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Blog: Silver Apples of the Moon (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Blog: OUPblog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Books, Music, optical illusions, ok go, *Featured, TV & Film, Art & Architecture, Science & Medicine, Psychology & Neuroscience, Siu-Lan Tan, The Psychology of Music in Multimedia, Gestalt psychology, Köhler, Koffka, Wertheimer, versus ‘ground’ , gestalt, in gestalt, wall”, wall’, shashachu, Add a tag
By Siu-Lan Tan
When I saw OK Go’s ‘The Writing’s on the Wall’ video a few days ago, I was stunned. If you aren’t one of the over eight million people that has seen this viral music video yet, you’re in for a visual treat.
OK Go is known for creative videos, but this is the band’s richest musical collage of optical illusions so far. The most amazing part is that it was done … in one take!
Click here to view the embedded video.
Over 7.5 million viewers saw this extraordinary video in the first week it was posted.
And just newly released, OK Go uploaded this equally splendid video that gives us a ‘Behind-the-Scenes’ look.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Just a lucky coincidence?
OK Go posted ‘The Writing’s on the Wall’ on 17 June 2014. I wonder if they knew this is a significant date for Gestalt psychology? Important enough to be in the APA’s historical database for 17 June:
“June 17, 1924. Robert M. Ogden of Cornell University wrote to German psychologist Kurt Koffka, inviting him to become a visiting lecturer. This was the first step… that brought Gestaltists Koffka, Köhler, Wertheimer, and Lewin to America” (Street, 2007)
Wertheimer, Koffka, and Köhler are key figures in Gestalt psychology who laid the groundwork for what we know about perception, especially how we organize visual elements into meaningful wholes. Central to their work is the idea of ‘figure’ versus ‘ground’ – or how we distinguish the main focus (or figure) from the background or landscape in which it is set (ground).
They were also interested in perceptual illusions, influenced by psychologist Edgar Rubin who created many figure/ground illusions such as the Rubin vase, which now appears in every introductory psychology book.
Here’s a modern version: Are these columns or five tall standing figures with bowed heads? That depends on what you take to be figure vs. ground.
OK Go’s ‘The Writing on the Wall’ plays with figure/ground relations. Many illusions in this brilliant music video ambiguate, and then disambiguate, what is foreground versus background.
This is especially well illustrated in the illusion that “the writing’s on the wall” — as it never really is. In every appearance of the written word == in the title, the blurbs in the middle, and the amazing reveal at the end — the writing’s never on the wall.
Instead, the words blend figure and ground into single alignment. The illusion works — and then is dismantled before our eyes — as the movement of objects or camera disentangle what is foreground and background.
Figure and ground seem to dissolve into each other as the musicians emerge from the red, blue, yellow shapes.
Ambiguity of where figure and ground separate is pushed even further with single images that blend foreground with distant surfaces (floors, walls): blue spots, a network of cubes, a ladder, green checkered tiles, and a row of people that appear to stand together. It’s brilliantly captured at 02:47, in the aerial image of a multi-layered apparatus that “flattens out” into a representation of drummer Tim Nordwind’s bearded face (screenshot below).
The walkthrough also takes us through the development of art: from basic shapes, to patterns (dots, stripes), to 3D (or not) cubes, geometric sculptures, and finally to representations of the human face and full body figures.
The music is not just an accompaniment to the collage of optical illusions and paradoxes, but an integral part of the work. The song is about miscommunication that can go on in a relationship. (Or is the idea of two people really ‘getting each other’ merely an illusion?)
The result is wonderfully perplexing, a delicious trick of the senses. And a fitting tribute to the 17 June landmark in Gestalt psychology.
Siu-Lan Tan is Associate Professor of Psychology at Kalamazoo College in Michigan, USA. She is primary editor of The Psychology of Music in Multimedia (Oxford University Press 2013), the first book consolidating the research on the role of music in film, television, video games, and computers. A version of this article also appears on Psychology Today. Siu-Lan Tan also has her own blog, What Shapes Film? Read her previous blog posts.
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Image Credit: Optical illusion. Image by Sha Sha Chu. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 via shashachu Flickr.
The post OK Go: Is the Writing on the Wall? appeared first on OUPblog.
Blog: Cartoon Brew (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Illustration, Animators, Music Videos, OK GO, Geoff McFetridge, Champion Studio, Whitest Boy Alive, Add a tag
Geoff McFetridge creates images that land on billboards, skateboards, sneakers, wallpapers, and move on screens. Often his work features simple pencil line drawings or clean, boldly shaped designs. The clever concepts behind the images is part of the power of Geoff’s work.
