2009 Spring: COLA 3950/5950 Art for the People/Art on wheels

Hi. I made around fifty recordings with my portable field recorder during the Spark festival. I'm just starting to sort through them and post short segments along with a few paragraphs of descriptive text on my sound blog, Audio Cookbook (audiocookbook.org). There's more to come, but here are a few of the entries I've produced so far:

http://audiocookbook.org/audio_news/michael-croswell-at-spark-festival/
http://audiocookbook.org/audio_news/sound-captured-from-kanta-horios-installation/
http://audiocookbook.org/audio_news/free-turntablism/
http://audiocookbook.org/audio_news/metamorphoses-by-clifton-callendar/
http://audiocookbook.org/audio_news/joel-ryan-and-keir-neuringer/
http://audiocookbook.org/audio_news/captive-mosquitoes-make-music-in-innovative-installation/

Please have a listen, and comments are welcome.

Cheers!

-John

Posted by kest0053 at 7:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Hey all,

So I've got some raw footage from the Spark outing in Cedar Riverside. Would anybody have an interest in editing it down to a 1-2 minute summary? If you are interested, but don't know editing software, i can give an overview of Final Cut Pro or iMovie if we must.

let me know.

-Andrea

Posted by anderpander at 8:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

i took this picture on the outing last thursday night.

thank you sinan for your ideas... bless!

Posted by maj at 8:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

wow, anyways, congratulations on spark being a major success, it was good to further get to know everyone in the class, but also finally see some work in action on outings and seeing people perform.

with that said, would anyone be willing to examine the possibilities of going to media city in windsor, ontario?

15th EDITION of media city
is May 20-23, 2009

http://www.houseoftoast.ca/mediacity/Home.html

media city has been a staple of video and contemporary real time media for many years now. i have gone to it before, it was absolutely extraordinary and it gives you a feel of what is going on elsewhere

in north america. it is also one of the few video festivals. i am receiving quite a bit of interest since spark festival about starting a video festival in minneapolis just dedicated to video and real time and new media. i wanted to discuss this in class as most of you are already knee deep into experimental video. anyways, keep the juices flowing.

i am hoping to execute a trip to videopool collective in winnipeg at the end of the term if anyone is interested in going with me, this is an active collective of artists who are working in experimental ideas.

http://videopool.typepad.com/video_pool_home/

also there is my del.icio.us account it contains links to video art, media, and so forth, it's very disorganized at the moment, but this is a heads up!...

del.icio.us/eliomaj

Posted by maj at 8:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over at { sound + design } there's a great article about using flex resistors, an Arduino board, and Max to create a "Synth Glove". Checkout the whole article here:

http://www.soundplusdesign.com/?p=1224

Posted by kest0053 at 11:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An old MAW hand, Hank Colton, aka TJ () has kindly offered to accompany the interested company on an outing on thursday, at/around the Bedlam theater sometime between 7pm-2am.

Time for someone to take initiative and make this happen. Andrea () kindly offered to get you set up with a backpack if you contact and meet with her in the next couple of days.

There will be a great audience and high festival spirit. Let's make it happen!

a

Posted by Ali Momeni at 6:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Hello all,
As mentioned, we are looking for volunteers for the Spark Festival.
You would help us welcome artist that arrive, by sitting at a table, greeting, answering practical questions and directing people to people and places. Wednesday/thursday/friday are the critical days.
Please kindly leave a comment to this posting if you are able to help with a bit of your time.

Thanks,

Ali

Posted by Ali Momeni at 6:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Posted by anderpander at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

i figured to share the link of videopool the video collective in winnipeg, MB, which is nearly 8 hours north of minneapolis. since we were going to go and project in fargo, why not think about winnipeg as a projection spot. here is the link.

http://videopool.typepad.com/video_pool_home/

this is very much like the collectives we read about in the article. community action, accessiblity, and artistic movement are all keys within this really cool place.

let's connect shall we? i want to email them as i have visited a few times before.

Posted by maj at 5:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Please read and be ready to discuss this article.

The article of interest is pages 95-115.

Posted by Ali Momeni at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Please revisit Andrea and Angela's performance in your mind (or with the help of these pictures) and offer some critical and constructive feedback. Please leave that feedback as comments to this post, at least one comment per student.

