Tag: whatleydude

Exhibiting at the Saatchi Gallery

Yup.

BACK STORY

In March I wrote a post about the reason why I use Google+. In short, it’s only really down to one thing, and that thing is a little feature known as ‘Auto Awesome‘.

What Auto Awesome does is automatically add special effects to the photos that it thinks could do with them. Obviously this is all done separately from your main folder, so you don’t ruin your originals, but the net effect is actually quite fun and cool.

The awesomes themselves vary but my favourite is definitely when Google+ spots a batch of photos that look similar, and then throws them together to create an animated gif.

THE COMPETITION

Shortly after that post went live, I was alerted to a Google-sponsored Motion Photography competition at the Saatchi Gallery (that obviously lent itself to the creation of these Auto Awesomes).

Google+ Motion Photography

Of the six categories available, I entered this one into the Urban category –

I didn’t win.

Boo.

BUT I DID MAKE IT AS A FINALIST!

Which means:

  1. My work was judged by film director Baz Luhrmann, artists Tracey Emin, Shezad Dawood and Cindy Sherman, and Saatchi Gallery CEO, Nigel Hurst – AMAZING!
  2. I got my name in The Londonist – BRILLIANT!
  3. My work is at this very moment on display in the Saatchi Gallery – SPEECHLESS!

And that’s pretty darn awesome.

As you can see, I’ve already been to see my stuff (and the rest of the entries, including the rather excellent winning entrants) and the whole exhibition is pretty special.

It’s an odd feeling, having work up in the Saatchi. It didn’t really hit me until I was leaving, just how lucky I am to have stuff there. The other work that has appeared in that building. The other artists. The effort.

I’m still a bit dumbfounded by it all really.

Whatley @ The Saatchi

_______________

The Motion Photography Prize is on display on the top floor of Saatchi Gallery, King’s Road, SW3 4RY until 24 May.

Five things on Friday #55

Things of note for the week ending January 17th, 2014.

monster club

These guys could be the five things on their own, bless ’em. But they’re not. They’re just here because I think they’re darn cool. Right, let’s do this –

1. Lessons from a dog

Lessons from Dog

There are a bunch of these over on My Modern Met, but this one above is by far and away my favourite. I guess we can all learn lessons from a dog.

2. How Broadway has changed 
Alec Baldwin has a semi-regular column over on the Huffington Post and he is, in my opinion, one of the smartest and sharpest writers I’ve read in a long time, and a huge advocate for the arts. Yes he can be an offensive loose cannon but, from time to time, I enjoy him. You might too. This piece from last year, on why and how Broadway has changed so much is a great case in point:

A critic’s job is to evaluate two things: what you are attempting to do and how close do you come to pulling it off. Highbrow, lowbrow, Shakespeare, Williams, movies like The Hangover, movies like Lincoln, they all deserve the same fate. If it’s trash, then call it. But is it good trash or is the bar too low? Then call it. Is the piece ambitious and groundbreaking? Factor that in. But never say “why bother?’

3. The man who hugs LIONS
This video, from those epic makers and takers, GoPro, was published in November last year but for some reason only started to go viral get popular over the past week or so. If you’ve not seen it, it features Kevin Richardson – aka ‘The Lion Whisperer’ and… y’know what? Just hit play and see if you don’t end up watching the whole thing. It’s incredible viewing.

If you want to find out more about this work, or make a donation to help preserve the habitat for the animals in this video, you can at Kevin’s Lion Whisperer website. Give a little, it helps a lot.

4. Awesome Street Art is Awesome

sex

Found via ‘10 street art images you need to see‘ – to me, the above is just so pure; the colour, the stance, the casuality of it all. It’s just perfect. Weirdly, it reminds of this punk girl I used to date back in college. I wonder where she is now.

5. DOOMED
The story behind the it-was-so-bad-it-was-never-released(-but-wait-that-was-the-plan-all-along) 1994 version of THE FANTASTIC FOUR, is looking for support to help tell get the documentary put together.

It looks like a doozy –

Background // Support

Amazing. Fantastic.

Have a great weekend.

