metabolo.org - media

Closer to e-book reality: Amazon Kindle

gva — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 14:32:49 -0500

Just announced last month is the strangely styled and potentially disruptive new e-book reader from Amazon, dubbed "Kindle." I don't know about you but that title makes me think of Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451... Get video, images and blurbs from Amazon or google it for alternate perspectives.

Chief on the features list is wireless connectivity -- with no monthly fee -- using Sprint's high-speed (EVDO) network, more like an advanced mobile phone than a laptop with wi-fi. The gadget sells for 400. USD and early sign seem to suggest success -- it's sold out between now and Christmas....

Could be interesting to see how this entry plays into the emerging ecologies of literate media and media literacy.

Kitchen Budapest

gva — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 20:22:48 -0400

"New media lab for young researchers who are interested in the convergence of mobile communication, online communities and urban space and are passionate about creating experimental projects in cross-disciplinary teams."

Biomedia: GVA @ Beal Institute’s Weekly Show+Tell, March 29, 2007

gva — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 17:35:43 -0400

With the encouragement of Alexander Manu, Director of the Beal Institute for Strategic Creativity, I am scheduled to present highlights from my ongoing graduate work toward a Master of Science degree in Integrated Digital Media. Beginning at 3:30 pm I'll present for an hour, at the Beal, 100 McCaul Street, 6th floor, Toronto. I'll start with work from last semester (History of Media + Philosophy and Media). Later on, in another session, I will cover the current semester (Media Law e.g. copyright, trademarks, free speech, libel etc and a Media Studies course on the Situationists, Guy Debord, détournement, post-situationist mashup culture etc). So tomorrow,

I'll show a short film entitled "Biomedia: A Work in Progress" that uses quotations from the 1st century AD Roman philosopher Lucretius and images of several thousand ant species from the Creative Commons site
Antweb.org

I'll outline my history paper, to be delivered at the Mexico City Media Ecology Association convention this June: "Biomedia: Past, Present, Future"

Abstract: This paper traces a historical thread from the biomechanical insights of early cybernetics and Norbert Weiner's visionary "communication machines," through Marshall McLuhan's little recognized but highly poetic and influential use of cybernetics, to the dawning opportunities for biomimetics in communications media presented by our burgeoning, massively interconnected socio-technical networks. The paper seeks to articulate the case that media theorists and practitioners should recognize “biomimetics” as a twin or mirror of “cybernetics” -- hence as a discourse integral to the intellectual heritage of their discipline. It interrogates and broadens the increasingly popular term "biomimicry" to acknowledge historical precedents and parallels including “bionics” and “biomimetics.” Finally, it seeks to reveal an emerging need and opportunity for a new biology of media -- or “biomedia” -- as a legitimate and promising realm for future communications research and practice that is fundamentally sympathetic with the most advanced contemporary thinking in ecological and social sustainability.

Keywords:Biomimetics, bionics, communications, cybernetics, media, sustainability

Dear Professor Spooky, My Avatar Dog Ate My Homework

gva — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 20:17:11 -0500

As it turns out my Media Law class this semester may be held in Second Life. One reason this idea is looking cool is that DJ Spooky is already dropping science in that polygonish sandbox. Check out his course outline below -- interesting stuff for remixers, duality junkies, and Spooky fans -- and an awsome playlist in itself...

