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This is an interesting slideshow I found at Tech Crunch of current internet trends by Morgan Stanley. It’s no big surprise that mobile devices and social networks are the big winners, but it does lend some incite to how big companies are supporting smaller services. It also illustrates that the iphone is not such a sketchy place to be developing for anymore, it’s a necessity to think about when you’re deploying a new web service.

Morgan Stanley might be all organized and corporate like, but they hold nothing to these graphs from graphjam.

 
see more song memes

see more song memes

…and my favourite,

see more song memes

Social Networking is really cool. Like- really really cool. Like- half a billion dollars cool. Like- 69 million people cool. Since it is certainly true that WhipperSnapper=cool and Social Networking=cool, WhipperSnapper=Social Networking?
WhipperSnapper has developed a social networking site through Ning. Ning allows you to build a plug and play network with lots of functionality and none of the development cost. Amazing. We’ve called our network ‘the Drawing Room‘. We’re hoping that it can become a more localized space for conversation and interaction within the Toronto arts community.
Right now we’re invite only, so email us istoica[at]whippersnapper.ca for an invite, or leave a comment with your email address.

SnapBack is a video commenting tool. As it exists right now, it’s a touch screen interface that prompts you with a question, video records your answer and then automatically uploads to YouTube with specific tags. This tool was developed by Radek Zajkowski, and we tested it out at the 24 hour ‘Sleep is for Dead People’ last week. Overall it was quite successful, people used it and (at least to our faces) said nice things. At the moment the tool only allows for one question but moving forward we hope to implement a version with multiple questions and eventually extend the interface to support artist’s statements and video tours of each show. The idea is that the artist could record short clips about each piece in order which gallery attendees could then watch on their iPods as they tour the gallery. Ideally SnapBack will be an intelligent feedback and learning tool that will help WhipperSnapper to become a more interactive community space.

What we don’t want is to create a tool that facilitates a video version of bad event photography, rude comments, drunk yelling and indecent exposure. And luckily, we didn’t have any of that.

We’d love to hear any ideas you might have about making the tool better as well as any suggestions for slide questions.

So far, here are some questions we’re interested in:

1) Tell us about art(ists) you like

2) What do you think about the art/music community in Toronto?

3) What do you think about this exhibit?

4) What’s your favorite piece in this show?

Below are two videos form the 24 hour show, you can find more on here.

Flash in the Can is a technology conference held annually in Toronto aimed towards the Adobe Flash platform. It’s a great opportunity to listen to some amazing minds speak about their work and the future of the flash in general. It’s also the kind of environment that is perfect for inspiration. This year we are excited to be attending and photographing each of the presenters.

One of the presenters is Eric Natzke. He has been pushing the boundaries in terms of abstract art and custom algorithms. You definitely have to check out his flickr to see some of the crazy things he’s been creating. We saw Eric speak the first year we attended the conference, and he was captivating as a speaker. It’s really cool to see people blending the more traditional arts with cutting edge technology. Toronto has a really avid community of Camps (CaseCamp, DemoCamp), but it’s still hard to find computer geeks and artists in the same place.

FITC is the perfect opportunity to shoot people who somehow manage to be both.

TED talks are so awesome, this one is especially great. Sir Ken Robinson is funny, charming and accurate in his presentation about education.

Colour is the Keyboard with Rachel Verbin from istoica on Vimeo.

For the last week at WhipperSnapper we’ve had “Colour is the Keyboard” up on the walls and we are thrilled with the quality of the show and the turn out. Rachel Verbin was kind enough to do a quick interview with us about her experience co-curating the show. Congratulations to all involved on a successful exhibit.

This is the first of what we intend to be a series of video converstations with artists, curator and event planners at the gallery. We’re keen for feedback.

Disclaimer: This tutorial is hopefully helpful, it’s a one take wonder- not a lot of no planning beforehand was done.

In other words, forgive the screw-ups. This is also not the only way to make HDR (High Dynamic Range) images, just one of many.

Some helpful things to know that weren’t discussed in the video:

1. The filter applied to the merged HDR image are from the company Alien Skin, and the product is exposure.
2. You don’t have to use bracketing to create an HDR image, but the more you have the better it usually will turn out.
3. HDR images don’t always work out. The subject matter is really important! Choose a subject with lots of contrast to start out with, like a bright day in the city.
4. When taking the bracketed shots try to have a tripod on hand. Photoshop can try to align any handheld shots, but it’s not ideal if you have shaky hands.

Larger on Vimeo.

How to: Create a Naturalistic HDR Image from istoica on Vimeo.

At WhipperSnapper Gallery we’ve been thinking a lot about how to properly represent a show in a short clip. I think this video get’s it exactly right, we have: the work, the work in the context of the city, audience reaction, time passing and someone knowledgeable to tie it all together.

Link found via Cool Hunting

Lately we’ve been really into covers.

Hype Machine, and now Muxtape are fantastic sites for exploring new music. Also the program Peel (mac only) can take the blogs you discover (like this one) on Hype Machine and track them through RSS as they update. We’ve made a Muxtape to share some of our current faves (not just covers- but a sampling from our “Photoshoots” playlist)

http://istoica.muxtape.com/

I’ve only recently found the photos of Slim Aarons. He was photographer who primarily shot rich and famous people throughout the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 1980’s. According to Wikipedia:

Aarons never used a stylist, a makeup artist or anything but natural light for his photographs.

This is something that astoundes me. The colour, composition and styling in his photographs are compelling and unique.

One of the thinks that strikes me about Slim’s images is that they are so full of depth. Even when he has simplified the photo down to a few objects and a person, he utilizes the negative space so well. In this way he achieves a beautiful stillness.

He has obviously influenced a great many of todays artists. Wes Anderson is an obvious comparison.