© Beyoncé / SME (via YouTube)
A new single by Beyoncé with a somewhat surprising sound; BREAK MY SOUL heavily relies on (classic) house samples, really curious if her whole new Album Renaissance –dropping 29 July– is going to sound similar?
© Science and Nonduality (via YouTube)
A documentary about the art of living outside of conventions, in deep integrity with one’s essence.
That must be the most incredible place for a ‘Home Office’ I’ve ever seen; mathematic Michael has practically left civilisation and lives alone inside the thick jungle of Hawaii now, twenty minutes away from the closest existing road. The academic and Buddhist cleared the plot of land he afterward built his solitary home on himself by hand with material he all brought on his shoulders.
I haven’t checked any other content created by SAND (Science and Nonduality) besides The Art of Life so far and I’m always a bit cautious when it comes to prominently presented spirituality, but this short documentary video portrait is magnificent and I admire the wonderful place “devoted to beauty and impracticality” Michael has created.
© Patagonia (via YouTube)
Fishpeople tells the stories of a unique cast of characters who have dedicated their lives to the sea. Featuring Kimi Werner, Eddie Donnellan, Dave Rastovich, Matahi Drollet, Ray Collins and Lynne Cox.
Another beautiful short documentary produced by environmentally conscious clothing company Patagonia. After spending some days near the coast myself recently for the first time in literally years, I only realized again how much I’ve missed the sea. Probably that’s one of the reasons I enjoy this video so much; I’d love to live closer by and with the ocean myself.
© LDC / Crown Record Co., Ltd. (via Youtube)
Nice Japanese Compilation of Jazz, Funk, Ambient, Rock, and World called On The Beach. The LP was originally released in 1985 and is available as a YouTube video nowadays. The ideal soundtrack –and video– for some summer/holiday vibes, here is its tracklist:
- Taeko Ohnuki (大貫妙子) – Summer Connection
- Shigeru Suzuki (鈴木茂) – テレスコープ (Telescope)
- Shigeru Suzuki (鈴木茂) – ラハイナ・ガール (Lahaina Girl)
- Shigeru Suzuki (鈴木茂) – Brandy Wine
- Haruomi Hosono (細野晴臣) – Hurricane Dorothy
- Kaze (風) – 海風 (Umi Kaze)
- Kaze (風) – 3号線を左に折れ (3-Gousen o Hidari ni Ore)
- Yuko Tomita (とみたゆう子) – 海のキャトルセゾン (Umi no Cattle Saison)
- Ryohei Yamanashi (山梨鐐平) – 熱い恋 (Atsui Koi)
- Haruomi Hosono (細野晴臣) – Exotica Lullaby
© ZDF
Was passiert hinter den Kulissen, wenn wir klicken, swipen, bestellen, matchen? Wie funktioniert die neue digitale Welt? Wer zieht hier die Fäden? Wer sind die Gewinner und Verlierer?
German television station ZDF recently started a documentation series about the digital world called Digital Empire. The first episode was about AI and the bias it might come with —based on its originators and their worldview, thus fostering inequality.
An important theme to start with, I’m curious about which topics the team is covering in the upcoming episodes.
© Vox (via YouTube)
Beginning in January 2021, advances in AI research have produced a plethora of deep-learning models capable of generating original images from simple text prompts, effectively extending the human imagination. Researchers at OpenAI, Google, Facebook, and others have developed text-to-image tools that they have not yet released to the public, and similar models have proliferated online in the open-source arena and at smaller companies like Midjourney.
Vox not only does share this interesting video on how AI is able to create imagery based on a short descriptional text —and some of the implications this technology has, but they also include a list of current free AI Art tools in the video description for anyone willing to dive deeper;
© Bo Burnham
filmed from march 2020-may 2021. edited from april 2022-may 2022.
I’ve already expressed my admiration for the masterpiece that is last year’s ‘Inside’ by Bo Burnham, but yesterday the comedian, musician, actor, director, and filmmaker surprisingly released an accompanying new video on YouTube called The Inside Outtakes.
The title is a little misleading though since it does not only contains outtakes in the classical sense, but a lot of making-of and behind the scenes material as well as some unreleased –mostly pretty great– songs entirely cut from the finished program.
In fact, Burnham put together the additional video over the last two months in a similarly meticulous style and it even has a longer runtime than the main piece itself. Apparently, there’ll be a deluxe version of the music album –with just the songs from Inside– soon, too. Yes please! 🤍
Unfortunately, the video can’t be embedded, but only be watched on YouTube:
© Wired (via Youtube)
Industrial designer James Dyson took over Wired’s Twitter account to answer some questions and share some design knowledge along the way last year. Notes taken.
© Phoebe Bridgers / Dead Oceans (via Youtube)
Another beautiful piece of music by Phoebe Bridgers. She wrote Sidelines for the soundtrack of ‘Conversations With Friends’ where a lot of the great-looking footage for the music video was taken from. The melancholic song furthermore is featured in the Trailer of the Hulu series.
© ARTE (via Youtube)
Great German short documentary by franco-german television station ARTE about Machiya, a traditional architectural style from Japan.
The entire series Stadt, Land, Kunst (City, Country, Art) is fascinating —not only but all the more when the segments are about my place of longing.
© ARD / Alligatoah (via Youtube)
Ich mix’ uns Grippeviren mit Brausetabletten /
Nur wenn wir außer Gefecht sind, könn’n wir auch mal relaxen /
Ich verschiebe die Termine bis in alle Ewigkeit /
Viel zu viel zu tun für das bisschen Lebenszeit /
— Alligatoah feat. Felix Brummer – Beinebrechen
ardmediathek.de/video/friends-of-mdr-sputnik/friends-of-alligatoah
© Kirby Ferguson (via YouTube)
There is an element of explotation to all creatitvity, to appropriate is to take without permission —that’s creativity. You don’t ask others if you could do it, you just do it. Who would you ask anyway? It’s okay to take if you do it the right way.
As a foreigner very much into Asian –more particularly Japanese– culture, philosophy and design, cultural appropriation is a topic I’ve thought about quite a bit already —and even more so since I’m a father now, trying to be the best role model I can be.
Just like with his absolutely amazing series on remixing, Kirby Ferguson makes some valid points on this sensitive topic during his Farewell to Cultural Appropriation.
On a related note: Ferguson is bringing his 2020 series This Is Not a Conspiracy Theory to YouTube (for free). Episode one is available already, the other five parts will be released every two weeks. I haven’t seen it as of now, so I can’t tell you if it is any good, but given the recent track record of the filmmaker, I’m going to watch it for sure!
