Would you be willing to pay to watch an exclusive concert by one of your favourite artists in the comfort of your home, or anywhere else, given that modern life already provides us with a series of mobile solutions? If you’re already thinking "that sounds good", The V. Sessions may be just the thing for you. 

The aim of this new online initiative, based in the heart of France, is simple: to produce exclusive sessions by a variety of artists, which are then broadcast on Internet, first live via high-quality streaming and then, once edited and filed, via video-on-demand. These exclusive concerts, recorded in a studio without a live audience, featuring high standards of quality, image and sound, or in any other location satisfying such requirements, will only be available on their website, and anyone who wants to watch them have to pay 5 euros per session, although you can also pay 10 euros in advance, which will allow you to enjoy three concerts. 

The V. Sessions get underway next Thursday, on the best possible footing, with the guarantee provided by having lined up no less a performer than Christian Fennesz for the premiere. From 9pm (GMT 2), Fennesz will be offering a concert based on his most recent album, the highly praised "Black Sea" (Touch, 08), in an unnamed studio in Paris. In exchange for 5 euro, you’ll be able to watch this exclusive session comfortably on your computer screen.

At the moment, only two other sessions have been announced: Philippe Herreweghe and the Collegium Vocale Gent choir interpreting polyphonic Renaissance pieces by Cristóbal de Morales, and the Bl!ndman ensemble, adapting pieces by John Cage, Steve Reich or Johann Sebastian Bach for a saxophones quartet. Surprised by the eclectic and antipop(ular) focus of the programme? Relax, the future line-up already includes Alva Noto, Phantom Orchard (Ikue Mori and Zeena Parkins) and DJ Krush.

http://www.thevsessions.com

In the following, an imaginary but possible conversation between two members of the worth1000.com team is quoted, just as they start thinking about creating Aviary:
 
- Can you imagine?  It’d be like having a free set of design tools to edit images online, without needing to download the application. 

- Sure, the files should be accessible from any computer and it should let you save them safely, allowing you to make a backup DVD with your documents.

- And it’d be great to be able to manage documents collectively, opening files of other people in the community, for example, and finishing them, in a similar way to Google Apps. There would have to be lots of different tools, like a word processor, image editor, vector graphics editor, an editor for the desktop, audio, 3D modelling, etc. 

- I’d call it Aviary. What do you think? 

- Yes, like an aviary, i.e. a collection of birds which, in our case, would represent the different tools: Phoenix, raven, toucan, peacock, etc. 

- It’d work, for sure. What’s more, ‘aviar’ also means "to prepare something for the road", that is what Aviary would do for designers, right?

http://aviary.com

Last Fall male targeted magazine Esquire made the news because of one of their covers. On the occasion of their 75th anniversary, they featured a panel of moving words and flashing images displayed on electronic ink.

Electronic paper, also referred to as electronic ink, is a new display technology that mimics the appearance of ordinary ink on paper and it is an evolution of flat panel displays towards efficiency and user-friendliness. A few notes on how each of them work.

Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs), like the ones on our laptops, mobile phones or PDAs, use a technique called backlight. Millions of pixels in front of a light source are turned on, off or regulated in intensity through light valves that control the passage of light.

In electronic paper displays, that still currently exist only in monochrome version,  electrically charged micro spheres or pigment particles, move on the display to indicate the presence or absence of content. Depending on the type of display, when voltage is applied to them micro spheres will rotate and make their white or black side face up, whereas the particles will either move to the front or the rear of the display, where they will appear dark.

Electronic paper displays have clear benefits over the flat panel displays. They use less power, because they can hold text or images indefinitely without drawing electricity, they are lightweight, you can read on them in any light conditions and they are less tiring than LCD screens, since image is more stable and the display doesn't direct light towards your eyes.

Other than an anecdotical Esquire magazine cover, electronic paper has reached the consumer market primarily in the form of e-readers, like the Amazon Kindle or Sony Reader. On a different area Motorola created a low cost mobile phone targeted to developing countries, the Fone F3 aka. the Motofone.

The digital age is pushing the publishing industry to rethink their business, and electronic ink is making them explore new formats. E-readers can refresh content, store multiple works and download new material from the internet, they provide a seamless reading experience and there even exists flexible electronic paper. Combined with a touch panel, they could allow users to annotate pages in electronic books or edit documents with a digital stylus, bringing the feel of printed paper closer. It's only a matter of time that they will support color and its uses will expand to other areas.

