February 2006 Archives
Attended an interesting lecture given by Kevin Slavin of Area/Code.
Slavin outlined a number of works that involved human information transfer—in terms of both memory and storage—and established a bright line between the two. Objects dealing with memory mirror the humanity of impermanence, blur, forgetting, accesibility, and the distortion of truth. A number of interesting examples included a maleable obelisk erected as a Holocaust memorial in Harburg, Germany (designed by Jochen Gerz and Esther Shalev-Gerz). Towns-people were invited to scratch into the surface of the 8 story monument, as it sunk into the ground. The design of this structure perfectly exemplifies Slavin's thoughts on correct memorialization of a concept—in stark contrast to the more prevelant monoliths that offer a 'false sense of continuity.'
Our culture is obsessed with documentation. Slaven argues against this, bashing blogs, and heralding forgetfulness. I dissagree with his sentiments. There is nothing inherently wrong with hyper-documentation, as there is no real objectification. Documentation offers a narrative perspective on an event—not an innacesible, forboding demon of forceful truth.
An article in the NYTimes outlined a recent study of how the human unconsious is a great computer. I read a book on the subject of creativity and expression in which a collection of writings from a number of artists, composers, pyschologists, and philosophers. The works showed a common trend of creative process occuring in the unconsious, something that has always been of interest to me (and I'm sure many people). This provides an interesting platform for vehicular creation—defining a carrier for outputing content. The process mirrors the workings of a computer in whats visible to the sensory observer.
But our video is hilarious.
Hans Christian von Baeyer's recent title on information theory has openened up a whole world for me. The text covers everything from Norbert Weiner's interpolation of thermodynamics to Bayesian algorithms to the superposition of Schrödinger's Cat. It takes a hell of a writer [and teacher] to lead up to and explain quantum computation and define its relevance to current issues of information theory and the future of data processing.
I find myself enthralled in the concept of tangible information—the concept of a bit (or qubit) system for measuring information. The paths information travels are physical, and can be measured in waves and wave-particle rates. The physics of information is something not yet available/accesible to the vast majority of technology consumers (bloggers, and non-academic enthusiasts). Some very interesting developments within the pool of think-tanks and physics departments are sprouting up every day, with quantum computers and the like. I'm curious to see what the next 20 years brings.
In sifting through Digg.com for a handful of minutes, I've come across a number of quantum information theory references. Enjoy...
Music is easy to bullshit. It's easy to say, 'I like whatever makes me feel good.' 'I like music that has a good beat.' But what is good music? Why does music make people feel good? I would argue the beauty of music lies in playfulness—straddling that never-a-bright-line of surprise and knowing satisfaction. Music affords manipulation of so many variables, and relies on the linearity of time.
I remember sitting down with my composition teacher at NEU and discussing what I liked about music and how I go about creating music. I told Tony that form was old, archaic, and I wanted to escape the traditional mundane of classical archetype. Mistake. I had to endure an hour-long rant that involved his destroying a blueberry muffin to make a certain point that form is necesary. Much to my chagrin, a lot of what he said made sense. I have since renigged and now embrace form, though with certain compunctions. In the years since that little talk, I've expanded myself to explore and recognize the inherent forms present and required in musical expression.
The matter of musical form is more than merely aesthetic—and present throughout all disciplines. The formal element is very much important in art, where context creates a meaning. Still, it's a balancing act.
Two companies have teemed up to offer a location-aware system in Japan. The user process is amazingly simple—just point at what you want. The service uses GPS enabled CDMA phones with compass orientation to grab location and info data. I would venture a guess that this solution would be improved with cell-tower triangulation (to combat the urban canyon effect of cities), to beat a dead horse.
Stumbled on a path of interesting, entertaining, and annoying reads courtesy of Gothamist of all places concerning yea, you guessed it, BLOGS. The first article, Blargon, by William Safire, takes a stab at defining some key blogging terms and concepts—vernacular—for the NYTimes. Wes Felter at Hack the Planet dissagrees with some of Safire's defs, and pointed me to Blogosarry, which I've somehow never come across.
