Author Archive for David Wolf

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Digitally Obsessed Software – QT HTML

Published on June 24, 2004 in Tech. 2 Comments

QT HTML is a very cool little AppleScript program which generates the HTML needed to embed a Quicktime movie in a web page. It lets you control the way the movie is embedded with a fairly easy to use interface. For example it lets you choose if you want the movie to autoplay, show a controller or not, link to another movie (ie poster movies) etc.

No more need to remember that <OBJECT CLASSID=”clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B”…

You can download it from digitallyOBSESSED! Software where they seem to have quite a few similar useful little tools.

Found via QuickTiming.Org

Call for submissions: Experimenta New Visions 2004

Published on June 19, 2004 in Note to self. Closed

Again from the Electrofringe list (join here):

EXPERIMENTA
2004 NEW VISIONS COMMISSIONS
Call For Submissions
Deadline: 12 July 2004

Experimenta is inviting emerging digital artists, new media artists,
filmmakers, video makers and animators to submit project ideas for the 2004
New Visions Commissions program that reflects upon the concept of illusions.
Continue reading ‘Call for submissions: Experimenta New Visions 2004′

Call for submissions: Video Dictionary

Published on June 19, 2004 in Note to self. Closed

Last one… from the Electrofringe List

Call for Submissions – Video Dictionary
Deadline: 16 October

Video Dictionary is a project about language and moving images. It is a new venture of The Video Art Foundation after the development and presentation of 25hrs in Barcelona. The aim of the Video Dictionary is to make a collection of videos of less than one minute of duration that define different words of the dictionary. It will reflect about the relationship of objects and words, and the capability of moving images to construct meaning. The videos are made by a wide variety of video artists from different countries and language speakers using video in its work. Videos should not contain words neither on the images nor on the soundtrack, so the dictionary is available for speakers of all languages. However, English will be the primary language for classify and order the entries.

Find out more at www.videodictionary.org

More details can be found here. The deadline is 16th October 2004.

Call for submissions: Experimenta New Visions 2004

Published on June 19, 2004 in Note to self, Research Methods, Video and Web. Closed

Again from the Electrofringe list (join here):

EXPERIMENTA
2004 NEW VISIONS COMMISSIONS
Call For Submissions
Deadline: 12 July 2004

Experimenta is inviting emerging digital artists, new media artists,
filmmakers, video makers and animators to submit project ideas for the 2004
New Visions Commissions program that reflects upon the concept of illusions.
Continue reading ‘Call for submissions: Experimenta New Visions 2004′

Call for works: Elecroprojections & Electrofringe Net.Art

Published on June 19, 2004 in Note to self, Video and Web. Closed

From the Electrofringe list:

Electrofringe call for
1. Screen Works
2. OnLine/Net.Art

30 September 30 -  4 October 2004 in Newcastle NSW Australia.

1. ELECTROPROJECTIONS
Electrofringe is looking for innovative video and screen based works. Send us your cut/up, arthouse, pop kitsch or glitch documentaries, animation, whatever and if selected your work will be programmed into the ElectroProjections screening program.

2. ELECTROFRINGE NET.ART
Submit your online artwork for consideration in the Electrofringe 2004 Net.Art exhibition.

… Closing date for submissions – 25 JUNE 2004.
Continue reading ‘Call for works: Elecroprojections & Electrofringe Net.Art’

Call for papers: Critical Animals

Published on June 19, 2004 in Modes of analyzing new media, Note to self and Research Methods. Closed

It looks like its “Calls for entry” season, I’d better get to work on some applications.

From the Electrofringe list:

Critical Animals

CALL FOR PAPERS: CRITICAL ANIMALS – postgraduates working in the new medias.
Continue reading ‘Call for papers: Critical Animals’

Digital noise as metadata, erroneous links, background communications

Published on June 15, 2004 in Manifesto. Closed

“Every manifestation of our life is accompanied by noise. The noise, therefore, is familiar to our ear, and has the power to conjure up life itself.” (Russolo, 1986, 1913)

Today almost every manifestation of our life is accompanied by some form of digital communication. Surveillance and security systems track our physical movements, electronic funds transfers, telephone, email, SMS, web surfing, and wireless networking are the digital noise of daily life.

