machine quotidienne

Jan 28, 2012 0

Seminars: Film and Visual Culture Research at Cardiff University

Here’s the schedule of seminars for the Centre for Interdisciplinary Film and Visual Culture Research (IFVCR) at Cardiff University. Contact me (Paul) for further details:

Date	Speaker & Title	Time: 6-8
2 Feb	Dr. Paul T. Nicholson (SHARE): The Archaeology of the Indiana Jones films	Bute 1.61 (Birt Acres)
16 Feb	Dr Louise Child (SHARE): Trance in anthropology and contemporary film	Bute 1.61 (Birt Acres)
1 Mar	Dr Martin O’Neil (SOCSI): Using film making as a strategy for engaging “hard to reach groups”	Bute, 0.14
15 Mar	Dr Cristian Suau (Welsh School of Architecture): Keaton’s silent film ‘One Week’ (1920) and its potential architecture	Bute 1.61 (Birt Acres)
26 Apr	Dr Richard Stamp (Bath Spa University) Rancière’s animated Vertigo: or, how to be specific about medium	Bute 1.61 (Birt Acres)
10 May	Dr Christopher Hood (Japanese Studies Centre) Death of a Jumbo: The JL123 crash on screen	Bute 1.61 (Birt Acres)
24May	Professor Catherine Driscoll (Sydney) Visible Plasticity, Plastic Visibility: Imagining Girl Sexuality

Jan 28, 2012 0

Like a Wheel Within a Wheel: Beautiful Optical Turntables Generate Spinning Rhythms

Music is deeply tied up with motion; seeing that in a machine is somehow satisfying. Soundmachines, from the enigmatically-titled Berlin studio TheProduct*, is an interactive physical installation made from optical turntables. By moving the “tone arm” – really in this case an optical sensor attached to an extended mount – you can change rhythms and sound sweeps.

We’ve naturally seen many visualizations, tangible and digital, that make loops into wheels. But it’s worth noting the particular connection to a kinetic experiment by The Books’ Nick Zammuto from the film earlier this week. In fact, my one criticism of this piece is that the rhythms are so regular. Some syncopation in a machine like this would be not only pleasing, but immediately visible to the eye and therefore understandable. Perhaps even decoupling the wheels from the motor could allow a user to experiment with sound. That doesn’t mean you have to go from minimal techno to irregular chaos, but there’s quite a lot in between.

That’s not to take away from the impact of this piece, and in particular, the beauty of its installation. The presentation in an iconic object is a message in itself. And the circle remains the ideal design for a looped rhythm, embedded as it is in the repetition we perceive in our world.

http://www.the-product.org/soundmachines

More details:

Three units, which are resembling standard record players, translate concentric visual patterns into control signals for further processing in any music software. The rotation of the discs, each holding three tracks, can be synced to a sequencer.
The Soundmachines premiered on the Volkswagen New Beetle stand at the IAA motor show in late Summer 2011. In cooperation with the sounddesigner/producer Yannick Labbé of TRICKSKI fame, we developed three unique discs, each controlling one track of an Ableton Live Set exclusively made for the Event. The show was supported by a set of realtime generated visuals, running on a 25m wide LED wall.
?
One/One oneone-studio.com
TheProduct* the-product.org

Client?
Volkswagen

Agency?
Vok Dams, Hamburg

Sounddesign/Producer IAA
Yannick Labbé yannicklabbe.com

Special Thanks?
Matt Karau? matt.karau.com
Andreas Schmelas invertednothing.com

(See also a compelling-looking visual collage. It’s supposed to be set to John Cage’s “First Interlude,” but because of copyright concerns, is instead (arguably) set to Cage’s 4’33″. Let’s hope they don’t get sued for that.

Jan 28, 2012 0

UPCOMING EXHIBITION: ‘BIOTOPIA REVISITED’

Ozden Sahin (LEA Co-editor and Curator)

Jan 28, 2012 0

OscylinderScope sculpture allows you to see sound waves

The OscylinderScope is an interactive sculpture by Norman Tuck that explores the nature of sound in a visual way. The OscylinderScope uses a moving black and white striped background to show the behavior of vibrating strings.

