Curt Cloninger on Tue, 13 Nov 2001 00:16:01 +0100 (CET)


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[Nettime-bold] FLTR 3.0 <body rock'n version>


FLTR 3.0 <body rock'n version>
[11.12.01]


Content:::::::::::::::::::::::::::

{interactive}
1. Yugo Nakamura: interactive statue (with shinzo) + quicktime 0
2. entropy8zuper: wirefire 11/2/01

{3D}
3. csero interactive: plant 1.2

{audio}
4. moby: body rock MixMaker
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


1.

Yugo Nakamura: interactive statue (with shinzo) + quicktime 0
http://viewon.net/idea/yoshiki/twist.html
http://yugop.com/ver3/stuff/25/

Yugo Nakamura is always doing cool networked Flash stuff that nobody 
gets.  He used to be in hell.com, so now you have to deal with him as 
a net artist and can't just dismiss him as a designer/technologist. 
Sorry.  These are my two favorite things he's ever done, finally back 
online for our viewing pleasure.

The genius of both these pieces is not just in their behaviors and 
their scripting (which are basically peerless), but in the way Yugo 
maps Flash behaviors to the human body.  It's one thing to use action 
scripting to create a frictive, gravitational environment.  Most 
people able to create this environment then proceed to populate it 
with a bunch of lifeless, wireframe polygons that look all 
computer-y.  By populating these environments instead with 
photographs of human shapes, and by causing the Flash behaviors to 
control the human shapes, Yugo has created two pieces that are more 
than the sum of their parts.

The Interactive Statue feels like one of those old fashioned 
kinetoscopes, but much more reactive.  It's the illusion of movement. 
There are actually just four static stills of the same person.  But 
what a pleasant illusion.  It's like Robert Longo's "Men in Cities" 
possessed by the spirit of a slinky.  Yep, that's what it's like.

Quicktime 0 is a wondrous filmic hand machine thing.  This is 
basically the coolest use of Flash bar none I've ever seen.  Again, 
it's just a horizontal strip of 40 static images of a hand.  Moving 
your mouse up and down increases and shrinks the images in size. 
Moving your mouse to the right and left speeds, slows, and reverses 
the procession of these 40 stills across the screen.  And therein 
lies the wonder.  Get them flying by fast enough (40 per second, 80 
per second), and you've got yourself a film animation of a hand 
opening and closing.

Nakamura has in essense used Flash as an interactive video projector 
where the user is able to control the speed of the film.  And the 
entire Flash file is only 216K, much thinner than an actual Quicktime 
file of this same animation could ever be.  Excuse me while I 
exclaim, "freaking brilliant."
 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
{advert}

chiaroscura, ephemera, tim burton on mescaline, straigh outa Prince's 
hometown -- le bros. de quay:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/6305537402/lab404webcreatio/
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


2.

entropy8zuper: wirefire 11/2/01
http://www.e8z.org/wirefire/

here are two more hell.com alum.  These wirefire performances just 
keep getting better and better.  I case you don't know, wirefire is a 
realtime multimedia broadcast, with michael and aurelia riffing back 
and forth, using all manner of audio loops, gorgeous concrete 
symbols, movements, textures, and bleedings -- multi-layered, 
pixelated, and unapolagetically threatening to crash your browser at 
all times.  Once you begin viewing one of these archived 
performances, mouseover the upper right hand area of the screen and a 
link to the performance archives should appear, eventually.

Since I went last, e8z has added a multi-user fascet to these 
performances.  Observers are now invited at certain times throughout 
the performance to enter text which then appears on the screen. 
Viewers can even hit keystrokes at certain points to invoke circle 
shapes and gong sounds.  This ability to join in the dialogue makes 
the pieces all the more engaging.

The 11/2/01 performance I would have entitled "Love In the Time of 
Anthrax."  Amidst silloutees of passenger jets, hellish flames, 
alarming explosions, and eerie middle eastern audio loops, the 
couples' sometimes "light n' fluffy" personal iconography here 
assumes a touching profundity.  Amidst the chaos and uncertainty, a + 
z are still sending out creative love to each other, defying terror 
with the usual nipple-massaging, hand-holding, Portishead audio 
sampling, and glowing sheep disappearances we've all come to know and 
love.

