The Floating Piers Hyperlapse

Take a Hyperlapse trip down The Floating Piers Art Installation on Lake Iseo, Italy by artist Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Over 8,900 still images, photographed every second for nearly 2 miles, were combined together to create this moving piece of art. Film produced by Dorian Iriabrren owner of Motion Filmworks.  However, don’t rush off to Lake Iseo – the installation has now finished its run and you will need a boat instead!

Selfie Cat

Let’s combine the internet’s two main obsessions, cats and selfies.  This animated short features a cat lover who is in a competition for the most likes of a selfie with her moggy.  Unfortunately her rival is getting lots more likes so she has to make sure she gets the selfie of the century with her rather reluctant cat.  Chaos obviously ensues in this enjoyable animated short by a group of talented ArtFx students.

Mars Globe: How to Make Your Favorite Nerd Happy this Christmas

What exactly do you get the nerd who already has everything? That’s definitely something to start thinking about now for Christmas and this amazing globe of the planet Mars by Planetenkugel-Manufaktur (the website is thankfully simply marsglobes.com) may well do the trick.  It is based on the famous map of Mars by astronomer Percival Lowell (1905). This lovely film gives a glimpse into the world of Dr Michael M Plichta, the Mars globemaker.

He also gives an insight in to the process of making a Mars globe and like any expert makes it look very easy.  I can’t even put up wallpaper without making a complete mess of it so I can assure you that when he says it needs a lot of training he isn’t exaggerating.

As an aside, I wonder just how many people in the world have globemaker as their profession on their passport.

Lithuania’s Hill of Crosses

Nine miles outside the small northern Lithuanian city of Siauliai, the countryside is suddenly interrupted by something quite astonishing.  Thousands upon thousands of crosses have been placed upon this low rise of land.

As well as symbolizing the deep Christian devotion of many Lithuanians they are also a testament to the Baltic nation’s struggle against oppression.

Image Credit Flickr User Peatc

It is thought that crosses first began to appear at this spot in the thirteenth century, shortly after the city was founded.  Since then there have been varying numbers of crosses at the site.  It was in the 1831 uprising against Russia that the Hill of Crosses became political as well as purely religious.  Crosses were placed here to commemorate the dead and missing rebels of this period and by the beginning of the twentieth century there were 150 crosses. By 1940 there were 400. Today there are over 100,000.

Captain Spaceman – The Lost Episode

If you remember the 1980s then you may well remember the pilot episode for a science fiction series that never was.  Captain Spaceman shone brightly for a single episode but was never, ever shown again.  It seems that it was considered not quite appropriate for its target audience.

Yet so many people fell in love with the eponymous lead character and his trusty sidekicks Ecang and T.3D that this first episode was forever seared in to their memories, despite the refusal of any channel to ever, ever broadcast it again.

Now, thanks to a little serendipity, the lost episode has been discovered on an old VHS tape, hidden away in a box in an attic in a house in a street for decades.  So, sit back and enjoy an unashamed nostalgia fest as you can final relive your childhood with Captain Spaceman – the lost episode, written and directed by sci-fi visionary Dontae Carter.

SYN·CHRO·NIC·I·TY

If you are a twin then you will probably enjoy the performance of Allie and Lexi Kaplan in this piece written and directed by Ace Norton (if you're not you will too, I'm sure!).  Ostensibly, it’s all about synchronicity, the simultaneous occurrence of events that appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection.   Yet, this being twins it’s mostly about “to cause, occur or operate at the same time or rate”.  Either way this is a very visually stimulating piece with lots of food for thought.  Two things at the same time…

On Being Hated

Have you ever encountered someone who, simply put, hates you – but for no apparent reason or certainly not one that you can divine yourself?  It’s often quite a shock and the person at the receiving end of it can often run a gamut of emotions as they try to logic out why their new enemy feels such hatred towards them.

Directed, animated and designed by Luiz Stockler and written and narrated by Alain de Botton, On Being Hated shows us that learning to cope about this kind of hatred, without panic, belongs at the core of wisdom.