How the OscylinderScope works:

Spin the black and white cylinder and pluck the guitar strings. When you look at the strings, the wavy lines that you see show you how the strings behave when they vibrate to produce sound. Both the tension and the length of a string effect the frequency of vibration (pitch of the sound). Shorter or tighter strings vibrate faster to make higher tones. Longer or looser strings vibrate slower to make lower tones.

There are over a dozen OscylinderScopes around the world. The one shown here is located at San Francisco’s Exploratorium.

Read more about the OscylinderScopes and where you can find one on Norman Tuck’s web site. Also check out many other amazing kinetic sculptures by Norman Tuck.

Jan 28, 2012 0

NEWS FROM THE FUTURE – Drone Pilot Discovers “River of Meat Blood”

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Drone Pilot Discovers River of Meat Blood…

A Dallas drone hobbyist was flying his rig around one bright Texan afternoon, scouting the skies, when he hovered across something perturbing: an enormous, oozing river of blood behind a meatpacking plant.

Pt 353-1

This was one of our predictions for 2012, not the rivers of blood, but drones being used by “citizen journalists” more and more – I think this is a good example, even if accidental. My friend Johngineer posted up a great list of “The future of Drones”.

Jan 28, 2012 0

Fused Filament Printing with Water-Soluble Support

Veteran Thingiverse user Tony Buser has printed a model (intended to be an approximation of the fractal Hilbert curve) using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a support material. Once everything is printed and cooled, the PVA is dissolved away in a glass of water, leaving only the polylactic acid (PLA) model. This technique, when perfected, should allow RepRap-style FFF printers to produce objects with overhanging parts that are currently very difficult, or impossible, for them to print. Tony used two of MakerBot’s Mk7 extruders mounted on a Thing-o-Matic.

Jan 28, 2012 0

Got Weekend Plans? How About a Visit to the Materials Library?

Two years ago I wrote about what a delight it was to discover the UT-Austin School of Architecture’s Materials Lab when I was on campus there, and it seems appropriate to resurrect the topic in honor of our theme this month. Kevin Kelly just posted a roundup of major materials libraries around the USA over at Cool Tools, and I was surprised to discover that UT’s, which is decades old, was one of the first in the country.

Publicly accessible materials libraries are usually associated with universities, and there is at least one major subscription-based commercial materials library with branches in eight major cities. I’ve been poking around trying to find a geographic listing of materials libraries with no success, so I thought I’d throw this one out to the readers: Is there a materials library near you? If so, please share in the comments!

More:

Jan 28, 2012 0

In the Maker Shed: Teleclaw – Telerobotic Gripper Kit

Need a hand? Build your own with the Telerobotic Gripper Kit from the Maker Shed! This kit includes everything you need to make the Teleclaw featured in MAKE: Volume 27, right down to the batteries. Assemble the kit and attach the Teleclaw to your robot, rover, or anywhere else you could use a grip. The pre-programmed Picaxe microcontroller interprets commands from the IR remote to make the gripper open and close. Have a look at the Make: Project build for more information and directions.

Jan 28, 2012 0

Smartphone-Controlled Ball Launcher

Andrew and his brother built this great ping-pong ball launcher out of salvaged and repurposed parts. I especially like the 13-ball hopper made from two paper towel tubes taped together, and the clever K’Nex-controlled release mechanism. The launcher is controlled with an Arduino connected to a computer and activated via a remote desktop app from a phone or iPod Touch. See this video for an explanation on how it works.

Jan 28, 2012 0

Railroad Spike Oyster Knives

I like these hand-forged oyster knives from Kirk Davis and Michael Waller of Carolina Shuckers enough to actually consider eating a raw oyster, so long as I got to use one to open it, first. Reminds me of the work of Tai Goo. [via Dude Craft]

More:
Railroad Spike Rope Dart

machine quotidienne

Seminars: Film and Visual Culture Research at Cardiff University

Like a Wheel Within a Wheel: Beautiful Optical Turntables Generate Spinning Rhythms

UPCOMING EXHIBITION: ‘BIOTOPIA REVISITED’

OscylinderScope sculpture allows you to see sound waves

NEWS FROM THE FUTURE – Drone Pilot Discovers “River of Meat Blood”

Fused Filament Printing with Water-Soluble Support

Got Weekend Plans? How About a Visit to the Materials Library?

In the Maker Shed: Teleclaw – Telerobotic Gripper Kit

Smartphone-Controlled Ball Launcher

Railroad Spike Oyster Knives

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