This noise is either ‘tuned out’ or not considered at all as we go about our business and focus on the ‘content’ of the mediation or the ‘outcome’ of the transaction. In the construction and presentation of digital media, however, the line between content and background operations, structure and processes is often completely dissolved.

To both analyse and construct digital works we must appreciate the ways in which these ‘background noises’ function.

The genre of ‘alternate reality’ or ‘mixed reality’ gaming has powerfully shown us how our everyday digital signals may be tracked, manipulated and synthesised by new media works to conjure up alternate, ‘artificial’ life – unfiction.

“Although it is characteristic of noise to recall us brutally to real life, the art of noise must not limit itself to imitative reproduction. It will achieve its most emotive power in the acoustic enjoyment, in its own right, that the artist’s inspiration will extract from combined noises.” (Russolo, 1986, 1913)

While the creation or recreation of a large scale alternate reality is not the aim of my work, I believe that this genre gives us a great example of what is possible when the complete spectrum of ‘digital noises’ is embraced and its various manifestations combined. Artists such as Jonah Brucker-Cohen show us how digital ‘background noise’ such as network traffic and everyday mouse movements may be appropriated to create interesting new works.

Russolo, L. (1986, 1913). The Art of Noises: Futurist Manifesto. The Art of Noises: Monographs In Musicology No. 6. New York, Pendragon Press.

Links:

Luigi Russolo: The Art of Noises

Russolo, L. (1986). The Art of Noises: Futurist Manifesto. The Art of Noises: Monographs In Musicology No. 6. New York, Pendragon Press.

unfiction.com

cloudmakers.org

Jonah Brucker-Cohen: coin-operated.com

Digital noise machines, cybertextual instruments to be played in real time

Published on June 15, 2004 in Manifesto. Closed

“…Musical evolution is paralleled by the multipication of machines, which collaborate with man on every front” … “We want to attune and regulate this tremendous variety of noises harmonically and rhythmically.” (Russolo, 1986, 1913)

Just as the futurists constructed noise machines with controls for pitch and rhythm which may be manipulated as they are played, we must create audio-visual machines which are equally responsive. One of the most important aspects of the manipulation and generation of digital audio-visual noise is that it can occur in real time. No more click and wait. The movements of a mouse can pan a virtual camera in a 3d space. The strokes of a keyboard can trigger noises. The presence of another user viewing the same movie as you can have and effect on its outcome. Two separate Quicktime movies hosted on different servers on different sides of the world can communicate with each other on the desktop of a user. While many different media types may be manipulated in real time today, due to a number of different factors the audio/music realm has lead the way in this regard. Technologies such as MIDI allow for the real time control of a multitude of audio (and now video and computer) devices. Digital samplers, synthesisers and signal processors must, by their very nature function in real time. We must strive to create audio-visual ‘machines’ which match this level of responsiveness and expressiveness. Where Russolo built physical machines, we may also build software machines, or, as Aarseth would dub them, “Cybertexts”.

“A cybertext is a machine for the production of variety of expression” … “when you read from a cybertext you are constantly reminded of inaccessible strategies and paths not taken, voices not heard.” (1997: 3).

A cybertext could be described as a kind of textual instrument, whose function is inseparable from its form. As Aarseth writes, the concept “focuses on the mechanical organisation of the text, by positing the intricacies of the medium as an integral part of the literary exchange” (Aarseth, 1997: 1). Digital noise machines which form part of a larger network of computers and signals must be designed as cybertexts which take advantage of their location.

Aarseth, E. J. (1997). Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature. Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Luigi Russolo: The Art of Noises

Russolo, L. (1986). The Art of Noises: Futurist Manifesto. The Art of Noises: Monographs In Musicology No. 6. New York, Pendragon Press.

