Category Archives: Futurist

Having been in marketing in various capacities over the past two over decades, I can safely say the function has evolved dramatically especially in the past few years. The change is of course largely attributed to the digital revolution which has closed the distance between brand and customer but with the multitude of channels of communication available also means the marketers job just got a lot more complex and to be effective, you will need to truly grasp integration.

Apart from that, transparency between brand and customer has definitely deepened and brands have huge opportunities today to differentiate if insights are well collected and analysed. These are the current realities, but what holds for the future of marketing? Here is my take:

1) Driver of change

Gone are the days where marketing is just a team that looks into advertising and media buys. Whilst that part of the job remains essential, the role of marketing certainly does not stop there. Today, the customer journey crosses so many departments, in U Mobile our customers journey runs through I.T. department for payment, to network for coverage quality to regulatory division for issues such as mobile parental control, so marketing is no longer just about ensuring good customer service in store or online, the function needs to adopt a more end to end mindset.

Ultimately, marketers are the ones with customers insights and hence are the ones who are able to support the rest of the divisions with the relevant information so that the customer journey will be seamless and consistent. I work very closely with the CTO to ensure networks are being rolled out at locations that matter to our customers. Before the new network is rolled out, I would have already had a conversation with the chief sales officer on sales strategy. Hence, to be an effective support and driver of customer related changes, marketers really need to be knowledgeable of the business and the priorities of the various divisions so that trust will be gained and cooperation achieved.

2) Make innovation central

Today product and service life cycles have shortened dramatically as customers are way more discerning. To build meaningful and impactful relationships with customers, brands really need to be one step ahead to provide for a need before the customer even acknowledges that need. A lot of my time is spent driving innovation, and aligning the innovation with the companys overall strategy and growth objectives. Moving ahead, innovation will need to move a lot faster and with greater frequency.

Competition can catch up really fast and so in order to innovate well, marketers need to mine data intelligently and by always asking the right questions.

3) Be data smart

In all my previous points, I mentioned the essential role of data and how it is the facts that will drive change and innovation. However, I am the first to admit that the sheer amount of data available today makes effective collection, analysis and application challenging. To ensure the data is well used, the marketer of the future will really need to be well versed in data analytics technologies and be clear on how to integrate the various technologies so that there will not be duplication of effort and results are not taken in isolation and solutions applied without context.

Marketers of the future will not only need to be a specialist in their field but they also play a critical role in connecting the dots throughout the organisation so that customers may have a truly satisfying end to end customer experience.

Much has indeed changed in the marketing world and landscape, but some things do remain, whether you are a marketer today or in 2025, you need to be passionate, gung ho, and enjoy being different and always bold. You can make a difference with data, but you can only make history if you tip it over with foresight.

The author of the article is Jasmine Lee, CMO,U Mobile Marketing Redefined

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The Futurist: Marketing redefined | Marketing Interactive - Marketing Interactive

AWESTRUCK WITH JASON SILVA

Think Inc. Present: Awestruck with Jason Silva Thursday June 15, ASB Waterfront Theatre Tickets available now from Eventfinda

We are gods. Our tools make us gods. In symbiosis with our technology, our powers are expanding and so, too, our possibilities.

In June 2017 Think Inc., in association with AUT, Loop and National Geographic Channel, are excited to bring to New Zealand, for the first time, futurist and explorer of the metaphysics of imagination, Jason Silva. Described as a modern performance philosopher, Silva is set to expound on the power of science, technology, philosophy and creativity in Auckland as he challenges creativity, innovation, the co-evolution of human and technology, existentialism and the human condition.

Awestruck with Jason Silva will see Silva pull from a vast mental repository of tech knowledge to create an exhilarating, immediate experience. A self-described wonder junkie, performance philosopher, and idea-DJ, Silva has gained a huge following for his popularising takes on philosophy and the thrilling possibilities of creativity and technology. Futurist and epiphany addict, Silva likes ideas, their tenacity, flexibility, their contagious nature, their impact and their ability to expand, procreate and evolve into new ideas.

As the Emmy-nominated host of National Geographic Channels #1 rated and Emmy-nominated series Brain Games, Silva left audiences in state of wonderment, and has been responsible for a number of Ted talks. Like all the best communicators, Silvas strength is a tangible excitement for his subject matter.

Silva is the creator of the short film series Shots of Awe, which serves up invigorating shots of philosophical espresso in a format designed to be short, infectious and easily spread - think of them as inspired nuggets of techno-rapture. In the collection of videos, Silva invites audiences to share his glee in the rising and wondrous role of technology in amplifying intelligence and creativity.

We use our tools to extend our range of possibilities, we use our tools to extend our reach, to extend the impact on our consciousness, to extend our will. Technology is the human imagination turned inside out.

In June, let Think Inc. and Jason Silva pull you out of your intellectual comfort zone and launch you into a flight of possibilities.

