What happens when mixing the well recorded voice of Astrophysicist Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and music by the Cinematic Orchestra feat. Patrick Watson? Well, you get the video above. Indeed, this is probably one of the most astounding empowering facts about our existence. However, it is always important to address and thank the Stoics, the Epicureans, the Taoists, the Hindus, and the long list of philosophies and other disciplines that have allow us to revere the Universe, and therefore ourselves. Now, I should probably thank Wikipedia, and all its contributors.
Naturalistic Pantheism
Archive for the ‘Sonic/Musical’ Category
Naturalistic Pantheism and Inspiring Diction
March 6, 2012
Bukit Timah
March 5, 2012
Bukit Timah by Bukit Timah is a collage of lo-fi loops, drum carnage, and found sounds taken from past and present. Hopefully, soon to be self released on cassette. Enjoy.
Via Bukit Timah
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Radio Boredcast: A 744-hour Continuous Online Radio Project
March 5, 2012
Radio Boredcast is a 744-hour continuous online radio project, curated by artist Vicki Bennett (People Like Us) with AV Festival. In response to our ambiguous relationship with time – do we have too much or not enough? – Radio Boredcast celebrates the detail, complexity and depth of experience lost through our obsession with speed.
With over 100 participants Radio Boredcast includes new and unpublished works, freeform radio shows, field recordings, interviews, monologues and much, much more. Thematic playlists will run throughout from “Acconci” to “Zzz…”
You can listen continuously for a month, or for hours, minutes or seconds. Online 24 hours each day, at www.avfestival.co.uk or www.thepixelpalace.org.
Co-commissioned by AV Festival and Pixel Palace, hosted by BASIC.fm.
Look at the program and listen to Radio Boredcast HERE
Read Collateral Damage by Vicki Bennett at The WIRE
“In the early 2000s, increased bandwidth allowed recombinant artists to enter the gift economy. It’s a freedom we should defend at all costs, argues Vicki Bennett aka People Like Us.
In 1999 I bought my first fast computer – and although it was dying to do speedy things, I was on dial-up, reduced to a crawl when it came to information retrieval. Logged into file sharing communities, I’d sit in the chat and watch people posting files that would take me a day to download, so I’d just read about them. Then I’d go to the WFMU website and try to stream the station and just get blurts and gaping silences. Then I’d visit archive.org and look at all the wonderful synopses for Rick Prelinger’s films, which were too large to access. It wasn’t long, however, before affordable broadband reached my area of London. Then everything changed. Forever.”
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Oorwonde: Tactile Hearing
March 5, 2012
Oorwonde is an interactive operating table whereby the visitor turns himself over to aural surgery and hears and feels the soundtrack of a fictitious operation. Based on Bernhard Leitner’s philosophy that listening is understood to extend to all parts of the body and sound to touch a deep nerve, Oorwonde explores the concept of bodily hearing and the borders of the audible.
Oorwonde wants to take the visitor by surprise via the sensation of sounds and movements and the insight that these sound and movements can be influenced by the amount of pressure executed on specific points.
Oorwonde is designed by Laura Maes.
19 questions answered by John Cage
March 5, 2012John Cage answers 19 questions on a variety of subjects using chance operations to determine the duration of his answers. From the film ‘From zero’, by Frank Scheffer.
Transhumanism and Posthumanism
March 4, 2012
What is the future of humanity? What limits should we impose on our biotechnological and other scientific developments – what will happen when we don’t? Grant Bartley from Philosophy Now asks Debra Shaw from the University of East London, Blay Whitby from the University of Sussex, and David Gamez from Imperial College London, for answers. With live music from Bucky Muttel on the Chapman Stick. First broadcast on 14 February 2012 on Resonance FM.
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Perch Verdad by Cliff Dweller
March 4, 2012
LA-based Cliff Dweller, a sonic and visual project by Ari Balouzian and friends, announces the release of their Perch Verdad EP on Rebel. Combining analog and digital, art and music, and organic and electronic, the five-track EP–including a remix from hotly tipped Baltimore beatmaker Ricky Eat Acid–truly fuses the best of both creative worlds for the aesthetically-minded listener.
A classically trained violist, multi instrumentalist and music producer, Balouzian isn’t shy of incorporating his wide spectrum of influences into a Cliff Dweller output that is all at once warm and melancholy. With the entire EP totaling just over ten minutes, each track seems much like a vignette of sound, rich with emotion and the nostalgia of analog influence. Included in Cliff Dweller’s four original mixes are accordions, piano, funky basslines, claps, vocal layering and plenty of rich elements one can’t immediately identify — which is a testament to the mastery of sonic trickery this project has up its sleeve.
