lounging in transit

i'll be taking part in the 2008 Transit Lounge - split between Berlin and Australia - as part of a partner event of Conspire, Transmediale.08...

i'll be conspiring alongside other artists including:
Bianca Calandra, Robert Curgenven, Benjamin Ducroz, Katie Hepworth, Govinda Lange, Silvia Marzall, Kristina Matovic, Michael Prior, Jodi Rose, Sumugan Sivanesan, Anna Tautfest, Lynda Roberts...

home?

IMG_6519
Originally uploaded by bugzfizzle

despite the lack of actual housing in new orleans, projects such as this have been constructed - and yet, where do the inhabitants live exactly...?

empathy and otherness

review of ars electronica 2007 in the latest issue of realtime: http://www.realtimearts.net/article/issue82/8764

one

transit

we got tha fucker out

i can't believe it, howard is no longer australia's PM - fucking finally

people in berlin think i'm a little mad today. why would all this grey weather make me so so happy? (its not the weather - i tell you...)

so labour - over to you, just don't fuck it

art of sedition

a la hommage to steve reich's 1960's tape music has been pulled from broadcast by an adelaide radio station, based on legal advice.

the piece, "Decennial Celebrations" commemorates the coalition and john howard's ten years in power, and was performed at adelaide's delicatessen venue in 2006. apparently the phrase "kill john howard" is enough to provoke the removal of such a work from airplay. in the words of the composer Christian Haines, "...eventually the words [in the piece] lose meaning because you can't tell the start and end of the sentence and leads to a sort of auditory hallucination."

in the final days leading up to australia's 2007 election, this really paints a picture of our rights to free speech.

betta late than neva

spent last week at the re:place conference, held at das haus der kulturen der welt

the second conference on media, art, history and science

spam

truth & reality

please just watch the film Zeitgeist

where is this place ,

the start of a new work about home, family, displacement and belonging in the global, networked age.

propaganda

one of the best political works i've seen in a while was at the DESTE foundation in Athens. A female security guard, standing in a corner of one of the gallery rooms. As you enter the room she starts singing "this is propaganda..." (a simple melody and a phrase that she repeats as she begins to walk around the space a little).

its only when you leave the room you notice that other gallery minders are dressed fairly casually. the tune and the words - stuck in my head...

electrofringe - wear now

so it's the first year i'll be missing electrofringe in ages ... and in an attempt to still be there, alexandra gillespie will be speaking about my Mobile Patters work on the WearNow panel on Saturday September 29th in the Newcastle Regional Art Gallery at 2pm...

dialectic cursing - in tha dam

head to occii if u in amsterdam tonite...

moments like

bliss

sitting in bed eating pistachios (for er, brunch?) from Aegina - and reminding me of the hot sun and sea - while drinking cool peppermint tea and listening to the rain on the skylight above...

(with a laptop and wireless access)

simple things like this, which i appreciate so much more these days, after such challenging times.

reskinning under skin

an article by Leah Heiss about some of the works from the reskin lab can be found at: http://www.craftaustralia.com.au/articles/20070328.php


and another article (by Alex Gillespie and Cinnamon Lee) on the reskin lab and resulting works can be found at: http://www.craftaustralia.com.au/articles/20070827.php

steim wii

wii is a small revolution.
wiiiiii is a movement about movement.
wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii is leaving the desktop and moving into sonic space.
wiiiii is made for gaming but hacked into a music instrument.
wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii is this rare moment where a mass produced object is recycled into a tool for both experimental and mainstream practice.
wiiiiiiiiiiiiii is supported by STEIM's junXion and pd, maxmsp, supercollider etc.
STEIM's wii evening is not sponsored by nintento, but we hope they get it and continue making brothers and sisters of the wii.
wiiiiiiiiii(h)ero's from all over the globe will present their wiiiiiiiing and perform at STEIM on Monday September 24, 2007.

