and sub rosa reblog
Archive for April, 2009
Web Trend Map from iA
Posted on April 29th, 2009 • Filed under Uncategorized • No Comments
Image by formforce via Flickr
The Web Trend Map is a yearly publication by Information Architects Inc. (iA).
It maps the 333 leading Web domains and the 111 most influential Internet people onto the Tokyo Metro map.
Domains are carefully selected by the iA research team in Zürich and chosen through dialogue with map enthusiasts.
Each domain is evaluated based on traffic, revenue, age and the company that owns it.
The iA design team in Tokyo assigns these selected domains to individual stations on the Tokyo Metro map in ways that complement the characters of each.
For example, Twitter is located in Shibuya this year: Shibuya is the station with the biggest buzz.
Google is placed in the busiest, most highly trafficked train station in the world: Shinjuku.
The New York Times, the »Old Gray Lady«, is located in Sugamo—a shopping paradise for Tokyo’s grandmothers.
We grouped closely-associated websites and tried to make sure each individual domain is on a metro line that suits it, with close attention paid to the intersections.
As a result, the map produces a web of associations: some provocative, some curious, others satirically accurate.
Why Tokyo Metro? Because it works beautifully.
You can evaluate a domain based on its station’s height,width and position.
Height: A station’s height represents its domain’s success. »Success« refers not only to traffic, but also revenue and trend.
Width: A station’s width represents the stability of the company behind its domain. However, not every large corporation has a large building.
Unless its domain has proven itself as a significant online component, its station remains thin.
Position: A station’s location on a metro line indicates the group it belongs to.
A station‘s position on the map—whether inside the main line, on the main line, or outside the main line—indicates whether it is a part of the tech establishment, a traffic hub, or an online suburb.
Web Trend Map 4 by Information Architects Inc is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.1 Japan License.
LaidOffCamp
Posted on April 28th, 2009 • Filed under Uncategorized • No Comments
LaidOffCamp is a resource for anyone without a full-time job. In the past, LaidOffCamp was a collection of community organized events, but with the launch of this new site, they’re creating an online extension of what’s going on in different cities around the world.
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Big Ass Wasp
Posted on April 27th, 2009 • Filed under Uncategorized • No Comments
Image via Wikipedia
Oh my God! How did I not know about these giant frightening insects. More to the point. How did I go through childhood and not have some bully in the neighborhood terrify me with tales of finding the dread cicada killer! These things are huge.
Eastern cicada killer – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
SORRY WE’RE CLOSED
Posted on April 22nd, 2009 • Filed under Uncategorized • No Comments
- Image by mediarosa via Flickr
I came across this store window exhibit by Claire Fontaine. There’s an arts festival in Brussels starting next week, which has provided several occasions for me to see some of the preparation, but I especially liked this piece.
All images on the website are copyrighted by the gallery and the artist, so I went back to take a shot of the store front window myself. This is a good example of how being too protective over property forces inferior representations of the work. Creative Commons licensing makes sense for providing a level of control over the usage of images rather than just saying ” No unauthorized use may be made of the images“.
I’ve always wanted to create a service that would match artists and retail space owners. It would be great opportunity for promotion for both parties. Sorry Claire, I didn’t mean to reduce your wonderful work down to a capitalist opportunity. Here’s a little something about the work:
The sculpture exhibited in the window Untitled (flag dryer) composed of a modified industrial dryer and of several Belgian flags tackles the cycle and the stagnation as typical aspects of the rags of any national identity. The continuous drying of the flags is in the same time a bitter consideration about corruption and a comment on the Belgian habit of displaying the national flag outside apartment windows; this action is compared to the one of hanging out the washing, that even if not dirty, would be better far from the eyes of the passerby.
SORRY WE’RE CLOSED [Claire FONTAINE]
