Day: December 4, 2008

blog to the oldskool highlights hardcore/jungle tracks from the early '90s. (via blissblog)
See, e.g. hardcore versions of Enya (only really liked the first one, by DJ Trace, but whoa).
In a post on my old blog from 3 years ago, was wondering what gear/software the jungle producers used (it came up in the context of current trackers using samples).

Here is a list from an interview with Bay B Kane, UK oldskool hardcore/junglist from 91-96:

--my mixing desk was a 24 into 8 into 2 SECK with a totally silent phantom power unit…i really loved that mixer.
--AKAI S900 and an S950, giving me 16 separate sample outputs
--Roland JUNO1 as my main keyboard and midi controller
--Alesis Qudraverb and a Midiverb II for effects
--KORG M1 rack module
--ATARI-STFM computer which I ran strictly and only CUBASE on for sequencing and arrangements

Part 3 of the interview, about his departure from the scene, is also interesting.

Thanks to folks who linked to, or posted thoughts on, this recent screed.

John Michael Boling said: "I'd like to propose a third non-gendered 'dude with computer' class of cultural practitioners." Thought I did that with the self-taught but OK.

Ceci Moss* at Rhizome.org tested the argument with actual examples of artists' work, something the original post avoided. Paul Slocum is of course that rare bird flying between the art and new media realms. Joan Leandre is comparatively mired in a particular set of geek assumptions. Go to his site and you find, for example, dozens of .exe files with the warning that downloading them can harm your computer if you don't "choose each file to a High Density fat32 and run New World's install program." Whether or not that is a joke, this is the essence of geekdom and most art world people will not go there, particularly any art world person with Windows who survived the Internet Exploder era. Leandre's "Velvet Strike" is more credible at least on an anecdotal level: the artist hacked into hard core war game nerd sites and put antimilitary graffiti on the virtual walls, pissing off many players.

cf. "New Media vs Artists with Computers" with Guthrie Lonergan's "Hackers vs Defaults" table. That table may have been read as two different flavors within new media, and therefore benign, but this blog would like to claim it as another example of "stark polarization," to use Moss's term. Also cf. Net Art 1.0 vs 2.0.

*Update, 2011: The Rhizome link above redirects but just for the record the new post is http://rhizome.org/editorial/2008/dec/3/thoughts-on-quotnew-media-artists-vs-artists-with-/

A couple of upcoming projects:

This month I will be showing at TELIC Arts Exchange's Distributed Gallery, in Los Angeles. The opening is scheduled for December 6 (details to follow). I am showing four videos, single animation loops converted from GIFs, on screens in different locations in LA's Chinatown neighborhood. TELIC is also publishing a booklet with an interview I did with artist and curator Sean Dockray. Here is a description of the project:

The Distributed Gallery, opening October 3, begins as a network of four video monitors in locations in and around Chinatown’s West and Central Plazas. Monitors will be located at Fong’s, Via Cafe, Ooga Booga, and the Public School. Each month someone new will curate or create an exhibition, accompanied by a small publication. Upcoming shows include: DIY, Tom Leeser, Geoff Manaugh, Tom Moody, the Public School, Annie Shaw, James Merle Thomas, and Wendy Yao.

On December 7, at 5 pm, several of my animated GIFs will be screened with piano accompaniment (yes!) at a Chicago space called the Nightingale, along with the work of other artists. The event is "The Web of Cokaygne; Candle and Bell," and the animated GIF screening is curated by Dain Oh:

"The Web of Cokaygne; Candle and Bell" is a three part screening. In a traditional sense it maintains a beginning, a middle and an end. The first section is 0P3NFR4M3W0RK, an open DIY digital art exhibition initiated by Jon Satrom, instantiated by Dain Oh for the "Web of Cokaygne; Candle and Bell" and previously at (A) r4WB1t5 micro.Fest (initiated by jonCates and jon.satrom). The second portion is 787 Cliparts, by Oliver Laric. A video in which he displays hand-selected clip art that he has found on the Internet in a manner that suggest continuity in motion and the persistence of vision. The third and final section of WoC is a selection of animated GIFs by both artists and non-artists working with the Internet. The artists include Petra Cortright, Olia Lialina + Dragan Espenschied, Guthrie Lonergan, Tom Moody, Jon Satrom and Paul Slocum. The selected GIF's are important examples to reflect the history of the moving image. Examples are gif versions of: a goat found on a bowl from Iran's Burnt City, Muybridge's horse, then moving to commercial cartoons, video games and finally, new media and www gif's. The screening will be executed in real time and accompanied by a live piano performance.

ish I could be there for both of these events ("W" is from the latter's website). More on them soon.
(Will also slip in here that Nasty Nets is doing something at the 2009 Sundance. More on that soon also.)