Posts tagged 'Nature'

Gargoyle Gecko

'Eye of the Gecko' by Bal Soora

Bal Soora took this fantastic photograph of his son’s Gargoyle Gecko, a species (Rhacodactylus auriculatus) unique to the southern end of New Caledonia.

[ The Eye of the Gecko ]

Noise Trade

We’re diggin’ this music video that garth+ginny put together for Three Trapped Tigers. Maybe you will too?

[ Three Trapped Tigers: Noise Trade ]

Civilization

“Lost in the silence, they bow to the call of the east;
Tantalized and seduced by the demons released.
Ears to the ground by the name of the merciless guide,
Onto the fire that burns in the all seeing eye.”

The latest music video from Justice, directed by Edouard Salier, is just what you’d expect: awesome. Enjoy!

[ Justice - Civilization ]

How Will You Create The Universe?

“How will it be when you can choose what you turn into? Time to grooooooooow!”

It’s a two-for-one Encyclopedia Pictura Friday! These guys – Isaiah Saxon, Sean Hellfritsch and Daren Rabinovitch – make such awesome stuff. Can some big Hollywood studio just give them gobs of money to make a full-length feature?

Related: Wanderlust

[ How Will You Create The Universe? ]

Loom

“Blindness to suffering is an inherent consequence of natural selection. Nature is neither kind nor cruel but indifferent.”Richard Dawkins

Everything about ‘Loom’ is right: the animation, the pacing, the gorgeous sound design, the cinematography, the concept – everything. Don’t watch this until you’ve got some time set aside to really soak it in. That means headphones, full-screen, HD, dimmed lights and your full, undivided attention; prepare yourself for a treat.

Cheers to Polynoid for the fantastic execution: direction by Jan Bitzer, Ilija Brunck and Csaba Letay, technical direction from Fabian Pross and sound design by Joel Corelitz of waveplant. Lots of other talented folks were involved so be sure to check out the full credits.

Some well deserved gratitude is owed to Sam Lillard for the excellent submission: thanks, Sam!

[ Loom ]

Peace On The Rise

“We can sit around this fire and let our spirits ride on out; watch it as a flame gets higher. I can see it in your eyes, whispers on the rise.”

Hey, guess what? I have some fantastic news!. Chad VanGaalen just posted another music video for a tune he released on Sub Pop and it’s exactly what you’d expect: chill, psychedelic and über-trippy. Enjoy!

Patrick Smith, we are forever in your debt for passing it along...cheers!

[ Chad VanGallen - Peace On The Rise ]

Enal and his pet shark

'Enal and his pet shark' by James Morgan

“Traditional Bajau cosmology - a syncretism of animism and Islam - reveals a complex relationship with the ocean, which for them is a multifarious and living entity. There are spirits in currents and tides, in coral reefs and mangroves…more

I absolutely love this photograph James Morgan took of Enal, a young Bajau in Indonesia, playing with Wangi Wangi, his pet shark, that he keeps in a pen underneath his stilted house in Wangi, Indonesia. Read more about the Bajau, the last true nomads of the sea, and see loads more fantastic pictures over at James Morgan’s site.

[ The Bajau Laut via Neatorama ]

Old Fangs

“Are you sure about this? What about that? Do you remember that? Do you know where we’re going at least? We’re not lost, are we?”

‘Old Fangs’ is a short film directed by Adrien Merigeau and Alan Holly that was produced at Cartoon Saloon in Kilkenny, Ireland. It has won a slew of awards and, after watching it, you’ll understand why.  Lots of heavy themes here – kind of reminds me of Gauguin’s Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?.

[ Old Fangs ]

Seed

TENDRIL – a motion design house based in Toronto, Canada – wanted to “rediscover [their] inspirations for getting into the industry and identify the things that were killing [their] inspiration.” Out of that desire came the idea to create a series of shorts that would communicate who they are and what they like to make. SEED is the first of these shorts and, judging by how it turned out, we’re excited to see what they’ll post next. Concept/direction by Vini Nascimento; sound design courtesy of CypherAudio‘s John Black.

[ Manifesto Fragments Part 1 ]

Northern Lights Post #3

While I’m aware that respondcreate already posted some great content relating to our most impressive of natural phenomenons, I thought I would go ahead and throw this video up on the site because, well, it’s a video, it’s in HD, and it’s stunning. Terje Sorgjerd captured one of the largest Aurora Borealis events in years as it occurred over national parks bordering Russia (so think remote, wild, and very very cold). He has some other great HD videos up, so check them all out, especially the one detailing the beauty of Norway and it’s landscape.

[ The Aurora via Buzzfeed ]

Fly Neuron Brainbow

Fruit Fly Brainscan (From: http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/32423/page1/)

“You’re looking at the brainscan of a fruit fly, which has been injected with fluorescent proteins to trace out and highlight neuron networks in the brain, making each neuron glow one of a 100 custom colors.” –Adrian Covert, Gizmodo

Scientists sure are smart. Read more about this fascinating process (called ‘brainbow’) at Technology Review.

[ Fly Over the 'Brainbow' via Gizmodo > FastCo ]

Argyle The Octopus

“Argyle The Octopus lived in the sea, his skin was different than you and me…”

Today’s timeless life lesson comes courtesy of the always-excellent, Yo Gabba Gabba. It was made for kids but I think it should be mandatory viewing for adults, too. Illustrations by Colt Bowden, animation by Keri Rainock and adorable narration via Ollie Schultz (‘udder’ ftw). A big thanks goes to Lori for posting a Yo Gabba Gabba video to our Facebook wall – we watched it, loved it and then saw this in the sidebar which is what led to this very post. Ahhhhh, internet.

[ Colt Bowden - Argyle The Octopus - Yo Gabba Gabba ]

Release The Freq

Kim Holm serves up a stunner for UK dubstep outfit, Matta. I dig how he combined the dissimilar elements of nature documentary-type footage with abstract colorful shapes/gradients and hi-tech interface elements to create something completely unique. It compliments the track rather well, too. Cheers!

P.S. I’ve been inundated with lots of great submissions this week that I’m still sorting through – I’ll do my best to get to them as soon as I can. Thanks for sending me such rad stuff, friends!

[ Matta - Release The Freq ]

Solar prominence

“When a rather large-sized (M 3.6 class) flare occurred near the edge of the Sun, it blew out a gorgeous, waving mass of erupting plasma that swirled and twisted over a 90-minute period… read more

The good folks at NASA captured this on February 24, 2011 and it helped reacquaint me with just how small and insignificant I am – a realization I always find is tremendously freeing. If you are as fascinated about this kind of stuff as I am you’ll probably enjoy reading more about solar prominences on wikipedia.

[ NASA's SDO Captures a Monster Prominence [video] via Gizmodo ]

Nightlife in Tulamben

Alex of Global Dive Media shot this gorgeous underwater footage at Tulamben in north eastern Bali. The backing music by Tom La Meche adds a peaceful and contemplative atmosphere to the proceedings so why not dim the lights and relax for a while?

[ Nightlife in Tulamben ]

Mighty Antlers

A man drives his car furiously down a narrow road, surrounded by a vast forest. When he encounters a deer in the middle of the road he makes a villainous attempt to ram it. However this particular hit and run has jaw crushing, battering consequences.

‘Mighty Antlers’ was created by four Danish filmmakers/animators: Sune Reinhardt, Mikael Ilnæs, Michael L. Fonsholt and Jouko Keskitalo.

[ Mighty Antlers ]

In Our Talons

“You may not believe, but even we were scared at first.
It takes a lot of nerve to destroy this wondrous earth.
We’re only human; this at least we’ve learned.”

Playful and powerful stop-motion visuals directed by Alan Poon / haunting, honest and cautionary tunes by Bowerbirds.

[ Bowerbirds "In Our Talons" ]

Sahara Wonderland

zoomion had the fantastic idea to shoot some gorgeous hd footage of the Sahara desert and then set it to the tribal sounds of SaReGaMa. Nice.

If you’re interested in any location/technical details there’s lots to read on the video’s Vimeo page and if you want to watch ‘Sahara Wonderland’ on your fancy big screen TV then you’re in luck because zoomion was kind enough to host free, high quality downloads in both 720p and 1080p. Cheers, guys – thanks!

[ Sahara Wonderland ]

24 Hour View

'24 Hour View of The Sky' by Chris Kotsiopoulos

“After wondering for some time whether it was possible to image the sky from one morning to the next where I live in Athens Greece, I decided to give it a try. After hours of planning and preparation, and a full day of shooting, the image above is the result of this labor of love. It took me about 12 hours to pull together and process a single image that included over 500 star trails, 35 shots of the Sun and 25 landscape pictures…more” -Chris Kotsiopoulos

[ Twenty Four Hour View of the Sky via Gizmodo ]

Warm Signal

“A short abstract movie dealing with nature and maritime creatures, metamorphosis and transformation – it connects art and science. Strong emphasis on sound, related to the idea of visual music.”

Silke Sieler, a German ‘motion graphics designer’, created this video as his diploma thesis for his studies in media design at the University of Applied Sciences in Mainz. I sure hope he got top marks because it’s really, really good. Music by Apparat.

[ Warm Signal ]