The AT&T Hands Ad

Hard to believe that the painted hands in some of the ads run by AT&T are real, but the video shows you that they really did started as intricately painted human hands. Examples of the ads can be found here. You can find links on YouTube for other work by the actual artist, Guido Daniele. Great discussion starter for ideas about illusion, but also the idea of an ad campaign that is genuinely eye catching... say less, communicate more.

A 2,000 voice virtual choir

Eric Whitacre tells the story of his unexpected introduction to the world of music, then goes on to show how he worked with a "virtual choir" of internet friends to create a stunning piece of music. Even though this is art music students will be intrigued by the technology, the human stories behind the production, and the beautiful sounds. Check here for an earlier video with 185 voices. Ask students what makes this story so interesting. For me, it is because it was not a planned concept, but something that arose from a serendipidous event (someone univited posting sung parts to one of Eric's compositions). You can also ask the students what might have had to be done in production to make all these voices fit together, and also what role social media had in this process.

Ze Frank runs a website that invites visitors to play in all sorts of ways

Ze Frank tells a Ted Conference about his website where he devises all sorts of ways for visitors to playfully interract. For instance he asked people to try and make an "Earth Sandwich" by simultaneously laying two pieces of bread on opposite sides of the Earth, and of course post pictures and geo-tag information. There is a great deal of zany playfullness. His site is http://www.zefrank.com/ and there are literaly hundreds of areas to explore. However, his siteis not expressly made for schools, so explore first and go to links you have checked! Students can talk about the process of becoming a "web name"... what is a viral video? How can you earn a living from posting stuff free?

Siftables... toy blocks that are really computers

Imagine... childrens blocks that are actually each tiny computers, and each block is aware of the other blocks on the table. What could you do with that? This is a demo that is probably worth watching all the way through. It includes some adults doing demos, but also some children having fun. You can talk about the bigger issue of whether we actually WANT all our toys to be expensive computers, but also ask if students can imagine how this idea came about. Sometimes great new ideas arrive by pushing two quite disparate ideas together (wooden blocks, computer). What else could students come up with just with that starting point? I wonder if https://www.sifteo.com/ is selling the same object or some kind of copy? Can students work out the issues of moving this from prototype to sale?

Andrew Lack

Hans Rosling has multiple TED gigs... a rare honour in itself. This is a video of one of his earlier talks. He demonstrates a way to visually interrogate complex multi-dimensional statistics, with fascinating results. This video will not run full lenght in some classes, but will captivate the more intellecutally adventurous and capable. You can discuss the idea of "a picture tells a thousand tales", and also take students to visit http://www.gapminder.org/ where he provides the same wonderful graphing tools free, allready loaded with UN data. Gapminder can also be downloaded if you are having 'net issues. If you want to expand on the joys and traps of stats, I can strongly reccomend How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff.

Controlling a crowd of 3,000 via a pre-loaded mp3

Another stroke of genious from the group Improv Everywhere. In this event, over 3,000 people downloaded an mp3 track of music and instructions then everyone pressed "play" at an exact and specific time. This is well documented, including a public "Freeze", dance with an item in a shop, and a mass mumification in a park, with amazing results when the video sky shot is fast fowarded. You can talk with students about the idea of pranks and stunts that amuse and entertain without being destructive, and ask why people get involved. "Flash Crowds" is a broader term for one type of event. You can cross reference to the other video I have posted about a musical TED event.

A musical event takes a conference by surprise

In the grand tradition of Improv Everywhere the team set up an event that takes a TED conference by surprise. What is supposed to be an announcement about a new social media website actually turns into a fully scored musical comment on social media, with a cast of hundreds. This is fairly short so you might even play it, discuss it, then re-run it. The TED version is not available to share, but is available on the TED site here. The group Improv Everywhere has a website that is worth a look. However, in a school setting I would not trawl through this without checking first. They are never horrid but can be edgy or at least "adult".

