Thursday, January 29, 2009

Backnoise link for new canvas / demoscene

Being snarky is not a crime, apparently. So there seems to be no security on this site. What will happen?

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

My Pal Ben

No reply to my email yet but Ben has asked me to vote for a radio show.

Will this connect with animation over the next couple of months? Time will tell.

YouTube result

I am cutting and pasting from the list of films. May not get the same person, but this is interesting

link from Cybernetik search

Found this about "HARDfilms: pixels and celluloid" . It looks at pixels as well as film.

The presence of digital technology in the art world has induced a change in esthetic paradigms as a consequence of the creation of certain works, whose form and content participate from the specificity of the new media, with and for which they have been conceive. A big part of experimental cinema has developed a number of works based on the basic elements which constitute cinema, thus creating an alternative to narrative structures and conventions.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Greg Kurcewicz blog located

Imaginary friends still not visiting actual Exeter, but found this blog entry.

The cinematic experience is well described.

However, would the people who created the work known as "A New Canvas" have chosen film if they knew what was available now? I doubt it. I think digital distribution is suitable in some cases.

Fantasy Architecture

Guessing from the Observer, Digital Britain seems to be about the Olympic Games and 2012. So I am into time travel already. Now for the teleporting. Victor Keegan has reported that Twinity will launch part of an online London this year, starting with Soho to Westminster. Could rerach Victoria Park by 2011, then the rest of the Lee Valley.

In enough mist, most canals look much the same. I think there could be a teleport or video edit to Marsh Barton quite readily. The current emphasis seems to be on wonderful bits of architecture. In Heavitree we now have an arch to nowhere with words that cannot be made out. The branch library was demolished so is this really a trade?

Anyway the images on the fence around the olympic site are inspiring but could just as easily be done in Second Life. Much cheaper too if it is supposed to be a "Digital Britain" event.

In Exeter we could do with a tunnel from the Paris Street roundabout to St David's Station. So the walking route from Hight Street to Sidwell Street would be a lot easier. I wonder what Twinity would charge for a model?

However, coming back to the sensible and more timely, when will Exeter City Council have the bandwidth to support Flash and YouTube? Not that easy to explain things to them at the moment.

Coming back to space

Another practical idea would be to put some wooden exercise devices along the canal. Not sure how often people in Hackney use them, but they add something to the playing fields. This would also make it easier to edit video as if two places were much the same.

It could be that I am already moving into borrowing from the ideas of Richard Dedomenici. I may ask him on 3rd Feb at the Phoenix how to avoid disputes if proposals are reasonable. Access to Youtube is not ridiculous to expect, or so you might think.

Coming back to space, Bitropolis is on Twinity but not near Berlin except when there is a film festival. My understanding so far. I now have a booth, with some sofas - could be similar to the sofas in the Phoenix bar. So interviews are possible mixing and matching. However the lighting in the Phoenix is still a problem. May have to move outside and find matching space in Twinity later.

The sofas in the animX booth

the sofas

animX booth at Bitropilis

the booth

The actual Phoenix sofas are between the galleries, where the current animation display seem to me to concentrate on illustration and stopframe, and the Mac resource at the back where creativity is more connected with digital. Just my impression, text comment welcome or short videos. On 21 March there will be an "Analogue to Digital Music Expo" so music video may be on topic. From 14 March Transition in the Castle, "the most inventive and intriguing artwork crossing over traditional with contemporary media." Also close to the Oxo Tower in London. Easy to find and a real place.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Friends Imagined

At LifeBytes I have seen a DVD for Imaginary Friends, a Phoenix Media Production. This will be shown in an Imaginary Lounge, somewhere near the Phoenix, and there may be other stuff as well.

This got me thinking about my own imagined friends, people on the other end of an email address for example. When will I get a reply? Why do I get so much junk from people I don't know?

LifeBytes is a base for video production on Windows. Mostly Mac at the Phoenix but this level of detail is for a future post. The event was that I was recently described at LifeBytes as a "video blogger". This may be to identify what I do as not connected to the properly edited, well lit, carefully planned content on Exeter TV. In the past few months I have given up on waiting for someone to edit my video. I now either record in three minute chunks or else am gradually learning enough Premiere to take out small sections. I do get some help on this, just enough to stop me demanding a proper editor.

So "video blogging" I think of as an extension of text blogging. YouTube can be embedded. I am not sure if people find the sequences in the video on YouTube. I will try out some more later on this blog.

I often link to other people. There is rarely a "Creative Commons" statement on YouTube but links are ok anyway. The audience have to choose the order of viewing. On Flickr I search for Creative Commons only and then may edit. So over the next couple of months I hope to link to various sources around animation, music and imagined friends. This post is an outline of some topics.

