Touch the firehose of ds106, the most recent flow of content from all of the blogs syndicated into ds106. As of right now, there have been 92512 posts brought in here going back to December 2010. If you want to be part of the flow, first learn more about ds106. Then, if you are truly ready and up to the task of creating web art, sign up and start doing it.

  1. Michael Branson Smith

    Three Wheeling After Bambi

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    | Syndicated
    February 26, 2013
    This animated GIF is built using another graphic gift I made from a 1983 Montgomery Ward Catalog of the boy on a three wheeler. Once I cleaned up the PNG, I was trying to think of how I might race this three wheeler. But before I decided to run down Bambi, I first set out how(...)
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  2. Michael Branson Smith

    Beastie Boys When I First Saw Them

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    | Syndicated
    February 20, 2013
    I recently came across via BoingBoing this graphic designer that hosts a site Phil are Go! where he occasionally posts ‘graphic gifts.’ These are pieces of clip art that he’s created by lovingly extracting a particular graphic from a vintage advertisement. This exercise would be a great ds106 assignment for a couple reasons *UPDATE now a ds106(...)
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  4. Michael Branson Smith

    Tector Gorch, Scorches on the Gatlin Gun

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    | Syndicated
    February 11, 2013
    Tector Gorch is one of Syke’s gang members from The Wild Bunch. He took his turn on the gun in the final shootout with the Mapache and Federales with particular relish. He and his brother Lyle both are shot repeatedly as they took turns on the Gatlin Gun. This little fourteen frame GIF was made using the animation ...
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  5. Michael Branson Smith

    Keep It Sealed – Keep It Clean

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    | Syndicated
    February 6, 2013
    The #ETMOOC animated GIF conversation hosted by Jim Groom last night ended with a brief discussion of the potential the GIF to be cooped by the advertising industry. Seeking to capture the eyeballs of the ever shorter and shorter attention spans of the browsers of the internet the GIF seems perfect. *UPDATE – This is(...)
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  6. Michael Branson Smith

    Isn’t That Just Like a Rabbit?

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    | Syndicated
    February 6, 2013
    Brings a knife to a gun fight. I’ve been really enjoying the week long creative challenge that my commtech juniors and seniors have been undertaking as part of our portfolio class. They’ve shown me new sides of their work including a lot of drawing, mashups, and a particular meme in which someone has me throw(...)
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  7. Michael Branson Smith

    History of the GIF

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    | Syndicated
    February 5, 2013
    A Couple of Essays on GIFs Mashable History of GIFs The Doctrine of the Similar (GIF GIF GIF)   Early 8Bit GIFs Signage – Early Vernacular of Navigation Pointers and Construction pages Welcome to My Site Hobbies and Personal Interests (animated clip art) Tools, Music, Pets, Cars, Flag-Waving Early Cultural Remixes Hammer Time! Chicken Explodes Bill ...
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  8. Michael Branson Smith

    Uncontrollable Urge to GIF

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    | Syndicated
    January 8, 2013
      If you’re a fan of post punk new wave music I highly recommend watching the 1982 film, Urgh! A Music War. Apparently this film which features the The Go-Go’s, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Dead Kennedys, The Police, of course Devo and many many more awesome acts was regularly broadcast on the USA network during the early days of cable. And ...
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  9. Michael Branson Smith

    DS106 STRATEGY

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    | Syndicated
    December 19, 2012
    After having created a few GIF assignments to help seed the DS106 GIFfest which officially started today, I needed to get a submission done! Andrew Forgrave’s GIF the DS106 came to mind with my third semester of teaching DS106 ending tomorrow. It’s hard to believe how many York College students have been working through the ds106 assignment bin creating so ...
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  10. Michael Branson Smith

    Hello Zombie

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    | Syndicated
    December 3, 2012
    Andrew Forgrave discovered these great zombified corporate logos created by Ben Fellows and a new ds106 assignment was born – or better yet undead – Logos For The Zombie Apocalypse! I felt that logos which employed characters would work best, Ben’s zombie NBA is my favorite. So I did a quick search for corporate logos, and Hello Kitty jumped ...
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  11. Michael Branson Smith

    WOPR MOOC

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    | Syndicated
    December 1, 2012
    The WOPR, the fictional military supercomputer featured in the film War Games. It was given the job of monitoring nuclear missile silos after too many Air Force missileers refused to launch during a live fire exercise. They figured it would be better to let a supercomputer oversee nuclear apocalypse – let the technology do the job ...
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  12. Michael Branson Smith

    Your Nose Is Broke

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    | Syndicated
    November 29, 2012
    I’ve spent time working with the awesome illustrations in Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual by creating a couple of coloring books for my kids here and here. I felt like I could use the monsters for more than just coloring. This little video was quite a labor and not exactly what I had originally ...
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  13. Michael Branson Smith