Digital noise as artefact, glitch

Published on June 15, 2004 in Manifesto. Closed

“At first the art of music sought purity, limpidity and sweetness of sound. Then different sounds were amalgamated, care being taken, however, to caress the ear with gentle harmonies. Today music, as it becomes continually more complicated, strives to amalgamate the most dissonant, strange and harsh sounds. In this way we come ever closer to noise-sound.” (Russolo, 1986, 1913)

Digital audio, video and photography began as grainy, low resolution, glitchy re-mediations of their analogue predecessors. As the technologies were developed and advanced they began to approach, and then surpass the detail and quality of their analogue cousins. Sound cards can now record multiple channels at 192khz 24bit, video cameras can shoot in HD and digital still cameras can capture 11 megapixel images. Depending on their content, these media may ‘caress’ the eyes and ears with the ultimate in ‘pure’ sounds and images.

“We Futurists have deeply loved and enjoyed the harmonies of the great masters. For many years Beethoven and Wagner shook our nerves and hearts. Now we are satiated and we find far more enjoyment in the combination of the noises of trams, backfiring motors, carriages and bawling crowds than in rehearsing, for example, the “Eroica” or the “Pastoral”. ” (Russolo, 1986, 1913)

While the kind of technology required to produce hyper-real, ‘Industral Light and Magic’ style visual effects, and ‘Skywalker Ranch’ sound is increasing in accessibility and popularity, at the same time, artists are increasingly exploring the aesthetics of the artefact, the glitches and noises produced as a by product of data compression, signal downsampling, bit reduction and error. This ‘digital lo-fi’ aesthetic can be found in the sound art, video art and digital photography.

Just as Russolo preferred the sounds of everyday life, it could be argued that low-fi, glitchy, digital samples represent and reference our daily digital lives. The sounds of digital mobile phones dropping out, CDs skipping, computers crashing, digital television losing reception, images from camera phones and webcams serve as inspiration for the glitch aesthetic.

Tony Scott : beflix.com – glitch on paper

Iman Moradi : Glitch Aesthetics

Glitch (music) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Luigi Russolo: The Art of Noises

Russolo, L. (1986). The Art of Noises: Futurist Manifesto. The Art of Noises: Monographs In Musicology No. 6. New York, Pendragon Press.

The 8 Families of Digital Noise

Published on June 15, 2004 in Manifesto. Closed

Russolo’s 6 Families of Noises:

1 Rumbles, Roars, Explosions, Crashes, Splashes, Booms

2 Whistles, Hisses, Snorts

3 Whispers, Murmurs, Mumbles, Grumbles, Gurgles,

4 Screeches, Creaks, Rumbles, Buzzes, Crackles, Scrapes

5 Noises obtained by percussion on metal, wood, skin, stone, tarracotta, etc.

6 Voices of animals and men: Shouts, Screams, Groans, Shrieks, Howls, Laughs, Weezes, Sobs

My 8 Families of Digital Noise:

Still Images (bitmap):
GIF, JPEG, TIFF, PNG…

Still Images (vector):
EPS, Flash, Illustrator

Moving Images (bitmap):
Quicktime (various codecs), Windows Media Video, Real Video,

Moving Images (vector):
Flash

Sounds (wave):
MP3, AIFF, WAV, AAC, WMA, Real Audio,

Sounds (generative, programmatic and/or procedural):
General MIDI, Pure Data, Soft synths, VST effects…

Control Data (time based or date stamped):
MIDI, keyboard text input, mouse input, audio analysis, video motion detection and tracking, network traffic, activity and hits, bandwidth, SMS, email, instant messaging,

Control Data (relatively static):
Meta-data, databases, xml, text, scripting, programming,

Wired Quicktime Examples

Published on June 15, 2004 in Tech and Web. Closed

Wired QuickTime Examples

Quicktime Blogroll

Published on June 9, 2004 in Tech, Vidget - Discussion, Vidget - Download and Web. 1 Comment

Using the same techniques as before, this movie accesses my BlogRolling blogroll RSS feed. More on this later – time for bed.

Random Site – An XML Reading Quicktime Linker Movie

Published on June 7, 2004 in Tech, The role of the producer, Vidget - Discussion, Vidget - Download and Web. 2 Comments

I’ve finally got my head around getting Quicktime to read XML files!