-----Original Message-----
From: idc-bounces@bbs.thing.net [mailto:idc-bounces@bbs.thing.net] On Behalf Of Paul D. Miller
Sent: Monday, January 22, 2007 1:18 PM
To: idc@bbs.thing.net
Subject: [iDC] sharing Curriculum

Hello everyone: I'm now at Sundance Film Festival for a series of discussions aout how new media is forcing the film industry to evolve different production models. To highlight the situation, the discussion will focus on Lynn Hershmann's film on Steve Kurtz: "Strange Culture"

But in light of the thread about teaching new media, here's the syllabus for my class on remix culture and digital media, with a focus on how people will respond to the material via PDF and remixable DVD's:

Paul aka DJ Spooky
(ps, this is sent from my cell phone, so, ahem, it aint really spell checked etc etc)

MEDIA SOUNDS: Towards a New Esthetic of Music and Art

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
PAUL D. MILLER aka DJ SPOOKY

Class notes: In Brief - “Media Sounds: Towards a Philosophy of Aesthetics in Music and Art” is a course I’m teaching at the European Graduate School as a mini residency during the summer. The school is kind of a 21st century update of the Black Mountain College: it brings together a wide variety of people from radically disparate philosophical and aesthetic backgrounds to teach and enjoy ideas outside of the academic norms.

My class focuses on sound, sound art, and their relationship to compositional strategy across different forms of contemporary art and digital media. This is the syllabus.

These materials will be excerpted and made into copies and handed out as PDF files with accompanying sound. The 100 songs will be distributed on data DVD’s and or downloaded from the European Graduate School’s Sound Bank that I’ve set up.

Media Sounds: Towards a Philosophy of Music - Syllabus
By Paul D. Miller

Afro-Modernity: Composition in Collision

1. Adorno vs Duke Ellington

2. Technologies: a time line

3. The role of sound in the culture industry

4. The Nation’s “Media Landscape” - control networks in the era of mass
media 2006, Orson Welles “War of the Worlds,” Entarte Musik, Entarte
Kunst: definitions of “purity” versus Hybridity.

5. Compositional Strategy:
Satie
Debussy
Wagner
Varese
Hildegard Von Bingen
Antheil
Ives
Xenakis
John Cage
Lionel Mapleson and the bootlegs of the Metropolitan Opera House
Thomas Edison
Xenakis
William Grant Still
Amy Beach

Nina Simone
Scott Joplin
Bert Williams (blackface) - blackface
Lee “Scratch” Perry
Hendrix
Walt Whitman
The Beatles
Toshiro Mayuzumi
Grand Master Flash
Arthur Rimbaud
Comte De Lautrémont (Isidore Ducasse)
Duke Ellington
Ornette Coleman
Pamela Z
Sussan Deyhim
Sun Ra
Yoko Ono

6. Philosophy of remix: Mcluhan, Eshun, Duchamp, Hegel, Glissant, Lessig, Dada Cinema, hip-hop cinema, Griffith, Ruttman, Luigi Russolo “The Art of Noises,” Eclectic Method - multimedia and the sound of “modernity.”

7. Multimedia/New Media: Rafael Lozano Hemmer, Scanner, Billy Kluver/Rauschenberg, Harry Smith, Nam Jun Paik, Amiri Baraka, Orson Welles

8. Sound of Science: Frequencies - the cell phone symphony, Marshall Mcluhan’s record version of “The Medium is the Massage,” The Happening - Harry Smith, Allan Kaprow, Andy Warhol, the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Amiri Baraka, Ben Rubin’s “Listening Post.”

9. Standardization: The Architecture of Frozen Music: Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace vs Muzak, Norbet Weiner “Cyborg Narratives,” Vannevar Bush and the simulation of the human spirit, the world of “large numbers.”

10. The Rise of Mass Culture: 18th-19th century mass media encounter the digital world. Accumulation of multiple recording formats vs the “copy” and “found object” in the fine arts. Ontological uncertainty - Mary Shelley, Kafka, Dostoyevsky, and E.T.A. Hoffman.

11. Biological Surrealism: Towards a Vision of the Sonic Future: David Hammons, David Tudor’s “Rainforest” electronic music compositions, Pauline Oliveros “Quantum Compositions,” Daniel Bernard Roumain’s “Hip Hop Symphony, ”Brian Eno’s “Bell Studies for the Clock of the Long Now,” Matthew Barney’s Cremaster Cycle and the artist as logo-centric producer, Dj Spooky’s remix of D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation.”