Copehill Down – Sleepy English Village with a Difference

Copehill Down is situated on Salisbury Plain in the English county of Wiltshire.  Built on the windswept chalk plateau it looks, at a cursory glance, a peaceful and welcoming place. Stonehenge is just a short drive away and the area around it is rich with history. Yet look again and you get the feeling that something isn’t quite right. Where are the people? And the houses – the architecture doesn’t look quite as English as perhaps it should.

Image Credit Flickr User Stoic

Copehill Down is a sleepy English village with a difference.  No one lives there. No children play in the neat gardens around the houses. No worshipers go to mass on a Sunday at Saint Jude’s church. The village is a mock-up or, more accurately, a FIBUA – an acronym standing for Fighting in Built Up Areas.  The pictures you will see here are closer than most people will ever get to the village as civilian access to Copehill Down is generally restricted.

Is This The Best Falling Dominoes Video Ever?

I doubt you will be able to take your eyes off this.  As a music video, this accompanies Tuna Melt by A-Trak & Tommy Trash.  Yet I think that it is destined to be remembered as much (if not more) for the sight of thousand upon thousand of dominoes falling than the music (sorry chaps!).  The dominoes in question are not all, strictly speaking, dominoes (loved the pieces of toast in the kitchen) yet they fulfill their primary non game-playing function perfectly - the fall over really well.

The dominoes were set by the Kinetic King (aka Tim Fort), the video produced by Pier Pictures and Pomp&Clout.  The whole thing was directed by Trunk Animation's Ryan Staake.  Little wonder that this is up for an MTV Video Music Award.

High Tide

It isn’t often that I am utterly charmed by an animated short, but High Tide is truly an exceptional, heart-warming and just lovely piece of work.  A young girl, on a school trip to the seaside, finds herself in the company of the merboy.  That is, ladies and gentlemen, pretty much it (and therein lies the beauty of it) but there is a twist in the tail (did you see what I did there?) so keep watching this right to the end!

High Tide was created by the very talented Kristin Kemper as part of her studies at the School of Visual Arts in New York.

Stone Cold Catwalk

She’s got perfect bone structure, skin, and beautiful eyes… But some deadly problems, that keep slithering out most insissssstently. Can she get through the audition, or will she leave them stone cold? The Ministry of Stories is a creative writing and mentoring centre for children in East London.

Stone Cold Catwalk is a short film for The Ministry of Stories 'Monster Monologues' project where they invited students in Hackney (aged 13-18) to write comic monologues for monsters, telling their side of the story. It was written by Hope, Alex and Zuhri (aged 13-18) and directed by Matt McDermott.

Pygmalion from America's Got Talent

Am I a snob? I think I must be as I was surprised to find that this outstanding performance by Arielle Libertore and Derek Tabada, created by Sila Sveta found its way on to a recent broadcast of America’s Got Talent.  It’s certainly of a higher brow than one has come to expect from this show but perhaps I should take not judge a book by its cover all the time in the future! If you like multimedia performances I would say it’s odds on you will love this…

The Amazing Hummingbird Hawk Moth

It hovers, it hums – but it is not a hummingbird. Take a look at one of, if not the most amazing, certainly the coolest insects on the planet - The Hummingbird Hawk Moth.  The Ark in Space has a great feature on this very unusual species, an example of what is known as convergent evolution.  When you see the full screen pictures this little guy will take your breath away.

Image Credit Flickr User ComputerHotline

Pineapple Fields Forever

The pineapple: we eat them fresh, cooked, juiced, and preserved but probably with little thought about where they come from or how, in fact, they grow.  So, the often vast plantations on which the fruit is propagated can be something of a revelation. Welcome to the world of the pineapple.

Image Credit jpphoto

Finito

If you work for a living then you probably know how these little robots feel in the lives of repetition and mundanity.  Yet one of them notices that another is sneaking off from his duties and decides to investigate.  The decision is a revelation but for the robot that decided to take some breaks there will be consequences. Finito, very bitter-sweet, was created by Mauricio Bartok and Gabriel D'Orazio.