Think Inc. Present: Awestruck with Jason Silva Brought to you by AUT, Loop & National Geographic Thursday June 15, ASB Waterfront Theatre

Doors 6:30pm / Show: 7.30pm / Ends 9.30pm

Tickets available now from EventfindaFor more info, head to Think Inc.

Scoop Media

Follow this link:
Futurist Jason Silva Brings 'Awestruck' To NZ This June - Scoop.co.nz (press release)

A week after Michael Flynns abrupt fall from grace, President Trump will smooth things over with a national security adviser that at least some people can agree on.

Called everything from a warrior scholar to the rarest of soldiers,, Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster is an about-face from the divisive Flynn, who resigned amid the escalating controversy over his contact with Sergey Kislyak, Russian ambassador to the U.S.

McMaster, often described as the armys own futurist, holds a complex view on technology, cautioning against technological hubris as a solution to modern warfare. Be skeptical of concepts that divorce war from its political nature, particularly those that promise fast, cheap victory through technology, McMaster wrote in a 2013 op-ed in the New York Times titled The Pipe Dream of Easy War. He continued:

Wars like those in Afghanistan and Iraq cannot be waged remotely. Budget pressures and persistent fascination with technology have led some to declare an end to war as we know it. While emerging technologies are essential for military effectiveness, concepts that rely only on those technologies, including precision strikes, raids or other means of targeting enemies, confuse military activity with progress toward larger wartime goals.

That same characteristic deep perspective appears to be on display in his controversial but largely well-respected book, Dereliction of Duty, about the failing of military leaders, particularly theJoint Chiefs of Staff, during the Vietnam war. McMasters academic streak is just one of the traits that paints him in stark contrast to Flynn, who is widely regarded as ideologically driven, particularly by anti-Islamic sentiment.

During an April 2015 symposium on Army innovation, McMaster expanded on the risk inherent in an overreliance on military technology.The biggest risk that we have today is the development of concepts that are inconsistent with the enduring nature of war, McMaster said. What we see today is really an effort to simplify this complex problem of future war and to essentially make it a targeting exercise. The idea is that the next technology we develop is going to make this next war fundamentally different from all those that have gone before it.

At a defense conference in London a few months later, McMaster emphasized that traditional manpower cant be ignored in favor of flashy technological advances that appear to provide short-term gains. [There is a] delusion that a narrow range of military technologies will be decisive in future war, he said. Technology is the element of our differential advantage over our enemies which is most easily transferred to our enemies.

McMaster is no technophobe, but he dismisses conceptions of the future of war that cut against wars political nature, wars human natures, wars uncertainty and war as a contest of wills.

Notably, he also really, really hates PowerPoint. Its dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control, McMaster told the New York Times. Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable. (Good luck telling that to the commander-in-chief.)

Its too early to tell how McMaster will fit into Trumps roiling inner circle, or perhaps the outermost circle of his concentric inner circles, but McMasters willingness to critique authority around issues of national security is likely to prove relevant.

As Middle East scholar and former U.S. Army officer Andrew Exum writes in the Atlantic:

One thing that stands out in the book is the way in which McMaster criticized the poorly disciplined national security decision-making process in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and especially the way in which the Kennedy administration made national-security decisions by a small group of confidants without a robust process to serve the president.

Its not hard to imagine howthe Armysbig picture thinkermightextend that criticismto a president who prefers to craftdecisionsthrougha small clusterof loyalists, incorporating little outside input. It remains to be seen if Trump will bring McMaster fully into the fold or if hell just freeze him out like so many other administration officials who have expresseddissent.

Whatever role he ends up playing, McMaster will joinDefense Secretary James Mattis and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to round out the trifecta of well-respected military leaders who have Trumps ear.

Go here to read the rest:
Trump's new national security adviser is a futurist with warnings about technology - TechCrunch

The world is moving away from fossil fuels towards renewable energies, and Alberta risks being left behind, says futurist Nikolas Badminton, whose presentation kicks off the Growing the North conference at the Entrec Centre on Wednesday.

Badminton is a Vancouver-based futurist, someone who makes predictions about how technology will shape the future. He says a big shift to renewable energy over the next 10 to 15 years will make fossil fuels far less important, adding Alberta needs an entrepreneurial ethos to adapt to the change.

Albertas sort of lagging behind in this vision of renewables, and I think in a province where youve got over 300 days of sunshine per year, were sort of missing an opportunity for creating an abundance of energy, Badminton said in an interview.

He points out that 51% of Albertas energy is still generated by coal and 39% by natural gas, while hydro and wind only account for 2% and 5%, respectively. In B.C., on the other hand, 90% of power is hydro-generated.

According to Badminton, the beginning of the great shift away from fossil fuels is already evident. Last year Tesla Motors announced it was planning to produce 500,000 all-electric vehicles in 2018, two years ahead of schedule. And Ford announced last month it is launching a fully electric SUV by 2020, as well as 13 new electrified vehicles over the next five years including hybrid F-150s and Mustangs. By 2023, Badminton said, battery-powered cars will be the same price as combustion-engine cars.

The disruption is here.

