Sentinels Playing Cards

I think I've found the ultimate playing cards. Who wants to bring poker back from the year 2000? Available for a mere $6 a pop, it's a steal, really.

Girl Talk's All Day Review

What can I say? I love this guy. People have tried to bite off his style for years now, but none can execute it with such finesse as the maker himself. All Day brings you back to the days of Black Sabbath, Ludacris, The Ramones, California Swag District, Missy Elliot, Dorrough, and more. It's undoubtedly the best workout music out there. 8.3/10.

Girl Talk - All Day (FREE 256kbps MP3 Album)

Future Studios of the Experiencist

The countdown starts today. T-minus 210 days. Ready up.

How To Process Digital Photos in High Fashion

That's right. Not talkin' high resolution or definition, but high fashion. Why? Because I'm serious about this shit, dammit!

Peep these tutorials to achieve the look you see above. Just invest 20 minutes of your time and you'll have skills for years to come!

Lomo effect:

Cross processing effect:

High fashion dodge/burn process:

High contrast B/W layer effect:

Easy high pass trick:

8 of My Favorite Things

1) Customizing my GF-1. 2) Backlighting in my closet. 3) Leather bike seats. 4) White floors with warm decor. 5) The recent Nike Stadium marketing campaign. 6) Takashi Murakami. 7) Fitted wool sweaters. 8) Slim profile bookshelves.

Can I Bring It On Back

Baby, I wanna bring it on back.
Back to the time where we used to rhyme -
Times, you used to notice the subtle signs
Back, back in the time where we used to rhyme.

Ass Kickin' Now Limited to Weekends

I never thought I'd say this, but I've suddenly found myself falling into the realm of (borderline) responsibility of adulthood. This doesn't mean my passions are placed aside by any means. Hell, no. That'll never be the case. But it does mean I'm running out of hours during the day to dedicate to my everly insightful contributions to the blogosphere.

This also is indicative of how my current thoughts are on Blogger as a platform for self-expression and life-logging. Other options: While I personally hate Tumblr and feel Wordpress is a bit too uptight for my standards, I believe I'll eventually transition this 7-year project into something like a hybrid form of memory hoarding. Not too sure if there's a service like that just yet.

But, for now, blogging on the Ekoshyun Blog will be limited only to the weekends. If you're looking for some of my other work, you can connect with me on Flickr, Vimeo, or follow my fellow team of talented tech geeks and designers over at Unplggd. Otherwise, just stalk me on the Twitters if you need me.

Andy's Leather Wrist Strap for GF-1

I've been hunting around for a brown leather strap for my Panasonic Lumix GF-1 for a while now, but there's just so many knock offs out there that it's really hard to find something you really love. Luckily, I've stumbled upon a fabulous set from seems to be a very popular strap by a guy named Andy. He hand crafts them all and they look pretty damn spiffy. Photos by Johnny. Straps starting at $20.

Lofts Lofts Lofts

In Chicago, in 5 year's time. That is the goal. If it's too clean for you, stay out of the kitchen!

Collective Passions

Here are a few excerpts from the past few months of brainstorming, interviews, and focus groups in regards to the topic of "collections" and its implications on the design of digital music information architecture and organization:

"I'm proud of the skills that have lead me up to this moment. These particular weapons showcase my practical and usable skills that makes me feel like I have more than other people. It's not even something I display. I would never in my life build a gun cabinet nor collect antique guns. I sell them because they're cheap or rusting and doesn't meet my personal quality standards."

"I started collecting very slowly. I like each one for its intrinsic formal quality and the different characteristics of the photos they take. The camera is a tool, but some of them have very unique features that make it worth it. I display my stuff because I like looking at them, knowing that they are there, and it's fun to talk about with other people who know about cameras."

"I collect important books because they are all displayed and I am proud of them because I've spent time and money acquiring them. I'm proud to say I've invested significant chunks of time into them. It's more for myself and as a self-reflection exercise. If it becomes a conversation piece, great. It's nice."

People, it seems, do share a common view on how they value their personal inventory, especially when it comes to collections of items they particularly care about. I believe this is built upon the idea of "ensoulment," defined by Blevis and Stolerman as "putting our souls" into something, and [in effect] the "user" or owner will recognize it and see the artifact as more valuable (Blevis and Stolterman, 2007, PDF).

During my focus group covering the topics of physical vs. digital media, I also received some interesting insights:

"There is no reason for a PC user to use iTunes. Maybe I'll lose my tech cred over this, but iTunes is the single worst thing to happen to media since someone called 128k "CD quality."

"Collections spark conversations. Online and off." 

"Digital is a completely different realm than tangible real-world items."

"People should stop trying to re-create the page flip in digital readers. It's stupid. It's not a page."

I found this to be an interesting divide in the perspective of digital interfaces. Some found the new digital media paradigm to be a negative thing, while others simply considered it different. I believe the difference is not being able to interact with our media the same way as before. Digital organization has become dependent on a keyboard and click interface.

Moreover, many have stated idea of manually organizing digital music or renaming files as worse than "mowing the lawn" or even "doing laundry." Some let iTunes take care of it, but still complain about the lack of an "embodied experience." Perhaps if digital music organization were more natural and intuitive, like the way we picked up and collected vinyl in the past, stored on our shelves, and selected when needed, it'd feel less like a chore and more like an exercise of showcasing items that define and validate our connoisseurship (some might even say, existence).

Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton describes human relationships with such objects in the home: "...those [objects] were selected by the person to attend to regularly or to have close at hand, that create permanence in the intimate life of a person, and therefore that are most involved in making up his or her identity" (From The Meaning of Things: Domestic Symbols and the Self, 1981). Can digital collections embedded in hard drives and computers still manage to create identity? I certainly believe so.

An aside - one nice thing about digital collections is the tried and true sustainability argument. Data takes up space, but not as much as space as vinyl or compact discs. That's pretty sweet. But like its physical media counterparts, however, digital formats still manage to face impending death whenever a new, widely accepted commercial format is introduced.

Such situations places us in the position we are today. The reason why we discard and keep certain items relies on a system that is under constant flux. But was it vinyl's tangible fragility that made it such a joy to hold and collect in the first place? Or was there something more to the experience? Can an interactive experience be designed to provide those similar sentiments and lasting impressions over time?

I plan to conduct a survey to discover just that. More to come in the upcoming weeks.

A Focus on Process

"Art is an idea that has found its perfect visual expression. And design is the vehicle by which this expression is made possible." -Paul Rand

When Digital Isn't Enough, You Get a V700

I've been on the fence about digital film for quite some time now despite living the digital lifestyle. While it's cool to flaunt around your micro 4/3rds, there's something undeniably attractive about embracing the past and reliving it in a new digital age. This is why the Epson Perfection V700 Photo (IT) now tops my list of "shit I must buy before I die." Yeah, it's $500, but I think the differences in processing shown in the top picture above (the V700 is the negative film image scanned to the right), is more than enough to justify the canyon left in your wallet.

I plan to pick up the Nikon FM10, a vintage 1970's model that seems to have survived through the times and is still quite the hot market item on Craigslist and eBay. Boxes of film will cost $4-12 and a flash attachment may become a necessity. Now, I must start selling my belongings. Ciao.