See Geoff’s company Champion Studio and sample a few of the animation productions that Geoff creates, such as the music video for Whitest Boy Alive or the OK Go music video featuring 2,430 slices of toast.
Add a CommentBlog: Ypulse (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: oscars, search engines, google, social networks, Cirque du Soleil, Ypulse Essentials, unemployment, Adele, streaming music, ok go, Mircrosoft, spotify, The Muppets, hipsters, msnNow, Teen Weddings, Add a tag
Despite having grown up with the Internet at their fingertips (college students aren’t very good at using Google to find information they need. Ethnographic research shows they have trouble refining their results and they aren’t making the best... Read the rest of this post
Add a CommentBlog: Ypulse (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: vampires, Star Wars, elton john, vw, doritos, pepsi, ok go, super bowl ads, betty white, the voice, sketchers, m&ms, X factor, hyundai, flava flav, chevy sonic, go daddy, mayan apocalypse, melanie amaro, sexy and i know it by lmfao, the dog strikes back, we are young by fun, Add a tag
The Super Bowl is over, and we’re crowning the winners. We mean the ads, of course! Brands brought out their best on the big day — some will go down in history, and some are already forgotten. Youth Advisory Board member Jordan Orris shares her... Read the rest of this post
Add a CommentBlog: Ypulse (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: McDonald's, smartphones, piracy, facebook, Nickelodeon, google, FOX, hulu, simpsons, stardoll, muppets, SpongeBob Squarepants, Ypulse Essentials, ok go, Kmart, lady gaga, miramax, sprint, rebecca bonbon, Gilt Children, iphone 5, streaming video, Add a tag
Plenty of shoppers stalk the Gilt Groupe website (to get the best deals, and now the company’s children’s division is encouraging shoppers to do the same on its Facebook page, where it will offer exclusive products and deals. First up?... Read the rest of this post
Add a CommentBlog: Ypulse (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Kindle, hunger games, elton john, Ypulse Essentials, kevin smith, ok go, jersey shore, hearst, liam hemsworth, toys "R" us, josh hutcherson, Fijit Friends, bridge & tunnel, cosmo for guys, fox streaming video, high speed wifi on campus, will gallows and the snake bellied troll, MTV, mattel, Add a tag
We may have drooled over this photo (of the guys of “The Hunger Games.” What do you think of Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson as Gale and Peeta? And why do we have to wait so long for this movie?? Speaking of books we’re... Read the rest of this post
Add a CommentBlog: Silver Apples of the Moon (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: OK Go, addictive watching, Add a tag
The latest video from OK Go was animated on toast by Geoff McFettridge. The video was created by snapping thousands of photographs of toast with the Samsung NX100, then combining them with hand-drawn images from director McFettridge. I like it.
Add a CommentBlog: YALSA - Young Adult Library Services Association (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: 30 Days of Back to School, Film & Video, Prof. Development, OK Go, Add a tag
About 10 days ago the musical group OK Go premiered their newest video, White Knuckles.
That day Twitter was alive with praise for the video. If you haven’t seen it, the video is a lively dance/music routine with OK Go and a group of dogs. It’s definitely worth watching.
When I watched White Knuckles, and read a bit about it, I was reminded of other OK Go videos that I’d seen, including videos detailing the process they used in creating another very entertaining (and interesting) video, This Too Shall Pass.
What does this have to do with going back to school, learning, and librarianship? The process that OK Go uses to develop and produce projects is definitely something that librarians, teachers, and teens can learn from. OK Go’s videos demonstrate creativity, determination, and commitment to ideas, even if they are ideas that seem a little crazy, so that what doesn’t seem like it can work is proven to be possible. For example the This Too Shall Pass video has an odd but key character, a gigantic Rube Goldberg machine. Most of the dogs in White Knuckles are trained rescue dogs. How is it possible that a giant Rube Goldberg machine and these dogs could work so successfully in these videos? OK Go makes it work.
In our schools and libraries we want to give the teens with whom we work the skills required to think creatively, make decisions, and problem solve. We want to do this through the research and information literacy skills we teach and help them to understand. We want to do this with the programs we ask them to help us create and implement. We want to do this with the leisure and personal information materials we make available. And, we want to help them figure out how to determine when an idea is a good one and when an idea is maybe just a little bit too crazy. We want them to go out and be successful, as OK Go is, using skills that we as educators and librarians help them to develop and learn.
