Carbon Price in Australia Finally Revealed

In a way, I feel like we're only just catching up with the rest of the world here . . . but it's a good thing it's actually happening.

There's a lot of press flying around arguing against the carbon price . . . generally fuelled by the companies who are currently making the largest profit from continuing to pollute. I think it's important for us to understand that making a quick buck now will slowly drive us further into destroying our own habitat. When you put the comparison between money spent vs the continuation of human survival, it takes on a much more realistic perspective.

Scenario in the Sydney Film Festival

Scenario opened to the public yesterday as part of the Sydney Film Festival. At the moment, we're completely booked out for the next two weeks! It's been a long and crazy road getting to this point, but it's finally finished and being shown to the public.

Scenario is an interactive cinematic experience that's shown in iCinema's AVIE using a visual camera based tracking system to follow users' movements around the space and allow them to interact with the virtual world. We're getting a fair bit of media attention at the moment . . . there's a CNN iReport about it here and I'm sure as the festival goes on and more people get a chance to see it, there'll be a bit more media coverage.

If you were lucky enough to get a ticket, I might see you there (it's right next to my office and I'll be the tech for a lot of the sessions).

A working H&K UMP Made out of Lego

This is just nuts. Powered by rubber bands and able to load and fire a 15 round clip . . . A lego submachine gun.

http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/144689

Draft Proposal for R18+ Rating for Computer Games

The debate has been long and sometimes vehement, but it seems that in the face of large amounts of support during public consultation, there might finally be some movement on the introduction of a R18+ rating for computer games in Australia.

Details have been released at this website: http://www.classification.gov.au/www/cob/classification.nsf/Page/InformationCentre_ProposeddraftGuidelinesforR18+ComputerGames

A decision will be made based on these guidelines in July this year, so if you feel strongly enough about it to have a say, there's a survey on that site that you can fill out. Personally, I'm looking forward to the medium being legitimised as being entertainment suitable for adults.

L'art + Toi, Bethune 2011

About two months ago, I was in Bethune in northern France, setting up our AVIE for L'art + Toi, an arts festival that's going to be running up there for most of this year.

There was a lot of amazing installation art in a few different buildings around the town . . . in a lot of different and amazing formats. There was an installation where light globes moved up and down on small winches while fading in and out . . . mesmerising and soothing to watch. There was a small car like vehicle made entirely of transparent perspex and lit from inside with blue LEDs . . . and on closer inspection, was carved on the inside to show a skeleton and organs in the lighting. I've also attached a photo of one of the other pieces I appreciated:

It's always interesting being a part of these festivals . . . you get to see some really strange and wonderful pieces of art, while in the meantime you're off in Europe somewhere enjoying tasty food :)