This has been a long and frustrating process as for a while any mention of XML would cause LiveStage Pro to unexpectedly quit. I’m still not sure what was going wrong there but I think the key to making everything work smoothly was using lots of strings to remember the paths to different information stored in the XML.

Here it is:

Continue reading ‘Random Site – An XML Reading Quicktime Linker Movie’

Manifesto: The art of digital noises (a draft)

Published on June 1, 2004 in Manifesto, Note to self, The role of the producer and The role of the user. Closed

A mash-up of Deleuze, Guattari, Russolo, Manovich, Aarseth and Miles.

We must embrace both signal and noise in all its forms.

Luigi Russolo and the Futurists embraced the complete spectrum of noises and sounds and incorporated them into the art of noise, arguing that:
“[The] evolution of music is comparable to the multiplication of machines” … “Musical sound is too limited in its variety of timbres” and that “We must break out of this limited circle of sounds and conquer the infinite variety of noise-sounds.” Digital technology allows the sampling, manipulation, generation and reproduction of not only the complete spectrum of sounds and noises but also the complete range of photographic, cinematic, videographic, literary and typographic content. The digital domain brings with it a unique new spectrum of digital distortions and noises to be explored. Artefacts may be generated through the use and misuse of compression algorithms, file corruption and manipulation.

We must explore the use of inter-textual and inter-network digital communications.

As well as these readily tangible sources and distortions, the digital domain opens up new opportunities for the incorporation of digital signals and noises which may be sent from machine to machine, text to text. Russolo argues that “Every manifestation of life is accompanied by noise” and that “Noise is thus familiar to our ear and has the power of immediately recalling life itself.” Similarly, today almost every action we take is accompanied by a digital transaction. As life becomes increasingly mediated by digital technologies, the manipulation and subversion of these media allow for new forms, genres and narratives. As Russolo writes, “Although the characteristic of noise is that of reminding us brutally of life, the Art of Noises should not limit itself to an imitative reproduction. It will achieve its greatest emotional power in acoustical enjoyment itself, which the inspiration of the artist will know how to draw from the combining of noises.” While emergent genres such as mixed reality and alternate reality gaming use ‘fictional’ websites, email and SMS messages to great effect, reproducing and ‘reminding us of’ the digital signals of everyday life, it could be argued that these techniques are most effective when combined. HTTP, FTP, RTSP, email, SMS, WiFi, Bluetooth, scripting and streaming technologies may all be appropriated and incorporated.

We must take advantage of the possibilities of digital manipulation in real time

Just as the futurists constructed noise machines with controls for pitch and rhythm which may be manipulated as they are played, we must create audio-visual machines which are equally responsive. One of the most important aspects of the manipulation and generation of digital audio-visual noise is that it can occur in real time. No more click and wait. The movements of a mouse can pan a virtual camera in a 3d space. The strokes of a keyboard can trigger noises. The presence of another user viewing the same movie as you can have and effect on its outcome. Two separate Quicktime movies hosted on different servers on different sides of the world can communicate with each other on the desktop of a user. While many different media types may be manipulated in real time today, due to a number of different factors the audio/music realm has lead the way in this regard. Technologies such as MIDI allow for the real time control of a multitude of audio (and now video and computer) devices. Digital samplers, synthesisers and signal processors must, by their very nature function in real time. We must strive to create audio-visual ‘machines’ which match this level of responsiveness and expressiveness.

We must explore the new forms of authorship facilitated by digital technology

Deleuze and Guattari contend that “A book has neither object nor subject; it is made of variously formed matters, and very different dates and speeds. To attribute the book to a subject is to overlook this working of matters, and the exteriority of their relations.” When we are dealing with digital media the assemblage of ideas, sources and external links takes on a literal and physical as well as conceptual meaning. A work may be constructed wholly out of the combination or manipulation of previously existing samples or signals. Again, to link back to sound art, the work may be the construction of the instrument, its scoring / programming, its performance or any combination of the three. Lev Manovich proposes a useful list of authorship models to be explored:

“Collaboration of different individuals and / or groups (over the network or in person, in real time or not);
Interactivity as collaboration between the author and the user
Authorship as selection from a menu
Collaboration between a company and the users
Collaboration between the author and the software
Remixing
Sampling
The Open Source Model”

Presentation

Published on May 25, 2004 in Note to self. Closed

A few weeks ago I made a presentation to the staff at uni. The glass half full version is that I learnt a lot about what not to do. The glass half empty version is that it didn’t go very well.

