When Sticky moved into its new digs, we knew we’d need everything in the toolbox to turn the new space into our dream home. Luckily, PACDOOR — friend of the studio and Portland’s premier garage door manufacturer — swooped in, offering to loan us its extensive collection of tools as well as its workshop, where we built our custom desks.
To return the favor, we redesigned PACDOOR’s website. Open the door to their new site here.
After more than 22 years in our NE 8th Avenue studio, Sticky Co. is moving on up — the street, that is.
In mid-July, we settled into our new digs on the second floor at 920 NE Glisan, just a few blocks away from our former studio. With a new supper club opening up next door and lots of fellow thinkers and makers in the building, we’re excited to be in the heart of such a creative neighborhood.
We decided to use the move as an excuse to build our dream studio. That meant designing and building our own desks, putting up a coat of magnetic chalkboard paint in the brainstorming room, and hanging a disco ball from a skylight for a non-stop party vibe. In the coming months, we’ll be putting the finishing touches on our new home, so, if you’re in the neighborhood, stop by to say hi and see our new digs. We’d love to give you a tour!
And please update your contact information for Sticky Co.:
920 NE Glisan Street
Portland, Oregon 97232
Okay, so that header is a bit misleading.
Our resident coding wiz Brandon Stump just spent a few weeks in Sticky’s Amsterdam studio. While he was there, he found the triple-X mark — which is actually a trio of St. Andrew’s crosses from Amsterdam’s coat of arms — nearly everywhere he looked. According to Dutch legend, the three crosses represent the three threats that plagued ancient Amsterdam: flood, fire, and the Black Death. But these days, they’re just a part of the city’s landscape and okay, an incredibly prescient symbol of modern Amsterdam’s reputation.
Brandon snapped hundreds of photos of the crosses and edited them into a hyper-paced, minute-long video, even synching the cuts to match the beats of the soundtrack (Aphex Twin’s “Windowlicker”).
So go on: take a tour of Amsterdam courtesy of its ubiquitous coat of arms.
What if materials could defy gravity, so that we could leave them suspended in mid-air? ZeroN is a physical and digital interaction element that floats and moves in space by computer-controlled magnetic levitation.
ZeroN video is courtesy of the MIT Media Lab, LabCAST. Read and watch more LabCAST here.
From PLANET:
After five years in seclusion, Holton Rower is emerging with a solo show in New York City. His pour paintings, on display at The Hole through May 26th, are vibrant displays of acrylic paint left mostly to its own devices. Standing above large planks, Rower pours paint down thick wooden protrusions, allowing the paint to grow, or not, as wood blocks and other obstacles permit. Though at first the method seems simple, Rower has refined the process and his technical skills to an extent that intention and spontaneity are evident in equal measure in the work.
Watch one of Holton Rower's creations in the making here.
Sticky intern Devin Pentecost is graduating from the University of Portland in May and, for his senior design project, his team developed an LED cube outfitted with interactive accelerometer response. Each side of the eight-inch cube is translucent, revealing a three-dimensional grid of LED lights inside. Thanks to a three-axis accelerometer housed inside the cube, it responds to real-time motion as if it actually contained a physical liquid. Flip it over and the lights closest to the ground are engaged. Shake it from side to side and the lights appear to slosh like water. And when it’s at rest, it reverts to an attract mode, creating patterns and animations with the lights. It’s an impressive toy and illustrates Devin’s bright, shining knack for complex embedded digital systems.
Play the video above to see the cube in action or visit the team’s website to learn more.
Versatile tech wiz Brandon Stump has been part of the Sticky team for more than a decade, which is plenty long to get to know the real Brandon, right? Oh, how wrong we were. This last year, Brandon cycled through dozens of haircuts, each in the service of a portrait as a fictional persona.
Brandon as Pabst-swilling, mustachioed Portland hipster? Check.
Brandon as a Hot Topic-shopping emo boy? Check.
Brandon as grizzled death row inmate with one perfect tear tattooed on his cheek? Check.
Brandon as bearded Joaquin Phoenix doppelganger? Yep, that one, too.
To celebrate his ever-changing look, he’s gathered the portraits in a book, designed by photographer Mike Pifke. It’s called Have You Seen This Man? and is available for purchase on Blurb. Head here to preview the images and secure a copy of your own. Go on. Make your coffee table happier than it ever imagined.
From Teague Labs:
Using a Teagueduino and a few inputs and outputs, we put together a physical side-scrolling video game. To control it, there’s a knob on the side. As time advances the game gets faster and faster — can you avoid all the obstacles and make it to the end?
View the making of video for Johnny Kelly's short film “Back to the Start”. From Nexus Productions:
The pace and timeline of the film is captured beautifully in camera using traditional stop frame model animation techniques to track the life of a farmer. Filmed in one sweeping take the film was painstakingly animated over 4-weeks on one large all-encompassing model background.
Read more and watch the finished film here.
When the University of Washington commissioned us to create an interactive architectural installation in its new Foster School of Business building, we knew exactly what we needed for the job: an incredibly versatile LED tile that could shift from scrolling text to full-color motion graphics. The only problem? It didn’t exist. So we developed a prototype, refined it, and, once we couldn’t make it any better, named it Tessera.
Here are a few behind-the-scenes images of us hard at work in the studio creating the Tessera tiles and installing them at the University of Washington.
UPDATE: Now that the project has wrapped, you can read all about it in our portfolio.
A good example of interactive architectural projection:
A mapping by 1024 Architecture, projected on the facade of former Lyrical theater the "Celestins". The building deformations and figures were controlled by the audience, using a microphone and an audio analysis algorythm.
Shown above is "B" with Lear Siegler. B is our Alpha — one of thee most knowledgeable, technically proficient members in the studio. Photograph by Mike Pifke.
DDB France created a shockingly sweet billboard for Tropicana's "Natural Energy" campaign that's powered entirely by oranges connected to zinc and copper electrodes. Read more about it at theinspirationroom.com.
It's Beer Friday at the studio. This is about right. Poster image shared via QS PRN.