Featuring
Ross Bencina (AU), Somaya Langley (AU), Danielle Wilde (AU)
Tom Tlalim (IL)
Tim Groeneboom aka DJ Timski (NL)
Frank Baldé (NL) + Saskia Dedenbach (DE)

Date: Monday, September 24 2007
Venue: STEIM, Utrechtsedwarsstraat 134, Amsterdam
Time: 18.00pm
Entrance: Free
Reservations and more information: knock@steim.nl or +31 20 6228690

Project descriptions
Ross Bencina, Somaya Langley, Danielle Wilde - prototyping gesture~sound mappings with the wiimote
Ross, Somaya and Danielle will discuss outcomes of a recent residency at STEIM where they developed a variety of gesture-to-sound mappings aimed at engaging the whole body in controlling sound. Up to six Wiimotes were used simultaneously to gather gestural information from multiple positions on the body, and from multiple performers.

Tom Tlalim - Body tilt space measurement using 8-12 Wiimotes / nunchucks
This is a research project into use of the body as an instrument, while imposing limitations on space by audio feedback. I'm trying to look at the human body with relation to gravity alone, learning about poise, dynamics and location from looking at it's tilt and acceleration. complexity, weight-center, speed, and dynamics can be then analyzed, calculated and used as indicators of a current tilt space. As a prototyping tool I'm using 8-12 3d accelerometers (Wiimotes) to measure tilt and acceleration for every joint. x/y tilt data is then graphed, analyzed, and buffered for template matching. Currently the data is used straight forward as continuous input for states of an audio system. Next stage in development will be definition of audio spaces via template matching; snapshots of different shapes of the body can be stored and compared with the current body position. as the dancer reproduces specific body positions, new sound presets get introduces.

Tim Groeneboom aka DJ Timski - Wiijing with Wiimote + Ableton Live + Max/MSP
DJ Timski will show and explain his Wiij (Wii + DJ) setup that he uses at parties to rock the crowd. http://www.djtimski.com/

Frank Baldé + Saskia Dedenbach
STEIM's software R&D Frank Balde and Saski Dedenbach will talk about the development process and implementation of the new Wii extension for STEIM’s junXion software.

the invisible camp

snippets of stories, of oral histories, emotions and experiences join me each day as i wake...


(once a killing wall, for children)


http://audiowalk.gusen.org/

destroy athens

destroy athens is the first athens contemporary art biennal, which i've just spent a few days discovering during my week in this city


the theme lures artists to destroy preconceived notions of athens, creating a new contemporary image of who and what this place represents today. artists from all over the western artworld are represented in the show (plus a a number of parallel exhibitions and events) including john bock and dereck jarman to name but two...

press gang

imo and i are heading to ars electronica tomorrow, with press passes in hand - ready to put together a couple of radio features... so come talk to us.

gig pics

photos from last nights gig of displaced australian sounds can be found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/somayalangley/sets/72157601879386715/

oi

if you're in prenzlauer berg (berlin) tonite - and feel like some australian improv - come along to this gig...

(...and come talk to imogen and i, as we'll be on the door and on the look out for good conversation...)

gesturally sound

© 2007 ross bencina, somaya langley and danielle wilde

ross bencina, danielle wilde and i were based at steim for three weeks in july 2007 working on a series of experimental gestural sound experiments utilising various techniques and Nintendo Wii remote technology.

we will be back at steim again on the 24th september 2007 to take part in a workshop presentation on the use of Wiimotes.

stolen love-terror

terror mon amour
Originally uploaded by somaya

pedro inoue's exhibition which opened last night at stolen space

fucking amazing work...

book in ya face

aaaargh

okay, i signed up fo facebook out of curiosity - and now i'm getting a million (well not really, but too many anyway) emails notifying me of activity that's going on in there.

while there are obviously many benefits to social networking, where is the criticism? or at least critical analysis of its impact??