Posted by Ali Momeni at 8:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Redo the footage for the multi-projector head-gesture installation.
Keep in mind the following:

1. get rid of white flashing frame if you have it by cropping the ends of the video
2. get the back-ground subtraction right
3. neck and head only in the fram
4. practicing loading the videos into the the "maw.kenburns" patch, adjusting the size and position, quickly
5. keep in mind how adjacent pieces of footage will interact with one another through the actor's head gestures, facial expressions and actions

Posted by Ali Momeni at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by anderpander at 7:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Checking out walls around the Weisman for a July performance with collaborator David Steinman (pictured).

Posted by anderpander at 5:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey everyone
I was recently forwarded an email from the Spanish Dept regarding an opportunity to volunteer with the MN Immigrant Freedom Network. As a spanish studies and foreign studies major, I am especially interested in working with media and immigrant youth in particular. The description states the volunteer might help place stories in community media to increase the visibility of immigrant voices on important issues to the community... This sounds like a perfect opportunity to utilize the technology we have available in this class to bring immigrant voice into public discourse through interactive projections or something similar.
I have been in contact with Alondra form the Immigrant Freedom Network
and mentioned that I am in the COLA class and she is super excited to work something out. I am going to be meeting with her in a week to discuss how we can work together. If anyone is interested in working with me and creating an event with the Immigrant Freedom Network, let me know. This is just in the beginning stages and I am anticipating an event taking place towards the end of the semester... If you have any questions for me, or want to know more information, feel free to email me or talk to me in class. Let me know your thoughts!
Kara

You can learn more about the MN Immigrant Freedom Network at their website here

Posted by spic0053 at 10:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hey everyone,
I was thinking about the Mississippi River Outing this May/June and I came up with a ton of ideas. Since I am a Stage Manager by trade, most of these thoughts are in the form of unanswered questions. If anyone has insight on answering any of them please do so!

So the first thing I was thinking about were topics that could be researched or explored.
-Water as a commons: water is a common resource to be shared and used by all.
-Bottled water and the privatization of water
-Environmental impact of dams and pollution on the river
-Non-native species and ecosystem concerns
-The inter-connectivity of water systems: dumping waste and garbage upriver damages ecosystems down south- ie the dead zone in the ocean in the gulf of Mexico. What happens to any part of the river will affect every other part of the river.
-Who handles our water? How does it get from the river to our homes and our homes back to the river?
-How can we change things that are harming the river? What outlets and resources can we give the public that we are showing this too? What ways can we give them to "take action" besides "turn off your water while you brush your teeth"?
-River history and the influence of the river on local history of the places we are going. Myths and legends about the river from different cultures.

Some ideas I had about the content of the projections/performances:
-I think that it would be cool to have more art forms then just the projections at the scheduled stops along the river, like combining them with puppetry and music.
-Having some-sort of interactive projection to demonstrate visually how the things we do to the river can turn into catastrophes elsewhere on the river

The next set of questions have to do with logistical issues.
-What organizations would like to collaborate with us on this outing?
-Where are we going and where are we stopping? What are some organizations we can contact in those places so we can market our art/performance or collaborate with artists in those areas
-What are the rules and regulations about public art in the places we are going?
-How far down the river can we go? Where are we starting from? How do we get though the locks/dams along the river?
-What kind of boat do we need? How many people can go? Food? Gear?
-How are we paying for all of this? Grant writing or organizations willing to donate- minimize costs for the students/instructors
-Are there any festivals or events we can integrate ourselves into?
-Safety of people and equipment. Is the river level safe at that time of year?

So I was thinking about all these things and realized that one of our good family friends Dave Wiggins is in the park-service and is basically in charge of the river. So I called him up and he said he could probably talk for an hour about each of my questions. He talked about some other organizations that probably would be interested in helping us out or collaborating. There is this guy named Chad that bought a huge boat and now takes it up and down the river dredging up all the things people have thrown in like cars and refrigerators ect. I thought it would be cool to work with him because then we could show the public how they could help right then and there. So Ali said we should probably bring Dave in to talk to us. I agree.

So, that's what I have. Let me know what you guys think!
-Martha

Posted by Martha Megarry at 3:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

A Max patch for projecting multiple channels of high resolution video, with real-time placement, scaling, color and image adjustments.

There's a Stand-alone Application for Mac as well as the Max Patch to be opened with Max 5.

Posted by Ali Momeni at 2:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)