What you see above is my prediploma (I’ve now completed 4 of 8 semster) at Merz Akademie. It is called Roy Block, and Roy has a website (there’s also a another version of the video with better quality). The website isn’t completetly finished yet, photos are missing and I haven’t tested in Internet Explorer 6 yet, but there’s some text to read if you find the project interesting.

Roy Block migh be called my first attempt at creating something unrelated to the web and something off the (personal) computer screen.

Completely unrelated: I’m currently working as an intern at Art+Com in Berlin. That is how I will spent my 5th semester.

My brother Benjamin (nicknamed “Bene”) loves travelling. And he travels a lot – from Alaska to New Zealand. On his journeys he’s taken a bunch of exciting photos that are just too interesting to get dusty in his private photo album.

For sure he’s an amateur but I think professionalism isn’t the point of travel photos anyway. When you look through all the photos then you can somehow re-experience his adventures, see why he’s so fascinated by nature and travelling – combined.

For now I’m just glad this site is live. I started working on it a long time ago but fortunately there was no pressure to finish it off as it was and is just a fun project.

Regarding Flash/ActionScript: there isn’t much to discuss. There are a lot of things that can be improved (back button…), that could have been avoided (scroll bars in Flash) but there isn’t much that could have given me a better way of getting to know ActionScript than this project.

Enjoy Benevisions.de!

I’m not sure how it looks on the PC but it works fine – regarding the performance – on the Mac.

Tired of comment spam? What’s that damn spam good for anyway? Well, probably it isn’t good for anything at all but at least I’ve found a way to turn it into something that is worthwhile to be looked at: SpamPaint.

SpamPaint is a script written in php that turns comment spam into interesting and refreshing graphics. Here you can read more about it.

Funny thing is, when I developed this last semester (2005/06) I didn’t receive any comment spam at all and I had to go and tap other blogs to get hold of it. But you can read everything about the technical stuff on the about page.

Special thanks go to Joen Asmussen and Karl Karzelek!

Update:

Chris Applegate wrote something about SpamPaint that made me giggle:

A nice idea, totally let down by a shittily-designed website showcasing it.

Shittily for sure. Probably he meant me having done a bad job but as I see this I did a pretty good job in provocing this reaction. The interface is refelcting my interpretation of spam: noise and distortion.

I’ve got the solution (2.7MB ZIP)
You can see a preview (resized to 50%) of the wallpaper on this blog (the background) for a limited time only… But what is it? It’s a screen grab I took while working on this cover last year.

Enjoy.

I’m looking for freelance jobs, don’t hesitate to contact me!

The semester break can be a strange time. Or adjusting to it, this is. Of course I’m happy that now I can spend more time with my family and that I can also earn some money again. However I’m still trying to get into a daily routine that feels satisfying. Satisfying in such a way that at the end of the day I feel like I’ve achieved and learned something new.

Currently there are so many thoughts and ideas floating ’round my head that I don’t know where to start. I’m eager to make something “arty”, to be creative, to learn new things. Maybe the solution will come to my head while my powerbook gets an overhaul which will leave me with a dusty PC and a pencil and paper. Could be worse.

What’s happend in the last couple of months? A lot:

I have been exhibiting SpamPaint at the European Media Art Festival’s StudentForum in Osnabrück.

I was in Dortmund where I supported the German national soccer team (Germany vs. Poland). Although I’m no soccer fan at all it still was a great experience: The Germans We won 1:0.

Finja turned three. Already!

My 3rd Semester at Merz Akademie is over. Together with three fellow students my main project was – and still is as we only got to think about the concept – an online community and application to collaboratively create amateur radio plays. I’m not sure if radio play is the right expression; in the end each play will be either a stream or an mp3.

Jan Ullrich isn’t part of this year’s edition of the Tour de France and I’m happy about that. Dopers suck. Does that mean that professional cycling also sucks? Probably yes.

Stamen design – inspiration, innovation, data visualization.

ART+COM projects highlights. During the last 5 days Andreas Schlegel and Patrick Kochlik, both working for this great agency located in Berlin, introduced us (me and my fellow students at Merz Akademie) to Processing and GPS. Maybe more on this later.

These Children of the CPU (exceeded monthly traffic quota) (Cameron: “…upgraded to unlimited traffic, download away!”) made the soundtrack for my new design. It’s the kind of music that makes my girlfriend ask what’s wrong with me. (Via 3hive)

Beauties: Rocketfuelled and Artek Culturelab.

Welcome to kingcosmonaut.v2!