Technology progresses, but still there will always be people who will prefer the sensorial experience of printed paper, its smell, its different textures and qualities, the pleasure of turning pages over and maybe even the stains of ink on your fingers after having been reading the newspaper.

http://www.esquire.com/the-side/video/e-ink-cover-video

This opportune initiative was the brainchild of Medialab Prado. Basically its premise is that not everything in the world is private property, and while in recent decades the state has bent over backwards to defend and subsidize the interests of the few, there are some things that don’t have to pass through the government’s filter in order to be considered common property: in other words, belonging to you, me and anyone who needs them.

According to Antonoio Lafuente, "the Commons is the new way of expressing a very old idea: that some assets belong to everyone, and that they form a community of resources that should be actively protected and managed for the common good."

They first sought ways of meeting that were neither a conference, a seminar, nor an elitist think tank, rather groups that would allow any person to join the discussion group, in search of a committed group that would provoke certain results. 

What’s it all about?  "Seeing the world collectively or, in other words, choosing a world made by everyone, a common world."  And working on this together are people from various fields like philosophy, ecology, activism, hacktivism, law, urban planning, art, journalism and economic politics. After this, work groups are formed to go beyond the theory and actually put things into practice.

And now that the Commons Lab in Madrid is coming up with results, other similar groups are starting up in America. For the moment, the one in Mexico City has been operating for a couple of months already. The question that I can’t help asking is, what will happen to a lab like this, on a continent where concepts like social democracy and public affairs haven’t quite managed to land. Where dictatorships, dirty wars, the brutal exploitation of natural resources, genocide and socio-economic disparity are the order of the day. We’ll soon find out, surely the lab will provide lots to speak about.

http://medialab-prado.es/laboratorio_del_procomun

Catalogued by F@st Company as one of the best applications for iPhone, Save Benjis brings all the advantages of e-commerce to the real world. This phenomenal application for iPhone, which can be downloaded free of charge at the App Store, allows us to search for products on the internet and detects the best prices. With basic data like the name, make, reference number or even bar code, the consumer can compare, in real-time, prices and comments by other purchasers while walking around the store. 

With the economy in crisis, consumers can’t allow themselves the luxury of shopping without comparing prices and in the information era this kind of gadget makes all the difference. Imagine you want to buy a high definition TV set and by just entering some data into your iPhone you discover within seconds that it can be purchased on the internet for 100 dollars less and includes free shipment. A couple of further touches and you’ve saved some benjis. 

Neither Google with their "Mobile product search", nor Amazon with their "texting purchase service" have achieved what this fabulous application with its friendly interface has been able to. Undoubtedly an interesting service that the business world would be advised to bear in mind.

http://www.savebenjis.com

Online newspapers have got us used to playing quite a participatory role, with multimedia touches being lent to their content on paper. The Washington Post has added another twist to the tale, creating a platform that links a timeline to a map that features news stories in all formats (audio, video, image and text).

TimeSpace provides a completely new experience in how we can explore the news. We can either zoom in or out, in order to find out what’s happening, and where exactly, on the map. You can also move along a timeline to find out what’s already happened and when it happened. The most exciting thing about TimeSpace isn’t the use that the Washington Post is making of this technology in its publication, but the "framework" itself, a system that can be adapted to any kind of news coverage. Version 1.0 is the one you can see by entering the link http://specials.washingtonpost.com/timespace/world/.

The next version will be launched in a few months in other forms of media, blogs, websites, search engines and social networks. This version will be open to the contributions of users. A new way of accessing the news has arrived. At last the press reacts. No longer content to be just the press, they’re now starting to go digital.
 
http://specials.washingtonpost.com/timespace/world

Without doubt, one of the reasons of the success of internet is that the human being is lazy by nature, but also very curious. If you can travel the entire world and discover the wildest initiatives without leaving your computer, why do so?

Street art blogs are proof that, even arts that are purely associated with the streets, also have their niche on the web. And for two weighty reasons. First because street art is by definition an ephemeral practice and blogs are ideal for documenting it and broadcasting it.  Secondly, because although it may have jumped into our art galleries or lifestyle magazines (where you’ll find Bansky or Miss Van, the indisputable VIPs of the genre), urban art is still completely illegal. Graffiti, tagging, use of urban furniture and advertising placards, skateboarding or parkour, films and music, street art hacks everything that is put before it and doesn’t have any more limits than whatever city you’d like to imagine. And there aren’t just blogs. Galleries on Flickr, twitter accounts, YouTube channels, PhotoLogs and social networks that are all inter-related, form a labyrinth of highly accessible, high-impact visuals, by just making a few clicks. 