Things I found out:

  • Less points is better
    I had about 40 slides prepared and had time to get through less than 10
  • Less words on screen & more in my notes
    I had quite a few slides which were dot points or quotes. Since I had them up on screen I felt weird about just reading them out and got muddled. Next time I will use mostly images or examples on screen and use the dot points and quotes in my notes.
  • Less explaining – more referring
    Looking back I didn’t quite know what the audience would be like and who I should target my presentation to. I made the mistake of trying to explain a whole lot of my background research when I should have been focussing on the implications of these ideas on my work and just referring to them in brief.
  • Again – Less points
    The focus of my presentation should have been what my work is about, why it is important and so on. These were going to be my last points that I was building to…. before I ran out of time. They should have been my first points.
  • Dual monitoring is a bad idea
    I should have used video mirroring on my laptop rather than the dual monitor output. When I was preparing things to move to the projector display the audience had nothing to look at. I ended up leaving error messages etc on the screen without knowing it. It is much better to show the audience what you are doing
  • Keynote / Powerpoint presentations are not very flexible
    When I got the ‘five minutes left’ warning I realised how fixed and linear my slideshow was, there was no quick way for me to jump to my last points and I ended up trying to summarise the other points as I went through them.

I’m sure I’ll think of some others to note down.

StumbleUpon

Published on May 25, 2004 in Web. Closed

StumbleUpon is a socially moderated ‘channel surfing’ interface for recommending and finding cool websites. When you sign up you select a number of topics you are interested in, and a series of buttons are added to your browser’s toolbar. The most interesting one is the ‘Stumble!’ button which, based on your interests sends you to a random site. If you like a site you can give it a ‘thumbs up’ and its URL is added to your personal StumbleUpon blog and you can make a comment. The URL is also added to the pool of sites which can then be suggested to other users. If you find a site you like you can also see who else suggested it and look at their other suggestions.

I first read about StumbleUpon ages ago when Jill wrote about it. It took me a while to sign up because it doesn’t work with my regular browser, Safari so I downloaded Mozilla Firefox. Firefox is not bad but I find it struggles a bit with media rich sites so I still use Safari mostly.

Haggis Spam?

Published on May 25, 2004 in Uncategorized. Closed

This is the most bizzare spam comment I have found so far:

For those of you who have been unfortunate enough to never have tasted the
‘Great Chieftain O’ the Pudden Race’ (i.e. haggis) here is an easy to follow
recipe which results in a dish remarkably similar to the above mentioned
protected species.
Ingredients:
1 Sheep’s Pluck (heart, lungs, liver) and bag
2 teacupsful toasted oatmeal
1 teaspoonful salt
8 oz. shredded suet
2 small onions
1/2 teaspoonful black pepper

Scrape and clean bag in cold, then warm, water. Soak in salt water
overnight. Wash pluck, then boil for 2 hours with windpipe draining over
the side of pot. Retain 1 pint of stock. Cut off windpipe, remove surplus
gristle, chop or mince heart and lungs, and grate best part of liver (about
half only). Parboil and chop onions, mix all together with oatmeal, suet,
salt, pepper and stock to moisten. Pack the mixture into bag, allowing for
swelling. Boil for three hours, pricking regularly all over. If bag not
available, steam in greased basin covered by greaseproof paper and cloth for
four to five hours.

[Link to website deleted]

Text to String

Published on May 24, 2004 in Tech, Video, Vidget - Discussion and Vidget - Download. Closed

This is a little movie I made to test how Quicktime deals with real time text input. It is also the first step in a project to dynamically source video material from any URL. In future examples I will use this same method to paste a URL and load it into another window.

Click the poster movie to load the real one. Click above the line and enter some text. The movie copies the contents of the top text track to a string and adds it to the start of the bottom text track. I initially had the movie execute this action only when you clicked. In a purely ‘functional’ interface this is how I would do it but I wanted to stress the real time aspect of the process so I have the movie add text on the ‘Idle’ event handler. This means the text will start cascading down the second track as the user types without waiting for them to finish.

