technology | implicit art

One of the most fascinating discussions that emerged from the iCommons iSummit, at least for me, came out of the presentation by Israeli rock stars RHYTHM BEATING SILENCE aka RBS. Their fascinating story is of a band who "made it," but in a small scene driven by virtually one label and one radio station, were completely taken advantage of. Instead of sitting idly, the band went on their own, and gave their music away for free (now all under Creative Commons licences), making money by playing gigs and archiving their albums. Everything is available for re-mix use and non-commercial distribution through their web site. We went on to discuss revenue generation for lesser known artists, various production modes, DIY art and the importance of collaboration. RBS’s frontman, Nimrod Lev, is quite an interesting activist – here’s a translation of a recent speech he gave at the University of Haifa. Money quote (speaking of criminalizing the downloading of music):

Personally, I was never willing to think of my audience as criminals or to turn the people for whom I create music into criminals, just because the music industry is in a crisis. …

I would like to begin with the opening lines of the announcement we attached to the song "Vegas" which was played here earlier:

It does not matter when and how the music and all that is related to it became only a matter of business and commerce. It happened. The love of music became marginal, and in most cases it is not part of the considerations of music products, marketed to the public.

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02 July 2006 by franci

A job well done

Gordon Froud has just completed installation on his ‘mobile’ in the new Department of Science and Technology building in Pretoria. The mobile (it still needs to be named) comprises the product of technology in general, objects ranging from kitchen utensils to scientific tools used in experimentation. Twelve metres in height, the installation was no mean feat. The climax will be tomorrow when the scaffolding is dismantled. Before then, one has to use imagination to picture the separate ‘arms’ hanging in perfect balance.

Gordon and his team

Gordon does a Kentridge drawing..

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29 June 2006 by BradyDale

When new technology is sort of like is a marketing gimmick

You probably know what greenbaiting is, right? Like when they put hybrid engines in an SUV? Or when they put 20% post-consumer content in paper plates and call them "eco-plates?" Tonight, I think I experienced the same thing in technology and entertainment. I went and saw Superman Returns at the Tuttleman IMAX in Philadelphia.

The movie was great, but I wasn’t so hot on the IMAX. This wasn’t my first IMAX experience, but it was the first time I’d seen a traditional movie on one, as opposed to some nature film or whatever.

I’m not really sure the movie was shot on IMAX tape. It definitely, definitely warped at the edges throughout the movie. This distracted me the whole time.

The lower corners noticeably did not fit on the screen. They had it too wide. No one would have objected if they would have pulled it in a few degrees. it still would have been huge.

I also found that during some of the really chaotic scenes where a lot is happening yet the director shoots in close so you can hardly tell what, you really couldn’t tell what with the IMAX. In fact, the screen almost seemed to black out during the really chaotic close stuff. Again, distracting. I will also be interested to see it in a regular theater and see if anyone ever looks blurred. Many parts of the scene often appeared blurred at times. Again, possibly another effect of projecting at a level the original film had not been meant for.

The biggest problem, though, was that there really was hardly a good seat in the house. The seats were far too close to the enormous screen. I was turning my head through the whole thing and I could never see take in the whole screen at once. And my seat was roughly in middle. I feel very badly for anyone further down.

At the start of the movie, they run a little text across the screen and everyone laughed because no one could really read it. It was too big and we were all too close.

In the end, I wish I would have seen it at a normal theater. I feel like I was suckered in to see it on the super-high-tech screen.

Overall, though, it was a great film. Then again, I know I’m a sucker for big heroes and heroics. I like being a sucker for that, though.

