August 24, 2009

Creative Commons design contest and workshops

Filed under: Design by Branko Collin @ 8:00 am

Premsela and Waag Society are organising the Unlimited Design Contest from August 13 to October 12 in the categories form, food and fashion. The idea seems to be that the design must be reproducible in one of three Fablabs (Amsterdam, The Hague and Utrecht), places where you can use things like laser cutters and 3D printers for free.

Workshops to inspire you will be given by Marije Vogelzang (food), Frank Tjepkema (form) and Zelda Beauchampet (fashion), with the price of entry covering the materials you will be using.

One of the rules is that when you release your design for the contest, you must release it under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Share-Alike license.

See also: Looking for open source furniture.

(Link: Bright. Still of Joris van Tubergen creating a lamp by Unlimited Design Contest.)

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July 3, 2009

Van Gogh’s paintings as shot by amateur photographers

Filed under: Art,Photography by Branko Collin @ 9:06 am

The Wiki Loves Art contest that I reported about earlier is over, and all that is left is for the judges to declare a winner.

One of the extraordinary things about this contest is that the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam opened its door to amateur photographers. That must have been a frightful decision to take, what with all the paintings worth millions just a camera stand leg away from scratching, so I hope it was a good experience for them.

Painting above is The Harvest (1888), photo taken by Flickr user Pachango. View the 4,500+ contest photos here, or just the 450+ Van Gogh ones here. (I edited the colours into oblivion, but I just could not agree with the red hue that Pachango’s version had, or the yellow hue on the museum’s website.)

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February 14, 2009

Willy Wonka of weed will win trip to Amsterdam

Filed under: Film by Branko Collin @ 9:43 am

A UK film distributor has started a contest that will see its winner flown to Amsterdam, by plane that is, to collect a bag of marijuana. The distributor, Revolver Entertainment, is holding the contest to promote its film The Wackness.

Writes Revolver:

Yes, you heard us correctly! We’re offering the chance for you to win a fabulous weekend break for 2 to the city of smoke itself, the beautiful Amsterdam. But that’s not all… the lucky winner will also be able to pick up a complimentary bag of skunk from legendary Amsterdam café, Hill Street Blues.

Hidden within one of the first 1,000 DVDs of The Wackness is a Golden Ticket. Find the Golden Ticket and you win! It’s that simple.

Just as mayor Cohen thought he was getting rid of a certain type of British tourist

Link: BoingBoing. Photo by Sony Pictures.

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