Starting with the Hunky Mouse, part of the Newswireless site. A few years ago he wrote that he would buy readers a drink if they turned up at a pub near Olympia after a wireless tradeshow. Then it turned out this pub closed down months previously. Did he ever repeat the offer? With some actual friends we have offered to buy him a drink after other shows but he is yet to turn up. The IMS show for example. The techie bit at the back of Online Information. He once thought about it and then decided that IMS meant something else. Anyway there is a graphic which could help in a video and also newswireless offers confidence that something like "wi-fi Exeter" may work out eventually.

This blog however could be in slower time. Instant wifi over the city is a nice idea. Something written up over a few weeks is more likely.

http://www.bristolwireless.net/news/?p=347

Bristol Wireless is more of a reality. They do reply to email every so often. Where it gets more imagined is around the D.R.O.I.D. event from last year and the continuing events on Second Life. I do get emails about this but don't have the bandwidth at home so rely on what turns up on YouTube.

Dirk Schooner has also posted something more restful. Is this animation or what? Need to develop camera skills in Exeter.

Last year I tried to do a script linking events in Exeter and Bristol. Pipsi Bracken could have given away dance steps at the Trinity. This year I just hope for some video and will work out the script later. There was a relay from the Phoenix basement to Phoenix bar so the possibility was demonstrated.

On Flickr I am a friend of BennyBen who also has a blog. Hello Ben. What chance an actual link over Second Life or Twinity or something? Including a superstar from Cornwall and/or link to Bristol? With a relic on YouTube later for people who go to bed early and have limited bandwidth.

Target dates 14 Feb,6/7th Mar, or fake edit later.

I am a friend of Drifter Rhodes in Second Life but finding the equivalent in the Phoenix is not easy so far. There is a desk where you can leave hard copy messages.

I still think there is a connection between the early computer animation shown as "A New Canvas" and the demoscene as shown at Sundown. Not sure I have the right email address for Greg Kurcewicz. I did meet him a couple of times but festivals are busy times so I failed to persuade him to watch demoscene tv instead of what he came for. Actually I think it was all on a laptop, there was no demoscene tv at the time. Anyway I will continue to imagine Greg as a link to the world of curating official art. Any news on how to contact him is welcome.

Dotwaffle
is someone who turns up once a year at Sundown. Going out of time might be ok. Imagine Sundown as a sign of spring.

Somewhere in the background will be the technology issues and the debate around copyright and business models. There are some people online who I have never actually met. Well I did meet Michael Jahn at a trade show but he was under contract to talk about a product so I did not learn much extra about him. He is an "evangelist" but about what can change. He tends to listen, and will offer an answer to questions. We follow each other on Twitter but I don't think I have the hang of this yet as I post about once a month.

I first found Steve Carlson through Now Europe in an earlier version. Recently this concentrates East. Might have met him in London once but meetings clashed. Maybe some of what happens in Exeter will connect.

Another background issue will be the way journalists need to change to work online, or else just object to online anyway. I may discuss this with my friend Victor in Twinity Berlin but I am not sure how often he is there and I can't get the software to load at home. It will install at LifeBytes but they delete everything overnight so that is why I find email and blog, text in general, is still ok.

Friday, January 09, 2009

Now the Scribd version

Oh dear the Adobe site seems to have a problem with the PDF from Open Office.

So here is the Scribd embed code.

animx09-1

Moving back to paper

Part of my interest is going back to hard copy and text. Don't get me wrong. I still like video but the rest of this post is not completely off topic.

Relating to Exeter as a place can be more difficult than writing text in a browser. Especially tru of web topics as I find it. Last year during Animated Exeter it was established that Exeter City Council do not support Flash so YouTube is a closed world. Not much change in the meantime. I am writing this at Life Bytes where it would be possible to show YouTube content. But this is right at the end of Sidwell Street so people visiting Animated Exeter may think it too far away. So a piece of paper with web links could be useful. I have done a first version. There is one copy on the notice board at Life Bytes and the PDF will be sent as email.

Also loaded to Acrobat.com as a test of how this works



Direct link

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

John Stehura: Cibernetik 5.3

This has turned up on YouTube



The image is quite small however, may be a copy from a distance.

I did some searching ahead of Animated Exeter next month. For several years now it has seemed strange to me that there is not more dialogue between the demoscene and the official curating academics etc. who know about Cibernetik 5.3. The show around A New Canvas was a highlight event. People who used computers for animation in the '60s are the sort of people who would be interested in YouTube at this time. That is my opinion. comments welcome.

So what is the benefit of keeping this stuff in cans of film somewhere deep in an archive? Nothing against archives of course. Film is good. A cinema has many advantages over a smalol space as part of a web browser. But the arrival of Cibernetik 5.3 on youtube is to be welcomed I think.

Over the next few weeks I hope to find out some more responses from people on the demoscene and students of computer science etc. when looking at the range of computer animation available. The source material is on YouTube so adding interviews could be interesting.