my excuse for not bloggin' for ages is I've simply been feeling rotten. Headaches, bodyaches, explosive spotty nose, chest producing an endless panoply of green gunk blah blah. In other words- I've been better. The fact I seem to have passed it on to a fair number of people comes as scant comfort. It seems to have lasted ages- at least a week.
Christmas hol(ogram)s loom- with loads of school work to be done. A group presentation this week questioning why Lenticulars and holograms have only broken into "serious" artistic usage to a limited extent. To illustrate a point I shall be playing the brilliant Flashback on my recently purchased megadrive. Flashback is one of my favorite games ever on any console (Platform). It's like a mixture of Total Recall, Blade Runner and Running Man with a bit of Aliens thrown in. If that sounds too good to be true... it is. Too good. And it's true.
Made my first holograms proper last week. The subject matter was rather pedestrian- a few coins and a Yale key. Still it works quite well, and opens the door for more experimental stuff.
Since working in the realm of autostereoscopics a number of folks have asked me when we will be seeing those midair holographic intercoms popularised by starwars. My answer- I don't know. There are some fairly basic physical limitations with the nature of lightwhich prevent it. and the fact that powerful lasers have a tendency to fry stuff. Including eyeballs. There are a number of experiments being done- saw something interesting on youtube which involved mirrors spinning at immense speed. in fact by the magic of copying and pasting I can show you the very same video.
here.
there's still a fair bit of work to be done, but hopefully we'll be throwing virtual objects around a la minority report soon, in our lifetime anyhow... What about the wag who says- "they did it in star wars, why not now?" To him I say, that was a long time ago in a galaxy far far away...
Monday 10 December 2007
Tuesday 20 November 2007
drizzle and drivel
It's not a Thursday. Not even a Wednesday. The weather's gloomy and wet. Still, at least it's not pleasant and sunny.
I'm behind with work. Need motivation in capsule form.
Did some retail therapy(?) to cheer myself up. Purhased a SegaMegadrive 2 (I now own three). And a Philips 7 in 1 electric grooming kit. Watch out anyone who knows me in real life. I'm gonna Create My Own Look. Yeah. that's what it says I can do on the box. Or I might just shave my head, buy a gun and nail dead pigeons to my floorboards.
On reflection it was not my most successful bout of retail therapy(?).
I'm behind with work. Need motivation in capsule form.
Did some retail therapy(?) to cheer myself up. Purhased a SegaMegadrive 2 (I now own three). And a Philips 7 in 1 electric grooming kit. Watch out anyone who knows me in real life. I'm gonna Create My Own Look. Yeah. that's what it says I can do on the box. Or I might just shave my head, buy a gun and nail dead pigeons to my floorboards.
On reflection it was not my most successful bout of retail therapy(?).
Thursday 15 November 2007
Another Thursday? Already?
this seems to be fine time of week to grab a tea and a few moments of quiet introspection at akey board to commune with my dear readers. you.
it's been a good, rather busy week. aurelie gig at the City gallery, leicester last Friday. aurelie are a free flowing audio visual music art collective. we can be heard here.
http://www.myspace.com/aureliegroup
may put some pics up here, although most of mine are of intricately structured formations of hard boiled eggs and other culinary confections. Which reminds me I was meant to send some of them to the caterers. photos - not eggs. they would be rather stale by now. ha.
played another gig last night with the unaptly named Maximum Danger Project. I play cello and a bit of bass/ percussion with them. good off-kilter folksy instrumented pop songs. Bringing together such ramshackle sonic bedfellows as tambourine, flute, drums, violin, djembe, bass, clarinet and cello. and kazoos we put quite a storming show.
the intervening time twixt these gigs was mostly uneventful. in a good way. A mate from oxford came to stay the weekend. We visited a local museum which celebrated politically correct multi-cultural blandness beside 16th Century local type Daniel Lambert, a man notable, in actual fact for little else but being extraordinarily fat. those were the days- a fat bloke (mighty man!) was hailed as a prodigy of nature and taken to meet royalty. Today we would put him under the knife and make him star of a vilifying documentary.