Its happening in agriculture too, he added: John Deere has just come out with a prototype electric vehicle. I think we can see farming going all electric in the next few years. And last November Alaska Airlines flew the first commercial flight with a renewable biofuel.

Badminton says Alberta should be channelling its talent towards innovation, thinking about technology startups ... Theres such a huge branch of talent in Calgary, Edmonton and across the province that I think it could become a huge innovation centre.

In addition to shifting towards renewables, Badminton endorses the circular economy, an idea advocated by The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a think tank. The concept envisions a world without junk yards; consumer products would be designed to be disassembled, once theyre no longer wanted, so that their materials can be re-used. Things that have to be thrown away, such as packaging, would be compostable.

However, Badminton acknowledged such a massive transformation of the economy would be unlikely to happen without government intervention.

Without these incentives, without certain regulations in place to actually start to force the change, the change is slow to come.

Badmintons talk starts at 8:45 a.m.

khampson@postmedia.com

Twitter @kevinhampson

Excerpt from:
Renewable energy will displace oil and gas: Futurist - Alberta Daily Herald Tribune

Children are insane. Or, more precisely, they don't think logically as adults do. Children aren't burdened by hardened adult preconceptions and expectations, so suffer fewer roadblocks to learning new things. This different way of seeing things is why children adapt so easily to high tech that confuses the rest of us.

That's the theoretical basis behind "Mimsy Were The Borogoves," a classic science fiction tale from 1943 in which two children find a box of toys from the future that they totally grok but which flummox their Euclidian-conditioned parents. (You can read "Mimsy" here or watch the movie version, The Last Mimzy.)

Could we be approaching the unidentified future from which Mimsy's high tech toys originated?

At the annual Toy Fair, held this past President's Day weekend in New York city, I found some playthings instilled with bleeding edge technologies even I barely understand but that today's youngsters should have no trouble taking to just like the children in "Mimsy" hopefully, without the story's strange consequences.

For instance, there was a futuristic version of one of the most iconic toys of all time Barbie. Mattel showed off Hello Barbie Hologram, which is sort of a personalized 3D animated Amazon Alexa.

You can ask Hello Barbie Hologram Alexa-like questions, prefaced by "Hello, Barbie," such as for the weather. But instead of Stephen Hawking-like monotone responses, you get an effervescent Barbie not only playfully announcing the local outdoor conditions, but you get a visual; for instance, if Barbie tells you it's raining cats and dogs, you get a holographic visual of canines and felines pouring from the sky. You can voice command the hologram Barbie to set alarms, night lights and daily reminders. You can also change hologram Barbie's size and skin tone and ask her to perform a number of dances.

Hello Barbie Hologram will be available sometime this fall for less than $300.

VR has been popping up in a few toys in the last couple of years, but at Toy Fair I saw three unique applications that seem to more holistically integrate VR into the design of the toy rather than haphazardly tacked on.

A start-up called Tilt is advancing "textile tech" in its SpinTales, which uses a duvet, a rug and VR to, well, put a new spin on some old stories for children. The SpinTales app includes three stories: Little Red (as in Little Red Riding Hood), 3 Pigs (as in the Three Little Pigs) and Magic Beans (as in Jack and Beanstalk). You then buy either the SpinTales Enchanted Duvet or the throw Jungle Rug ($99.99 each).

Your child activates one of the games on their smartphone or tablet and picks different activities. When prompted, the child then holds the tablet or smartphone over a matching section on the duvet or rug to activate the 3D VR, which displays an exploration of the immediate vicinity as the character moves around.

What makes SpinTales fascinating is that the bedspread and throw rug are ever-present; they don't have to dug out of a closet or toy chest or located under a pile of other discarded toys, dirty clothes or the bed.

One of the more fascinating VR games I saw isn't a product you'll be able to buy, but a "mixed reality game" technology concept that combines VR and RFID from a Quebec-based developer, bkom Studios. You move physical RFID-equipped tokens around a board; each token then generates a VR character that can be seen on the corresponding app on a smartphone or tablet or a more 360-degree view through VR goggles. Scanning playing cards triggers each character's activities.

bkom hopes to sell the technology for game developers to create new VR/RFID games.

A mixed reality learning VR plaything you soon will be able to buy is "Animal World with Jessica" from Odyssey ($39.95, April/May). Inside the smart box the cover acts as an interactive VR game board includes 65 VR animal cards, VR goggles, eight coloring paper sheets and a combined smartphone/tablet holder.

After downloading the "Animal World" app, a child holds a card so the smartphone or tablet camera can see it, which activates a moving, interactive VR version of that animal viewed on either a touchscreen device or more fully through the VR goggles. The animal can be manipulated while information about it is imparted to the child. Two animals can be created to interact with each other, or your child can switch the camera view and take a selfie with the animal.

At some point, the "Animal World" developers hope to update the app so children will be able to virtually feed the animals as well as talk to them ala Dr. Doolittle. Additional mixed reality educational card sets with different topics are planned.