Ricky Eat Acid, though hailing from the opposite coast as Cliff Dweller, provides a fitting complement to the package in his remix of the title track. The mix sees a strip-down the original’s moody elements and building on them with a more commanding beat, electronic plinks making for a contemporary yet reminiscent take on a release already full of brilliant duality.
Via Rebel Magazine
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James Bond Theme performed by Flying Quadrotor Robots
March 1, 2012
Flying robot quadrotors perform the James Bond Theme by playing various instruments including the keyboard, drums and maracas, a cymbal, and the debut of an adapted guitar built from a couch frame. The quadrotors play this “couch guitar” by flying over guitar strings stretched across a couch frame; plucking the strings with a stiff wire attached to the base of the quadrotor. A special microphone attached to the frame records the notes made by the “couch guitar”.
These flying quadrotors are completely autonomous, meaning humans are not controlling them; rather they are controlled by a computer programed with instructions to play the instruments.
Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science is home to some of the most innovative robotics research on the planet, much of it coming out of the General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Lab.
This video premiered at the TED2012 Conference in Long Beach, California on February 29, 2012. Deputy Dean for Education and GRASP lab member Vijay Kumar presented some of this groundbreaking work at the TED2012 conference, an international gathering of people and ideas from technology, entertainment, and design.
The engineers from Penn, Daniel Mellinger and Alex Kushleyev, have formed a company called KMel Robotics that will design and market these quadrotors.
Video Produced and Directed by Kurtis Sensenig
Quadrotors and Instruments by Daniel Mellinger, Alex Kushleyev and Vijay Kumar
More information HERE
A Swarm of Nano Quadrotors navigate spaces with obstacles.
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INTERRUPTIONS by Radio Web Macba
March 1, 2012
CURATORIAL > INTERRUPTIONS
This section explores the complex map of sound art from a variety of points of view, structured into different series and curated programs. VARIATIONS, led by Jon Leidecker reconstructs the history of sound appropriationism by looking at examples from 20th century composition, popular art and commercial media, and the convergence of all these trends today. Meanwhile, LINES OF SIGHT, curated by Barbara Held and Pilar Subirà, explores different ideas linked to transmission as a means of creative expression and in PARASOL ELEKTRONICZNY. RUMOURS FROM THE EASTERN UNDERGROUND, Felix Kubin leads us on a tour of underground sound production in Eastern Europe. Finally, INTERRUPTIONS intermittently “interrupts”” the Curatorial series in order to explore the many possibilities of music-on-demand and mix formats.
Click for more INTERRUPTIONS
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The City of Samba
February 29, 2012
Tilt shift of the Carnaval party in Rio de Janeiro.
Made by Keith Loutit and Jarbas Agnelli.
Captured during Carnaval of 2011.
Music by Jarbas Agnelli.
Special thanks to Rede Globo, Liesa and Jodele Larcher.
keithloutit.com
adstudio.com.br
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THE DA CHIP PROJECT Vol. 2
February 27, 2012
The DA CHIP project started back in 2008 as an open competition organised on the 8bitcollective website by two french artists, Je deviens dj en 3 jours and Zombectro.
A jury composed of 3 chiptune artists, Random, GwEm & 8GB voted for the best tracks : it became the first DA CHIP compilation.
4 years after, DA CHIP is back with 13 new artists and it’s still 100 % chip.
Dernier Souffle (Last Breath) by David Renault
February 24, 2012
DERNIER SOUFFLE (LAST BREATH)
David Renault
2012, Quimper (FR)
HD video, 1 min 41 s
Intervention : David Renault
Recording : Mathieu Tremblin
Production : Art4Context
Partnership : Garage Cojan
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The Tunnels of Cu Chi (Militarized Architectures)
February 24, 2012
The Tunnels of Cu Chi is a book written by Tom Mangold & John Penycate in 1985 focusing on a specific aspect of the Vietnam war which lead the U.S. Army to loose it. The technological and human asymmetry was nevertheless striking but such subterranean complexes allowed the Viet Cong to organize a strong resistance against the invading army. The ability for the earth to change its solidity characteristics was fundamental in the elaboration of a physical mean of defense:
The soil of Cu Chi is a mixture of sand and earth. During the rainy season it is soft like sugar, during the dry season as hard as rock. […] Such soil could stand the weight of a tank.
The U.S. Army volunteers who were exploring the discovered tunnels were named Rats. This name is not innocent as, for their psychological and physical survival they had to develop what Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari called Becoming Animal. When reading from a witness of these operations, one might even talk of a becoming matter as the bodies needed to embrace their own material composition in relationship to the material environment:
I was just an animal – we were all animals, we were dogs, we were snakes, we were dirt.
Text via The Funambulist
. Great Blog by the way.
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The Vinyl Rally
February 19, 2012
Devised and Constructed by Lucas Abela, The Vinyl Rally is an immersive participatory play-set playing off vinyl fetishism, video arcade mystique and the machismo of motor sports in a video game played within a real world setting.
Classic first person video racing is simulated as remote control cars with styli attached, race across a track constructed from a mass of disused vinyl records. Transmitting sound (produced as the styli skim along the vinyl surface) and vision (from wireless spy cameras mounted to the front of each car) to re-engineered old school racing consoles with immersive 50” flat screens. Here players navigate the course from the vehicles point of view, not only controlling the cars movements, but also the parameters of the resulting sounds they create via a series of unique audio effects mounted onto the dashboard (by Last Gasp Laboratories) giving each car its own distinct aural flavor. These sounds are emitted from speakers built into the seats causing them to vibrate in correspondence with the movements on screen, producing a personally immersive experience aurally, visually and physically that can only be truly appreciated seated at the controls.
Text and Images via Dualplover
Kraftwerk – Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
February 17, 2012
Over eight consecutive nights, MoMA presents a chronological exploration of the sonic and visual experiments of Kraftwerk with a live presentation of their complete repertoire in the Museum’s Marron Atrium. Each evening consists of a live performance and 3-D visualization of one of Kraftwerk’s studio albums—Autobahn (1974), Radio-Activity (1975), Trans-Europe Express (1977), The Man-Machine (1978), Computer World (1981), Techno Pop (1986), The Mix (1991), and Tour de France (2003)—in the order of their release. Kraftwerk will follow each evening’s album performance with additional compositions from their catalog, all adapted specifically for this exhibition. This reinterpretation showcases Kraftwerk’s historical contributions to and contemporary influence on global sound and image culture.
More Info via MOMA
Assembly New York / Music archive
February 17, 2012Assembly New York has started a music blog asking creatives to make music mixes to share. They say: For the sake of joining like-minded individuals through music and experience, we ask friends, designers, musicians, artists, stylists, writers & other cultural contributors to share their libraries and thoughts with us.
Redia Soltis, Founder/editor-in-chief, Zero1 magazine
(1) How do you find the music you listen to?
I have some great friends that are really into music and like to share.
(2) What is your favorite way to enjoy music (live, alone, in the car, bath, work, etc.)? Alone. Loud. In bed. usually at night in the dark.
(3) What do you find exciting about the new music you listen to? To be honest I am really into stoner rock so the new music that I find is usually an old song that I haven’t heard before. When I stumble upon music that is new like Howlin Rain and Black Mountain which is influenced by the 60’s/70’s I get very excited and I listen to it over and over again.
(4) What is it about the songs you’ve been listening to for years that resonates with you? Nostalgia. Music resonate usually with me due to connecting with lyrics in a song from my personal experiences. I think a good song is one that evokes emotion whether it’s dark or brings you joy.
Listen HERE
1. Black Mountain // Heart of Snow
2. Howlin’ Rain // Calling Lightning with a Scythe
3. Patsy Klein // Walking After Midnight
4. Grinderman // Electric Alice
5. Lumerians // Orgon Grinder
6. The Cramps // Let’s Get Fucked Up
7. Guns N’ Roses // Sweet Child O’ Mine
8. Jimi Hendrix // The Wind Cries Mary
9. Carpenters // Superstar (Sonic Youth cover)
10. Endless Boogie // Bad River
11. Nightmare // Annihilation
Via 01
Quayola
February 16, 2012
Quayola is a visual artist based in London. He investigates dialogues and the unpredictable collisions, tensions and equilibriums between the real and artificial, the figurative and abstract, the old and new. His work explores photography, geometry, time-based digital sculptures and immersive audiovisual installations and performances.
Quayola’s work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; British Film Institute, London; Royal Albert Hall, London; Gaite Lyrique, Paris; Church of Saint Eustache, Paris; Forum des Image, Paris; Grand Theatre, Bordeaux; Palais des Beaux Arts, Lille; Empac Centre, New York; Yota Space, St. Petersburg; MIS, Sao Paulo; Casa Franca, Rio de Janeiro; BAC, Geneva; Sonar Festival, Barcelona; Elekra Festival, Montreal and Clermont Ferrand Film Festival.
(>> Watch video interview by The Creators Project)
Strata #4 is a multi-channel immersive video-installation commissioned by Palais de Beaux Arts in Lille. The subject of this work is a series of iconic pieces from the museum’s Flemish collection, focusing specifically on Rubens’ and Van Dyck’s grand altarpieces. Strata #4 is the result of a study and exploration of the paintings themselves, delving beneath their figurative appearance and looking at the very rules behind the composition, color schemes and proportions of each piece. It is a precise process aimed at creating new contemporary images based on universal rules of beauty and perfection. Documenting the improbable collisions between classical figuration and contemporary abstraction, Strata #4 aims to create an harmonious dialogue between worlds that may appear very distant from one another, but in fact share so much in common.
“Strata #1” is an audio-visual installation that explores the icons of Rome’s renaissance architecture and focuses on the layering of times, functions and representations.
Through sound and visual effects, “Strata #1” concentrates on the collective imagery of particular buildings, reflecting upon the stratified historical meanings they detain in the western society through time.
A rotating ceiling is inhabited by a computer-generated particle system. The latter moves and behaves in relation the sound, coexisting harmoniously with the surrounding architecture. The video environment created within the installation becomes a hybrid between a real architectural space and an abstract two-dimensional pattern: a new space in-between the real and the artificial.
In a dynamic dialogue between sound, image and architecture, the installation plays with history and its image, giving life to a process of metamorphosis which transforms structure and function of the original architectural space. Assuming different meanings, the represented ceiling appear under a new perspective that focuses on their images rather than their historical and architectural significance.
Images: Quayola
Music: Autobam
Bitscapes is a multi-screen installation exploring and challenging the ambiguity of realism in the digital realm. Natural landscapes from the wilderness of western Australia slowly deconstruct. By losing their “photographic skin”, the illusion behind their realistic appearance is revealed.
Commissioned to mark the first anniversary of ‘Lovebytes at Millennium Galleries’ – a permanent plasma screen gallery curated by Lovebytes with the Sheffield Galleries Trust (2006)
Direction/Design: Quayola, Chiara Horn
Sound: Giorgio Sancristoforo
Coding: W. Kosma
Excerpt from Natures series
The Natures project consist in a series of multi-screen installation pieces and a live audio-visual performance in collaboration with musician Mira Calix and cellist Oliver Coates. Natures explores the dialogue between “the natural” and “the artificial”, creating a world where these two elements coexist harmoniously. Interpreting plants’ organic behaviors, computer-generated elements become part of the natural world and viceversa.
Commissioned by Faster Than Sound and Aldeburgh Music (2008)
Design/Animation: Quayola
Music: Mira Calix, Oliver Coates
Producer: Joana Seguro (Lumin)
Assistants: D. Knowles, G. Berton, Y. Li, G. Korossy, P. Marquez, Mokhtarzateh, M. Gil, G. Gremigni, G. Polizzi
Text & Images via Quayola
Congotronics vs Rockers
February 15, 2012
A first glimpse at Pierre Laffargue’s musical documentary (currently in production) about Congotronics vs Rockers, which follows the entire process, from the initial encounters between the musicians (Konono N°1, Kasai Allstars, Deerhoof, Juana Molina, Wildbirds and Peacedrums, Matt Mehlan from Skeletons and Hoquets) to shows around Europe and the recording of the album.
Via CTVSR
Congotronics vs. Rockers Live by Crammed Discs
Congotronics vs Rockers official live video: “Ambulayi Tshaniye”
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Daria Martin: Sensorium Tests
February 15, 2012
Daria Martin’s first survey exhibition in a UK public gallery presents a selection of short 16mm films made over the last 10 years, including the premier of an ambitious new work, Sensorium Tests. Throughout this period, Martin has pursued a sustained enquiry into numerous pressing issues relating to film, art and culture, including enchantment, voyeurs and artificial intelligence.
The exhibition includes the following films: Closeup Gallery (2003), in which a magician and his assistant engage in a strange game where cards dance, as if equivalent with inner worlds; Soft Materials (2004) where intimate relationships between man and machine are nurtured in an artificial intelligence laboratory; Harpstrings and Lava (2007) a dark narrative that animates dream images through clashing textures and structures; and the new film Sensorium Tests (2012), which revolves around a recently recognized neurological condition called ‘mirror-touch synaesthesia’.
People affected with mirror touch synaesthesia experience a physical sense of touch on their own bodies when they see other people, or sometimes even objects, being touched. Using staged scenarios based on a real life experiment into this condition, the film explores how sensations might be created and shared between people and objects.
Encountering art has always produced varying degrees of engagement and interaction, whether triggering personal memories, associations or feelings, or more recently in literal, physical responses to immersive, participatory installations. In some ways, Martin’s work turns these distinctions on their head, using mirror-touch synaesthesia to render virtual or remote activities indistinguishable from literal actions.
Daria Martin: Sensorium Tests
20 January – 8 April 2012
MK Gallery
Reviewed by Amy Budd, MK Gallery. Continue reading the review of this show HERE
Images above from Daria Martin’s Soft Materials. 16mm film, 2004.
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President Obama releases an “Official Campaign Playlist”
February 15, 2012
Even President Barack Obama makes mix-tapes? We are not so sure about the veracity of this post. However, we like the idea. Your Music Today writes: Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard of a presidential campaign having an official playlist. Sure they’ve used particular songs to represent their values throughout a campaign, but a full playlist is out of the ordinary. But that’s exactly what Obama created, and tweeted, this morning. His own campaign launched an official 28-song playlist that includes tracks from Arcade Fire to Bruce Springsteen. You can go have a listen over on Spotify.
We already knew that Obama is a bit of a music connoisseur, who even enjoys his share of hip-hop (although no tracks made the final cut). And the 28 tracks, whether he picked them of not, actually make up a pretty respectable playlist! My only question is: wouldn’t this technically violate the SOPA bill if it were passed?!
Full track list below:
01 No Doubt – “Different People”
02 Earth Wind & Fire Experience feat. Al McKay Allstars – “Got To Get You Into My Life – (Live)”
03 Booker T. & The MG’s – “Green Onions – Single/LP Version”
04 Wilco – “I Got You”
05 The Impressions – “Keep On Pushing – Single Version”
06 Jennifer Hudson – “Love You I Do”
07 AgesandAges – “No Nostalgia”
08 Ledisi – “Raise Up”
09 Sugarland – “Stand Up”
10 Darius Rucker – “This”
11 Arcade Fire – “We Used to Wait”
12 Florence And The Machine – “You’ve Got The Love”
13 James Taylor – “Your Smiling Face”
14 REO Speedwagon – “Roll With The Changes”
15 Raphael Saadiq – “Keep Marchin’”
16 Noah And The Whale – “Tonight’s The Kind Of Night”
17 Zac Brown Band – “Keep Me In Mind”
18 Aretha Franklin – “The Weight”
19 U2 – “Even Better Than The Real Thing”
20 Dierks Bentley – “Home”
21 Sugarland – “Everyday America”
22 Darius Rucker – “Learn To Live”
23 Al Green – “Let’s Stay Together”
24 Electric Light Orchestra – “Mr. Blue Sky”
25 Montgomery Gentry – “My Town”
26 Ricky Martin – “The Best Thing About Me Is You Feat. Joss Stone”
27 Ray LaMontagne – “You Are The Best Thing”
28 Bruce Springsteen – “We Take Care Of Our Own”
Via Your Music Today
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No sound exists on its own: The Global Composition / Call for scientific, scholarly and artistic proposals
February 15, 2012
The sonic environment is an indicator for the quality of life
One crucial aspect, however, remains open and leads to a multitude of questions: Is this, what our hearing is exposed to, satisfying and enhancing our individual, social, functional, biological, economical, aesthetic and existential needs and endeavors? If not, which concepts exist to “orchestrate” everyday life’s cacophony? Which methods exist to successfully evaluate the quality of soundscapes? Which criteria and values have to be developed, which practical constraints and habits to be dismissed in order to design the everyday as a “Hörenswürdigkeit”, which means: as something worth listening to?
How to improve the Global Composition to make the world more liveable?
Within this process: What role does media play and relation to its commodification of sound? Are there valid approaches to or even successful examples of shaping the soundscape in ways that are beneficial or at least acceptable for a majority? Are there strategies for overcoming the societal, political and economic hindrances that inhibit the inclusion of auditory considerations in the making of a sustainable society? What is the role of art in developing paradigms for auditory solutions applied to our living environments?
How to foster listening abilities within the concert of the senses?
Last but not least, what educational concepts and methods exist for integrating listening abilities into the concert of the senses, and develop auditory faculties as important tools for understanding, criticizing, shaping and designing the global environment? More infos on keynote speakers, conference fees and organisational details will be announced soon.
Proposals are invited for papers/posters, workshops, roundtable discussions, applied and artistic contributions, relating, but not limited to the conference’s main topics. (Please, load down the appropriate form from this page and fill it out.)
Call for Proposals HERE
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Jasper Elings
February 14, 2012Behold Jasper Elings. We love Animated Giffs that defy the laws of physics.
…specially if they are accompanied by a minimally hypnotic soundtrack:
WINDOWS by TOLOUSE LOW TRAX
House of the Rising Sun Covered by Legacy Computer Equipment
February 14, 2012
Instruments:
a. HP Scanjet 3P, Adaptec SCSI card and a computer powered by Ubuntu v9.10 OS as the Vocals. (hey, the scanner is old)
b. Atari 800XL with an EiCO Oscilloscope as the Organ
c. Texas instrument Ti-99/4A with a Tektronix Oscilloscope as the Guitar
d. Hard-drive powered by a PiC16F84A microcontroller as the bass drum and cymbal
Instruments:
a. Eric Burdon – Vocals
b. Alan Price – Keyboard
c. Hilton Valentine – Lead Guitar
d. Chas Chandler – Bass Guitar
e. John Steel – Drums
“Kapitän Biopunk : Fermentation Madness” / IBSC, Festival For Applied Acoustic
February 13, 2012
Performance on Exhibition set of “Kapitän Biopunk : Fermentation Madness” / IBSC at Festival For Applied Acoustic, Köln, Germany.
The project focuses on the experimentation of yeast (Sacchromyces Cerevisiae) in fruit fermentation and alcohol related issues in the society of Indonesia. The project started since the announcement of the new regulation from the Ministry of Finance (PMK) NO. 62 about the increased excise duty (tax) on alcoholic products on the 17th of March 2010. This regulation directly triggered expensive prices in retail selling of alcohol drinks in early April 2010.
As a result of this “vexation”, we started to develop this project with the intention to make a safe and cheap alcoholic beverage, using local fruit from Indonesia as the main material. The new regulation from the government indirectly created negativity of alcohol consumption. Various news articles, police and hospital statements have reported that there are many alcohol related fatalities and accidents since the regulation came into place. Some of the reports state that the alcohol consumed by the victims is due to the methanol present. In some cases, it has also been reported that some consumers mix in mosquito repellent and any other chemical compound into their drink to get the same effects as they are used to. With this in consideration, we begin to educate people on how to make safe and cheap fermented alcohol beverages, through a series of workshops and through an artistic approach in the format of an installation. The workshop format is hands on DIY practice inspired by indigenous methods fusing scientific disciplinary. Starting from the process of inoculating the yeast culture taken from natural environment, until the process of brewing. This method also aims to democratize the laboratory and liberate knowledge for wider society. The sound installation dematerializes the work of the yeast on changing the sugar into ethanol and CO2. The sounds of which change dependent on many circumstances, such as: life cycle; temperature; sugar level; types of fruit; quantity of yeast, light intensity and container volume. The audience can physically listen to the sound of fermentation thus enabling understanding of the whole process. This installation reflects the whole fringe of our imagination into the manifestation of education.
More info HERE
EDIBLE: THE TASTE OF THINGS TO COME
February 12, 2012
Who knew that a forkful of food could have such a far reaching effect? Science Gallery’s first foray into food, EDIBLE, tackles this vast topic from the perspective of the eater, probing how our actions as eaters shape what is sown, grown, harvested and consumed.
More Info HERE
Thanks to Design Goat we are able to hear some food. They say:
For the preview party we were asked to do a multi sensory event using sound and jelly. We had three different jellys and three sounds. We asked guests to listen to all three sounds and pick the most appetizing one, essentially tasting with their ears. We told nobody what was in any of the jellies and we are putting it up here for people to find out. We have also posted the sounds below so they can listen again.
Honey, Beetroot and Walnut
Lemon, Thyme and White Chocolate
Ultrasonic Absinthe Mist Cocktail
February 12, 2012
Seattle Food Geek: It must be ultrasonic month here at Seattle Food Geek headquarters, ‘cause I’ve got another high-frequency food hack. I recently bought an ultrasonic mist generator to use as a humidifier for a meat curing chamber I’m working on. These little devices emit ultrasonic waves (around 20KHz) which cause the surrounding water to cavitate into a very fine mist without raising the water temperature. Since the mist is so fine (about 1 micron) and is instantaneous and low-temperature, I thought it might be a great way to disperse aromatics around a food or beverage. I ran a few experiments to see if it would turn alcohol into mist, but unfortunately most of the results were very poor.
Rum did bupkis. Whiskey gin were the same. Dry vermouth produced a small amount of mist, and absinthe on it’s own produced a decent fog. However, since Absinthe is meant to be consumed with added water anyway, the cocktail you see above was the best result I achieved in my limited testing. From what little I can gather, I think the mist generator relies on a relationship between the frequency of the emitted ultrasonic wave and the speed with which sound travels through water in order to produce the mist. Sound waves will move at different speeds in liquids with different densities, so perhaps tweaking frequency of the transducer would allow me to directly mist other liquids. Just a theory.
The mist generator has a ring of garish, color-changing LED lights built in – this is not part of the intended effect. However, the mist produced above the drink does add something nice to the act of drinking it; the aromatics of the absinthe are amplified by becoming airborne, so you get a pleasant hit of anise aroma before you make contact with the drink. I think there’s potential to this technique, but until I can make mists out of whatever liquid I want, and without having to submerge a plastic doodad in your cocktail, I’ll consider this to be a “promising prototype.”
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Yosuke Yamashita, Burning Piano 2008
February 12, 2012Yosuke YAMASHITA “Burning Piano 2008,” March 8, 2008 at Noto Resort Area Masuhogaura, Shika-machi, Ishikawa, Japan)
Related Event of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. Third Anniversary Exhibition, Graphism in the Wilderness: Kiyoshi Awazu Exhibition
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Minimalistisches Grammophon
February 10, 2012
Designed by Livia Ritthaler. She says: “I just moved to London to finish my bachelor with the graphics program, and because I can afford a record player, I’ve even built one.”
A phonograph of three materials: paper, wood and metal. Operated by her own hands.
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Noisolation Headphones
February 10, 2012
Our ears can’t blink. It is an observation that is frequently raised in areas of study such as biology, sociology and sound theory. This is used to demonstrate how valuable listening has been to our evolutionary development. It also points to why noise is so intrusive and imposing since we can’t easily block it out. The pervasive use of headphones in populated environments represents one way in which listeners maintain some level of control over their personal audio space.
The Noisolation Headphones are a critical investigation that transforms the relationship between a person and the noise in their environment. This electromechanical listening appendage is designed to exist directly between a listener and the noise that surrounds them. While worn, exposure to the noise is structured through a sequence designated by a composer which controls the behavior of the sound-prevention valves. The composer also determines what values are adjustable by the listener through the single knob built into the device. The headphones mechanically create a personal listening experience by composing noise from the listener’s environment, rendering it differently familiar.
An invention for mechanically transforming the relationship between a person and the noise that immediately surrounds them. This project is part of the graduate thesis “Listening Instruments” by Alex Braidwood. Additional experiments, collaborations, research and writings are available at listeninginstruments.com
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OK Go’s Needing/Getting = 1000 instruments over two miles
February 10, 2012The new music video from OK Go, made in partnership with Chevrolet. OK Go set up over 1000 instruments over two miles of desert outside Los Angeles. A Chevy Sonic was outfitted with retractable pneumatic arms designed to play the instruments, and the band recorded this version of Needing/Getting, singing as they played the instrument array with the car. The video took 4 months of preparation and 4 days of shooting and recording. There are no ringers or stand-ins; Damian took stunt driving lessons. Each piano had the lowest octaves tuned to the same note so that they’d play the right note no matter where they were struck. Many thanks to Chevy for believing in and supporting such an insane and ambitious project, and to Gretsch for providing the guitars and amps.
For more information visit http://www.okgo.net
Director: Brian L. Perkins & Damian Kulash, Jr.
Director of Photography: Yon Thomas
Editor: Doug Walker
Producer: Luke Ricci
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