An interesting article about the rise of the alternative movie poster in today’s Independent after last night’s Oscars. Perhaps due to an onset of boredom in response to the glossy sameness of Hollywood movie posters, and a decreased emphasis on book and album cover art in our Kindle and iTunes age, alternative TV and movie posters are on the rise. Typically picking up on a singular memorable detail from the film, or recreating the film’s visual style, alternative posters are usually created as a hobby and shared online. Showcasing individuals’ own interpretations, alternative posters can garner large followings – some creators are even selling their alternative posters online.
The rise of the alternative poster is in no small way helped along by a sense of being ‘in on the joke’, as often the imagery featured is only recognisable by somebody who has seen the film. Unlike Hollywood film posters, the alternative movie poster is rarely descriptive “if you haven’t seen it, it doesn’t make sense”, says Albert Exergian, the creator of alternate TV show posters. Also check out the treasure trove of alternative posters for almost every film you could ever think of at the Home of Alternative Movie Posters.
So the PS4 has been announced and we’re already excited, we’re officially on a countdown to the next generation of consoles and here’s a round up of the main facts from last night’s Sony conference in New York:
- Gaikai cloud streaming tech will allow games to be hosted and streamed, meaning that physical disc copies won’t be the only way you’ll be able to buy and play games. Backwards compatibility will also function through the cloud, so those looking for a dose of nostalgia will have only to stream a PS1, 2 or 3 game and play it instantly.
- After having apparently spent five years in talks with developers about what they want inside a console, the PS4 will use “supercharged PC architecture” – making life easier for developers who previously struggled adapting games to the PS3’s unique insides.
- New controller! The PS4 has a Kinect-like camera that can detect motion embedded in a light strip across the front of the DualShock 4.
- It looks like Sony want to make things social, including new recording and sharing features that allow you to record your in-game footage and share it with friends, or watch your friends play their games in real time. Whether this will catch on remains to be seen…
- And of course, a console is only as good as the games it plays and no less than 70 of the big publishers and developers enthusiastically announced their involvement with PS4 last night, so there should be plenty of title announcements to get excited about over the next few months…
Some things that the conference didn’t let on to were the PS4’s price, exact release date (holiday 2013) or what form the console will take. Guess we’ll just have to wait for E3 to see what it looks like!
The gaming industry is getting all fired up for Sony’s PS4 announcement in New York later tonight, which will be happening 11pm GMT. No doubt it will feature all sorts of next-gen technological delights for us to look forward to, but another effect of the current focus on the Playstation and its glittering history is that it has given us all a touch of nostalgia for the older, simpler days of gaming. Embracing the retro feel of 80s and early 90s video games is becoming quite a trend, from the success of cult indie game Hotline Miami to the release of Disney’s Wreck-it-Ralph, its homage to the days of pixellated arcade gaming.
This upcoming title by Jeppe Carlsen, the minimalistic 140, embraces a simpler time when games consisted of little more than coloured blocks, and if the trailer is anything to go by manages to make the whole thing a beautiful experience. It plays like an old-school platformer and your ‘character’s’ shape changes in a visual representation of its movements, something an old hand will be able to feel right away. No indication of when its out yet, but its nice to know that amidst all the next-gen chaos about to be unleashed tonight, the days of the side-scrolling platformer are far from over.
More 3D printing magic today, as we discover the existence of this new Kickstarter project – for a 3D printing pen. The 3Doodler releases heated plastic that quickly solidifies so you can draw structures in the air, and from the pictures of drawings by the people at WobbleWorks (the company behind the Kickstarter project), its hard not to feel like a big kid getting excited about a new crafty toy you’ve just seen advertised on TV. It’s a pretty exciting project and we hope it gets the backing it deserves.
See the 3Doodler Kickstarter page here.
