technology | implicit art

unyazi beginnings

james webb and james sey performing utopia travelogues @ tokyo star melville

I personally kicked off the festival a day early, by catching the preview of James Webb and James Sey’s (above, left to right) ‘The Utopia Travelogues ***,’ which premiered at the trendy Tokyo Star in Melville. I have to say that it was beautiful; I understand the complaints by some that the text was a bit pretentious, but I took it to be extremely ironic (and was close enough to catch the smirks on the James’ faces). Intended for radio (and so best if you sit in a corner by yourself, and close your eyes), the music was experimental enough to create amazing visuals, but accessible enough that even a sonic luddite such as myself enjoyed it. I saw the last in their series when it was here a few months ago, and this is, by far, superior. It’s on again as part of the festival on Sunday evening (programs available online), so check it then.

To me, the two highlights of yesterday’s festival, then, were the improvisational collaboration between JoaÃÉo Orecchia and Carlo Mombeli, and the kinetic-sculpture-installation-performance thing by Maxime Rioux. The former was a loop masters experimental noise jazz electroacoustic yumminess, while the latter used about 30 sculptures of speakers attached to noise and musical instruments on springs, and triggered by electrical impulses to the analogue devices.

not quite a still of -part of- unyazi 2005 by maxime rioux

Man, it was hot. More….

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30 August 2005 by nathaniel

the zulu lightning round

circa rhizome and their net.art news, but I wrote it:

Drawing on the success of the Johannesburg Biennales of the nineties, local chemist/ composer, Dimitri Voudouris, decided that it was time to bring attention to South African electronic musicians by connecting them with other internationally-renowned talents. Hoping to promote experimentation and interdisciplinary collaboration, he initiated the Unyazi Festival, so–named for the Zulu word for ‘lightning’ (there is no non-anglo word for ‘electricity,’ in South Africa–an absence with spiritual connotations). Unyazi will be the first festival of electronic music and sonic art in Africa. Local highlights include interactive pieces from Toni Olivier’s Studio for Interactive Sound, a collaboration between loop masters Carlo Mombelli and Joao Orecchia, and more experimental trips by the likes of James Webb, Chris Wood, Pops Mohammed, and Brendon Bussy. Pioneering performers include American-Egyptian Professor Halim El-Dabh–who began his tape work in North Africa in the ’40s–and Pauline Oliveros, an American philosopher and composer who works with a concept she calls ‘Deep Listening.’ The festival will feature a broad slate of workshops, multimedia theatre, interesting music, and film, all of which students and teachers can attend free. The storm is coming. The lightning round begins September 1st. – Nathaniel Stern

http://www.newmusicsa.org.za/unyazi2005.html

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24 August 2005 by kaganof

the work of art in the age of digital reproduction

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13 August 2005 by BradyDale

Blogging Grows

I read in The Week this week about a new study of blogging that shows it’s growing by leaps and bounds. Naturally, Editory & Publisher magazine hopped up to criticize the excitement about the trend immediately. And why shouldn’t they? Blogging is a serious threat to their business interests.

Not that I am either an avid blogger or an avid blog reader, but I find it so exhausting when the establishment pooh-poohs knew things.What are folks saying? “You can’t trust the content.” “Blogs are inconsistent.” “There are no standards.”

You know, when something new comes along, the form takes some time to find itself and figure out a way and a culture that will regulate itself. Not that newspapers are exactly bastions of truth these days (everyone heard about the New York Times reporter that was working for The Manhattan Project to put a positive spin on The Bomb, right? He won a Pulitzer), but in their early days they were completely out of control. Editors were there to come up with more compelling news when the truth wasn’t interesting enough.

Anyway, over time, some standards developed and the form evolved and you can have more faith in it now. These things take time. It’s so annoying when the Establishment criticizes upstarts saying, “You should be as good and sophisticated as us right now or you never will be and you suck!”

Step off.

Blogs are going to get very, very interesting over the next decade. Folks are going to find some great ways to organize them and help people find the right one and each other.

From Philadelphia,
BradyDale

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09 August 2005 by nathaniel

ralphy’s sharks in Cape Town

james web and bridget baker, just cuz they are cool

I can’t believe it was just this past saturday that I left Cape Town. Yeh, it was kinda cool (I even made the front page). Admittedly, one week of workshops in Jitter is not nearly enough, but I know I lit enough of a fire under a few students’ skins that a few of them will continue down the path of interactive media art. Let’s hope….

Anyhow, speaking of interactive media, Cape Town born Ralph Borland (who I went to grad school with at NYU) has some public sculptures launching this week, Wednesday about 6 o’clock, which have some interactive elements of their own. Let’s call him fellow ITPer, p-comp guru, fine artist, new media practitioner, and teacher Ralph Borland, shall we? Admittedly, I did not see the interactive components installed yet, but the sculptures in and of themselves are a beautiful site/sight. I’m sure they only got cooler.

I lost the email that listed where the sharks are, and I could not find the info on artthrob, who have a new issue out!!!! Hmmmm. ask around? It’s on some square not too far from Long or Michaelis, and he is a popular cat, so….

one of ralphy’s sharks – there are six, if i remember correctly…

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02 August 2005 by nathaniel

Cycling ’74: Jitter 1.5

Cycling ’74: Upgrading to Jitter 1.5

Holy crap! Jitter 1.5 is out with some amazing new features, including better cross-platform compatibility, more networking abilities, super-duper fast hi-res HD video processing in real time, and more sonic features (blows jit.peak and jit.poke out of the water!). Some other stuff,too, but that’s what stood out for me. Also: new version of Max (free upgrade) has a few bells and whistles, including textual (rather than binary) cut and paste, and auto-encapsulation! Yummy.

If you have no idea what I am talking about, but have any interest in making your own arty interactive software (but are not a programmer – or even if you are), learn more about this amazing app at http://www.cycling74.com….