arts

Climbing walls have come a long way since phys ed lecturer Don Robinson glued real rocks to a hallway wall at Leeds University in 1964. Just down the street from my office, walls made of plywood reinforced with steel frames sport dozens of different types of holds and graded "problems" -- perfect for staying in shape during the rainy winter months in Portland.

But not everyone lives within walking distance of an indoor climbing hub, so Munich-based design studio Lunar Europe thought up a pretty sleek art piece that doubles as a climbing wall and syncs up with an iPhone app.… Read more

By the time 2022 rolls around, graphics will have advanced to the point where they are "indistinguishable from reality," says Industrial Light & Magic visual effects supervisor Kim Libreri.

ILM is working with LucasArts on upcoming third-person shooter Star Wars 1313, and in a new video interview with CVG, Libreri said it will one day be nigh impossible to spot the differences between real-time rendering and live action.

"It's an interesting time because with modern computer graphics hardware, the way it's going, it's gonna be pretty hard to tell the difference between something that … Read more

You don't need any accessories to catch up on Friday's top tech stories:

A new service called Dyle picks up live, local TV signals to watch on your mobile device. The first with this service is the MetroPCS Samsung Galaxy S Lightray 4G. But if you rather not drop $460 right now for a phone, iOS users may have another option this fall when Dyle attachments are expected to go on sale.

No price has been set, but the attachments could cost, at most, $150. And the service from then on is free. Would you pay for an … Read more

The punches just keep coming for Zynga.

Electronic Arts is suing the social games creator for copyright infringement, alleging that Zynga ripped off EA's "The Sims Social" when it created "The Ville," EA said today in a press release.

The gaming giant filed its lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California today.

The Sims Social is the Facebook version of EA's "The Sims" game. After launching in August 2011, the game has gained "several million active" users on Facebook, according to EA's press … Read more

Long before 1080p video and high-resolution imagery, a special graphic design style known as ASCII art enabled amateur artists to create unique images on computers through specifically formatted text.

The glory days of text art invading e-mails and bulletin boards are mostly gone. But you can at least take a stroll down memory lane with a Web site that automatically converts Google Maps' Street View into a world of colorful ASCII art. … Read more

When the world first met James Bond on-screen in the 1962 film "Dr. No," it changed the way many people imagined the life of a secret agent.

Six actors and nearly 25 films after Bond's film debut, the Barbican Centre in London is commemorating the dapper life of James Bond with "Designing 007: Fifty Years of Bond Style." The massive exhibit features 400 effects from the Bond movie franchise, ranging from rarely seen conceptual art and on-set photos to original costumes and props. … Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Walking through gallery after gallery of classical European paintings, sculptures, and other antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum here, it's easy to get lost in the history and beauty of the often centuries-old art. Especially if you're toting today's latest mobile technology.

Home to some of the most celebrated European artwork in the world -- and one of the most visited museums in the United States -- the Getty has also become one of the museums most devoted to adopting technology aimed at enhancing guests' experience, as well as at using high-tech tools … Read more

There's an image floating around the Web that is both disturbing and humorous. It looks pretty much like a petrified zombie head with a gumball machine where the brains should be and a lone gumball clinging to the tongue.

This is not the sort of image you can forget once you've seen it. It's actually a sculpture created by artist Thomas Kuebler. "I grew up with an interest in monster movies, circus sideshows, and all things bizarre," Kuebler tells Crave. "My artwork often reflects that." … Read more

Tuesday's top stories score a touchdown against trolls:

YouTube is hoping to reduce its troll population by letting users go by their real names. Google+ accounts can now be used as a YouTube identity. The switch can be done in settings. Before making the change, users can review past activity and delete any undesirable comments. But this isn't a required switch. Users can keep their existing account names.

Video game publisher Electronic Arts may not have the monopoly over pigskin for long. Back in 2008, EA was sued for making exclusive licensing deals with the NFL, NCAA and … Read more