Ratkings and Other Stuff I learnt in 2010

“I was six years old when my parents told me that there was a small, dark jewel inside my skull, learning to be me.”

The above quote is from someone else*, but let’s riff off that. What with all the oil leaks, data leaks, and all the hot air, there was plenty of learning to be had.
( *aka Perth coder / sci-fi author, Greg Egan. Read the full story ‘Learning to be Me’, online as part of ‘Stories on Themes in Science, Technology, and Society’, edited by Thomas Easton. )

How to Get Laid for Zero Dollars
While I didn’t learn the above from Miracle Jones, from their story of the same name, I did become aware of Rat Kings in 2010. Rat Kings get capitalisation, because really, what kind of editor is going to spend much time with ‘a number of rats.. intertwined at their tails, which become stuck together with blood, dirt, ice, excrement or simply knotted.’ Particularly when, said beasts ‘reputedly grow together while joined at the tails. The numbers of rats that are joined together can vary, but naturally rat kings formed from a larger number of rats are rarer.’

Tyrannobdella Rex
Also known as the ‘tyrant leech king’, this jungle leech was discovered in 2010 within the Peruvian jungle. Up to 7cm long, it comes with large teeth and was named one of the year’s top 10 weird new animals by National Geographic. From the same list, I’m kinda fond of the incredible looking ‘Yoda Bat’ of Papua New Guinea. The Sneezing Snub-Nosed Monkey from Myanmar ain’t bad either – although the only scientifically observed specimen had been killed by local hunters when researchers found it, and was eaten soon after. Amazing that we’re still discovering such large unique creatures in the 21st century, thought they’re probably better off staying away from us as long as they can manage.

Last Chance to See, Revisited
There was much to learn on Stephen Fry’s narrated documentary which retraced the footsteps of Douglas Adams* in trying to glimpse several of the world’s disappearing species. An entertaining, if sobering series, well worth tracking down. Incidentally, WWF’s top 10 endangered species included such significant creatures as the tiger, polar bear, bluefin tuna, mountain gorilla, giant panda and the Javan Rhinoceros – of which no more than 60 are thought to exist. No easy answers there, but it’s unfathomable to imagine a world where any of the above are no longer born.

( *See also, ‘Condoms, Microphones and the Death of Death.’)

by j p, December 20, 2010 0 comments

Artvertising and The Billboard Intercept Unit

Another Julian doing interesting things with computers? Meet Mr.Oliver and his real-time billboard replacements.

Augmented Billboards 2: The Artvertiser @ Transmediale 2010 from Julian Oliver on Vimeo.

They Live!
Indeed, as might be expected from a project that seeks to detect and replace billboards with other imagery in real-time, there is some inspiration expressed on Julian’s site for the great cult classic by John Carpenter, They Live – which features rebel sunglasses as a major plot device ( they decode the ‘real’ message of a billboard when worn ).

Developing the Artvertiser as a software platform that can detect advertisements viewed through a device, and replace them, Julian and Damian Stewart consider their work as an example of ‘Improved Reality’, claiming “The Artvertiser situates the ‘read-only’, proprietary imagery of our public spaces as a ‘read-write’ platform for the presentation of non-proprietary, critically engaging content.”

In practice so far, this seems like it works best within their own custom built device, which they’ve dubbed the Billboard Intercept Unit. Key qualities of that beast include a high-quality wide-angle lens, fast CPU and GPU, powerful wireless adaptor, long battery life and plenty of solid state storage space. Interestingly though they seek to develop versions for Linux, OS X, Google’s Android OS, the Nokia N900 (Maemo 5) and the iPhone and a single shot photo substitution version for the Symbian OS ( used by the great bulk of the world’s camera phones).

The software works by users training it to recognise individual advertisements, which can then be replaced by alternate images or videos. Then whenever that advert is encountered – “It doesn’t matter whether the advertisement is on a building, in a magazine or on the side of a vehicle” – the ad will be replaced within the viewer, by the alternate image or video. If an internet connection is available, the scene and substituted image can be immediately documented and published online, ‘providing an alternative memory of the city’.

See selectparks.net/~julian for more, including Escape from Woomera ( a 3D game set inside one of Australia’s refugee detention centres ), Packet Garden ( watch your daily net traffic generate a visual garden ), Levelhead (Augmented Reality spatial-memory game and tangible interface prototype) and Fijuu, his 3D music AV experiments.

