Comments Off on Tokyo City Series: ActroidDirection
SpineTV has assembled a series devoted to what may be the world’s most quirky metropolis, Tokyo. I have never been but this series has me itching to travel there as soon as humanly possible. It must truly be an amazing place. In order to view the entire series you can dig into Spine’s Vimeo account here.
Here is the description of episode 6 of the series that you can watch above:
“In episode 6 of our Tokyo City Series we visit Kokoro HQ, part of the Sanrio Group responsible for one of the most famous Japanese exports, Hello Kitty. Since their inception on 1984 Kokoro have created various ‘ofrobots’ including people friendly vending machines, massive animatronic dinosaurs and life-like ‘humanoid’ robots, developed in ‘continous observation of humans’. We meet Takeshi Mita who shows us the female actroids (actor/android) they are currently developing and tells us of his hopes for an actroid and human integrated future.”
This little video by Thinklab was inspired by a TED talk given by Stefan Sagmeister. The Thinklab crew packed up a Canon 5D and travelled through South America, Europe, and New Zealand. The video is all captured from their trip. If this doesn’t make you want to push away from the machine for a while I don’t know what will.
Photographer Jan Otto Schreiber bought a ticket to travel on a cargo ship to Australia last year and embarked upon a two month odyssey before reaching shore. While on board he photo-documented to trip in a series he titled ‘Somewhere Between the Shores’. The result is some beautifully contemplative imagery that will definitely pull the Mark Twain heart strings in the under-traveled heart. I’d love to take a similar journey but alas between home, new business and baby-on-the-way I will have to photo journal an entirely different trip.
Comments Off on Christopher Herwig PhotographyPhotography
I was sincerely just absolutely blown away by Christopher Herwig’s photography. He is able to capture the personality and essence of the exotic places he has traveled in a viscerally gripping way that really seizes the imagination. Honestly, looking through the images was the first time I started thinking that maybe I should learn something about photography and try taking it up myself. It inspired me that much. I was really glad I stumbled upon his body of work.
About Christopher Herwig:
“A Canadian currently based in Monrovia, Liberia and doing assignments throughout West Africa. Between 2003 – 2006 I was putting together a collection of images on Central Asia while living in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
I was technically educated in photography at Langara College in Vancouver, and my background includes professional work in advertising, PR and editing. While my earlier work experience was primarily commercial, much of my free time since 1993 has been spent on travel photography. This travel work has been showcased in exhibitions, magazines and on TV worldwide. I strive to produce clean and graphically pleasing compositions that document realistic situations sometimes playfully but still respectfully. I try not to limit my subject matter to what would typically be showcased; instead I include the many varied aspects of ordinary life that are often overlooked and try to highlight the charms and uniqueness of a particular region. Besides documenting different aspects of life and introducing an area such as Central Asia to a wider audience, the images are intended to entertain.”
Socotra Island…”has been geographically isolated from mainland Africa for the last 6 or 7 million years. Like the Galapagos Islands, this island is teeming with 700 extremely rare species of flora and fauna, a full 1/3 of which are endemic, i.e. found nowhere else on Earth.
The climate is harsh, hot and dry, and yet – the most amazing plant life thrives there. Situated in the Indian Ocean 250 km from Somalia and 340 km from Yemen, the wide sandy beaches rise to limestone plateaus full of caves (some 7 kilometers in length) and mountains up to 1525 meters high.
The name Socotra is derived from a Sanscrit name, meaning ‘The Island of Bliss’.”
It is an indescribibly bizarre yet beautiful place and you can see many more inspiring pictures of it here.
