The kings of junk e-mail are trying new ways to get around spam filters. I received one recently that was weirdly poetic, apparently using some kind of grammar-aware automatic sentence generator. Follow the link to read it, and enjoy…
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Nik, my charming & jetsetting girlfriend, has arrived in New York! It’s so nice to see her here, after two months apart. Not much of a shock for her: my furniture, appliances, etc. are all the same ones I had in Tokyo, so it was easy for her to settle in. Even more important, I am the same person she knew in Tokyo, except literate (I can read & write, unlike in Japan!) and more purposeful. Soon after she got here, I introduced her to the thrill and romance of New York life by going for a walk in Washington Square Park, where they are filming “I Am Legend” starring Will Smith, possibly the biggest film shoot ever in New York. I fed her a nice meal, all sourced from shops on the block where we live. Here’s Nik by night, lit by the movie lights:  I went to see this show with a bunch of other ITP students. Matmos is a very interesting duo (with occasional collaborators) that works with found sound and samples, using it produce music with a pointed political sentiment. So Percussion started out as an avantgarde percussion quartet, mostly playing the works of other composers, but now starting ot compose and perform their own works. The concert was really beautiful: first, So Percussion performed alone, showing short films made by the sister of one of the musicians, then they performed together with Matmos. A particularly beautiful moment was when So Percussion played their drums with huge bunches of roses, making a muffled, yet oddly hypnotic, sound while rose petals flew everywhere. The encore, which is rapidly acquiring a kind of notoriety, involved Matmos reading the text of Hugo Chavez’s speech at the UN calling George W. Bush “the devil”, while So Percussion played excerpts from Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring“, a fascinating juxtaposition of two possible views of American values. I went to see the premiere of “8 Bit” at the MoMA. It’s a movie about videogame art, starting from the early days of computing and arcade games. I was particularly pleased to see artists such as Bodenstandig 2000, Bubblyfish and Glomag in the film, especially since I’d seen some of them perform recently! Cory Arcangel’s modified Nintendo cartridges are particularly amusing, especially the piece called “Clouds“. It consists of a “Super Mario Bros.” game cartridge, from which he has removed everything except the clouds. What was previously a frantic & noisy game becomes a serene, surreal sequence of cartoon clouds moving silently across the screen. As Rui pointed out, it is also a bridge to the exotic subculture of circuitbending. This is the first documentary I have seen on the subject of art created from video games, but it appears that there is actually a thriving cultural & academic scene devoted to its study: the film featured speakers from universities and research centers in the US, France & Germany. After living away from the US for so long, lots of things strike me as interesting every day. One thing I’ve noticed recently is what I’m calling “hollowed-out” retail: retail stores have a limited selection of merchandise, suggesting that customers purchase the rest of the items online. In fact, it seems as if they’re pushing people to buy mostly online by offering online-only discounts (see here for an example). This appears to make some economic sense: stock only the most popular items in-store, and keep a single warehouse for all the “oddball” stuff, which can be ordered via the Internet. As well as encourage people to shop frequently online to save on operating costs. However, this ethic can be problematic for some things, such as electronic parts! At ITP, we need access to a variety of electronic parts. Most of these can only be ordered online. This means you need a US-based credit card, which is a handicap for me, and for several of the international students. Moreover, it makes browsing almost impossible – you have to guess, based on tiny photos, if something will work for you. Also, you have to make fairly large orders, otherwise the shipping is prohibitive. This means, for example, that ordering small amounts of cable adapters or connectors is prohibitively expensive. In contrast, Tokyo’s Akihabara (the electronic district) is fully stocked with everything, either through megastores or mini-malls full of specialists, and it is possible to handle merchandise, and pay with cash. It is not uncommon to see schoolchildren poking around, finding parts they need for electronics projects, and buying just what they need. They don’t have credit cards, so online is not an option. Also, the storekeepers are generally specialists in what they carry, and are often helping customers. I wonder what this will do long-term to US consumers’ taste when retail stores only stock a small range of the most popular items and encourage people to go online for deals and less popular items. I know that this is a world filled with technology, and most people do their shopping online, but shouldn’t we have that choice? The