technology | implicit art

You see, T?

Thanks, Carine (see below); it was a great drive!

Sitting here in the Michaelis School of Fine Art’s computer lab (IFNM = Institute of Film and New Media), Cape Town (UCT), not knowing exactly what to expect from the students this afternoon (and the rest of the week), but totally excited to finally be out of bed (still recovering, but much better than the deathliness of the last six weeks), and introduce a whole new group to Interactive Video. Looking forward to seeing what they come up with, and maybe showing some of it here.

Remember that open lecture I gave in Joburg on the Interactive Video Landscape? I blogged it here. Well, that (and more) is basically what they’ll be getting today, as an introduction to a week of developing such projects. They will not sleep this week. Woot.

I’m also giving one of those Michaelis lunchtime lectures on Wednesday, 13h00. It’s about my own work and open to the public – please come if you are at all interested; I’ll be nice to you. Bring chocolate and beer, get nice things said about you on ‘the blog.’

Any readers in CT wanna volunteer to take me gallery hopping one morning this week?

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03 June 2005 by nathaniel

the live visualist cometh

joshua goldberg (left); photo credit melissa ulto
joshua goldberg (left) performing in NYC; photo credit melissa ulto

Me bring Joshy!!!!

So, this guy is bloody brilliant. I know I’m supposed to be some kind of authority on new media technologies in South Africa (or whatever), especially live video and interactive tech, but this guy taught me a lot of what I know, and in the few hours I spent with him today, I learned a whole lot more (and more to come!!!!). We did grad school together in NYC, and now he’s making stuff happen for a few weeks here in Jozi and CT.

Here’s what we planned for him:

tonight is rhythm_01, a first test of Vjing and interactivity in joburg over at carfax – mostly student work, but he might do a short guest set
this coming week, Joshua is at wits, teaching, lecturing, sharing, critting
Friday 10 June, 15hoo, talk about his stuff and VJ and interactive video culture, burning man, open source… Digital Soiree, Digital Convent, Wits
Friday 10 June, 19h30, live, outdoor performance with local electro-acoustic musician Joao Orecchia (Berlin / NYC / JHB), Drill Hall
Saturday 11 June, 10h00 – 13h00, free VJ workshop at the Bag Factory (we’re giving software away, too!)
Saturday 11 June, 20h00 til late, huge VJ party with Joshua headlining, and deep house music

away at kruger for few days….

Friday 17 June, 11h00 – 13h00, presentation of a donated, site-specific, artwork using his own software/technology. Johannesburg Art Gallery

He is also one of the most generaous spirits I have ever met, and will share knowledge, resources and whatever else he has at his disposal with you (probably including embarassing stories about me).
Come and be amazed. I am.

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01 June 2005 by nathaniel

Rhythm_01 – VJ event + experimental interactive elements

…reblogged from christo on Art & Techonology, Johannesburg (AT.joburg)…

Kicking off this Friday (3 June) is Rhythm_o1, the first of several events inspired by the visit of New York VJ, digital artist and theatre designer, Josh Goldberg.

VJ Josh Goldberg at the annual Burning Man Festival, Black Rock Desert, Nevada

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Josh Goldberg, a top New York City VJ is the first digital artist in residence at Wits Digital Arts this June. Organised by Wits Digital Arts together with AT.joburg, his visit is designed to expose Johannesburg artists and musicians to a new kind of video artist, the VJ, who mixes live visuals and effects together with music. Josh will be hosting various workshops as well as a cutting-edge live performance at Carfax on the 11 June and a presentation of a site-specific work at the Johannesburg Art Gallery on the 17th.

carfax carfax_bagexhibits
Carfax: conceptual by nature in downtown Johannesburg. Scene from the 2004 group exhibition, Cube.

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With the rapidly growing popularity and increasing visibility of VJs, an exciting variety of visual styles have emerged from around the world, ranging from conceptual work which overlaps with contemporary art to hardcore psychosis-inducing trance. Like a DJ mixes audio, VJs mix imagery with sound using multiple sources of media to project them on to large-scale screens at parties, at events and in clubs.

The group Underworld in performance with British vj/design collective, Tomato.