A plethora of companies have been developing simplistic robot toys and robot learning and construction kits for the last few years. But Fisher-Price has built instead an inexpensive version of a home robot designed to help your youngest kids learn while playing.

The company's cute, nearly foot-tall Teach n' Tag Movi ($49.99, fall) is an interactive learning buddy that can follow directions, play games and displays animated facial expressions that help give it a personality. It can roll around via voice command on three wheels on nearly any surface.

Movi, which will operate on three C cells and is designed for youngsters 3-6, includes three play modes: Alpha Fun Actions, Think & Move Shapes and Learn & Play Games including Red Light/Green Light and Silly Sounds Tag. Two buttons on top of Movi allow for a child's direct input.

Not quite Isaac Asimov's Robbie, the first robot presented in his "I, Robot" collection, another, more optimistic look at our robot buddy future, but getting there.

Hopefully, these robot, VR and hologram toys won't cause the mischief the sci-fi playthings do in "Mimsy," but merely prepare your prodigy for life in their non-fictional future.

View post:
Futurist Sci-Fi Toys Are Here Now - Huffington Post

As the world gets excited about the possibilities that VR unfolds for all of us in the business of marketing brands, Im reminded of the golden adage: People will forget what you did, but theyll never forget how you made them feel.

Yes, emotions are back in business and today they are becoming even more measurable in real-time. As the buzz on building smarter cities and a smarter life gains momentum, one can expect technology to play a larger role in driving marketing engagements.

We expect to see more IOT and tech-enabled conversations driving B2B and B2C relationships. Marketers will be expected to find compelling narratives to better emote and engage with customers. As such, leading global telcos and tech brands are converging their products, services and infrastructure to create a more immersive and pronounced engagement with customers.

Marketing beyond VR

Sure, newfangled tech and nifty platforms, such as AR, VR, wearables and apps do help take the brand experience narrative forward, but often they dont necessarily form the narrative itself. This is a reason why more and more marketers have started investing increasingly in collaborative commerce platforms and experience centres.

Collaborative commerce platforms are fast becoming a new model of marketing engagement especially with IT and telco corporations. Brands are increasingly involving their member/customer base in not just running campaigns, but the business itself.

The active advocacy and emotional ownership that such engagements presents are tough to match through conventional social/digital marketing routes. Brand experience centres are not your flagship stores and they dont substitute for the experience. Today, brands from across industries are investing significantly in building their marquee experience centres.

While the wave of customer experience centres started as an effective way to engage B2B customers, with the likes of British Telecom and VADS back home inviting its prospects to come and experience how they could help solve complex real-life business issues in real time, the marketing practice has caught the fancy of non-tech companies as an opportunity to immerse and excite the public in the types of possibilities it creates.

Companies from across the industry spectrum are actively engaging in creating mini experience centres to immerse target segments.

The digital paradox for marketers

Organisations are busy bucking up their respective digital transformation journey. While it will ease the pressure of marketing in organising, managing and serving various customer segments, invariably it will make it increasingly tougher for brands to connect emotively with their customers in the digital age.

However, on the other hand, brands such as Amazon have effectively created a well thought out customer gratification model that keeps its emotive connect intact. In fact, the brand for the first time in its history has gone from a pure click to a brick and mortar model with physical stores in countries such as India.

Underscoring the realisation that marketing in the digital age will increasingly rely on creating immersive brand experiences be they physical, virtual or collaborative in nature.

Yes, advancements in tech be they AR, VR, bots, wearables or 3D printing will serve as effective special effects, but the narrative will need to rely on telling an effective story that engages all the five senses, which creates memorability, talkability and shareability beyond likes and views.

The author of the article is Izlyn Ramli, vice-president, group brand and communication Telekom Malaysia.

Original post:
The Futurist: Making an emotional connection | Marketing Interactive - Marketing Interactive

Clark Edwin February 12, 2016

The Royal Court Theatre is the leading national company in Britain that is dedicated to play the new works that are written by the innovative writers. Here are ten things that you can learn from the Royal Court Theatre @royalcourt building tour. Take a look at these below.

On closely observing the concrete walls, you can take a look at the wood grain from boxes that were employed as moulds for the blocks.The Royal Court Theatre was receiving a theatre and it is a producing theatre itself now.The Royal Court Theatre is the one and only theatre in the country that accepts spontaneous play scripts that are all read. In case you send your play script to any theatre such as the National Theatre, you will be asked to send your script to the Royal Court Theatre.

Royal Court Theatre as a theatre fosters the writing talent. Only the playwrights receive start billing and not of the actors do irrespective of who they are.Rehearsing for the play is done on site in a specific room that is created in the eaves of the Royal Court Theatre building. This region was earmarked for the officers originally. Now, even auditions are conducted on the site.The grilles of the Royal Court Theatre act a window decoration and this is found even in the stairwell that leads to the Jerwood Upstairs. These were originally the drains in the womens loo.

