Making the Modern World presents a set of twisty little passages through the history of science and invention, from the eighteenth century to the contemporary era, brought to you by the UK's Science Museum.
posted by Miko on Nov 4, 2009 - 4 comments

" There were lots of small children in the audience. I thought about asking one little girl if she had voted for the paddle, the rod or the cattle prod." In 1995, a company called Interfilm revolutionized the movie industry. Oh, no, wait, it didn't. Audiences at Mr. Payback, "the first interactive movie," pressed buttons on a joystick attached to their seat to vote on the actions of the characters on-screen -- for instance, what kind of physical abuse a captured thug should undergo. Despite the pedigree of director Bob Gale (writer/producer of Back to the Future) and co-star Christopher Lloyd, critics were not impressed. The company folded a week after releasing its third interfilm, "I'm Your Man," scored by Joe Jackson, which did, a few years Interfilm was the brainchild of "conceptualist" and guy-with-gigantic-glasses Bob Bejan (Dateline NBC interview), who now works at a next-generation, data-driven marketing agency that delivers strategic, multi-channeled communication solutions designed to cultivate and sustain relationships between brands and their audiences. Watch: Clips from "Mr. Payback." The making of "I'm Your Man." (warning: A. Whitney Brown.) Read: the New York Times on the 1998 DVD release of "I'm Your Man." Booklet copy from the "I'm Your Man" DVD.
posted by escabeche on Aug 31, 2009 - 43 comments

How are Americans spending their time? An informational graphic from The New York Times.
posted by splatta on Aug 4, 2009 - 74 comments

Courtesy of the BBC, an award-winning mystery masquerading as a language education program. [more inside]
posted by skoosh on May 25, 2009 - 15 comments

Gallipoli: The First Day [flash] An ABC documentary site about the WW1 ANZAC landing at Gallipoli, on 25 April 1915.
posted by tellurian on May 3, 2009 - 12 comments

A visualization of the estimated 1.4 million deaths resulting from the Khmer Rouge. (Single Link Big Picture) There is no "more inside", thank goodness.
posted by metastability on Mar 7, 2009 - 40 comments

Brooklyn Revealed
posted by Miko on Mar 6, 2009 - 21 comments

Journalism may be going through a painful period but thanks to the web the once lowly information graphic is finally growing up to be all it never could on paper. Especially the New York Times seems to currently stand out in how frequently and quickly they build amazingly detailed and insightful interactive features. Consider the tracking of US Airways Flight 1549 or the piece on raising its engine from the Hudson. Other recent highlights: 9,955,441 parking tickets issues in NYC mapped by street, The Ebb and Flow of Movies: Box Office Receipts 1986 — 2008, Ansel Adams's Yosemite, the view from the 10-meter platform explained, A look at the language of presidential inaugural addresses 1789 to the Present, A Map of the number of medals that countries won in summer Olympic Games, Going to the End of the Line, The 44 Places to go in 2009, an explanation of how the Pentagon responded to criticism of then-Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, The Soyuz Spacecraft, How the Towers Stood and Fell and many, many, more. [more inside]
posted by krautland on Feb 14, 2009 - 16 comments

YouTube Street Fighter (single link interactive youtube game)
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Jan 20, 2009 - 33 comments

Selfcontrolfreak: experiments in video interactivity.
posted by johnny novak on Dec 19, 2008 - 11 comments

Survive the Outbreak: Interactive zombie movie. At certain points of the movie you will be prompted to make a choice. What would you do? You'll most certainly die, but at least you get to come back and try again. *NSFW due to profanity.
posted by bwg on Sep 27, 2008 - 48 comments

Primal source at GLOW (video), Burble London (an implementation of Open Burble) (video), Evoke (video) - the transformative artworks of Haque Design and Research. Interview with Usman Haque. Previously.
posted by Artw on Sep 21, 2008 - 6 comments

The Eco Zoo - some amazing Japanese 3D Flash. If you take a close look at the animals there... you might be able to get some tips to live in a more environmentally friendly way!
posted by Artw on Sep 13, 2008 - 13 comments

Crushed fans of Harry Potter expressed outrage upon learning they must wait another 8 months for the newest film installment. The timing of the announcement rather handily coincides with the release of Scholastic's "39 Clues" -- a book whose blend of interactive intrigue is supposed to take over young readers' imaginations where Harry leaves off. [more inside]
posted by skyper on Sep 10, 2008 - 47 comments

World Names Profiler is a pretty amazing Flash tool, that allows you to see where other people with your last name are distributed across the world, in frequency per million, right down to the city and regional level. Fun to pair with the NameVoyager.
posted by dgaicun on Sep 10, 2008 - 93 comments

