Machines replace humans: heavy metal robot 3-piece
"I'm impressed with Compressorhead - the three-piece robot band (three and a half if you count the little robot who drives one of the cymbals). I went to their website to see if I could discern the origins of the project, DIY, corporate, academic, or whatever and couldn't really find anything on the makers. Then I tracked down the drummer. Stickboy was created by Robocross Machines and a whimsical roboticist named Frank Barnes. ... Reminds me of the Survival Research Labs robot machines, built for public performance and disturbance."
(Maxwell Schnurer, 5 January 2013, Life of refinement)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Gangpol und Mit: sonic & visual in love
"As a music and graphic duet, Gangpol und Mit works on a peculiar world of digital pop inhabited by colourful and geometrical characters - a bestiary that evolves in lysergic musicals and takes part in apocalyptic cartoons. In this project, music jumps from synth assaults and woody flute leads to mondo beats and cinematic harpsichord keys, with futuristic social songs wrapped in fake MIDI string quartet attempts. Meanwhile, on the visual side, salarymen dive into greasy food, call-center employees start a batucada, and computer motherboards are slaughtered on a wild island while some terrorist confettis explode everywhere."
(Gangpol und Mit, 29 Octobre 2011)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
The Internet of the 90's was bright, rich, personal, slow and under construction
"To be blunt [the Internet of the 90's] was bright, rich, personal, slow and under construction. It was a web of sudden connections and personal links. Pages were built on the edge of tomorrow, full of hope for a faster connection and a more powerful computer. One could say it was the web of the indigenous...or the barbarians. In any case, it was a web of amateurs soon to be washed away by dot.com ambitions, professional authoring tools and guidelines designed by usability experts.
I wrote that change was coming 'soon' instead of putting an end date at 1998, for example, because there was no sickness, death or burial. The amateur web didn't die and it has not disappeared but it is hidden. Search engine rating mechanisms rank the old amateur pages so low they're almost invisible and institutions don't collect or promote them with the same passion as they pursue net art or web design.
Also new amateur pages don't appear at such amounts as ten years ago because the WWW of today is a developed and highly regulated space. You wouldn't get on the web just to tell the world, 'Welcome to my home page.' The web has diversified, the conditions have changed and there's no need for this sort of old fashioned behaviour. Your CV is posted on the company website or on a job search portal. Your diary will be organised on a blog and your vacation photos are published on iPhoto. There's a community for every hobby and question.
This is why I refer to the amateur web as a thing of the past; aesthetically a very powerful past. Even people who weren't online in the last century, people who look no further than the first 10 search engine results can see the signs and symbols of the early web thanks to the numerous parodies and collections organised by usability experts who use the early elements and styles as negative examples."
(Olia Lialina, February 2005)
Fig.1 Cyndi Howells. 'Cyndi's Genealogy Home Page Construction Kit'
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Riday T-91 Midi Controller With Unified Keyboard
"Invented by Rick Riday, the T-91 is a midi controller that uses his patented "unified keyboard" design. This design allows for identical fingering patterns for all 12 scales (12 major scales, 12 minor, 12 blues, etc.) The instrument in the photo is one of a handful he has built. The project is "on hold" at this time, but units will be available sometime in the future."
(John Pascuzz, Oddmusic.com)
CONTRIBUTOR
The Constellations ProjectSHARE
Kinetic Optics: Music Through Kinetic Abstract Animation
"This project is a series of new audio instruments and automatons that explore unique methods of user interface and audio synthesis. The series will be rendered with Java, Processing, Jsyn (Java synthesis libraries), and OpenGL. ...A goal of this project is to provide a series of instruments of distinct expressive audio range, through an interface of kinetic abstract animation. This series will operate in multiples, and incorporate MIDI to interact with professional, commercial audio systems. Precedents: Golan Levin, Audio Visual Environment Suite John Whitney Oscar Fischinger Moog Music and Buchula Systems: early modular synthesis Luigi Russolo and the Futurists Oscar Sala (Trautonium & Mixturtrautonium) Leon Theremin Harry Partch (Quadrangularis Reversurn Marimba, Cloud-Chamber Bowls & Gourd Tree)"
(Steve Baker)
CONTRIBUTOR
The Constellations ProjectSHARE