The trapdoor that we meant for the Jerwood Upstairs is accessed from the offices of the theatre that are located underneath. SActually, there is no stage at the Jerwood Downstairs. For each production, the boards are made and these give more flexibility to the theatre and a quicker turnaround between the different productions. For instance, for the Haunted Child set up, one could see cracks on the stage that revealed the large space below. This was a little bit frightening.

In the stalls at the Royal Court Theatre building, the very last row is called writers row as that where the playwrights will be seated and watch their plays that are performed during the preview. This way, they can make an immediate exit from the hall at the end of the play.The Jerwood Upstairs was meant for the private members club to move around the laws that approved the play scripts. Therefore, the scripts are edited and censored before they could actually be performed.

Read also :Take A Look At The Almeida Theatre Backstage Tour

Let us see the Almeida Theatre backstage tour in this content. Those who like backstage tours will definitely love the Almeida Theatres backstage tour. The highlight of the backstage tours is that you will get to see the parts of the theatre that you never get to see at the other times. There some tricks that have to be executed at the backstage to make the audience sitting in the hall watching the performance enjoy the show.

The green room as well as the dressing rooms of the theatre are the most impressive ones of the four rooms at the Almeida Theatre. There are many personal items, family photos, good luck cars, etc. at the backstage. You will get a bit of the life backstage before the performance, during the performance and after it as well. The green room has a futon bed for naps between the matinee and the evening performances. Also, there is a fridge with the favourite items of the performers.

The wardrobe department is also interesting. There are stacks of boxes that are labelled to avoid last minute confusion. There are stands with wigs drying in the corner, tumble dryers, washing machines and an industrial strength steam iron.

What kind of gadgets do theaters use that are also useful at home? If you over analyze the situation, you might start to think about common, everyday items like seats and lights or even electricity. However, most people have a tendency to miss one of the most important things that can easily be found in either location. That item is a dehumidifier. These items are designed to take the humidity out of the air, thus making it more comfortable for a person to be in that environment and making it a better environment for certain items, such as anything made out of wood, that might be in that location.

The answer is simple. They almost have to use them. Theaters are typically dark locations so they usually dont have any windows. This means there is no natural ventilation to the outside. In addition, theaters have a tendency to pack people in and depending on the size of the theater, there could easily be hundreds or even closer to 1,000 individuals located inside one large room at any given time. The more people that are in an enclosed space, the more body heat is produced. This can increase humidity levels noticeably until it is so uncomfortable it is almost impossible to stay inside. With the use of a dehumidifier, the problem is solved.

Generally speaking, the problem can easily be handled by having the right number of dehumidifiers in the right locations. The truth is, most people dont even realize that these devices or are present or that they are in use. The only thing that they do notice is that the room is much more comfortable, effectively allowing them to stay in that room for an extended period of time and enjoy whatever it is they came to see. The same is true for the home. The devices can be used to make rooms more comfortable or to take excessive moisture out of her room so that it doesnt smell musty or moldy.

The best dehumidifiers for home usework wonder for anyone that has mold problem inside their home or for those individuals who have a lot of natural wood inside the house, or even personal possessions like guitars. If there is too much moisture inside the home, the top ten dehumidifiers can be used to remove the proper amount of moisture just as a humidifier is sometimes used to add moisture when the air is too dry. Either way, it makes it much easier for both individuals and certain material possessions to be in that particular environment.

Also see:How Sophisticated is the AV Equipment in the Theatre?

When theaters first came along, nobody knew how much it would change in a century. While there has been vast improvements in picture and audio quality down the years, the trend today is now experiencing movies in a completely different way than before. Theaters are moving away from traditional audio and video equipment. Instead, the focus is on creating a more immersive experience for the viewer.

Today, theatre is about making use of technology in a big way. The innovations are being made use of both onstage as well as backstage as they need to compete with the technology which the user is used to in the digital space.

Most productions and theaters now make use of video designers in a large way to help them with their theater productions. Theaters increasingly make use of virtual reality masks, computer animation and stop motion camera work. With hardware and software getting cheaper, even fringe theaters is able to utilize this.

The audio visual equipment used in 3D theaters is a lot different than before. The RealD 3D technology, which is used in theaters, use circular polarized light. This, when used with polarized glasses, makes the right and left eyes see different pictures creating better 3D effects.

Sound effects play a huge part in theatre as they help in unfolding of the story. They tell you about the action, and about how each of the events will unfold. They also help in manipulating composed or recorded audios. Most theaters, employ sound designers whose entire job revolves around this art of sound designing.

In movie theaters, MIDI and digital audio technology are used in a big way. Computerised theatre sound systems are also used in various plays and productions. Modern audio technology like the ones in DJToolsGuide.com can easily be integrated into live performances, which makes theaters offer a more immersive experience.

IMAX 3D uses larger screens and larger film sizes with Dolby Digital sound. Some other theatres use analog technologies, but that means that if the viewer doesnt look straight at the screen, the 3D effects get lost. There are also digital projectors, LCD shutter glasses which are being used in todays world.

