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How an independent art and technology festival captured my heart
When I told my friends and co-workers I was attending the XOXO Festival in Portland, Oregon, last weekend, I had a difficult time explaining what it was about. The event website describes it as an "experimental festival celebrating independently produced art and technology." But that doesn't quite explain why the event, now four years in the running, struck a chord with me. One of the initial reasons I was drawn to XOXO was that it's about embracing technology not just as a means to make money, but also as a means for creativity and independence. This year, however, XOXO meant much more. The central theme of the festival, more than any other year, was about one thing: community.
On its 20th anniversary, Suck's co-founder says it couldn't exist today
Suck reunion from L to R: Joey Anuff, Ana Marie Cox, Carl Steadman, Heather Havrilesky, Tim Cavanaugh. "A fish, a barrel and a smoking gun." If you recognize that phrase, it's likely you're old enough -- or at least, been on the web long enough -- to remember Suck.com, one of the earliest ad-supported content sites on the internet. Started in 1995, Suck offered daily doses of satirical editorial that skewered all manner of topics -- from the state of the early web to politics and pop culture. It ran its course in 2001, and while there were efforts to at least keep its archives online, even the last remnants of Suck.com disappeared from the web unceremoniously earlier this year. In celebration of Suck's 20th anniversary (which passed a few weeks ago), several of the publication's original crew gathered at the XOXO Festival last weekend to reminisce and reflect on its legacy.
Flickr wants you to explore photos in VR
Some day you could be flipping through your vacation photos while wearing a VR headset. At the XOXO Festival taking place in Portland, Oregon this weekend, Flickr is showing off an early preview of a virtual reality experience that it hopes to integrate with its photo service. The demo at the festival was with an Oculus DK 2 hooked up to a PC and the idea is that you'll be able to use the headset specifically with 360-degree panoramic photos. I tried it on and indeed I was able to look all around me in 360 degrees to view an entire scene. To flip through the slides, I looked down at a pair of pink and blue balls for a couple of seconds, which triggers the next photo to load.