so far it's a time-sucking device - like i needed another...
i originally started this blog (before the 2005 vital signs conference) as a means to criticise the whole blogging phenomenon - you can't really talk about what you don't know, right!?! of course, somehow my naïveté lead me to keep it up.

i do actually enjoy seeing ppl in the flesh, not just sitting in bed with a laptop
(govinda - you have a lot to answer for)

11/08/2007: let me take some of that back... there is some discussion of this going on thru fibreculture at the moment, see: http://fibreculture.org/pipermail/list_fibreculture.org/2007-August/000324.html

moving metropolis

NY laws that prevent physical self-expression - combated by: metropolis in motion

archival

P1020364.JPG
Originally uploaded by AliaK

archiving workshop panel with Jo Fleming (NFSA, AFC) and Shannon O'Neill (UTS, alias frequencies) talking about digital archiving and collaborative development of online projects/spaces - Electrofringe 2006

evening

woke to lightning and lay watching clouds rapidly roll overhead, thru the skylight

by lunchtime it's humid and sunny. a real european summer's day? it was just a tease...

and this evening, well you can see

moving the earth

viewing (thru the glass door) of semiconductor's video work "earth moves" at Montevideo (the Netherlands Institute for Media Arts) in the exhibition (in)visible sounds along with other artists including Australian's Joyce Hinterding and David Haines

belly under

my beautiful friends in sydney are running Underbelly - a two week public art lab residency at the Carriage Works in Redfern with the final day being a festival.

Festival is this Saturday 14th July
Features collaborative works developed over the past two weeks and a special talks program and a panel... all about artists and space: how we find it, how we use it.

Moderated by Underbelly Director Imogen Semmler, featuring Lara Thoms (Quarterbread @ PACT), TJ Eckleberg (Artistic Director, Shopfront Theatre), Sharon Longridge (MI5), Music NSW and other special guests.


please get along and experience the extravaganza

weee

never thought i'd say this, but i've been doing a bit of testing with the Nintendo Wii - running multiple Wiis with the aka.wiiremote Max object (by Masayuki Akamatsu).

in the end managed to get 6 up and running at once...

there's a bit of info that i posted to the Max list about using this object and multiple devices:http://www.cycling74.com/forums/index.php?t=tree&th=27299&mid=110247&rid=3152&S=a3039c435435f4978e27f0be051c3c0a&rev=&reveal=

steim

Atau Tanaka (one of the directors of STEIM - where ross bencina, danielle wilde and i are currently in residence for 3 weeks)

performing at Montevideo in Amsterdam

(lost) view

announcements about unattended baggage in airports?



once again the airline has lost my stuff. it seems to arrive tho (after hanging around in the terminal all alone), in some disheveled state... days later

raster in montreal

raster-noton exhibition at Société des Arts Technologiques (SAT) in Montreal if you happen to be there and need to escape the rain...

SoniPy

Presented a paper presentation at the 2007 ICAD conference this morning in Montreal...

The Design of a Heterogeneous Software Environment for Data Sonification Research and Auditory Display: SoniPy
by David Worrall, Michael Bylstra, Stephen Barrass and Roger Dean (aka. the Sonic Communications Research Group)

further information can be found at: sonipy.sourceforge.net

icad 2007

13th annual International Conference on Auditory Display, held in Montreal, Canada began today

architecting montreal

rainview (brooklyn)

what happened

to us?

dan perjovschi - straight up

commenting on the state of the world, an exhibition at New York's MOMA.

way [the fuck] out...

never giggle at the name of a place, or you might end up having to spend the day there

blindly

perhaps all the digital glitter will blind you, and you'll stumble into the defence recruiting center

fabolous plays midtown

only in nyc...