The Lucky Tree of Chapel Rock

Nature can take hold in precarious places.  Chapel Rock on Lake Superior has a single tree perched atop its column.  By rights the tree should not be there: the small surface area of land on the top of the rock is insufficient to sustain a tree of this size.

There is hardly any topsoil, certainly not enough for an obviously thriving tree. How then does it flourish?

The Lonely Godess

This is both sad and sweet at the same time. The lonely moon goddess waits patiently for her love, the god of the sun. However, they can never be together and her life is spent weeping tears which turn in to stars. Yet they do come together at one special time but for how long?

This animation was created by Pamela Suryadjaja who is an art student and part time student. It was created for her thesis project at Binus University. It's a lovely piece of work and bodes well for her future career.  I love the artwork and her use of color.

Binus University (also known as Bina Nusantara) is an university in Jakarta, Indonesia. The university's primary field of study is in information technology - it was formed in 1974.

Eguisheim: France’s Favorite Village

When people say that a place is picture postcard perfect there is usually the scent of slight exaggeration in the air, a hint of hyperbole which should perhaps be accompanied by a pinch of salt.

Yet Eguisheim, a charmingly picturesque village in north-eastern France can be said to be just that without any suggestion of embellishment.  Perhaps if the hobbits and the munchkins got together they would live somewhere like this. Little wonder that the place was voted France’s Favorite Village (Village Préféré des Français) 2013.

Take a look and discover why.

If you are a traveler heading for a particular destination then it is always a good idea to look at how the people of that country perceive their own towns and villages and where they head for a break: it can be very telling.  Why? Precious gems like Eguisheim can sometimes be hidden away by a nation for itself to covet.  Mes amis, you have the Eiffel Tower!  Leave us a little to call our own! 

Intermission

The courting rituals of many species can be fascinating but none more so than that of our own, particularly when give such a marvelously Gallic treatment.  This animated short is almost impossibly romantic in a very French way. Little wonder then that it was created at the superlative Ecole Supérieure Des Métiers Artistiques de Montpellier (ESMA).  This fine institution produces such amazing undergraduate work that we regularly feature it on the pages of Kuriositas. Intermission (Entracte in French) is a lovely piece where we get to share the intimate first moments between a couple as the hypnosis of love sets in.

The students involved in the production are Valentin Dely, Damien Garrigue, Laury Guintrand, Valentine Hemery and Clélia Magurno.  The music, which can make or break such an adventurous student project, is great too – and is by Anthony Touzalin, Olivier Defradat and Clément Osmont.

Silicon; BootDrive

Silicon;BootDrive has so many ideas going on at once that it can be a little difficult to keep up but that is just part of this roller coaster ride of a science fiction short.

It tells the story of what happens to us a few years from now when a strange meteorite hits the seas. A simple premise but executed with a marvelous complexity.

Directed by A.T., Silicon;BootDrive is VFX heavy and they are a delight to behold.  The questions raised by the movie are more than can be answered in just a few short minutes but that adds to the enigmatic nature of the plot.

Although the script may have done a little better with a first language English speaker at hand to iron out a few linguistic glitches that’s just a small grumble.

I thoroughly enjoyed Silicon;BootDrive as it chose to treat me as an adult in the terms of content and ideas yet still thoroughly entertained me with enough blood, gore and human to creature transformations to last me a good few hours…

HIV: The Musical – Starring Martin Freeman

If you are a fan of Martin Freeman at his most deadpan and droll then settle back for you are in for a treat.

Here he plays a struggling writer who has finished his play about people in the Sudan living with HIV and is now looking for a producer.  He finds one but before very long his earnest and intense work has been transformed in to a frivolous, über-camp West End musical.

HIV: The Musical also stars Julian Barratt as the monstrous Myles, every aspiring writer’s nightmare.  It was written and directed by Joseph Patrick and Tim Woodall. 

