:: Friday, August 01, 2003 ::

Blogs have been around for a relatively short time. Net Art Review runs one of them (this blue page!). Most weblogs deal with straight text and images, but there are a few that offer music and sound on a daily basis.

One of the more interesting music logs out there is the MP3blog, featuring daily tracks. And while most people are catching up with the idea of blogging, the mp3blog recently turned one year old on July 1st. Here are some tracks I recommend from the top 50: www.cuechamp.com/mp3blog/1932003.mp3, www.cuechamp.com/mp3blog/1622003.mp3, www.cuechamp.com/mp3blog/712003.mp3, www.cuechamp.com/mp3blog/482002.mp3

The last track has a killer horn by the way. I should note that the MP3blog emphasizes funkadelic sounds. So, for the post James Brown enthusiast, the blog might be very exciting; the true hip hop head could become addicted to the free sounds.

TruDat.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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"FloatingSushi", a project by Andrew Hieronymi is in his own words "a two-dimensional space populated by words". Inspired by signs, billboards and graffiti in the streets of San Francisco and a nod of reference in the direction of David Carsons typographic photographs, the work uses a combination of typography and navigation through typing to simply wander around as if on a stroll through the city. Beautifully simple, the work has touches of video game logic in its navigation, yet without the kill that monster, win that race objective or goal.
:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
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Aggregating Data : The web's favourite colour and How do you feel ?.

In a quest to find the web's favourite colour, Matt Webb asks visitors to send a photo of their favourite colour by MMS or email. Received images are abstracted and the average colour is then mixed with the others to find the webs current favourite, revealed as the page background. Dellbrügge & de Moll's How do you feel ? asks exactly that, inviting visitors to contribute their current disposition to the world wide mood, the results of which can be viewed for that day or as a statistical graph for the year.
:: Neil Jenkins [+] ::
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As many people know by now, Celia Cruz -- The Queen of Salsa -- died a few weeks ago. I wanted to write a simple posthumous comment on her importance in culture, and thought about a particular appropriated track which Kurt Cloninger had previously posted to Rhizome, combining electronic music and afro-cuban sounds. Cloninger recently reposted the track, and now here I link you to a "Kraftwerk meets Latin-fusion" cover version of Trans-Europe Express. Celia Cruz would have enjoyed the blurring of such musical boundaries. May she rest in peace.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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Here is a great opportunity from Ciber@rt Bilbao:

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We are pleased to inform you the International Festival of New Technologies, Art and Communication: Ciber@RT Bilbao 2004 has opened its registration period for the Call for presentation. Under the theme "Challenges for a Ubiquitous Identity", the festival will take place in Bilbao from the 23rd to the 30th of April, 2004.


If you are interested in presenting works to the various sections of the festival (Net-Art, Off-Line Multimedia Projects, International Conference, Computer-generated Animation, "Minimisation" and Interactive Installations) you can find the Call for participation (Rules) on our web page www.ciberart-bilbao.net


The deadline for presenting papers for the congress is the 30th of November 2003 and the deadline for the artwork is the 15th of December 2003.

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:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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Four interesting portrait projects from new media artist John Gerrard....

"Responsive Portrait : Mary" / "Public Portrait with Anti-Social Elements Removed" / "Dance Thought Portrait : Esther" and "Responsive Portrait : Benjamin"

may be of interest to those working on ideas of self-representation, identity etc. with non-linear and interactive forms. All of the above are installation based works with documentation on the website however the quicktime movies in particular give a good feel for the content and style of the work.
:: Garrett Lynch [+] ::
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Neural.it, the online and in-print magazine recently release its first online Neural.it/english version.

Neural's interface has always been at the top of my design list, but I must admit that the new layout for the English version is a bit dry. I personally feel they should have kept the same look as the Italian version, let the language do its job. Nevertheless, the website is worth visiting, and netizens who are not fluent in Italian will now be able to appreciate the rich content that Neural consistently offers.

The above posting refers to Neural.it's online edition. However, it has been pointed out to me by Alessandro Ludovico that he is actually promoting the first printed version in English of Neural.it.


:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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The following is a report/commentary on a live concert by one of New Media's most influential turntablists.

DJ Spooky (That Subliminal Kid) played a free concert at The Getty yesterday night. The one hour fifteen minute set included mostly old school classics with a mix of recent ragga jungle and remixes of R & B dance floor anthems like Soul to Soul's Back to Life.

The set started off with a pre-mixed track which included Kraftwerk's classic Numbers (Nummern), and eventually it moved on to some early "Luke Skywalker beats" (Two Live Crew's "Throw the D -- let's dance"). Towards the end of the set, Spooky spiced up his selections with Coldcut's remix of Erik B and Rakim's Paid in Full.

Unlike some DJs who play summer concerts and have a hard time making people dance, DJ Spooky ended up having most of his concentration spent not on giving people a good time, but rather on making the sound system work properly. In the beginning, the system was too loud and with hardly any bass. The system eventually sounded decent and people immediately started to feel the bass; the dancefloor filled up almost immediately. Unfortunately, a few minutes after, the bass was lost and the sound came down to almost a talking level. Spooky's set never recovered from this. Most people stood around waiting for the sound system to pick up again, but this never happened. Towards the end of his set, there was constant distortion coming out of the speakers.

It was really a shame that the sound system got in the way of what otherwise would have been just an amazing set. Spooky's frustration could be felt in some of his sloppy scratching and beat matching; often, as he started to scratch the record, he would stop, telling the sound crew to do something about the sound system. But eventually he gave up on the system and did the best he could with whatever sound he had left. Dj Spooky came through with his professionalism as he did not even complain or apologized publicly for a faulty set-up. Spooky as a true Hip Hop head kept it real and move on.
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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No new resources this week. However, do enjoy this week's New Media Fix Recommendation: postmedia.net
:: Eduardo Navas [+] ::
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