August 2010
Trinity Square Video announces the next TSV Commission trilogy, LEFT, RIGHT, CENTER, a project that asks artists to create 5- to 7-minute videos using audio as a primary source material for the examination of contemporary political issues. Celebrating TSV’s 40-year history as a centre for the production and commissioning of art, we are looking for five successful proposals to the first portion of this trilogy: LEFT. Videomakers chosen for LEFT must begin their projects from existing or previously self-created audio sources. These sources must be described in the project proposal and can include: audio interviews, self-recorded sounds, archival/historical audio material, music or appropriated sounds. (Music videos are NOT eligible for TSV Commissions.) For LEFT, we are seeking proposals for the creation of work that considers the idea of “left” from various positions: from the egalitarian leftist or the undecided left-leaning; from a place of possible difference on the left-side or in leftfield; or from those remainders that haunt us–what is leftover, what is left unsaid or what has been left hanging. This is a commission for the production of video art. TSV is seeking submissions that propose to explore pertinent issues related, but not limited, to representation, identity, geography and space, economics, justice, divisions of labour and power, science, history and philosophy. These works can be impassioned, critical or humorously self-effacing. Proposed artworks can employ video through a variety of strategies, including narrative and documentary form, formalist or materialist practices, animation or compositing, and for the first time in TSV’s commissioning history, through a limited number of selected video installations. Selected artists receive:
While each project is created separately, the artists participate in group-critiques of works-in-progress, where they can receive peer-support and feedback. Submissions will be reviewed by a panel of artist-peers and the TSV Programming Committee who will make selections based on the proposed project’s exploration of the theme, LEFT, as well as its intended examination, experimentation and expansion of video as an art medium. All Toronto-based emerging and established visual artists, video artists, media artists, sound artists and filmmakers are welcome to submit proposals to LEFT. Proposals from those living outside Toronto and surrounding area must ensure that the artist will attend all LEFT related activities at their own expense. Deadline: October 15, 2010 Proposals must include an application form available at www.trinitysquarevideo.com |
|||
Our peer Markus Heckmann (aka Wüstenarchitekten) tipped me off about a recent project that I couldn't resist sharing. Markus describes his experiment (Wandler, embedded above) as: "a single frame of an animation captured on slidefilm with a generative animation running behind the slides." It is certainly hard to argue with the simplicity of the piece, which, like the underlying score (Monolake's "void") is both restrained and nuanced. If you like the 'hall of mirrors' feel of the piece, be sure to tune into Markus' Vimeo channel to view more of his work. |
|||
Algorithmic composition is nothing new – John Cage and Iannis Xenaxis used mathematics and statistics in their earliest works. Brian Eno produced numerous compositions with SSEYO's Koan generative music system, which produces ambient variations for web-pages, mobile devices, and standalone performance. Autechre used algorithmic technique for their Confield and EP7 LPs, and the list goes on… Often times algorithmic technique are utilized for experimental pieces, improvisational approaches towards classical, avant-garde music or jazz, but it is rare that computers are programmed to produce really funky music. Even more rare is it that the framework of a project is free (free as in freedom). This is the reason that I'm writing about a new musical work called Squeakyshoecore by Chris McCormick. Chris is a relentless programmer specialising in Open Source software, a Pure Data developer, he worked on the portable "reactive music" project RjDj and developed, among other software, the PdLanParty – a client-server system for associating Pd patches with each other on a local network, and the more recent WebPd – a partial port of Pd to javascript audio (currently only in Firefox experimental). Squeakyshoecore—McCormick's new album—features funky acid electronic beats composed by his machine using some patches developed in Pure Data. These patches will be soon released under a free software license. I won't discuss here the musicality of those pieces, neither I will elaborate on the specific algorithms he used, but I can assure you that these tracks have a real groove. It is also worth mentioning that Chris has already produced algorithmic hip-hop software and a drum'n'bass generator, both freely available on-line. To get some more context on the project I caught up with Chris to discuss his recent work. Marco Donnarumma: Chris why you chose a free software environment as framework for your projects? Chris McCormick: My choice to use FLOSS was made after I discovered this new GNU/Linux system that was emerging in the 90s, and then I read about the GPL license and the writings by the creator Richard Stallman. Quite apart from the moral implications of that type of software, there are a number of practical, pragmatic reasons why using Free Software makes sense, especially for creative people:
|
|||
You are invited to submit articles and artworks for a new issue of the Leonardo Electronic Almanac edited by FutureEverything. This is a dedicated edition of the leading online journal exploring the FutureEverything 2010 themes of the city and open data. Deadline: Abstracts due 10 September 2010 ART OF PERVASIVE DATA This issue of LEA will seek cross disciplinary thinking on art in the age of pervasive data. LEA is soliciting texts and artworks by artists, researchers, and scholars
Cities today are vast repositories of information, endlessly collecting and archiving data. The growth and proliferation of databases and libraries that we access and update in the course of our every day lives, and new techniques of accessing, visualising and using that data, leads to new forms of representation and social interaction. The vast scale of these databases brings us to a tipping point, entering an era that is increasingly data-driven. This poses new challenges, such as the demands of making sense of a million different data sources, issues of provenance, interoperability, trust and accountability. The potential for more innovative and novel interpretations of this landscape by creative invention, social innovation and scientific intervention is there to be explored. The FutureEverything editorial group consists of Karen Gaskill, Drew Hemment, Michelle Hirschhorn, Michelle Kasprzak, Julian Tait and Kate Taylor. See this link for more info on submitting. For further information or images submission contact: Ozden.Sahin@leoalmanac.org |
|||
FABRICATE is an International Peer Reviewed Conference with supporting publication and exhibition to be held at The Building Centre in London from 15-16 April 2011. Discussing the progressive integration of digital design with manufacturing processes, and its impact on design and making in the 21st century, FABRICATE will bring together pioneers in design and making within architecture, construction, engineering, manufacturing, materials technology and computation. Discussion on key themes will include: how digital fabrication technologies are enabling new creative and construction opportunities, the difficult gap that exists between digital modeling and its realization, material performance and manipulation, off-site and on-site construction, interdisciplinary education, economic and sustainable contexts. Call for Work: Central to the aim of FABRICATE is to interrogate and disseminate difference, similarity and innovation across design and making practices in industry and academia. Submissions will be independently blind reviewed by two members of an international panel of experts. Selected submissions will be featured in ‘FABRICATE: Making Digital Architecture’ published by Riverside Architectural Press. Deadline: September 20th, 2010. For more info on submitting work please see: fabricate2011.org/submissions |
|||
Editor's note: The following text and images are selected excerpts from Rosa's recent self-published PDF A Vernacular of File Formats: A Guide to Databend Compression Design. Be sure to check out the entire document and/or Rosa's workshops at the upcoming In/Out and GLI.TC/H events in New York City and Chicago in September.