12. The Experience Economy: libidinal networks and the decline of geography. Nurture versus Nature - how we hear digital sound. Valentine De St. Point’s Futurist Manifesto of Lust, 1913, and the Muzak phenomenon: acousticc banality - General George Owen Squire and the rise of musical Taylorization.

End

Media Sounds: Required Reading:
1. Paul D. Miller aka Dj Spooky - Rhythm Science
2. Michael Nyman - Experimental Music
3. Joseph Lanza - Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy Listening, and Other Moodsong
4. Clinton Heylin - Bootleg: The Secret History of the Other Recording Industry
5. Simon Reynolds - Generation Ecstasy: Into The World of Techno and Rave Culture
6. Lloyd Bradley - Bass Culture
7. Christoph Cox (editor) - Audio Culture Reader
8. David Toop - Rap Attack
9. Jeff Chang: Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop
10. Luigi Russolo - The Art of Noises
11. Kodwo Eshun - More Brilliant Than The Sun
12. Ken Jordan and Randall Packer - Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality
13. R. Murray Schaefer - The Soundscape
14. Allen S. Weiss and Gregory Whitehead (editors) - Wireless Imagination: Sound, Radio and The Avant Garde
15. Saul Williams - The Dead MC Scrolls
16. Lewis Hyde - The Gift: Imagination and The Erotic Life of Property
17. Norbert Weiner - The Human Use of Human Beings
18. Lawrence Lessig - Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity
19. Roselee Goldberg - Performance Art: 1909 to the Present
20. Andy Warhol - The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again)
21. Yve Alain Bois, Rosalind Krauss - Formless: A User’s Guide
22. Gilles Deleuze - Difference and Repetition
23. Alain Robbe Grillet - Topology of a Phantom City
24. Rudolf Arnheim - Film as Art
25. Theodore Adorno - Essays on Music
26. John Corbett - Extended Play: From John Cage to Dr. Funkenstein
27. Leroi Jones aka Amiri Baraka - Blues People: Negro Music in White America
28. Alfred Appel - Jazz Modernism: From Ellington and Armstrong to Matisse and Joyce
29. Ralph Ellison - Invisible Man
30. Jacques Attali - Noise: A Political Economy of Sound
31. Edmund Burke - A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful
32. Octavia Butler - Parable of the Sower
33. Sheree Rene Thomas (editor) - Dark Matter
34. Russell A. Potter - Spectacular Vernaculars: Hip-Hop and the Politics of Postmodernism
35. Tricia Rose - Black Noise
36. Norman O. Brown - Love’s Body
37. R.D. Laing - The Politics of Experience
38. James Snead - White Screens/Black Images + (essay) Repetition as a Figure of Black Culture
39. Donald Bogle - Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mamies and Bucks: An Interpretative History of Blacks in American Cinema
40. Anthony Appiah - On Cosmopolitanism
41. Mark Coleman - Playback: From the Victrola to MP3, 100 Years of Music, Machines, and Money
42. Ferruccio Busoni - Sketch of a New Esthetic of Music

