Nanette Wylde:
chico.art.net
Annual Exhibition of Net.Art
call for participation

The Electronic Arts Program at California State University Chico will hold its annual virtual exhibition of net.art in December 2005.

We are looking for recent, interesting and excellent time-based and interactive art projects created for the Internet arena.

Parameters:
Interactive, non-static, engaging, provocative & stimulating net.art projects made 2004 or later. Open theme.

No commercial, design, portfolio or traditional media sites please.

Submission Deadline: September 25, 2005
Email project URL, brief description/statement, creators to:
chicoartnet2@yahoo.com

Selected projects will be expected to maintain their accessibility & location through May 2006.

Launch date: December 1, 2005
www.csuchico.edu/art/net

chico.art.net 2004 featured works by Lionello Borean + Chiara Grandesso, Katie Bush, David Crawford, Carla Diana, Robert J. Krawczyk, Geoffrey Thomas, and Jody Zellen.

Produced by The Electronic Arts Program, California State University Chico Department of Art & Art History

Apologies for any cross postings.

MORE »

a collection of art projects based on barcode data mapping aesthetics, including every barcode: an applet that parses through all possible barcode combinations (requiring 10 years to complete), barcode yourself: an application that encrypts your personal information into a simple barcode, and barcode noise: an interactive animation that generates an array of random barcodes. see also qr code blog & color code. [barcodeart.com]

MORE »

Smile Project (2003, 12MB)

Neil and Iona are sculptures that dynamically interrelate
with each other and their audience, expressing themselves
with body language, facial expressions and strangely
compelling sounds. The Smile Project

MORE »

---

Via Travis Hallenbeck, African textiles using a programming language called Logo, specifically the GS LogoWriter on an Apple IIGS computer. The page linked to, a text written 12 years ago, goes into great technical detail as to how the patterns were created. I was not previously familiar with Logo or even that generation of Apples; it looks like another language-cum-family of gear (like Amiga, NES, etc) with a philosophy and a cult behind it. Obviously I'm spewing hot air here, being more interested in the beautiful finished product than how anyone arrived at it. But see What is Logo? if you're as un-up-to-speed as I am and want to know more.

MORE »

<img src = "http://www.createdigitalmusic.com/images/stories/laserharpbig.jpg" width="380"><br><br>

For some of the most bizarre and unusual music-sound installation art, look no further than Burning Man (http://www.burningman.com/art_of_burningman/). Burning, indeed: this desert-based event has in the past featured Eric Singer's Max/MSP-controlled pyrophone (http://www.createdigitalmusic.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=69&Itemid=44), a propane-powered flaming sound organ. (And, incidentally, that installation is making a repeat appearance this year.) And what better activity when in the middle of the desert than tweaking knobs and producing strange electronic grooves? That's the idea behind improbable orchestra (http://improbableorchestra.com/index.shtml), an interactive table full o' knobs for collaborative soundmaking. Build one yourself: check out the copious design notes (http://improbableorchestra.com/design.shtml). Basic specs: the free Pure Data (http://www.puredata.info) graphical multimedia development environment is running sounds, gutted Pentium PC with custom power supply, custom circuit board connecting the knobs and fiddly bits thorough a Parallax basic stamp board (http://www.parallax.com/detail.asp?product_id=BS2SX-IC). (Lots more specs on their site, missing only details of the Pd patch.) "But," says you, "I hate knobs. Give me lasers, man." Sure! You obviously want the interactive Aeolian laser harp (http://www.blueink.com/BmanLaserHarp/index.htm), which suspends a series of laser beams through which you can walk to trigger sound. It's the creation of former NYU ITP faculty member Jen Lewin (http://www.blueink.com/), now based in Colorado and doing interactive sculpture full-time. She has other fantastic projects like interactive butterflies (http://www.blueink.com/butterfly/Butterfly.htm). Are you going to Burning Man -- or have a project of your own you want to tell us about? Drop me a line ...

MORE »

---

Paul Slocum announces the completion of the first release version of his Cynthcart, a program that turns the vintage Commodore 64 computer into a synthesizer (with a piano keyboard overlay covering your QWERTY keyboard). The cartridge, which also generates lo-fi psychedelic graphics, is available for purchase at the Atariage store.

The music made with the Cynthcart sounds great from the .mp3s; the SID chip's characteristic nasal sawtooth sound is unmistakable, and I like the third track, where Slocum has spliced it with scrambled vocal bits--also the fourth, which is a full blown song with rhythm programming. I know the chip a bit from working with Elektron's Sidstation synth, and yes, I'm a consumerist techphobic weenie for using a current piece of hardware instead of a killer mod of the original gear, but (this promises to be a constant theme today) I'm only abstractly interested in what's under the hood. I've learned a buttload about softsynths this year and am increasingly interested in big, user-friendly graphic interfaces where I can control sound visually.