An article in the NYTimes yesterday commented on Blogs' role in media, as opposed to MSM, or Main Stream Media. The article extensively referenced Dave Sifry—in particular referenceing the State of the Blogosphere. The NYTimes article read as pretty defensive, sounding like [not to sensationalize the issue] a stalwart reaffirmation of the need for Big Media [Shit, now I really sound sensationalist]. The author, Dan Mitchel relegated blogs to niche, referential journalism—citing that only a minority provide real and original reporting.
This seems to be a commont trend with the established Entertainment entities establishing their value and seperation from independant authors. I'm curious to see how long this top down system will remain in place, drawing clear parrallels to industrial development.
Currently an issue to note in the blogosphere, elite bloggers are becoming more authoritative. Twilight of the Blogs, an article from Feb 16 at Slate outlines some of these issues.
Would someone let me know when the paradigm shift is coming?
UPDATE: Just read a pro-blog article by journalist Bill Densmore. The article features former NYTimes editor Daniel Okrent. Worth checking out.
Xin, Cat, and I have been working on a video-blogging application that allows people to comment on specific frames of a given video. The app is still under [heavy] development, and we welcome feedback on the functionality.
An post over at Pasta and Vinegar inspired me this morning. Nova talks about objects that blog, referencing the GPS enabled pidgeons project, and webcams, among other things. I am considering starting a project in which embedded objects would be capable of blogging directly—at the object's own discression and about subjects relevant to the object.
The concept of social, networked, non-living fixtures provides for a different perspective on natural phenomena. I expect the objects would function as embedded sensors relying on thresholds of stimulus to pass information in a human-readable position to a blog—a recontextualization of the data. I don't propose this is an innovative concept, just a contextual repositioning.
Cat and I were talking after class today about kids and their naivete in publishing content and information to the Web. There are a huge number of pitfalls along this front, ranging from legal to social and everything in between. We concluded that the youth must be educated on the ramifications inherent in placing one's self on the grid.
The Web provides a great social vehicle for communication and self-expression, but can obviously be dangerous—precisely for that reason. Personal information distribution should be carefully controlled by the given publisher—as subscribers to online activity are indeed publishers. Members of the online youth (the adolescent cyberculture) are especially at risk, as they are not versed in the cautionary lessons of dangerous activity. Think about the risks inherent in driving a motor vehicle— to draw a similar parallel.
We have given thought to starting an organization or collective to educate youth on the ramifications—a sort of web-driver's education. Any input in this area is most welcome. I will create a more organized forum for discussion on this topic at a later date, and post the details to this blog.
Cat and I took some video when we went to Belleayre this past Sunday. Cat did a great job editing, and one of my old tracks provided the audio.
Danny Ayers blogged about the Triple Tag, a good extension of the... Single(?) tag.
The form of such a tag:
[namespace]:[key]=[value]
Which, in terms of geocoding would look a little something like this:
geotagged
geo:lat=53.1234
geo:long=-2.5678
Simple, short, sweet. The examples Danny gave are from a project called MobiLife, which looks pretty interesting.
As everyone and their goldfish knows, the blogosphere has grown (and continues to grow) at an enormous rate. But will it last? B.L. Ochman thinks not. Dave Sifry says maybe. The number of un-maintained blogs will grow, of course, just as did the number of websites that went neglected in the late-90s. I'm not so sure whats going to happen. I feel that the determining factor lies in aggregation and content acquesition. If blogs go unread, untended, and remain obscure, they will corrode. But, if people find value in them—any semblance of a readership—the value will remain and blogs (or whatever the hell you want to call them) will remain.
This is another track from my past life as a record collecting music-tech nerd. Sloppy MPC beats for days.
I have just finished downloading and installing the application. I'm eager to play around with it and see the actual value of the service. From what I can tell, its quite accurate and reliable.
Dan Albritton and I have been talking about creating a mobile phone application that finds location via cell-tower strength. The tower information would be harvested through a (nightmarish) process akin to war-driving. A small group of researchers recently did something similar (or exactly the same?) in Seatle, which I will be looking into. Any help would be most welcome—in helping with development of the harvesting application (J2ME and/or Python), harvesting data, and testing the app once we have a critical mass of organized information.
