The Cutest Animation…Ever?

Animatic 9.0 with sound from Robo-san on Vimeo.

There are so many cute things online, it can be kind of overwhelming sometimes. 

So when this animation update from Robo-san and Wan-chan popped into my inbox this weekend, I just about keeled over from cute-shock. The animated short depicts Eric Hibbeler’s Japanese children’s book of the same name, the story of a robot who loses his dog to the stratosphere during a game of frisbee and the journey to reunite that ensues. The creators, all students at Kansas City Art Institute (and probably future Pixar employees), have been consistently posting video updates of their progress on Vimeo, and backers of the project are invited to send comments and critiques, plus vote for the upcoming poster design (which will probably be *really* cute). 

Erykah Badu - Gone Baby, Don't be Long

Erykah Badu - Gone Baby, Don't be Long from beeple on Vimeo.

Another nice video directed by Flying Lotus, this time for Erykah Badu's "Gone Baby, Don't be long" from the album: New Amerykah Part 2. The post production was developed by Beeple, who were kind enough to make the C4D project files for this video, available for free!

In the first spot for The 21st Century Beetle, cutting-edge CGI creative goes entomological, creating a photo-real lush kingdom where the Black Beetle rules, runs, navigates and out performs all the other creatures…

The Soundtrack is Black Betty….cool version sung by Spiderbai. It amazing how songs make Ads.

Just Started Reading

Design as Politics by Tony Fry

Design as Politics confronts the inadequacy of contemporary politics to deal with unsustainability. Current 'solutions' to unsustainability are analysed as utterly insufficient for dealing with the problems but, further than this, the book questions the very ability of democracy to deliver a sustainable future.

Design as Politics argues that finding solutions to this problem, of which climate change is only one part, demands original and radical thinking. Rather than reverting to failed political ideologies, the book proposes a post-democratic politics. In this, Design occupies a major role, not as it is but as it could be if transformed into a powerful agent of change, a force to create and extend freedom. The book does no less than position Design as a vital form of political action. 

This is a convenient book to be reading, considering what seems to be a social revolution in

North Africa.

Shall write more about it, once I've finished reading it.

About the Author/Editor

Tony Fry is a director of the sustainment consultancy Team D/E/S and Adjunct Professor of Design, Griffith University, Queensland College of Art. He has taught and lectured internationally and is author of Remakings: Ecology, Design, Philosophy, A New Design Philosophy: an Introduction to Defuturing and Design Futuring: Sustainability, Ethics and New Practice (Berg).