The LiveStage Pro source files can be downloaded here.

Office Voodoo

Published on May 23, 2004 in Design, Film, Games, The role of the producer, The role of the user, Uncategorized and Video. Closed

Office Voodoo is a great example of an interactive video project that uses a cinematic/televisual aesthetic with real life actors whilst maintaining meaningful real time user interaction. It is rare to a project which achieves all these aims at once.

Office Voodoo features footage of two bored workers as they sit in an office. By physically manipulating ‘voodoo’ dolls with red flashing eyes, two users may control the characters’ emotional states. Depending on the combination of the two characters’ moods a real time editing engine cuts together shots which form a kind of ‘algorithmic sitcom’, as the site says. The editing engine respects the conventions of shot / reverse shot and continuity editing, making for a fairly seamless TV like program.

While I haven’t played with it myself, the About Office Voodoo movie on the site shows examples of people using the system and the effects of their actions on the characters. It reminds me of being a director holding casting auditions where I would get actors to act out a scene in a couple of different ways. My favourite was when I asked an actor to rap a David WIlliamson play.

From the site:

“With advances in compression standards and faster, larger hard disks, the film form is finally freeing itself from the inherent linearity of the celluloid or tape substrate, as it becomes chunks of data that can be retrieved instantaneously. This explosion of the film medium is redefining our approach to narrative filmmaking and over the viewer’s control of the time flow and the plot. In the attempt to carry on the tradition of mimetic storytelling with real actors, this piece brings together the craft of cinema with automated editing techniques, trying to replicate in new media semiotics what 1920s soviet filmmakers like Kuleshov did to film with montage. Here, the knowledge of the editor is represented in the machine, and the rules are scripted according to user interaction. As a filmmaker and a programmer, the author is telling a story not only with audiovisual media but also with computer code.” [my emphasis]

More Links:
Michael Lew
Media Lab Europe

Remote control 0.2

Published on May 4, 2004 in Design, Tech, Video, Vidget - Discussion and Vidget - Download. Closed
CODEBASE="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab">



 CODEBASE="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab">

Click the poster movies above to load the real ones. The second one will take a little while to load (3.9Mb)

Alternatively (recommended) download the two files, ControlTOBE.mov (Controller) and TOBE.mov (Player) and open them both in Quicktime Player.

Ok, this is a half finished draft of a basic Quicktime vision mixer. Like the inter-movie text communication movies I posted earlier , this project comes in two parts: one movie to control another. I actually created the text sender movies to troubleshoot when I was making this movie.

The ‘player’ movie contains three video tracks. The ‘controller’ movie features a number of clickable sprites which tell the ‘player’ movie what to do. By clicking on the green or red buttons on the left hand side of the ‘controller’ the tracks in the ‘player’ movie may be enabled or disabled. In the middle of the ‘controller’ movie there are two gradients with a percentage number, these control the opacity of each of the two ‘upper’ video tracks. By clicking on the gradients at various different places along the horizontal the numbers should change and the tracks should fade in or out. On the far right of the ‘controller’ movie is the ‘invert’ button. This inverts the top video track so that white is black and black is white etc.. The other button at the bottom of the ‘controller’ is the ‘add’ button. It is the latest addition and it also controls the top movie (I’ll move it up top in the next version). Rather than simply inverting the video track, the ‘add’ button produces an additive effect (like a Photoshop layer) which changes depending on the presence or absence of the underlying two video tracks.

This draft was designed as an experiment in building a VJ instrument in Quicktime with Livestage Pro for a recent Segmentation Fault gig I was organising. The ‘player’ movie is designed to automatically go to full screen on the video output of my laptop while the ‘controller’ sits on my screen out of sight. I built a more complicated version with about 20 different video tracks for the gig but unfortunately most of the effects such as fading in and out and layering decided not to work on the night. I think I’ve worked out the problem so I’ll post a new version soon.

The buttons usually take a couple of clicks to get going but they should work after that.