one small seed » instagram | one small seed

Homophobia, sexism, greed & #instant oral: the dark truth about modern society.

one small seed — Mon, 15 Dec 2014 06:51:21 +0000

Make sure you do a double–take when you look at the illustrations by Spanish artist Luis Quiles (aka Gunsmithcat). There is a dark and shocking truth hidden behind the cartoonlike, and brightly coloured illustrations.

The messages are unapologetic and unsettling, putting modern society in the limelight for all to see! The animated characters depict scenarios that we see and feel in everyday life, including issues like homophobia, sexism, censorship, corporate greed and even child abuse.

What are your thoughts? Shocking, or just pretty pictures? Comment below…

Diesel | The A-Z of Dancing

one small seed — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 13:21:37 +0000

Diesel‘s new ad, featuring well-known dancers showing us the world’s fav moves in alphabetical order, has made its rounds on the net since it was first published on 11 April. This is probably due to the coolheaded but catchy ‘Wut’ by rapper Leif and the uber-cool boogying accompanying it, but also because — from rhumba to twerking and pole dancing — there’s a move in there for everybody. It’s a thrill to watch and it makes the naive dreamer in us think, ‘If only I had the chance and possibly one of those jogg jeans, I could totally bust one of those A to Z moves against the beautiful LA skyline.’ And yes, you heard right, Diesel actually wants you to do this when they say ‘We are now inviting fans across the globe to dance their way into a one-of-a-kind follow up film — upload your moves to Instagram, Vine etc using the hashtags #joggjeans and #iDdance.’ Have fun!

Image: www.facebook.com

Image: www.fashion-insider.de

Image: www.fastcocreate.com

250gram Competition | Winners

one small seed — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 10:35:18 +0000

250gram is a new tech start-up that allows you to print your favourite selection of Instagrams on polaroid-styled paper. Two weeks ago, one small seed collaborated with 250gram to create an exciting competition where we called for all savvy Instagrammers to capture cool things or fun moments and share them with us.

Image: 250gram.com

Thank you to everyone for your entries – we have had an amazing response! Here are our lucky winners, winning one of five 250gram vouchers, each for 20 Instagram prints valued at R115! Congratulations Chanel, Carryn, Este, Juan and Deni!

COMPETITION: 250gram | Worth its Weight in Instagrams

one small seed — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 07:16:26 +0000

250gram is a new tech start-up that allows you to print your favourite selection of Instagrams on polaroid-styled paper. Named after the 250gsm high quality paper they use to print on, the idea has been readily welcomed by the city’s Instagramming community. If you’re a savvy Instagrammer with a good eye for capturing cool things or fun moments, read on to find out how to win one of five vouchers for 20 Instagram prints from 250gram.

Image: mrcapetown.co.za

Gradually over the last decade, the world happily began accepting digital cameras over the classic 35 mm film. Our family albums halted progression, forever stuck at the awkward years and abandoned to gather dust on some obscure shelf back at home. As with the swift replacement of floppy disks and projector slides with CDs and USBs, so it seems that social media has sneakily over-ridden the need for printing photographs. Undeniably, snap-happy smartphone users are ushering in an entirely new era of photography – so much so that in 2013, ‘selfie’ was made the official Oxford dictionary’s word-of-the-year. Now all you need to do is upload an image on your favourite social platform and wait to see how many ‘likes’ you will get. It’s much more about marketing yourself and much less about selecting memories.

So is the printed photograph passé? Well, not necessarily. Print is timeless – there will always be people who prefer paper over pixel. Perhaps realising this, in January 2014, a team of creatives may well have set out on the first step to bring print back into popular use. Hello, 250gram.

This Cape Town-based tech start-up lets you print your favourite Instagrams on polaroid-styled paper. When you consider that there are currently 150 million active users on Instagram — 680 000 of which are found in South Africa — that’s a fair starting target market. 250gram works as follows — you log in on their website using your Instagram account details. From there, you choose the photos you want printed and then have them couriered to your door in fun packaging. Fittingly, the high-quality prints come in a Polaroid format, which hark back to the +VSCO Cam/ Afterlight favoured filters that have made Instagram so popular. At R4 a shot (with a minimum of 20 prints) and a courier fee of R35, 250gram is selling an upmarket product in a quirky and relatively accessible way. Elementary my dear boy, but brilliant.

