Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's: Recorders

     I was in Sydney a few days ago and saw an interesting exhibition by Canadian-Mexican artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. Recorders is an exhibition that relies entirely on audience participation. There were cameras, microphones, heart rate sensors and all sorts of gadgets which recorded the visitors. The recordings were then displayed immediately and often kept in a database for other visitors to encounter.

     The Pulse Room was probably my favourite installation which features 100 incandescent bulbs only activated by a visitor's heartbeat. Other highlights include Tape Recorders; a motion activated row of wall mounted measuring tapes which rose and fell as a viewer walked by them, and Please Empty Your Pockets which scanned, recorded and displayed any items participants wished to place on a conveyer belt.

   Overall the show a great experience, even if at times it felt more like a science fair than an art gallery. The feeling you go when you were confronted with the recordings of a previous visitor was almost like a "chat roulette" type experience. The works encouraged interaction and contemplation in a way that made them feel important and included.

 If you want to take a peak for yourself here's a link: http://mcarecorders.com.au/works/

Last class

Our last digital class for 2011 was great, loved seeing what everyone was working on.

Kathy and I had fun making our video and I'm excited to see all the final versions of the work when we get back.

 I'm in Australia going to see the Brisbane gallery of modern this week hopefully I'll be able to take some pictures if there is any interesting multimedia work there. Hope everyone has a great holiday!

Surf's up yall.

Video Proposal

      For this upcoming project I'll be working with fellow student Kathy Oke. We will collaborate on a video project that will be displayed on two monitors. Two separate videos will be worked on with a level of independence that will ensure a dynamic and maybe unexpected relationship between them. Since the nature of the project may involve being to some degree unaware of the subject matter of the other artist I will not comment on its theme at this point.

Video Crit

       The link to my first flash animation is posted below. While I found flash to be frustrating at times I still had fun making this and would like to try to animate using video next. What I've found most enjoyable is the power you have as an animator to be both the artist, the director, the casting agent, sound engineer, the whole movie company. You get to make all the decisions yourself which can make it harder at times when you'd like someones input on something, and easier at times when you dont have compromise your creativity for someone else. I tightened up the audio a few places before I uploaded it I think it has improved it.

Also below are some of the drawings I worked with and scanned on to animate.

The video is about friendship and youth, I thought a lot about playing in the bathtub as a child and just being really interested in the way things float in water.

Digital and Printmaking

     Lately I've been thinking a lot of combining the work I'm doing in printmaking class with the work I'm doing in my digital class. I want to modify some sort machine or device in a way that will give me more involvement in the digital printing process than simply pressing CTRL + P but less  involvement than using an archaic printing process like lithography. I want to make a machine that requires both my manipulation to function but has automated processes. The machine needs to have the intentions of a computer printer but with all the crazy variables and eccentricities of older print processes.

The Avalanches

   
     The Avalanches are two Djs who produce amazing narratives with samples. Their 2007 album Since I Left You is one of my favorite albums, it contains more than 3,500 samples. The album wasn't intended for wide spread release and for this reason the artists didn't keep track of the samples for clearance. This meant they had a few issues later on when the album got popular. I get the impression that these samples were carefully selected and organized because despite the volume and variety of source material they are tastefully presented. The songs a bright, cheerful, dancy, and thoughtful and Since I Left You flows seamlessly from song to song.

    This video for "Frontier Psychiatrist" is also very well done where actors embody the samples and bring them to life before your eyes. I particularly like the overweight space DJ who drops to scratch it up.

Halloween

    Over Halloween I've noticed a lot of posts on the internet about the "We're a culture not a costume" message being delivered from the an Ohio university. The campaign quickly became a meme that trivialized its message. I think that fact that the issue became a meme shows that there needs to be more dialogue on this issue. Imitation may not be the highest form of flattery in this case.

http://www.ohio.edu/orgs/stars/Home.html

     But I also thought about these issues and how they exist in the art world, were racial sensitivity is a contentious issue. Some feel it inappropriate to use the traditional art forms of from other people's cultures. At a certain point racial sensitivity reaches levels of extremism. The mentality circulating is that people who are not of a particular race or culture are not able to predict how offensive something may be because they do not belong to that group. I simply don't buy this, I think everyone is capable of gauging how offensive something is, but of course whether or not they choose to do so is the real issue at the core of racism.

Damu the Fudgemonk

Here's an interesting video from a really neat musician, producer, and DJ. His name is Damu and he's probably the only producer who's still using a floppy disk sampler. I first heard from him when I downloaded his free 2008 album Overtime. He seems absolutely obsessed with music, and has developed a unique sound by sampling in this old school way.