( See also, Julian Oliver: The Art of Gardening, a piece I was asked to write for an exhibition of his, many a moon ago. )

by j p, December 20, 2010 0 comments

Wikileaks Hip Hop Interview

GNRobFoster&Assange

Hugh Farrant and Giordano Nanni uploaded Episode 4 of Rap News to youtube in July 2010, a funny overview of wikileaks and the issues it raised. Their witty editing earned an invitation to meet Julian Assange, resulting in his cameo appearance in Episode 5 (Oct 27), nobody yet aware of the political chaos that would unfold a month later. (Photo above on the day of their video shoot )

How difficult was it to co-ordinate shooting a video with ‘the world’s most wanted man’, Julian Assange?
He managed to fit us in to an extremely hectic schedule. We were pretty sure he’d only have a couple of hours to spare, but at the end of the day’s shoot he told us he’d be happy to come back the next day and re-shoot some of it. Messing around in front of the camera definitely helped get his mind off more serious things for a few hours. He’s a great guy with a wicked sense of humour, and the calmest demeanour of any person we’ve ever seen.

Did you glean any insights about Wikileaks from the contact?
We got to see the project as it was about to enter this current Wiki-Trickle phase. We could tell that they were building up and unleashing progressively larger and more impacting data, but we have to admit that we were blind-sided by this ‘Cable-gate’ phenomenon. I mean, this is a real game-changer. It’s gigantic, and it’s just not stopping.

rapnews

Given you’ve tallied half a million YouTube views, why refuse their offers of revenue sharing from ads?
We loathe advertising so passionately that the loss of a potential revenue stream is a small price to pay to keep the channel free of marketing. We have a donations system for people to visit, and since episode 5 dropped, plenty of people have been expressing their support with some cash. Donations keep Rap News going, and let us pay for ever more elaborate wigs and make-up.

What do you think of Auto-tune the news?
Seriously talented musicians, extremely funny, and Hugo has something of a man-crush on Michael Gregory. That guy’s got a lot of soul.

What other media inspire with it’s blend of politics and entertainment?
We both enjoyed Starship Troopers – hilarious and kick-ass sci-fi action movie, with some excellent calls about humanity’s interplanetary relations. We love South Park, and Team America is a high point of culture. Koyaanisqtasi – by Godfrey Reggio and Philip Glass – is a film which really inspires and opens one’s eyes to the world we live in. Videos of comedians Bill Hicks and George Carlin definitely taught us a few things. The greatest example of combining entertainment and politics is Jonathan Swift’s masterwork Gulliver’s Travels.

Good news – have we had any lately?
There’s never been a better time in history to be creative with access to a global audience. Wikileaks is excellent news. It was about time things got shaken up a bit. Evo Morales is excellent news for South America. Local band [Me] just signed a UK record deal. Also, Tool are visiting Melbourne in January. Very good news indeed.

Future musical projects for Hugo?
Regular gigs on the North Side. One day – some form of live Rap News format, initially within solo shows and build up from there – a full live touring Rap News musical extravaganza would be amazing. Keep your eyes out for new Branksome film clips, and the sci-fi farcical epic film clip ‘We Are The Humans’.

Future writing / journalist projects for Giordano?
Finishing touches to a book I’ve just completed, and embarking on a theatrical project – Coranderrk – in collaboration with Ilbijerri Aboriginal Theatre. And of course, future episodes of Rap News. Robert Foster’s could become an important voice. Stay tuned.

by j p, December 15, 2010 1 Comment

Swordfighting Rap News + Wikileaks

Keywords: Neal Stephenson, Julian Assange, MC Hugo

ironfistpillagewikileaks

Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon ( see also: Snow Crash, The Diamond age and The Baroque Cycle ) is more than a decade old, but its themes of information security and encryption ( wrapped up in a swashbuckling adventure ) are particularly resonant this week, with the escalation of activity around wikileaks. The latest release of documents by wikileaks, dubbed ‘cablegate’, have Canadian politicans calling for the assassination of Wiki-leader Julian Assange, have Sarah Palin crying ‘treason’ (Julian isn’t actually a citizen of the United States), had U.S. politicians pressure Amazon into removing it from their hosting ( “If Amazon are so uncomfortable with the first amendment, they should get out of the business of selling books.”@wikileaks on twitter ), and they’ve provoked endless column inches in the world’s biggest newspapers and magazines dissecting the ramifications of the releases, as well as the philosophies, motivations and early writings of Assange.