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26 June 2006 by nathaniel

by Judy Breck | in The Education Commons

re-blog from iSummit 2006 <<>>

Shown in the picture here is the lovely daughter of iSummit Artist in Residence Nathaniel Stern, four-week-old South African Sidonie. Her generation will the first to experience fully 21st century education. The Sunday morning Education Commons panel looked at what Sidonie and her contemporaries should expect educationally. Panel chair Neeru Paharia posed some big questions. Judy Breck said the global golden age of learning is arriving. Pete Barr-Wilson brought the latest news from the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project. Cory Ondrejka highlighted the awesome potential and the pioneering underway of Second Life in education. Kevin Driscoll issued a challenge to the world’s teachers to build a Teacher Forward collection of lesson resources. Kerryn McKay, against the background of South Africa’s recent history, described the impact on making educational change of political, social and emotional factors. Philipp Schmidt sketched the opening of courseware at MIT and issues around the role of universities in the education commons. Further comments from the audience elaborated these and other education factors. My strong optimism is that by the time Sidonie is off to kindergarten, the full morning of the global golden age of learning will have arrived for her and for kids in her generation across the planet. They will learn and interact with knowledge and with each other in a new education, 21st century iCommons style.

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25 June 2006 by nathaniel

more songs for the

Yes, Colin, maybe I have caught the ccMixter bug. Just uploaded another poetry slam styled vocal track, this time from a video art piece specifically produced for the Netherlands Film Festival, at Aryan Kaganof’s request. a song for the now available for re-mix. Now I wish I had my saxophone with….

Description: a video art / slam poetry piece about the complexities of listening, paternalism and being, framed in a father/son relationship.
Tags: acappella, media, non_commercial, audio, mp3, 44k, mono, CBR, father, patriarchy, singin, spoken_word, poetry_slam, male_volcals, hamlet, to_be, poetry, rap, melody, bassline, bass

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25 June 2006 by nathaniel

iCommons iSummit Artist in Residence update/review (so far)

Sorry for the delay on posting art, etc – internet was down at the hotel for ages. The conference has been amazing thus far. The generosity of spirit, the sharing, the intellectual rigor, the commitment to the arts and knowledge – even when I disagree with some of the things being said, I understand that what’s behind the argument being made is a passion for this movement, the essence of "making things, and making things happen."

I like that. Nice tagline.
iCommons: make things; then make things happen.

As far as my work goes, there’s been a fair amount of production, then re-blogging and re-production already. [odys] elicit’s re-release under a CC / GPL license has been re-blogged by turbulence / networked_performance, and a minor software adjustment has been requested by South African choreographer Jeanette Ginslov, for an upcoming dance piece she wants to use it in, entitled Writing with Stones.

My eat spoken word on CCmixter has been rated as 5 star (!) and already used for this rockin piece by teru, of the same name. Very cool! w00+! As mentioned below, Andre SC has re-mixed some images I’ve produced at the iSummit as well. The Gilberto’s Beer beat re-mix of video is also online on Revver now – a very cool project, mentioned below – as well as on the free-beer site that inspired the original footage. Some of the festival-goers have promised its usage in the work they are planning to do in upcoming weeks (Justin Hall has already started editing).

I’ve got some fab ideas for how the AIR can grow before the next conference, turning into a longer project, involving many countries, and exploring the two areas that seem to interest artists most (around CC): revenue generation and production modes. The former has obviously always been a problem for artists (pre-dating CC for about as long as human existence), but there are already some amazingly smart people on the job (such as Jenny Toomey and Steven Starr of revver) – if you build it, we will come. The latter has always been part of the CC ethos, and there are more and more re-mix tools available, but I’d like to see working, conceptual artists who are more involved with hands-on collaboration (not just re-mixing) enter into the iCommons fold now – beyond the geeks like me. The ideas I have are geared towards production, workshops and lectures (all led by working artists) that promote and encourage some of the possibilities that CC has to offer which we may not yet be aware of. Art Work.

This morning saw some ‘dead air’ time of no internet access, but the first panel featured the likes of Glenn Otis Brown, Products Counsel, Google. Nhlanhla Mabaso, Manager, Open Source Centre, CSIR, South Africa, Jimmy Wales from Wikipedia and Cory Doctorow, Journalist, author and activist (of boingboing!). Funny, provocative, interesting. Money Quote from Jimmy with regards to the principles Wikipedia was founded on (paraphrase): "in restaurants, we serve steak; so we give out steak knives; this means people might stab each other; so we have to lock up our diners. WE REJECT THIS METHOD OF RESTAURANT DESIGN."

And, most importantly, I (arguably) learned to samba last night….

@ Rio iSummit