Photographs Tell Stories Of A Lifetime

Photographs can hold meanings far beyond the initial glance. They hold and display emotion that words never could. Carmine Galasso knows this. As well as the various individuals photographed and interviewed in Galasso's book, "Crosses -- Portraits Of Clergy Abuse". Galasso traveled the United States photographing "men and women who were betrayed by the very Roman Catholic priests and nuns they had once admired and trusted" (David Gonzalez, NYTimes).

Galasso set out to find survivors of these devastating occruances and give them a medium to share their thoughts and feelings. The book holds some truly emotional stories and photographs.
Galasso's nook can be purchased here.

Links:

Crosses

NYTimes

Concrete Cemetary

Artists are continually pushing boundaries and attempting to create images that society has never seen before. Artist Jason de Caires Taylor accomplishes just this in his work. Taylor creates life-size cement societies and places them in the depths of the ocean -- just off of the coast of South America. As time progresses, the sculptures become one with the sea lining, acting as the reefs do that cover the sea floor. The aquatic life accepts the sculptures as part of the environment, living on and among the statues. Taylor's work can be found in various bodies of water around South America. Experiencing Taylor's work is far different than the typical gallery visit.

Links:

Jason De Caires Taylor

TwoFourFlinching

Tron: Legacy

Disney's Tron will hit theaters this Thursday at midnight. The film has been hyped for months, not because of the actual film, but mainly due to the pair of robots that created the score. Daft Punk is finally back after a three year absence from the music scene. As the popularity of Electronic Dance Music (EDM) is on the rise in America, Daft Punk and Joseph Kosinski have chosen to so something very irregular with the score. Daft Punk's catchy, electronically synth. lines are accompanied by an 86 piece orchestra. Daft Punk & traditional movie scores collide, as TRON offers something that has yet to be heard. As an EDM enthusiast, I am extremely excited to see Daft Punk hit the big screen. The score, paired with some impressive modern day special effects should be more than enough to make this film rediscovery worth while. Disney will have no problem cashing in at the box office Friday. 

Path: The newest way to let everyone know what you are doing with every moment of your day.

Path is one of the newest social networks to pop up on the Internet. The network is mainly based around cell phones. Users take pictures if where they are or what they are doing and post it directly from their phone using Path's phone application. Users are able to give a brief description of the photo and attach location points to where the photograph was taken. Unfortunately, Path currently only works with the Iphone. Path plans on increasing the network to devices that run Android and Windows as well.

Path has taken a page from Twitter's book, keeping the network small and simple. Currently, each Path user is limited to 50 friends to share their photos with. It is a simple social network that is based around cell phone photographs. It seems to be a good way to keep updated with close friends, but does not seem to be useful as a professional networking tool. Below is a video with more information on Path and how it is utilized:

If you would like to know more about path or join the Path social network, visit path.com.

Drinking Green

Glass blower Dean Wolf has found a way for you to get all warm and fuzzy this winter while being environmentally friendly at the same time. Curl up by the fire and warm your insides with Wolf's Recycled Blown Bottle Shot Glass. The glasses are blown from recycled Topo Chico mineral water bottles.

Not only are Wolf's products environmentally friendly, but his studio is as well.

"This glass was blown in an environmentally conscious manner in our low-energy consumption hot-shop powered in part by renewable wind energy of our power company's Green Works program. We ship using recyclable cardboard and Bio-Bubble, a 100% bio-degradable bubble wrap."

Check out Wolf's shot glasses and other work at etsy.com, as well as thousands of other pieces of art.

MetraTrend: OLED Headphones

Personal Sounds with a Personal Lightshow

Designers Min-guk and Hong-joo of Metatrend Institute have released a futuristic design for headphones. The designer duo's Transparent OLED Headphones have a headband that is made from felxible OLED panels. These panels allow the listener to fully customize their headphones. With a few presses of a button, the color and pattern created on the panel can be changed, making each pair of headphones unique to the person using them. The OLED panels display the album artwork and title of the song the user is listening to, as well as creates a visual experience that moves to the music. The heaphones are yet to be released, but would see some great success in a market of consumers that are constantly looking for the most unique and customizable products.

Links:

Yanko Design

MetaTrend

Extraordinary People: Ari Evans

This section is new to this blog. Every few weeks I plan to create a post that pertains to a specific person that I have randomly met over the last year or so that is 'worth knowing'.

The first person featured on this blog is Ari Evans. I met Ari Evans not too long ago at Webster Hall in NYC. We were both at Webster to see one Justice, a rather large name in the electronic music world. We happened to bump into each other early in the night and began talking. The relationship has held ever since. We have run into each other several other times at various different shows. The biggest question is: What makes Ari so interesting?

