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prior listings

 

• a photo a day 12/28/02 
  Description: an e-mail listserv. a website. a plethora of ideas.a supernova. a place to get constructive criticism. a home for work that you shot for you, not them. a constant source of inspiration. a photo community.
  Comments: It started with 2 friends emailing each other "a photo a day."  Now, there's over 120 people in the community from 24 states (plus a few "international" members). 3 photo "essays" are currently featured with 7 more in the archives.  The "galleries" include works from 47 different members.  Wow!  As if that's not enough, there's also a blog with plenty of interesting photography-related links and info and a little feature called "collective vision" with (you guessed it) even more great photos.  What a find!  [xpaider]
   
• off 'n' see 12/27/02 
  Description: pix-diary of a young photographer
  Comments: Designed by my friend Rocco at robocore. for a young photographer named Giak, today's pick is a "pix-diary" of both indoor and outdoor shots of people and things.  Nicely done, clean, minimal design with 3-to-a-page presentation and interesting visual content – nice!
   
• e-vent. fighting talk. 12/23/02 
  Description: South African house music scene – events and community
  Comments: If you're a DJ or house music enthusiast in Cape Town or Johannesburg, you're part of the real community that will find the site most useful.  If you're sitting here in Auburn Hills, or some other location that's far away from South Africa, you should, at least, find the site somewhat informative and entertaining.  Trance, dance, and raves are a part of the local culture and the site provides a good taste of what that scene is about.  On one side, you have "flyers.press releases.hype" and on the other, "rumours.discussions.noise."  There's several flyers done in Flash ("going down – return to the deep" is very cool) and press releases from a number of local clubs, which keep the community informed of upcoming events.  There's some interesting discussions (and spats) going down on the right side of the page – hopefully, an archive of previous "noise" is in the works.  Nice use of iframes to keep it all on one page – an excellent example of how an offline community can benefit from taking it online...
   
• focalizer 12/21/02 
  Description: future operating cutting and low innovation zapping of engine reconstruction
  Comments: 27-year-old Italian "DJ, Webmaster" Foca (is that really his first name?), born in Germany, is the personality behind the site. He's designed a lot of websites and I guess his portfolio is the primary content.  But the site has the appeal of being very personal.  It's free of sales hype and has no list of services, etc., thank you.  And I really like the choice of selectable background images for the interface.  It's Focalizer's DJ side that seems to really shine through the site most, though – at least, for me.  Check out the "Experimentz" and you'll see what I mean.  Mr. Lizer rocks...
   
• katika&polaroids.net 12/20/02 
  Description: photography projects
  Comments: Like photos taken with a Lomo, the results one gets with a Polaroid can be unpredictably artistic.  I know artistic is a subjective thing but I really enjoy viewing photos taken with a camera that takes some of the control away from photographer like that.  I'll guess that Katika, as a photographer, enjoys Polaroids for that reason (and other reasons as well).  There's other cameras she enjoys, too, and the Lomo is one of them (see "This is not a Polaroid").  One of the Polaroid projects ("Cadavres Exquis") serves up 4 different random photos in a row.  "Click on the items to compose a sentence" and keep clicking to change it.  The sequence of images represent "subject, verb, time, and place" and the resulting sentence is up to the viewer, I suppose – interesting.  There's 3 other projects that are fantastic studies of people.  When you add the artistic quality that the camera itself produces to the unique artistic viewpoint of the photographer (with a real knack for composition), the results are most enjoyable... 
   
• Senses 12/19/02 
  Description: art and photography of Nagy Balázs
  Comments: The site, from a designer/artist in Budapest named Nagy Balázs, is actually on its own domain now and a brand new version "is almost ready to launch."  For now, the old version is still in place and Nagy intends to archive it.  I'm glad, because the "old works" include some pieces I'll want to look at again, like "festmény4" or "studium II" to name just a few.  There's about 3 dozen more pieces plus a section of photos and I love it all.  The new version?  I can hardly wait... ;~))
   
• <no>circles</no> 12/18/02 
  Description: Within the confines of this virtual space, cyclicality is deemed a violation of basic human sensibilities. cylindrical = mundane.
  Comments: One of a kind.  Those obsessed with things like usability and/or "meaningful" content may not like this pick, but if you're game for a little challenge, you'll love it.  Did I say "game?"  You betcha!  I spent a long time playing with both versions and could only get so far in each.  The challenge is twofold.  First, you have to figure out what the object is for each stage and then, you have to go for it.  I like the fact that the newer version has kept track of how far I got so when I return, there's a "continue" link.  There's an underlying theme to the whole concept, too.  Feisty says that "spherical constructions" are "mundane and tedious" and apparently worships the "mathematical simplicity of the square."  Oddly enough, the place where I left off (i.e., where I got stuck) had some almost circular forms in it.  Just call me intrigued – as the now famous movie line says, "I'll be back."  Please note that the site works best in IE, but also works fine in Mozilla, but not Netscape (based on newest versions of each browser). 
   
