The Golden Thong

BBC can't match this level of production.

(Read more...)

 

MC BBQ rewind

So resounding a success was our BBQ on Saturday that aftershocks are still being picked up by subaquatic monitoring stations in the mid-Atlantic. Yes! The party went off with a series of well-timed bangs, from the plentiful supply of refreshments to the wonderful mix of both MC and non-MC people. Wubbo Ockels, you may come again. Crazy complaining cat lady, you may not. Here's to the next one.

 

Nature is the mother of art

I went to the opening of a buitenkunst (that's 'outside art' to you) exhibition last night. "Natura Artis Magistra" is a project by  Bituman produkties & Artis, which was conceived when this guy saw this big naked wall along the back of Amsterdam's zoo and thought, "That needs pictures on it." So he got a load of artists together and asked them to respond to the idea of nature and animals and such. The result gives the wall a much needed lift.

My favourites were the flowers and butterflies by Maurice Scheltens - it's a kind of ultra-still life built of cut out pix of roses and insects - and Menno Kok's monkey, which is just a very strong, simple photograph. See below.

 

Fuel for your brainfire

Check it out, I'll be attending this year's reboot conference in Copenhagen.

Really looking forward to hearing some crazy new ideas and meeting some crazy new people.

By the way, when you leave the baggage hall at Copenhagen airport, you pass by a giant neon sign that says "Welcome to wonderful Copenhagen". I like the way they embrace popular song to brand their city. I also like the gigantic beers you can buy there. But I'm not so keen on the price.

(Read more...)

 

MC BBQ (nothing to do with McDonalds)

This Saturday we will be having a BBQ on the roof at the MC HQ. All welcome, there'll be music, meat and mayhem. Please contact Ben Blench to RSVP

 

Up on the roof

Creative Team meeting today, up on the office roof terrace. I thought I'd seize the opportunity to post a picture of the crew.

 

He speaks, we listen

Jeero (an Uglydoll) has started telling me things.

Every day a new desktop image...

 

Follow up on the Creative Social

A report on the Creative Social mentioned in a previous entry.

An initial introduction from Mark Chalmers and Daniele broke down the agenda fro the day and some of the main goals for the conference. Fundamentally the event has been set up to give digital artists and advertisers an opportunity to share ideas and to be inspired by artists who pioneer their fields in a variety of media.

The first speaker of the day was Joakin Borgstrom, Creative partner from Doubleyou (www.doubleyou.com & www.borgstrom.com). He began by breaking down the fundamentals of the medium we are working with. Showing us the most basic interactive elements and tools at our disposal within interactive through a set of simple experiments within Flash: Mouse down, mouse over, drag, drag & drop, mouse up, cursor movement,
keyboard control, audio interaction, and video interaction.

Although extremely basic, this was a great way to begin and to line up Joakin's "from scratch" approach to interactive design. He seems to re-assess the medium  every time he starts a project. After some entertaining banter around these areas we started to look at his work (check his portfolio site). The agency has a very unique style and combines strong conceptual thinking with excellence in technical expertise. After a concept is generated they are uncompromising in their struggle to achieve exactly what they want.  The result is an incredible array of truly inspiring work.

(Read more...)

 

Why read, when you can watch

Mark Fletcher, CEO and Founder of Bloglines, answers the question, "What's the big deal about RSS?" He spoke at The Media Center's Emerging Technology, Business and Policy for Senior Executives seminar.

Richard Sambrook, Director of the BBC World Service and Global News Division, talks about the BBC's multiple efforts to put storytelling and journalism tools into the hands of thousands of people around the world and the challenges that arise from enabling so many to tell their own stories. He spoke during The Media Center's Whose News? Media, Technology and the Common Good seminar.

 

Caribbean Soki

Sophie-Kim's going on a long holiday.
And I am jealous.
Have fun, missus!

 

Jump Around

The Mobile sector is blowing up!
As MediaCatalyst is partnered with SonyEricsson,
it seemed appropriate to post a few links on the sector.
These are very general and specific, therefore a bit random:

A new  Ericsson mobile strategy ?(Stuff 2005, New Zealand)
Nokia partner up with Six Apart to create Lifeblog
Standford University & Nokia research : peoples computers and design video
A  blog covering tech and  news regarding mobile  (windows friendly)

enjoy!

And an open question. What kind of ideas do you people  have on
where this sector is going and how MC is/and will respond?

j

 

Just got in two more books!

Our monthly book purchase in the creative team just rolled on, and last week i ordered two more books. I ordered:
Branding – From Brief to Finished Solution & The Designer and the Grid.
These two books just arrived! Nice stuff. (Read more...)

 

Back in Amsterdam.

Back in Amsterdam after beeing away friday to monday!

(Read more...)

 

In the Bubble

Email this morning from the thinkin' folks at Doors of Perception.

Seems John Thackara has written a new book. Called In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World, it's about designing a world that is based less on stuff, and more on people. Let's not chase our tails producing endless technological innovations without first considering the human aspect, says Mr Thackara. He emphasises the need for using technology to add value to our lives, rather than doing stuff just because we can and letting things sort themselves out later.

Sounds interesting...

 

Here are some cool podcasts which are audio presentations or conversations.
You can either listen to them on a computer with broadband and speakers
or download for later consumption on your media player of choice.

For the geeks:
Tim O'Reilly talks at Emerging Tech Oct: 2004
http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail168.html

For the creatives:
Douglas Rushkoff talks at Poptech 2004 : Renaissance Prospects
http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail243.html

For the business folk/strategists:
Clayton Christensen, Professor, Harvard Business School at
http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail135.html
Every company needs to grow, and innovation is the ticket to sustainable and profitable growth.
What decisions can managers take to increase their probability of successfully building innovation-driven growth businesses?

go catalyze yourself.
j

 

On our way to Stockholm

Cyrus, our excitable Art Director, is off to the Creative Social in Stockholm on Friday. There he will lay down his arms and pow wow with

"the creative mavericks behind the campaigns that are exploding what was once known as advertising now being experienced through multi media blurring the boundaries between information and entertainment."

Of special interest to us Catalysts: the relationship between creative and technology in this new communications paradigm.

Of special interest to me personally: would the organisers like to hire me to clean up their site's grammar and punctuation?