Well, another South by Southwest has come and gone. The Big Sick was my top Film pick, followed by May It Last: A Portrait of the Avett Brothers and Bill Nye: Science Guy. Although I went to some technology sessions, my favorite Interactive sessions were all related to politics: NYT editor Dean Baquet, NJ Senator Cory Booker, and a panel discussion with Dan Rather, Katy Tur, Matthew Dowd and Brian Stelter. In recent years, Interactive has ended on Tuesday, but this year SXSW organizers decided to extend those sessions for two more days. As a result, I didn’t see as much music as usual, but I did enjoy the Avett Brothers, Lady Antebellum, and local musician Gina Chavez. And I’d like to share some other interesting experiences from SXSW 2017…

The latest in Tech…

 Birdly: “The ultimate dream of flying”

Feetz: “The Digital Cobbler”

Solsol: “The solar hat that charges”

Telebeauty: “An app that makes users look as if they are wearing makeup to other viewers on a screen, even when they actually are not.”

Flash Drives for Freedom: “Donate your flash drive. We’ll fit it with content from the outside world and send it to North Korea.”

GLOW Interactive Smart Cubes: “Control thousands of cubes from one smartphone to create fascinating sound and light effects.”

The latest in Art and Music…

Living Paintings Project: “The viewer is no longer watching the painting, but rather, it’s the other way around.”

Obilab Drumkit: “The first and only urban [cardboard] drumkit”

Fukushima Wheel: “LEDs on the bicycle wheels display…not only images by professional artists, but you can decorate the wheel with your original images.

Art by Akinori Goto

Out and About…

Ofo: “Leave the bike in any area where bike-parking is allowed. There is no need to find an inconvenient docking station.”

Sony: VR Hide and Seek

Sony: Spiderman climbing wall game

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