June 24, 2011
Squash and stretch is a common animation technique applied to characters or objects in motion. The technique makes their actions more fluid, and it is generally exaggerated for a cartoonish effect. When utilized with more subtlety, it works just as well for realistic movements. Squash and stretch was used to great effect in early 1920s American cartoons such as ‘Felix the Cat’ and ‘Betty Boop.’ It can also be used in comics or still cartoon art.
When done in accordance with the principles of animation, squash and stretch keeps the volume of the character constant. When squash and stretch is applied, it creates the illusion that a drawing has dimension and volume. Squash and stretch does not always have to be cartoonlike – when we crouch down in anticipation for a large leap, we squash. When we spring into the air, we stretch. A half-filled flour sack is an example of a more cartoonlike squash and stretch – when dropped the sack squashes a lot; when picked up it stretches a lot – but throughout the entire action, the volume never changes.
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June 24, 2011
The Incroyables (Incredibles) and their female counterparts, the Merveilleuses (Marvelous), were a name for the fashionable subcultures living in France in the Directoire era (late 18th century). The exhibition of products of national industry, organized in 1798, testified to their infatuation with luxury.
The names are sometimes spelled and were pronounced ‘incoyables’ and ‘meveilleuses’ without the letter R, in reaction against the Revolution, which begins with an R, in which so many had suffered and lost relatives, the letter R was banished. Divorce became legal under the Directoire and morals tended to be looser than in the past. Many Incroyables were ‘nouveaux riches,’ gaining their wealth from selling arms and lending money (usury). When the Directoire period ended, society took a more sober and modest turn.
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June 24, 2011
This Is Your Life is an American television documentary series broadcast on NBC, originally hosted by its producer, Ralph Edwards from 1952 to 1961. In the show, the host surprises a guest, and proceeds to take them through their life in front of an audience including friends and family. The format originated as a radio show on NBC Radio airing from 1948 to 1952.
The idea for ‘This Is Your Life’ arose while Edwards was working on ‘Truth or Consequences.’ He had been asked by the U.S. Army to ‘do something’ for paraplegic soldiers at a California Army rehabilitation hospital. Edwards chose a ‘particularly despondent young soldier and hit on the idea of presenting his life on the air, in order to integrate the wreckage of the present with his happier past and the promise of a hopeful future.’
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June 23, 2011
The dolly zoom effect is an unsettling in-camera special effect that appears to undermine normal visual perception in film. In its classic form, the camera is pulled away from a subject while the lens zooms in, or vice-versa.
Thus, during the zoom, there is a continuous perspective distortion, the most directly noticeable feature being that the background appears to change size relative to the subject.
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June 23, 2011
The Ken Burns effect is a popular name for a type of panning and zooming effect used in video production from still imagery. The name derives from extensive use of the technique by American documentarian Ken Burns. The technique predates his use of it, but his name has become associated with the effect in much the same way as Alfred Hitchcock is associated with the Hitchcock zoom.
The name ‘The Ken Burns Effect’ was used by Apple in 2003 for a feature in its iMovie 3 software. The feature enables a widely used technique of embedding still photographs in motion pictures, displayed with slow zooming and panning effects, and fading transitions between frames.
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June 23, 2011
Pickover stalks are certain kinds of details to be found empirically in the Mandelbrot set, in the study of fractal geometry. They are so named after the researcher Clifford Pickover, whose ‘epsilon cross’ method was instrumental in their discovery. An ‘epsilon cross’ is a cross-shaped orbit trap, which is a method of coloring fractal images based upon how close an iterative function, used to create the fractal, approaches a geometric shape, called a ‘trap.’ Pickover hit on the novel concept of looking to see how closely the orbits of interior points come to the x and y axes. In these pictures, the closer that the point approaches, the higher up the color scale, with red denoting the closest approach. The logarithm of the distance is taken to accentuate the details.
Biomorphs are biological-looking Pickover Stalks. At the end of the 1980s, Pickover developed biological feedback organisms similar to Julia sets and the fractal Mandelbrot set. He described an algorithm which could be used for the creation of diverse and complicated forms resembling invertebrate organisms. The shapes are complicated and difficult to predict before actually experimenting with the mappings. He hoped these techniques would encourage others to explore further and discover new forms, by accident, that are on the edge of science and art. Pickover’s biomorphs show a self-similarity at different scales and illustrate a significant feature of feedback in dynamical systems. Real systems, such as human beings and mountain ranges, also show self-similarity at different scales.
