Shooting Wide Open

Computer algorithms illustrated by traditional Hungarian folk dance? Algorhythm!

As groundbreaking as it is in terms of empowering individuals to produce high quality objects, the problem with publishing on demand is that it still veers toward the mass produced and impersonal. When will we get to the point where we can assemble somewhat customizable packages like these on demand? I can easily imagine some standard size boxes with a choice of material/print and nubs for CD/DVDs or pockets for postcards. Different compartments for objects of various sizes? A couple of examples, albeit of high volume sellers (it’s the only way prices are affordable for the average person):

1. To expand on my love of McSweeney’s, pictured is Quarterly Concern 36, which is a head containing pamphlets and goodies. $23 on sale. (I altered the image to show the closed head. There is no smaller box; that’s just wishful thinking…)
2. One of the editions of Radiohead’s new album King of Limbs will contain 2 clear vinyl records in a custom built sleeve and “many large sheets of artwork, 625 tiny pieces of artwork and a full-colour piece of oxo-degradeable plastic to hold it all together” in addition to the CD. $48.

There are no images available of the Radiohead package yet, but fans will buy it sight unseen not just because it’s a limited edition, but because based on past experience, there’s trust in the craftsmanship and uniqueness of the object itself. Who doesn’t want an object that shows off someone’s eccentric vision rather than tames it for the mass market? The economics push the market toward cheap from template, but the individual consumers lust for personalized pieces that look great.

What intrepid businessman will start a company that packages books and printed matter with multimedia? (Blurb expansion?) A quick search brings up places like Elegant Packaging or Aspen, but it’s very expensive for producer and consumer.

What intrepid blogger will do a post surveying photographers and publishers about the production of their loot?

(Thanks Bill!)

I’m givin’ them away for free!

1. Fake meat soy products marketed as cuts of various imaginary animals. Are you really eating soy beans or are you eating the hindquarters of a unicorn!?
2. All movies should assemble their casts by size. An actor’s physical stature will reflect his importance in the film, thereby creating an absolute lack of confusion about who to watch on screen at any given moment. Also, this creates many jobs for little people and I sure am interested in those lately.

Bad Paintings of Barack Obama

Surgery photos look incredible! So I propose a new photo venture:

1. Take pictures during surgeries.
2. Display photos on monitors in little booth a la Disneyland’s Splash Mountain when patient is wheeled out.
3. Give ‘em the hard sell!

If there was video in dictionary definitions and if the dictionary included “lol,” this is what would be in the entry. Don’t stop watching til you’ve seen the “butterfly” and the freestyle at the end…

(via Joerg)

For my last video assignment I looked at a lot of footage of educational and semi-propagandistic films from the ’50s and while I didn’t get to include very much from this one, I am fascinated by the framework – three hypothetical boys in upper, middle and lower classes grow up to lead different lives, but gee whiz, there’s upward mobility in the middle class!

I’m becoming increasingly wary of the supposed social mobility in this country (after all, there’s downward mobility too – “trickle up” economics, anyone?), especially since I’m eyeing Winner Take-all Politics, but some of the videos are great just for the visuals. Maybe not this one. Are we still making these sort of videos today? Not collected in one place, though, I assume.

Trimpin: Sound of Invention

Sound and electronic artist Trimpin (New Yorker profile) came in to talk to my video art class, and we did a short little performance on the spot that turned out to be similar to one of his early pieces. We brought in various sound-making objects and as Trimpin tapped on the keys of a typewriter, we made our sounds for our respective keys. It was fun, if a bit imprecise, as fleshy humans are known to be… I think I might use the footage of the typewriter for an unrelated video.

Afterward, he talked to us about his work, which he thinks of mainly as sound art, but which usually involves complex set-ups of analog and digital objects assembled to be interactively auditory. The most memorable one for me was also the silliest – he tells of finding a cannister of recording wire and, unable to find a player for this obsolete technology, of outfitting a small unicycle clown toy with a little backpack holding a tiny amplifier speaker with a the head from a record player trailing behind the clown. He then held the wire taut across a room and let the clown cycle down its length, playing what was recorded on the wire as it went, with varying levels of intelligibility depending on speed. That to me is a great example of how simply we can alter and rework technologies and presentation of media if we just thought hard enough (creatively enough?) about it.

In a similar work, he makes metal shavings, mixes them with alcohol and paints the stuff onto a regular sheet of paper. After it dries, he uses a record head from a record player attached to a mic to record his voice onto the paper by simply moving the head across it. Viewers can then use a play head to move across the paper and hear his voice on headphones. So simple! I love these little things more than his large scale projects, the most widely known one being the guitar sculpture in the Experience Music Project in Seattle. The smaller projects seem less about impressiveness than about illuminating underlying principles, which to me has always been the more striking experience. So what if something is huge and expensive if it doesn’t really change your perception of things, doesn’t give you a new way of looking at things?

For him the week was a week of giving slideshows all over campus multiple times per day, and he seemed to appreciate the more active, spontaneous (and noisy!) interaction in our class. Next quarter, he’s co-teaching a course with Terry Berlier to build a bunch of the structures that will be used in the performance of Gurs Zyklus in May, and I’m really hoping to be in it. Terry’s teaching my sculpture class this term and is a fun instructor – the two of them together is irresistible. I hope I signed up in time. His description of the project is utterly discombobulating in the best way: fire organ, water drops spelling out names, steam, sound… !!

If you haven’t seen it, why not make a film with toast as frames? (literally!)