A Digital Media Explosion

Well, the end of February and beginning of March certainly kept me away from my creativity time.  Fortunately, now that my employers are all on Spring Break, I've had the chance to work on some music, video, patching, and all kinds of art.

A sample from one of my Glossom collections...
I suggest you try it for at least give it 1 second,
it is interactive and is a unique concept.

My main goal has been to continue to increase my net presence... to I've added quite a few social networking sites to the mix.  Twitter (@iEEEj), Scribd (a site to publish papers), and my personal favorite, Glossom.  This site lets you create a collage of your work (video or picture or text w/ links) in a grid you must conform to.  It is a very interesting concept, and I suggest checking it out if you have any things you want to share on the microwebs.

Additionally, I've been making lots of digital art, both music and video.  I even overloaded my Vimeo upload limit, so I have to wait a week to post "Digital Paint : in 2 movements" (the second video).  So here are a some of the videos that I made over the past few days... I'll give some details after each one.

Fact of Life

This is a sound responsive physical and digital melding. The video is of TriLEDs (LEDs that can output any combination of red, blue, and green). They are controlled by filters that respond to the music being played. There's a little editing at the end, but it was just to keep the piece short.

... Yes there's more; I figure if you're interested I might as well just keep it all on the same page...

Ian Bogost: The Material Constraints of Art and Programming

Double Plus Good... I was planning on attending this lecture, and then was asked to work the event.  Score.  I got to get paid to go, and had a few extra moments to speak with Ian.  Not only that, it was amazing.

Ian Bogost at ATL&S' Black Box Theater

Ian Bogost is a media philosopher and designer who focuses particularly on video games.  He is a professor at Georgia Tech and accomplished author.  This afternoon Ian gave an excellent presentation about the evolution of not only video game media, but also some of the theory behind material constraints.  For example, he programs for an Atari system, but is limited not only by the amount of RAM he can use, but also the number of addressable sprites and objects is 'limited'.  These boundaries, Ian poses, help to define the creativity that goes into the utilization of these types of tools.  This goes for older systems like Atari, or even newer platforms like like the XBox360 or PS3.

An interesting night at the Mercury Cafe... Janet Feder and EJ?

Janet - Bulb Zoom

Had a really interesting night at the Mercury Cafe in Denver.  I was there to see Janet Feder perform... she's a fellow member of blOrk, and a good friend of mine.  She will be performing in Nate Wheelers show, September Sixth, tonight and tomorrow (01.28/29) alongside Mark McCoin, Michael Theodore, and Curtis Broome.  Also, as part of my resolve to actually use my camera more... I brought it to the cafe to document the concert.  Didn't really think this would be interesting at all, but the universe works in mysterious ways...

I arrived a little early and was disappointed that Janet wasn't there yet... I forgot that she of course had rehearsal for Nate's show.  After grabbing a beer and looking for a good seat, I saw an elderly gentleman at a table and asked to share his table, as it was in a prime location.  I did a double take when he told me, "My name is EJ".  I had found another EJ in the world!  Turns out that Janet and EJ are friends from many years ago, so naturally, I grabbed a picture or two to email to them later.  By the way, EJ is part of a Glacier franchise and caters parties...  oh, and he also works as a professional wine pairer, or as he likes to say the Director of Happiness.

EJ and Janet

Obligatory Nightime Exposure

Runaway

So long exposure shots at night are bread and butter for photography... for whatever reason.  This is a new take on the concept; these are exposure shots from an airplane of the city and runway lights at dusk.  You can click on the pictures for more detail.  Of course I turned off all electronics before takeoff...

Going up?

Flickr Stream

I've been organizing a Flickr stream. Check it out, there's a lot of cool videos and pictures and drawings.
Someday this will all be integrated.... Muh, ha, ha, ha, ha...