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eyewash
VJ Jay from the Brooklyn, USA group, Trigger Motion.

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Rhythm_01 will be an opportunity to participate in a music, visuals and dance event at Carfax, in Newtown, Johannesburg. A bunch of the top local VJs (christo_d and matr-x with guests) will be blasting images in sync with the left-field house beats supplied by DJs Glenn, Pierre, and Greg. This combination has happened before, but the totally new ingredient to the mix will be the Max/MSP patches developed by the Interactive MA students from Wits Digital Arts, under the leadership of lecturer, Nathaniel Stern.

Wits Digital Arts Interactive MA class of 2005
The 2005 Wits Interactive Media Design class – Nic (mentor); Mitch; Mac (with the cap); Tegan; Onica; Mayav, & Nicky – checking out the venue for Rhythm_01 . . . the sidebar at Carfax, Newtown.

The whole system will run on two lightning fast Apple PowerMac G5s, sponsored by Apple IMC Southern Africa….

Um, like. am not sure where carfax website is, but found one here and one here

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31 May 2005 by nathaniel

the goldberg is coming

hot sh!t VJ and digiart events over the next few weeks in Joburg, thanks to NYC and internationally acclaimed visiting artist, Josh Goldberg (landing tomorrow). watch this space for announcements, soon….

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27 May 2005 by nathaniel

blogging the commons

re-mixing culture - nathaniel stern and lawrence lessig

me & the double L (that’s the larry to the lessig) remix

Howdy y’all. Am at the commons sense conference, and was just on a panel discussion with Megan Knight (PhD Wits), Vincent Maher (New Media Lab, Rhodes/Grahamstown) and Matthew Buckland (Mail & Guardian online).

It was a pretty cool panel, tho admittedly a lot was centered around the debate of “what gets to be journalism” (this, which often gets confused for value – like the old “what gets to be art” debate – doesn’t interest me much) – still, there was plenty of provocation around freedoms, positive connotations to the amateur, helping creative economies through the creative commons, and even a few jokes (gasp!). I have to say that everyone I saw and met at the whole conference was excitable, and exciting – some super interesting and smart people who want to add something to the world!

My own presentation was a re-mix of one I found here by our keynote, Larry Lessig. It was pretty much a hit, if I do say so myself, and I promised Lessig et al I’d put it online.

Download it (3.3 MB powerpoint presentation + quicktime movie that you may need to point to the first time you open it – slide no. 32)

Other links:
You can get the Mac and PC fonts here.
Commenter’s blog

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25 May 2005 by nathaniel

li’l larry lessig

lawrence lessig in johannesburg

Lawrence Lessig giving his presentation to a bunch of Joburgers at Wits

Lawrence Lessig, digital copyright guru, Stanford Professor of Law, advocate of creativity, and chairman for creative commons, gave a talk to a bunch of artists and businesspeople over at Wits yesterday afternoon. It was really great. Most of the gist of his talk can be found here; it was about Exclusive Rights vs. non-Exclusive Rights economies, how we need both to foster creativity, and that there needs to be a space between the two, where the world can reside (and thanks to America, this is not happening… we are leaning too far to the "ER" economy). It was actually a pat on the back. Look at Joburg’s small community of bloggers (JoBlog, plankman for example) and anti-copyrighters (Christian Nerf, Aryan Kaganof for example) who both encourage re-mixing their work, and also sell their "big guns" to the likes of collectors/consumers. I, myself, have a CC blog (with loads of content – text and images – I’ve seen re-used), and also give away a lot of my software source code, video, images, etc, to any who ask… On the flipside, I use this popularity to sell works like step inside to the JAG (did I mention they bought it? First sale of a digital interactive installation in the country!) as an edition of 3, and promise NOT to copy it and distribute. It was cool to hear how cool we are. And he also said a lot of other stuff I hadn’t thought of that was pretty smart. Watch Lawrence Lessig for more – he says he posts all his content online, and for free. Oh, and also check out creative commons and ccmixter – the remix family tree. Creative commons, south africa launch party tonight, 17h30, Rosebank Hotel. Don’t miss it!