The company’s success probably stems from the fact that the concept has been done so right. Following closely in the digital footsteps of companies such as Yuppiechef, 250gram has prioritised a strong online presence and an engaging customer service. Cleverly, 250gram have also spotted the desire for social photography and instant printing, offering their second service called #SocialPrinting, specifically aimed at catering to brands and companies. Yup, ‘hashtag location-based printing’ is a thing now. While the risk of a tech start-up like this is that it may be short-lived — Instagram could lose millions of users just like Facebook has in recent years — the truth is that 250gram is feeding into a need that has arisen in the social media era: reality.

Check them out at here.

Words by Gosia Podgórska
Images sourced: mrcapetown.co.za, durbanzone.co.za, instagram.com/250gram_

Image: durbanzone.co.za

COMPETITION

To win one of five 250gram vouchers, each for 20 Instagram prints valued at R115, follow these easy steps:

1) Take an Instagram of something you think’s worth sharing. The theme is completely open, so be creative. But be warned — avoid selfies!

2) Join the one small seed Facebook group and follow @250gram_ on Instagram.

3) Submit your favourite Instagrams via the one small seed Facebook group and make sure to include the competition hashtag #OSSx250gram in your post.

IMPORTANT

Your entry image has to be a new Instagram taken & uploaded specifically for the competition. Old Instagrams won’t be accepted.

Need inspiration? Check out some Instagrams from the awesome 250gram gallery for ideas:

#FYI: Tweet-powered cars and other cool shit…

one small seed — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 12:48:41 +0000

At one small seed we believe in the power of unique ideas and novel concepts. Ranging from technology, design, art and music, we’ve compiled a collection of crazy, fascinating, funny and bizarre findings that we think would be of interest to you. Here are some of our favourite finds this past week. Stay tuned for weekly material…

MindDrive Social Car

Image: lostateminor.com

Fueled by tweets and likes, MindDrive is the world’s first social media powered electric car. The vehicle was created by a group of fifteen Kansas students who converted the vintage 1967 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia into an electric car that is jolted into life with every tweet, like and social media share. MindDrive is a non-profit organisation that aims to encourage experimental learning through recruiting students to take on innovative projects. We’re still a little fuzzy about exactly how social media activities are transformed into watts to drive the car, but the vehicle seems to be working. Nevertheless if you ever find yourself behind the wheel of a MindDrive, it might be helpful to have some electrical tools on hand in case the car comes to a halt.

Audiowood Barky Turntable

Image: audiowood.com

Turntables are often black and boxy, lending them an air of design predictability. Audiowood has challenged this notion with the Barky turntable. The music device is made from glass and a solid ash wooden platform with brass fitted to the spiked feet at the bottom of the machine. With a rustic feel, the vinyl player can easily be adapted to any home. The elegant contraption also features a high-quality Rega parts kit and comes in 115V or 230V versions. Audiowood creates 10 to 15 of these pieces every year, making Barky an exclusive purchase.

Projecto: Projector for Instagram Photos

Image: mocoloco.com

Instagram has cultivated an era of ‘selfies’ and the return of vintage, retro inspired photography. While users can tap into Instagram’s filters to edit their images into aged photographs, many people view their creations through the modern technology of cellphones, Facebook, Twitter, tablet devices, and so on. Projecto brings the retro feel to life. The nifty device is a matchbox-sized projector that projects your Instagram images. Connect your Instagram account to the Projecto website, and the Projecto whizzes will develop your photographs onto a 35mm film. The film will then be passed through a wheel that fits into the tiny projector. Both the projector and the film will be mailed to you, so you an share your images in a retro environment.