Let’s start with the pioneers:  Wooster Collective, a New York-based collective that since 2001 has been compiling all the most innovative events from cities around the world on its blog and that, because of its consistency and quality, has become a Bible of the styles and names synonymous with international street art. Meanwhile, Britain’s UK Street Art focuses on the most talked-about street art in the UK, the kind that has managed to make the jump from public spaces into the white spaces of the galleries, and follows the trail of numerous Flickr groups, which are divided by cities. But for a really comprehensive visual and geographical journey, there’s nothing better than Street Files, half way between the blog community and photo files, 100% done by the users.  And in Spain? Well, the local Spanish-language reference for urban culture online is the multifaceted Misha Canibal: blogger, DJ, skater and activist, involved in projects like Paraphernalia, the shop and gallery, Street Zinema film festival or the Perros Callejeros production company. And finally, the veteran, yet indispensable, Beautiful Crime who add a large dose of intelligence to all the others: theory and open discussions, in the name of what they themselves define as the post-graffiti revolution: "This is culture, it’s now, and it’s as exciting as a Mc Donald's on fire".

http://www.woostercollective.com

The Sphere, better known as the Facebook of the millionaires, is a private club of 400 members, so far, out of 6,000 proposed candidacies. It requires a truly luxurious lifestyle, and not a fat pocket -how vulgar-, to be accepted by the strict selection committee: frequenting top hotels and restaurants, VIP areas...  –and, as I said, frequenting, not demonstrating. 

And what does it offer the contenders in exchange for being scrutinized by a whole host of questions on their lifestyle or possessions, and 3,000 euros per year? The satisfaction of all their desires. Renting a mansion in Scotland, a private jet to a party in the middle of the desert, getting a made-to-measure suit in Milan... at exclusive prices. 

Because members of this club benefit from privileged conditions when using high-quality services: a personalised welcome at top hotels (what does that mean exactly?), the best place on trips and transfers, and of course from 20 to 30% discount in prices - the rich are human too. 

Big-time financiers, sportsmen, artists, top models and communicators all share their holiday snaps and a desire to be exclusively surrounded by people like themselves on this "social luxury network ", to geo-locate themselves, thus enabling encounters and who knows what else. 

Do you dare to stand as a multimillionaire? What would happen in a club that doesn’t know how to recognize an impostor among its own kind? Would they suspect the other wealthy members? Would they get a Google streetview car to follow them exclusively? Special cameras in the luxury palaces with a visit counter?  Try your hand at being a millionaire. When all is said and done, you can’t lose any more than the 3,000 euro admittance fee.

http://www.the-sphere.com

Last April saw the opening of the "Estación futuro" project at Intermediae, the famous centre of contemporary creation at the Matadero in Madrid. Right in the middle of one of the institution’s enormous halls stands a small dome of inspiration - as its creators point out, reminiscent of a Buckminsterfullerene, if I may allow myself the word, where this new project’s various events are scheduled to take place. 

"Future station" was conceived as a space where activities involving games and free-time could be developed, not only from a practical point of view (in other words, providing a place to play) but also a discursive one. As they say: "A space devoted to the experience of games and the investigation of free-time processes as a creative and critical activity (...)". Just when Intermediae was beginning to be seen as a more and more rigid institution, they host one of the most innovative initiatives, not only at national but also at European level. 

In fact, in recent months this centre has been strongly involved in what’s become known as "Game studies", theoretical studies on games and more specifically on their latest manifestations. Take for example OpenArsGames, two days of discussion on art and videogames which took place during April and May this year. 

The first event at "Future Station" is the show "The Euclidean dreams of Kenta Cho", organised by the multi-talented Javier Candeira. Kenta Cho, better-known under his pseudonym ABA Games, is a prolific Japanese creator of independent videogames. His works are fast, compact and extremely entertaining, and have gained him the recognition of many of his colleagues and, more importantly, of a community that’s getting increasingly more interested in this kind of development. 
 
This complete Japanese creator comes up with the idea, then programmes, designs and puts music to his games, from beginning to end, in order to offer them later under open code licenses. This facilitates their portability to other platforms (there are already versions for iPhone and even Google Android) and also makes initiatives like "Future Station" possible.

"The Euclidean dreams of Kenta Cho" can be visited at Intermediae (Paseo de la chopera 14, in Madrid) till September this year. Definitely recommended.

http://intermediae.es/