Juggling to the complex timings and time changes of a Beatles medley

This video has never failed to captivate students... even those who don't "get" the Beatles. The music is the Beatle's own medley from the end of the Abbey Road album, including "Golden Slumbers" and "Carry that Weight". The point of using this is that there are a whole series of interesting rhythmical motifs and time signature changes, and the juggler throws and catches in perfect timing. Moreover, he uses different juggling patterns to reflect the intensity and emotions of the music. Students can reflect on the way one art work can be used within another (e.g. Starry Starry Night). They might also like to reflect on the skill that sees the artist catch the balls in time, given that he cannot control the balls once they leave his hand. You can also reflect on why particular performances rise above entertainment to have personal impact.

Hand made sculptures smaller than a pin head.

Willard Wigan creates incredibly small sculptures using dust, the hair pulled from a fly and minute shards. It is painstaking but breathtaking. Behind his work lies a story that he tells about inadequacy and rejection... now his sculptures sell for considerable sums. The whole video is easy to watch. There are YouTube versions that are shorter as well.

Beautiful and playful 3d Street Art

This video can be watched start to finish by any class. We watch (to a classical soundtrack) as artists first layout, then paint in the details of this street art. It is much larger than conventional street art, though like many 3D efforts really only works from one angle. My guess is that the camera feed we see (from the ideal angle) was on display on a large monitor. You can then see people posing and playing with the illusion. Possible areas of discussion: why people do things like this, how a 3D illusion works, the fact that only one camera viewpoint will actually work... you can cross reference to "tromp l'oeil" which is an art/architecture term for painting 3D realistic illusions on to walls and ceilings. This idea has been around for many centuries!

Theo Jansen's astonishing kinetic sculptures

Theo Jansen creates "creatures" out of simple materials. Amazingly, with no electronics and no computer, he designs creatures that are programmed to anchor in high winds, move away from the water and who can store energy. Everything about this work is intriguing, however the whole video is perhaps a little long for a general Year Nine class. Watch it all yourself, however, and encourage students to follow up. You can discuss the idea of evolving design, the idea of self sufficient "creature" sculptures, how you program behaviour without a computer, even the idea of using absolutely basic material like PET bottles and electricians conduit. The leg action, common to all his creatures, is remarkable in itself (some nice mathematics here as well).

Band of Brothers

 

Four brilliant Australian performers in full flight. The brothers Slava and Leonard Grigorian are guitarists (Slava probably counted as one of Australia's leading classical guitarists). They joined with the brothers Joseph and James Tawadros to create "The Band of Brothers". Joseph plays the Arabic ud, the instrument from which the Lute developed. James plays the Req, an Arabic percussion instrument. This video cuts between several songs or song sections. The material starts slowly but that is part of the design... it is rythmically strong and melodically appealing when it gets going. The ud, unlike the lute, has no frets... and see if you can catch a glimpse of the long pencil like pick that emerges from the back of Josephs hand in a few shots. This originally would have been a quill made from an eagle's feather... and perhaps still is! By the way, the "ud" is also spelled 'ud and oud. In Arabic "the ud" would be "al ud" and if you say this you can hear where the word "lute" came from.

The Theorbo

The Theorbo is a Renaissance instrument developed from the lute. The upper melodic strings terminate at the lute like headstock, but the lower strings are attached to a massively long neck extension. These lower strings are tuned to the scale of the composition and are not fretted. They are played as open strings. You can use this video either to examine a fascinating and even bizaare looking instrument, but also to compare it to a modern approach to the same design problem, the Chapman Stick. This video contains several pieces, so play one as an example. The setting is a baroque church, chosen in part for its acoustic properties.

The Amazing Chapman Stick

The inventor of the Chapman Stick explains his invention and discovery process. The Chapman Stick is derived from the guitar but is played only by tapping. Consequently he has added a second instrument on the same wide fretboard: a bass guitar, that can be played by the left hand while the right is playing melody and even chords on the guitar section.

In the class context show a YouTube video of an expert playing, then this video to explore the design and creativity aspects.