MINI Bathroom Airbags

autoguide.com

MINI Mexico has targeted women drivers in an ad campaign that warns the fairer sex of the dangers of applying makeup while driving. The automotive company began their awareness project by placing large airbags inside female restrooms in Mexico. Soap dispensers were rigged to carry the airbags, and when women stood next to them, the dispensers would burst open into an airbag, alarming the women. The airbags were printed with the MINI logo and a caption that read: ‘There’s a place for everything. Makeup or drive’. According to the company’s statistics, over 1 200 women are killed each year as a result of the way in which they multitask driving and beautifying. While the initiative draws attention to an undermined source of road accidents, many women have voiced concern over MINI’s gender-based approach in the making of the ad.

BOXED furniture

Boxed from Tyrone Stoddart on Vimeo.

Image: designtaxi.com

People live their lives on the move, and there is nothing more handy than being able to whip out a work station when the need arises. BOXED is a concept developed by Tyler Stoddard. The designer created a briefcase that can be transformed into multifunctional furniture. From one little box case, four different types of furniture can be created. The wooden briefcase can easily form a desk, a coffee table, two stools, and a lamp, providing the perfect workspace utilities. Each piece can then be disassembled and fit back neatly into the briefcase. BOXED also comes with a small pouch of ash tree seeds so that its new owner can replant and replenish the materials used to make the furniture. The project is designed to provide functional furniture and to educate people about the ash dieback — a disease that has been killing ash trees.

Caramalised Sugar Solarium Greenhouse

William Lamson – Solarium from Storm King Art Center on Vimeo.

Image: thisiscolossal.com

Solarium is a fully operational greenhouse featuring 162 windows made from caramalised sugar. Designer Wiliam Lamson built the colourful construction at the Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, New York. The space functions as both an experimental greenhouse and a meditative environment. Lamson spent weeks formulating a method to construct the windows, finally ensuring that each of the 162 sugar panels are cooked to different temperatures and then sealed between two panes of window glass. Durng the hot summer months one of the panels opens, allowing vistors to enter and exit from various points.

W/Me Wellness Tracker

Image: kickstarter.com

Mood rings were one of the rages of the 90s, entrancing wearers to believe that colour-changing rings could reflect their mood. While the rings had little scientific value or accuracy, Phyode has created a wristband that reads the mood of its owner. The W/Me bracelet is embedded with medical-grade sensors that work together with smartphones to keep people aware of their mental and physical states. Wearable gadgets are becoming increasingly popular as fashion becomes more tech-savvy and tech becomes more fashionable. Phyode aim to create wearable devices that can provide a better quality of life. W/Me is a wellness tracker that can monitor your body’s autonomic nervous system, which acts as a subconscious control system for your body. The device then uses this physical data to categorise your mood as either passive, excitable, pessimistic or anxious.

Images: lostateminor.com, audiowood.com,designtaxi.com, autoguide.com, mocoloco.com, thisiscolossal.com, kickstarter.com

Fleesboek: Facebook’s Deleted Photo Album

one small seed — Wed, 29 May 2013 07:29:32 +0000

The Internet and social media have created a photographic world in which people constantly express and narrate themselves through visual imagery. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr are just a few platforms on which people can post and share information, likes, hobbies, and interests in order to connect with like-minded revelers. Many credit the Internet with a utopian quality that accepts all, but microblogs like Fleesboek demonstrate discrepancies and deletions that are steering social media to a more exclusive rather than inclusive direction.

Image: ©Jindrich Richter, Fleesboek

The First Principle of Facebook states that:

People should have the freedom to share whatever information they want, in any medium and any format… as long as they both consent to the connection

Despite this democratic disposition, Facebook still has veto power over all the content its users post, and thus has the resources to delete or remove any content. 250 million photos are uploaded to Facebook everyday by over a billion culturally diverse people. Unfortunately, if your content doesn’t sync with Facebook’s approval, you may be asked to remove your photos. Enter Fleesboek, a simple but visually striking Tumblr account that provides a home for all the images Facebook didn’t like.

