Touched Echo

I'm immediately adding this one to my Personal Favorites. Touch Echo is a stunningly simple and effective outdoor exhibit in Dresden, Germany. It uses bone conduction technology (sound transfered through the bones to vibrate the ear drum, allowing you to hear sounds that have no noise) to listen to the sounds of the 13th February 1945 air raid that happened at that location. Visitors to the site put their elbows on the railing and cup their hands over their ears to hear the raid. I think this is a brilliant use of bone conduction. I particularly like the respectful, meditative pose that it forces listeners to adopt which adds to the experience and the message it has to others watching. This concept also has a sense of magic to it which I really like. The idea of a specific pose transporting you to another place and time, while others around you are unaware, is quite amazing.

Free Rice

I love the thinking behind Free Rice. The idea is very simple, they use advertising profits generated by visitors to donate money to the UN World Food Program in an effort to help end hunger. People are invited to come to the site and play a multiple choice word game. For each correct answer, 20 grains of rice are donated. The game strengthens your vocabulary and keeps your attention long enough to make the advertising money needed to pay for the rice donations. It's super simple, super smart, and by the look of the stats, super effective. (Found through notcot.org).

Wants for Sale

Artists Christine Santora and Justin Gignac have come up with an uber creatively practical approach to art - they simply paint what they want. The project is called Wants for Sale. Each oil painting that they do is of an object or concept that they desire (i.e. an iPhone or some buffalo wings) and then they sell the painting for the cost of that object. For example their painting of a Slice of Pepperoni costs $3 while the Financial Security painting cost $1000000. They are also willing to trade if you have the exact item they want. There is something really refreshing about the honesty and directness of this approach.

Christine and Justin also have an even more brilliant sister site called Needs for Sale where they use the same approach to raise money for charity. You can buy paintings of a Toilet ($100 for Habitat for Humanity) or a Can of Peas ($250 for City Harvest). Not only do you get to donate to charity, you also get a piece of art with a great story behind it.

Nikon Universcale

Universcale is a captivating Flash site done by Nikon to illustrate the extremes to which we can see using microscopes and telescopes. The scale shows silhouettes of objects that are measured using common units, such as meter, kilometer and light year. It captures measurements from the Extremities of Space (a hundred billion light years) down to the Great Primordial (one quadrillionth of a meter). If you click on an object it gives you information about that object and shows it next to something that is comparatively small and something which is comparatively large. This is a really fascinating way of experiencing size and the meaning of measurements.

Panda Cam Widget

Readers meet my pandas, pandas meet the One Floor Up readers. Ok, ok, so they are not my exactly my pandas, but close enough. I can watch them 24 hours on my Panada Cam Widget thanks to the web cams at the San Diego Zoo. You can also watch live feeds of polar bears, elephants and apes. The panda feed is the most exciting because the zoo is a panda research center so they have multiple cameras which are constantly being aimed at one panada or another. This image is an old, but very cute, screenshot from my panda cam. This widget can be downloaded from Apple.com or you can view the web cams directly from the San Diego Zoo site.

Little People

Little People are my new favorite street art (Sorry Banksy and Moose, you've got to make room for the little guys). They are tiny hand painted people placed around London and left to "fend for themselves". They are placed in contextually relevant situations, like the guy getting into his car with shopping bags outside of a grocery store or the hikers climbing through a plant in KEW gardens, adding to the illusion that they live along side us. Whereas most street art grabs your attention by being loud and controversial, these little guys are small and understated. To me, this adds to the effectiveness of their message because you have to be paying attention to see them, making the audience more exclusive, deserving and appreciative of their effect. (Found through Wooster Collective)

Guests at the Toronto Zoo

I can't believe I'm saying this... Madagascar Cockroaches rock! Kudos to whichever advertising firm accepted the brief of making people want to come see cockroaches at the zoo. They did an amazing job. Check out this website to promote a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach exhibit at the Toronto Zoo March 9-18. It features a short movie of Jeb's trip to Canada (awesome), and this music video of 3 roaches singing "Hiss at you! Hiss at you! Hiss at you!" (love it).

Sketches of Frank Gehry

I watched the Sketches of Frank Gehry today on DVD. I was somehow expecting him to be more of a rock star architect but he comes across as very down to earth and often even under confident. He spends a lot of the movie talking about how he stresses over his designs and has to become suitable frustrated with something before he can get it right. You get a good sense of his creative process and approaches by the end. There are also some great quotes from Gehry like 'That is so stupid looking, it's great'. After I was done watching, I immediately ordered a copy on Amazon. You can watch the movie trailer here.

Color in Motion

Color in Motion is a Flash site created by Claudia Cortes. It's a combination of short animations and interactive activities to educate the user about color symbolism and communication. This site is simple, effective, and most importantly fun. I originally came across this site a few years back when it was nominated for a Flashforward award. I still enjoy it.

You are beautiful

You ARE beautiful! All of you! This site gives out stickers that say YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL. People post them around their city and then send back photos. Yes, I know this a form of vandalism but seriously, how can you not like this idea?

Evil Nine "Crooked"

If you know me then you have probably been sent this link at some time or another. I never get tired of it. It's the music video for the Evil Nine song Crooked. Awesome Flash animation. Shhhhh, the baby's sleeping...

The Interesting Thoughts of Edward Monkton

My friend James bought me an Edward Monkton calendar for Christmas last year and I became an instant fan. His humorous cartoons about life, friendship, and food are brilliant. How can you go wrong with a guy who names his website "The Interesting Thoughts of Edward Monkton"? Some of my favorites are The Penguin of Death, The Meaning of Life, and of course, Ninja Biscuits.

You can enter the world of Edward Monkton at www.EdwardMonkton.com

Stamp Mugs

The Stamp Mugs, designed by Valeria Miglioli & Barnaby Barford, are one of my favorite examples of clever design. They have taken the annoying ring left by a coffee mug and turned it into something fun and beautiful.

You can purchase the Stamp Mugs at the always fabulous Greener Grass Design