Link About It: This Week’s Picks
Self-washing fabric, underground NYC (literally) and recycled-magazine Nikes round out this week’s look at the web
1. Boardwalk Empire VFX Breakdowns of Season 1
The graphics effects team from Boardwalk Empire has given the public a glimpse of their amazing compositing skills. In this video you can see how the editors create the classic Atlantic City landscape and create a simulated war injury.
2. Inside Ralph’s Garage
Ralph Lauren recently moved his legendary car collection—perhaps the most beautiful and valuable in the world—to a garage that he converted into a museum-like environment. Vanity Fair ran a recent exclusive with images of to-die-for models like the 1958 Ferrari Testa Rossa, 1938 Alfa Romeo Mille Miglia Spyder, 2010 Lamborghini Murciélago Super Veloce and many more dream cars.
3. Nike Makes Shoes From Shredded Magazines
Hackneyed commentary about the death of print and creative re-use aside, Nike’s new sneakers win not just for the unexpected use of castoff magazines but for how they incorporate the material. The clean, rational lines make for a Matrix-like effect, which nicely contrasts with the chaos of the one-of-a-kind patterns.
4. Francis Ford Coppola: On Risk, Money, Craft and Collaboration
Behance spends some time with the living cinema legend to learn what they can about creative productivity from his 45 years of experience.
5. Dream of the ’90s
This video teaser for the upcoming comedy series “Portlandia” gets a lot about the city hilariously right. With SNL’s Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney, we’re looking forward to the show’s debut 21 January 2011 on IFC.
6. The Wilderness Below Your Feet
Writer Alan Feuer takes on the endlessly-fascinating world of underground NYC by spending a few days adventuring through the city’s sewers and transit tunnels and chronicling the experience for the New York Times.
7. Pulp-Based Computing
By incorporating “electrically active inks, conductive threads, and smart materials” into paper, this new material developed by MIT’s Media lab has all sorts of potential applications.
8. The Man-Made Rainbow Machine
Professor and artist Michael Jones Mckean designed a machine comprised of commercial jet pumps and custom-designed nozzles that creates gigantic, man made rainbows.
9. Nanotube Yarns Let Smart Clothing Survive the Laundry
New developments in the treatment of carbon nanotube fibers show potential for more widespread use in the garment industry. Researchers at the Univeristy of Texas in Dallas are working on using this tech to produce self-washing clothing.
10. Lade Gaga for Polaroid
Polaroid’s Lady Gaga-designed camera glasses (consisting of a built-in camera and dual LCD screens), along with a digital camera and printer, debuted this week at CES, though the whole being able to see through the glasses thing hasn’t quite been figured out yet.