Image: ©Ruslan Lobanov, Fleesboek

The site contains an array of photos ranging from nude shots, landscape photography, and black and white poses. An image captured by Hunter S. Thompson shows a nude woman turned away from the camera, enjoying a view. A more explicit visual, snapped by Stephan Wurth, juxtaposes a fully-clothed girl alongside a naked girl with a bow-tie collar around her neck. The Internet is often considered to be a space of free association, but with the onslaught of commercialisation, these spaces are becoming increasingly restricted. In April last year, Facebook paid 1 billion dollars to acquire the rights of Instagram – a social media tool that narrates the daily lives of ordinary people in snap shots. Visual elements are vital modes of expression in the digital society, yet independent blogs like Fleesboek highlight social media’s tendency to become less socially inclusive. So if your next upload is too much for Facebook or Instagram, you might consider getting your photos out there through alternative less ‘popular’ but maybe more upfront channels.

Image: ©Hunter S. Thompson, Feesboek

Image: ©Stephan Wurth, Fleesboek

Image: ©Andrey Yakovlev & Lili Aleeva, Fleesboek

Image: Fleesboek

image: via roykahmann.tumblr.com

Image: ©Rankin, Fleesboek

Image: ©Helmut Newton, Fleesboek

Images: fleesboek.tumblr.com, roykahmann.tumblr.com

#FEED: Exploring the Physical World Through Online Instruments

one small seed — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:48:10 +0000

Curated by Justin Bolognino and his dynamic online endeavours Learned Evolution and The Meta Agency, #FEED is a concept powered by Twitter that uses the digital environment to celebrate the physical world. It worked as both an event and a tool that narrated the 5-day story of the SXSW 2013 festival. As an event, #FEED organized a variety of interactive experiences to capture the spirit of SXSW: from music to social media art to wellness and night-life adventures, the innovative platform successfully used the online world to create a new view of the physical world.

The videos document #FEED’s creative approach to ‘generating synchronicity’ and ‘facilitate hidden connections’. Social media art may seem like a foreign notion that inspires skepticism, but #FEED has made social media art a community experience through physical installations that use online features. One piece saw #FEED use the SXSW Twitter hashtag to pick Instagram photos from the Twitter stream and create an inventive Instagram wall featuring hundreds of SXSW revelers and artists. Other media art allowed people to move photos with their bodies, and tweet into installations to change their narrative. Musically #FEED used apps like ‘Pulse’ – which senses people’s emotions through their pulse rate and chooses tunes to match these emotions – to show people how digital designs can affect their physical experiences. Wellness saw #FEED helping people to care for their bodies through rooftop yoga sessions, cycling and bootcamp in an effort to emphasise fun, healthy and social living.

In each of these experiences #FEED used social media to help people collaborate and build communities in the physical world. #FEED was a feature that brought SXSW to life, and if the concept successfully becomes global, it will help bridge the gap between online and physical dimensions to form new relationships and encounters.

#FEED powered by Twitter: Day 1 – “Generating Synchronicity” from #FEED powered by Twitter on Vimeo.

#FEED powered by Twitter: Day 2 – “Social Media Art” from #FEED powered by Twitter on Vimeo.

#FEED powered by Twitter: Day 3 – “Music” from #FEED powered by Twitter on Vimeo.

#FEED powered by Twitter: Day 4 – “Wellness” from #FEED powered by Twitter on Vimeo.

#FEED powered by Twitter: Day 5 – “Conclusion” from #FEED powered by Twitter on Vimeo.

Words: Ra’eesa Pather

#FYI: Skate guitars and other cool shit…

one small seed — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 08:24:26 +0000

Robot LEGO band

Image: gizmag.com

LEGO is a long established toy favourite among kids, but the little plastic bricks may have a future in the music industry. Italian music producer Giuseppe Acito has created a toy army of band members made up of several tiny robotic LEGO figures programmed to play a variety of instruments. They call themselves the ‘Toa Mata Band’ and they are created from LEGO Bionicle pieces that are infused with rubber bands and pulleys. Arduino Uno and a MIDI sequencer control their arm movement so the bots play the instrument in front of them when nudged. The talented LEGO band can perform a pre-programmed song or play live with a human operator adding commands to the MIDI sequence in real-time. Acito has successfully tested Toa Mata Band’s capabilities on a variety of synthesizers, drum machines and vintage equipment.

