New photos on Flickr

I have done some photos for an extended manouver in Exeter from Spacex to LifeBytes and back.

It could have a theme of analog and digital in a blend but at the moment it is just digital on Flickr.

Other photos welcome. Tag "xm0702" as in Exeter manouver o7 Feb. Unique at the moment.

The slideshow is in opposite direction to the view direction. Should have loaded the last one first. So there will be other versions.

links lead to actual Quicktime

Just had a look at the site for the Animators. last year's show at Spacex.

There is still a lot happening and the latest event leads to a website for Run Wrake where there is actual video to watch of recent work. Much better than stills or a 30 second sample in my opinion. Maybe this is the way more animation will be displayed.

Of course it is better in a gallery, or anywhere with a big screen.

but is it animation?

blog links to video

http://blog.celtx.com/celtx_blog/2007/02/a_cultural_anth.html

a question on public access to higher res images

Just starting to check out animation festivals on the web. Already one thing strikes me as a question. Why is it that a site like Spike and Mike that has a cafe press spinoff set up and most do not? Just as an idea I have in mind some funded public organisation with loads of images, some as paintings stored in a basement. They have had lottery funding to do some scanning but only low res versions are ever found on the web. There is no viable business case for making them more available as it seems. So something like cafe press would be very useful for organisations that find it difficult to package up a CD or whatever. Not getting at anyone. Just a question. Why do public bodies not put more high res images on the web?

name explanation

Some people have been asking about possible confusion between "animx", a digital fringe based in Exeter, and "animex" an animation festival based in Teeside.

The Exeter digital bit used to be known as "animex" and changed to avoid confusion. In Google any unique combination of words will do. Recent search shows that animx and animex get different results.

There are many more sites that turn up, by the way. Online uniqueness is not really as possible as is often imagined in other forms of reality.

It may be that many people involved in Animated Exeter are familiar with Teeside and other animation events. So a connection with an online aspect may happen just as easily somewhere else or as part of a general process.

So I will try to find out an email address for other events and see if any exchange is possible. The animz website changes very slowly so there is a year round possibility.

Draft story for OhmyNews will probably take more shape during next week.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ah78wfp3rm6x_21p4wz4b

link found to New Canvas

Now found a link to New Canvas, previously reported missing.

This was a collection of films from early computer animation. Should be on YouTube complete, in my opinion.

That reminds me about Apple

Exeter has loads of posters trying to suggest that all creatives should be Mac people as the PC crowd just work in offices and are rather boring. I don't understand the way they use the term "PC" as if it only includes Windows. I always thought that a "Personal Computer" could be anything, including Apple. The photo is a detail of a PowerPC so what was that about?

An apple from Tim Brennan not wearing well

This apple was one of many distributed during the manouver the weekend before last. I had thought about keeping it till the end of Animated Exeter but it is showing signs of stess. Maybe it should be eaten soon.

Also I can't remember what the reading was around the apples. I will visit Spacex again and find out if anyone has some clues.

shortcuts at LifeBytes

There are now shortcuts on FullyAutomatix desktop at LifeBytes for Digital Harmony and Arabesque.

Sidwell Street opposite the Odeon

See previous post for links if you are nowhere near Exeter.

Demoscene TV

Just a reminder that for those who don't often download a zip and move dll files around a fairly easy way to access the demoscene is a dedicated TV site.

You may need one downlaod to expand your browser.

Meanwhile I am looking into a DVD download that may be easier to show off at the Phoenix.
Two Rar files already, only 38 to go.
Then what?

Links to digital art from Devon

V Art 1

V Art 2


Here are links to two examples of virtual art from Paul Gillard, a Devon artist who sometimes visits Exeter.

Requires Quicktime and maybe a wait while it arrives. Move the cursor about to begin.

What strikes me is that this is intended to be seen on a screen. There is a complete digital process from creation to distribution and viewing. You could take a snapshot and print it but this would not be an original unless it took on a new life.

Couple of Quicktime samples from the official site

There is an official site and they offer a couple of samples of about 30sec each.

Page for Arabesque from '70s . Digital Harmony from '80s.

I think these are close to demoscene. Comment welcome, not sure how to d3escribe this.

There is a possibility of an archive. I think this should be digital and online. Seems crazy to me that this is not complete and widely available.