There are a few cool videos of him performing outdoors, he brings a small generator with him to power his equipment. The sampler once it's loaded is played like an instrument. I 'd like to try to get a midi controller or a sampler for the tactile advantages it brings. Sampling and making loops with a keyboard and a mouse is feeling a little hollow to me.

Here's one of my favorite tracks of his. I love the crackles from the vinyl samples, 80's sounding drum machine, and that watery voice. Very pleasant hip-hop sounds, great for long hours at the studio.

The Books

     Here's another band I've been really interested in since my sound art project. The Books are a folktronica duo from New York. They tend to use a wide variety of samples but mostly a lot of spoken word stuff. What I enjoy most about them is that their songs usually have a narrative and I get the feeling I'm exploring a visual space when I listen to them.

     I also think of them as being a group whose music weaves in and out sound art and music. They occupy a sort of grey area that challenges both genres.

Lytro's Light Field Cameras

     The first of these new cameras are boasting the ability to adjust the focus of your photos after they've been taken. They're simple, compact and going to priced around 400 dollars and feature 8 to 16 gigabytes of storage or 350 to 750 photos.  The camera is able to adjust the focus post shooting because it captures the subjects entire light field in a proprietary file format. The pictures are not measured by megapixels instead by the number of rays of light recorded by the sensor called "megarays".  These models have 11 mega rays which is said to be approximately 22 megapixels. 

     But if you ask me the most exciting thing about this camera is that since it can focus at anytime there is no auto focus motor, which is the cause of that annoying shutter delay that's in every point and shoot on the market today. This means more open eyes and less tired mouths sustaining the word "cheeeeeeeessseeee."

Remixing, and keeping things fresh.

 
      After watching that documentary on remixing (RIP: A Remix Manifesto), I feel like the recording industry is heading in the right direction. (Wether they like it or not.)

      The internet is all about sharing information. It has regulated the recording industry where our governments have failed us. While less money is made from record sales, musicians are still making money from live performances and must be seeing an increase in ticket sales because of internet exposure. I think of the it as a giant tax break for everyone.

     Having said that this documentary is more about the creative commons license than anything else. In terms of sampling I agree with the documentary's view that ideas and works of art should be allowed to be remixed and appropriated for cultural reasons. I want to see culture evolve. I dont want someone to own the rights to it, allow it to get stale, and then sell it to me over and over.

     But what shocked me most was the potential negative impact of patents on drug medication. If Girl Talk doesn't get to use a couple samples I dont think people see the impact but if people are denied affordable health care because of copyright laws the problem becomes evident. This is where the documentary hits hard.

Animals

     Most of the art I enjoy and make focuses on some representation of animals. I'm not really sure why I find animals fascinating. It might be because we never really know what they are thinking or would like to say. Art can give them a funny voice, smart ideas, and strong feelings and bridge the lack of dialogue between humans and animals, at least in a fictional or fantastical way. Here is one of my pigeons with a top hat.

This pigeon to me, says "Hey kiddo" in a 50's New York accent. What is he saying to you?

Shortwave Radio.

     I found a shortwave radio a week ago. This long range communication device seems pretty useless nowadays but I find myself drawing comparisons between shortwave radio and the internet. Before the internet shortwave functioned as the best way for small countries to express to the whole world their manifestos, ideas, events, and all kinds of propaganda and junk. Countries could also receive international signals and learn about what's happening all over the globe. The internet works the same way except you don't need operators license to get your message out so anyone can broadcast their views. But just like the internet shortwaves signals were censored the way some websites are in certain countries today. Technologie and communication play a major role in politics and we're seeing that now more than ever with cellphone images and twitter pics being a major part of the journalism from Iraq, Libya and Serbia.

     Anyways this radio is a lot of fun, I've been listening to Mexican and Japanese people speaking. I'd like to record some of the fuzzy sounds and mess around with them a bit.

Sound and Future Projects

     Yesterday I hung out in my basement, wrote and recorded a few riffs and sounds. I'll probably polish them into songs or sound art later on but for now it just feels good to record some ideas. I used a small rock drum set, a bass guitar, and a xylophone. This combo of instruments will be filed under the name Loud Cloud.

The files can be found in the link bellow.
http://xplsv.bandcamp.com/

     Next I'll add field recordings. At the moment I'm thinking of adding the sound of coffee being poured but I'm afraid it will sounds like someone urinating.