Concept for an art exhibit called “Doublegänger”

1. Take a series of photographs of identical twins/people confronting mirrors
2. Print these large-format and hang them in a very large room
3. On the day of the art show, prepare a back room with a large number of volunteers and a huge wardrobe
4. As visitors come into the room, watch on a hidden camera
5. Find a volunteer who resembles each guest, and have them dress as similarly to them as possible from the wardrobe
6. Send the volunteers out to mingle near the visitors, but never to speak with them or make eye contact
7. The goal is to have each visitor matched with a volunteer, effectively doubling the crowd in an eerie, real-time way
8. As each guest leaves, offer them a souvenir photo of “themselves” — actually a photo of their matched volunteer, staring directly into the camera with wide eyes and a blank expression

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Sketch Swap is like DrawSomething, but without the crazy fad action

Stumbled upon Sketch Swap today, which is an unapologetic website where you use your mouse to doodle, hit a button, and get back someone else’s doodle. There’s no competition, no strategy… it’s just drawing with a stranger. It’s actually pretty great, in its simplicity.

Here’s the second drawing I did (the first was a pretty lamentable face):

And here’s what I got back:

It doesn’t sound like it has much of a point, but give it a shot. I think you’ll like it!

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50×50 pixel platform game: Gunbrick, by Nitrome

Okay, this is impressive. Longtime favorite retro Flash game site Nitrome (pronounced NIGHT-rome) has released a game that confused me at first, but now has me profoundly impressed. Gunbrick looks like an tile icon that will take you to the page of their latest high-quality, free flash game — have I mentioned that I like this site? — but when you click on it, you’re confronted with a “Play” icon. Clicking that will begin the world’s tiniest platform game… right there within the 50×50 pixel icon tile.

As you’d expect, story is nil: you’re a brick, you shoot lasers, you get through the level, what do you want for a re-invention of mini-gaming? Take a minute to go to their site and check it out. If you want, you can even expand the game to a larger window, but that really doesn’t enhance the experience.

I love the creativity that goes into something like this. There’s nothing like a little “why do we have to have it bigger than a tile” -type thinking to make you feel a better about the internet, just a little bit. Maybe fifty pixels’ worth.

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Art in the Wild: Trust and Doubt benches by Linda Hesh

This week on “Art in the Wild,” (just kidding, I wish this were a weekly feature … hmm, maybe I should look into that) I spotted this pair of benches on my daily commute. First of all, it was cool to see something like this, totally without context, just sitting there yelling for attention.

After a little bit of digging, though, I found out what it was all about — namely, a public interactive art installation by DC area artist Linda Hesh. (Unfortunately, these were behind a gate, so the “interactive” part was limited. Still cool, though.)

Not every day you stumble across art hanging out in public staring you in the face. Not that you recognize as such, anyway.

Nifty.

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Mindomo

I live by mindmaps … and Mindomo is the best free online software for it I’ve found, by far.

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