Nik Ramage creates low tech, absurd mechanical objects that perform mundane every-day tasks (from blowing out candles to walking down the street to drumming your fingers out of boredom). Click through to Ramage's site to see more of his work. Five of his pieces below:
Jeremy Wood has turned the normally mundane task of lawn mowing into an art process. For the past nine years, Wood kept his mother's yard perfectly manicured, tracking every single motorized lawnmower ride with a GPS, and then converting the data into "maps".
This short film was shot entirely on the Canon EOS 5D Mark II DSLR. It's called The Last 3 Minutes and was directed by Po Chan, and shot by cinematographer Shane Hurlbut, ASC. The main character is a janitor, whose life is kind of mundane. At least, that's what it seems like, but as the story develops, many layers of interesting happenings are revealed. Scenes were shot in both 24 and 30fps, and they used Canon L Series prime lenses, using great depth of field. Lenses used in the making were:
Area 51 is the most secretive military base in the United States, a base that U.S. government officials to this day still barely acknowledge because of its top secret development and testing of experimental aircraft and weapons systems. But a slew of Cold War-era documents have finally been declassified, and National Geographic has discovered a rather low-tech method the military used to hide its high-tech prototypes.
Winner Announcement by Tom Stack & Associates, Inc. Chasing the Light Juried Photo Competition - The Avian Persona
Kevin Van Aelst creates witty visual "one-liners" by recontextualizing everyday, ordinary objects. With a few simple tweaks, the viewer recognizes a roll of tape as the ocean or reads gummi worms as chromosomes or understands mitosis through the use of sweet, sugary donuts.
For all iPhone users whom enjoy Apple's wide selection of titillating apps, bad news. All gone. Not only are the R-Rated apps gone, but so are the apps that may be merely PG-13.
Tom Friedman. One of my very favorite contemporary artists. Friedman injects the wonder into the humdrum. He creates magic from the unsuspected with his incredible sculptures assembled from simple, everyday materials. His materials have included: toilet paper, drinking straws, construction paper, masking tape, toothpicks, bubblegum, spaghetti, toothpaste, soap powder, sugar cubes.
Cartograms are usually pretty mundane, but throw in Flickr, Photoshop, and a well-known public place and you have an artistic representation of popular colors. Much more eye-grabbing than your common map.
(Difficulty Level: from Newby to Expert) Digital cameras can produce freaky sharp images—it’s one thing that sets them apart from film cameras. A DSLR doesn’t have grain, it has noise—and that sounds a lot less charming for a reason. If you shoot at a low ISO, high f-stop and fast shutter speed, you can wind up with a super sharp image that might look great even on a billboard. But sometimes, sharp isn’t everything.
Now that we are in the thick of flip-flop and sandal weather, it is important to make sure that you are taking good care of your feet. Specifically, to treat the bottom of your heels if they are starting to get cracked and dry.
Welcome to Minecraft World! Check out our advanced tutorials and come play on our free server. Minecraft is all about big ideas, but we all too often forget the details. Small changes in block type, positioning, or layout can transform builds from mundane to beautiful.
Movies like to show hackers breaking passwords with fancy software and ludicrous gadgets. The reality of busting passwords open is much more mundane. Simple as it may sound, most passwords are broken purely by guesswork. Check out this infographic from ZoneAlarm, as well as this list from the Wall Street Journal of the fifty most common passwords gleaned from the 2010 Gawker hack. If your password is on one of those lists, you need to change it. Right now.
There's a lot that you can do in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Sure, you can do the predictable thing and be a gay cat-man that shouts at dragons to death. But you can also take on even the most mundane of tasks. Want to make pies for twenty hours? There's an oven right over there, get baking. How about living an honest life as a blacksmith? Well, by golly, you can do it!
Welcome to Minecraft World! Check out our advanced tutorials and come play with us on our free server.
Time to confess a personal bias: I love Gmail. I think it's the best thing since sliced bread. I try to be impartial when I write about software and online services, but seriously -- of all the free email services out there, why would you use anything else?
