Hey everyone! Friday’s here, and the internet is still a thing that exists, so I hope you’re up for another collection of wonderful things!
No more preamble. Let’s do this.
Ducks
Back in 2008, three years before the Little Buffalo oil spill in Alberta, webcomic artist Kate Beaton had a job at a nearby mining site in Fort McMurray. Ducks is a five-part comic series by Beaton illustrating what she witnessed, from both the environmental and ecological damage of the location to the complicated human element surrounding it. It’s a sombre and honest look into our impact on the environment and how human beings deal with having their hand in it. Do yourself a favour and read all five parts, because Beaton tells her story and her sense of ambivalence masterfully.
para l l el
Remember watching the first ten minutes of 28 Days Later and thinking of how awesome it was? No, I’m not talking about Cillian Murphy’s junk. I’m talking about the sight of London as a ghost city: empty, mute and dead.
I absolutely love eerie pictures of a civilization devoid of its architects, and I’m sure I’m not alone. para l l el provides a large focus on that aesthetic, projecting different concurrent, alternate universes in select locations across the world: one with people, one without; one changed, one unchanged. But there’s more to it than that. What if people weren’t only gone, but the architecture itself were different? What if it were missing? The short film hops across parallel worlds and displays alternatives to the one we live in. Just make sure you watch it in full screen with the sound turned up for the best experience!
para l l el -short film- from Claire&Max on Vimeo.
Common Room
Similar to Yellow Sticky Notes from last week’s Friday Roundup, Common Room is a collaborative project consisting of the work of a handful of animators. This time, however, each animator provides his or her contribution to a spoken-word poem by Talia Randall. Also similar to YSN, it’s awesome. Check it out!
Common Room from Common Room Animation Project on Vimeo.
I’m kind of floored by the existence of this, and I really hope we can continue to use the internet to provide more engaging experiences like Night Walk. What is it? It’s an expansion of Google Maps’ API to provide an interactive and lively tour through the colourful Cours Julien neighbourhood in Marseille, France. You follow a woman named Julie through the neighbourhood and are provided by commentary and history from an unseen tour guide. You can stay on the path and hear facts and anecdotes from the guide, or go off track and explore on your own. Even better, videos, ambient sound and other surprises are used to make the experience seem all the more real and immersive.
If you haven’t yet backpacked through France, this is one way you can do it today. Have fun, and bring back a postcard when I see you here next Friday!