88 Studios

Jill Bolte Taylor's brain talk at TED

3 letters. Wow.
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229

Jill describes the experience of having a stroke - which is remarkably similar to a mushroom/acid trip (if not the same thing) - but from the perspective of a brain scientist who understands what is happening to her brain chemistry as it's happening. The stroke was on her left brain, which released her for a few hours to experience the world with right brain only. A remarkable and moving description of being at one with the world - as escaping the individual - as living in pure image.

Social Shopping & Technology

My buddy Ted sent this article my way. Some real interesting stuff about how young people are shopping in real-life in new ways using their mobile phones. Girls taking photos of selves in potential outfits with cell camera and sending to friends for approval before making a sale. Dressing up virtual characters - or virtual selves with real clothes. Article notes that bruising economy may hamper stores abilities to take advantage of these new patterns. Good point.

Some ideas if there was money: stores should encourage these types of behavior - facilitate social shopping. Create a booth that takes a better photo of someone in a dress and helps them email it to their friends cell phones.

Semi-related: Back in 99 I proposed a system to the North Face (a client at the time) to develop software for PDAs/cell phones that would tell shoppers the story behind a product - it would introduce people via video and animation to the designers and materials - man, if they had listened, they would have been like 10 years ahead of the game. They thought it was too expensive at the time. I think it would have been 100K or so - they really would have been an innovator.  There's still nothing like this.   

Wii Head Tracking

Speak of the devil - this guy has done it - but hack-style.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw

In a recent post I wrote about the 3d camera that tracked your body's motion to give you a more visceral control of your computer environment. Johnny Lee, in his unassuming and crystal clear presentation describes how to hack your Wii to do the same thing.

Is the art market really this heated?

Reading an article in SF Magazine, "A Collectors Guide to the Exploding Art Market" Jan2008, you'd think that the art market was about to explode. Too bad they don't give a lot of backup to their assertions. Some tidbits:
* internet and art faires have completely altered how we buy art
* art has become a 'scene' - vs. just for art alone (i've written about this topic in previous posts)
* prices have doubled and trebled
* "when someone graduated with an MFA, you could buy a piece of his or her artwork for $5K. Now it's closer to $50K" - ha ha - what world are they living in? Let me introduce you to a bunch of starving post-MFAs
* many local galleries make 1/3rd of their revenue online. wow, i'd like to see the backup for this.
* more stories about how art at fairs is presold and there's nothing left.

Interesting sentiments throughout this story from gallery owners who are surprised that people are buying art on the basis of a "JPEG" - which indicates to me that a) the online art market is still operating on a very low-tech plane and b) that even on this low-tech plane, the story is good enough and information available enough that people will drop $20K for pieces seen only online. Imagine if there was a more compelling and immersive environment for viewing art online.

Videogames Expand Full-Body Playing

WSJ article today about video game controllers that are more intuitive (and active) a la the Wii. Interesting note in there about how a 3D camera (3DV) tracks your body movement resulting in a more accurate body movement based interface - that can be used to control avatars in virtual worlds. This kind of thing sure would solve one of the biggest problems I see with vworlds - intuitively navigating the space. But, really, who is going to buy these things? Gamers and enthusiasts. Unless they're built into monitors, they don't solve the problem. Better to make more easily navigated virtual worlds.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119862811807649753.html?mod=psp_editors_picks

Tagging Art at the Met

This is pretty interesting - the Met has set up a website to ask patrons to tag its art collection (thanks to SmartMobs for the tip). Really smart idea, not only to develop a trove of data about its pieces, but also to engage it's patrons on a new level - at some point, they could produce an exhibit based on this data - which would be a sort of curation by the populace - a folksshow - ok, that's a dumb term.

If I were them, next step is: allow people to read and set tags as they wander the museum using their mobile phones. Create a cell phone app that allows people to navigate the entire museum according to a short questionnaire about their preferences - matching their keywords with these tags and guiding them via GPS.

Selling Widgets

It's starting to happen - storefronts with widgets. This just in from paypal:
http://storefront.paypallabs.com/authenticate/review

Incentive Marketing

Interesting article. Pay for things by buying something else. A products arbitrage.

I could see some kind of web service that matches up sellers who are willing to buy products for a consumer in exchange for the consumer purchasing their product. Easiest example is credit card company who could sponsor your purchase of anything on the web. Want something <$30. Buy it and we'll credit your new account for that much. Could be interesting if one of the payment options during check out is:  "Pay by Swap." And if you select that, it pops up a window that shows you all of the companies that are willing to buy that product for you in exchange for your contact information, you signing up for their service, or you purchasing their product for a lesser amount.

This article isn't exactly saying what I'm saying - but gave me this idea... Link: Adotas » Improve the Consumer Experience through Incentive Marketing.

Online UK Shoppers Reject Advertising

Wow. The web is full of apropos articles today. This one about how important friend recommendations are to online shopping - and about compelling uses of video. A website full of video product reviews might not be a bad idea...

Reference:http://www.adotas.com/2007/11/online-uk-shoppers-reject-advertising/

Using Video to Sell Art

Holy moly. It's like the Wall St. Journal is reading my mind. Article today about how an artist is using online video to sell her art.

"The 29-year-old Chicago artist and filmaker regularly posts videos on YouTube, showing how she created a painting and what it means to her - and musing quirkily on a host of matters... The unorthodox formula has brought her a total of 8.2 million views...and a host of buyers. At the end of her clips, Ms. Trevino includes a link to eBay... So far, she has sold every painting she has offered this way - 49 at last count - at prices ranging lately from $500 to $1,000 each." Nov26, 2007. R1 "Lights! Camera! Sales!"

My idea: make this process easier, more intuitive, and available to non-technical artists. Build a system that makes the connections between YouTube and eBay seamless. And let the artist create a more compelling environment - a richer story - than she can on YouTube alone. Ensure that pieces are posted not only to YouTube, but all popular video sharing sites to ensure maximum exposure.