'Glitches are hot; proof can be found on MTV, Flickr, in the club and in the bookstore. While the coffee table book Glitch: Designing Imperfection (2009) has introduced the glitch design aesthetic to the world of latte drinking designers, and Kanye West used glitches to sing about his imperfect love life, the awkward, shy and physically ugly celebrate under the header "Glitched: Nerdcore for life".' Glitch has transformed from cool to hot. Its no more then a brightly colored bubblegum wrapper that doesn't ask for any involvement, or offers any stimulus. Inside I find gum that I keep chewing, hoping for some new explosion of good taste. But the more I chew, the less tasty / rubbery it gets. Glitch design fulfills an average, imperfect stereotype, a filter or commodity that echoes a "medium is the message" standard.
Above: Joint Photographic Experts Group (.JPG) (lossy), severely downsampled so that the 8x8 macroblocks (and quantization error) are apparent. (irreversible databend) A JPG compression consists of 6 subsequent steps:
Above: 8 × 8 DCT basis patterns of a JPG. 1. Initially, images have to be transformed from the RGB color space to another color space (called Y′CbCr), that consists of three components that are handled separately; the Y (luma or brightness) and the Cb and Cr values (chroma or color values, which are divided into hue and saturation). 2. Because the human eye doesnʼt perceives small differences within the Cb and Cr space very well, these elements are downsampled. 3. After the color space transformation, the image is split into tiles or macroblocks. Rectangular regions of the image that are transformed and encoded separately.
4. Next, a Discrete Cosine Transform (which works similar to the Fourier Transform function, exploited in datamoshing and macroblock studies) is used to create a frequency spectrum, to transform the 8×8 blocks to a combination of the 64 two-dimensional DCT basis functions or patterns (as differentiated by the red lines).
Above: high frequency mapping from which basic values are derived. 5. During the Quantization step, the highest brightness frequency variations become a base line (or 0-value), while small positive and negative frequency differentiations get a value, which take many fewer bits to represent.
Above: low res JPG, Baseline standard. (irreversible databend) 6. finally, entropy coding is applied. Entropy coding is a special form of lossless data compression that involves arranging the image components in a "zigzag" order. This allows the quantized coefficient table to be rewritten in a zigzag order to a sequence of frequencies. A run-length encoding (RLE) algorithm groups similar frequencies together and after that, via "Huffman coding" organizes what is left. Because the RGB color values are described in such a complex algorithms, some random data replacement often results into dramatic discoloration and other effects. |
|||
Vague Terrain has recently entered its fifth year of showcasing progressive, idiosyncratic digital art practices. Our growth is due in large part to the contributions of guest curators who have shared their expertise and energy with us, including Joshua Noble, Kim Cascone, Paul Prudence, Rob Cruickshank, CONT3XT.NET, Carrie Gates and David McCallum. We would like to continue to collaborate with members of the digital art community, and are inviting proposals from interested artists or curators to work with us on future issues of Vague Terrain. Journal Format: The best way to get a sense of our project is to browse the archives. Each issue is a mix of essays, interviews, in-depth documentation of multimedia projects, broader surveys of art practices and EP-length audio art and experimental music releases. We aren't locked to a specific formula and have featured issues almost entirely dedicated to article-length essays or music. Each issue should feature 8-15 contributors. Schedule: We are looking for guest curators for issues to be published in January 2011 and onward. A curator will need about 90 days of lead time to organize an issue and establishing communication with the invited artists at the beginning of the process is one of the most involved tasks. The guest curator will work with the Vague Terrain team to set up a timeline for participating artists to follow. Responsibilities – A guest curator is responsible for the following:
Support – Vague Terrain offers the following assistance with the above duties of the curator:
Interested curators and digital artists should email us with the following:
Deadline: This is an open, ongoing call. However curators interested in the January slot should contact us ASAP as we'll be selecting the curator for that issue in early September. Submissions and inquires should be sent to submit@vagueterrain.net |
|||
