I’ve always liked the Hyper Island ‘crew’ sites. For years now (since Crew 9) I’ve been looking and thinking that it’d be cool to be in a crew. The site’s are always superbly well done and really show off the capabilities of the students. Frankly, I’ve always wondered why my course (Interactive Media Production at Bournemouth University) don’t apply a similar approach but that’s a whole different thread.. For now, just witness Crew 12.

Personally, I prefer the year previous (Crew 11) but there’s no doubt that a massive amount of work has gone into this years site and it shows. The flash version has tonnes of video (too much for my poxy iBook to cope with), but I actually think the ‘lite’ version of the site is nicer. Either way, worth a look. Each student’s personal site is also probably worth a look if you have a free hour or two because the quality of work is always impressive.

Just briefly, I’ve finally got ’round to producing a proper archive page for this blog. It’s powered by the fantastic SRG Clean Archive plugin by Shawn Grimes. It really is superb.. Really easy to implement and works a charm.

After setting it up, I spent a bit of time going through the archives and wondering what exactly I’m doing with this blog. My very first post (’first things first‘) basically stated that this would be about stuff. And it is. So by that measure, I’m doing well. However, I can’t help but feel like I should adopt a different route away from random musings.. So I intend to start posting some stuff in a more worthwhile vein. We’ll see how it goes.

Eyes peeled.

What is the future of web design? Carson Systems (and their friends) think they know and they’re happy to share it with the world on April 18th. Well, I say ‘the world’ but I mean ‘the few hundred people who got their tickets early’ because it’s now sold out. Luckily, I have a ticket, and while it’s not Golden and doesn’t grant me entry to a fabulous factory where immigrants are exploited to produce wonderful chocolate, it IS still rather spanking. I’m looking forward to it..

Confirmed speakers include people from Preloaded, Flickr, Hi-Res, Big Spaceship and the obligatory Jason Arbor from Pixelsurgeon. The man’s everywhere. So as you can see, tis a nice line-up.

If you haven’t got a ticket, you can buy a CD of the presentations for £59 (exc VAT) which seems a tad pricey for a CD to me but I suppose you get what you pay for.

I’ll do some sort of write-up afterwards but til then, peep the site and contemplate the future.

http://futureofwebdesign.com/

Last year (November 11th to be precise), San Francisco played host to ‘Be The RIOTTT!’, an event self described as:

… the supreme global manifestation of cultural diversity. Mixing an amalgam of premier music with an onslaught of emotive, culturally-relevant art galleries and streetfashion collective, Be The Riottt Festival engenders a progressive, genre-spanning throw down for the ages.

Sounds fun doesn’t it. Alas, it was ages ago so you can’t go now. “But how can I watch footage of the artists performing at the festival on a rather badly designed, but ultimately-does-the-job website?” I hear you cry! Funny you should ask, because that very footage is available at the festival website for one month only..

Feel free to go and listen to the other bands etc.. but the only thing I was really interested in seeing was the Sage Francis set. So I watched it today. It’s great. Only available for another 4 days I think so rush over and watch.

http://www.riottt.com/beTheRiottt.do

Last week, archeologists in Rome reckon they stumbled on the location of Lupercale, the mythical(?) location where Romulus and Remus were suckled by a she-wolf before growing big and strong and founding what would end up as Rome (but could’ve been called Reme). You know the story. So do I.

(Just for good measure, here’s another picture of suckling babies. Disturbing.)

But what I never realised was that the Ancient Romans actually had a location where the cave was supposed to be. A cave which was deservedly revered by Romans who loved the whole she-wolf thing. A cave which was built over by Emperor Augustus’ palace when the Republic became the Empire. A cave which was then bizarrly forgotten about. A cave which has now been rediscoved underneath Augustus’ palace on the Palatine Hill. Yay for legends with a proven factual basis!

It’d be cool to look around it when they’ve finished excavating. Presuming of course that it’s accessible and doesn’t get closed for safety reasons before it even gets opened. We’ll see. I’m adding it to my list of things to see next time I’m in Rome.