Bourton-on-the-Water: Entire Village Placed on Special Architectural or Historic Interest List

The village of Bourton-on-the-Water is one of those quintessentially English places – you might not be surprised to bump in to a Downton Abbey cast member on its quaint streets.  It is considered so important that this week the entire village was designated Grade II Listed by English Heritage, the body which advises on the care of the historic environment in England.

Image Credit Flickr User Sam Breach

Image Credit Flickr User approximate.photographer

Located in the Cotswolds range of hills in the county of Gloucestershire, the village is a perfectly preserved slice of the British way of life during the early decades of the twentieth century. Yet look a little closer.  Is there something not quite right about the place? For a start – where are the people?

Darwin’s Women

This is quite fascinating.  In his writings Charles Darwin was what one might call typically Victorian in his position towards women. In The Descent of Man he was occasionally less than flattering in his exploration of the role of women in relation to relation to gender – sometimes simply comparatively.  Yet in private he seems to have been a very different man indeed.

His massive collection of some 15,000 letters, stored in the Library of the University of Cambridge show that he corresponded during his lifetime with over 150 women, scientists, political agitators as well as family members (including his daughter who edited much of his work).  What he has to say to them is something of a revelation, as is the respect and deference he shows them as intellects (indeed scientists) in their own right.

Doctor Philippa Hardman of The Darwin Correspondence Project guides us through the letters and introduces us to some little known but very interesting female scientific pioneers of the past.  As well as showing a new and refreshing insight in to Darwin himself, it sheds light on the situation of women during the Victorian era, particularly in the field of scientific knowledge and its dissemination to an incredibly phallocentric society.

Buzludzha Parkour

We have featured the Buzludzha Monument in Bulgaria on Kuriositas before - and Parkour, but never together. The building is what remains of an extravagantly expensive project by the leaders of the country’s old communist regime to tie up their own system of government with the mythos of the country’s 1300 year old foundation as an independent state. Someone has had the genius idea to make the crumbling edifice the backdrop for a music video.

So we get to see Buzludzha plus four very athletic parkour experts jumping everywhere inside and out of its concrete environs. There is even a little samurai action thrown in for good measure. CRCV's single Bad Case get a wonderful showcase here, thanks to director Stephane Benini and his team.

Inseparable – Starring Benedict Cumberbatch

What would you do if you were told you were dying?  What decisions would you take? For Joe a young professional with a wife and a child the news triggers a meeting with his drifter brother Charlie.  Once they were inseparable but they paths have taken very distinct paths.  Now that Joe’s days are limited what route will the brothers decide upon for the one that is left behind?

The star of the piece is Benedict Cumberbatch, a young British actor you may have seen in the BBC series Sherlock or more recently as Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek: Into Darkness. Don't worry if you haven't. I am sure we will be seeing lots more of this talented young actor. Ahem.

A short film about identity, family and starting again, Inseparable was directed by Nick White and written by Matthew James Wilkinson.  It was produced by Area 17, a London based film and video production company. Although Benedict Cumberbatch takes up most of the screen time (one way or another) special mention must be given to Nathalie Press.  She may only appear at the beginning and the end of the short film but hers is a virtuoso performance of understated personal agony.

Summer Fun on Days Long Gone

Have you ever felt that dread when, on their return from some far flung place, your friend threatens to show you their summer holiday photos? You may have to sit through that particular agony.  In the meantime, here is a collection of photographs spanning the first seven decades of the twentieth century which show summer in all its glory.  Times and social mores may have changed, but these may still be the type of pictures you wish your friend had taken.

Image Credit Florida Memory
A group of young women make fun of a sign demanding that they wear full bathing costumes while on Florida’s Miami beach.  Come on, this is 1934, after all!  Sure enough, there were a number of women arrested that year for wearing two piece bathing suits.

Image Credit Florida Memory

You can be fairly certain the young women above didn't stay here.

If F Scott Fitzgerald was One of America’s Greatest Novelists, Why is he Buried Here?

Office buildings and apartment blocks surround the Catholic cemetery in Rockville, Maryland.  Among those interred here is a man whose novels are still read and adored by millions.  Yet you might miss the name on this unremarkable grave, were it not for the occasional bottles and coins that are placed there by visitors.  These additions are the only thing that would otherwise draw the eye to the inconspicuous gravestone of F Scott Fitzgerald.

Sapling

Every generation must prove itself and in the world of the griffin that involves a test set by the elders.  One young griffin is given charge of two magic seeds and instructed to propagate them.  Yet he is inexperienced and suffers one mishap after another.  Can things finally go right for him?

This animated short was made by four students at the Arts University Bournemouth in 2013, Kat Seale, Catherine Epps, Gareth Ermisz and Noel Wong.  Great works, guys and both a pleasure and a relief to see that students at British institutions can produce something which bears comparison with those produced at animation courses at overseas institutions such as Supinfocom in France and Ringling in the US.

R2D2 Lego Timelapse

If you are a Star Wars fan, you will love this.  If you are a Lego fan, you will love this.  If you are a timelapse fan, you will (also) love this... 

However, if you are a Lego making, Star Wars watching, Timelapse enthusiast then prepare for just over two minutes of heaven.

This very cool video shows the step by step construction of the Lego R2D2 model.  It’s the kind of kit that only the patient will build (though others with delusions of endurance might buy it and then quickly give up!). Personally I wouldn't have the perseverance to build the model, let alone make a stop-motion of me doing it!

It was created by creative developer Gwen Vanhee with post-production by Alexander Casteels.  So, if you do not have the time or the patience to do something like this then sit back and enjoy.

After all, there is nothing quite so entertaining as watching others work, even if you can’t see them most of the time!

Baby Boom

This goes out to each and every parent reading this.

Although you may not have quite the same problems as the rats in this animated short, you probably have a good idea how they feel – generally overrun!

The inspiration came from the self-taught artist Ptiluc who has been drawing rats for decades.

A Lunch Break Romance

If you work in a town or city then something like this may well have happened to you – even though I should possible hesitate before using the verb to happen in this instance.  Let’s set the scene.  There is this person you have noticed in the park at lunchtime.  They are really quite attractive and you are, likewise, really quite interested.  You have skirted around them on several occasions and now the opportunity presents itself: there is a spare place next to them on the park bench.  What do you do now?

A Lunch Break Romance was written and directed by Danny Sangra.  It is a very well observed and perfectly executed piece of angst amongst twenty-somethings, so well so in fact that we suspect Mr Sangra may well have been in this very same situation himself.

Moving through Chicago

Take a two minute tour around all the great Chicago landmarks in this very, very cool timelapse (well, it’s mostly hyperlapse) of the city by Geoff Tompkinson.

It was shot over the period of a week last June but has only been released today. 

It is part of the photographer, videographer, and time-lapse specialist’s project called Around the World in Hyperlapse.  You can follow the project at the team’s Facebook page.

Mombies

Two old friends meet up but it isn’t long before they are running away from a terror which has struck the quiet neighbourhood of Lawrenceville.  There are mombies everywhere and in order to escape the zombie-like terrors of motherhood the women must run.. and run and do a bit more running.  Oh and scream.  A lot.

Mombies is a loving comic homage to George A. Romero's classic Night of the Living Dead.  Mind, you don’t have to look too closely at Mombies to see more than a few cheeky references to the Stepford Wives and, in particular, Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  It was written, produced and directed by Gab Cody and Sam Turich.

This short movie quite tickled me, and everyone looks as if they are having great fun (some of the mombies almost ‘corpse’ a number of times) but then again, I am a man.  I think I will have to disseminate this around my female friends – those who have had children have certainly described themselves as zombies more than once.  After just that little too much child rearing, especially in the area of nappies, the cleaning and ironing of clothes in general, the clearing up of countless fluids, both of the body and otherwise I never really blamed them. However, it will be interesting to see what they think of this where the metaphor becomes real!

