Matthew Reinhart's Blog, page 17

Listen Up: Radiohead's 'House of Cards'

Radiohead is usually ahead of the times in their music and also music videos.  Their 'House of Cards' video was done completely with scanners and lasers!  They used "Geometric Informatics scanning systems produce structured light to capture 3D images at close proximity, while a Velodyne Lidar system that uses multiple lasers is used to capture environments such as landscapes.  In this video, 64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius 900 times per minute produced all the exterior scenes."  Phew!  What a mouthful.

I'm not going to pretend to understand exactly how this video was produced, but I understand that the lasers and scanners took the data it collected and produced the 3D images we see in the video.  The other really interesting part of the process was that on set they used a sheet of plexi glass with little pieces of mirrors on it that was put in front of Thom Yorke while 'scanning' him.  This was to make the image break up and become irregular, which you'll see in the video.

Here's the 'House of Cards' video:



And you can check out more about how they made the music video here:

Word of the Day: Amanuensis

Amanuensis \uh-man-yoo-EN-sis\ noun

1.  A person employed to take dictation or to copy manuscripts.

Origin: Amanuensis comes from Latin, from the phrase (servus) a manu, "a slave with handwriting duties," from a, ab, "by" + manu, from manus, "hand".

Vintage Movable Review: Black Cat, White Cat

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Today we are looking at a pop-up book of opposites. Black Cat, White Cat was created by Chuck Murphy in 1998. (It should not be confused with the excellent Yugoslavian adult comedy that came out the same year.) This smaller format, five spread book was published by Simon & Schuster as a follow up to his successful series that includes One to Ten and Color Surprises. Chuck Murphy is one of most solid paper engineers ever to lay scissors to paper and his work is among the first I turned to when I was teaching myself about pop-ups. He has a very easy and distinctive style, with high contrast graphics that compliment the rhyming text. I always get the feeling that his books are all very well thought out with careful attention paid to his children audience. You can read more about Chuck's ideas from an older interview with Robert Sabuda and learn about his background from a short biography found at Random House.

I'll leave you with a short video of the finale in this book. Still pictures just would not suffice. Enjoy!

~Kyle

Word of the Day: Precipice

Precipice \PRES-uh-pis\ noun

1.  A very steep, perpendicular, or overhanging place; a cliff.
2.  The brink of a hazardous situation.

Origin: Precipice comes from Latin praecipitium "a precipice," from praeceps, praecipit-, "with head before, headlong, steep," from prae, "before" + caput "the head".

We're Having a Giveaway!

This month to celebrate the release of our newest book Encyclopedia Mythologica: Monsters & Dragons, we are having a giveaway contest! One lucky reader can win a personalized copy of a Limited Edition Encyclopedia Mythologica: Monsters & Dragons! The Limited Edition Encyclopedia Mythologica: Monsters & Dragons is a cloth bound pop-up book that has a special pop-up in the cover and has a cloth-covered, foil-printed slipcase.

Enter to win by commenting on this post and leaving both your name and e-mail address. Anyone anywhere in the world can win! We will choose a winner at random on June 15th. Our studio will contact the winner via e-mail to confirm the personalization of the book and mailing address. Good luck!

Word of the Day: Pogonip

Pogonip \POG-uh-nip\ noun

1. An ice fog that forms in the mountain valleys of the western United States.

Orign:  Pogonip originates as a word of the Shoshone people, paγɨnappɨh, "thunder-fog".

History Lesson: Captain Blood

On May 9, 1671, Thomas Blood, who was an Irish adventurer better known as "Captain Blood," was captured for attempting to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.

He had disguised himself as a priest and managed to get up to the Jewel House and past the keeper.  The keeper's son showed up unexpected and was able to sound an alarm about the robbery.  King Charles was so dazzled with Blood's audacity to steal the Crown Jewels that he made him a member of his court instead of punishing him.

Artist Watch: Luisa Canovi

I had the pleasure of meeting Luisa Canovi at the beginning of last year and was lucky enough to work along side her in an internship at her studio.  She's an incredible artist specializing in origami, suminagashi (whirled patterns that are produced on paper when ink is floated on the surface of water, very much like marbling paper), mobiles, oriental binding, and many other arts related to paper.  She introduced me to the magic of paper, teaching me the secrets and the beauties of this material.  Check out more about her incredible paper sculptures and her other works here:

http://www.origami-do.it

~Gio

Weekly Beast: Nomura's Jellyfish

Nomura's Jellyfish (Nemopilema nomurai) is a very large jellyfish that was discovered to be a new species in 1921.  The average diameter of a Nomura's Jellyfish is 6.6 feet and they weigh up to 440 pounds!  They primarily live in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea.  Though because of global warming these jellyfish (well, most jellyfish in general) are starting to inhabit more of the ocean, including the North Seas, Mediterranean, and Chesapeake bays.

Word of the Day: Autoschediastical

Autoschediastical \aw-toh-SKEE-dee-az-tik-uhl\ adjective

1.  Something improvised or extemporized (to do or manage something in a makeshift way).

Origin: Autoschediastical enters English from the Greek by way of the German autoschediázien, "to extemporize."