Matt Buck's Hack Cartoons

Something charming and upbeat to usher away those minutes as the working week winds down. The entertainment is courtesy of Tim Ireland at Bloggerheads. I think the PM might describe him as feral.

The government has climbed down on its attempt to reform the way doctors are employed by the NHS. Remedy UK, a lobby group of junior doctors, has stopped a major power grab by central government in the way young medics are trained.

Here is a link to a campaigning viral animation I did for them this spring.

Amid all the brouhaha about web 2.0, the future of journalism and suchlike, it's important to try and remember the important bit. Machines are only operated by humans - and we interact with technology in very predictable ways.

I was reminded of this by a friend who I'd pestered with another attempt at interactive cartoon animation. In return, he sent me a marvellous link to an online museum of lost interactivity. The fascination is in examining the past use of technology and entertainment to see how the future might run.

When you actually look at a 1920 acoustograph you begin to see the old point. Nothng is new under the sun.

You might call this excellent site - analysis, research or even fact-based journalism, all of which seem so unfashionable in the media at present.

Whatever, it's a pleasure.

Kudos to the students doing Interactive Media Design at Dundee for the museum - and a grateful hat-tip to Mark Crail, who supplied the information. Thanks Mark.


Museum of lost interactions
Moli
Mark Crail
Chartist Ancestors

The answer

The path of true love never did run smooth - the nappy wearing, all-night driving, unwanted lover of the three US astronauts caught up in a tangle, has just lost her job.

Full story

A marvellous blog entry by my enviably talented colleague, Morten Morland, who draws for The Times among others.

He writes about the future for cartooning in the fast changing media world, where the money and the customers are moving away from print.

American political cartoonists are getting the picture, and so it seems are increasingly the American newspapers too. As more and more of the focus is shifted towards the web, newspapers in Britain too will have to realize the full potential of the medium. That means, unfortunately some might say, that the trade will have to change too. Journalists will be working in different media to different deadlines. The traditional first, second and third editions will soon make way for continuous coverage.

Even for the less technologically challenging options though, there will be many issues facing cartoonists in this transitional period.Time for example. At the moment it’s very difficult to make a decent animated cartoon in the same time it takes to do a normal cartoon, yet the preassure to respond to events will only increase with time. Can you realistically do everything on your own without help?
Money. Because of the time you spend, and the equipment needed, animated cartoons will cost more to make, but will newspapers want to pay more?

Morten

And here's one of my own attempts to learn

Animation