"Information is the transfer of form from one medium to another. In the context of human information-exchange, 'communication' is a more descriptive term than 'transfer', and since form is about relationships, we can tentatively define information as the communication of relationships."
- Hans Christian von Baeyer (Information 2005)
Picked up von Baeyer's book Information : The New Language of Science the other day. It reminds me of Emmergence, only more intensively academic. The book has so far been a great pleasure to read (inhale, really). The value and relevance of abstraction in defining information systems is incredible, and an incredible aid to thinking about networks—my main obsession. I'm very sick of reading about the human limitation of inference and historical (biological, chemical, physical... ) contextualization in information and interface design. Proponents of architectural pervasive computing and ubicomp systems seem to forget about adaptability and the value of attribution in the abstract sense. Von Baeyer looks at both sides of the issues in a refreshing way. More to come as I get further into the reading.
Dave Sifry's State of the Blogosphere (see link below) examines exactly what the title suggests. He has found a number of interesting facts, suggesting that, you guessed it, there are a hell of a lot of blogs out there, and more are coming. There have been a number of spam issues that have arisen because of the popularity...
I've recently given a lot of thought to collaborative media and media formats. There seems to be a lack of innovative audio/visual/sensory content in terms of dynamically driven formats. I feel this has stagnated the creative output of the subjects. An interesting project would be to develop a system of real-time content creation and collaboration. This would not merely be a remixing app, but a simultaneous creation and real modification tool. The purpose is generally to bypass the stock media approach to live and collaborative creation.
Google is huge—Google is powerful. Top page-ranks are the new-media gold and oil repositories. When a corporation can punish [cripple], then what? Don't be evil. Yea, BMW did a bad thing. Some kind of arbitration seems like the way to handle these things, of which I'm sure we will see many more.
What is an email worth? Is there some concrete value that can be placed on such a small exchange of bytes? Internet giants AOL and Yahoo will soon be charging companies for sending e-mail to their users [AOL and Yahoo e-mail] accounts. The payment won't be obligatory, but paying senders will be given a filter-free card—they won't "have to pass the gantlet [sic] of spam filters that could divert them to a junk-mail folder or strip them of images and Web links." (Saul Hansell—learn how to spell, buddy)
This is a fascinating issue in terms of paper-culture (read: anachronistic) transposition on digital media. It makes me wonder whether the pseudo-centralized nature of the web is really the best solution. An even more nodal approach might be safer in promoting a democratic web-scape.
Roy Ayers: “I think [sampling] is a wonderful thing. All of a sudden they’re bringing about an acknowledgement to me and saying, “This is the best music for my song.” And I’m getting a percentage of something that has been done before, but now it’s got a renewed life, a whole new day” (Ayers, 2004, p. 105)
Over the past 30 years, taking samples from previously published works has been gaining in popularity. The legality of sampling has been contested in a number of court cases with differing results. Consequently, confusion is common among both sampling and sampled artists, as well as those who produce and manage them. The rulings on sampling are often case-specific, offering little general guidance to original artists and samplers. Some individuals involved in sampling have called for new legislation while others contend that a case-by-case analysis is required to address the diverse concerns of individual cases of sampling. The myriad conditions involved in the practice cannot be accounted for under a single statute. Therefore, the most logical means is to employ a method of case-by-case analysis, avoiding any bright-line rules. (Jeff Blum, personal communication, July 21, 2004)
It is clear that musicians require additional guidance concerning the legal aspects of sampling. Many musicians still mistakenly believe they can take samples from any available material without limitations such as securing consent of the original artist or significantly restricting the length of the sample. Existing laws provide the creators of the original work with various rights and protections. Courts weigh a variety of factors in determining the extent of those rights and the extent to which sampling may be permissible. However, these factors create confusion because they vary according to each specific use of a sample - Artists who create original sampled works may be entitled to credit and compensation when sampled in a derivative context, or even without. Not all sampling infringes upon original artist rights. Technically, sampling occurs even when nothing more than a given set of frequencies is derived from the original work, using the sample in the same context as a note on a piano. Creative use of sampling should be fostered as beneficial to both the sampling and sampled artist, which is consistent with the original philosophy of copyright: to encourage artistic works of creativity. Both sampled and sampling artists as well as the record executives who produce the artists should familiarize themselves with the existing regulatory framework as it applies to the incorporation of original material in new works. Such a familiarity of the legal issues will moderate complications concerning copyright use.