Dolby 3D is another popular technology in use today, and uses polarized glasses which has multiple coatings and cut out specific frequencies of light. The lenses are curved which give better effects too.

With Virtual Reality coming in, it wont be long enough before we have planetarium type shows taking over conventional movie theatres. When it comes to audio, these new theaters can be fitted with 64 speaker feeds which provide an amazing experience to the audience.

The EQ resolution is used for optimization for all types of playback content, and it is used even when the environment is acoustically challenged. The configurations provide I/O interfaces of the digital cinema and there is automatic calibration done so that the quality of playback is consistently at high quality.

These systems allow for individual amplification and equalization of surround speakers and also support bass management of subwoofers.

Jake Gyllenhaals ripped physique in Southpaw, Anne Hathaways slimmed down build in Les Miserables; stars have always taken their exercise and diet routines to extreme limits in order to play the part in films, but how do they do it?

Portman and Kunis have always had slender physiques, but in order to play cut-throat, obsessive ballerinas, the stars both had to drop 20 pounds. Kunis spent seven months training four hours per day, every day of the week, and drastically cutting back on calories, eating very small portions of a balanced diet. Portman, who was already a vegan, continued to eat many of the same foods, although in smaller portions. For nearly a year she trained with a former professional ballerina, spending up to eight hours, six days per week, doing swimming, cross-training, and ballet classes in order to get the ballerina physique.

When Hemsworth took on the role of Thor, he gained 30 pounds of muscle to transform his body into the God-like physique needed. To do this Hemsworth stuck to a strict eating schedule, packing away huge amounts of protein, rice and vegetables every three hours, even when he wasnt hungry. It also meant spending at least two hours a day doing an intense work-out regimen of not just weight-lifting in his home gym but also aspects of Crossfit, martial arts and boxing. One surprising aspect of his get-fit routine? Sleeping, which he says was an important part of the equation.

Portraying a starving prostitute meant Hathaway had to drop 25 pounds through an initial two-week cleanse, followed by two weeks of a diet of two dried oatmeal paste squares each day. Why such a harsh diet? The actress needed to look near death, her character was dying from tuberculosis after all, so exercising was off the table.

Cooper took on the role of the Navy SEAL with just ten weeks to gain 40 pounds of muscle. In order to pull of this near impossibility he turned to a professional trainer and began working out twice a day. Starting with basic exercises like deadlifts and squats he then moved on to traditional weightlifting techniques. To top it all off, Cooper ate a whopping 5,000 calories each day which included 5 meals, protein drinks and energy bars.

Beyonce needed to trim down her usually curvaceous body in order to play the slim 16-year old in the film. In order to lose 20 pounds in two short weeks, the star turned to the Master Cleanse Diet, which meant eating no solid food and drinking daily 6-12 glasses of water mixed with lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper. She does admit to cheating a bit by drinking protein drinks and eating fish and vegetables.

Aiming for authenticity, as well as a seriously ripped physique, Gyllenhaal worked with a professional boxing coach to prepare for the role. Starting at just 147 pounds, Gyllenhaal gained 28 pounds of hard muscle through running, jump roping, boxing drills, and weight training. All of that training had one benefit, an unrestricted diet with only one edict; lots of protein.

Dont think you could get the same results as your favorite star? Youre probably right, but with good reason. While the stars worked with nutritionists and personal trainers almost round the clock to obtain these extreme results, they are nearly universally considered unhealthy.

Also read:Acting in the Theatre can be Very Intense, do Actors Get Enough Sleep?

Celebrities lead fairly fabulous lives but they are often hectic as well. They frequently have to travel across the country at a moments notice, attend parties at late night hot spots for publicity, follow rigorous and demanding schedules, etc.

So, it comes as no surprise that sleep is not always their number one priority. In fact, prescription medication and insomnia have often been the culprits in a number of high-profile celebrity deaths this paints a vivid picture of how dangerous sleep problems can be if not treated responsibly.

But, did you know that the lives of theatre actors are even more hectic? This particular profession is not for the lazy and requires a lot of passion, dedication, and a number of other hardy traits. Some of these include:

There are some theatre actors who love live shows as they provide instant feedback. Still, there are others who dread it because the presence of the audience is a constant reminder that theyre acting something that can be distracting if you lack the discipline and focus needed to stay in the moment while audience members react, answer telephone calls, smoke, take pictures, etc.

Even though all actors make a lot sacrifices, sleep seems to be the hardest hit. Theatre actors, in particular, have to get up early for their day jobs and stay up late to get the chance to follow their passion. They also have to squeeze in time to memorize lines and run errands. When you finally take a minute to see how much time all these activities take, its easy to see why many theatre actors dont get the 7 hours needed for quality rest.

Most actors seem to be handling their hectic lives well but, the truth is, they arent immune to the sleep-related health problems that plague us. But when you consistently miss out on sleep, it can lead to a wide variety of serious health issues like heart problems, diabetes, obesity, and more.

Thankfully, there is some good news to be had its relatively easy to start getting better sleep. Some general rules of thumb include:

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Lately, there were incidences of the audience members at a theatre who did not behave brilliantly. Some of these annoying and bad experiences are given here.

The noisy headphones: A person at the Lyttleton was wearing either to using headphones to listen to music or hadnt turned off the MP3 player. No one could find where the music and singing came from but it was audible during the quieter scenes. On hearing these irritating sounds, there were a lot of puzzled looks that the audience started passing among one another. In the end, many people complained to the escort at the interval and an announcement was made in the general direction of where the noise came from and the music went off during the second half.

The giggling teenagers: One of the tiny studios is Trafalgar Studios 2 and the actors are usually within the reachable distance in this theatre. It was a play Dickens with a Difference, a Dickens themed double bill. James Swanton, the performer, took on the characters for the second show and warping himself into each one in what is said to be a gripping and skilled performance. Two teenager girls were sitting in the mid of the front row that is virtually under the nose of Swanton. They were not too gripped to the play and they decided to giggle, whisper, and snort all their way through the play. Swanton soldiered on the waiting till the curtain call to end the play thanking all for attending the play. He did not forget to point out to the girls by saying he had made the two of them laugh and stated that he hopes that he did not spoil their enjoyment.

Disturbances during play: At the Park Theatre during the Jonah and Otta play, three irritating audience incidents were reported. First, a woman with a ring tone of a child laughing decided to leave to answer the call. Later, someone wandered in the auditorium having gone through a wrong door and apologised loudly before leaving. Finally, a woman with a bad cold was coughing and sneezing for some time. She later sighed and muttered as well.

Go here to see the original:
Futurist Theatre Live Theatre Like Youve Never Seen It

Half a century ago, Alvin Toffler published a book about what happens to people when they are overwhelmed by change. Future Shock became a 1970 chart-topper.

Tofflers phrase future shock tells us something of the history of cultural anxiety. It also speaks to our response to change now in 2017, the very adolescence of the 21st century, when to be overwhelmed by change has become the standing condition of modernity.

Tofflers book begat an industry, lodged in no small part in eager business and tech programs, where it has become a commonplace to speak of futurists, meaning people who specialize in the study of our response to rapid change.

Reference books now encode futurist as one whose business is futuring. An aspect of futuring is visioning.

A 2015 article in The Atlantic asks why more women arent futurists, which would of course require them to be futuring, as well asvisioning a lot more than those who count such things imagine women are.

Some readers will call futuring and visioning examples of verbing, making verbs out of nouns, which sounds innocent enough. But I admit that when I hear futuring Im torn between imagining a breathless TED talk and a street-front fortune tellers window.

A century ago, this group of terms signified differently.Futurism or in Italian, futurismo is the early-20th-century art movement that celebrated speed, machines, and violence, sometimes in absurdist juxtapositions. Marinetti, a famous futurist, held forth on many subjects, including food. He hated pasta, for example, because he thought it slowed people down, and he envisioned a future without it.

With a rapidity that Marinetti might have admired, weve gone beyond futuring all the way to the verb form to future. Lets future it, Bob. To future in this instance seems to mean postpone.

Greg Britton at Johns Hopkins University Press, and one of my informants on such things, tells me hes also heard the verbal form parking lot, as in Yes, Ann, were going to parking lot that project. (Presumably in LA this would be Yes, Ann, were going to valet parking lot that project.)

What do early-20th-century Italian futurism and our up-to-the-minute analytic anxiety about futuring have in common? At least a triumphalist idea of smashing models and seeing more clearly.

Seeing clearly is, after all, what a clairvoyant is supposed to be able to do. Thats what the word means.

Im less concerned with policing the line between a) knowing which way the wind is blowing and b) having second sight. But futurists have had an awful lot of air time.

So what are our alternatives? No one yet dares identify as a pastist the word doesnt even look right but it would mean someone who analyzes things that have happened and uses that insight clair or not to help tackle the problems of the moment.

Oh wait, we do have a word for that profession. Its historian.

Most are too modest to call themselves futurists,but historians, whoknow how to think about complex things, are worth listening to now more than ever, when we need an understanding of history to help us sort out an enormous mess we just cant future.

If youre afuturistor planning to become one, put a stack of works by bona fide historians not crackpot real histories by reality celebrities on your bedside table, or download them to your Kindle. Give real history books to the people you love. Even those you only like.

You dont need to hear from Faulkner or MarxsEighteenth Brumaireyet once again to know that history isnt going away, any more than time is.

If you think were running out of time, or future, in which to solve our dilemmas, youve got plenty of company. With apologies to Walt Kelly: We have met the future and it is us.

You can follow me on Twitter @WmGermano. I promise not to use all caps.

Go here to read the rest:
Futurist Shock - Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription) (blog)

In darker corners of the internet there are growing communities of alt-right meme-machines mocking liberals and advocating white supremacy. However, recently another facet of the movement has emerged: fashwave, the musical genre where 80s electronica meets fascism.