"...the cops have closed the party down tonite... so we need to get thru to tha venue, it backs onto here, so ya know, if we could come thru your foyer and go in tha back door. he's a rapper, and the party needs to happen..."

all you young black men and women, wearing all-black with gold bling. black caps on sideways or backward, in impossibly high stilettos

black sunglasses that blind, even though it's half-past-twelve... mobile phones pressed to ears talkin' shit to who knows who...

attitude and perfume oozing out of pores, almost suffocating everyone in close vacinity.

n y c

...in nyc for the nime 2007 conference at NYU

more photos in flickr set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/somayalangley/sets/72157600330724038

last views

before journeying into the unknown.

leaving

dorbot in melbs

the suspect backpack at melbourne's dorkbot

4pm, Sunday 27th May, 2007
Level 1, 124a Johnston St Fitzroy 3065 (just east of Brunswick St).

The Suspect Backpack is a wearable mobile sonic media art experience,
providing a user with the opportunity for first-person interaction and
engagement. The work is intended for use in public space, and at the same
time as it creates a personalised intimate environment for the user, members
of the public become the unwitting audience. This [prototype] work utilises
proximity sensors, a laptop, a pair of speakers and a set of headphones to
navigate two spoken-word sound environments.
---> http://suspectbackpack.blogspot.com/

Somaya Langley is a sound and new media artist who has presented works in
festivals and conferences throughout Australia. Her work has been
commissioned by Experimenta and the National Film and Sound Archive. She was
a member of the sensor-trio HyperSense Complex, is one part of the duo
MetaSense and performs live electroacoustics under the pseudonym of ID-i/o.
For the past decade she hosted a radio program, SubSequence, on Community
Radio 2XX FM. In recent years she has been the National Library of
Australia's Digital Preservation Officer and in 2006 was the recipient of the Inaugural Friends of the National Library of Australia Travelling Fellowship to
research models for archiving complex born-digital objects, in California
USA.

loud is (limited edition)

loud is boring (limited edition)

metasense - farewell to canberra gig

thursday 24th may 2007 at the front gallery/café in lyneham.

rediscovered [re-blog]

metasense at electrofringe 2005 (excerpt) http://blog.soundsorange.net/index.php/archives/2007/04/25/rediscovered-sounds/

flame tank

supervision

"With cutting-edge digital animation, video and electronic music, SUPER VISION makes the invisible “datasphere” visible, using the language and technologies of surveillance itself." (http://hop.dartmouth.edu/supervision/)

While researching visas for overseas travel, I could vividly recall moments from the Builder's Association and d-Box's interactive [new media] performance work, Supervision. I witnessed the performance at ISEA 2006 and it was truly engaging.

The only thing I would have wanted, was to strip away the theatre venue stage/audience paradigm - and immerse the audience right within the unfolding story... But then, we've got real life for that.

in motion

wade's space

Wade Marynowsky - Autonomous Improvisation v.1
19 April - 19 May 2007, Artspace Sydney.
Opening 6pm Thursday 19 April 2007.


[Singing Sadie, Robbie Avenaim, Jon Wah, The_Geek_From_Swampy_Creek, REV. KRISS HADES, Jim Denley]

i even contributed a tiny bit of performance (the random accellerometer waving variety) to the A/V component...

under skin

Leah Heiss has written an article, Under the Skin, for Craft Australia on outcomes from the ReSkin lab.

feeding back

[MetaSense, photo: Etienne Deleflie]

3 performances over 3 days (during the Easter long weekend) in the Feedback Chambers (aka. the gunpowder bunkers) as part of the Great Escape Festival at the Newington Armoury, Sydney.