I made tea. {Flash, I think. Via notcot.}
posted by dobbs on Aug 18, 2008 - 59 comments

"Double-Taker (Snout)" by Golan Levin with Lawrence Hayhurst, Steven Benders and Fannie White "...deals in a whimsical manner with the themes of trans-species eye contact, gestural choreography, subjecthood, and autonomous surveillance. The project consists of an eight-foot (2.5m) long industrial robot arm, costumed to resemble an enormous inchworm or elephant's trunk, which responds in unexpected ways to the presence and movements of people in its vicinity...." Googly Eyebot. (via) [more inside]
posted by Kronos_to_Earth on Aug 13, 2008 - 3 comments

Phyta. Downloadable (windows, linux) interactive thing. (via PlayThisThing) [more inside]
posted by juv3nal on Jul 2, 2008 - 13 comments

screamyGuy: Random Acts of Programming [created using Processing]
posted by brundlefly on Jun 22, 2008 - 8 comments

The Devil's Tramping Ground is a barren circle in the forest in North Carolina. As a result of nothing having grown within the circle for at least the last hundred years, it has become the subject of some of that state's oldest legends. John Harden, a journalist, newspaper editor and author said of that place "... the story is that the Devil goes there to walk in circles as he thinks up new means of causing trouble for humanity. There sometimes during the dark of night, the Majesty of the Underworld of Evil silently tramps around that bare circle; thinking, plotting, and planning against good, and in behalf of wrong. So far as is known, no person has ever spent the night there to disprove this is what happens.". No person until you came along and played this neat interactive flash movie, that is.
posted by Effigy2000 on May 29, 2008 - 21 comments

Interactive Architecture is for both geeks and design freaks. Lots of interesting and WTF stuff here, like SandScapes, Funky Forests, Swarming Structures, Colour Responsive Chairs, and Jelly Architecture. Not to mention the amazing Touch, a tower with 4200 windows equipped with RGB color LEDs that can be controlled by passersby.
posted by desjardins on Apr 26, 2008 - 2 comments

An interactive audiovisual tour [flash, audio] of the student protests in Paris in May 1968. Part of a larger look at 1968. [Previously]
posted by djgh on Apr 18, 2008 - 4 comments

Interactive Vietnam Veterans Memorial
posted by flapjax at midnite on Apr 1, 2008 - 26 comments

Family Tree of the Greek Gods is a site using a visual organizer (now in beta) called Spicy Nodes. They call it a "natural and inviting" way to present information in "nuggets" that move in virtual space as you view them one by one. Another example: Daylight Savings Time.
posted by Miko on Mar 8, 2008 - 23 comments

Gravityland. Interactive Web TV series. Watch weekly episodes, respond, contribute. Read blog. Add moves to music video. Play Where in the world is Gravityland? Read comic book. Build FAQ. Somehow, it's all related, and all possibility. [more inside]
posted by Miko on Mar 5, 2008 - 8 comments

The Wager: "I'll bet you that video games will never become a significant form of cultural discourse the way that novels and film have. I'll bet you that fifty years from now they'll be just as mature and well-respected as comic books are today," posits game designer Steve Gaynor. Responses and rebuttals. [more inside]
posted by Pastabagel on Feb 19, 2008 - 140 comments

It's round robin, user generated, choose-your-own-adventure style, web 2.0 fiction. My productivity is now permanently crippled. The cbc gives some background, if you care about that sort of thing.
posted by mock on Jan 9, 2008 - 9 comments

CASH is the Coalition of Artists & Stake Holders, a project conceived and initiated by musician Kristin Hersh. CASH is "read-write" — more than consumption; a collaborative online effort — helping make music ownership more of an interactive affair facilitated through Creative Commons licensing.
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Jan 5, 2008 - 9 comments

Interactive mathematics miscellany and puzzles, including 75 proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem, an interactive column using Java applets, and eye-opening demonstrations. (Actually, much more.)
posted by parudox on Dec 1, 2007 - 11 comments

Interactive, flashy, freaky flash Friday: Ice Flow Farm l Catamount Inn l Red Hawk Barn l Goosela Meadow l School House Grow l Octo October. Larry Carlson’s surreal North Vale Interactive Pictures. [mildly nsfw, embedded sound. Not for epileptics.] [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on Nov 16, 2007 - 20 comments

Voice Thread Now the online world can lend support in your family argument about what really happened on your fifth birthday.
posted by Miko on Nov 5, 2007 - 6 comments