Required Listening:
1. John Cage - “Imaginary Landscape 1” (Original + Dj Spooky remix)
2. Ludwig Van Beethoven - Symphony No. 5 In C Minor, Op. 67: Allegro Con Brio
3. Pierre Schaefer - “Edtude Pathetique”
4. Karheinz Stockhausen - “Kontakte”
5. Pierre Boulez - Pli Selon Pli (Portrait de Mallarme) track 1
6. Gustav Mahler - Symphony No. 2 In C Minor: 3. “Resurrection” III. Scherzo: In Ruhig Fliessender Bewegung
7. Luciano Berio - (Sinfonia) III In Ruhig Fliessender Bewegung
8. Charles Ives - Three Places in New England
9. Ernst Toch - Der Fuge Aus Geographie (Geographical Fugue for Speaking Chorus)
10. Marshall Mcluhan - The Medium Is The Massage (record version)
11. Hildegard Von Bingen - O Virga Mediatrix
12. Pierre Henri - Psyche Rock
13. John Cage - Roratorio (Ein Irischer Circus uber Finnegans Wake)
14. Richard Wagner - Vorspiel Zum 1. Aufzug
15. Amy Beach - “Gaelic” Symphony in E Minor Op32 I. Allegro Con Fuoco
16. Igor Stravinski - The Rite of Spring, Part II The Sacrifice - Sacrificial Dance (Chosen One).
17. Arnold Schoenberg, Ein Überlebender aus Warschau op.46
18. Elvis - Jailhouse Rock
19. Hector Berlioz - Symphony Fantastique Op. 14
20. Luigi Nono - Ricordia Cosa ti fatto in Auschwitz
21. Richard Wagner - Rheingold Prelude
22. Woody Guthrie - This is Your Land
23. Alexander Scriabin - Prometheus, The Poem of Fire
24. Dj Spooky + Chuck D - B-Side Wins Again
25. Johan Sebastian Bach - “Little” Fugue in G Minor
26. Orson Welles - War of the Worlds radio broadcast
27. Danger Mouse + Jay Z - Encore
28. The Doors - Soul Kitchen (Dj Spooky remix)
29. Hive - Experiments in Synthetic Rhythm
30. Iannis Xenakis - Analogiques A + B
31. Edgar Varèse - Poème Èlectronique
32. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme (Part 1)
33. Philip Glass - Concerto For Saxophone (Quartet version)
34. Steve Reich - Come Out (1966)
35. John Adams - Shaker Loops: 1. Shaking and Trembling
36. Duke Ellington - A Tone Parallel to Harlem (The Harlem Suite)
37. Lee “Scratch” Perry - Black Board Jungle Dub (Version 1)
38. Pauline Oliveros - Butterfly (1968)
39. Charlie Parker/Rob Swift “Cheers” (remix)
40. Madonna - Hung Up
41. Brian Eno/David Byrne - Regiment
42. Kurt Weill - The Three Penny Opera - Die Dreigroschenoper: Moritat Von Mackie Messer
43. Olivier Messaein - Livre D’Orgure: IV. Chants D’Oiseaux
44. Meredith Monk - Atlas - Part 1: Personal Climate - Travel Dream Song.
45. Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
46. Ryuichi Sakamoto/Yellow Magic Orchestra - Riot in Lagos
47. The Winstons - Amen, Brother!
48. Brian Eno/David Byrne - Regiment
49. Fela Kuti - Zombie
50. Abdullah Ibrahim - Mindif (Original + Dj Spooky remix)
51. Ornette Coleman - Free Jazz
52. John Coltrane - Om
53. Saul Williams - OHM
54. Amiri Baraka - Black Dada Nihilismus
55. Allen Ginsberg - Howl
56. William S. Burroughs - Breakthrough in Grey Room
57. Asha Bhosle - Rang De
58. Laurie Anderson - Oh Superman
59. Sun Ra - it’s after the End of the World
60. Max Roach - We Insist (Triptych: Prayer/Protest/Peace)
61. Charlie Parker with Strings - Summertime
62. George Antheil - Ballet Méchanique
63. Eric Satie - Vexations
64. Claude Debussy - Concerto for Alto Saxophone and String Orchestra in E Flat Major, Op 109
65. Claude Debussy - La Mer
66. Raymond Scott - Music for Babies: Tempo Block
67. Toshiro Mayuzumi - Works for Musique Concrete X (1956)
68. Rahzel - Wu Tang Live Medley
69. Yoko Ono - Rise (original + Dj Spooky remix)
70. MC5 - Kick out the Jams
71. Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express
72. Afrika Bambaata - Planet Rock
73. Grand Master Flash - Adventures on the Wheels of Steel
74. Jack Kerouac - The Subterraneans
75. Ella Fitzgerald - Mack The Knife
76. Louis Armstrong - Mack The Knife
77. Scanner - Structural Loss
78. Talvin Singh with the Master Musicians of Jajouka - You Can Find the Feeling
79. James Brown - Coldcut Meets the Godfather Megamix
80. William Grant Still - Afro-American Symphony - Moderato Assai - Longing
81. Scott Joplin - The Entertainer
82. Double D and Steinski - Lesson 3 (The History of Hip-Hop)
83. Basement Jaxx - Where’s Your Head At
84. DeeeLite - Groove is in the Heart
85. NWA - F*ck the Police
86. The Last Poets - White Man’s Got a God Complex
87. The Beatles - Revolution #9
88. Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
89. Herbie Hancock - Rockit
90. The Beastie Boys - Sure Shot
91. The Police - Reggata de blanc
92. Wayne Wonder - Sleng Teng
93. Count Machuki - Oh Carolina
94. George Gershwin - Porgy and Bess: 1. i (Summertime)
95. Linton Kwesi Johnson - Bass Culture
96. Pete Rock - They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)
97. Jeff Mills - Metropolis Soundtrack (Convicted to Paradise/Maria)
98. Gloria Jones - Tainted Love (1965)
99. M.I.A. /Dj Diplo - Piracy Funds Terrorism
100. Nina Simone - Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair

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“Theoretical Primer for Emergent Media” presented at Enterprise 2.0 event

gva — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 10:30:15 -0500

I'll be giving my Hyperpolis presentation and leading a discussion on the idea of "emergent media" as part of a Toronto event beginning 6:30 tonight at the Gladstone Hotel.

Hosted by Tom Purves, the gathering will feature speakers and general discussion on the idea of "Enterprise 2.0" The idea is to look beyond today's mostly consumer-oriented applications of "Web2.0" and "social media" and ask, What do these same technologies portend once they infiltrate the business world? How will these new media forms change everyday work, the structure of firms, and the way companies innovate?

The event has attracted a lot of interest from the Toronto area tech community who are plugged into these ideas, and has been scaled up from a smaller venue to the stately Gladstone.

For more information or to sign up for (free) attendance, visit this wiki: http://barcamp.org/Enterprise20Camp

Designing Systems with Emergent Behavior at BayCHI

gva — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 22:10:18 -0400

A recent Bay Area ACM SigCHI panel on "Designing Systems with Emergent Behavior" featured Tim Brown (IDEO), Peter Merholz (Adaptive Path), Larry Cornett (Yahoo), and Joy Mountford (Yahoo), and was moderated by Rashmi Sinha.

Peter Merholtz blogged his thoughts here: www.peterme.com/archives/000793.html

Core77 offers a rundown of the event here: http://www.core77.com/blog/events/design_for_emergent_systems_4821.asp#more

And the organization's event page is here: http://www.baychi.org/calendar/20061010/

Lineup for IDMI’s Hyperpolis 3.0 conference

gva — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 12:35:22 -0400

Below are the themes and speakers of a conference, hosted by the Integrated Digital Media Institute and Othmer Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies at Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, where I'll be giving a presentation based on the ideas in my paper with Robert K. Logan, "Designing for Emergence and Innovation." More background may be found at http://idmi.poly.edu/

The Production of Politics Thursday October 19th 11am to 2pm

Richard Rogers, Director, govcom.org, University of Amsterdam

Tom Keenan, Director, the Human Rights Project, Bard College

Karen J. Hall, Humanities postdoctoral fellow, Syracuse University

Atopia (Jane Harrison and David Turnbull), Urban research and design office, New York

The Art of Work in the Age of Post-production Thursday October 19th 3pm to 6pm

Rev. Luke Murphy, Artist, VP of Technology, MTV Networks

Greg Van Alstyne, Senior Research Associate, Beal Centre for Strategic Creativity, Ontario College of Art & Design

