The Cut Copy Paste

Petcube is a home gadget that lets you watch, talk and play laser games with your pet via mobile app. From your phone, you'll be able to call to your pet, control the laser with a video game-esque joystick, and take and share photos and videos of your furry friends. The best part is that they plan on putting some of the first Petcubes in animal shelters, which would have public access feeds so anyone can play with parentless pets. Petcube has been funded through Kickstarter and the first batch of gadgets will be available in May 2014. I'm looking forward to seeing how this product evolves and how it will eventually connect with or inspire other pet related devices.

If you want to learn more about the game, check out this interview that ustwo's Ken Wong did with FormFiftyFive where he talks about his inspiration for design and lots more.

It's inevitable that our world is changing, and a future where technology is taking over our lives is a future that's so familiar and enveloping, that it occasionally feels like we're already there. By the end the of film, it made me wonder whether machines might not only be capable of love, but more capable than the human beings that created them. 

In 2011, artist Heidi Voet created the carpet, Is six afraid of seven/ ‘ cause seven, eight, nine/I’m about to lose the pieces I find using 4,000 digital wristwatches, woven into a beautiful and elaborate pattern. All of the watches were set to the same time and same alarm. Over the course of the expedition, the watches inevitably malfunction, losing their synchronicity and eventually sounding out of rhythm. Voet was inspired by an excerpt from the text ‘Beautiful because it is brief’ by Maya Kramer which is about how convenient and industrialized items available to us becomes a distraction to our experiences.

Check out this amazing illustration series "Reflexions Faites" (Make Reflections) by Paris-based illustrator Romain Trystram. These digital illustrations are gorgeous. Everything from the geometric cityscapes to the use electric color gives of this very 80s neonoir feel. According to his Behance portfolio, this is "visual development for a short." I'm definitely looking forward to seeing these images come to life. 

I haven't seen a lot of fresh approaches to the fish-out-of-water concept in film in awhile. Typically, when a character experiences a heavy loss, their world slows down and therefore the pace of the film slows down. As much as I enjoy these types of films, I have trouble relating to them based on my own experiences. Last night I watched the movie "Charlie Countryman" and was pretty blown away. At its core, the movie is a love story between two lost, damaged souls and the antagonist between them. Both characters are drowning in sorrow and confusion, and in desperate need to find a connection, even if it comes in a hallucinatory state and trumps all their logic and sanity. I was mostly impressed with the utilization of many editing choices that give the film a dreamy and vibrant look. This along with a very energetic music score performed by Moby, M83 and Sigor Ros form a quixotic state that grips you for the film's entire running time. It's easy to pick at flaws in the movie. But the best way to enjoy it (I found) is to not judge it by its imperfections but instead focus on the overall visual style. This was something very different and interesting that I strongly recommend watching. 

Artist Chris LaPorte drew this amazing photorealistic piece called "City Band" with over 100 2H pencils and roughly 1,200 hours of drawing time. It began when LaPorte discovered an 80-year-old photograph of his grandfather’s high school marching band while rummaging through his mother’s basement. He used the piece as inspiration for the drawing that now spans 13 x 26 feet. This piece is currently being displayed at the GRAM in Grand Rapids.

L.A. based photographer Andrew Hall has a pretty amazing long exposure photo collection, which he's dubbed "Liquid in Motion."  They’re technically simple but beautiful in execution. You can check out the whole series by clicking here.

I love this poster called "Untranslatable Words" by Irish illustrator Fuchsia Macaree. Untranslatable words are pretty much self-explanatory: they are the type of words that don't necessarily translate directly into English or perhaps require a degree of cultural understanding to truly get their meaning. Fuchsia did a fantastic job bringing all of these great words to life - each one rendered with beautiful colors and fun and playful imagery. My favorite in the one I included here for the Scottish word "Tartle."

Photographer Billy Kidd took these amazing still life images of dying flowers. There's something mysterious and beautiful about these. I love how the bold colors of the flower are framed by decaying blackness.

Artist Ismael Sanchez created a vinyl cover painted by speakers moving ink. He used an old amplifier, ink, a piece of foam core and ghinzu's album 'blow' to create the visualization.

Artist Kiel Johnson created a tiny paper city he calls "Paper Metropolis" from chipboards and various other paper pieces. These cities are fully realized with stadiums, power lines and real-life places like Time Square. Paper, to Kiel, is more than just something you can write on or recycle to make more paper. Paper is the building block of creativity. You can check out more photos and hear Kiel's story here. 

I just downloaded this new weather app called Solar, a hyper-sensorial, interaction display of the day's weather. The design is simple and all of the information you need is laid out in white over a beautiful gradient that does different things based on the weather conditions. For rain the app responds appropriately, rain drops and lightning flashes on the screen. Also, when you drag your finger up towards the top fo your screen you'll get a 24 hour forecast, minute by minute and hour by hour. 

I couldn't agree with him more. 

Sadly, NASA passed on the logo. Regardless the design and concept is beautiful. It's a perfect riff on itself, and even on the greater nature of how logos are meant to be seen.

What’s your take on Berks Dog? Hilarious? Lame? 

"A Brief HIstory of Video Games" is part of a series of remixes of video game sounds produced by Reverse Enginears exclusively for Polygon.