    Bridge Jump

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    | Syndicated
    November 21, 2012
    Six great bridge jumps from six films. My personal favorite is the Blues Brothers jump over the Calumet River. This was a fun little supercut started for my class a couple weeks ago and finally finished. I can’t remember how they helped me choose this topic, but it turned out to be a fun one. ...
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  14. Michael Branson Smith

    Suessing Ethiopia

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    | Syndicated
    November 19, 2012
    During class today we began discussing the remix generator and remix cards as part of this week’s assignments. I created the example, “What Is Culture For You?? [Remixed]: Dr Suess It,” and under the original assignment I found Mis-tery’s trip to Ethiopia. I would have loved to read more about the trip, as it looks ...
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  15. Michael Branson Smith

    Under A Pile of Work, But Still #DS106 #4LIFE

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    | Syndicated
    October 5, 2012
    It’s been almost two years since I first discovered DS106, the open-online course created at the University of Mary Washington (UMW). And a year since I took my first York College students through the experience (a crazy humbling one for myself). In the Fall 2011 semester UMW decided not to formally run a ds106 course, ...
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  16. Michael Branson Smith

    We’ll Keep Building At York College

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    | Syndicated
    October 3, 2012
    When I started at York College eleven years ago supporting the edtech department (aside –  holy crap this is the longest job I’ve ever held), I was given the opportunity to look at a proposal for a communications technology major that had been dormant since 1991. At first I was, “huh what’s communications technology, it’s ...
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  17. Michael Branson Smith

    Bortusk Leer Blue Monster Says Hi

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    | Syndicated
    October 3, 2012
    I discovered Bortusk Leer with my son two years ago in an area of Dumbo that is very popular with street artists. The old shipping warehouse on Water St. has had scaffolding for years (at least all the time I’ve seen it), which has provided an environment for lots of great graffiti. I took a ...
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  18. Michael Branson Smith

    Slinky in Stereo

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    | Syndicated
    October 1, 2012
    I created this example Wiggle Stereoscope for class today. Below is a tutorial about how to make a Wiggle Stereoscopic image (ok this isn’t really a stereoscope image just a two frame animated GIF, but the technique is the same) and how to post your first Visual Assignment to DS106.
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  21. Michael Branson Smith

    It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad MOOC

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    | Syndicated
    September 30, 2012
    I like the idea of tackling Alan Levine’s Horror of the MOOCs with a film that has a zombie kind of pursuit for money, but in the form of a comedy. There is real hysteria about MOOCs, all you have to do is look at the way the University of Virginia spastically responded to the ...
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  23. Michael Branson Smith

    Truth in Your Digital Mask

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    | Syndicated
    September 24, 2012
    cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo shared by Mr Atrocity Oscar Wilde described of his essay, The Truth of Masks – A Note On Illusion, that: Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth. We’re going to play with this ...
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  24. Michael Branson Smith

    Molly Ringwald Rocks the Force

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    | Syndicated
    September 21, 2012
    I knew the YouTube bots would quickly take down this mash-up of The Breakfast Club and Star Wars (Fox probably has it’s own bot bat phone when it comes to this property). I’ve made a fair-use claim and I believe it’s still up right now. Let me know in comments if it’s not. But if it is down ...
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  26. Michael Branson Smith

    Salivating Over Animated GIFs

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    | Syndicated
    September 13, 2012
    This is probably my favorite way to make animated GIFs. Find that little loop in a moment of video and try to make it seemlessly play infinitely. This bit of animated juiciness comes from the 1941 Woody Woodpecker cartoon Pantry Panic. In this six minute short, there’s a cold front coming so all the birds but ...
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  27. Michael Branson Smith

    DS106 Explodes Chicken

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    | Syndicated
    September 11, 2012
    I know it’s a rooster, but the original animated GIF was titled ‘chickenexplode.’ I love the old school animated GIFs which packed a lot of action in very, very little data – often just a few Kilobytes. That was necessary back when the web was delivered to you at 56 kbps. I thought it would be ...
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  29. Michael Branson Smith

    Week 1 DS106 at York College – Dark Shadows

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    | Syndicated
    August 30, 2012
    Last spring while teaching ds106 with my York students, I was introduced to the ‘blitz assignment’ which asked students to make and share something under the time constraints of the short class. I enjoyed both the spontaneity of this type of assignment as well as the opportunity to watch my students work on a project ...
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  30. Michael Branson Smith

    Peter Pan Would Make Great Animated GIFs

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    | Syndicated
    August 28, 2012
    I’m a big lover of the animated GIF having created dozens as bits of reflection on cinematic moments, film posters and comic book covers. These animations are all fabulous homages to stories I love. But I’ve also really enjoyed discovering how the animated GIF became an extension of traditional photography using subtle bits of animation. ...
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