Blog: Ypulse (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Twilight, Nickelodeon, cosmogirl, Conan O'Brien, emi, Ypulse Essentials, ok go, remember me, let's move, alvin and the chipmunks, Add a tag
Nick gets it right (seeing a major uptick in ad gains just as the channel presents a new programming slate to advertisers including teen-targed "Victorious" [star Victoria Justice pictured here] Also Yo! Gabba Gabba kicks off a third season of... Read the rest of this post
Add a CommentBlog: Neil Gaiman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: OK Go, Rube Goldberg, W Heath Robinson, Add a tag
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PS: And this is what I'm going to be wearing to the Oscars. Well, not just this, obviously. http://kambriel.livejournal.com/258458.html
Blog: Tara Lazar (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Contest, Children, Children's Books, KidLit, Picture Books, Parenting, Writing for Children, Greenwillow, Carin Berger, OK Go, Add a tag
Thank you to everyone who celebrated the release of Carin Berger’s newest picture book OK Go! by participating in her green-themed collage contest.
Carin thought the entries were so fabulous, she has posted all of them on her website!
We selected three winners at random.
Verity, age 7, wins the signed copy of OK, Go!
Ellie, age 4, wins a signed bookplate and an All Mixed Up mini-book.
Isaac, age 10, wins a signed bookplate and an All Mixed Up mini-book.
The rest of our artists receive an All Mixed Up mini-book. Everyone wins!
Visit Carin Berger’s website to see all the terrific collages and read the children’s inspiration for their art!
Thank you, green parents and kids!
<– And don’t forget to pick up a copy of OK, GO!
OK?
Go!
Blog: Tara Lazar (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Contest, Children, Children's Books, KidLit, Jack Prelutsky, Picture Books, Publishing, Parenting, Book Design, Picture Book Review, Children's Writing, Author Interview, Writing for Children, Giveaway, Illustrator Interview, Carin Berger, OK Go, The Little Yellow Leaf, Add a tag
Carin Berger never deliberately set out to become an author/illustrator, but she found her true calling in picture books. She was awarded the Society of Illustrators Founder’s Award in 2006, the NY Times named The Little Yellow Leaf one of the top ten picture books of 2008, and Publishers Weekly called her “one to watch.”
And now’s a great time to watch.
Her latest title OK Go, a playful book about making greener choices, releases in bookstores today.
I had the opportunity to talk with Carin about her journey to publication (somewhat serendipitous) and her plans for the future (deliberately delightful). I shall follow PW’s lead and not only watch her, but predict the Caldecott will soon be calling.
Carin, how did you start on the path to becoming a children’s book illustrator?
I’ve always loved reading, writing, old paper stuff, children’s books, type and making things. I studied graphic design and spent almost 20 years working in the field. I worked my way down the (pay) food chain towards what I really loved: from very high-end annual reports and brochures to eventually designing book jackets for all the major publishers. I did jackets for poetry, fiction and non-fiction. I still do this and love it. I get to read manuscripts and can often use my own illustration or photography.
Anyhow, I had a daughter, and it turned out she was a sleepless wonder. (When she was little. Now she sleeps like a baby!) I spent much of most evenings hanging with her, waiting for her to fall asleep. I wrote the poems for Not So True Stories and Unreasonable Rhymes in those long hours, mostly to amuse myself.
How did you first get involved in collage?
As for collage, that was kind of serendipity. I thought I would do paintings and was experimenting with different painting styles, some which included collage, and then my friend gave me a magic box full of old letters and documents and ephemera that she picked up at a flea market, knowing I had a thing for that kind of stuff. And that was the beginning.
Once I had pulled together some sample illustrations and manuscript, a friend-of-a-friend agreed to rep it; and she, amazingly, ushered it into the world.
And was Not So True Stories and Unreasonable Rhymes your first manuscript?
Yes, it was my first manuscript, though I’d written a bit, for myself, before.
Wow. That’s a rare accomplishment and speaks volumes about your talent. Where did you go from that first success?
Not So True Stories was a quirky little book that got good reviews but sold…well, like a quirky little book. Chronicle Books graciously published my second book, All Mixed Up, another quirky and very little book. (It can fit in your pocket.)
I was then called by Greenwillow Books and asked to illustrate Jack Prelutsky’s book. A real honor. And, because it was the amazing Master Jack’s book, it received lots of nice attention. He was named the first ever Children’s Poet Laureate right when the book came out which meant that there was a shiny golden sticker that went on the front of the book, too. I’ve been working with Greenwillow Books for the last couple of projects.
How has your illustration style evolved from one book to the next?
As for the collage style, it has sort of evolved in a few directions.
All Mixed Up, a mix and match book where the heads, middles and legs (as well as the alliterative poems) combine in various ways to make new characters, was born out of the idea of collaging the collaged illustration. I had originally conceived it as a game, but Chronicle preferred to do it as a book. The illustrations are similar, yet somewhat simpler than Not so True Stories, so that the mixing worked.
For Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant, I wanted to do a slightly different style than the books that I had authored, and also, because the poems are about a conglomeration of animals and objects (such as Ballpoint Penguins), I thought it would be fun to play that up and make it really obvious.
I collect old dictionaries and army/navy catalogues that have engraved images, and so I used those images and integrated them into the collage. To do this I actually scanned engravings from the book, played with them in Photoshop, printed out pieces and used them to cut and paste with.
The Little Yellow Leaf felt like a really simple, nostalgic story and I ended up introducing a bit of paint (stenciling) to the collage to add another layer and also, at times, to age the paper.
Ok Go has a zillion funny little characters carousing throughout the book and feels much more like the art in the end papers of Not so True Stories and also in All Mixed Up. It was fun to change things up a bit and to do such playful art.
My next book, due out late next winter, is called Forever Friends and the art is much more similar to the art in The Little Yellow Leaf. I see it as a companion book to The Little Yellow Leaf because the bunny on the front cover and the bird on the back cover of Leaf are the characters in Forever Friends.
Your newest picture book OK Go is a playful book for the wee set, all about making greener choices. How did the concept for this book come together?
As best I can recall, it all sort of came as a whole piece. I liked the idea of introducing taking care of the environment to really young kids. I remember growing up in the 70s when “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute” was around and feeling very empowered to help make the world a better place. Here are some early sketches:
One of the biggest things I needed to figure out was how to emphasize the message in a powerful yet playful way. The gatefold came about because I wanted it to feel like a huge gathering or movement.
How do you choose which paper to cut for certain images? Does the paper speak to you?
I have files of papers sorted by color—yellows/oranges, reds/pinks, blues/purples—and I also have files for some of my passions: polka dots, plaids, wood grain, buttons…
I actually cut a vellum stencil of the shape I need and hold it over the paper to find a good section. Something with good gradations for example, that help the piece, say a car, look more dimensional. Clothing catalogs are great for plaids and buttons. And then I use a variety of old stuff, both really old ephemera like letters and receipts with great calligraphy on them and also bits and pieces that I find around: ticket stubs, laundry tags, etc.
Do the words on the paper hold any significance?
I do think about the paper I use, where it comes from and what it says. Not in a huge way, but in a quiet, just-to-amuse-myself sort of way. And in almost every book I make sure to include, somewhere, my daughter’s name, Thea. In The Little Yellow Leaf it appears on the page with the giant sun, and in OK Go I use her name and the names and initials of lots of friends to decorate the cars.
Speaking of the glorious sun in The Little Yellow Leaf, do you have any idea how many pieces of paper you used? Or how long it took to create that page?
I always knew what I wanted to do with that illustration, but it took a little longer (well, w-a-y longer) than I thought it would. I spent probably close to a week on it. Actually, part of the reason it took so long is that I started from the outside and was working my way towards the center and I got pretty far before I realized that, because the sun is asymmetrical, it wasn’t going to work. I had to add another layer working from the center out. Ugh!
I have absolutely no idea how many pieces there are, and I can’t imagine anyone who would be nuts enough to count (though I’d be curious to know that)!
Circling back to your newest book, what kind of impact do you hope OK Go will have on green thinking among parents and young children?
There are some very simple things that kids can do to be more green and they are listed in the back of the book.
I think if you plant the idea early, children will live more careful, aware lives, and remind their parents to do so as well. Plus, what is more motivating than our kids to get us to take care of this planet and the environment?
But mostly I want kids to have fun with the book, and to be introduced these ideas in a playful, engaging way.
One last thought: all of my art is made with found and recycled materials, so maybe this will prove inspiring and enabling, too.
Indeed it is, Carin! So let’s use that inspiration for a contest!
Kids age 10 and under, create a collage with a green theme–reduce, reuse, recycle or whatever you can dream up! Email your illustration to tarawrites at yahoo (you know the rest, dot com) and include child’s first name and age.
With the help of Random.org, we’ll randomly select three winners.
The grand prize winner gets an autographed copy of OK Go. The second and third winners will receive an All Mixed Up promotional mini-book. And all three illustrations will be featured on Carin Berger’s website and/or blog.
In your email, be sure to grant your permission for sharing the illustration and the child’s first name/age online.
One illustration per child. Enter now through midnight E.S.T., Tuesday, May 12.
Carin, thank you for giving us a glimpse into your beautiful world! I bet everyone is going to GO! GO! GO! get your book today!
Take a peek inside OK Go or
Find OK Go at your local bookstore!
OK Go by Carin Berger
April 2009
Greenwillow Books
Nice!
what was most impressive was getting the designated dogs to bark when requested w/o having all of the rest chime in! THAT took some work to train!