Category Archives: art

The Haeckel Clock

Check one of the latest art projects to come out of Holler Sydney: The Haeckel Clock (free install). Its unique art direction was inspired by the artistic work of an eminent German biologist, naturalist, philosopher called Ernst Haeckel. Around the turn of the last century he discovered, described and named thousands of new species and drew microscopic creatures with fascinating skill and detail.

Haeckel illustration

Haeckel illustration

Holler’s Mike Hill, himself a zoologist and nature photographer before he entered the interactive agencyscape, is a big fan of Haeckel’s work.

The application is a pretty abstract clock that uses different sized balls to signify hours, minutes and seconds.

Haeckel Clock

Hours floating together

Fittingly for such a scientifically-inspired piece the elements all adhere to the laws of gravity and have their own elastic coherence.

Haeckel Clock

Hours, minutes and seconds separated

The modern genius behind this app is my frequent collaborator Lukasz Karluk, who developed the application in openFrameworks. He describes the project, its interface and technical detail here on his blog. Have a peek at the flow in his screen video and don’t forget to install this free clock on your iPad by going to the app store.

Disclaimer: I was only very partially involved in the clock’s design and development, mainly correcting any typos in German pieces of copy.

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Creative Social featuring ’52 Suburbs’ and ‘Underwater Sydney’

I am really excited about tonight’s Creative Social (more on CS below), this time hosted by Amnesia Razorfish and myself here at MOJO. We have the pleasure of welcoming two speakers, both ex-advertising professionals, who explore our home town Sydney in very artistic and unusual ways.

Creative Social at MOJO invite

Creative Social at MOJO invite

Louise Hawson is the author of popular blog 52 Suburbs, a search for beauty in Sydney’s more than 600 suburbs. Her work consist mainly of photo diptychs, taken in documentary style over the course of (you guessed it) one year. The body of work is now being turned into a book (to be released in May as part of Sydney Writers Festival) and an exhibition (to be opened at Museum of Sydney May 14) . Have a peek at the list of suburbs and see if yours has been explored by her.

52 Suburbs at redfern

52 Suburbs at Redfern by Louise Hawson

Our second speaker is Richard Vevers who is a member of Underwater Sydney, a conservation effort for Sydney’s beautiful underwater coastline. He will speak about his passion for diving and underwater photography – and how it took him to get involved in this noble cause.

Nudibranch by Richard Vevers

Nudibranch by Richard Vevers

Creative Social Sydney is a monthly get together of digital CDs and senior thinkers in the industry. We get involved in advising industry bodies such as IAB or ADMA, think about how to get greater and more innovative work out there, have the voice of digital creativity be heard more often, and invite inspirational speakers. Originally started in London by Mark Chalmers and Daniele Fiandaca who will be present tonight as he is in town with HyperIsland. It is now happening in numerous cities around the globe, and the lucky ones even get to travel around and have coffee in other fantastic cities (not us sadly).

http://vimeo.com/10675509

Garage Sale Trail goes national

I just caught up with co-tenant and mate Darryl Nichols who heads Garage Sale Trail, an event that collectively organises suburb-wide garage sales with the help of online tools like dynamic maps, heavy-hitting blogs and publishers of course facebook. As you can see from the links and the video below, the first Garage Sale Trail was part of Bondi’s Community Festival Sizzle, and a pretty fun activity as such. Who would have thought, re-cycling and re-using could be such a frolicking kind of event – wait till the end of this video for an extra-gold piano performance (video by Republic of Everyone).

Sizzle was a massive collaboration of agencies such as Holler and creative local inviduals. And happened to be a massive success, with many registrations coming in at the last minute. A couple of weeks later the council where I live organized a similar event which semi-failed: calling a council telephone number to have your name put down on a list that closed 3 weeks in advance of the event just wasn’t working for too many residents.

So now Darryl is talking to councils, sustainability organisations and influential people across Australia to make this modern garage sale a national event. Rachael Botsman from Collaborative Consumption who recently gave a TEDx Talk in Sydney is already on the steering committee.

Get in touch on the Sale Trail site and talk to Darryl if you are able and willing to lend a hand.

Holler plays Fluoro Pong at Bondi Sizzle

If you are in Sydney this weekend, don’t miss Bondi’s first Community Festival called Sizzle. Holler’s Kerry Edward designed the blog/site and contributed a series of illustrations to the Garage Art Exhibition. His series is called “Growth” and reflects on his upcoming fatherhood.

Growth by Kerry Edward

Growth by Kerry Edward

My colleague and frequent collaborator Lukasz Karluk has created a funky interactive game called “Fluoro Pong“. Using colour recognition, the game’s virtual paddles are steered by lifting real rectangular prisms in fluoro colours. Additional face recognition maps a still photo of one of the players onto the playing ball.

Holler flyer at Bondi Sizzle

Holler at Bondi Sizzle

So come on down this Sunday and lift a fluoro paddle and a beer with us.

Fluoro Pong playing at Holler

Fluoro Pong playing at Holler