Monday, January 7, 2008

Extreme Sheepherding with LED Lights


Student: Anya

As an occupation, shepherding seems like it might get a little dull. But not for these Welsh hill-farmers, who debut, in this Web video, a new kind of herding that’s more about art than agriculture.

With the help of some enthusiastic collies, these Welshmen have created a special kind of precision-herding in which the sheep, bearing by turns LED lights and dyed wool, are choreographed into large-scale patterns and photographed for stop-motion animation from a nearby hill. The results are surprising, emergent works of art—there’s a giant sheep taking a stroll, an epic game of Pong and, almost unbelievably, probably the strangest rendition of the Mona Lisa ever created. They’re also proof that our woolly friends can be put to better use than the manufacture of yarn for holiday sweaters.

Write a story about this video. Also, give some explanation about sheepherding and why this would be difficult to do. What skills do you think it involves? Any math? Any science? Also, explain words or elements like Pong. What is it?

Include several screen grabs to show the process of doing this extreme sheepherding.

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