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Food as Art: Bento

While I may be all about everything Sci-Fi and Otaku, I am wearing one of these human bodies and do have to fuel it like everyone else. But there is no reason that shouldn’t be fun, creative, and sometimes silly, and for that I find Bento and Sushi are the best ways to go. The first example here is the simplest I could find that totally gets the concept across; how to use those tiny sausages to make cute stuff for your bento box, including octopi. The second gives you a simple way to create Panda Themed Rice Balls, and when combined with the first video gives you a great introduction to bento box basics. The third looks at the use of egg molds to add that kaiwaii touch to lunch. The fourth is an example of creating a cute bear from fish patties and other stuff, although since I don’t like fish I make mine from potato pancake fixings.

The fifth is rather more ambitious; making a Sushi Panda Roll. Please note that even though the execution of this last entry takes a lot more time to get right, all of these are ways to bring a bit of extra enjoyment and entertainment to a meal. There are tons more ways to create good bento, and the overall balance of the box isn’t even mentioned here, but once you start down this path you will want to share your lunches just to watch others reactions to your creations. If you have kids this is also a great way to get Parent of the Year nominations from their friends, as they gain all kinds of recognition on the school grounds. The final video is just to give you a hint of what is possible, and inspire you to create your own; there are no limits! And for those worried about non edible items in a lunch, I promise food coloring on rice paper is both edible and non-toxic.

Building Animations

Building Animation
Building Animation

Creating animations using buildings as your canvas… I had to say it right up front, because no matter how I worded the title of this post, it never actually meant what it really is, even though it may have accurately said it. As a person who created his very first animations by drawing pictures in the upper right corner of every fourth grade textbook page I was forced to use, and then flipped through them to see them actually move, these artists have my respect. They do a complete base painting on some large real world object, such as a building or vehicle, and take a picture. Then they change one or more parts of the painting, and take a picture. Then they change something else, and take a picture. Hundreds or sometimes thousands of pictures later, they have a video which can then be save as an animated GIF. When your canvas might be 30 foot tall by 50 foot wide or greater, this can turn into a time consuming process, to say the least. Even so, some amazing work has been done in this field, and more is being created every month. The original article telling us about this is courtesy of the Huffington Post, as many of the more unusual projects are.

Cross Stitched Geek: Ohm Sweet Ohm

Ohm Sweet Ohm
Ohm Sweet Ohm

Becky Stern bills herself as a DIY Guru and head of wearable electronics at Adafruit Industries, itself a company founded by a former MIT student known as Lady Ada. I got one of those ear to ear grins when I saw this one, and as I know some geeks that do cross stitching, I had to post this for them. If you would like to create one of these for your own, you can download the instructions in PDF format and check out their instructions page for additional background and support. Of course, you can also pick up the kit if you don’t already have the materials available. Thanks to Laughing Squid for the heads up on this one.

Geek Girls: Furby Modding

This example of Furby Modding was put together by Julie Watai, a woman who isn’t afraid to pick up a soldering iron and commit surgery on small innocent cute creatures. Even when reprogramming them means skinning them first, with the possibility of damaging the hide to the point where reskinning might be problematic. This particular version includes English subtitles to make it easier to follow along, and for more fun projects see the Hardware Girls segment of her site. And then, just because it was there, a bit of animation she was involved with.

Kickstarter Projects

Kickstarter is a way to mobfund projects that might not otherwise ever get made, a social media variation of the good old Begathon that public radio and TV go through all the time. In it’s simplest terms, if there is a project you think should be done, you can vote with your wallet, offering as much or as little as you think it deserves within the limits of your own budget. Some of the projects entered are just silly, and some of them will be world changing if they get the correct backing. As usual, most are somewhere in between, offering an interesting result if enough people are willing to contribute.

Since nothing of value ever happens in a vacuum, many of these projects have rewards, with different returns for different levels of monetary commitment. The fail-safe here is that you can only achieve these rewards if the project actually gets fully funded and goes forward. If a project does not get fully funded, it does not go forward, you do not get billed for your contribution, and there are no rewards to share in. To date there are something like 20,000 projects that have been funded and created, with many more failing the test of support.

Yes, all of that was just the intro, and most of it you probably already knew even though it will be new to some of those reading here. I made the preliminary comments to give you the background, because there are some projects I think will be worth your time to consider, and today I have two of them for you to think about.

The one that could be a real game changer, or at least a first class creators tool, is in fact a game creation toolset called Storybricks. If they are allowed to bring this into the world, you could find yourself in possession of software that could potentially allow you to create your own online interactive RPG environment on a par with anything Steve Meretzky ever cranked out, at least in terms of game logic and environmental consistency. Assembling a game that was interesting enough to draw an audience would still be all up to you, of course. I have already contributed to this project, because I would love to have this toy to play with.

A different kind of Kickstarter project is Project: 13, an animated music video attempt where the music will drive the animation, 3 songs done as 3 music videos. The desired result being a video, the appeal for funding is also a video since that is what the creators understand, as you can see below. There are thousands of additional projects all hoping for funding over at Kickstarter; check them out, find the ones you want to support, and pass the word along. This kind of crowd sourcing is how we help create the future we want to live in, and support the people and groups who are trying to make that future happen in the way we want to see it come down.