I'm smitten with the Recollected Memories show from Jackson Patterson. The images are a unique execution of photomontage that blend his own photography with images from his family photo albums. There isn't one in the bunch I don't like...

Much gratitude to Kate for the heads up on their existence.

Indie Game: The Movie is a feature documentary about video games, their creators and the craft. The film follows the dramatic journeys of indie game developers as they create their games, and as they release those works, and themselves, to the world.



Based on the trailer, this feels like the movie version of A Life Well Wasted - focus on indie gaming, the drive behind the development and the all-too-relatable backstory from most of the people involved in terms of their love of videogames.

I'm happy to see that their Kickstarter campaign has already crossed the mark of their intended goal... now I will just patiently wait for a release date. Find out more on their official site.

Yesterday marked the official launch of Lytro - a new start-up company that is actually promising some serious innovation and actual technology. They've developed a camera that captures images using a light-field (aka Plenoptic) which captures more data about an image than what is currently available. The big push on this is that you'll be able to dynamically change the focus point on any image way after they're taken. Their photo gallery has a ton of examples of this in action - giving you the ability to shift focus from foreground to background and back again. Obviously this is great from a speed point of view (no need to focus anymore) and will allow the photo to sort of "live" after the fact.

As a concept it's an incredibly impressive bit of work. From a practical standpoint I worry that the first run of cameras will be ridiculously expensive and that the viewing mechanism for the images will be subpar (i.e. what if you have to run them all through lytro.com and some sort of poorly done embed? boo). But only time will tell what they've got in store and based on the buzz about it, I'd say we'll all hear about it right away.

You know who Jon Brion is, right? The man responsible for the film scores of Magnolia, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I ♥ Huckabees? The man behind the boards for Aimee Mann, Rufus Wainwright, Fiona Apple? Even if you aren't aware that you know him, you know him. What you may not know (I didn't) is that he had a planned VH1 show that showcased his impressive style of collaboration and improvisation. You can watch the whole thing here but I suggest scrubbing through to the musical performances (including Elliott Smith) as the talking / hosted portions are brutal.

via Mac

It seems like not too long ago it was impossible not to constantly stumble across repositories of desktop wallpapers - it was one of the most abundant resources on the web! These days, it seems harder to find quality, curated, offerings. PrettifyIt tries to help in that regard. Desktop wallpaper and various icon sets fill their pages. Items like this harddisk icon set or bokeh wallpaper are hard to resist. Certainly one for the bookmarks.

via Hynes

Do I have any idea what Nizo is? Not really. Do I think it will end up being something that I actually want to use? Maybe. Do I absolutely love the teaser site enough to offer my email for my information when it becomes available? You betcha.

Another installment of the fascinating Everything is a Remix series is available for your viewing pleasure. The main gist of the episode is that creativity isn't based on the spark of pure originality - it's about combining existing elements. Kirby Ferguson uses the history of the Apple computer to show how the success of the company wasn't based on a whole slew of new concepts (Xerox had done a lot of the groundwork) but their execution made a huge difference. It's only 11 minutes long and highly entertaining - so, no excuses, watch it.

I'm a sucker for Night Photography and well executed Slow Shutter captures. So, with that in mind, I am smitten with these works from Flickr user Science. His photostream has a load of great images - non-Night, non-Slow Shutter - that are quite worth a browse but I find myself staring at certain images for long periods of time.

Tip of the hat to Daniel once again for primo content.

Looks like the emroidery work of Daniel Kornrumpf is getting some serious love around the Internets lately and rightfully so! Being able to create such detailed portraits in such a small space (with embroidery no less) is no easy task. I love the juxtaposition of seeing the small "regular" size and the zoomed in detail - incredibly impressive to say the least!

Daniel steered me towards the Dermandar app this morning - an iOS application designed to capture panoramas. There are plenty of other apps that do the same thing but I'm enjoying the ridiculous speed in which Dermandar is able to capture and process a slew of images. Granted, the blend between images is a bit more obvious but it's a worthy trade. The interface involves joining a disconnected Yin and Yang together - a bizarre interface technique that works oddly well.

Try it out. I think you'll find it works oddly well.