Ruth Ron, Architect and new media artist, Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Florida

Blogging: around the table Friday October 20th 11am to 2pm

Jodi Dean, Teaches political theory at Hobart-William Smith colleges and maintains jdeanicite.typepad.com

Geert Lovink, Media theorist and activist, University of Amsterdam

McKenzie Wark, Author of the Hacker Manifesto and teaches media studies at Lang College, the New School

Steven Shaviro, DeRoy Professor of English, Wayne State University

The Politics of Production Friday October 20th 3pm to 6pm

Michael Liegl, Ethnographer, University of Munich

Eric Redlinger, Musician, network administrator, member of Share collective, New York-Montreal-San Diego-Wiesbaden

Michael J. Schumacher, Composer, performer, director of Diapason sound gallery, New York

Katherine Carl, Co-director, the School of Missing Studies, New York-Sarajevo

Sterling, Greenfield, and the Patchy Internet of Things

gva — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 20:27:44 -0400

I've heard Bruce Sterling taking issue with Adam Greenfield over the title of his book, Everyware (in this great IT Conversations podcast). I was a bit surprised, then, when in our OCAD lecture Sterling gave a big boost to Greenfield's book and said that they talk all the time and are now good buddies. Hey, things change. In any case that's not why I'm writing.

At some point I plan to take up Sterling's original argument, and maintain that the arrival of dataspace (as we call it at the Beal Institute) AKA the Internet of Things will not involve "everything" and "everyone" and "everywhere" -- it will be patchy and spotty. And I agree with Sterling that it may take 30 years to arrive. But I'm not writing about that either.

Actually I'm writing to point out a hard to find and thin but interesting discussion board about the emergence of ubicomp in Greenfield's site. Some nice examples of weak signals or whatever in there -- so, like, check it out.

McLuhan reverses our intuition about sound + vision

gva — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 23:03:47 -0400

We tend to think of visual information as instantaneous or simultaneous, and audio as time-based, linear, successive. I do, at any rate.

To underscore this assumption, let's say I'm reviewing a designer's portfolio. I can "read" a visual image almost in a moment -- I make a snap judgement much like that analyzed in Malcolm Gladwell's Blink.

I see a cassette, video tape, quicktime file, or what have you, however, and its a different story -- I know I need to make a time investment. I immediately have expectations for what I want to get out of it. Call it experience economy "ROI". Actually, Bruce Sterling, who incidentally will be speaking at OCAD on October 2 (yes, you heard right), puts it best in Shaping Things: he says in an age of 'Gizmos', our relationship with objects is governed by the "opportunity costs" and "cognitive load" of the user.

Anyway, back to McLuhan. In the Playboy interview (see link below) and everywhere else in his writing, he puts it this way:

"The man of the tribal world led a complex kaleidoscopic life precisely because the ear, unlike the eye, connot be focused and is synaesthetic rather than analytical and linear. Speech is an utterance, or more precisely, an outering, of all our senses at once; the auditory field is simultaneous, the visual successive." (Mcluhan's 1969 interview in Playboy)

This seems striking. I understand and agree with McLuhan, yet my portfolio judging example above tells me the opposite. In some way, both readings must be true.

SHARE: supporting collaboration in new media communities

gva — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 21:34:20 -0400

Here's a reference from one from my fellow grad students:

SHARE.global
http://share.dj/global/

* new york
* montreal
* wiesbaden
* san diego

SHARE is an organization dedicated to supporting collaboration and knowledge exchange in new media communities. Local SHARE groups hold free, open jams and workshops in their communities. Participants bring their portable equipment, plug into our system, improvise on each others' signal and perform live audio and video. SHARE furnishes the amplification and projection. SHARE happens weekly to monthly in cities around the world. Interested in starting a SHARE gathering? See the do it yourself page.