Archive for the 'Tech' Category
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This looks like a really helpful resource for making Moveable Type weblogs look a bit better than the default settings. I’ve still got a bit of a way to go making this blog a bit prettier but I think this will help.
I was looking around on the Apple QuickTime – What’s On for some innovative and clever uses of quicktime when I found Robbie Williams – Live At Knebworth promoting a live DVD. This page automatically opens up the Quicktime Player and loads a very pretty custom skin. Quicktime allows the author to customise the apperance and function of the player window almost limitlessly. You may stick to the traditional rectangular window with a playbar controller at the bottom or you may design something of any other (ie, non-rectangular) shape. The Robbie Williams skin is a very complex and detailed shape with similarly designed functionality. Rather than simply playing a single music video clip or film trailer, this .mov allows you to select from a variety of live clips, behind the scenes footage and packaging design photos. Another important aspect is that each element of ‘content’ is loaded dynamically, that is ‘on demand’, so if you decide you only want to see one song, you only have to load one song. The .mov itself is only 228.7k and automatically scales the main ‘content’ area to suit the viewer’s connection speed (this can also be set manually via a series of buttons).
The Quicktime was authored by Bluish. Their other work includes sites and .movs for Pink Floyd, The Beatles, The Flaming Lips and more Robbie Williams (more links from site).
Robbie Williams – Come Undone features another custom skin, this time at only 140k. This time the .mov is promoting a single and features a music video, commentary and behind the scenes footage (Warning contains a ‘clean’ version of the song and video complete with pixelated boobies).
I think examples like these show that just as DVD extras have added value to movies (I’m thinking of things like The Criterion Collection more than the average DVD’s promotional ‘featurette’) well designed and authored Quicktime .movs can add effectively value to other content online.
I found this link through the Oxff mailing list which is a discussion space for real time video performers (vjs etc) and programmers using patching and coding based software such as Puredata (+GEM) and Max (+Jitter).
panse – public access network sound engine
From the site: PANSE is an open platform for the development of audio-visual netart, open to all
The PANSE experiments are made up of various browser windows which each feature a flash animation and or controls such as sliders and buttons. These windows each control (or are controled by) an audio synthesiser which sends a real time generated MP3 stream back to you. The more of the little windows you have open the more complex the sounds and visuals become as they interact with one another. This sort of thing makes me want to learn Max or PD! I love the way anyone can post their own projects to the site and they can work alongside everyone else’s.
I was flicking through the latest copy of Realtime last night when I saw Jeremy Yuille’s report from this year’s Electrofringe festival in Newcastle. I had a great time at Electrofringe and saw Jeremy around the place quite a few times so I was interested to read his report. Before I got to the first word of the article, the photo at the top caught my eye. “That tinfoil looks familiar… Is that my watch? Hey! Those are my hands!”
The photo was taken by Jonah Brucker-Cohen who was running the workshop. The idea was to take random electronic junk and turn it into unusual MIDI controllers. Jonah is a researcher/artist who is interested in alternative human/machine interfacts and the social aspects of technology and the network. Check out his website coin-operated.com for info on his many different projects. Also helping out was Nick from Sydney band Toy Death. Toy Death produce music from hacked and modified toy instruments. Check out their ‘ridiculous website’ for interactive sound demo goodies.
Jonah and Nick:
My main piece was a VHS videotape which I converted into a pair of mini drum pads. I did this by opening up the video cassette, removing the tape and wrapping both the tape spools and the inside of the case in tinfoil. With the connection of a couple of wires I was able to create two circuits that connected when the tape spools were pressed down.
When I got back to Melbourne I finished the VHS drums off by attaching four RCA plugs to replace the bare wires. This lets me run audio or video signals in and out of the tape and cut pictures and sound in and out (very crudely) for VJ performance.
Other projects included a mannequin who would create a MIDI event when struck in the head by her own leg…
… and a turntable with light sensors as triggers.
Super geeky fun was had by all.
RELINE.NET
From the site: “RELINE is a DVD from artists world wide employing custom software and modified hardware to create work that focuses on graphic abstraction, the broken output of dysfunctional systems, and the desire to re-vision both old and new technologies Bringing together a diverse array of work, this collection showcases artists engaged with the creation of new visual forms derived from experimental processes and techniques, often foregrounding the un-criticized role technology plays in our lives.”
Note to self – enter!
The first page in Google that comes up when you search for Mr T. This site turns just about any other site into Mr T nonsense.
Very cool to use similar script to make my own versions of legitimate sites. Major ethical (if not legal) issuses! Hmmmm
I found this cool link from chaotic intransient prose bursts, a source of many cool OS X things. It is a little program (? I think) that lets you view any quicktime movie from the terminal window in ASCII. I like to set the background colour to black and the text to green to get the old green screen / matrix effect 
Have a look at an example or go straight to the download from Apple’s developer site.
Reminds me of something Lev Manovich wrote about in The Language of New Media
Have a look at telnet://towel.blinkenlights.nl if you’re interested in ASCII Starwars
