Weird Futures, Flying Stuntmen and Terrible Interfaces
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things I found
1. The worst volume control interfaces in the world
In 2017, a group of developers hilariously competed for who could create the worst volume control interface in the world. Enjoy this amazing list compiled by user 0xDesigner on Twitter.
2. Same Energy
“We believe that image search should be visual, using only a minimum of words. And we believe it should integrate a rich visual understanding, capturing the artistic style and overall mood of an image, not just the objects in it.”
Same Energy is a visual search engine developed by Jackob Jackobson.
3. Walking robots are cute
From one of my favourite subreddits, Shitty Robots, a lovely “contest of walking robots”.
4. The Future Ahead Will Be Weird AF
“Welcome to the post-post-post-truth AI world. You know it’s not real. But you have to eat some bread in order to survive. But there is more out there. Synthetic Personalities awaits you at the door. The Future will be weird AF.”
The Ultimate AI CoreCore Experience, provided by Silvia Dal Dosso.
5. Early Computer Art is the Best Computer Art
Amy Goodchild published this cool article on early computer art (50s and 60s). I always show these artworks and experiments to my students because, after all these years, they still feel amazingly fresh and interesting.
6. The Stuntman
Ormer Locklear was a stunt pilot who made movies for Hollywood. This pic is from his second movie (The Skywayman, 1920) which he was the star of and did his own stunts for. He pulled this stunt off successfully, but he died doing a different stunt on the last day of filming. They used the footage of his crash in the movie. The movie is currently lost.
7. I am a surgeon: classic internet meme art
8. Flowers Blooming Backward Into Noise
A short animated documentary by Eryk Salvaggio on how AI image generation works, and the entanglement of composite photography, statistical correlations, and racist ideologies.
9. The Battlestation Experience
Frankly, I don’t really know what’s going on here.
things I did recently
June 3rd - RadioRAI3. A3 il formato dell’arte - radio interview about AI & art (italian)
June 2nd - 7 Corriere della Sera - interview about AI & images (italian)
May 20th - Memestetica presentation @ Ammasso - Off Topic, Torino
May 18th - Dialoghi artistici con la macchina – Speciale Artribune Magazine (italian)
April 14th - Podcast Still Online - interview (italian)
May 10th - Celebrità di internet e studiosi di meme - Base, Milano [check my contribution here: “The Weird Subreddits Iceberg”]
April 2th - UNREEL. A door to alternative realities - The Gate, Bergamo e Brescia
This giant video-portal hosts my latest exhibition (actually, there are 2 portals, one in Brescia and one in Bergamo). It’s called UNREEL and I made it with the collaboration of so many amazing people. It’s up until the end of June.
UNREEL. A door to alternative realities - The Gate, Bergamo + Brescia
Videos by: Giusy Amoroso, Elodie Anglade, Convivial Studio, Drake Cappi, Fantamagico, Illo Studio, Jacksachs, Dirk Koy, Marble Mannequin, Emanuela Quaranta, Sam Rolfes, Sagans, Gabrielle Salonga, Matteo Scappin, Simone Vezzani
Production and Art direction: Gummy Industries
Curator: Valentina Tanni
Motion Design: Bax Studio
Commissioned by: Consorzio Stargate BGBS2023
upcoming…
You might have noticed that I haven’t sent this newsletter in a while. There is a simple explanation for that: I spent the last few months writing like crazy (realistic picture below). I just delivered the first draft of my new book to the publisher and I’m currently working on revisions and fine tuning. It will be out in October for NERO Editions (NOT).
Also, the English edition of Memestetica is almost ready (we are working hard on that, too), and I signed a contract for the Spanish one. Can you believe that?
Last but not least, another very exciting news: next fall I’ll be teaching a new course at John Cabot University in Rome. On which topic, you may ask… (drumroll)…. Well, it’s MEME CULTURE AND AESTHETICS.
NEXT IN LINE: Simposio (Borca di Cadore) - July 6th-9th
the great wall of memes updates
The Great Wall of Memes is a research project in the form of a visual archive. I started it in 2012 and it’s the place where I collect images and memes that feel relevant. Click here to see the latest uploads.
That’s all for now! Feel free to send me an email or leave a comment.