reality is that some people prefer to shop for particular clothes or electronics in-store rather than online, especially if you don’t know what you’re looking for. They crave the in-store shopping experience. Especially when it comes to fashion shopping, customers love trying on the clothes for better judging their choice. Besides, the in-store soft music sets the mood, making customers feel relaxed and positive about being in that particular store. Most retail store owners make use of music streaming systems, and check out this page to get an idea about the same. Even though retail outlets provide a fun, relaxing shopping experience to customers, many these days prefer online merchandise. As a result, retailers get their stores online to avoid losing their customers. Custom apparel that you want to buy for your soccer team, or to increase brand awareness for your business tends to be done online with places like Imprint, as they do a whole range of merchandise, including backpacks and polo shirts, (https://imprint.com/shop/custom-apparel/polos). By doing these types of things online, it gives you the freedom to browse at your own leisure, instead of feeling rushed by a shop assistant. But only stocking a small range of popular items in-store could potentially have a damaging effect on consumers and businesses themselves. Ironically, Japan has a chain of stores based on this premise, Ranking Ranqueen, which only carries the top 5 or 10 products in a series of categories, ie top 10 CDs, top 10 books, top 10 cosmetics, top 10 snacks, etc. Went to see another Darmstadt event at the Spiegeltent. This time the emphasis was more on “found footage” than live performance, though there were a couple of exceptions. A highlight for me was the AV Geeks presentation of some very odd psychedelic films for schoolchildren, produced by Encyclopedia Britannica, and… the US Government. The following picture was from a government produced animation promoting the bicentennial:  I got this thing to work, and am very pleased!  It’s basically a Simple Simon game. The LEDs blink in random order, then the player has to press the buttons in the same order. If you get it right, the green light blinks (and in future, the game gets harder). If wrong, the red light blinks (and game gets easier). This is my first-ever electronics project, so I learned a lot, and not just about electronics. I’ve learned something about how errors and malfunctions can encourage much deeper engagement… Continue reading My first electronic game project – Simple Simon A battle is being fought on the streets of New York, not far from where I live and study. Two family-owned Indian restaurants, side-by-side in the same building, strive to out-do each other in the matter of illumination. The interiors are equally overwhelming. More info here.
One of the classes at ITP has a very interesting structure – every week there is a guest speaker, and presentations by students responding to the speaker from the previous week. So far the speakers have been tremendously interesting: Vito Acconci and Vik Muniz. Both had a lot in common:
Two of those points were particularly interesting for me: the first, how they presented art as a process of problem-solving, of attempting to reach a goal; and second, their emphasis on the medium. |
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Visit to the Wired Nextfest
I went to see the Wired Nextfest in New York, a tradeshow/exhibition focused around technology and the future.
Frankly, I found it a bit disturbing. The vision of the future presented is very much technology for its own sake, dominated by large corporations, and with a strong militaristic streak. There is no real attempt to challenge and probe current issues. There are lots of robots, submarines, spaceships, video displays, military technologies and violent games. However Open Source, copyright, public access, sex & love, democracy, shared public spaces, social networks, politics are all unrepresented. Attendees are very much spectators – there is no way for the public to participate or shape “the future”, rather the message is that the future will be made by governments and businesses. The art pieces on display, while beautiful in their own right, are subverted by the rather creepy corporate context.
However, there were some fun & interesting things. I liked a Kick-Ass Kung Fu game, which used a blue-screen plus a large pressure pad to put the player into a combat video game. Very nice execution of concept. I am sure this will turn up at game arcades all over the place. I was also drawn to one trade show banner in particular which advertised Danny Rozin’s wonderful Circle Mirror, which turned out to be really impressive.
I found the use of enabling technologies at the exhibition quite interesting: video projectors, computer vision techniques, touch screens formed a part of most of the interesting pieces. Access control was very “old school”, paper tickets (in my case printed at home) and long lines. Re-entry was by the time-honored system of a messy ink stamp on your hand.
I think there is room for an “alternative” Nextfest with a much more probing point of view. I think the future will be shaped by other forces.
Pictures from Nextfest are here: