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Archive for July, 2007

26 Jul 2007

by Noel

Visual Manipulation

This post is about two different forms of visual manipulation for artistic effect. Start by looking at these
pseudo-3D chalk drawings. The monocular vision of the camera enhances the effect but I believe they would work in life if seen from the right angle. There was an exhibition of pseudo-3D paintings at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and they worked very well — arguably better than in photographs are you could actually walk around the works and the effect was maintained for quite a wide viewing angle.

Now you’re warmed up, we’re going to go into a time machine hereand here. I find the lack of colour in early photographs presents a barrier that makes it difficult to imagine myself in the scene. These colour photographs from the period 1909-1915 (reconstructed from red, green, and blue images using an ingenious process) remove that barrier and the results are striking. Some of the scenes — railways, forests, grand buildings — could be contemporary, but note how few roads there are, how few possessions are visible. I can relate to the pictures and yet they still feel like another world. Fantastic stuff.

Posted in Design | Comments Off on Visual Manipulation

18 Jul 2007

by Noel

Power to the People!

Waitrose has opened up near to Untyped Central and obviously Dave and I are agog with excitement. Only just less exciting than the thought of the great lunches we’re going to have is the chance to see the John Lewis Partnership in action. They have a fairly unique corporate form, and talk a good game, but do they deliver? I did my first test today when I asked the checkout operator what is was like to work for the Partnership. To my great surprise she responded very positively and could give me specific examples of the benefits. I don’t think many people could answer half as well if quizzed about their government, for example.

Posted in Business | Comments Off on Power to the People!

5 Jul 2007

by Noel

Of Interest 05/07/2007

There’s been a bit of a backlog building up for Untyping while I work hard on other stuff. Here’s so the of the stuff that has recently caught my eye:

  • “Show, don’t tell” is an old mantra in creative writing.
    Announcing the Business of Software Wiki is a great example of this principle in action. Note how Joel doesn’t tell you what a wiki is, which would be boring, but shows you with a brief demonstration. In addition to making more engaging prose showing conveys information on how to use the wiki, which helps bootstrap new users. Neat.
  • Facebook opened up an API recently. While Facebook could make an engaging platform for many things Jason Kottke gives a well-reasoned argument on why it probably isn’t a big deal
  • Watching without being. Just read this. Its only a short blog post but there’s too much in it to summarise here.

Posted in General | Comments Off on Of Interest 05/07/2007