In his DVD audio commentary to _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_, 
Terry Gilliam offhandedly muses how in the middle ages, people 
regularly believed in demons and angels, regularly expected to see 
demons and angels, and regularly saw demons and angels.  Much more 
was possible to them, being less bound by the rigors of linearity, 
science, and cynicism.

Technology is meant to increase our wonder; to make the mystical 
trafficable.  So why do we still not get it?  Props to e8z for 
forging a gothic web of their own intimate personal symbols.  There 
are faces and hands and bodies and whispers.  We are beckoned to 
touch and be subsumed.  The world of wirefire has less to do with 
Wired Magazine and more to do with Dante's Divine Comedy.  Props to 
e8z for continuing to expand their symbolic vocabulary, for 
continuing to improve their improvisational timing and their 
collaborative rhythms.  Personally, I'd rather have months of 
variations on this same theme than whatever this  weeks' 
"installation situation blah blah" happens to be.  Love develops over 
time.  can u dig it?


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
{advert}

Lots of splash pages I've made:

http://www.lab404.com/dik/
http://www.lab404.com/ss/
http://www.lab404.com/nr/
http://www.playdamage.org/at/
http://www.lab404.com/bksplash/
http://www.lab404.com/ior/
http://www.rhizome.org/splash/playdamage/
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


3.

csero interactive: plant 1.2
http://www.csero.com/unit1.htm

Nothing much here.  Just a cheezy looking cgi 3D interactive plant. 
Click on a button and the leaves fly up.  Click on another button and 
some berries fly out.  Click on another button and the whole thing 
puffs up into some sort of passion fruit.  Does everything have to be 
so deep?  It's just a cool, cheezy, 3D, animated plant thing.  What's 
not to like?


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
{advert}

We're singing our hearts out for all the guys.
We're singing our hearts out for all the girls.
We're singoing our hearts out for all the world.

http://www.danielsonfamile.com/danielson/photos/danielsonship.html
http://www.newjerusalemmusic.com/danielson/nono.ram
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


4.

moby: body rock MixMaker
http://www.shockwave.com/sw/content/bodyrock

One of my favorite interactive audio engines, not so much for the 
technology, but for the interface and for the samples themselves. 
All the loops are locked in a groove, and you just activate them or 
deactivate them, so you can't get asynchronous or mess up or 
anything.  The killer app of the interface is the left right mixer in 
the middle of the console.  It doesn't pan stereo, per se.  It just 
mixes your left column and your right column.  So you can throw the 
mixer all the way to the right, then set up your beats on the left, 
then throw the whole thing left when you're ready.  It simulates the 
double turntable scenario most DJs are used to.  So it's possible to 
get a pretty seamless live mix (after a few tries).  Plus there ain't 
a bad loop in the bunch.

You can listen to a couple of pre-recorded mixes to get the idea of 
how it works (watch the console as you listen).  Then when you get a 
mix you like, you can play it back for your own admiration and 
enjoyment.  Or better yet, send an email to a friend, and they can go 
visit your geniusly produced mix, which is archived right there on 
the site.  Tease animals!  Get fired from your job!  You won't want 
to put it down!


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
FLTR is filtered by Curt Cloninger <curt@lab404.com>.

To keep things from getting all spammy-like, I'll only ever mention 
my personal work in the {advert} sections.  That way you will be 
forewarned of the evils of self-pimping and possible "commerce."

FLTR is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, 
organization, or institution; does not wish to engage in any 
controversy; neither endorses nor opposes any causes.  Our primary 
purpose is to stay creatively sober and help others to achieve 
creative sobriety.

Back issues of FLTR are archived at <http://www.lab404.com/fltr/>.

FLTR -- less sporadic; more emphatic.  admonishing posers to get the 
hell out and go sell cars since two thousand aught one.
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