Actual Exeter in a World of Google

This post is for both animX and WifiExeter. I am still getting used to the events of last week, the outstanding Second Life events and the video on YouTube from Prados Azules. i think this means that bandwidth is ok. There are enough people in Exeter and Bristol or at least somewhere online for this sort of thing to be viable. So other forms of files such as work with hard copy should be ok. A lttle slow maybe if TIFF-IT is still required but definitely possible.

Meanwhile Google have launched a service around Sites for collaboration. seems a little too controlled for public use but the elements of Docs and video can be widely available. I have an account for Internet Express so have started a page at InXpress/landofGoogle or something like it. Actual url is too long to remember so best to bookmark this page.

Detail from Flickr photo recreating last week

Pipsi and Eric did get to the D.R.O.I.D. event if only through Photoshop.

Previously, script idea

So assume VJs B1 and B2 who arrange an event without web access but hear about another one a week later with web streaming. They discuss various issues arising and are not entirely convinced. Not that they are luddites or anything but there has to be scope for acceptance of some form of development during the story. One concern is that animated dancing online may not work too well. The next week B1 and B2 are somewhere else where they could stream something but are not sure. Fortunately Kola Spellcaster turns up with a set of code that allows anyone to dance really well. The only problem is that she has put a timeout into the code so it will all fall over unless her Arts Council grant for next year is confirmed before midnight. This story ends at about 11.47 but there may be another one. If you feel any characters are based on yourself you may request changes or write your own version. Creative commons : attribution requested. I may claim other forms of copyright if I write something longer or for a later production.

So the mess of bits and pieces from the actual week of Animated Exeter will be gradually rewritten and retested. Surely Exeter City Council will connect with Flash at some point, then everything else could be attempted again.

The goodies bag is here but what effect it has is still a mystery. Right click on the stars in the floor and then choose dance. The camera save previously is still just a test. Go back a couple of posts to Prados Azules for something sensible.

Later at LifeBytes, camera saves ok

Try this to reach Diecicento

Probably the most advanced form of animation from last weekend west of Swindon

This is amazing. I failed to persuade Director Jo to stay at Life Bytes and record D.R.O.I.D. Good thing too as the sound at the Voodoo Lounge was probably good enough for a future video and this record on YouTube already is fantastic and shows what is possible.

What else is anywhere? and when will Pipsi turn up?

Another SL camera test

There is still time for Pipsi to arrive at the occasion. Any other ideas on how the dance steps could be found?

Interest on Guardian Talk

There is some interest on Guardian Talk.

I have posted an example of dance on YouTube just to show it is possible in Second Life. Not sure this is well known to others who post on Guardian Talk.

I wonder if any of this will turn up in the Guardian print version before Saturday? My impression is that the Talk bit is a closed world for Guardian staff.

Phoenix Sounds and the resource problem for video

It turns out that better video is very unlikely as the resource from Exeter TV will be concentrated on the Sound Gallery. Mostly acoustic, live music. Nothing against this sort of thing so the archive will depend on other sources. My own videos are a form of test. Maybe next year there will be better planning.

Scroll down on the page for video from previous events.

Sometime there could be interviews in the bar. I still think the chat show is the basic format of TV. If only Exeter City Council could offer a release form Exeter TV could work with. For future discussion.

another test ahead of D.R.O.I.D.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Prados%20Azules/94/99/28

go there

or search for "Prados Azules"

Evidence of Second Life in Exeter Phoenix bar

Pipsi Bracken fills in time with a solo dance while waiting for the next audience to turn up.

There appear to be no people in the Phoenix bar under the terms of the understanding of the release form policy of Exeter City Council. On a future occasion it may be possible to edit together audience response, online content, real life etc.

But working the camera in Second Life is still very difficult, especially when flying.

Beatz and Bobz are now my friends on MySpace

This is a genuine bit of news. It could be that a connection will be made with D.R.O.I.D. in time for Saturday.