Over  the  time  that  I  met  Ari,  he  has  worked  with  several  other friends  to  create  one  of  the  more  successful  electronic  music  blogs found on the Internet today: Less  Than  Three. The  blog  has  been  rapidly  growing  and  gaining  recognition  in  the  electronic  music  world. Being  a  film  student  striving  to  break  into  the  media  world,  Ari's success  intrigued  me  and  I felt  that  everyone  could  learn  from  his experiences.  I  decided  to  ask  Ari  to  answer  several  questions  about his  blog  and  his  life.

What do you do outside of Less Than 3?

Ari: I'm currently attending Stanford University going for a master's in management science and engineering with a concentration in entrepreneurship. Between school and LT3,  most of my time is occupied, but when I do get some free time I travel and enjoy getting to know the world better through unique experiences. I think when you can see the world through other perspectives, you gain the ability to understand it in a whole new way. 

How did Less Than 3 get started?

Ari: The initial conception was back in February of this year, when we first came up with the name. It was actually a good friend of mine who had suggested using LessThan3 as the name for a DJ group. When I heard the name I immediately thought it should be used for something bigger, so I got to brainstorming, and what we have now is at least one or two evolutions on the original concept. The work to get here now has been pretty substantial, but it has been really enjoyable. Mostly due to the team that is behind it. It's truly composed of an all-star group of individuals who share energy and inspiration to push forward and realize our dreams.

What about electronic music caused you to base a blog around it?

Ari: My favorite part of EDM culture are the vibes. A vibe is a difficult thing to describe, but has to do with the feeling and impression you get from an experience and group of people-- the emotions that are invoked by the environment. In my experience, dance music culture attracts a forward-thinking, open minded group of individuals -- The kind of environment where I'm very likely to form strong friendships with people. In fact, many of my best friends were found at these kinds of events. (This is where Ari and I met).

There were several reasons why I started the site, but there is one simple idea that has pushed the whole thing forward. My whole life I have seen how easy it is to avoid being exposed to what is out there. It's not just about music, really--in general, your exposure to various kinds of experiences gives you more chances. More chances to explore and thus more chances to fall in love with something. And aren't we all looking for something to fall in love with? If happiness is what we're all searching for as humans (my personal belief), then we should do what we can to attain it. Sadly; however, humans are lazy. Since entropy rules, and it's too easy to just go about our lives, we just end up getting sucked into routine and monotony. LessThan3 is an opportunity for me and my team to provide a totally simple way for people to get pulled into this incredible life stream of creativity and wonder. So that's really what it's all about--helping people find something to fall in love with, just like I have.


How has Less Than 3 grown since its creation?
The site has been seeing some extremely healthy growth, having grown by 50%+ (traffic-wise) every 30 days. We've redesigned the site once, adding the persistent player at the bottom of the page, and we've added special new articles and features to the site which have provided the community with a way to get more involved as we grow. We're constantly working on new methods to increase our reach and exposure, but the great thing is that since people love our product, they freely and avidly promote it themselves. That's exactly what I wanted to have happen. 

How have you & Less Than 3 found success?

Ari: Finding success is all about networking and determination. I seek advice from colleagues, mentors, and friends all the time. The goal for me is to build something that people really love using. The only way to do that is to talk to the users to tweak things to their liking. The main thing that has separated us from the competition thus far, has been our strong branding, professionalism, and attention to detail. Artists and their PR agencies willingly do business with us because they feel and see the benefits of our collaboration. For example, our interview pages put the spotlight on artists and show to be the perfect piece of media to blast out through social media networks. From there everything is just a huge snowball as more artists see us as an emerging authoritative source for Electronic Dance Music(EDM) in the US.

What do you see for the future of Less Than 3?

Ari: My team and I have evaluated many areas of the music industry that are ripe for entrepreneurial attention. We have some pretty game-changing ideas that are currently in development. Our goal is to build a fun, useful, and engaging tool that can help artists get exposure and help users find new music and connect with each other. To give you a sneak peak, we plan on adding some big personalization features to the site and finding alternate forms of compensation models for artists out there. Stay tuned!

Do you have any advice for those who are trying to break into the media/design world?

Ari:The most important aspect is making sure you define your brand carefully, decide how it is you want to be perceived to your users, and what your core competencies will be--that is, what it is you are really good at. Be prepared to try a variety of promotional techniques and make sure to utilize the social networking edge that we now have to help you get as much exposure as possible. Remember that people are more likely to spread the word about something that they enjoy and think their friends would also enjoy. So before you start promoting anything, make sure your product is as solid as it can be. Or at least solid enough to start spreading it around.

Ari's story is truly great and inspiring. It shows that if you are truly passionate. talented, and determined anything is possible. Ari shared a great amount of knowledge and I thank him for that. Head over to http://lessthan3.com/ and see what Ari has helped create. Keep your eyes and mind open, and continued to strive toward your passion.