If you hadn’t heard: I lost my laptop and even more tragically my flight log book (seen here) in the back of a London cab about two weeks ago. I’ve only now caught up with the back log and started to re-assemble my life and you will start hearing from me again on a weekly basis.

I stumbled across a couple of brilliant interactive art pieces over the last couple of weeks (via some smart friends of mine – Damion Parsons and Colleen DeCourcy). The first one is not very digital at all – it’s the ultimate “Human Interface” titled Hi. Effectively it’s a guy in a box that looks like a Microsoft surface performing all the computer functions himself. Entertaining and awesome – it’s a must watch and share video.

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From Vimeo:

Concept, design and high-tech by multitouch-barcelona.com
Music: wake up, wake up by lullatone.com
Filmed at hangar.org
hi-res pics at flickr.com/photos/multitouchbarcelona

The interactive installation “I Want You To Want Me”, by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar, commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art, for their “Design and the Elastic Mind” exhibition.

I Want You To Want Me explores the search for love and self in the world of online dating. It chronicles the world’s long-term relationship with romance, across all ages, genders, and sexualities, using real data collected from Internet dating sites every few hours.

The piece is presented on a 56″ high-resolution touch-screen, hanging vertically on the wall, and was installed at MoMA on February 14, 2008, Valentine’s Day.

Which one do you like better?

Guitar: Impossible

Google Latitude

The WTF Blanket (Snuggie Parody)

Calvin Klein Jeans – 2009 Commercial (uncensored version)

Msnbc.com’s brand new inauguration video player features some innovative features: beyond streaming the live event itself, it features inauguration speeches stretching back for decades. Each has a transcript in a sidebar. Click a word or a tag, and you jump instantly to that location in the video. Highlight a sentence or two, and it spits out a little code, letting you embed that exact clip on your blog. Dynamic editing, right from the player… More about the player in the Wall Street Journal.

Heineken – Walk in Fridge

Durex Condoms – Get It On

Apple – MacBook Wheel

Four marketers are teaming up to air two commercials in super-fabulous 3-D as part of a special “event” during this year’s Super Bowl telecast on Feb. 1 to run the first-ever all 3D Super Bowl commercial break. The ads, which will run at the end of the second quarter will mark the debut of DreamWorks Animation’s premier 3D movie trailer for its upcoming feature film, “Monsters vs. Aliens” and a 60-second spot in 3-D for PepsiCo’s SoBe Lifewater. The other two marketers involved are Intel, which has made 125 million pairs of 3-D glasses for the occasion distributed by PepsiCo through the SoBe Lifewater brand, and NBC, this year’s Super Bowl broadcaster, which will also air a 3-D episode of Chuck the following day (to be promoted under the slogan “Don’t Chuck your glasses”).

NBC viewers will be alerted to the SoBe Lifewater Super Bowl Displays via a series of tune-in spots airing beginning on January 19th. Displays and tune-ins will instruct viewers to use their 3D glasses on Super Bowl Sunday, with additional messaging, “Don’t Chuck Your Glasses,” prompting viewers to re-use them during the special 3D episode of “Chuck,” which will feature a special guest appearance by NBC Sports analyst and Super Bowl champion Jerome Bettis.

My gut tells me this one will do the rounds in a big way.  It’s just odd enough to pass around and just offensive enough to get some animal group up in arms. I love how subtle it is. Good stuff.

The spot was created by Cutwater in collaboration with Minvegas and Anonymous Content.