Indiana June

A typo in an airport inspired this Irish copywriter to start her own adventure. When a fat-fingered customs official mistyped her name (Diana June) as Indiana June, Diana realised the potential to bring an incredible alter ego to life.

The public decides via her new style of travel blog that invites people to vote on key decisions in her real-life adventure story. The website collates votes, and Indiana does what's asked of her, publishing stories, photos, drawings and videos along the way.

In conjunction with several supporters including my ole workplace, Outsider Magazine, Diana will start her pick a path adventure in ten days once the votes have been collaborated on it.

Having a brain fart day? Fresh outta ideas? Let the Wheel of Concept do the thinking for you.

Kevin Smith on Writing and Procrastination

Thanks Ben Kay for the links

At Home with Banksy

At Home With Banksy is a interesting photographic project by American photographer, Julia Kim Smith. She imagined what it would be like to spend some with the street artist, partaking in such doing the dishes, cleaning etc.

QR Code Tattoo

K.A.R.L has taken "The Internet of Things" to a whole new level by tattooing a working QR code onto his chest. What's interesting about this is that it somewhat overcomes the permanency of a traditional tat. Yes, you have a QR permanently inked onto your chest, but the animation is changeable. So, that I heart Amy tat can be transformed to I heart Annie, Audrey or even Adrian.

Barbie held accountable by Greenpeace

Nice piece that highlights a very specific cause, namely Mattels packaging and the negative impact it has on the environment. While this could be a said of many companies, the focus on one definitely has resulted in a fantastic piece of communication.

Why we need to fail a little harder

Paulo Coelho – on the fear of failure. from Berghs' Exhibition '11 on Vimeo.

Failure and the willingness to fail is an integral part of creativity and innovation. Failure is the theme of this year’s student work exhibition at Stockholm’s Berghs School of Communication and, to launch it, they brought together some great creative minds, including Milton Glazer and Stefan Sagmeister, and asked them to share their thoughts and experiences on the subject.

A great collection of videos and ideas, and well worth a watch.

Eurovisional Experience in Toronto

I was feeling a little Euro-nostalgic so I wrote my latest blog posting on Irish Alien about the days when Ireland reined supreme on the Eurovision circuit.

http://irishalien.com/2011/05/12/why-me-the-eurovision-in-toronto/

Play Russian Roulette with your Digital Life

Russian Facebook Roulette is a project by the students of Miami ad School, Berlin. The idea is simple: you and your friends spin the virtual pistol and shoot at your facebook profile, running the risk of deleting your entire facebook account and killing the "digital you". If you escape unscathed from the game you're entered into a draw to win a weeks vacation in Russia. Those who are unfortunate enough to lose receive a gold bullet in the post, a physical representation of the bullet that ended their digital life.

Alongside the obvious gambling thrill, the game highlights the idea of the "digital life" and how the value we place on it can be used cleverly in social media campaigns to drive engagement. Examples of other campaigns exploring this area include the famous Whopper Sacrifice campaign by CP+B which asked people to sacrifice their virtual friendships in return for a free burger, and the "digital-death" campaign for World AIDS day by TBWA\Chiat\Day, where a rake of celebrities including Lady Gaga and Justin Timberlake killed their digital lives and vowed to bring them back to life when $1 million had been collectively raised for charity.

As the lines between the online and offline worlds begin to blur people are beginning to place a lot of value in their digital lives The campaigns above show how this applied value can be used effectively and creatively to drive interaction and engagement.

Glass and a Half

Latest Glass and a Half Full Production

25 Things I Wish I Knew 12 Months Ago.

I have started writing for Irish Alien.com. Here is my first blog posting.

http://irishalien.com/2011/04/15/25-things-i-wish-i-knew-12-months-ago/

Enjoy!

Have seen this advert for Bord Bia from McCann Erickson in Dublin on TV lately it made me ponder as to the onslaught of walking men in advertisements. Why are they walking? Where are they going and most importantly do you think they all meet in the departure lounge at the end of the day for a swift shot and a chicken sambo?

I am Poet

After looking at one of my mate’s poetry blogs, I’ve felt compelled to scribe one of my own.

