Saturday, November 21, 2009

Animation/After Effects - a Few New Adds

I'm pretty obsessed with Flash and After Effects these days.  My tech partner Pinky-Pink and I recently made a ball squish and bounce with motion tweens and such and Frida Kalho got to smoke her cigarette with bone animation.  When we figure out how to export without weird artifacting I'll post. Take a look at a music video done entirely digitally, using After Effects. Beautiful.
 
Here's the ongoing debate between film and digital brought to life in stop motion:


Film vs. Digital from Lauren Randolph on Vimeo.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Using Crochet to Solve Complex Math/Save Corral Reefs

Oh, this is blissful.  Australian science writer Margaret Wertheim combines art and science/womanscraft and research to solve complex math and save the world's corral reefs.  I'll sleep well tonight, just knowing Margaret and her sister Christine are out there.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Photo Op Protest of Pub Weekly Zero Inclusion of Women in 2009 Top Ten List

Rupert thinks A.S. Byatt is brilliant.






                                                                  
Jillie grooves on Barbara Kingsolver.

Kathleenie extols Carol Kaisuk Yoon.

Day of Action! - Protest Publishers Weekly's Zero Woman Author Top Ten List

shewrites.com posts a call to action today to protest Publishers Weekly's inclusion of zero point zero, zero women authors in their Top Ten Books for 2009.  Please take your own action and be sure to talk back to shewrites.com.

My action was a protest post on the Publishers Weekly website:

"No women in your top ten?! Please consider, what does this say about your ability to actually see, hear, or read other perspectives? No wonder there are such class, culture and gender divides in our world today. So much of the population simply gets ignored - systematically and in this case completely. You do not see their story as valid. This is tremendously damaging.

I urgently ask you to explore ways to think more deeply and creatively about this. I recommend watching a beautiful Ted.com talk "The Danger of a Single Story" by Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie.

It may help you understand why the outrage at your list. I look forward to the dialogue. Paulette"







Thursday, November 12, 2009

Today's Webinar on NGOs Using Video for Social Change

Wow. That was intense. Today I spoke into my computer screen for one hour about how NGOs can create powerful video. I was a little more nervous about it beforehand - I've not done a webinar before and I do best with the energy of a crowd. But I think this first one with oneworld.net went fine and it did help me define and articulate how NGOs and video intersect.

Click here for the audio podcast of today's oneworld.net webinar.

Click here for the oneworld.net description of the podcast.

Below is my powerpoint (actually keynote). Does anyone know how to import this more elegantly into blogger?





Here's the oneworld.net description of the event:

Online video is a powerful medium for communicating about your issues. However, organizations need to overcome a few hurdles to get started and continue online video projects on a regular basis. You don't need a large budget to start, but you do need to get the basics right to create effective online videos.

Paulette Moore, Filmmaker, Journalist & NGO Consultant, will talk about how your organization can get started with video. She will talk about the tools you need, training required for staff and different types of video content you can produce.

Saturday, November 07, 2009

Imogen Heap - Techno Diva

Take a look at Imogen Heap’s mastery of the digital. Poetic. Fascinating. Beautiful.

Friday, November 06, 2009

Itbeginswithme Blog Stats



Today I learned how to take computer screen shots - so thought I'd post the weekly viewer stats for the Itbeginswithme blog I created, co-author and administer for UNHCR. These are stats from day one - and views have been increasing steadily. Yay! (Bet you can pick out the weekends.. and August.)

This past week - my re-post of friend, colleague and restorative justice pioneer Howard Zehr's reflections on "The Colonizing Discourse of the Other" took the lead in viewer popularity. Click here for that post.

And click here for Howard's blog on restorative justice.

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Rapping at Fear - Mixed Media

Like how the young filmmaker in this Media that Matters film from Bogata mixed animation and other methods to keep this short film moving.

Nov. 12 - Webinar for oneworld.net on Video for NGO's

Online video is a powerful medium for communicating about your issues. However, organizations need to overcome a few hurdles to get started and continue online video projects on a regular basis. You don't need a large budget to get started, but you do need to get the basics right to create effective online videos.

Paulette Moore, Filmmaker, Journalist & NGO Consultant, will talk about how your organization can get started with video. She will talk about the tools you need, training required for staff and different types of video content you can produce.

This meeting will take place online and by phone. It costs $15 for staff of OneWorld partner organizations and costs $30 for others. For more information, email roshani.kothari[at]oneworld.net.

Click here for link to oneworld.

Midsemester Feedback from Research as Art and Transformation Class

Howard Zehr and I asked for mid-semester feedback in our Center for Justice and Peacebuilding Research as Art and Transformation class yesterday. Two students Brian Gumm and Ryan Beuthin were extremely creative in their response! Yay!