Sunday 18 January 2009

Video: documentary of Cecilia Bartoli's Vivaldi Album

See how Cecilia researches and performs some of the rarely/never performed Vivaldi opera arias. 

There are 6 parts.

Part 1:

 

Part 2:

 

Part 3:

 

Part 4:

 

Part 5:

 

Part 6:

Saturday 10 January 2009

Video: Clay Christensen on innovation, Healthcare and Education

Mr. Christensen, a well known professor at Harvard Business School, was being interviewed by Walt Mossberg in this video.

There are 3 parts to this video, talking about innovation in technology, healthcare, and education.  I didn't quite agree with Christensen's prediction that Nokia will win the battle in building mobile devices.  He seemed to have used his model on Nokia and Apple without taking into account the fundamental different natures of the two companies.

Having said that, I did feel that his talk on healthcare and education interesting.  My question is how can we build technology systems that really help kids to learn in their own style, in a way that really maximizes the value of technology and human teachers?

Enjoy!

Monday 5 January 2009

Video: Documentary of Ghibli Studio and the great animator Hayao Miyazaki (宮崎駿)

When thinking about the word "animation", many westerners consider it as an extension of cartoon, with a bit of eccentricity.  Some picture conventions with girls wearing really short skirts.  Some associate it with comic books.

These are all valid associations, but it is not all that animation is.  In Japan, an animation movie such as "Spirited Away" can have box office sale equaling or exceeding that of a Hollywood hit movie.  (in this case, 150 million dollars)

Animation is a mainstream medium in Japan and enjoys high status.  In the following documentary, you get a glimpse into the renowned animation studio Ghibli and the people working in it.

It makes me wonder - how do people of different cultures develop different styles of animation, what are the effects of different styles of medium on sending a message to its audience?

Enjoy!  (This is the first of the 6 parts)