my flat/best mate
Will’s inebriated so he doesn’t know any better, still funny watching him squirm though
Were you stuck to your chair?
The Events – How to Control the Nation
Let us know if the trick worked on you. Post a comment and tell us how long you were stuck – or maybe you just had a little trouble getting up as quickly as you normally would. Maybe it didn’t work at all and you think it was all a load of rubbish. We don’t know what the response will be but let us know. (and if this page gets slammed with 1000′s of comments we will have to archive them somewhere).
Derren Brown is a tramp
Never let it be said that Derren Brown isn’t a stylish guy. However recently his appearance has been getting worse. So Phillis and Abeo gave him a good make over. We’re pleased with the results.
You may have seen the above in the advert for the next event. In How To Control The Nation, Derren will explore the techniques of subliminal messaging with Derren concluding the night’s Event by attempting to make viewers stuck to their sofa, using a film created especially for the show. Derren will be playing with the idea of suggestion and the power of the mind. It’ll be an interactive experience, with viewers able to phone Derren on the night to relay what happened to them. Of course, before he starts Derren will ask viewers to place their phones next to them on their sofas.
Derren says: “The second show is a piece of media which will be played to the viewing nation – that will have the effect of rendering them immobile. Not all of them, but it will basically stick a lot of people to their seats. It’s safe, it won’t work on everybody, but it’s applying what I do one on one with people on stage and turning it into a piece of technology that can then be broadcast – and it has never been done before.
“I think there’ll be quite a wide range of responses. I’m sort of experimenting with mass influence and suggestion in the current live show that I’m doing, and this idea came from that work. It’s perfectly safe, though. People will be able to call into the show – we’ll be telling people to keep their phones within reach – and I’ll be talking to some of those people during the show, so I’ll be able to find out how viewers have reacted.
“If viewers TVs happened to break, or I died suddenly, after a few minutes people would be able to stand up again.”
What are ARG’s – play a teeny one and win an iPod
An alternate reality game (ARG), is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants’ ideas or actions.
You should be keeping an eye out for these over the next few weeks as we are NOT always as obvious about the ones we ARE running – so to start you off VERY gently we’ve come up with this one:
I am a member of www.rivmixx.com and they wanted to give us some free toys because we’re so great – but instead we suggested that they create a teeny-tiny-mini-ARG for us and we will give it to you the lovely blog readers – it’s one of the cute and sparkly new iPods with a built in video camera.
Go to the site and sign up – you’ll find hidden amongst the A-Z listings of the profiles of Bands, Djs, Labels and Venues a “hidden profile” containing pictures of the new ipod Nano – in the menu bar click ‘Become Fan’ and that enters you in to the competition.
The winner of the draw will be announced on the 25th September 2009.
Visit www.rivmixx.com enter.
Congratulations to Holly E for winning the iPod 
100 Portraits of Iconic people
Webdesigner Depot has compiled a rather nice list of over 100 portraits of iconic people. My favourite is this one of Houdini and of course I will not miss out on the shameless chance to promote Derren’s portraits at the same time. Let us know your favourite and I’ll suggest it to Derren for when the paint starts flowing again.
Optical illusions reveal truths about how our brains construct reality
Stare at the red dot in the center of the figure for a minute or two. Before long, the green ring will disappear—it simply seems to fade into the white background. There are no tricks: This is a simple, static image file. The effect has been known for more than two centuries and is named for its discoverer, Ignaz Paul Vital Troxler (1780–1866), a Swiss physician and philosopher.
“Troxler fading” is actually related to what you experience when you get “dizzy”: You become so habituated to a phenomenon (spinning in a circle or seeing a green ring in your peripheral vision) that you stop noticing it’s there. Or, rather, you don’t realize that your perceptual system has begun actively ignoring it. It’s only when your circumstances change that you see what the phenomenon has done to your perceptual system. When you stop spinning, the world seems to continue, in reverse. When you look away from the green ring, you see a red ring in the same part of your visual field.
Full article over at the brilliant Seed magazine
Also see:
Derren Brown – How to Control the Nation
Derren explains: “The last load of TV work has been almost mini-dramas based around participants – Trick or Treat was always someone else’s story. Or it was TV specials of the stage shows that I’ve done. I wanted to do something a bit different for this series, to come up with something fresh. I wanted to go back more to the performance-related stuff, back to the roots of what I do.
I think there’ll be quite a wide range of responses. I’m sort of experimenting with mass influence and suggestion in the current live show that I’m doing, and this idea came from that work. It’s perfectly safe, though. People will be able to call into the show – we’ll be telling people to keep their phones within reach – and I’ll be talking to some of those people during the show, so I’ll be able to find out how viewers have reacted.”
White House dismisses Obama ‘brainwashing’ uproar
The White House has tried to allay parents’ fears that a speech US President Barack Obama will deliver at a Virginia school this week is an attempt to ply American children with liberal propaganda.
Conservatives have been up in arms since the White House announced last month that Mr Obama would give a back-to-school speech on Tuesday, when many students have their first day of classes for the new academic year.
The White House hopes the speech will be watched live by students and teachers across the nation but the President’s critics say it is an attempt to indoctrinate rather than motivate the country’s youth.
“The president’s whole message is about personal responsibility and challenging students to take their education very, very seriously,” said education secretary Arne Duncan, who explained that Mr Obama simply wanted to encourage the country’s youth to do their best.
image via Toonpool (Thanks Colin)