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June 23, 2011
Helmholtz [helm-hohlts] resonance is the phenomenon of air resonance in a cavity, such as when one blows across the top of an empty bottle. The name comes from a device created in the 1850s by Hermann von Helmholtz, the ‘Helmholtz resonator,’ which he, the author of the classic study of acoustic science, used to identify the various frequencies or musical pitches present in music and other complex sounds.
When air is forced into a cavity, the pressure inside increases. When the external force pushing the air into the cavity is removed, the higher-pressure air inside will flow out. However, this surge of air flowing out will tend to over-compensate, due to the inertia of the air in the neck, and the cavity will be left at a pressure slightly lower than the outside, causing air to be drawn back in. This process repeats with the magnitude of the pressure changes decreasing each time.
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June 22, 2011
Shutter Shades are a design of slatted sunglasses commercially available since the 1980s, designed by Alain Mikli, a French designer of high-end handmade eyeglasses and accessories. Instead lenses, the design is characterized by its ‘shutter’ motif, which is part of the frame, and are marketed as suitable for both men and women. Depending on the design, Shutter Shades may not function as sunglasses; although some models contain UV resistant lenses, many do not, and only feature a series of horizontal plastic ‘shades,’ which neither provide protection for the eye from UV light nor prevent a substantial amount of light from entering the eye.
First available in the 1980s, nicknamed ‘Venetian Blinders,’ a then-popular design of louvered eyewear were featured in the music videos for ‘Glittering Prize’ by Simple Minds in 1982 and ‘Obsession’ by Animotion in 1984. Alain Mikli made a contemporary custom design for Kanye West, again influenced by the fashion of the 1980s. West popularized the glasses in the music video for ‘Stronger’ in 2007.
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June 21, 2011
Rustic buses are old artisan modified buses used in rural Colombia and Ecuador where they are known as chivas (kid goats) or escaleras (ladders). They are used as public transport and more recently used as party buses in both countries. These are varied but characterized for being painted colorfully (usually with the yellow, blue, and red colors of the flags of Ecuador and Colombia) with local arabesques and figures.
Most have a ladder to the rack on the roof which is also used for carrying people, livestock and merchandise. They are built upon a bus chassis with a modified body made out either metal or wood. Seats are bench alike, made out of wood and with doors instead of windows.
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June 21, 2011
Commercial graffiti (also known as aerosol advertising or graffiti for hire) is the commercial practice of graffiti artists being paid for their work. In New York City in particular, commercial graffiti is big business and since the 1980s has manifested itself in many of the major cities of Europe such as London, Paris and Berlin.
Increasingly it has been used to promote video games and even feature prominently within them, reflecting a real life struggle between street artists and the law. Commercial graffiti has created significant controversy between those who view it as an effective medium of advertising amongst specific target audiences and those who believe that legal graffiti and advertising using it encourages illegal graffiti and crime.
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June 21, 2011
Mr. Brainwash (‘MBW’) is a pseudonym for Thierry Guetta in the film ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop,’ directed by Banksy. Guetta is presented in the 2010 film as a French citizen who now lives in Los Angeles, having been a proprietor of a clothing store and videographer who evolved into a street artist and gallery artist, influenced by the street artists he documented through video over the years.
According to the film, Guetta was first introduced to street art by his cousin, the French street artist, Invader. The film includes authentic documentation of Space Invader, Shepard Fairey, Banksy, and other well-known street artists at work on the streets, and is directed by Banksy with significant participation from Fairey.
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June 21, 2011
Four-on-the-floor is a rhythm pattern used in disco and electronic dance music. It is a steady, uniformly accented beat in 4/4 time in which the bass drum is hit on every beat (1, 2, 3, 4) in common time. This was popularized in the disco music of the 1970s and the term four-on-the-floor was widely used in that era: it originated with the pedal-operated drum-kit bass-drum.
Many styles of electronic dance music, particularly those that derived from house and techno, use this beat as an important part of the rhythmic structure. Sometimes the term is used to refer to a 4/4 uniform drumming pattern for any drum.
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