To post about the miniature melo (Micromelo undatus) may seem a bit odd, as it is not a nudibranch but a closely-related sea snail! Its thinly-calcified shell is easily seen covering half of its back and is patterned with dazzling brown-red lines, a stark contrast to the blue, white-spotted body below. It lives in many tropic waters, whether that be Japan or Florida, and reaches about 3cm in length. It eats polychaete worms, and uses their toxins as its own.
Today, Europe and the world are increasingly looking to Africa—and they
like to describe the future of the continent in extremes: as a gloomy,
apocalyptic vision or a paradise of booming investment. But how do
artists, cultural producers, and scientists view the future there? Do
they offer alternative visions to widespread views? What kinds of
science fiction do they pick up on? How do they relate to Afro-futurism,
which arose in the American diaspora? These questions are at the core
of African Futures, in which artists, scholars, and cultural producers
present their positions on the future of literature, film, performance,
the visual arts, music, and science.
In the VR short film “The Other
Dakar”, Senegalese fashion designer Selly Raby Kane presents a magical
360 piece, in which a little girl is chosen to discover the invisible
Dakar.
The work will have its South African Premiere
at the Goethe-Institut Johannesburg from 2 to 4 June as part of
Encounters International Documentary Film Festival, and also show at The
American Corner, Central Library in Cape Town from 8 to 10 June.
Presented by Electric South and the Goethe-Institut as part of the New
Dimensions project.
If Black Panther recently spread the gospel of Afrofuturism to
the masses, the canon of Sun Ra, including this 1974 sci-fi film, is one
of the cosmology’s foundational sources. The film’s genesis lies in the
early seventies, when the visionary jazz musician was teaching a course
on “The Black Man in the Cosmos” at UC Berkeley. These lectures formed
the basis for Space Is the Place, in which a time-traveling Sun
Ra and his Arkestra discover a new planet where they want to resettle
African Americans. But they have to win a card game against the evil
Overlord, a pimp, first. Of course, Sun Ra uses music to rally the youth
to his cause, even as the Overlord works to poison their minds and NASA
scientists try to steal his space-travel secrets. The freewheeling
psychedelic narrative is the result of experimental structuring and
editing techniques, but it conceals a systemic indictment of the white
power structure and how it can co-opt even African Americans. See it at
Shadowbox with Sun Ra tunes spinning before and after.
Thursday, May 24 (i.e., tonight!)
Shadowbox Studio
2200 Dominion St, Durham
7 p.m., free www.shadowboxstudio.org
Üdvözletem küldöm a forró Afrikából. Nagyon jól vagyok, barnulok. Ha esetleg írtok vagy küldtök a Mamzival és a Muterral valamit (pl. szalámi), akkor vidd be a futárhoz mert februárban jön. Csókollak benneteket, öcséd, Laci.
Héros de l’indépendance Africaine - Alpha Yaya Diallo (1855-1912)
1964. Beyond the Spectrum by Martin Thomas, in which alien invaders from the planet Nihil attack 30th century Earth. 1967 paperback cover illust. by Victor Kalin
Tokyo-based model and publisher Choom on the street in Harajuku wearing a vintage Gunne Sax dress with Tokone tights, Jeffrey Campbell heels, an EatMe backpack, Angelic Pretty bow rings, and 6%DOKIDOKI hair clips. Full Look
An overflow crowd of nearly thirty thousand devotees of the Wolverton Orthodoxy cult attend a weenie roast and the scheduled landing of the Lily-Pons extra-dimensional bladder, captured here on this 1930s postcard just as the jelly-filled craft settles into “The Fairy Dell” in Culver Hills, California.
Off-loading more toxic jellies than could be spread on all the toast in all the world, the Lily-Pons still had only room for one human passenger. Or five cats.
A secret ballot saw the much coveted passenger space awarded to Claws von Bülow, Mister Squishy Blisters, Whiskers McCoy, Chickadee, and Doctor William Scrunchieface.
That was the official manifest, until Doctor Scrunchieface was discovered to be the very human chief cardiologist at Good Samaritan Hospital in Pomona.
At which point Monsignor Muffintop was chosen to replace him for the final slot. Until he too was recognized as human.
After several more embarrassingly similar gaffes, the last seat on the craft was given to Mary Sullivan-Shimell, a gorgeous pixie-bob housecat.
“We can rebuild her… We have the technology… We know the way!”
A few months ago I ripped apart a Moana doll and made it into a stop-motion puppet using a kinetic armature kit.
The walk cycle above was the first thing I animated with this puppet, and was just a throw-away practice test with no green screen. I had never done a walk cycle in stop-motion before and soon discovered how difficult animating a straight-ahead cycle within a localized space with no retakes could be.
I showed the cycle to my dad while he was holding my Moana puppet in his hand and he seemed more impressed with this crappy test than the actual animation I did on the movie! I think the combination of him holding the puppet, and then seeing it come to life on the video before him was what blew him away. I guess that’s the appeal and magic of stop-motion. :)
Here’s a second test I animated for fun:
I read that it’s best to have the foot joints nice and tight to hold the weight of the puppet, and have the arms looser. It’s amazing how much weight those toe and foot ball-joints could hold for the falling poses:
