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Since Instagram launched in 2010, its visual filters have allowed users to alter scenes from their everyday lives with increasing sophistication and processing power. For his short video Outside, the Russian graphic illustrator and motion designer Vladimir Tomin was inspired by Instagram’s use of realtime AI filters to consider what reality-warping technologies might soon be at our fingertips. In a series of clever – and occasionally slightly sinister – vignettes, Tomin playfully manipulates real video footage with digital editing tools to tilt over garbage cans, elevate street markings, and otherwise hint at a visual world that can be endlessly augmented and changed.
Via Colossal
Video by Vladimir Tomin
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Cosmology
Tiny, entangled universes that form or fizzle out – a theory of the quantum multiverse
11 minutes
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Music
The peculiar beauty of a song caught between composition and improvisation
3 minutes
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Rituals and celebrations
A beginner’s guide to a joyful Persian tradition of spring renewal and rebirth
3 minutes
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Astronomy
The history of astronomy is a history of conjuring intelligent life where it isn’t
34 minutes
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Love and friendship
Love looks a bit different for a chain-smoking couple in a small apartment
11 minutes
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Metaphysics
Simple entities in universal harmony – Leibniz’s evocative perspective on reality
4 minutes
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Biography and memoir
Passed over as the first Black astronaut, Ed Dwight carved out an impressive second act
13 minutes
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Engineering
A close-up look at electronic paper reveals its exquisite patterns – and limitations
9 minutes
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Architecture
West Africa was once an architectural laboratory. Is it time for a revival?
12 minutes