Video | Catagraph.us

The Last Guardian

Jun 8, ’09 4:15 PM

The Last Guardian is an upcoming video game created by Team Ico — an enigmatic crew of artist engineers responsible for Shadow of the Colossus and Ico.

If you’re at all familiar with the latter works, you’ll have heard they aren’t games in the traditional sense at all. The label simply can’t encompass what they encompass: the cryptic landscape of the player’s subconscious, the thundering engines of myth, and a thin, frail hope.

The following video is a trailer for The Last Guardian. It’s short, but already the form of the work is visible.

Does it have big, goofy ears? Give it a head rub.

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The Space Within A House

Jun 8, ’09 1:28 PM

Take a moment. Take a look around. Look at the organization and structure and color of the spaces you occupy. Observe the way that vessel is filled by light. Today is the birthday anniversary of the greatest architect in the last 500 years.

“Space is the breath of art.” – Frank Lloyd Wright

(Hat tip to Dornick for the reminder.)

The Space Within A House from Jon Fuller on Vimeo.

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This Mortal Coil – Song To The Siren

Jun 6, ’09 6:02 PM

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The Dark Mouth Of The Earth

Jun 3, ’09 2:42 AM

Posting today under the influence of rather severe and demoralizing allergies.

I can’t explain why, but such moments strongly lend themselves to the confabulation of distinct, evocative images. When I’m sick or depleted, this one always comes to the fore: a figure standing at the entrance to a dark tunnel. It speaks of mortality, a search for sanctuary, the influence of unseen rivers, of tunnels and passages into darkness.

This image originally came to me as I descended into the grasp of a terrible flu last February. At the time, I was reading Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. (It is a terrifying book. Murakami — and his English translators — possess a gift for exactly relaying the more frightening vistas dormant within the human subconscious.)

In any case, there is a passage in the book in which a character describes a memory from her childhood. In the memory, she is playing with some other children beside a stream near a field. It has just rained. The stream is swollen with the rain. The other children are pulling her along in a small boat when they somehow lose their grasp. In a moment, she is swept away from them toward the mouth of a culvert. An entrance into the underworld, a mouth into the earth, a portal to the unknown.

(Apologies for these undeveloped thoughts — I’m not completely up to par right now. What imagery — if any — do you associate with your varied states of being?)

The Dark Mouth Of The Earth from Jon Fuller on Vimeo.

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Outlaw Cat Via Brushes Redux

May 29, ’09 8:30 AM

This week’s New Yorker cover was painted by artist Jorge Colombo entirely using that spiffy iPhone/iPod Touch app named Brushes which I wrote about in early January.

Steve Sprang — the developer of Brushes — also put together a neat companion application named Brushes Viewer which allows the replay of the process of painting.

Even though I’m still not used to painting on an iPod with my knobbly, misshapen fingers, I put together a little demonstration of this amazing software just for you. Take a look.

Outlaw Cat Via Brushes from Jon Fuller on Vimeo.

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Over Tahiti In A Flying Boat

May 15, ’09 10:15 AM

Yesterday, I finally ordered a copy of Richard K. Smith’s The Airships Akron and Macon (aka ZRS-4 and ZRS-5). This is generally regarded as the best published work on the two U.S. Navy ‘flying aircraft carriers’ of 1931 through 1934. I was a little surprised to find it was out of print, but then I suppose there aren’t many semi-rigid airships zipping around in the skies these days.

While researching Wright Cyclone 9 engines early this morning, I somehow stumbled across a few nice Youtube videos of the elegant and venerable Consolidated PBY Catalina. This ‘flying boat’ succeeded the P2Y-1 Ranger aircraft which recently featured in one of my sketches.

The first is a short scene from the beginning of the rather sappy Spielberg-directed movie Always. Aside from the night-flight at the end, this is arguably the best scene in the entire movie.

The last video is easily one of the most beautiful video sequences I’ve ever seen via Youtube. Entitled “My Grandfather at Age 26, WW2 over Tahiti”, the film captures a few beautiful moments within the aft section of a military Catalina during World War II.

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Joe McNally On Holding An SLR

Apr 17, ’09 2:00 PM

Here’s Nigel: “He’s mostly dog.”

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N. Corren Conway: WNYC Street Shots

Apr 15, ’09 10:00 AM

More of N. Corren Conway’s work is visible at forever12.com.

(Just a note: There are quite a few of these great WNYC Street Shots mini-documentaries available on youtube now. I’ll continue to post those I find most interesting, but they all offer some worthwhile insight into the way other photographers work.)

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