Speaking of the SID and Sidstation, others doing good things with them are MEQ AND THE URS ("this page is no longer supported in Internet Explorer below version 7 and if you're still using IE you probably won't like this music anyway"--right, Jotsif, or because someone is surfing at work and doesn't have a choice, thanks for condescending to about half your potential listeners) and Receptors, which was one of my favorite acts at the last BENT (circuit bending) festival at the Tank in NY--still haven't posted my pic of him. Someone really ought to do some curating/compiling of the current SID music that's out there. With critical commentary! Dream on. The chatboards mostly talk ...

MORE »

Parasite is the other project by Frédéric Eyl, Gunnar Green and Richard The I saw at the UDK open day.

Part of the Moving Canvas series, Parasite investigates the visual and symbolical importance of trains in an urban context and the possibility of exploiting them as brief communicative moments.

Affordable mobile video-projections could be used to re-conquer public space often only reduced to graffiti and streetart. The tunnels of a subway-system bear something mystic—most people usually have never made a step inside any of those tunnels. Parasite is a projection-system that can be attached to subways and other trains. Using the speed of the vehicle as parameter for the projected content, the projection starts with the train moving inside a tunnel.

All along their journey, travellers see images mysteriously appearing through the train windows: words, aquatic animals, etc. Confusing the routine of your train-travelling-journey, your habits and perception Parallel allows you a glimpse into a different world full of surrealist imagery.

Don't miss the video.

MORE »

wave_scan, by Brad Todd, is composed of an ELF (extremely low frequency) sensor, an antenna and a projection of a video database of water filmed over the past 15 years in different countries.

The system is centred around the ELF sensor. In paranormal research these electric and magnetic fields are also monitored by people searching for ghosts and other inexplicable phenomena: "cold spots" and other signs of paranormal activity reported by persons who think they are seeing phantoms are in fact closely tied to these EMF fields.

The ELF sensor is attached to an old TV antenna and is transmitting to a computer. Any detection of weak fluctuations of frequencies near the antenna results in the direct manipulation of a soundscape which is generated using a sine wave and white noise to create synthetic oceanic sounds. Any readings are also translated as clicks and pops, thereby creating a minimialist audio environment which gives audible evidence of a "presence" in the space.

Besides, the image slowly works itself from full chroma to blank, depending on the number of "hits" in the space. This sense of effacing the work and rendering the image into a ghostly and finally invisible screen closes a circuit or cycle of the works "life", in an allegorical mapping of our anxiety concerning the unseen or liminal...

MORE »

Call for Papers

Do we have an Image Problem?
Performance and Media Art caught between Art History and Visual Culture Studies.

The first Media Art Conference in Osnabruck will take place from the 15th to the 17th of May 2006 as a three-day specialist symposium at the University of Osnabruck and is sponsored by Department of Kultur- und Geowissenschaften. It will be held immediately following the 19th European Media Art Festival (EMAF, 10th to 14th May 2006), one of the largest media art events in Europe.

The conference will focus on the growing affinity between art forms produced, experienced and distributed by the media on the one hand and the highly debated iconic or pictorial turn on the other. One of the central issues will be to question whether the recently developed aesthetic terminology can sufficiently deal with the time- and action-oriented art forms of performance and media art. [More....]

MORE »

Soil Media Suite:
Marc Fournel
Transduction

Soil Digital Media Suite
Cache-Cachet Series

August 27th - September 24th, 2005
Opening Reception: Saturday, August 27th at 8:00 pm
Artist will be in attendance

1856 Scarth Street, Regina, Sask., Canada
Neutral Ground
http://soilmedia.org

Transduction is an immersive environment that makes use of small spherical electronic interfaces in an audio installation. Within the installation, the interfaces lie spread about here and there on the floor, awaiting interaction. By manipulating the spheres, users trigger the creation and the distribution of sounds. The characteristics of the sounds (frequency, tonality, and pitch) are modulated by the position of each sphere and by the spatial relationship between the interfaces.

Transduction uses the new local positioning system (LPS) prototype developed by Ubisense, (Cambridge, England). This LPS continuously transmits the spatial position (X,Y,Z) of each sphere. The system that integrates this LPS is also able to give a reading of the spin of each ball and it position relative to the other spheres.  The sound architecture is programmed with Pure Data. The work takes as its starting point the desire for physical and psychological transference, where actions are guided by a constant permutation of states into real or imagined spaces. Existing in a world where finding our references is an obligation, Transduction places itself in a state of constant instability.

For the last five years, Montréal-based artist, Marc Fournel, has developed new, interactive audio-video installations. His installations generally offer the possibility to create or generate video and audio content by analyzing the position and the movement in space.

The artist gratefully acknowledges funding support from La Fondation Daniel Langlois pour l'Art, la Science et la Technologie, le Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec, The Canada Council for the Arts, le CIAM, and ...

MORE »