I started getting quite excited by the possibilities of that inscrutable piece of sophtware titled Flash. But only by its potentialto produce content that annoys, disorientates and confuses. I contend that this function is as valid as any other. But whether our lecturer will see this approach as markworthy remains to be seen.
At uni today was a course telling us how to use powerful lasers without destroying our eyes. Which was useful. And fairly bearable as well. There was even a humorously dated eighties video with a woman extolling the joys of lasing. With a 'z' I can do it admirably. With an 's'...I'm not so experienced, but I'm sure I can learn.
There awaits this week a bit of the not so glamorous side to making music- shifting gear around, a part of the process I would happily abdicate to burly, tattooed roadies (and that's just the womenfolk!). But a lot of the good stuff too. Some more accortumn, a weekend of actionforcing and a london gig with aurelie. So wish me luck. Even better wish me a warming roast dinner. Which is what hopefully awaits me at home.
And my bloody valentine are gigging again... but that deserves a blog of its own.
it's been a good, rather busy week. aurelie gig at the City gallery, leicester last Friday. aurelie are a free flowing audio visual music art collective. we can be heard here.
http://www.myspace.com/aureliegroup
may put some pics up here, although most of mine are of intricately structured formations of hard boiled eggs and other culinary confections. Which reminds me I was meant to send some of them to the caterers. photos - not eggs. they would be rather stale by now. ha.
played another gig last night with the unaptly named Maximum Danger Project. I play cello and a bit of bass/ percussion with them. good off-kilter folksy instrumented pop songs. Bringing together such ramshackle sonic bedfellows as tambourine, flute, drums, violin, djembe, bass, clarinet and cello. and kazoos we put quite a storming show.
the intervening time twixt these gigs was mostly uneventful. in a good way. A mate from oxford came to stay the weekend. We visited a local museum which celebrated politically correct multi-cultural blandness beside 16th Century local type Daniel Lambert, a man notable, in actual fact for little else but being extraordinarily fat. those were the days- a fat bloke (mighty man!) was hailed as a prodigy of nature and taken to meet royalty. Today we would put him under the knife and make him star of a vilifying documentary.
I started getting quite excited by the possibilities of that inscrutable piece of sophtware titled Flash. But only by its potentialto produce content that annoys, disorientates and confuses. I contend that this function is as valid as any other. But whether our lecturer will see this approach as markworthy remains to be seen.
At uni today was a course telling us how to use powerful lasers without destroying our eyes. Which was useful. And fairly bearable as well. There was even a humorously dated eighties video with a woman extolling the joys of lasing. With a 'z' I can do it admirably. With an 's'...I'm not so experienced, but I'm sure I can learn.
There awaits this week a bit of the not so glamorous side to making music- shifting gear around, a part of the process I would happily abdicate to burly, tattooed roadies (and that's just the womenfolk!). But a lot of the good stuff too. Some more accortumn, a weekend of actionforcing and a london gig with aurelie. So wish me luck. Even better wish me a warming roast dinner. Which is what hopefully awaits me at home.
And my bloody valentine are gigging again... but that deserves a blog of its own.
Thursday 8 November 2007
When I was ten foot tall
gotta love them facebook randoms. As I recall I was shrieking California Dreaming (on the Isle of White.ly)
an alright Thursday
it was too. even though I overslept and missed a foray into Flash at the ioct (Institute of Creative Technologies-where I study). Something I keep putting off. the notion of producing my own interactive content for my course lurks around like an unloved digital uncle. I just hope that if I ignore him he might just go away, though I am informed on good authority that this doesn't work in practice.*
got caught in some hefty massive rain. Got the news that my big winter coat would cost £45 to fix (the lining, oh the lining), and bit of school kid mockery thrown in. Played some Atari at uni. It's a cool course. We get to do stuff like that. identified the problem with my beloved Sega Megadrive- the main controller input has gone wrong, meaning hardly any of the buttons on the Joypad work. resulting in less Joy delivered to the player. Still it makes most of the games more challenging. Mooched around town a bit. Managed to conserve some money by not buying any cds. The cds I didn't buy included the new Sigur Ros album, the first Rage Against the Machine album and the Best of Run DMC. I wonder whether the satisfaction of my newfound self control outweighs the pleasure of listening to such great cds.