Svolværgeita: Jumping the Goat's Horns

If the first words that just came in to your head were never in a million years, then you are probably in good company.  The Svolværgeita mountain in Norway was first climbed just a little over a century ago in 1910.  Yet since then a tradition has emerged among the mountaineering fraternity: those who reach the goat’s horns jump them. Because they can.

Image Credit Flickr User Sonia Marotti

The town of Svolvær in Norland County nestles below the mountain. It is situated in Lofoten (which we have visited before on Kuriositas) on the south coast of Austvågøy, and faces open sea to the south with the mountain directly to the north.   It is easy to see where the goats horns got their name. There are two spiky rocks which only the most experienced rock climbers can (safely) reach.

Under the Electron Microscope

It may be hard to believe but the first electron microscope was developed by German physicist Hans Busch in 1926 with a prototype built by Ernst Ruska and the electrical engineer Max Knoll in 1931.  In 1933 Ruska built an electron microscope (or EM) that surpassed the resolution which could be achieved with a light microscope.  Yet perhaps even Ruska could not have envisioned future developments, which mean that today we can see things such as the zinc oxide particle (above) in more detail than ever before.

Image Credit Flickr User PNNL

The difference between an EM and the microscope of old is fairly straightforward even if the science which separates them is not.  An EM uses an electron beam to illuminate a specimen rather than light.  As such is can make out tiny details of a given object with a significantly greater resolving power than a light microscope. The detail is greater because the wavelength is shorter: visible light photons are about 100,000 times longer than those of electrons in terms of wavelength.  The picture above shows the aftermath of fayalite reacting with gaseous CO2 to form siderite, thereby capturing the CO2 in a solid, stable form  

BiPoland

During my high school history lessons in the 1970s and 80s, twentieth century Poland was always portrayed as something of an unfortunate country, seemingly trapped (even cursed) by the twin burdens of its history and geography. Fortunately we had some Polish kids (the grand-children of servicemen and women who had decided to stay in the UK after 1945) who ensured that at least the Polish people could not be so sweepingly misrepresented. Yet it is a country of contrasts in a number of ways and this short film by Matty Brown visualises this dichotomy in a beautifully vivid way.

Perhaps it is best for Mr Brown to explain in his own words: Poland has this tension that is slowly healing itself as time goes by and newer generations emerge, but you cannot look in any direction without the constant reminder of the past whether it is the remnants of the ghetto wall, or the cautious faces of the elderly. This piece was supposed to be about Auschwitz, but in making the video the surprise was how vibrant, tough, and full of life the Polish people are. I was as emotionally impacted with these new wonderful friends and sensory overload of the gorgeous present-day country as I was with sympathy and sadness at the camps. Even though they are very tough souls, I started to admire them and their country.

If you would like to learn a little more - very quickly - about the country, take a look at the Animated History of Poland, which featured in the country's exhibit at the Shang Hai Expo 2010.

Captain T&T - A Superhero Movie with a Difference

If you think that the superhero genre has had its day, run its course and is lying on the ground panting and out of breath then think again – here’s a different take which I suspect will make your day – it certainly did mine.  Many young boys have superhero ambitions (come on, yes you did) and Thin Foot is certainly one of those, producing a list of potential powers to be tried and tested – even if the result is not quite how he had hoped.  Yet despite his various disappointments in the superhero power department this little guy just keeps battling on.  Call me a big soppy sopster but I had a tear in my eye at the end.

The visuals of Captain T&T (for Trinidad and Tobago, the island nation in which Thin Foot lives) are stunning.  I would call parts of this movie experimental were it not for the incredibly strong narrative thread which runs through it.  The animated segment at the center of the film was a surprise but works wonderfully within the context of the film as a whole.  Plus the directors have elicited incredibly strong performances from their young cast, particularly Kden Hee Chung as Thin Foot.

Captain T&T was written, directed and produced by Christopher and Leizelle Guiness. This film has been described as the best to ever be home produced in the Caribbean.  Watch it and see why.