Do You See What I See?

Synesthesia, which I wrote about here, is endlessly interesting to me. As a creative person, the idea of this additional sensory experience is incredibly intriguing. (Am I missing out on certain sensory awareness?) I was reading this post about the condition, which mentions the documentary Do You See What I See.

At my high school, all students were required to give a speech to the entire school in order to graduate. My speech centered on perception and the idea that everyone sees things—including color—differently. I concluded that people's differing perceptions are what makes self expression so important. By expressing the way you see the world, you're sharing something with the rest of the world that might not be evident or exist otherwise, due to differences in perception. It was admittedly a 17-year-old's version of this topic, and much more based on my own beliefs than rooted in science, but ever since then (and even before), this idea of differing perceptions among people is one that has amazed me.

Do You See What I See explores these differences as related to color. Apparently, even language limits (or enriches) color perception; when words for certain colors don't exist in a specific culture, its people don't see a difference between that color and another one. (As a side note, I do have to wonder about the researcher's methods in the trailer below. He shows a member of the Himba tribe a TV screen with different squares of color and asks him to identify the differing square. I can't imagine TVs are very widespread among these people, and wonder if that's really the best way of testing them?) In any case, the documentary looks like an interesting one, and I'd like to check it out. Watch the trailer below for more information.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Part II

Oh, hi. I've been delinquent at writing here due to finals and other time-consuming things, but here I am again. I can't say I've been very good at keeping up with my reading lately, so I don't have too many goodies to share, but I'll post a few pieces I did for my class with Bob Gill this semester. The class focused almost entirely on concept, so hopefully I'll get a chance to keep reworking the visuals.

Here's the first piece, a movie poster I did for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (I posted an early sketch here). More to come!

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Here's an initial sketch for a movie poster I did for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for one of my classes. It's by no means a finished product, but I haven't put too much design work up lately, so I thought I'd include a little sketch.

Objectified

I was lucky enough to attend a screening of Objectified at Pratt last night, followed by a Q&A session with director Gary Hustwit (who also directed Helvetica).

I highly recommend seeing the film, whether you're a designer or not. In fact, I think it should be required viewing for non-designers so they realize to what extent everything around us has been designed (finally answering the frustrating question all designers face: "so...what do you do, exactly?")

Check out the movie at one of these screenings, buy/rent the DVD, or watch it on PBS (come November).

Wild thing

I'm as super-excited for the Where the Wild Things Are movie as anyone, but all the hoopla and cross promotion surrounding it are turning me off a bit. That being said, the Where the Wild Things Are collection for Urban Outfitters is actually pretty cute. I might need to score those leggings...is that weird?

seek&speak

Brandon Schaefer has some cool posters up on his site, seek&speak.



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Remix

This documentary about the "mash-up" trend and copyright looks interesting:

I <3 NY

Obviously seeing this movie when it comes out in October.

Food, Inc.

Food, Inc., a movie about the food industry, sounds good. NYTimes blog The Moment describes it as similar to "An Inconvenient Truth," providing

a captivating if slightly disturbing presentation of a problem. The problem this time is America’s messy food system. The film takes us through supermarkets, corn fields, chicken coops, slaughterhouses and courtrooms to reveal the inner workings of a giant food-producing-machine, resulting in a powerful wake-up call for consumers.

Check the link above for more info.

500 Days of Summer

How much do I want to see this movie?



500 Days of Summer

Paper Heart

Another movie goody...
Michael Cera is kinda adorable.



(via For Me, For You)

Away We Go

...And I'm excited for this one too. Dave Eggers and Sam Mendes? How could it be bad?!

Funny People

I'm so excited for this movie.

Wild Thing

I'm excited for this movie!

Swaptree

Have you heard of Swaptree?
You can list all the books, CDs, DVDs, and games you no longer want and exchange them for ones you do. You just type in the ISBN numbers for the stuff you want to get rid of and the site matches you up with people who want those items. It's a great way to recycle and get stuff you want for free (plus shipping charges).

I can read movies

These "I Can Read Movies" covers by Spacesick are kinda cool interpretations of movies made into book covers. Here are some highlights: