ideometric

This is slightly genius. Above piece carved out of Marshall McLuhan’s book The Medium is the Massage by Robert The.

Book art is intimate, fascinating, and transgressive. When we talk about books, we are usually talking about what’s inside, but there is a lot more to a book than reading it. Book art makes those other aspects its domain: the way books look; the way that, with their bent spines and marginalia, they record the history of our own reading lives; the way that these mass-produced objects can seem to hold not just letters but knowledge.

http://ffffound.com/

This is the best time waster ever. (And occasionally inspiring).

French electronica, pop, with Japanese noise/collage, psychedelia influence. Nice!

More here:

http://www.olamm.tk/
http://www.myspace.com/olamm

Arcane Device, “feedback music” by David Lee Myers.

“Since 1987, I have been developing specialized circuitry and electronic systems for the production of my signature ‘Feedback Music’, whose original sounds claim unique sources. The outputs of electronic devices - particularly those intended to create a modification of some kind to an audio signal, such as time delays - are fed, via custom-built mixers, to their own inputs. In this way, these devices never receive signals from the ‘outside world’, and instead feed on a diet of their own product. A whole new function of these devices appears, bearing little relation to their intended purposes. The way I envision it, the devices are provided the opportunity to ’sing their own songs’ […].

More Info // Sound clips on Myspace

Sometimes I wish I could remember the 80s.

In a world of simulacra, copies without originals, when is a work “finished”? Is it a perpetual work-in-progress?

I think I like that idea.

I was listening to Steve Reich’s ‘Pendulum Music I’ and wondered how anyone could play something like that. Turns out it’s ‘played’ by hanging mics.

“The microphones are pulled back, switched on, and released over the speaker, and gravity causes them to swing back and forth like pendulums. As the microphone nears the speaker, a feedback tone is created.

The music created is then the result of the process of the swinging microphones. ‘The piece is ended sometime shortly after all mikes have come to rest and are feeding back a continuous tone by performers pulling the power cords of the amplifiers’”

wiki 

It flopped in Korea, which probably means I’d like it. This is part of a Youtube rip.

I know I’m predictable but Daft Punk’s tron suits, their pyramid, control panels, the glowing orchestra behind them, and Kanye’s cyberpunkesque gear made me happy. style over substance aside.

I haven’t watched it yet, but it sounds like it could be good. It was only a matter of time for something like this, but these are professionals — I’m still waiting for some of the more popular Youtube directors to get a deal.

“NBC has concluded a first-of-its-kind deal to acquire the talked-about new Internet and social network series ‘Quarterlife’ for distribution as an hourlong drama series on the NBC network after it has first played in eight-minute segments on [myspace].”

Apparently the show centers around a character with a videoblog, and life in general for the Facebook generation. The episodes are already viewable online on the Quarterlife website — which doubles as a social network for “creatives.”

I don’t see the appeal 0f the web community angle, that market is kinda saturated already and it’d take a lot of innovation/creativity to make it successful. But it’s a nice thought…

Quarterlife website | Wikipedia entry | NYT article

Update: Haha, I still haven’t watched it, but apparently on its network TV debut, it had the lowest ratings of any new show in decades. Oh well.

TechShop is a fully equipped workshop opened to the public on a pay-per-day, or monthly membership basis. It gives ordinary people - hackers, artists, hobbyists, crafters, students, tinkerers, etc. - access to high end equipment, and the knowledge required to use it.

” TechShop is a fully-equipped open-access workshop and creative environment that lets you drop in any time and work on your own projects at your own pace. It is like a health club with tools and equipment instead of exercise equipment…or a Kinko’s for geeks.”

“The TechShop workshop provides a wide variety of machinery and tools for the open and unlimited use of its members, including milling machines and lathes, welding stations and plasma cutters, sheet metal working equipment, drill presses and band saws, industrial sewing machines, hand tools, plastic working equipment, electronics design and fabrication facilities, tubing and metal bending machines, electrical supplies and tools, and pretty much everything you’d ever need to make just about anything all by yourself.”

The best part is that they have a ton of classes to spread the knowledge required to use the various tools, with a low $30 pricepoint that makes it pretty accessible. They’re expanding to LA this summer too.

A few photos (I didn’t take) of Yri Cafe, one of the coolest spots I came across in Korea. Filled with art books and magazines, sketchbooks at the tables covered with doodles and poems from whoever sat there before you, and often host to performances, art exhibitions, etc. It fits in well with the bohemian vibe surrounding Hongik university.

The interior is what drew me, as I’d come across their website before visiting the country. Red & chrome chairs, stained and scuffed wood floors, exposed ductwork, rough cement walls, melted candles, artwork on display, shelves of books and other media. Every color, texture, surface, and object — every detail — combining to create a space that begs for exploration. The kind of environment where you’d have to try to be uncreative, try to be uninspired. I think there was even a tree trunk sitting in there. It’s a nice change from the typically boring cafes in the states.

I’m not the only one inspired, check out the user submitted photo gallery on their site. There’re also pretty active message boards, but my Korean isn’t good enough to decipher those. Makes me wonder what kind of community exists around this place, and how it might be reinforced by its virtual manifestation.

Got this for Christmas, it’s better than the original director’s cut I think; the story flows better and the visuals have been cleaned up without any of that George Lucas style editing that ends up ruining a retouched classic.

This gallery of Fred Herzog’s work from the 1950s and 60s caught my eye. I like his compositions and the saturated colors of the street. I think that most of the pictures are in and around Vancouver.

Sources: Equinox Gallery, Fred Herzog Official Site

I wrote an article for Coolhunting.com on La Blogotheque’s Take-away Shows, reposted here. Note that the links at the very end no longer point to the right places.

La Blogothèque’s Concerts à emporter (Take-Away Shows) are a collection of live, unedited videos of musicians playing in unusual settings. The artists’ unpredictable interaction with the environment and the reactions of often clueless bystanders create a genius fusion of music video and reality TV.

Director Vincent Moon’s use of improvised performance in unexpected public spaces creates moments that appear natural and effortless, even ordinary or commonplace. It’s as if we’re being let in on a secret that all around us everyday life is infused with spontaneous musicality, if only we’d have the good fortune to stumble upon the right bar, turn down a certain dark alley early in the morning, or catch the right bus downtown.