Swordfighting
Anyways, back to the clashing of swords – and also in the historical fiction vein, Neal has been developing Mongoliad, an online experimental fiction project, which seems to have spawned from a bit of medieval sword fighting research slashed about with a bunch of his Seattle coder and writer and friends (including Greg Bear, another award winning sci-fi author). And so – an online serial novel, delivered to subscribers over the web and via iOS, android and kindle, with a strong emphasis on reader participation.
“Up until now novels have been defined by the technology of the printing press, and we don’t have to use that definition anymore unless it suits us. Some of the things that show up here will be chapters of the novel, some will be character portraits, some will be background articles about topics raised by the progress of the narrative, some will be maps.”

Julian Assange HipHop
Like an Aussie hiphop version of Auto-Tune the news, The Rap News uses the form of musical news broadcast to dissect and analyse current affairs. The brainchild of MC Hugo and editor / director Giordano Nanni, and made in a Melbourne bedroom studio, it’s impressively choreographed ( lots of different characters / costumes / accents / news graphics ) and manages to pack a dense analytical punch. Their video on wikileaks gained this tweet from wikileaks in response: “Hilarious Wikileaps rap gets it right. Is comedy the only honest commentary?” See for yourself.

PS. If lured in by swordfighting rap, hoping for new Wu-Tang hotel sheet shredding gossip, allow me to recommend instead, Iron Fist Pillage – a kungfu feature film with overdubbed vocals from the Wu crew ( and beats during the fight scenes).

by j p, December 2, 2010 3 Comments

Sampology Interview

Sampology’s Super Visual Smackdown! taster on Vimeo.

A+V on NYE: Dec 31 will find Brisbane’s Sampology scooting away from the sub-tropics, to scratch up a video storm down south at the Fall’s Festival in Apollo Bay. Sam was kind enough to answer a few words about the art of ‘AV-DJing‘ while he prepares.

What were your inspirations for expanding from turntablism into live audiovisuals?
I felt like a new challenge and Audio Visual DJing seemed in a lot of ways still really undefined and I could do my own thing with it. I’ve always been into what guys like Hexstatic, DJ Yoda plus a lot of other amazing artist have done with cool technology, video content, big ass screens and lots of people in front of them.

What are some of the challenges in producing and performing live audiovisual material?
That Audio and Visual have to relate together in each section as well as the whole set. There’s no point in asking a crowd to party as well as pay attention to the screen – if you aren’t doing anything engaging or creative with what you’re giving them. It’s always a difficult but extremely fun challenge in the prep work as well as the performance.

What kinds of qualities do you think live audiovisual material needs, to work well in on a cinematic dancefloor?
I try to lace a portion of the set with content that people will know, and then remix it in some way using humor/ emotion/ turntablism to try and do something creative. What I like about AV shows is that they aren’t defined to a set of rules and expectations, so I think there’s still a lot of avenues to take AV performances in.

Audiences tend to watch films a small number of times, yet are happy to hear the same songs over and over. Do you find that audiovisual songs have a shorter shelf life?
Sometimes. A lot of people request certain routines so they end up staying in the set for longer than I had actually planned! I’m going to trying and get more into using content that’s in headlines, but there’s a lot of prep work so you want to make it worthwhile if you’re going to only play the routine once.

What artists currently interest you?
There’s heaps of Caribbean influenced sounds that are exciting me, and I’m heavily into a certain movie genre at the moment but won’t let on as it will give away the theme for the 2011 Super Visual show. As for Live Audiovisuals, I saw this Japanese Opera recently, shot and performed live on this massive blue screen, it’s pretty gnarly.

What technologies are you currently excited about?
Mostly I’m happy with Serato Video-SL plus my trusty MPC. I’m more excited about pushing forward with what I’ve got, to make something as entertaining and unique for an audience as possible!

What’ve you got planned for your Super Visual Smackdown, and to what extent does narrative fit into your production?
I’ll preview the brand new ‘Super Visual’ show at the beginning of 2011. Until then I’ve got a really fun Summer themed festival AV set made for Falls & Southbound festivals as well as a couple of other special shows around oz.

by j p, November 24, 2010 0 comments