Kronus by MPC on Wrath of the Titans film
Kronus, the mythological Greek Titan, form was designed for the film ‘Wrath of the Titans’ by VFX company MPC (The Moving Picture Company) using several 3D iterations to catch the flavour of Zeus father. As described in the CGSociety website they used Zbrush sculpting software to developed Kronus concept design. As explained by Anders Langlands, MPC’s CG Supervisor: “We tried to keep that idea that there was a constantly moving molten lava layer shifting underneath his skin,”; “Then on top of that would be these black plates of rocks like tectonic plates shifting around on the earth.”
The impressive special effects make one think also about the post effects of Kronus as the volcano dries while the lava spilled ‘refill’ mineral resource in the new created/destroyed landscape. Analogically one is reminded by the tour de force book by British writer Olaf Stapledon Last and First Men where he investigated not Kronus and Gaia mythical genealogy of the past but the near and far future landscape transformations impulsed by the age of ‘men’. In three hundred pages Stapledon covers two billion years and the transformation of mankind in eighteen iterations. From ultra-industrialized cities, to proto-caveman futures and scattered hunter-gathering far future tribes the book describes the environment and its slow but brutal transformation during this period.
It would be interesting to imagine the crossbreed of myth tempestuous Kronus and the radical tales of near future sustainability. As, for example, lava not only destroys it ‘recreates’ depleted mineral resources through centuries of lava flow and sedimentation. As fictionally depicted by Stapledon the issue is not that humanity would not adapt to massive change, but instead the soul price paid for such adaptation. As people may adapt to live in prison, not every adaptation seems to be a bright bargain. In this scenario story telling becomes a crucial way to in-form our future steps. What could be our near future Kronus?
For the full CG article please check CGSociety website
While researching for ts, I run into this amazing project. I don’t know how many of you know about it, but I think the way it is partly self-formed, partly controlled by the designer is really cool…
The Gravity Stool thanks its unique shape to the cooperation between magnetic fields and the power of gravity.
Departing from the idea that everything is influenced by gravitation, a force that has a strongly shaping effect, Jólan intended to manipulate this natural phenomenon by exploiting its own power: magnetism. The positioning of the magnetic fields in the machine, opposing each other, has largely determined the final shape of the Gravity Stool.
It is the combination of the magnet machine with the plastic material, developed especially for this purpose, that enabled Jólan to start a small but efficient chain of production. The forms and products are characterized by the freakish and organic shapes that are so typical of nature itself.
You can see more on how it is made on the artists website here
Hope everyone is having a good time!
Following our interest in the sentient enviroment we just came across a post on the-creators-project website about Interactive plants. The project has some of the macabre, a bit of the emotional and a lot of the Japanese.
In a way it reminds us of one of our favourite comics by Alan Moore ‘The Swamp Thing’ saga. It conveys a story when the force of nature is embedded with ambiguous emotions of human spirit. The series is a tour the force about the connection between the invisible and the natural and it’s a great piece of literary writing.
The series explores the ‘avatar-like’ connection between human spirit and fluid network of living things without going too esoterical. It would be interesting to know what the designers above would do if they could collaborate with The Swamp Thing and his unconventional emotions…
The Swamp Thing by Alan Moore and John Totleben
Feral Robotics from Vestal designers
In the last edition of the book ‘Little Brother’ by Cory Doctorow one will find an interesting contribution from Andrew ‘bunnie’ Huang, the Xbox hacker + a inspiring bibliography to expand the more curious readers.
In an extract Andrew explains:
“Hackers are explorers, digital pioneers. It is a hacker’s nature to question conventions and be tempted by intricate problems. Any complex system is sport for a hacker; a side effect of this is the hacker’s natural affinity for problems involving security. Society is a large and complex system, and is certainly not off limits to a little hacking. As a result, hackers are often stereotyped as iconoclasts and social misfits, people who defy social norms for the sake of defiance. When I hacked the Xbox in 2002 while at the MIT, I wasn’t doing it to rebel or to cause harm; I was just following a natural impulse, the same impulse that leads to fixen a broken iPod or exploring the roofs and tunnels at MIT”.
