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The Play Coalition's Martyr, an energy saving fundamentalist and plug-in light reminds you to unplug occasionally.

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Hot on the heels of their recent 'synchronised artwork' experiments, Arcade Fire has released another interactive video online, to accompany the track We Used To Wait. The video is created in association with director Chris Milk and Google Chrome - CR spoke to B-Reel, the digital production company behind it, to find out how it all works...

 

The site can be viewed best on Google Chrome, although it is also possible to view it on Safari. Be warned though - you need a decent connection to make it work well. But it's worth finding one. The site opens by asking you to enter the name of the street you grew up on - as Arcade Fire's album is titled The Suburbs, it probably helps if you grew up on the banal fringes of a city, but really any street will do.

After a few seconds of loading, your individual music video begins. The site features the much maligned pop-up window at its core, opening with a window showing a man in a hoodie running through damp streets. He is quickly joined by other pop-ups, showing flocks of starlings, and then - more shockingly - Google Earth footage of the street you grew up on. This spins in time to the music and to the movements of the hooded figure, offering multiple views of the street.

 

The interactivity continues later in the song, when another pop-up window invites users to type in advice for the teenage self that grew up in the streets that are appearing on the screen. You can also draw pictures on this screen, before birds fly across it and it becomes incorporated into the unique vid. All these effects combine to fit the nostalgic mood of the song perfectly, creating a intoxicating mix of interactive elements that genuinely empower the song, rather than distract you from it.

It is surprising then to discover that the site began as a project for Google Chrome, rather than Arcade Fire. "The idea came about when [digital artist] Aaron Koblin contacted Chris Milk about creating an interactive film to showcase Google Chrome," says Ben Tricklebank, creative director at B-Reel. "It was Chris's connection to Arcade Fire that bought about the collaboration and opportunity to feature the song We Used To Wait. This then shaped the narrative of the treatment put together by Chris."

 

Explaining how the site works, Tricklebank says: "One of the major challenges of this project was finding a method to control and sequence the multiple windows needed to display the components of the film in synch to the music. At the early stages we created the framework of a custom application that would allow us total control over the timing, size and position of the windows at any point in the song.

"Simultaneously we worked to develop the interactive and dynamic components as self contained units. This meant that each piece could be created and tested in a standalone environment before being combined into the sequence. We tested various different forms of 2 and 3D flocking interaction for the birds. Google Maps and Street View posed many unique challenges due to the way we needed to control very precise distances and movements while compositing animated elements in real time.

 

"When we set out on the project there was definitely a sense of stepping into unknown territory. We definitely had some concerns over performance and the experience for viewers. That said, we went through multiple iterations that pushed us way beyond the capabilities of most machines. This way we could really identify how far we could go in the final piece, after all it is a 'Chrome Experiment'... I think we found the right balance, there's a great deal of visual information for people to take in."

Despite this video not being at the initial behest of the band or the record label, the We Used To Wait site is another huge step forward into an interactive future for music videos. It is apt that it is Arcade Fire that has continued these experiments, having already created excellent online works for the tracks Neon Bible and Black Mirror. "It still feels like a relatively untouched medium and one that has so much potential," says Tricklebank. "In the past six months we've been approached a number of times, both for advertising and artists. I'm certainly very excited to see where it goes."

 

The Wilderness Downtown website can be found here.

 

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Dreamfarm has developed Tapi, a rubber attachment that you can add to a tap water faucet that turns it into a drinking fountain when squeezed.

This is a blog post from Laughing Squid, subscribe via RSS, Email, Twitter, Facebook & Tumblr.

Here are a few other possibly related posts you might enjoy:

- Detroit Metro Airport’s Animated Water Fountain

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- There’s Something In The Water

- Jelloware, Biodegradable Flavored Drinking Cups

- Tap’dNY, Purified New York City Tap Water In A Bottle

Redrock Micro makes accessories for movie cameras, and lately it makes add-ons for the latest movie-shooting SLR-cameras. The latest addition is a range of “Nano” kits which turn your stills-cam into a film-making rig, and they do it on the cheap.

SLRs are obviously designed to shoot single photos, and access to the various exposure controls is the premium consideration. A movie camera needs to be focused and moved around as you shoot, which is tricky if you’re using two hands just to hold it up.

The new Redrock kits come in three main flavors: A grip, which is a simple handle that screws into the tripod-mount, a pair of chest braces which let you hold the camera with one hand and focus with the other, and a couple “low-down” kits which put handles on the top and sides so you can carry the camera like a briefcase or an underwater-style rig. The chest rigs come with eye-pieces for the rear LCD-screen to allow live-view-shooting outside.

The prices run from just over $100 to just under $500, depending on how many rods, grips and pads are hanging off the stick-insect structures. This might not sound inexpensive, but in the overpriced world of movie-cameras, it’s an almost dirt-cheap bargain. Available now.

Nano DSLR Rigs [Redrock Micro via Photography Bay]

See Also:

• MicroRemote Uses iPhone to Keep Movies in Focus
• RED Takes Aim at DSLR Market, Photographers Salivate
• High-Resolution External Display for DSLRs

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

Whether you're looking for crickets for the a little ambient pop in the background of your camping montage or robotic squeaks and grinds for the main character in your space-based rock opera, The Freesound Project has sound effects for you.

The thousands of sounds at The Freesound Project are licensed under the Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 License. You're free to use, with attribution, the sound effects in any non-commercial setting—songs, videos, etc.

Samples are user-organized with tags and with related samples suggested based on what other users downloaded along with the files you're currently browsing. You can search files by keyword, file name, and perform more advanced searches via file bitrate, samplerate, and more.

The Freesound Project is a free resource and requires a simple email registration to download files.

A handy little tool for checking timezones around the world. Excellent for meeting planning. EveryTimeZone.com

(via @aaron)

We desperately hope that the computers which we ship to developing countries will be genuinely beneficial to locals, but unfortunately that isn't always the case—more often than not, they're simply abandoned until they're searched for precious metals.

The New York Times has done a piece on what they call a "global graveyard for dead computers." It is a mass grave of electrical parts near Ghana with piles that are searched through by locals who seek precious metals to resell. I strongly recommend giving the piece a look and seeing how what we believe is a gift may affect a population. [NY Times]

Photos by Pieter Hugo for The New York Times

As promised, here’s the finished wall that Os Gêmeos and Futura just painted at PS 11 in New York City. I’d say that’s a successful result.

Photos by Os Gêmeos and LoisInWonderland

Possibly as commentary on the current trendy status enjoyed by all things "handcrafted" and "rustic," artist David Rees has opened up hyper-niche service.