...sounds of anti-war rallies, glitch, post-techno, noise, feedback, more noise, shortwave radio, chorale singing and field recordings in a reverberant chamber...Lynda Roberts, Imogen Semmler, Kerry, Dan Conway, Brett Maverix, Nick Mariette and myself (MetaSense)
curated by Lynda Roberts.

sound-out-box

a bit late now... was a guest on immogen semmler's radio show out of the box on FBi FM over the easter long weekend

"Sound artist and radio presenter, Somaya took us on a journey through sound art, electronic producing and her own career of sound production and audio craft!"

the best of subsequence - 2003-2006...

track	artist	album	label
raum 1	pole	R	~scape
authenticity	si-cut.db	from tears: beach archive	biphop
postfabric	alva.noto	transvision	raster noton
cyclic	tomas jirku	entropy	intr_version
the art of stalking	suburban knight	my sol dark direction	raster noton
transition	mad mike	depth charge 5	submerge
everybody is a disaster	agf.3 + sue c	minimovies	asphodel records
rant (hot in here)	ursula rucker	ma'at mama	!k7
shimmer	somaya langley	ACMC 2004	Australasian Computer Music Association

morphing

still from paul mosig's remixing of norwegian heavy metal images, accompanying sarah logan's sonic remix of the same...

beautiful

[loud is boring, the front, canberra, february 2007]

children of [the] new world

the film Children of Men, which pre-9/11 may have seemed too way-out to be a realistic prediction of the future, today is only too possible.

coupled with Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, a dire prediction of the future of humanity, paints a bleak outlook for contemporary society.

sophistication of tools and technology surround us, but all too often the drive is towards their streamlining their military applications.

they are super-human fighting machines enaging in the ultimate apocalyptic battle. but, to what end?

acma cee-dee

upcoming australian computer music association cd release...

Daniel Blinkhorn - squeak (‘n bubble)
Diana Blom and Emma Stacker – Gong Agong
Garth Paine – Episode 4
Jon Drummond & John Encarnacao - 6 Degrees of Tension
Cat Hope – Women in Transit
Peter Mcilwain - Instrument Landscape #3

David Worrall - I am on the net
Ros Bandt – Sydney Road
Aaron Hall - Corroded Memory
Wendy Suiter – Litany for Refugees
Andrian Pertout - Azadeh
Somaya Langley - out | side | in
Simulus - channel

hail canberra(?)

8:50am - moore street, canberra city
the last day of summer...

digital paradoxes

the paradox of the digital age, as it is being termed exposes a number of facts that may have us thinking about what we really do when we sit in front of a computer.

a few things to consider/question are:

• easy to create make millions of files now
• much harder to access them later
• what do we really consider important digital items
  
• only way to keep digital things is to constantly manage them
• is that a valid use of our own time and headspace
• the need to look to history - such as the papryus scrolls (which were hand copied every now and then)
  

references
http://www.manovich.net/TEXT/digital_photo.html
and
http://www.digitalpreservation.gov

second librarians

what will they think of next


australian libraries building in second life

action nownow

anthony pateras in action - the NowNow, January 2007

mobile patters

Mobile Patters - developed at the 2007 ANAT ReSkin Laboratory, Canberra School of Art, Canberra

Materials: anodised aluminium, audio earbud, conductive paint, Arduino micro-controller, custom built RF detector, custom constructed jacket, 9V battery

Mobile Patters explores the imperceptible world of radio frequencies, mobile phones and “semi-private” worlds created by individuals in metropolitan spaces. When a mobile phone is answered in a crowded city environment, or an individual wears a portable audio player, a separation appears between the receiver/wearer and other crowd members, creating the illusion of a semi-private moment. With the appearance of a cage, this wearable represents the illusionary screen between this individual and society.

Detecting the presence of mobile phone activity, this signal is converted into randomised percussive clicks. As the intensity of mobile phone activity increases, so does the responding sound. This wearable provides a means of sonifying the environment we currently inhabit, and yet are often unaware of its presence.

As the wearer moves closer in proximity to radio frequencies, the audio responds by creating an increasing number of randomised clicks.



Other photos from the reskin lab can be found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/reskin

still alien

i've got a tiny bit of sound accompanying Daniel Kotja's video work Alien Presence H - (Handmade Echo) which is currently exhibiting at Stills Gallery, Sydney

rebranding canberra

invasion day

musing

mc mewz mic-in' it up...