For aspiring photographers, photography contests are an interesting way to get some exposure. Though winning them is „slightly” tricky. Usually it is not quite clear by which standards the images will be judged.

Haje, member of a photo contest jury, took some time to explain in a lengthy articles which factors guide him during the judgement. He structures his advice for winning photography contests into seven points. These points are no revolutionary news, but they are useful thoughts which can’t be wrong to be recalled:

1. Stick to the topic
2. Know the rules - then break them
3. Keep it simple
4. Tell a powerful story
5. Technical perfection in pair with strong vision
6. The X factor
7. Develop your own style

» How to win photography competitions

By the Way

You should always take a good look at the contests in that you want to participate. Quite a lot contests have conditions of participation which are nothing more than pure exploitation.

For instance, never submit photos when the contest seizes all rights to them no matter whether you win or not.

Waterboarding is a torture technique which the USA have repeatedly been accused of using. It is widely accepted as being real torture, though some people still seem to doubt that. One forum poster called Scylla decided to debate this a bit more thoroughly and tested waterboarding on himself.

The resulting report is both exciting and creepy.

» I waterboard!

Scyllas conclusion:

It’s torture. No question. Terrible terrible torture. To experience it and understand it and then do it to another human being is to leave the realm of sanity and humanity forever. No question in my mind.

(This article is also available in German)

Peter Callesen, an artist from Denmark, works preferredly with paper. Some of his artworks are silhouette-like forms in whole paper sheets, others are three-dimensional paper sculptures.

One common theme of his works ist he reinterpretation of classic fairy tales as well as a general interest in memories connected to childhood.

The richness in detail alone is impressive. Even cooler are Peter Callesens’ experiments in merging two- and three-dimensional representation:

Most recently I have started making white paper cuts/sculptures inspired by fairytales and romanticism exploring the relationship between two and three dimensionality, between image and reality. I find the materialization of a flat piece of paper into a 3D form as an almost magic process - or maybe one could call it obvious magic, because the process is obvious and the figures still stick to their origin, without the possibility of escaping. In that sense there is also an aspect of something tragic in most of the cuts.

Besides his paper cuts, Peter Callesen also presents installations, performances and drawings at his website. The paper cuts are the unchallenged highlight, in my humble opinion.

» Peter Callesen

(via Wooster Collective)

Aquaria are usually known in the form of big cuboids. The Silverfish Aquarium belongs to the more exotic specimen.

» The Silverfish Aquarium

The large connected bowls look beautifully strange and futuristic. Commenters over at Boing Boing are worried, though, whether this aquarium could be a royal pain to clean. :) The manufacturer, Octopuss Studios, claims that it is no more difficult to clean than other aquaria.

A definite downside with the Silverfish Aquarium ist he price: 2300 Euro. :)

By the way, does anyone know why this aquarium is named like a rather unloved insectoid species?

Jennifer Maestre creates small sculptures with crayons, nails and other materials. According to her the spiky sculptures are inspired by sea urchins.

The spines of the urchin, so dangerous yet beautiful, serve as an explicit warning against contact. The alluring texture of the spines draws the touch in spite of the possible consequences.

I like how she transforms such ordinary things into artworks. Crayons or nails are probably not going to impress many people in everyday life. This seems to be one of their central approaches.

Quantities of industrially manufactured objects are used to create flexible forms reminiscent of the organic shapes of animals and nature.

» Jennifer Maestre
» » Crayon sculptures
» » nail sculpture
» Interview with Jennifer Maestre

(via Wooster Collective
via electro^plankton
via Neatorama)

(This article is also available in German)

Satanic messages in music are usually found in form of passages which, played in reverse (and with much fantasy), result in subversive texts.

A satanic message for advanced satanic followers discovered Alberto Garcia: The band Urusei Yatsura placed an acoustically coded computer program at the beginning of one of their songs. Decoded and run with a computer it writes a satanic message on the screen. :)

The technology is based on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, a home computer from 1981. It used ordinary audio cassettes as storage medium. The data was encoded in a surprisingly simple and robust way. Not much data fit on one tape and it took ages to load (about 5 minutes for 48 kilobytes), but the data survived a lot – like the usage at the beginning of a rock song.

So now at the beginning of the song “Thank you” by Urusei Yatsura, there is a small basic program which can still be executed today using a ZX emulator. It then writes the following message in black type on red background:

HAIL SATAN
Lick His Cloven Hoof

One could call this the computer geek version of satanic backwards messages. :)

Also nice is a comment which can be found inside the program:

What is sadder?
a. Finding this
b. Writing it

The original article has a larger picture and the program itself:

» Satanic messages in the computer era

(via Fefe)

(This article is also available in German)

Did you ever feel inferior to the almighty tentacle monsters of the world? Fortunately, you can now mail-order your very own tentacle arms for only 15 bucks each. :)

While we’ve been using our primitive, apelike arms like a bunch of jerks, the squids of the world have been clutching their prey with their superior tentacles and laughing at us. Until now! For the first time, you can have tentacles of your very own. Equipped with suction cups and plenty of creepy greenness.

Now that is a cheap bargain for an impressive evolutionary advatage. :)

» Tentacle Arm @ Gaia Online Store

(via Boing Boing)

More Tentacles

Tentacle chandeliers

(This article is also available in German)

On June 17, the Czech art group Ztohoven hacked into a weather channel showing panorama views. Into the peaceful panorama of a mountain view, they inserted a pretty realistic nuclear explosion:

Ztohoven see their hack as a comment on media credibility:

On the 17th of June 2007 this group attacked the space of TV broadcasting. It distorted it, questioned its truthfulness and its credibility. It drew attention to the possibility of using images of the world created by the media in place of the existing, real world.Is everything we see daily on our TV screens real? Is everything presented to us by the media, newspapers, television, Internet actually real? This is the concept our project would like to introduce and remind of.
(cited from the English translation of the Czech original statement)

Ztohoven got an award for their project by the National Gallery of Prague, together with a cash prize of about 12’000 Euros… and a lawsuit against them. They were charged with spreading false information. If they are convicted, they might face up to three years imprisonment.

I hope that Ztohoven get away without spending years in prison. The hack was kinda nasty, but also kinda cool. :) Unfortunately, I do not know many details about the aftermath of the staged nuclear explosion, but I do not think that anyone was harmed.

(via CNN via Boing Boing)

(This article is also available in German)

Deserted and slowly disintegrating buildings are always an interesting subject for photography (see also Urban Remains) . “Sweet Juniper” found an especially interesting ruin in Detroit: A decommissioned warehouse filled with rotting school books from the 80ies.

One can still see the remains of the shelves which once held the books. Now, only the iron stands are left and the books are scattered over the floor.

Seemingly, the books and the building fell victim to a fire in the upper floors ages ago. Everything which did not immediately burn was damaged by the fire fighter’s water beyond rescue. The whole building was given up.

» The photos at Flickr
» Accompanying article

(via Boing Boing)

(This article is also available in German)

I have finally got a new monitor! After sending back my Samsung SyncMaster 245b because it was too noisy, I now got a Samsung SyncMaster 226bw.

First of all a few facts:

Screen size: 22“
Connections: VGA and DVI
Speakers: No
USB-Hub: No
Resolution: 1.680 x 1.050

» read on!