know that workers on the line at Vauxhall in Ellesmere Port used to sabotage the robots on the line on a regular basis. This might phenomenon of robots demoralise coworkers be part of their motivation (along with laziness and malice)

    Flickr Cofounder Questions Tech’s Impact on Humans – WIRED – it’s easier to ask the big questions when you’ve made it and can reflect in the tech industry. These weren’t questions that we asked back in the day. More on Caterina Fake here.

    Marbridge Consulting – China’s February 2019 Domestic Handset Shipments Down 20% YoY – 14.51 mln mobile handsets were shipped in China in February 2019, down 19.9% YoY and 57.4% MoM, according to new figures released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), a department of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). The significant month-on-month drop can be explained in part by the week-long Chinese Lunar New Year holiday towards the beginning of February. Of total shipments in February, 13.98 mln were 4G handsets, down 20.2% YoY, 37,000 were 3G handsets, and 0.49 mln were 2G handsets

    A Witch-Hunt on Instagram | Quilette – western PC culture seems to have more and more cases of it eating their own

    Aging Millennials Soothe Themselves With Childlike Fashions – WWD – to try and hang on to youth. The attenuation of youthfulness is a cross generational phenomenon. For instance middle aged dads the still buy streetwear rather than Superdry, skate and go to gigs.

    SXSW 2019: Virtual Cinema – JWT Intelligence – culture is still trying to adapt AR and VR. Whilst it has the energy of an early SIGGRAPH demo reel, I still think the storytelling aspect of things is struggling to find its legs

    Patrick Pruniaux: “There Truly is an E-commerce Potential for Horology” | Luxury Society – Kering haven’t been particularly good at using Ulysse Nardin as a brand in China, but they are rectifying it now. Kering are looking to tap into ‘new’ watch consumers who can’t spend Rolex money on a watch, this position now looks more tenable since Apple has stopped going for the luxury sector with the Apple Watch

    How to Create an Authentic Luxury Experience for Millennials | Jing Daily – if a luxury brand wants to entice today’s consumers, whether it’s in China or beyond, it needs to underscore its authenticity and relevancy. Powerful words, to be sure, but what does it mean to be authentic and relevant? For the moment, let’s start with the opposite. During many of my brand strategy sessions, I often hear the expression “they feel staged” when people describe brands that they would never buy. Needless to say, when brand feels staged, it is neither authentic nor relevant. The synonyms unnatural, deceived, cheated, and faked come to mind. In other words, a staged brand is bullshitt*ng their consumers.

    Louis Vuitton Has a Michael Jackson Problem | Intelligence | BoF – Louis Vuitton parent LVMH hired Abloh, and has poured millions of dollars into promoting his collections in order to build its biggest brand into a menswear powerhouse. But whether or not Abloh’s Jackson-inspired collection ends up being a dud (because products like the penny loafers T-shirt or the military-style jackets are more visibly Jackson-derived and are thus preemptively pulled from sale, or simply because they don’t resonate with shoppers) isn’t likely to be the primary financial concern for Louis Vuitton, as men’s ready-to-wear accounts for only a fraction of total revenue. What’s really at stake is the brand’s reputation — relatively untarnished for the time being, unlike luxury peers like Prada and Gucci which have fallen afoul of social media — at a time when consumers are quick to criticise perceived missteps

    How What Goes Around Comes Around Is Attracting Millennials To Buy Vintage – US chain channels aesthetic of Japanese vintage shops

    You May Have Forgotten Foursquare, but It Didn’t Forget You | WIRED – interesting how Foursquare went from being useful (I use it as spatial bookmarking, so that I can return to new places that I like) to where 2.0 middleware with a bit of ad tech creepiness thrown in for good measure (paywall)

    Pinterest Files for an IPO: What Investors Need to Know | The Motley Fool – interesting for intent driven visual search if they can monetise it effectively on a global scale

    Great video of a Black Hat conference presentation on biometric identifiers.

  • 100 soundscapes + more things

    The 100 Soundscapes of Japan: A list of Japan’s greatest natural, cultural, and industrial sounds – this is the kind of project that the web was made of. It’s an inspired piece of work. Not to over-egg it but these 100 soundscapes are amazing. More Japan-related posts here.

    Burberry explores Mr. Burberry’s narrative via GQ films | Luxury Daily – its a smart time for Burberry to use this to work out a new brand positioning in the light of changing luxury market dynamics and its brand consolidation for Burberry Britain etc.

    I am a sucker for 1990s style CGI animation which seemed trippier and full of promise for an immersive cyber world that we would be able to one day jack into. This feels like it could be straight out of something like Lawn Runner Man or a vintage SIGGRAPH demo reel.

    This pre-film trailer for Regal Cinemas in the US is a classic example  of this. Play it on a big enough screen and it swallows you up without the need for 3D glasses. I remember watching Independence Day at a cinema and coming out with aching from having continually bracing myself from the action on screen. This video has a similar effect. This immersive perspective has changed as mobile devices have become more important.

    WHER: 1000 Beautiful Watts—The First All Girl Radio Station in the Nation—Part 1 by The Kitchen Sisters on PRX – really interesting documentary on the US’s first all-women radio station. Some of the interviews are shockingly sexist in a way that couldn’t happen today. Even the title 100 Beautiful Watts – why is this necessary given its discussing audio? It’s irrelevant to the medium of radio? Despite these comments don’t let me put you off enjoying it

    We know acne, we don’t know teens. – YouTube – nice bit of honest marketing by Clearasil. We were all teens but every generations experience is a bit difference. History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes as Mark Twain reputedly claimed.

  • Facebook Live + more things

    Facebook live

    A Facebook live streaming service (a la U-Stream and YouTube) was newly launched this week. You can stream on your page or in-group. There is a map to discover streams going on in realtime. I already  found one seminar by Nu-Skin a multi-level marketer of wellness and beauty products in Hong Kong as an example of where Facebook Live was being used from a commercial perspective.

    The Stanton Warriors embraced the new Facebook live streaming service to promote further fan interaction whilst they were in the studio. It will be interesting to see the best and worst that brands do with this medium. From a piracy point-of-view I would imagine that it is likely to be used for streaming live sports coverage – expect the Premier League to be very unhappy.

    RUN and RUN

    Not exactly the same sound but J-Pop act lyrical school’s debut track RUN and RUN has a really clever smartphone optimised video with amazing breaks of the fourth wall.

    UPDATE: Our James pointed me in the direction of an even better link for the RUN and RUN video on Vimeo that I hope works here

    RUN and RUN / lyrical school 【MV for Smartphone】 from RUNandRUN_lyrisch on Vimeo.

    If you can’t see anything point your browser here.

    Godzilla

    Japan’s king of all monsters, Godzilla returns from chilling out on Monster Island for his 31st outing in the Japanese cinema. This new trailer is interesting as the visuals evoke Fukushima Daiichi  nuclear disaster and the Great Tohoku Earthquake of 2011. Check out the Cloverfield-esque shots in the 30 second trailer below. There is a longer trailer where Godzilla appears fully in shot leaving no mystery to how bad ass he is this time. This means that the film is likely to go beyond his usual mayhem and might touch on contemporary issues.

    Vintage CGI

    Last, but not least; a vintage show reel by 1980s CGI shop MAGI Synthavision in its full neon wireframe magnificence and southern country rock soundtrack. More similar visual stuff here.