Creativity + Mobile

I gave this talk back in May last year (I blogged about it at the time), merely one week after I returned from my Trans-Mongolian Railway adventure. However, I’ve only recently discovered that the video is now publicly available. Awesome!

So, as well as going back and updating my original post, I thought I’d publish it here for all to see.

Inspiring new forms of creative expression through mobile devices

From iPhones through to space rockets and back again via Instagram’d monastic rooftops – this is how mobile is changing the way we create.

My work with 1000heads is mentioned, as is some Nokia stuff too aaaand, to top it off, my friend (from said train journey) Ben Wallace manages to make an appearance too.

Enjoy – and leave comments!

 

1000heads: Social Media in Turkey

A couple of weeks ago now, one of Turkey’s leading social media sites, SosyalMedya.co, reached out to 1000heads for some opinion and insight about the amazing growth the area has seen over the past year.

The full item can be read [in Turkish!] on their site, however, Fulya Çimen, content strategist at SosyalMedya.co has kindly allowed us to print the full interview, in English, right here.

Why? Because the Istanbul social media scene is exploding and as an industry we should be sitting up and paying attention. The Turks are coming!

Enjoy —–

 

FC / JW

At sosyalmedya.co, one of the leading websites / digital platforms about social media in Turkey, we are covering a story about social media in Europe and the image of Turkish social media as well as that of Turkish digital agencies. Our main point of this interview is to acquire a foreign insight into these areas – to that point:

Can you define social media in one sentence, with your own words?

For me, social media is (any kind of) content that can be and/or is shared. It is not limited to digital either; you and I gathered around a YouTube video playing on my MacBook is also social media.

Can you define the impact of social media in one sentence, with your own words?

It is almost indefinable! The impact of social media over the past decade has been world changing on a level that we will only really be able to measure when we’re far enough away from it to measure. In the same way that the industrial revolution transformed farming and agriculture globally, the social media revolution is uniting people across the world in ways that we simply cannot measure yet.

Leaving out your own projects, can you tell us about a piece of social media work that you like most?

Here in London, we’ve just witnessed some of the worst riot scenes in living history. The damage is horrific and the impact on the lives of the community is abhorrent. However, through social media, that very same community has pulled together under the Twitter hashtag of #riotcleanup and, even as I type, people from all over London are forming together to help clean up the mess that the rioters have left behind. That is one of the most recent – and best – social media projects I can think of, full stop.

Internet is global. But when it comes to digital projects, do you believe in the importance of localizing as it is in traditional advertising and marketing?

Yes. Massively. I was recently in the Lebanon and the localization work that Nokia has done across the entire Levant region is truly admirable. We’re talking about a brand that is going through some huge changes and yet they still manage to maintain a foothold in these areas thanks to that fantastic localization.

Do you have any opinion or insight about Turkish customers on digital?
The only insights I have I’ve gained recently through the INNLondon project. Designed as a “cultural embassy existing both physically and digitally” its current city inspiration is Istanbul and the numbers and figures I’ve seen coming out are astronomical.

For example, in a similar trend to the rest of the world, the last decade has seen a 1000% increase of Internet users with nearly half of the Turkish population now an Internet user of some kind. This stat alone demonstrates astonishing growth and is something that should be both highlighted and applauded.

If you have an idea or guess about Turkish audience on Internet; as a social media professional, what would be the most effective platform/area in social media for reaching the Turkish audience in social media in your opinion?

Facebook is obviously the easiest response to this question, although I would have to research the numbers to get any real figures. My only prediction in this area would be around an increase in both the use (and access of) the mobile Internet and of course, Twitter. However, comScore reports Turkey as being ranked in the top ten countries for Google Plus adoption and so I would also be interested to see what impact that has on day-to-day social media life, if any.

What do you think about Turkish social media? What is your opinion about Turkish marketing and advertising industry approaches to social media?

Here in London, Turkey (and in the main, Istanbul) is constantly being referred to as a ‘new digital hub’, where the territory is fertile and the climate is right for growth. My knowledge of the local space is not huge, however the impact of the work that’s being done there is echoing across the globe.