If you’re anything like me, then you’ll be harbouring a love/hate relationship with technology. The love definitely outweighs the hate – but I still find myself agreeing with every single one of these brilliant illustrations in the series Allo? by Jean Jullien, currently showing at East London’s Kemistry Gallery until the 23rd March. The 59 (!) images are variations on the theme of the negative presence of technology in our lives, with our omnipresent mobile phones featuring heavily.
And I always choose the self-service checkout over the real human standing at the till. Now I feel awful.
Courtesy of It’s Nice That.
We’ve just finished up a couple of sleeve designs for the annual Secret 7″ project run by Talenthouse, a project bringing music and art together for a good cause. Designers, artists and photographers from across the globe are invited to design an original vinyl sleeve for a selection of artists involved with the project – (our choices – Laura Marling and Elton John!) 30-50 winners for each artist will be selected, a copy of their design produced and given exposure online and at an exhibition space at creative agency Mother. The 700 final vinyls will go on sale – but you don’t know what you’re going to get until its in your hands.
The project is set up in conjunction with Art Against Knives, a charity that funds arts led initiatives to discourage youths from violent gang culture. So why not take a look, design your own sleeve and do something for charity too…
www.secret-7.com
Usually here at Fluid we like to post on our blog things that we think are interesting, thought provoking, good to read, look at or listen to. Today’s post is none of those things. We apologise.
Its February 15th – the day after Valentine’s day – which means one thing: the internet is full to burst with pictures of hearts, pugs, pugs wearing hearts, hearts with pugs in the centre and poetry. But this collection of horrifying vintage cards posted on Design Taxi is a cut above. It looks like the Valentines of yesteryear were much, much ruder than anything you can pick up from Clinton Cards today…
Films based on video-games are notoriously bad – Streetfighter: The Legend of Chun-Li anyone? Disney’s latest animated offering does it differently – creating a fictional faux-retro 80s style game in which to set the hero, Wreck-it-Ralph and begin his tale.
Disney have done a pretty amazing job of getting their fictional game ‘Fix-it-Felix Jr’ to feel like a real arcade classic (which in a strange blurring of the lines you can actually play on the Disney website), and there are plenty of cameos from ‘real-life’ game-characters such as Pac-Man, Sonic and Streetfighter stalwarts to really give some depth to the game world, which has a bit of Toy Story’s brilliant toys-coming-to-life vibe about it.
This is Sergey Brin of Google, a man worth £9bn, riding on the New York subway. He may look as though he’s about to ask you what you’re reading and whether you’re busy later tonight, but he’s actually on very important business.
His operation area is called ‘Google X’ which is the search engine giant’s top-secret developments division. The top-secret development in question is one that Sergey is actually wearing on his head – the much hushed ‘Google Glass’.
What is Google Glass? As a top-secret development we don’t know much, but what we do know is that it is a wearable computing device that displays computer data in the corner of vision. The components we already know about are a tiny camera, internet connection, GPS and an android powered display system. So far people have suggested possible uses such as the glasses displaying real-time information about surroundings and even people you know, or taking pictures/videos of what you see and immediately putting them online.
The glasses will also make use of new ‘bone conduction’ technology – a gruesome sounding alternative to headphones where vibrations transmit sound without obstructing noise from the real world around you.
An early version is being made available to developers later this year to get them to try out interesting applications for the glasses, hoping to be marketed in 2014…for $1500.
Trade off : Looking ridiculous or following the example set by Sergey and enriching the world around you?
Another interview with an artist (two in one day?) – this time William Basinski, creator of The Disintegration Loops, tells his story to The Quietus. He discusses how the loops came to be in the 80s, how they disintegrated upon recording, and recounts the story of how he watched the World Trade Centre collapse before his very eyes from his apartment while the tapes played on in the background. Basinski acknowledges the cultural significance the tapes have developed over the last ten years, with many considering them to be “one of the most pre-eminent American artistic statements of the 21st Century so far”.
Even if you’re not into avant-garde music as a rule, the story itself told in Basinski’s own words is really pretty amazing and is definitely worth a read.
CATEGORIES: Events, Music