The State of The Internet by JESS3

An insightful film comparing social media and internet activity around the world. Social media activity has proliferated with 126 million blogs on the web. Facebook has 350 million users and logs in at 260 billion page views per month. Plus, there are 84% more women than men on social networks. The best part (at 2:51) shows the Launch Dates of Social Media Networks, showing an evolution of what we’ve adopted (and abandoned) from 1995 to 2010.

With the recent news that Facebook has overtaken Google as the entry point to the web, there is no doubt that Facebook is a valuable platform to reach billions of people and future customers. Product searches are great, but often leads to Google generated web ads.

Today people experience brands in multiple ways, including built networks that allow for a closer interaction with the brand. It’s how users are trusting peer to peer recommendations or an active brand profile as opposed to a one-click search that is important. The marketing needs to be brand led, and have the capacity to take on different forms in order for the brand to be best brought to life.

[via Paul Worthington]

Have you ever wondered where the readers of The New York Times’s Web site come from, and what kind of devices they use to read our content? In a past life, not too long ago, when I worked in The Times’s research and development labs, we started a research visualization project to explore this very topic.

Just watching these maps glow can be a mesmerizing experience, but there’s another fascinating piece of data within this particular day. At about 1 minute and 10 seconds into the video, at 5:20 p.m., you can see a huge pulse of readers coming to the Web site, both from mobile devices and personal computers. This huge traffic bump happened after TMZ.com broke the newsof Mr. Jackson’s death. As the news started to filter across the Internet, traffic continued to ebb and flow throughout the evening.

The New York Times site traffic, US, June 25, 2009 from Nick Bilton on Vimeo.
[via nytimes.com]

The fashion and art publication Visionaire has continuously used a variety of unique formats to present its content. For the 57th issue, the publication draws inspiration from the two-seater Smart Fortwo car. Visionaire 57 “2010″ will be the first plug-in electric issue in the publication’s history. As seen in the photo above, the plug is shaped like Daimler’s compact automobile. The magazine uses electricity to illuminate 365 pieces of art displayed in the form of a daily calendar.

Visionaire 57 was assembled by 52 renowned guest curators and culture icons, including artist John Baldessari, museum curator Klaus Biesenbach (MoMA), fashion designers Raf Simons and Marc Jacobs, and the architect Zaha Hadid. Natalie Portman and Tilda Swinton also contributed to the publication. Visionaire began in 1991 and now publishes three times a year, each issue with a drastically different format for delivering avant-garde and cutting edge artistic presentations. Visionaire 2010 is limited-edition with only 4,000 copies and will be available for $295 in October.

[Via Design Crave and Auto Blog Green]

Bijin-tokei is a Japanese website that photographs girls on the street in real-time and with non-stop updates. Every minute of the hour, cute girls are featured holding up a blackboard with the time written in a white marker. Bijin-tokei call themselves “a 1 minute automatic update site” and refreshes a new photograph every minute. Details like the girl’s name, birthday, hometown, height, blood type, occupation, favorite website, and even body measurements are recorded for a heightened voyeur appeal.

The photos appear to be taken in shopping centers around Shibuya and Harajuku in Tokyo, featuring what seems to be real girls with a fashionable edge. Though bijin-tokei is an amusing concept and interesting to share with friends, the purpose of the project still remains a mystery. It’s also available to purchase as an iPhone app.

bijin-tokei (English)

Some cute tunics by Rabbit on the Run from Los Angeles. They remind me of cut-out shapes characteristic of Native Japan.

With a peculiar sculpture piece based on a system of “Dendroids,” American artist Roxy Paine has created a 130-foot-long by 45-foot-wide stainless-steel sculpture at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Roof Garden. It is an interesting combination of concepts – Paine uses both mechanical means and the innate logic of natural forms to create his “Dendroid” tree-like sculptures. Like in nature, these are a series of vascular networks, tree roots, mushrooms, and fungal mycelia. His meticulous research and observation of a variety of tree species help him to understand the nuances of how a tree grows. Paine has said:

“I’ve processed the idea of a tree and created a system for its form. I take this organic majestic being and break it down into components and rules. The branches are translated into pipe and rod.”

Employing the “language” that he has invented for each of these fictive species, Paine’s trees are “grown” through a laborious process of welding together the cylindrical piping and rods and manifests itself with the green and concrete surroundings of New York.

Maelstrom (2009) is Paine’s largest and most ambitious work to date and is showing now until October 25 at The Metroplitan Museum of Art Rooftop Garden.

Installation images of Roxy Paine on the Roof: Maelstrom

Installation footage of Roxy Paine on the Roof: Maelstrom
[via The Met]