Thermochromic Selvedge Jeans

Image: mashable.com

Denim designer Naked & Famous is known for their wacky denim creations. From glow in the dark jeans to jeans so heavy they could stand on their own, the denim gurus have always pushed boundaries. Recently they launched their new range of Thermochromic Selvedge Jeans that change colour according to your body temperature. They fade from the blue cold to the warm white due to a thermochromic dye that contains a heat-reactive molecule that alters the colour of the jeans. A word of advice: if you’re going to purchase these jeans, try not to fart.

Brain-Scanning Headphones Match Songs To Mood

Image: news.discovery.com

Creating a playlist of music to suit your mood can be a frustrating experience when you can’t find the right tunes. Fortunately, Neurowear has developed a range of headphones called Mico that can select and play music synced perfectly with your mood. The headphones feature a protruding electroencephalograph (ECG) sensor that identifies brain patterns to match a person’s mood to a particular track. The downside of the contraption is that a sad person might want to listen to upbeat music to dispel their funk, but the headphones will only play what your mood suggests.

Asian Cairns ‘farmscrapers’

Image: dezeen.com

Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut is attempting to redefine urban living with his conceptual ‘farmscraper’ designs. Made from giant glass pebbles, the farmscraper will house entire communities that work and live in the same structure. The aim is to build a natural ecosystem where all energy will be sourced from the sun and wind, and food will be produced from in-built orchards and vegetable gardens. Waste would be fed back into the system, and everything created will be recyclable. The buildings will be called Asian Cairns, and according to Callebaut’s proposals a series of six towers will be created. The curved shape will be formed by steel structures with solar panels and wind turbines mounting the exterior. The project will begin in Shenzhen, China – a country that suffers from high levels of industrial pollution. With some of the towers said to contain as many as 20 glass pebbles, the farmscraper residents will have brilliant views of the Chinese city.

Skate Guitars

Image: gizmag.com

The baddest skateboards are the ones that look beaten, abused, and faded with scruff. Although skateboards can take a lot of knocks, eventually they’ll need to be thrown. Innovative Argentinian luthier Ezequiel Galasso has joined forces with pro skateboarder Gianfranco de Gennaro Gilmour to recreate shredded boards into street-style cool guitars. The instruments are handmade in Buenos Aires at the Galasso Guitars workshop with each guitar being crafted from at least two skateboards and the body and neck produced from layered maple. The guitars are available in a diverse range of configurations.

Pulsate by Lily Jencks and Nathanael Dorent

Image: dezeen.com

Architects Lily Jencks and Nathanael Dorent have transformed London’s Capitol Designer Studio into a psychedelic showpiece. The duo fitted monochrome coloured tiles across every surface of the building to create a zigzagging pattern that twisted spatial perception. The floors are sloped and benches are built inside the structure to add to the visual bewilderment. Lights run along the seams of the installation in a modern twist. The piece – called Pulsate – will be exhibited for the next nine months and will play host to fashion shoots, product launches, lectures, and more.

Louis Vuitton Waffle Maker

Image: gizmodo.com.au

Andrew Lewicki has made eating in style a literal notion. The Los Angeles-based artist and designer has created a waffle maker that imprints the Louis Vuitton monogram onto your breakfast. If you ever wondered what designer food would taste like, then this your chance to give it a go… If you have the cash. The waffle-maker has yet to be picked up for production, but if you have deep pockets Lewicki will personally re-create his design.

Instagram Socialmatic Camera

Image: adr-studio.it

Instagram has launched its very own official camera. The device is tagged with Instagram’s colour striped logo, and resembles the vintage, hippy old-school flair Instagram helped popularise. The snazzy Socialmatic polaroid camera features Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities, 16GB storage, a 4:3 inch touchscreen, two main lenses, optical zoom, and LED flash. The impressive camera even carries Instagram-stylised paper sheets. The Socialmatic preserves Instagram’s brand as a social tool, as users can directly upload their pictures to Facebook from the camera. So far, Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram seems to be yielding impressive results.

Images: gizmodo.com.au, dezeen.com, adr-studio.it, gizmag.com, mashable.com, news.discovery.com

Words: Ra’eesa Pather