Stew.
Recorded some session cello for a band called Her Name Is Calla. Quite a good track- with the layered strings it was reminiscent of Silver Mt. Zion Tra LA LA whatever they're called now.
Yesterday was alright too. Perhaps even more so than today. But in a different way. highlights were making some new Lenticular prints and seeing a band called Asobi Seksu. They were pretty storming live. A nice mix of dreamy vocals from the Japanese front woman, and some enormous MBV meets Sonic Youth guitar coaxings backed with pounding drums and hooky basslines.
On the way home I found myself, inadvertently, at a comedy night, in the venue I was certain should have been hosting an open mic jam. never has holding a bass guitar made me feel so out of place. "Are you here for the comedy?" I was patronised. And withdrew my patronage.
*this is in no way a slight on any of my existing literal, non conceptual uncles. they are great. and they are both geologists.
got caught in some hefty massive rain. Got the news that my big winter coat would cost £45 to fix (the lining, oh the lining), and bit of school kid mockery thrown in. Played some Atari at uni. It's a cool course. We get to do stuff like that. identified the problem with my beloved Sega Megadrive- the main controller input has gone wrong, meaning hardly any of the buttons on the Joypad work. resulting in less Joy delivered to the player. Still it makes most of the games more challenging. Mooched around town a bit. Managed to conserve some money by not buying any cds. The cds I didn't buy included the new Sigur Ros album, the first Rage Against the Machine album and the Best of Run DMC. I wonder whether the satisfaction of my newfound self control outweighs the pleasure of listening to such great cds.
Stew.
Recorded some session cello for a band called Her Name Is Calla. Quite a good track- with the layered strings it was reminiscent of Silver Mt. Zion Tra LA LA whatever they're called now.
Yesterday was alright too. Perhaps even more so than today. But in a different way. highlights were making some new Lenticular prints and seeing a band called Asobi Seksu. They were pretty storming live. A nice mix of dreamy vocals from the Japanese front woman, and some enormous MBV meets Sonic Youth guitar coaxings backed with pounding drums and hooky basslines.
On the way home I found myself, inadvertently, at a comedy night, in the venue I was certain should have been hosting an open mic jam. never has holding a bass guitar made me feel so out of place. "Are you here for the comedy?" I was patronised. And withdrew my patronage.
*this is in no way a slight on any of my existing literal, non conceptual uncles. they are great. and they are both geologists.
Friday 2 November 2007
first thoughts in words.
well, I finally got a blog. And resisted subtitling it "The only interesting thing on the internet". Rather, I will let the discerning reader judge for itself.
Well tonight I had three minute enchiladas. two of them. with chicken. (message pops up on screen to let me know that a draft of this post has automatically been saved. phew.) and then apple crumble for afters.
Had a bath with salt from the Dead Sea and, dissappointingly, failed to float.
Well, what next in this rollercoaster of a life you may ask...
I am going to mix down some separate tracks of a song called Oxidation Is Loss Reduction Is Gain by a band called actionforce, which I play in. It's going to be the b-side of our first single. The separate tracks are for a live version of the song. The band is in something of a transitional stage. But I enjoy it. I will try to post the video I produced for this song.... here.
Well tonight I had three minute enchiladas. two of them. with chicken. (message pops up on screen to let me know that a draft of this post has automatically been saved. phew.) and then apple crumble for afters.
Had a bath with salt from the Dead Sea and, dissappointingly, failed to float.
Well, what next in this rollercoaster of a life you may ask...
I am going to mix down some separate tracks of a song called Oxidation Is Loss Reduction Is Gain by a band called actionforce, which I play in. It's going to be the b-side of our first single. The separate tracks are for a live version of the song. The band is in something of a transitional stage. But I enjoy it. I will try to post the video I produced for this song.... here.
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