Also OhmyNews have published my story on the Second Life connection with animation and dance.

Anyone know the real Cory Arcangel? My friend request is about to time out again.

Another found video on YouTube

searching on YouTube finds this from a previous occasion. It is surely possible that Beatz and Bobz could stream something from DROID and likewise. Anyone know how to contact them? MySpace friendship is a bit cumbersome sometimes.

Vj set working with Plump Dj's at the rap party for 'Animated Exter Festival, Englands largest animation festival.
Graphic's, visuals Vj - Mikey 'Polar bear'Ormson
Visuals and live vj mix- Fil de Void

test of Second Life camera

If anyone has a problem with this please let me know. My guess is that once something is streamed online then the copyright is not too much of a problem. Unless I hear otherwise my guess is that any performance can be recorded. so the more people who archive, the better the remix.

new photo from Second Life

Unfortunately I got the scale wrong so you can't see the dates for forthcoming events. More tests on the camera during the week.

DJ Undo is on the YouTube archive already

also found this from the Digital Funfair



which reminds me, time to leave Life Bytes and return to real life at the Phoenix

update

Missed the junk space workshop but some info is on the blog

I now have almost permission to photograph but only if there are no people in the shot. Fortunately the digital funfair welcomes photos by Bluetooth. Don't have that but will try email later.

Meanwhile in Second Life the Monday real life at the Phoenix is still on. Not sure the link is working on how to book on Tuseday. If you already know about second life, search for "drifter rhode" and ask.

The event sort of in Bristol at the other end of the week has a link to Second Life and there is news of a sound stream through Radio Vague. If the Second Life thing fails to work, then my guess is that something from the Radio Vague archive could fill most of Saturday night but then I am a bit retro in my tastes and probably have not yet got caught up in the occasion.

I have visited the island of Prados Azules and can reveal that there seem to be test broadcasts coming up, a showcase on the 19th and a test5 on the 20th, both at 20 hours GMT. Of course there could be further tests if these fall over for some reason. I am not forcing you to download SL or get more bandwidth. LifeBtytes on Sidwell Street has at least one PC with SL installed so it could be tried out.

More or less a link

Links on this blog are not obvious but in my head it seems to fit together.

On Monday at the Phoenix Exeter there will be some form of performance from Niki McCretton involving animation and Second Life. Not sure I understand it at the moment so it is probably best to have a look on Monday and then try Second Life on Tuesday.

The poster is for a show that is over now but may turn up again. Check the site where it is explained that for the research Niki McCretton "went to to Star City in Russia where she visited the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre just outside Moscow and saw the Soyuz simulators, the centrifuge room and the neutral buoyancy lab -- an underwater facility which simulates the conditions of a zero-g space walk."

This may be the same sort of facility where Mark Shuttleworth was trained for his adventure before going back to something more like a normal job in the form of Ubuntu. At Sundown a couple of years ago he spoke about including a demo or two to view while Ubuntu is booting up. If this project is no longer viable I think it is almost time that something was clarified. Breakpoint next month could be an occasion.

Time travel, New Canvas and Mary Ellen Bute

On previous occasions I have found that there was almost nothing online from the kind of video / film shown as part of a "New Canvas". Yesterday though I found a page about John Whitney that linked to Mary Ellen Bute. Follow the link for "abstract animators".

The text claims that

As with many pioneer animators, Mary Ellen Bute is hardly known today, primarily because her films are not easily available in good prints. This was not always true. During a 25-year period, from 1934 until about 1959, the 11 abstract films she made played in regular movie theaters around the country....

However it turns out that there are a few shorts on YouTube. This is a useful development.





There are more but the search engine has determined that people who watch this may also want to watch the next one



Now don't get me wrong. I have nothing against curating. But as this sort of work was created on computers I do not see what is wrong with it being on YouTube as well as cans of film that are rarely shown.

