Touchscreening to a New Beat

The Samsung Galaxy S II was released into the mobile smartphone markets of France in May of 2011 to a pretty interesting beat due to a clever marketing campaign.  The ad campaign, "Unleash Your Fingers," was filmed in France featuring Los Angeles' own JayFunk, a professional at tutting, to show some untapped creativity hidden within your fingers.

Now, what is this tutting, you ask?  It is better first seen, then defined.  

Pronounced /tuht-ing/, this new rhythmic interpretive street dance tries to emulate Egyptian hieroglyphics (with some embellishments, of course), thus the name is derived from the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen.  Through deliberate hand and arm motions, JayFunk follows the beat to this new genre of music called dubstep.

Dubstep, one of the newest forms of music, is only 13 years old and originates from southern London.  The music itself is mainly synthesized sounds giving it a sort of mechanical tone.  This pairs perfectly with dance moves like tutting and other robotic-like hip hop.  The dubstep music featured in this ad campaign comes from Siegfried de Turckheim and Vincent Drux.

Samsung's intentions with the the "Unleash Your Fingers" appear to demonstrate that the Galaxy S II is the newest and most innovative in touchscreen technology.  By pairing their positioning with two incredibly new art forms (tutting and dubstep), Samsung shows that they are indeed in touch with innovation.

Credits for the the "Unleash Your Fingers" campaign are as follows:

Creative Directors: Arthur Kannas, Martin Hamelin and Simon Loizeau

Art Director: Olivier-Stephane Picard

Account Director: Karine Spencer

Telecom CRM Manager of Samsung: Clara Autuly

Filming Producer: Vincent Kherroubi

Production Agency: Labandeoriginale

Post-production: Motion Fan Club

Performer: JayFunk

Choreographer: Mario Faundez

Music by: Siegfried de Turckheim and Vincent Drux

iPads and iPhones Memorialize 9/11

Since it is the 10th Anniversary of September 11th, 2001, I feel it only appropriate to blog about how people are commemorating this day.  I noticed on MSNBC.com (http://ow.ly/6rgUT ) the other day this interesting new way that Apple products are embracing the 10th Anniversary of the tragic terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center towers on September 11th, 2001.  This day has been ingrained into the minds of every American old enough to have viewed the attacks, suffered a personal loss, or that have since learned of it's effects on this country.

Not only Americans lives were changed that day, but the lives of people all around the world.  In my time in Brazil (Fall 2010), I would answer a gauntlet of questions related to 9/11, foreign diplomacy, and our country's future.  The terror left no boundaries and resulted in many countries unifying together against further acts of terror.

With this year being the 10th Anniversary of those unfortunate events, many companies have taken advantage of utilizing a "what has happened over the past 10 years" story and relating it to their business.  This may seem a tad deceitful, but I feel most companies have utilized this method under the best of intentions.

For instance, Apple has developed a means of memorializing the 10th Anniversary of 9/11 through it's applications for iPads and iPhones. 

 

Apple has launched several applications, such as 110 Stories, created by Brian August, which accesses your phones GPS location and camera simultaneously to digitize an outline of where the World Trade Center towers would be in your photo.  These photos can then be uploaded to the app's archive to join thousands of others' experiences related to visiting nearby Ground Zero.

Another application, The 911 Memorial: Past, Present and Future, was created by documentary filmmaker Steven Rosenbaum after releasing his film "7 Days in September".  This app incorporates authentic footage from his movie, testimonials, thousands of image, video and sound files to create an in-depth history and timeline of 9/11 prior, during, and after the attacks.  The app is sort of an anthology of commemorating information available to you where ever you may be thanks to mobile technology.

Lastly, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum has developed an app called the Explore 9/11.  This application is great for walking tours of New York City and includes maps, voice-over eye witness testimonials, and image sharing.

These applications provided for iPads and iPhones may not be meeting actual needs of customers to memorialize these events, but because Apple has provided them on the 10th Anniversary in a booming technology society, they have become quite popular to remind us of what happened.

These apps can be found at the following App Store sites if anyone is interested in getting more information about 9/11 or is planning a trip to New York City:

• 110 Stories
• The 911 Memorial: Past, Present and Future
• Explore 9/11