15 Minutes of Fame

July 8, 2010 | Written by Lucie Zhang

“In the future, everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes,” Andy Warhol once said. And from iPhones to art galleries, social media this week has been busy making sure everyone has an equal chance of getting their close-up.

Life in a Day

YouTube has launched “Life in a Day,” a project that attempts to document one day as seen through the eyes and cameras of people around the world. To be included, individuals must record a video of July 24, 2010 (preferably in HD) and upload their footage onto the official Life in a Day YouTube channel before July 31. There are no limits, no guidelines, and unfortunately no monetary rewards for those selected. However, those included in the final cut of the film will be credited as a co-director and 20 contributors will also be chosen to attend the film’s premiere at the 2011 Sundance Festival. Additionally, Ridley Scott will serve as the executive producer and Kevin Macdonald will edit this ambitious project.

Narcissus

Liubo Borissov, artist and assitant professor at Pratt Institute’s Department of Digital Arts, has created an art exhibit called the Narcissus Series, which captures thousands of human reactions that were seen via Chatroulette. For the project, Borissov used a software that diverted the incoming video feed, reflected it, and fed it back so that the person was confronted with their own, upside-down image (a reference to how the mythical character Narcissus saw his reflection in the water). He then sought to capture these “moments of self-recognition.” The result is a 10-minute video, “Narcissus Lament” (above), and three prints of 576 pictures each that are titled ”Regret,” “Redemption,” and “Remorse.” One can only wonder how many NSFW images Borissov had to witness during this process.

Mad Men Starring You

JibJab has created Mad Men Starring You, which lets users upload or import photos from Facebook, crop out the faces, and stick them onto the bodies of Mad Men characters Don Draper, Betty Draper, Roger Sterling and Joan Holloway (just like with JibJab’s Stars Wars tool). Once finished, the Mad Men video recaps what’s happened thus far on the popular TV show, which will enter its fourth season in 2 weeks and 3 days (if you’re counting).

Extra Bits

• Borders launched its e-bookstore yesterday, along with reading apps for both Blackberry and Android phones. Those who download these apps either tomorrow or Saturday will also receive five recent bestsellers for free.
• Chase Bank has added a new Quick Deposit feature to its iPhone application that lets individuals deposit checks with their iPhone by simply selecting an account, entering in the amount of the check, and taking a photo of the front and back of the check. The app also now allows for Person-to-Person QuickPay. Here’s hoping that a version for Blackberry phones is in the works (or that Chase magically decides to stay open past 6 pm on weekdays).
• Ford Motor Company is updating its SYNC technology to allow for safer cell phone use while driving. 2011 Ford cars with MyFord Touch will support a new protocol (Message Access Profile, or “MAP” for short) that allows for SYNC to read aloud incoming text messages over Bluetooth. Additionally, a “Do Not Disturb” button will let drivers block incoming calls and texts, but still make outgoing calls. I wonder as to how useful this will be considering there’s no guarantee that people won’t text back their responses (and a text message read aloud is pretty much the same as a phone call…), but still I applaud Ford’s efforts at encouraging individuals to stay focused while driving.
• Israeli soldiers dance to Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok” in the streets of Hebron and get over 2.2 million views on YouTube.

Hope these news clips serve as a bit of inspiration. Now go to something interesting this weekend — and who knows, maybe you’ll be the one getting a mention on this blog next week.