• drop7 12/14/02 
  Description: photography and other visual works
  Comments: I think the main page is elegant.  A small area surrounded by oodles of white space includes a tasty Flash motion graphic, decorated by several static images, plus a simple listing of the site's inner sections.  Getting back to the main page isn't so simple from some of the sections, but the strength of the visual content rules in this case.  It's all good... enjoy!
   
• NINEAEM 12/11/02 
  Description: where logic seems transcendent (Flash)
  Comments: I'd seen one of the previous issues before and I'm not sure why I didn't bookmark the site, but thanks to the news at Experimental Magazine, which announced the new issue, I've got a great pick for you today.  Wonderful sights and sounds, which I won't even attempt to describe, are what you'll find there plus several related projects that are all good.  Pep is the designer behind the site.  He's also an extraordinary photographer.  Though Pep has also composed/performed the musical backgrounds for previous issues, the music for the current issue was done by Cylens, where you can find three fresh, tasty .mp3s for download.  According to the splash page, today's pick is presented by the Acces(s) Festival, where you'll also find another interesting supported project called collège invisible > a_distance.  If you're visiting coolstop from work today, you just might wanna tell the boss you'll be busy for a while... ;~))
   
• LUiX 12/10/02 
  Description: thinking a little... a new homepage would be cool to introduce my activities (Flash)
  Comments: According to the Estonian Tourist Board, "Even in the depths of the countryside, you're almost as likely to see a villager surfing the Internet as milking a cow."  You may also see a web designer by day moonlighting as a tattoo artist and pencil illustrator.  Sporting one of the most interesting "About Me" pages I've seen lately and focusing on personal hobbies a little more than on work, today's pick is full of personality.  Though it's really a portfolio site, it doesn't follow the tired format of "here's my resume, here's my work, so hire me."  It seems much more like a personal website than the majority of personal portfolios out there, and it's done with a sense of humor.  "Actually there have been many more positions I've worked at, but they didn't like my laziness.  For example I was working in a sawmill once, but it was so tiring and I don't want to work there again."  The "hobbies" section, which has some work samples as well, is broken into 4 categories.  "Computer" contains examples of Photoshop work plus some personal web projects.  "Tattoo" has some very cool pieces in it.  Though presented as a hobby to us in the English-speaking part of the world, Kristjan apparently has a local tattoo business (offline, of course).  There's also some excellent "Music" links plus a wonderful showcase of "Pencil" illustrations to round out the section, though Kristjan also has a whole bunch of other hobbies, including "paying rent, drinking beer, and sleeping."  Oh, yeah – I don't want to forget to mention that I just love the picture in the guestbook section and tell Kristjan that "work kills me" too...  [linkdup (unfiltered)]
   
• deep™ 12/6/02 
  Description: a photo journal of the deep river area (Flash)
  Comments: Today we'll be exploring a little piece of Canada, a "brief look at Ottawa Valley culture."  The destination is Deep River and the tour is in the form of two series of photos – signage, architecture, landscapes – some pretty cool shots.  I really like the unique slide control on the Flash interface, though it took a few moments to get used to it.  If you want to learn more about Deep River area, there's also a link to its official website.  I got a kick out of the message on the "loading" page of today's pick:

  500k for all you nice folk.
  grab some bacon and sit back.
  paint "beer river" on something.
  steal a garbage truck.
  drink your weight in beer.
  get your cross-country skis waxed.
  perhaps the town should get broadband.
  this will take a minute to load.

  Hehe.  Enjoy your visit to Deep River and have a great weekend...
   
• r-a-n-d-o-m 12/3/02 
  Description: gallery of Flash animation/art (mature content)
  Comments: "What I wanted to do with this site is to create some kind of world that is not real but [where] you can relate to (there are too many abstract [art] sites on the web that are beautiful but do not touch me).  I wanted this place to be scary.  Why?  Don't know, it seems like fun to make (and still is).  So I started brainstorming about rooms in this place, things that could happen."  From the very start, "the dark version" is engaging and yes, it is a little scary.  There's a total of 9 works, all of which I really liked, though I have to admit I was baffled by the last one trying to figure out what to do with my mouse.  Is it art with a little genius mixed in?  I think so...