Fashwave is essentially a subgenre of vapourwave, a creation of the early 2010s characterised by its slowed-down, lo-fi 80s A E S T H E T I C accompanied by images inspired by early computing technology and TV advertisements, simultaneously rebuking and embracing capitalist alienation. Its proximity to the latter is that at first listen you might not even realise you were hearing the product of a white nationalist (although titles such as Right Wing Death Squads and Team White do tend to give it away).

Fashwave effectively encapsulates a particular aspect of the Zeitgeist. With the roaring success of nostalgia-drenchedStranger Things last year, and the rapid rise of the political right, it is perhaps not so bizarre that the two would join forces to form the hybrid phenomenon. Indeed, one supporter declared on Twitter that what binds white nationalists together is a belief in the supremacy of the 1980s. It seems that the decade holds a special place in the hearts of alt-right members, who remember (or at least regard) it fondly as the last days of white America.

The genre is a very new one, born in the wake of the Paris terror attacks in November 2015. Leading fashwave artist Cybernazi said in an interview last year that his music was inspired by the horror the event instilled in him. This influence is evident genre-wide, with Xuriouss (another leading fashwave producer) oldest song entitled Requiem for Paris.

Leading alt-right figures have championed fashwave, describing it as the movements soundtrack. Of these the most well-known is probably Richard Spencer, the man who recently went viral for being punched in the face during the Washington DC street protests on the day of President Trumps inauguration in the middle of explaining his affinity with Pepe the Frog. The video has been repeatedly remixed online, meaning that you can now watch as Spencer is hit in time to the opening drum machine bars of New Orders Blue Monday.

Ironically, New Order is one of his favourite bands (alongside Depeche Mode) and is apparently a big influence of this new electronic genre. New Orders name has long attracted controversy and allegations of Nazi sympathies, all of which have been dismissed by its members. However, in an interview with VICEs music channel THUMP, Spencer said he thought the 80s legends were consciously or unconsciously channelling [] something darker, more serious, maybe more authoritarian.

This adoption of popular culture by fascists is nothing new. It is not even the first time this kind of music has been used the Swedish far right hijacked this particular vein of 1980s synth-pop when it was contemporary. However, this is the first time support has been so seemingly concentrated on one genre. Historically punk and other musical movements have attracted a fascist following, but far right supporters in the 21st century say that these forms are dead, and that self-produced electronic music as the artistic expression of the millennial generation is the natural fit.

Modern day far-right producers still acknowledge their historical influences however. Cybernazi described fashwave as the direct heir of Futurism, and it is not difficult to see why. Futurism was an artistic movement which came out of Italy in the early 20th century, in the days of Mussolini. The genre was inspired by the great technological advances happening at that time and the violence of war.

Nowadays, instead of trains and automobiles, fascist musicians are inspired by the creative possibilities of big data and the infinite virtual world of the internets capacity to bring people together. As with the alt-right movement as a whole it is easy to get caught up in the sensation and lose sight of the true scale of fashwaves popularity. Although the concept of fashwave is attention-grabbing, its listeners can really only be found in a very select niche of the internet. Even its most popular songs have only around 50 thousand views on YouTube. The movement is undoubtedly growing; there is no denying that. But all things considered you are unlikely to stumble across it in the soundtrack to the next Stranger Things instalment any time soon.

Image: Terri Po

Read the rest here:
Fashwave: the far-right phenomenon with Futurist forefathers - The Student

Campaigners hoping to save the Futurist Theatre in Scarborough from demolition have vowed to fight a decision that prevents the building being listed.

As reported by The Stage in January, campaigners had hoped that an application from the council to make the building immune from listing would be rejected by the government. A certificate of immunity from listing means the venue could not be statutorily listed for a period of five years and could therefore be demolished.

Scarborough Council approved 4 million of funding to demolish the theatre earlier this year. Although there are no plans for a replacement development, theme park Flamingo Land has previously expressed an interest in the site.

Historic England, which oversees the listing of buildings, confirmed to The Stage the government was minded to approve a certificate of immunity from listing for the Futurist in Scarborough on the advice of Historic England.

Nick Bridgland, listing team leader in the north said: We realise that there is much local interest in and affection for the Futurist. We carefully assessed the Futurist for listing and advised that because the building has been extensively altered over the years, it does not have the special historic or architectural interest to meet the criteria for national listing.

There will now be a statutory period of 28 days to allow for review, after which a final decision will be made by the government.

Responding, the Theatres Trust said it was considering appealing the move.

Local support for the building has grown strong over the last few months and campaigners are continuing to battle to save the Futurist. We support the Save the Futurist campaign group and other stakeholders who would like to see the Futurist Theatre restored for cultural use, it said.

It added: [The Futurist] could provide a large-scale theatre for the presentation of musicals, comedy, music and drama in Yorkshire, thanks to its capacity and flytower, and would be an immense cultural and economic benefit to the people of Scarborough.

Read more from the original source:
Scarborough's Futurist loses battle for listing to prevent demolition - The Stage