Architectural visualization artist and Grizzly Bear fan Gabe Askew created this fan video for the song Two Weeks.
Gabe produced it in his free time over four months. With the recession squeezing budgets, he wasn’t able to exercise his creative muscles enough at work. He needed to do something for himself.
It’s a great example of the creativity and innovation that is produced during tough economic times.
It’s also a great example of the metamorphosis that the music industry is undergoing. Chris Anderson discusses this extensively in his new book Free.
This Ad Age video talks about how advertisers are now setting their sights on using video game engines to create real-time interactive spots.
Zoic Studios recently created one of said spots for the release of Kill Zone 2 that was broadcasted on the Sony Playstation Network. Playstation viewers were able to manipulate camera angles, view uncomposited layers, and hear commentary - all rendered in real-time.
Technologically speaking, this is huge. How effective is the execution though? Visually, it doesn’t quite do it for me. And I’d imagine that for an audience that spends a lot of time “living” in these virtual worlds, their reaction was probably the same.
That said, this is an early breakthrough. I definitely think there’s potential in the medium. Especially when you think of this stuff coupled with Microsoft’s Project Natal technology. And that includes non-game consumer products. For instance, imagine being able to “get inside” a car and zoom into the dashboard on your HD TV.
It was interesting to hear Zoic co-founder Loni Peristere talk about the creation process. He believes, and I agree, that soon the platforms for creating these experiences will be more in the hands of storytellers than technologists. The technology will be far enough along that creatives can pull from vast digital libraries.
There’s also sure to be ground-level democratized innovation on this platform as the tools become commonplace.
In a recent interview with Nevil Brody on the Design Matters podcast, a caller asked if he thought the proliferation and evolution of digital cameras will bring about the death of film-based photography.
His answer was “yes”, but his worry wasn’t about loss of quality, or the demise of an art form. His concern was that the infinite options that digital enables brings with it an overwhelming amount of choices. And too many options negatively impact the creative process.
“If only my computer had a ‘no’ function and could tell me that I was done”, he wished.
I remember reading an interview in the 80’s with Geddy Lee from the band Rush. He was complaining about the same challenges they had in the studio as they introduced more and more digital into their recording production. They never knew when the record was done.
Very early in my career I founded the short-lived magazine d8. As the founder, Creative Director and primary designer I pretty much had free creative reign. Therein lied my biggest enemy. Without any real limitations I frequently experienced decision anxiety. Looking back at the work it seems as if my design decisions were totally random - they were, actually. And the truth is, back then I lacked the experience and the discipline to create my own boundaries. It was design for design’s sake.
I’m thankful to have experienced a freedom there that most never get outside of art school. But having been there I can tell you that it’s overrated. The greener grass.
Limitations create focus, they channel the mission, they breed innovation.
Whether it’s the budget, the schedule, the client, your team, the medium, or the attention-span of your audience - welcome the limitations. If they’re not there - tighten the brief, push the team, trim the schedule, tie both hands behind your back and put the blindfold on.
This Business Week podcast has an great interview with Lemuel Lasher, Chief Innovation Officer at Computer Sciences Corporation. Admittedly, enterprise software innovation isn’t the sexiest topic, but Lasher presents one of the crisper points of view that I’ve heard in a while. I was also impressed at how articulate he was while getting grilled by the interviewer.
Not surprisingly CSC has an incredibly measured and analytical philosophy on innovation. They’ve created an innovation taxonomy that outlines innovations types (process innovation, product innovation) and amplitudes (disruptive innovation, incremental innovation). Their focus is on adjacent and incremental innovation — efforts that have immediate and short-term value to their customers. As a services company they believe that this brings them, their customers and their shareholders a greater rate of return.
Lasher believes that disruptive innovations, ones that are more breakthrough and create new markets, are more the domain of product innovation.
In these tough economic times, Lasher doesn’t believe that R&D cutbacks equal innovation output. He believes that things like a company’s culture, operations, tools and incentives play more a role in innovation that traditional R&D. Kind of makes sense.
What are the biggest mistakes that he sees companies making in regards to innovation?
A lot of companies view innovation as the objective rather than the means. They focus on an innovation agenda rather than the needs and objectives of the business.
A research report is referenced in the interview on CSC’s long-term view of disruptive innovations, which I haven’t read, that seems incredibly underwhelming. But the rest of the interview is definitely worth a listen.
Does all this talk of enterprise innovation have you just hungry for more? You can find a bunch of CSC videos of Lasher on YouTube.
In the early 90’s a buddy of mine brought home a stack of obscure video tapes from the local rental shop. Among those was a video from the “band” Emergency Broadcast Network. Their songs consisted of music tracks layered with video scratching. It was the first music I ever heard that wasn’t complete without the video. Harrison Ford screaming “get down” in their track “Get Down” is forever seared into my brain.
When I first heard Eclectic Method a few weeks ago, I couldn’t help thinking of EBN. Turns out one of the old members is part of this act.
With the proliferation of video, and the methods for creating and editing audio visuals continually getting cheaper, this is an approach to authoring music that I’m sure will continue to grow.
EBN was definitely before their time. Glad to see this technique gaining ground.
