Tori Amos with the short dark hair
via flickr.com
Portrait of Tori Amos with short dark hair, a diagonal mosaic of various thatched tiles.
A large (but still reasonably sized) version can be seen by clicking on this image:
Visual Mashups
Assembled, Composite, Reflexive, and Recursive Art
Filed underQThomasBower
Lady Gaga - Born This Way
via flickr.com
A "pre-release" of my forthcoming photomosaic for Lady Gaga's "Born This Way."
The source image for this mosaic is the first promotional photo Gaga leaked for her latest song - she's all sweeping blonde hair, black leather jacket, and barely covered backside.
Anatomy of Change
Since the video for "Born This Way" has yet to be released, I made this mosaic out of stills from her new "Anatomy of Change" video, featuring imagery inspired by the "Day of the Dead" ("Día de los Muertos"). It's an interesting video, you might want to check it out if you haven't already.
via youtube.com
I used still shots from this video for the pre-release version of the "Born This Way" mosaic - the black-and-white video was perfect to recreate the "Born This Way" promotional photo, and the imagery lurking in every corner of the mosaic is haunting and provocative.
Full-Size Version
It's definitely worth taking a look at the full-size version, which you can find here:
Here's a small detail taken from the full-size version:
As one reviewer put it, the result is to make the mosaic "a virtual gallery of memento mori."
Lyrical Text Cloud
Finally, just as I was finishing this mosaic, Lady Gaga pre-released the lyrics to "Born This Way." So, I ran them through a frequency analyzer and created three "lyrical tag clouds" which I blended together and then into the image. Here are the blended lyrical tag clouds before I added them into the final mosaic:
Another reviewer commented that the effect on the mosaic was reminiscent "of a mashup of the human anatomy married with the human vocabulary."
Please leave your comments!
Please leave a comment and let me know what you think, and please feel free to tweet, blog, or share this image with anyone who you think might enjoy it.
Lady Gaga Alejandro
via flickr.com
Lady Gaga Alejandro Mosaic - A mosaic portrait of Lady Gaga from her Alejandro video, using stills of different sizes as the tiles of the mosaic.
A belated gesture for the birthday of my friend Sean.
Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga Telephone Mosaic
via flickr.com
Lady Gaga - a new blended mosaic portrait.
"A sideways glance at the world of pop art, video, and pop music."
The source image is from the Telephone video when she turns to Beyonce and says, "You know what they say: Once you kill a cow, you gotta make a burger."
Top Pop Diva, Throwback to Glam Rock, Lady Gaga and her image team, the Haus of Gaga, continue the tradition of shocking images and catchy tunes inspired by David Bowie, Queen, Annie Lennox, and Madonna.
I created this new photomontage out of thousands of screen shots taken from Lady Gaga's pop hit videos Bad Romance and Telephone (featuring Beyonce). Here is a close up:
There are larger versions available on Flickr here: Lady Gaga Mosaic
DJ Earworm - Blame It On the Pop
DJ Earworm has exceeded all expectations with his mashup of the Billboard Top 25 Hit Songs of 2009.
DJ Earworm - a Visual Mashup by QThomasBower
United State of Pop 2009 - "Blame It On The Pop" - DJ Earworm
You can see the video DJ Earworm created to accompany his amazing mashup here:
Having received over 16 million views so far, his new year-end mashup topped the online music video charts for much of the beginning of this year. You can read more in this great article from CNN here:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Music/01/25/dj.earworm/index.html
Another fun review to watch from ABC News Video:
And for a high quality download of the audio, check out his website at:
If you enjoyed the lyrics I posted to his Annie Lennox Mashup earlier, you'll love the color-coded lyrics that Earworm posted on his website, showing not only the remarkably rate at which he switches from song to song, from singer to singer, but also the amazing coherence his final lyric has. You can find these lyrics here:
http://djearworm.com/united-state-of-pop-2009-blame-it-on-the-pop-lyrics.htm
For fun, here's a lyric cloud I made for this song. Actually, it's one of several, but DJ Earworm liked this the best:
My Latest Visual Arts Mashup - News of 9/11
A Memorial to the Victims of 9/11
A pivotal moment in our history and a defining event in our collective conscious, the attack on "ground zero" - the twin towers of the world trade center in new york city, affected all of us deeply, disturbed some of us profoundly, and changed our way of life forever.
I could not take my eyes off the news - the papers, the TV broadcasts, and the nascent Internet news media. As I remember, that was when Google started its news section, including something new on its front page for the first time! During that period, I collected the outstanding work of the photojournalists featured on the front pages of every major newspaper in the United States.
I have created this visual arts mashup of the work of those professionals as a tribute to their photojounalism, as a memorial to that tragedy's innocent victims, and as a continuing reminder that we must all work together if we are ever to find peace.
We must never forget.