John Whitney link

Here is the only John Whitney aniamation I can find on YouTube or Google video
From the IBM pavilion at the Brussels World Fair in 1958

Creative Collective at the Globe

This is a digital projector as used at the Globe for a showing of short films from the Creative Collective based at the Phoenix. It was all based on tape, but could have had a direct feed from a computer. Not animation as such but there is now a lot of overlap on how video is created.

I hope to find more content from the demoscene and work out how to transfer to DVD.

Meet the blogger day at LifeBytes

Photo shows David Gedrych reading a Turner book I took to Life Bytes yesterday. David is there most days. For me it turned out to be like allowing too much comment on a blog, I hardly started on what I thought about raising. Still, connections with Spacex now more likely as there was some talk about flat images. the idea of taking digital images from a phone and putting them on a wall did not make much sense for the people present but I still see a connection.

More later. It is possible there will be courses on 3D.

More tests on Flickr

Interesting talk today from Peter Davidson.

Apparently at one time a mirror had the advantage of making sure there was an oval frame. I have tried this on some photos now loaded on Flickr.

They were taken by Gary Trembling a couple of years ago. I don't think he will mind.

Wifi confirmed at Phoenix

Photos demonstrate that wifi is working in the Phoenix bar. Website for Animated Exeter is working ok. Some exhibitions have started already. Test kit courtesy of Jonathan Dawson who can independently confirm that these are genuine photographs.







Third photo detail from second.

theWEST

The walk with Tim Brennan was interesting today. More later.

Photos were allowed. I have done a PDF slide show (about 6 meg) and also some on Flickr. You can choose a slideshow on Flickr so this is close to animation if you don't wanr to download the PDF.

Suggested tags animx07 and thewest

Links for the summer

I realise that part of the attraction of Animated Exeter and Vibraphonic is that they offer an indoors escape route for getting through the last of the winter before we can move around more easily.

Here are some links from the past, the Psand van once in Dorset and a blog of a travel round demoscene events. Future posts willa rgue that there is a connection between the demoscene and the streaming media found via the Psand site and Radio Vague.

On being just a bit rude

Well excuse me. The time has come to raise a few issues. If you can't ramble in a blog what is the world coming to?

After all, the Animated Exeter fortnight is still a few weeks off so there is time to get some feedback and develop a new point of view that appears more reasonable.

What strikes me most often is the amazing potential of digital technology and the way this is ignored by some art institutions. Take the Spacex Gallery for example.

A couple of years ago there was a disaster environment based on Apple computers. At first I thought they were offering web access and complained when the connection failed. It was explained this was the intended effect, nothing was to work at all. An imitation of life apparently.

Last year there was technology that worked, mostly DVD I think but hidden away. Film projection was celebrated, see my photograph in a report for OhmyNews. As well as stills the exhibit featured video. Unfortunately the website did not show full video or any scale on the excerpts available. I think this has to change when YouTube and Google Video make so much stuff available. Some of what is on YouTube is not very good but it is getting better. Compare with the website from the Animators show. This is a bit flat. See also the Luxonline site. Other links suggestions would be welcome.

This year the technology has the potential to further challenge the limitations of gallery display. The images have been created through a wide-format inkjet from a digital source. I hope to find out more later but I am fairly sure some form of inkjet has been used. Reportedly there is no Photoshop manipulation of the mobile phone photos. Personally I don't think this would matter. Most digital cameras do a lot of adjustment anyway.

So there is no reason why a website could not have some downloads so that anyone could print out a version of 'theNorth'. Of course the display at Spacex has been carefull controlled and selected and I am not trying to discourage a visit if you are anywhere nearby. But a gallery is not the only way to show photos from a mobile.

Meanwhile at the Royal Alber Museum there are a series of prints, many from limited editions. There may be something about the technology that determines these limits on numbers. But digital is different.

During Animated Exeter there will be workshops at Spacex to create animation from still photos. It is not clear yet what form this takes or how they will be distributed.

My own photos are nothing special so there is no problem in choosing the Creative Commons copyright form on Flickr. See previous post about a limited form of animation.

Probably something better will turn up.

Not that online is better than a gallery. There is a recent Guardian article about museums still being better than an iPod. This seems too polarised a choice. I learning discussions there is now more support for 'blended learning', a combination of online and real life. Maybe digital display can work with something similar.