This video was an integral part of my nerdlinghood. Visually rich to the nth degree: Besides the sweet sidecar motorcycle and lunatic scientists, you have the superhot lab assistant, Ms. Sakamoto, who doubles as a cello. Classic nerd track. BTW, Dolby has been the Musical Director of the TED conferences since 2001.

SCHEMATICS: Album artwork and other gems from Dolby...

Hyperactive! (12" Version) (1984)

The beginning of this track always makes me think of The Bestie Boys. Great video.

Hyperactive! (Album Version) (1984)

Taken from Beta tapes, which is really cool. This version is much more in the vein of The Talking Heads.

One of Our Submarines (Live) (1982)

For you design nerds, this classic posting on Core 77 chronicles the cartooned adventures of Lunchbreath and Fueledbycoffee at the International Housewares Show in chi-town. Great for a laugh.

There aren't too many young, contemporary bands that could fool me into thinking their work was good enough to be recorded 30 years ago. Medio Mutante (translation Average Mutant) is one of them. This naughty triad of vintage audio and video synthesizer maestros is putting out really thick analogue music. BTW, they're using a Fairlight CVI video synth for the visuals. Nerd Approved!

SCHEMATIC: Cover art, release info, more vids and where to buy...

Medio Mutante's first release, Inestable, is a 6-track EP published on Cititrax, a Minimal Wave sublabel. They only pressed 600 copes on 160-gram vinyl, which makes it a pretty good buy at $16.00 + s&h.

An 11-minute face-melting video edit of Kraftwerk's 23-minute opus. The real cybernetic acid trip is the five-minute breakdown that beings around 3:06. Animation by Roger Mainwood and John Halas in 1979. The video was posted in two parts, so load the rest of the post to view the second half...

SCHEMATIC: Video part two, Mainwood interview and high res vinyl rip...

The title track off Kraftwerk's 1974 LP Autobahn was a genesis moment in nerd music, marking the completion of Kraftwerk's robotic transformation. Without this band or track, electronic music would probably not be what it is today. It represents the seemless merging of musical genius with avant-garde technology. The entire album is available on iTunes for only $3.49!! 

Mainwood discussing the history of the film: 

No, I never made contact with Kraftwerk, and they had no input into the film images themselves. John Halas got the commission from Kraftwerk’s record company, and it was deliberately experimental in nature and designed to be released on one of the first ever laser discs. Unfortunately the laser disc technology never took off. The film was entered into various film festivals around the world and won a few prizes, but it never got a commercial release in cinemas but was shown on the TV a bit in the UK and I presume in Germany too. I have no idea what Kraftwerk think about it or whether they have even ever seen it.

[audio:http://www.innernerd.de/audio/Kraftwerk/Kraftwerk_Autobahn.mp3|titles=Autobahn (LP Version)|artists=Space]

Written, produced, filmed, directed and narrated by Charles and Ray Eames in 1957, The Information Machine: Creative Man and the Data Processor was the first film The Eames Office made for IBM. It was commissioned by IBM's then consultant director of design Eliot Noyes for screening at the IBM pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World Fair. [caption id="attachment_90" align="alignnone" width="443"] IBM Pavilion - Brussels World Fair (1958)[/caption]

Noyes, an accomplished architect and designer in his own right, had been instrumental in promoting Eames' earliest furniture work while serving as curator of MoMA's industrial design collection from 1939 - 1946. In fact, Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen won the MoMA Organic Design Competition in 1940, sparking the meteoric rise of their careers.

[caption id="attachment_93" align="alignnone" width="396"] MoMA - Organic Design in Home Furnishings (1941)[/caption]

The Information Machine is a 10-minute (mostly) animated film detailing the need for and use of computers as decision making tools. Consistent with all of Eames' work, The Information Machine presents its subject in a deeply humanistic light, leaving the viewer with the impression that computers are a natural product of human ingenuity and ultimately useful in society. It is, therefore, a wonderfully effective piece of corporate communication that promotes the computer as an accessible piece of technology that empowers man to make better decisions. Apple anyone?

[caption id="attachment_92" align="alignnone" width="449"] Still 1: The Information Machine (1958)[/caption]

This was the first of many projects that The Eames Office completed for IBM in a symbiotic relationship that spanned more than 20 years and greatly advanced the popularization of science, math, design and computing in the United States.

http://youtu.be/djT-HNnWX8w