Image Source: ars technica | Gregory F. Maxwell/Wikimedia Commons
It’s bizarre but true: wire recording is the longest-lasting capture format in audio history, one that paved the way for reel-to-reel tapes and a host of others—even though most people today, and some techies included, have barely heard of it. READ MORE: Forgotten audio formats: Wire recording | Ars Technica
After two years of prototyping, tweaking, and building, Martin Molin of the Swedish band Wintergatan finally debuted his enormous musical marble machine. The melody is primarily carried by a vibraphone whose bars are hit by falling marbles, but it also includes small percussion and cymbals, as well as a bass guitar neck. It even has a “breakdown” arm, which is a literal brake that kills the instrument’s flywheel—that huge spinning circle that’s primarily responsible for the marble machine keeping time accurately. Maybe most importantly, the song Martin programmed it to play is actually really freaking great. READ MORE: Wooden Hand-Cranked Instrument Runs on 2,000 Marbles | Gizmodo
Before computers became the sole progenitors of almost all our visual artifacts, printing was a labor-intensive task that involved applying incredible pressure to inked blocks using machines weighing thousands of pounds. At the Common Press, in the basement of the University of Pennsylvania’s Fine Arts Building, artists are still using this outdated technology—right down to ink from the same company Ben Franklin used.
via Inside the Printing Studio Where Obsolete Tech Will Never Die | Gizmodo
You can appreciate how far we have come by reviewing the past. Its great the printing press art form is being preserved and still in use today. Along with presses, typefaces are a hobby of many, including Pope Francis I, and there are often announcements of the creation of new fonts such as in the very unique case of the DNA font by Harvard scientists.
You may also like:
Next up: Machines that understand you and everything you care about, anticipate your behavior and emotions, absorb your social graph, interpret your intentions, and make life, um, “easier.”
via The Future Of Technology Isn’t Mobile, It’s Contextual | Co.Design: business + innovation + design.
infophile 