• The Prolific Rise of Mobile Email - Campaign Monitor put up a rather insightful blog post about where HTML emails are being read. Turns out, not so much on the desktop anymore. Mobile email is fast on the rise. This is a great thing for making pretty looking mailers because the majority of high class smartphones can actually render HTML in an email - an oddly difficult task for many clients.
• Compiled Includes - I'll be honest.. I don't totally understand what is happening here but I do know that it allows for javascript and css files to be mashed into one server call; which will help keep things organized and cut back on server requests. via Jack.

My good pal Rachel Briggs recently launched her portfolio and I'm kind of stunned by the amount of great work jam packed in. It's weird when you know your friends are talented and then you see all their labors collected together into one spot and it becomes clear just how talented they are. She's got band photography, portrait collections, screenprints, paintings, various sketches and a whole load of other great designs. That's a lot of links but the point here is - I'm proud of my friend and genuinely impressed at the wealth of work.

Oh, and don't miss out on this.

While I am certainly no pro when it comes to tattoo's I find myself pretty smitten with the work of Amanda Wachob - simply for its unique style. The "Abstract" work may not be something I'd want permanently put into my own skin but the watercolor style is not something I've ever seen before.. at least not done so well. She also has a "Conceptual" set of work done with distilled water instead of ink. "The lack of pigment renders the marking impermanent." Very nice portfolio and a lot of potential for more greatness to surface down the line.

via Alexis

I have never had the pleasure of seeing The Books live but thanks to the existence of their fresh new Daytrotter Session I can at least experience a version of it. Now all I need to do is combine this audio with their tour dvd and I'll be able to experience a reasonable facsimile at my convenience.

I'll admit it, I'm a total sucker for any occasion in which Jon Stewart appears on FOX News and explains his position against the media. He does a particularly pointed job this go around when appearing on Fox News Sunday in explaining that he isn't necessarily attacking conservative media but all media - since they tend to sway so heavily "towards sensationalism and laziness." Honestly, I don't really even watch that much news - I just like a good head to head argument with someone I respect.

Of course, Stewart responds to the appearance on his own show... and it's as amusing as you'd hope.

If all goes as planned, the 2011 edition of the Summer Mix Series will be launching this week. As promised, this go around will have a much more restricted policy on accepted mixes. Last year saw a slew of mixes consisting of "Songs I Like!", "My DJ Mix From Last Night", etc. etc. and it's just not the kind of repository that I want to curate. So, this year all mixes are required to be heavily themed. I realize this is a very subjective thing but if there's not an obvious thread keeping the songs together it will not be accepted.

All that is to say, the series starts soon - tighten up your mixes and prepare to submit them!

While this video from Is Tropical doesn't really entice me to check out much more music from the band I will certainly give them huge amounts of credit for creating a brilliantly entertaining short film. It was described to me as a bunch of kids play fighting each other with NERF guns but with animated blood splatters worked in whenever they get hit. That was enough to pull me in but the video is so much more than that. The animation style is perfect - it captures the grandiose imagination of little kids right on the nose, completely over the top and out of control. Love it.

via Paul.

The flickr stream of Benoit Paille often has a vibe to it that reminds me of Gregory Crewdson - particularly images like this or this that seem to tell a bizarre story without telling a story at all. There are also a slew of fascinating portraits - various strangers or artistic gatherings among them. There happens to be plenty of nudity throughout the stream so consider yourself forewarned if you're browsing this at your place of work or at a public computing kiosk. Phenomenal work - spend some time browsing the sixty-three pages of content.

via Kate.

The idea behind Dear Photograph is one you've seen before but, fortunately, it's also one that never gets old. Take a photo from your past, revisit the place where it occurred and take a new photo of past image overlaid on the present. Hopefully this sort of thing doesn't go away entirely now that we're in the age of digital photography... doing this all in Photoshop just doesn't have the same impact. Lesson here? Print your photos, it may work out in your favor some day.

Tumblr reigns supreme when it comes to simple themed blogs with content, often, worth following along. Prime example: When We Were Young - a Tumblog that showcases photos of celebrities from their younger days. If you've ever wondered why people gush about Helen Mirren or Ian McKellen this may help shed some light on the subject. Regardless, it's an oddly engaging browse (and the domain name is perfect).