Tue. 18 May 2010

Exit (Terre Natale) opens tonight in Bilbao, Spain

Tonight, Exit (also known as “Terre Natale”) opens at the AlhondigaBilbao in Spain. If you’re in Bilbao don’t miss this opportunity to experience the immersive 360-degree data projection. Exit (Terre Natale) is a 45-minute immersive visualization of human migration data divided into six narratives. Our historical focus is primarily from 1990 through today, augmented by occasional older data points or forecasts into the future. Humans migrate for various reasons. Political turmoil may create refugee migrations. Environmental disasters create refugees of a different sort. Some people migrate to wealthier economies sending micro-transactions, or remittances, home to their native land. We have recently crossed a threshold; 50% of humans have migrated from rural areas into cities. As of 2007 one out of every two people is now an urban dweller. See the Exit (Terre Natale) projection description and links to videos at http://stewd.io/w/exit.

Today also marks 30 years since Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis hung himself.


Wed. 12 May 2010

Panic combines an, iPad, an Apple //e, and our Jed video

A few weeks ago Stewart happened upon pictures of Panic Inc‘s new offices. In the shuffle was a photo of their vintage Apple //e computer sitting at an empty desk. Lovers of vintage hardware can’t resist. Stewart emailed Panic to ask if they would “do him the honor” of running the Jed’s Other Poem music video source code on it. Despite their tight schedules—including the recent release and promotion of Transmit 4—they did indeed get the code onto their Apple //e and even filmed their own version of the video! Have a look at what we’re affectionately dubbing “Jed Panic.”

Jed’s Other Poem is a music video for the Grandaddy song of the same name. And (perhaps) the world’s first open-source music video. You can download the Jed source code package to run on your Virtual II emulator or even your own vintage Apple II series machine. To do the latter just play the audio from the “cassette tape” source code file into your vintage Apple’s cassette drive port. You’ll need an audio cable with male mini-jacks on either end. (Read up on Apple DOS and the “LOAD” command, you’ll be fine.)

After Panic posted their version of the Jed video other Apple-related sites—such as Daring Fireball, TUAW, and 9to5 Mac—linked to it. The flood of traffic brought down Panic’s site temporarily. (We think that’s pretty hardcore.)