It's entitled Somebody brought in a load of pastries and now I'm going to have to eat them all because I am a sow.

Oh donut, perched in powdered prowess,

Hovering wistfully near my desk.

Must I eat you, think I might

It's a big ad, it's a big, big, big ad

Digital Goodies

Recently I have been inspired to start working on my own digital project. In a collaboration with a couple of super talented people, we intend of exploring ideas surrounding Diaspora within the digital space. Because of this we're been looking at some great work that's being undertaken at the moment.

The first project is by Jonathon Harris entitled We Feel Fine. The site has been up for about 2 years now, but if you haven't explored in a while or ever, it's well worth spending some time with. We Feel Fine takes tweets, posts, updates from social media channels and groups them by emotion. What's particularly interesting about this project is how it taps into the guilty human pleasure of voyeurism. Peeking into someone's life on an emotional level such as this, or on a surface level such as looking through someone's facebook photo's is, as much as we mightn't like to admit it, one of the attractions of social media.

Another wonderful digital artist is Golan Levin, who for the past 15 years has explores the links between nonverbal communication and interaction play in a series of works that are innovative and encourage engagement.

The second project by two artists Theo Watson and Kyle McDonaldand captures positive human emotions to the Internet. Happy Things is an opensource program that uses the webcam on your computer to analyze your face when you're browsing and posts your screenshot every time it detects you smiling, along with the web page that you found amusing.

This project is more about measuring the personal emotion of happiness rather than the collective emotions of We feel Fine. What it gives you is something akin to personal online happiness analytics: a way of understanding what it is about the Internet that makes you happy.

It's impossible to look at this without smiling. Go on try it, I defy you.

Hand from Above from Chris O'Shea on Vimeo.

Images and info curiosity of Collectively More Creative and Welcome to Optimism, the WK blog.

Don't Eat At

Don't Eat At sends you a text when you check into a restaurant in NYC that is at risk of being closed for health code violations. The app uses Foursquare's API.

Wonderfully simple idea.

Possibilities, possibilities...

RFID in shoes from Hampus Lemhag on Vimeo.

Digital Inspiration

In advertising we use film as inspiration for TV ads and graphic design and art as inspiration for print. It's at the fringes of any creative industry that we find the ground-breaking work, the stuff that's really pushing the boundries, not just re-hashing someone else's facebook campaign.

Digital art is where technology and creativity is being pushed to it's limits, and it's here that we should be looking for inspiration, collaboration and a glimpse of things to come.

Below are links to some amazing people and work in this field.

Irvine Brown has an inspiring collection of work. In one project he uses a remote control car to teach people how to breathe correctly when singing. If your breath is controlled enough the car will perform a perfect three point turn.


Tinker are a London based multi-disciplinary team of creative technologists. The indoor sundial above is one of an amazing group of projects on their site.




Niklas Roy's"My Little Bit of Privacy" above is a brilliant example of how technology can be used with everyday items to create something special.

I suck...

I cracked. I’m weak and I’m useless.

In fairness though, who could argue with something that created advertisements as beautiful as these.

Not that failing to quit is any sort of achievement but I have cut down from about 15 a week to 5.

See ya later cigarettes

I updated my Facebook with the status non smoker the other day. It was a spur of the Monday morning decision caused by my usual beginning of the week fatigue, the heaviness in my lungs and the creeping lines slowly making their way down my face. My relationship with cigarettes began at age 11, the film Pulp Fiction had just come out and a large poster of Uma Thurman smoking a cigarette adorned my brother’s wall. Highly suggestible child that I was, I stole a cigarette from my brother’s pack and ventured outside to smoke it. I lit it, inhaled deeply and the world turned black, after almost coughing up a couple a entrails I swore I’d never touch another one again. Fast forward three years and I’m standing in bush behind a football pitch and a guy is asking me if I smoke, a blue packet opened hospitably in my direction. I take one; I inhale, not so deeply this time and decide it’s not so bad after all. So here I am 10 years later. 10 years of poisoning myself with toxic fumes under the guise of it being a social habit. So as well as trying to brainwash myself with the wise words of Allen Carr, I also had a look at some of the recent amazing anti smoking campaigns in the hope that it would shock me into giving up this vile habit once and for all.