Portent

I really like this. Shove in a load of words and it will generate a word cloud- there are loads of parameters, fonts, colour schemes to try.

I used the text from all the previous stories on Portent though you need no more than 150. You can then decide whether to have them horizontal, vertical or a bit of both as well as other parameters and create a picture which you own. Excellent stuff.

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Popularity: 8% [?]

The image pictured is called a Filigram and was invented by programmer Simon Tatham. He was playing around with code trying to come up something vaguely fractal and came up with this.

There are several examples on the page and if you know which end of a C compiler you pour the code in, you can download the source code and try these out for yourself.
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Popularity: 14% [?]

The thing I like about art websites (which I loosely classify this as ), is that they are the visual equivalent of bakery shops. Instead of the freshly made bread smell, you get hit by a visual treat. I recognise my lack of artistic ability of course so my admiration for good design is almost if not quite boundless.

ColourLovers is a community type website with one simple aim. Submitting good colour palettes for others to share. There are rules on how colours work together; search for colour wheel on the web to see what I mean. But design goes further than that. Some colours are in or out each yet, and combinations can have associations with subjects. Well I find it fascinating anyway! If you like colour, you will I’m sure join the growing ranks of colour lovers.

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Popularity: 16% [?]

Now over 21 years old and still standing! This was erected in 1986 as a protest by American born Bill Heine who stayed in Oxford after his postgraduate degree at Balliol College. It’s 25 foot long and Bill successfully overcame the ire of local town planners to keep it up. You can read how on the linked site.

Bill is now a presenter for Radio Oxford. I think for this one act with the shark, never mind his cinema naming end-run around the planners (read that on the linked site as well) he should be made an honorary Englishman.
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Popularity: 16% [?]

I’ve seen this effect used recently in an advert in a newspaper or magazine so I expect to see it happen more over the next 12-18 months before it becomes a clche and advertising agencies look for something else new and fresh.

That said, it’s still pretty clever and must take a fair bit of time, tweaking and adjusting to get just the right shadow you want.
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Popularity: 22% [?]

Catherine Mulbrandon is an Economics graduate and Masters in Interaction Design who is into visualising data (her job is an interaction designer/information architect) and creates posters about aspects of the US economy, particularly income distribution as a hobby.

The segment shown is from one showing incomes levels for typical jobs from the year 2000. Depressingly, I realise that my salary then was exactly what she shows for the average income (and Computer Programmers, which is what I am!). If you like her posters- which have a clean open look to them, you can buy them online at cafepress.

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Popularity: 19% [?]

I have no idea what this is about but it’s colourful if rather badly wrong!

It’s just a map of the USA, seemingly as the Japanese (well those who can’t read an Atlas or view Google Maps) perceive the USA.

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Popularity: 38% [?]

Well there are high-brow websites and cultural ones but then you get something a little less intellectual like this one. The title may be a clue: statue molesters.

It’s a fairly easy concept to explain. Take a statue- the ruder or sillier the better, have somebody pose near it, maybe holding their hands or posture in a rude or naughty way. Take a photo… The gallery screen shot gives you a clue… there are a lot of pages of photos…

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Popularity: 14% [?]

This is a bit early for Halloween and I’m not the world’s best virtual carver of pumpkins(don’t think it’ll get me featured in the Museum of Bad Art though!) but it’s a fun toy.

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Popularity: 12% [?]

You have got to love anywhere that says “Come visit the “real” MOBA in the basement of the Dedham Community Theatre, conveniently located just outside the men’s room. The nearby flushing helps maintain a uniform humidity.”

This is a real museum located in Dedham, Massachusetts, as well as the website. The examples shown on the site exemplify that the art shown here is not very good. It’s a community-based, private institution dedicated to the collection, preservation, exhibition, and celebration of bad art in all its forms and in all its glory. The museum was founded in the fall of 1993 and presented its first show in March 1994. You can even buy greetings card featuring some of the Moba art work from the Massachusetts Bay Trading Company. That’s tempting!

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Popularity: 11% [?]

(Taken from Wikipedia)Yann Arthus-Bertrand (born March 13, 1946) is a renowned and internationally-recognised French photographer. He originally specialised in animal photography, but later turned to aerial photography of subjects in many locations across the world. He has produced over 60 books of his landscape photographs taken from helicopters and balloons. Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s work has often been published in the National Geographic magazine.

As you’d imagine, with that kind of background, the website has some stunning photography. There are three parts- the earth from above, the French people and animals. Since he started “the earth from above” project, he and his team have taken over half a million photos and put a selection on here. The website itself runs in Flash and is very nicely done.

You’ll also find more photos of his here on the yannarthusbetrand.com website.

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Popularity: 13% [?]

Something a little different. You are shown image after image and have to rate them for life likeness, on a scale of 0 to 10 where 10 is most like a face like and 0 isn’t anything like a face.

I suspect this is some variation of a genetic algorithm. This is a way of trying to solve a problem that doesn’t lend itself to normal computation by using a process akin to genetic selection. Interesting.

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Popularity: 13% [?]

This site is apparently 27,282.45 cm long (except it’s stretched vertically not width wise). I’ve snipped three pages into one to give you an idea of what it looks like. It takes a while to download and then scroll down.

Like Mr Wong’s Soup apartments I imagine it must be a very expensive site for all the graphics that are downloaded. That’s the price of art!

Anyone can upload a section and add a link to themselves free. It has to be 300 pixels width, 700 pixels height at a resolution of 72 dpi and the the visual must be your inspiration, with a file size maximum 75 K.

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Popularity: 10% [?]

Some of these statues are very strange indeed. Some aren’t exactly statues- like the Mini parked up the wall but they are all all a bit odd.

The rhino hanging in mid air is my favourite, followed closely by the women swinging the kid.

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Popularity: 47% [?]

The image above is in two halfs- the Starry night image on the left which is made up of 210,000 tiny photos. You can see a 3 x 3 zoom right in on the right.

The full image is 1.5 Billion pixels (Ie GigaPixel). On the linked site you can zoom in or out to your hearts content. A fabulous piece of work- both the original, and this Flash viewable GigaPixel image.

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Popularity: 8% [?]