The bibliography is a realm gem, sharing great sources of the book. To mention a few from the many:
-Feral robotics -Natalie Jeremijenko and her students rewire toys to track toxic waste, very inspiring, for more click here
- On hacking arphids, see The RFID hacking underground in wired magazine
And last but not least the book Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, which addresses themes of civil liberty and social activism, for more click here
“According to Japanese myth the cause of earthquakes is the giant catfish Namazu living buried in the underground. Namazu is one of the yo-kai (in a very broad sense translatable as “monster”), creatures of Japanese mythology and folklore that were associated or caused misfortune or disasters. By moving his tail he can shake the entire earth… .
Namazu can be controlled only be the god Kashima, which with help of a powerful capstone pushes the fish against the underground and in such doing immobilized him. However the god sometimes got tired or is distracted from his duty and Namazu can move a bit and cause an earthquake. …”
continue reading here
Bernie Krause is the creator of Wild Sanctuary, a collection of over 3500 hours of audio recording of the natural world. His new book is ‘The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the origins of music in the worlds wild places’ (Hachette).
For sample of sounds of his book including Fire – Chernobyl Dawn, Volcano Arenal, Water – Candle Ice, Earth – elk and more click here
Google Earth with Sound
Also as written in the New Scientist website:
“Bernie Krause has spent 40 years collecting over 3500 hours of sound recordings from all over the world, including bird and whale song and the crackle of melting glaciers. His company, Wild Sanctuary in Glen Ellen, California, has now created software to embed these sound files into the relevant locations in Google Earth. Just zoom in on your chosen spot and listen to local sounds.”
For the full article please click here
And for another interview about interactive map feature sounds, click here
PLOTS – Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science publiclaboratory.org
“… is a community which develops and applies open-source tools to environmental exploration and investigation. By democratizing inexpensive and accessible “Do-It-Yourself” techniques, Public Laboratory creates a collaborative network of practitioners who actively re-imagine the human relationship with the environment. …”
Devices include Balloon Mapping, Infrared Monitoring, Stereo Cameras, Thermal Photography and many more …
PLOTS’ DIY gadgets and projects and how to make them yourself can be found here. Read together with New Scientist article about the thermal flashlight device here.
New Scientist article about how footage and information from broadcast and amateur videos of the Japan disaster is used to understand the devastating inundation and may help preparing for the next big one.
from New Scientist No 2854 (Special Issue) The deep Future – A guide to Humanity’s next 100,000 Years, p21
As discussed with some of you yesterday, here are some interesting and very different ways of drawing building sections, elevations, plans, 3d views etc for your inspiration. Even though a drawings should have a certain clarity and precision / resolution, they still can be very expressive, lively, atmospheric, speculative…
of course there are many more…!
Enric Miralles
Neil Denari
Future Systems
Emergent Architecture
Chetwoods Butterfly House
Yaohua Wang Nanjing Lab
Derek Pirozzi Speculating the Coast
Robert Gilson Quarantine
A few more animations showing very different techniques:
Machine with Wishbone
by Randall Okita (director), Arthur Ganson (artist)
This remarkable journey follows a stoic, determined wishbone on its explorative journey through an imaginative miniature world of snoring beds, paper birds, clouds that come in a box, and delightfully bewitching landscapes.
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by The Animation Workshop students
A man covered in responsibilities and burdened by the weight of his work is swept away on a journey that changes his perception of life.
more on The Animation Workshop
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by Eva Sommeregger
Neither a drawing nor a performance. It shifts between categories. The actual boundaries between various media are blurred. Video is used to capture moments in time – the digital film shows three outlines, one evolving after each other and because of each other. It is about a one-directional process that is taking place again and again.
more on evachromosom
The Technocrat Retrofit of London
by Keiichi Matsuda
Speculative architecture-fiction project exploring the architectural opportunities afforded by a post-capitalist economy. It occurs circa 2050, and marks a return to the community driven sustainable way of living, with the help of technology. The stock market has crashed and the pound has moved into hyper-inflation. Banks are deserted. The mayor of London negotiates with a powerless central government to transform the square mile into a contained self-sufficient Technocratic state.