Looking to rent or buy? You can check out the schools and inspect the foundation all you want, but only Rotten Neighbor cares to warn you about your potential community. [more inside]
posted by Terminal Verbosity on Oct 31, 2007 - 52 comments

Periodic Table of Elements
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Oct 10, 2007 - 41 comments

MUVA El PAIS has been conceived as a dynamic, interactive museum bringing together the most renowned works of contemporary Uruguayan art, an important contributor to Latin American art. MUVA is devoted to quality, content, education, information and recreation through the knowledge of visual arts. In Spanish and English, Flash and/or HTML.
posted by netbros on Aug 25, 2007 - 2 comments

Where Are The Joneses? is an interactive sitcom from Steve Coogan's production company. The action centres on Dawn Jones, who, on learning that she is the daughter of a sperm donor, sets out to find her twenty-seven siblings. You can watch episodes on YouTube, follow a Flickr photo-diary, and, inevitably, keep up via Dawn's Twitter account. Don't like the plot, characters or gags? Then rewrite the show on its wiki.
posted by jack_mo on Jul 10, 2007 - 9 comments

You Choose the Cliff (NYT). In Emmy-winning Satacracy 88, as in other films by itsallinyourhands, viewers' votes determine the next episode. Other films invite more personal interaction. In Mystery at Mansfield Manor viewers interview suspects. In the BBC's Wannabes (produced by Illumina), characters seek viewers' advice. [More Inside]
posted by honest knave on Jun 30, 2007 - 6 comments

Trulia Hindsight merges real estate data showing the year properties were built with animated maps (US Only). Search for your town by name; here's mine.
posted by oneirodynia on May 29, 2007 - 10 comments

The Global Terrorism Database is now available online. It includes information on more than 27,000 bombings, 13,000 assassinations, and 2,800 kidnappings. With 2D and 3D georeferences for some incidents. The interactive map isn't working for me though.
posted by tellurian on May 24, 2007 - 18 comments

A few days ago archaeologists discovered what is one of the most intact ancient Egyptian tombs ever found. If you would like to get in on the mummy fun from your own computer, there are several quaint things you may do on the internet; most satisfactorily, you can stick a hook up Seneb's nose and slice up his brain.
posted by frobozz on May 23, 2007 - 18 comments

Here's a charming interactive site for your kid (or the kid in you): Kusama's World of Dots. Brought to you by the Queensland Art Gallery.
posted by flapjax at midnite on Mar 17, 2007 - 28 comments

Why Do You Stay Up So Late? An interactive, illustrated poem. [note: sound and flash animation]... From the wonderful Born Magazine, "an experimental venue marrying literary arts and interactive media." A previous project from Born Magazine was featured on Metafilter in 2004.
posted by amyms on Mar 13, 2007 - 6 comments

Peacmaker - a new Israeli/Palestinian RPG: "The goal of the player as the leader is to establish a stable resolution to the conflict and win the Nobel Prize before his or her term in office ends."

Oh. Is that all?
posted by ericbop on Feb 2, 2007 - 37 comments

Days in a day [flash]. The story finishes once the notebook is completed.
posted by tellurian on Dec 18, 2006 - 6 comments

BramTV [flash] [possibly NSFW] Art + interaction = data-dandy behaviour. If you like to be in control you may well find this extremely annoying.
posted by tellurian on Oct 19, 2006 - 12 comments

Winky-Dink and You is considered to be the world's first interactive television show. Originally broadcast from 1953 to 1957, show watchers drew items directly on the TV screen to help Winky-Dink out of jams. The show also introduced us to Mr. Bungle (but not this Mr. Bungle, who gave us this Mr. Bungle).
posted by Otis on Aug 30, 2006 - 9 comments

The iBar (Interactive Bar). YouTube link.
posted by fandango_matt on Aug 18, 2006 - 21 comments

[NSFW] Heavy Rain From Quantic Dream Sets a new standard for realism in interactive cinema... I found this to be really creepy. I have a hard time looking into their eyes. Something about it is just...well, see for yourself. Anyway the flash technology is getting better and better. Along with what has become know as augmented reality. Pretty amazing stuff.
posted by Unregistered User on Jul 25, 2006 - 61 comments

Metaphorical.net - A collection of interactive studies and strange thoughts by william ngan. Favorites: Eichstatt and Sosostris. [via futurefeeder.com]
posted by swordfishtrombones on Jun 26, 2006 - 3 comments

Puppettool lets you animate a variety of avatars. [note: shockwave, nudity]
posted by crunchland on Mar 12, 2006 - 9 comments

Mona Lisa interativa .
posted by hortense on Feb 1, 2006 - 8 comments