----------------------------------------------
Also overthere
by Just Me, Aline
-
Also overthere
9 / 11 even elsewhere
thoughts in our head
3rd Worldwar
chaos, fear, confusion
thoughts:
back home now
work not important
our children, our love
nothing mathers more
together, each holding
the ones who you love
after 9 / 11
hope, hope for
a beautiful world
a world of peace
expect too much?"
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DJ Earworm Posts New Annie Lennox Mashup
Don't forget to watch this amazing video mashup at: http://bit.ly/djearworm
DJ Earworm posted the MP3 audio of his new mashup, as well as an accompanying embedded youtube video to his website, djearworm.com.
With this posting,we got a first glimpse of the official "cover art" of this new mashup (shown above), which is a fantastic mashup itself of various versions of Annie Lennox's face overlapping in two concentric spirals, ending in the center with two "Backwards / Forwards" arrows.
DJ Earworm creates Backwards/Forwards - a mashup of Annie Lennox's Solo Hits
Don't forget to watch this amazing video mashup at: http://bit.ly/djearworm
This visual mashup is a whimsical bit of fan art - my conceptualization of "album art" for the new audio and video mashup from DJ Earworm.
My old friend Jordan ("DJ Earworm") was recruited by Annie Lennox to create a pop music mashup of her solo work, with an accompanying video.
From the official Annie Lennox website:
The mashup celebrates the release of The Annie Lennox Collection with both a visual and audio remixing of classic Annie tracks including Little Bird, SING, Why, No More I Love You's, Shinging Light, Walking on Broken Glass and many more.
Annie Lennox is one of my all time favorite musicians - one of the first performers I really loved. Jordan is also a big fan of hers, and it shows in his wonderful mashup, which you can watch and listen to on YouTube: Backwards/Forwards - The Official Video on YouTube
You can learn more about these two brilliant artists at their official websites:
Backwards / Forwards Mashup with Lyrics
"Backwards/Forwards" - the amazing DJ Earworm mashup of Annie Lennox's solo work. You can watch the video here. The assembled lyrics are below.
What follows is my first attempt to capture the assembled lyrics of this amazing mashup. (You can help me improve the accuracy and completeness of these lyrics by leaving a comment below.)
Backwards / Forwards
Annie Lennox Mashup by DJ Earworm
(I don't think you know what I feel)
(You are a shining light)
Do be do be do do do, oh - oh
It's a dark room
But to me you're a shining light
Whoo - oo boy, whoo - oo boy,
You are a shining light
Do be do be do do do, oh - oh
I used to be lunatic
But to me you're a shining light
Do be do be do do do, oh - oh
I used to be woebegone
Yeah you light of my life
Now every one of us is made to suffer
Cry, cry. (I don't think you know what I feel.)
Every one of us is made to grieve:
Tears in my eyes burn (I don't think you know how I feel)
So take me from the wreckage. (Something goes wrong.)
Save me from the blast (Something goes right.)
Won't you pick the pieces up
Cause it feels just like I'm walking on broken glass
(Do be do be do do do, oh - oh)
Walking on, walking on broken glass
(Do be do be do do do, oh - oh)
Walking on, walking on broken glass
I look up to the
shining light
and I've got a wall around me
You are a shining light
I used to have demons
But to me you're a shining light
So many monsters
Yeah, you light up life
You don't know
I may be mad I may be blind
You don't know
I may be viciously unkind
You don't know
Keep on walking on broken glass
Walking on, walking on broken glass
(Do be do be do do do, oh - oh)
Walking on, walking on broken glass
(Do be do be do do do, oh - oh)
Turn a whiter
Dont wanna, don't wanna, don't wanna
(Momma!)
Shade of pale
Dont wanna, don't wanna, don't wanna
(Do be do be do do do, oh - oh)
(Momma!)
No more I Love You's
But to me you're a shining light
(Do be do be do do do, oh - oh)
(Momma!)
Changes are shifting outside the world
(Do be do be do do do, oh - oh)
Yoiu are a shining light
(You don't know.)
This is the book i never read
(You don't know.)
these are the words i never said
(You don't know.)
This is path I'll never tread
(You don't know.)
These are the dreams I'll dream instead.
(You don't know.)
This is the joy that's seldom spread.
(You don't know.)
These are the tears, the tears we shed.
(You don't know.)
This is fear, this is the dread,
(You don't know.)
These are the contents of my head.
(You don't know.)
This is the years that we have spent
(You don't know.)
And this is what they represent.
(Keep on)
This is how I feel.
Keep on walking on broken glass.
(Do be do be do do do, oh - oh)
Walking on, walking on broken glass.
Do you know, do you know how I feel?
Walking on, walking on broken glass.
Do you know, do you know how I feel?
Walking on, walking on broken glass.
Do you know, do you know how I feel?
Shining light.
(Do be do be do do do, oh - oh)
Walking on, walking on broken glass.
You light up my life.
Feel free to leave any comments, suggestions, etc. I'm especially happy to hear about any corrections or refinements you may find!
