Oddity Central |
- Photo-Realistic Living Grass Images by Ackroyd and Harvey
- Website Lets You Blackmail Yourself to Reach Goals
- Unique Animal Art at the Bikaner Camel Festival
| Photo-Realistic Living Grass Images by Ackroyd and Harvey Posted: 14 May 2012 03:27 AM PDT
Most artists prefer to paint or draw their artistic portraits, but Surrey-based English artists Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey grow theirs from living grass. We’ve featured some pretty amazing art here, on Oddity Central, but this probably takes the cake. English duo Ackroyd & Harvey have managed to harness the power of photosynthesis to fix photographic images onto the blades of growing grass. They expose plots of seeding grass to a 400-W projector bulb passing through a negative for prolonged periods of time, and the varying densities of the negative’s lighter and darker areas produce a full range of midtones by controlling the light levels in each area. The light produces green, or darker tones, while lack of light produces lighter (yellow) tones. Within only a couple of weeks, you can see the green portraits literally emerging from the ground, but wait too long and they will simply fade away, just like old photos. Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey began their artistic collaboration in 1990, “after observing the pale outline created by a ladder left on a lawn for a few days”. In 1997, they began working with IGER (Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research) scientists who had developed a grass that keeps its green color even under stress. While the green blades of this grass retain their chlorophyll much more effectively than regular grass, the effects of other processes, such as oxidative bleaching, gradually occur and over time contribute to an irreversible loss of image. Still it allowed the two artists to grow photographic canvases and then dry them.
Photo-Realistic Living Grass Images by Ackroyd and Harvey was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
| Website Lets You Blackmail Yourself to Reach Goals Posted: 14 May 2012 02:23 AM PDT
Aherk! is an ingenious online service that allows people to blackmail themselves in order to achieve their personal goals, through pressure. If you’ve had trouble dealing with personal goals, but always manage to do good in school or at work, you probably already know it has something to do with feeling under pressure. Some people see it as a bad thing, but for most of us it’s the engine that drives us in our everyday lives. Just think about it for a second, you’re always trying to meet your deadlines and be productive, because you know otherwise you’ll be faced with immediate bad consequences, like getting a pay cut or worse, being fired. But we never really face that kind of pressure in our personal lives, so simple goals like losing weight, quitting smoking or saving money are really harder to reach. That’s where Aherk! comes in… What started out as a game among friends, now has the potential to become one of the most popular apps on the Internet. It’s called Aherk! and it’s goal is to allow you to blackmail yourself into finally achieving those goal you’ve been postponing for so long. Sure, you can find a lot of other motivational apps out there, but as we all know, motivation works really well when there’s something truly important on the line. Aherk! makes sure you have that something to fight for. How, you ask? By posting an embarrassing photo of you on Facebook, for all your friends to see. The brilliant part is you have to submit the photo to Aherk! yourself. A photo uploaded on Aherk! Raphael Caldas, the brilliant mind behind Aherk!, says the service started out as a game between friends, while he was learning to program in Rails, but it became public almost by accident and has recently become pretty popular. The simplicity of Aherk! is probably what makes it so fun to use. All you have to do is log into it with your Facebook account, set your goal and a deadline for it, and then upload a compromising photo of yourself. Once you reach the deadline, your Facebook friends will be asked to vote if you’ve successfully reached your goal. Depending on how they vote, this photo you never wanted anyone to see may be uploaded to your Facebook account. A photo uploaded on Aherk! Aherk is far from completed, as it doesn’t even have a privacy policy yet, to let users know how their photos are being used, and there’s a lot of tweaking to be done, but the idea behind it is pretty funny, and just might get people to finally reach their personal goals.
Website Lets You Blackmail Yourself to Reach Goals was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
| Unique Animal Art at the Bikaner Camel Festival Posted: 14 May 2012 01:23 AM PDT
If you thought your hairstylist was amazing, wait until you see what living masterpieces these Indian camel enthusiasts can create with just scissors and a lot of patience. Every year, the desert city of Bikaner, in India’s state of Rajasthan, hosts one of the most colorful events in the world – the Bikaner Camel Festival. Home to the only camel breeding farm in India, and one of the largest such farms in all of Asia, it’s only natural this city should have a festival dedicated to the useful humped animal. The popular event takes place over two days, in January, and draws in camel breeders from all over Rajasthan, as well as tourists from all around the world. This homage to camels includes various events, from camel races and rides, to camel haircut competitions and even a camel beauty pageant. Photo: Steve Hoge Although many of the thousands of visitors who flock to Bikaner for the desert festival eagerly await the camel races that take place during the second day, I for one found the shearing and beauty contests the most fascinating. In the shearing competition, artists wielding sharp scissors transform their camels into breathing works of art, by shaving their coats to make room for traditional Indian patterns. For the beauty contest, most breeders adorn their camels with colorful accessories to attract the attention of the judges, but don’t be surprised if you see some humped ones wearing make-up, as well… Photo: yaver999 Situated in the heart of the Indian desert belt, Bikaner has always been a hard place to reach, and before motor vehicles became available, the people of these land depended on camels for their transportation. In fact, the camels of this region were famous for their endurance, strength and beauty. Photo: osaprio Photo: osaprio Photo: mova.gov Photo: Bahawalpuri Photo: Aria Niwas
Unique Animal Art at the Bikaner Camel Festival was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
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