Sinclair ZX81: semigraphical / pseudographical characters
"If you press GRAPHICS (shifted 9) then the cursor will come up as 
: this means graphics mode. If you type in a symbol it will appear in its inverse video form, & this will go on until you press GRAPHICS again or NEWLINE. RUBOUT will have its usual meaning. Be careful not to lose the cursor amongst all the inverse video characters you've just typed in. ...
Right at the beginning are space & ten patterns of black, white & grey blobs; further on there are eleven more. These are called the graphics symbols & are used for drawing pictures. You can enter these from the keyboard, using graphics mode (except for space, which is an ordinary symbol using the 
cursor; the black square is inverse space). You use the 20 keys that have graphics symbols written on them. For instance, suppose you want the symbol 
, which is on the T key. Press GRAPHICS to get the 
cursor, & then press shifted T. From the previous description of the graphics mode, you would expect to get an inverse video symbol; but shifted T is normally <>, a token, & tokens have no inverses: so you get the graphics symbol instead."
(Steven Vickers, 1981, Sinclair Research Limited)
Fig.1 "graphics mode" table from Steven Vickers (1981). "Sinclair ZX81 BASIC Programming", Second Edition 1981, Copyright 1980 Sinclair Research Limited (converted to HTML by Robin Stuart).
2). Matthew Eagles (2008). "ZX81 VDU" TrueType font which replicates the letters, numbers etc. displayed on the screen of the ZX81.
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PIXELS: invasion of New York by 8-bit video game pixels
New York invasion by 8-bits creatures ! PIXELS is Patrick Jean' latest short film, shot on location in New York. Written, directed by : Patrick Jean Director of Photograhy : Matias Boucard SFX by Patrick Jean and guests Produced by One More Production www.onemoreprod.com
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Off Book: the art of Animated GIFs
"GIFs are one of the oldest image formats used on the web. Throughout their history, they have served a huge variety of purposes, from functional to entertainment. Now, 25 years after the first GIF was created, they are experiencing an explosion of interest and innovation that is pushing them into the terrain of art. In this episode of Off Book, we chart their history, explore the hotbed of GIF creativity on Tumblr, and talk to two teams of GIF artists who are evolving the form into powerful new visual experiences."
(PBS Arts: Off Book, 7th Mar 2012)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Kevin Allocca: Why videos go viral
"Kevin Allocca is YouTube's trends manager, and he has deep thoughts about silly web video. In this talk from TEDYouth, he shares the 4 reasons a video goes viral."
(Kevin Allocca)
Fi.1 "Kevin Allocca: Why videos go viral", YouTube: Uploaded by TEDtalksDirector on 27 Feb 2012.
Fig.2 "Nyan Cat [original]", YouTube: Uploaded by saraj00n on 5 Apr 2011.
Fig.4 "New Zealand Nyan Cat", YouTube: Uploaded by 1milliondollaz on 11 Aug 2011 [Nyan Cat + 8-Bit version of "Slice of Heaven" New Zealand singer/songwriter Dave Dobbyn with the band Herbs].
Fig.5 "Australian Nyan Cat [original]", YouTube: Uploaded by TrollCune on 7 Aug 2011.
Fig.6 "bike lanes by Casey Neistat", YouTube: Uploaded by caseyneistat on 7 Jun 2011.
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Andy Warhol: The thing that I like most about doing this kind of art on the Amiga is that it looks like my work
"'Long term Amiga users will remember the unveiling of the Commodore A1000 on July 23rd 1985 at the New York Lincoln Centre. As part of the demonstration of the Amigas ability Commodore invited Andy Warhol to create a portrait of Debbie Harry, lead singer of Blondie using Island Graphics Graphicraft. This was accompanied by a full score synthesised by Roger Powell and Mike Boom, author of Musicraft."
(Gareth Knight)
Fig.1,2 Amiga world premiere launch of Amiga 1000, July 23rd 1985 (including Andy Warhol painting Debbie Harry on an Amiga)
Fig.3-8,9 Guy Wright and Glenn Suokko, photography by Edward Judice. 'Andy Warhol: An Artist and His Amiga'. AmigaWorld Magazine, January/February 1986: p.16-21.
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