More links possible through the Center for Visual Music.

Trying out levels : get ready for DROID

These two of Luke Vibert are versions based on Creative Commons originals on Flickr.

Photographed by Kokeshi

There is also quite a lot of sound archive through Beatz and Bobz

So I think it would be possible to put together some sort of connection record of Feb 23rd even if the Second Life etc falls over completely.

Checking out MySpace and YouTube

Found this through MySpace



Play are friends with Wagon Christ and presumably George Harrison is a friend of everybody.

Better things are possible in Exeter, but will this be in time for DROiD?

Rights, permissions, cameras

Since this is a blog it can get personal at times so I think it is ok to cover experience as well as views on things like adding instruments on top of a sax.

There is a long term project to have something like an Exeter TV. This would have a cable or satellite and record / promote live performance in the region wherever that is. Meanwhile there are some YouTube clips. Previously I have worked with text through blogs and citizen reporting such as OhmyNews. Still photos can be an extra for text or a guide for future video.

A problem is how to build awareness of what is now possible with digital technology. The budget for cable or satellite would require some local understanding. YouTube samples could help here but for some people it still seems that YouTube has a suggestion of low quality or something to be avoided.

During Animated Exeter I had hoped to take photos in some sort of real time. As in making stuff available within my own memory of the events. The connection of Cory Arcangel and YouTube suggested a suitable thread. I did get permission to publish on this blog photos from the launch of the show at Spacex. See December 19th.

Problems seemed to start when I took photos at the event in the Black Box and then requested permission to video the lecture / performance. Apparently this requires communication with Cory Arcangel and this has yet to happen. Meanwhile I have tried to befriend him on MySpace and email through the website. As I understand it from Saturday the MySpace page is not really active.

The photos themselves are quite boring. Graphic saying "black box" and a poster with a still from YouTube. That's about it. The event was a film with the soundtrack out of sync. Someone else can maybe explain what it was about. So for me at the moment the most interesting thing about the photos is that I cannot get permission to put them in this blog.

What was a still from YouTube becomes a controlled graphic once used in publicity.



copyright will789 / OhmyNews

I did get permission a couple of years ago to photograph a film projector on a plinth at the Spacex Gallery. There was other content obviously but this was the only thing that could be photographed. What struck me was that all the digital kit was hidden in the ceiling or somewhere but the film projection had special lighting. My guess is that in the gallery world the analogue technology is still the choice to aim at. How else to explain the way "A New Canvas" was presented? Computer animation from the '60s is preserved on film and curated to the point that shows are fairly rare. I will now try to stop this grumpy mode and keep on topic.

Topics through some more photos



Here is a still from scene.org. I think there is a connection between the "new canvas" approach and the demoscene. As I am going out of time anyway I might as well go back to this. Or forward. There will be Breakpoint in March.



Tim Brennan under old Exe Bridge

Copyright will789 / OhmyNews

I also did a story for OhmyNews around the "North". There is a buzz around mobile phones but somehow this ends up as images displayed as if they were watercolours. I am still not sure what sense this makes. What is the value of images on Flickr? From what I have discovered about Turner his painting was often linked to publishing projects through forms of printing. So what is lost through making images widely available?

On Saturday I asked Cory Arcangel what he thought about YouTube. It turns out he likes YouTube and thinks the absence of critical art writing about it is because it is so new. He rejected my suggestion that his work implies any lack of respect for what is on YouTube. Maybe my concern should be more for the way his show is described.

The Animated Exeter catalogue and website mentions "the massed ranks of hundreds of online amateur instrumentalists" and continues - "Given the popularity of video sharing websites, the web is now home to countless homemade videos of people showing off their instrumental skills."

Then again, some people are just showing off and leave the soundtrack alone. Quite right too.



Anyway, back on topic someone in the audience suggested that the people sampled by Cory Arcangel should be pleased to be now part of "high art". Maybe someone could explain how this works. The Phoenix could probably sell tickets to a selection from YouTube that was rehearsed and had few technical problems. All it needs is a blurb with some convincing words.

And another thing. Probably the main reason why it will prove impossible to get permission to video anything over the next couple of weeks is the possibility that children will be in the shot and there is a legal requirement for releases from proper authorities. This has become a major issue. I recently met a grandfather who had been refused permission to video a school play. It is now usually the case that film of schools on TV news is shot from a distance or out of focus. I am not sure this is entirely positive. It may make young people seem more of a threat.

Anyway here is a BETT photo from my Flickr set



So it may be possible to process some examples that are a blur to start with. There could be some tests for further consideration. Maybe some details of paving stones.

Meanwhile there will be workshops on how to be a video DJ. If and only if some of the results turn up online and some of the video DJs wish to build a cult of personality it could be possible to link to images etc. Suggest tag "DROID2008". There will be a famous event on Second Life. Or if the technology falls over, we can all make our own camera record and then do an edit.

Stop messing about with Clarence Clemons please

Still thinking about the performance last night at the Phoenix. One thing I am sure about is that extra instumentation is not always a good idea. If something is arranged for a sax solo, best thing is to leave it alone in my honest opinion.

One short video about a glockenspiel

Cory arcangel on Youtube



I think this actually offers a better take on what the idea is about than the Spacex show where you get a CD to take away and play at home. Video is widely available nowadays so recording performance and lectures could become standard.

Graphic for hard copy promo on video Swicki

I am trying to stay with hard copy as well as get used to Flash etc. This is more for blogs on drupa so i will also try to stay on topic.

The video Swicki for animation works well so I want to promote it. Also I have found more on YouTube from the era covered in "A New Canvas". So it can be linked to. Using google i have found a couple of images to go with a shot from a PDF book. So this group of three has a static effect similar to the video Swicki but only three at the moment. Maybe more later or other versions welcome. The grid on the Swicki is a rough guide but any proportions might work.



The top one is from a PDF / book on "Expanded Cinema" - still from John Stehura: Cybernetik 5.3.(1965-69).

Bottom ones through Google images, left from Pouet but original page is missing so no detail available. Right is from Pingmag after a search on "VJ" but I can't trace the context.

Please check the video animation Swicki for other combinations. The general point is that there is a connection between the demoscene and the "new canvas2 approach and either could work with music. My suggestion is that a Creative Commons licence could be more widely used on the demoscene as some VJs are concerned about this sort of thing.

Social Source and DROID

This video is from a meeting on Social Source - open source and free software for volunrary organisations. Held at Bristol Wireless on Tuesday. i included a poster for DROID, a musical evening coming up soon that will also be on Second Life. I am not sure yet how to describe the connection between the two events but I think there is one. A dj works through links and sometimes responds to requests. Open source projects have no such person i don't think but I may be wrong. I thought that Moodle would be very collective but was told it could be top down in design. Learning takes many forms.

Links through YouTube

Found this alongside a recent upload. YouTube has no editors apparently but whatever the search is on can work sometimes.



This argument attacking "the cult of the amateur" is misleading i think in claiming that there are no editors on Wikipedia. also i think it is unfair to the people who load stuff to YouTube. This example is well lit and in focus.

I am disturbed by the use of the word "amateur" to describe the source material for Cory Arcangel when he edits clips together to perform Bach. Because his work is in a gallery it presumably has the authority that Andrew Keen would approve of. The effect is antifunctional. The style could not be listened to for long. Is this supposed to be a comment on YouTube? Actually there is some excellent stuff there, worth promoting in itself.

Trying out YouTube adsense

I have found an option to start some advertising income coming in. In theory. Youtube and Google work together it seems. So I have tried to find the right keywords for this page

Only a test at the moment. I am not sure if I need to put more content on the page to help the spiders. So far it is more or less on topic.