February 2008

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in February 2008.

Colors

After yesterday’s antics—almost crashed my motorcycle, saw the sun rise from the top of Mount Tam, worked, got paid, had coffee with Tiff, cooked dinner for Krissy, drank wine with her and Garth, exchanged relationship war stories and went to sleep drunk and happy—I took pictures of the sunrise from sea level:

Tomorrow is built for brussels sprouts, mustard grains, pancetta and ahi.

Typography in motion: Le Houellebecq by freemk.

(Swiss Legacy via Monoscope)

I have a thing for purposeful monochromatic constructions, devices that simultaneously tickle my parietal and occipital lobes, Venn diagrams of precious little intersection of the trickster, beauty and math. Childhood ingredients included parts Escher, Pinball Construction Set and the Basel School. This week I was ecstatic to be exposed to not one, but two examples of this meter—one physical, the other virtual, both Japanese, rendered in white, challenges to be experimented with.

First is Illoiha’s insanely cool climbing wall. As I said to one .tiff, this gym in Ebisu tugs on my spidey heartstrings. Your vertical progress is marked by gripping picture frames, flower vases and in one case, a deer head. As anyone who’s drank the bouldering Kool-Aid, seeing a manifestation of the real world in white, pared down to the basic physical forms that demand to be climbed is a beautiful thing.

Second is the reality distortion of Echochrome, a minimalist game built around the brilliant concept of turning what you see into what happens. To paraphrase, Echochrome is an Escher puzzle made live. Control is handled simply by rotating the stage, while the mannequin walks around blindly, falling through holes and bouncing off jump pads until you’ve assembled the stage in a manner that reaches closure.

I anxiously await March 18, and debating how to retrieve my PSP. :P My fingers are crossed hoping Echochrome is another Portal, Rez or—at least a little—Katamari. It’s promising.

E3 2007 Trailer

GDC 2008 Video, via Destructoid:

Because someone had to. At the very least, I can’t recall someone doing this. But I could be wrong.

Mark FTW!

(get yours here)

Four FFFFOUND-worthy artists I admire who post their work on Flickr:

• A*A*R*O*N
• _bns
• crapartist
• Jeremy Pettis

BONUS UNICORNS LINK courtesy of Typographica.

Two of my favorite peeps, Kendal and Steve are putting the engage in engaged. Huzzah. Congratulations, and Liz are in order.