This report will provide information concerning the applicable law in sampling for record label executives and artists. The report is meant for both the sampling and sampled artists, and their respective executive representatives, as both have the right to be aware of current and future issues regarding their work and practices. Most importantly, this report recommends a standard set of guidelines and considerations for use in occasions of sampling.
After a brief introduction to sampling, this report addresses legal issues of copyright and the fair use doctrine. A review of recent case law is used to demonstrate how the courts have applied existing statutes and precedence to various cases of sampling. Following the legal discussion is a section on important business considerations. Next, the guidelines are presented, followed by possible future concerns and the concluding points. Finally, a glossary of terms is included for those not familiar with the language of copyright, sampling, and music business.
The research of this report was based largely on individual cases and law review articles. Information for the music industry section was gathered from various reputable books on the subject, as well as journals and magazines of the music trade. Other sources included pop-culture magazines and works of non-fiction, web sites, and an interview with an established entertainment and music lawyer.
Last year I worked on one of DJ Spooky's projects as a motion-designer. I created a couple animations based on digitized sheet music for a video-manipulation app my friend Jay Laird of Metaversal Studios built. Spooky performed the piece at Carnegie Hall in NYC.
More beats for wet socks and sharp umbrellas. Please disregard my weak dj [lack of] skill—3 years old.
For those who don't know, I graduated from NEU with a Multimedia-Studies dual major with a concentration in Music Technology. I created this track for a sound design class in the spring of 2004—around the time I started getting sick of programming drums on my MPC.
The piece lacks the visual context of the ad for which it was designed—but I still like the track. And Jury likes it. So that must mean it's decent.
As an aside, my copy of Fetch has autism with a touch of turrets, and tends to glitch the fuck out of every non-text upload I throw its way. Can't say I don't like it though.
Sound design for some generic Nike commercial
I'll throw up another track later today for your listening pleasure.
Tae and I have created a blog as a vehicle to drive our presentation for today's PPM class. You can find the blog HERE. Please feel free to read and comment to aid discussion and promote the many-to-many approach to the work.
Why are podcasts being hailed as a revolutionary media phenomenon? They aren't interactive. They aren't dynamic. Podcasts are mp3 mixtapes. I get so frustrated when people develop stagnant technology for current limited devices. We have podcasts because dynamic streaming interactive content is just not portable. Mobile phones are getting increasingly sophisticated, personal digital media players are getting more powerful, and computers are becoming more and more portable [read tiny and connectable].
Throw-away culture.
I suppose fetishism has much to do with placement of material value in ownership of intangible things—digital files. The vast majority would rather download a music file than merely have streaming access to it. The thought process must change in order to get away from this mode. Issues of speed and quality were once a factor, but with the improvement of computing technology [microprocessor speeds being what they are] and high-speed networks, there will soon be no need for local personal storage of applications and files. Unless, of course, the net changed. Connectivity is the issue here. Sharing, promoting, publishing. What if everyone's personal computer was a server? As I posted earlier, Nokia is developing a mobile server to run on cellphones.
So what does all this have to do with Podcasting? Its the old, dead news. This should have happened years ago, but now, slap on a trendy name, and remarket it.
Podcasts don't allow for searching, linking... In short, they aren't machine-readable—yet. Speach recognition technology is pretty behind, and not nearly effective enough to intelligently parse the pod-o-sphere. Podcasts are mp3 files—they are static. All hyperlinks and notes must reside outside of the actual file. The audio files are not easily updated. So?
The next trend? SWFcasting?
