Feb
02
This video is about exploring the spatial qualities of RFID, visualised through an RFID probe, long exposure photography and animation. It features Timo Arnall of the Touch project and Jack Schulze of BERG. More here nearfield.org/2009/10/immaterials-the-ghost-in-the-field berglondon.com/blog/2009/10/12/the-ghost-in-the-field/ One of the interesting things about modern tech is that it makes people deal with things they only previously imagined …
Jan
31
Toughness has been rather out of fashion, as a masculine virtue, and Takeshi simultaneously radiates it and suggests its wounded core. There can in fact be no depiction of genuine toughness (not brutality but a sort of excess of substance of soul stuff) without this concomitant indication of that wound, else the piece simply becomes the pornography …
Jan
30
As the 90s came to a close, the business of music began to change profoundly. New technology allowed artists to record and produce their own music and music videos, and the internet became a free-for-all distribution platform for musicians to promote themselves to audiences across the world. The result was an influx of artists onto …
Jan
27
/// The intertwining of science, art and technology: An animated and interactive installation based on the poster of the same title by Fritz Kahn from 1927. /// For more information about the project go to: industriepalast.com/ Idea & Animation: Henning M. Lederer / led-r-r.net Sound-Design: David Indge
Jan
27
Video by James Houston jim@1030.co.uk www.1030.co.uk www.twitter.com/1030 ——– Sinclair ZX Spectrum – Guitars (rhythm & lead) Epson LX-81 Dot Matrix Printer – Drums HP Scanjet 3c – Bass Guitar Hard Drive array – Act as a collection of bad speakers – Vocals & FX
Jan
23
Although I’m not too big on leaving the house, I attended this talk by Robert J. Sawyer and William Gibson at the Toronto Reference Library. Aside from trips to the tailor and organizing my cupboards, This is the sort of thing I get excited about. I’ve been wanting to see these two in conversation for years. Reason …
Jan
22
This tattoo purports to be the first random tattoo in the world. Each time you scan the QR code tattoo you will see something different: Videos, pictures, phrases, weather forecast, tweets … every time something new. A lot of the thinking on this subject is about personal branding — tattoos that lead to your website, …
Jan
08
In China, a 30 story hotel has been built in 15 days. The time lapsed footage is below. Gizmodo says: It was erected near the Dongting lake, in the Hunan Province, China, by Broad Group, a Chinese construction company specialised in sustainable architecture. The building uses prefabricated modules (with a +/- 0.2mm precision in the …
Jan
07
Some of you might remember the Philip K. Dick robot that went missing. As a fan of science fiction and the strange, I posted about this weird incident back in 2006. Well, this creature has been rebuilt. Hanson Robotics just rebuilt the Philip K. Dick Android! To replace the android that we lost in 2005, …
Dec
27
Though he’s probably more controversial in counter-cultural circles than in mainstream ones — who long ago were sold a script and stuck to it– John Lydon might be the one celebrity whose inevitable passing will bother me. It’s always comforting to know he’s out there making someone uncomfortable. I enjoy watching interviews with him and particularly enjoy …
Dec
22
I’ve put some hours in and made an illustrated, tumblr version of Guy Debord’s 1967 book The Society of the Spectacle. You can find the first post here. When you finish reading it, simply hit NEWER and it’ll bring you to the next paragraph. Some of you are probably familiar with the book. Others of …
Dec
15
Curious to see what might emerge, I thought it might be interesting to make a word cloud out of all the reviews Technicolor Ultra Mall has received. In no particular order, here’s my favorites.
Dec
12
I interviewed Michael Williams of A Continous Lean for The National Post. The piece ran this weekend. You can find the interview here. Don’t really have much to add to that so . . .
Dec
10
Do you want a chance to win a signed copy of Technicolor Ultra Mall? The Scene in TO is running a contest. Basically, they’re going to interview me, you submit questions (don’t do that here, do it there) and they’ll ask them. One of the people who submits a question wins a book. Easy. Here’s …
Dec
09
I want to give you some background. Be patient. My reasoning will, I hope, become clear. Before I was published, I walked into Bakka Books and was recommended a novel by Minister Faust. Coyote Kings of the Space Age Bachelor Pad. I read it and cursed him out. It was the book I wished I …
Dec
07
New review of Technicolor Ultra Mall. This one from Adam Gorley of The New Dilettantes. Beneath the violence of Technicolor are interesting, realistic, and sometimes exaggerated characters facing extreme conditions, on both the red and green levels. Communication is mediated by antisocial codes and television, but the characters manage to relate when they want to and when …
Dec
06
This is well worth a watch. Or a listen. Not much happens visually. Open Culture says about it: In early October of 2009, Malcolm McLaren was nearing death but didn’t know it yet. He showed up at the 2009 Handheld Learning conference feeling fatigued, but managed to deliver a provocative and heartfelt speech titled, “Never Mind the Bullocks, Here’s …
Dec
05
This is one of the most amazing things I’ve seen online. You’re welcome.
Dec
04
Have to get to work but wanted to post a couple items. First off, another review of Technicolor Ultra Mall is in. This one from Innsmouth Free Press. A cover blurb says this is the kind of thing Philip K. Dick would be writing today. To me, its plot of gangs and music and media-induced …
Dec
01
I’ve had a tumblr for years but don’t like it very much and haven’t bothered using it. Don’t much care for tumblr. Anyway, I’m using it now. You can find The Grumpy Owl tumblr here. I have all these pics –junk really– I want off my computer but don’t want to delete. I collect these …
Nov
26
Dancing. They should package this guy. That way, when you’re bored on the subway, you could just break him out of the vacuum seal, add water and enjoy.
Nov
21
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Nov
18
I’ll be kicking around SFContario 2 this weekend. Looking forward to it.
Nov
18
Mapping the Republic of Letters is a Stanford University project to map the intellectual correspondence of the Enlightenment. Brain Pickings says: The project pulls data from the Electronic Enlightenment database, an archive of more than 55,000 letters and documents exchanged between 6,400 correspondents, and maps the geographic origin and destination of the correspondence — something we’ve come to take …
Nov
17
Suicide is fucking depressing. Jesse Morris killed himself on November 6. You can find his recordings here. All proceeds go to his family.
Although Ryan Oakley began his career as a simple rake (drunk) he has since become Toronto’s most renowned flaneur (no car) and notorious dandy (overdresses). A misanthropic composer of psycho-geographical fictions (sci-fi), he is also a server of food, a tender of bar and a washer of dishes. While performing all these functions with efficiency and elegance (disdain and malice), he somehow finds the time to publicly criticize friends, strangers and cultural crap.
