prosthetic knowledge

Time Scanning by Donato Maniello 

A collection featuring experimental photography scan-disruptions of trees:

Capturing a moment and expand it up to the point of creating a tear that becomes aesthetic sign.

More Here

Visualing Poetry with 1960s Computer Graphics 

Experimental collection of films made in late 1960’s using a computer has surprising digital and glitch aesthetic - video embedded below:

[PK Note - I’m not going to lie, the film isn’t going to be for everyone, and it does feature some abstract jazz which may hurt your ears if you are listening via headphone. As you’ll see in the excerpt below, a computer was used to create the composition but not the colours, which was added later. Still, I do see it as a possible precursor to glitch we are more familiar with today]

From 1964 through around 1969, artist Stan VanDerBeek worked with computer scientist Ken Knowlton on a series of films:

… Each film was constructed using Knowlton’s BEFLIX computer language, which was based on FORTRAN. The films were programmed on a IBM 7094 computer. The films were created in black and white, with color added later by Brown and Olvey. This particular version is taken from a film with some color decay.

VanDerBeek passed away in 1984. He is also part of the film Incredible Machine, made in 1968. VanDerBeek was part of a unique program at Bell Labs that allowed artists to work with computer scientists in order to explore and advance the technology in the fields of computer graphics and music.

Source Here

Perspective 

Experimental video game combines a first-person 3D environment to navigate a character in a 2D platformer. Video and info below:

Perspective is an experimental platformer. The player avatar moves in a 2D space that transforms when the player changes perspective in 3D space. The player needs to use this mechanic navigate the 2D avatar to a goal in order to progress from level to level. 

More about the project can be found here

Touchy 

Experimental social technology project involves helmet installed with camera, yet wearer cannot see without physical touch:

About

This project is a phenomenological social interaction experiment that focuses on the relationship of giving and receiving by literally transforming a human into a camera. Touchy, (the person wearing the device) is blind most of the time until you touch his/her skin. Once vision is given to Touchy, he/she can take photos for you. This human camera, with its unique properties, aims at healing social anxiety by creating joyful interactions.

Social Concern 

It is common for humans to be separated into social bubbles, to avoid sharing social space and to connect to strangers. However, technologies like Internet social networking or the mobile phone loosens social boundaries, hence dehumanizing physical communication. To a certain extent, it generates social anxiety such as the one experienced in the “Hikikomori” and “Otaku” cultures in Japan. Touchy criticizes this phenomenon and suggests a solution by transforming the human being into a social device: a camera. The Touchy project investigates how such a device improves social life, presupposing that a camera is a known tool for sharing memories, valuable moments, enjoyment, emotions, beauty and so forth.

Make Your Own Tape Loop 

London’s Science Museum blog has provided a guide to create looping audio with old cassette tapes, mimicking a technique used by early electronic experimental musicians such as Daphne Oram:

The Science Museum’s exhibition Oramics to Electronica: Revealing Histories of Electronic Music charts the evolution of electronic music and details the fantastic lengths that its creators often went to in order to push the boundaries of sound. In the days before synthesisers, open source software and pirated soft-synths, electronic music pioneers such as Daphne Oram had very few resources with which to forge new and exciting sounds. The use and abuse of reel to reel tape players, and the splicing of magnetic tape were soon adopted by some of music’s most adventurous minds and became a vital weapon in their war against the sonically mundane. Composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen and Terry Riley, and also the BBC Radiophonic Workshop were all keen tape splicers, stretchers and loopers.

Nowadays reel to reel tape players are hard to find and incredibly impractical to use. However, their dinky portable cousins, Walkmans, are easier to find, and cassettes are readily and cheaply available in most charity shops, as well as some cupboards, and a few trendy music stores. Cassette tapes are fairly easy to modify too, and doing so provides a fun insight into the early development of electronic music and a chance to get in touch with its roots. Making a tape loop is one of the easiest and most satisfying tape experiments that you can do, and it takes little more than a few bits of a stationery, a steady hand and half an hour of your time. The process is relatively fiddly and the results will be largely dictated by chance (exciting in itself!), but it’s all worth it for the thrill of feeling the spirit of early electronic music experimenters flowing through you. The results are somewhat unpredictable, but sometimes you stumble upon a perfect three or four second-long loop that you can listen to over and over without ever getting bored, its sound appearing change and alter over time…

You can see the whole guide here

Golan Levin Q&A - Recorded with Kinect

Programming artist Golan Levin created a video Q&A with Reddit on the subject of future technology related to experimental cinema. Interestingly, the whole response was captured with Micosoft Kinect technology, giving a Minority Report-like hologram feel, moving the data around to give alternative angles.

Here is the video, embedded below:

More background information can be found at Creative Applications

Generative Typography Experiments by Reza Ali

Using the Processing programming language, Reza has been testing code to manipulate and alter type through various means:

Over the past year I worked on several client projects and got a fulltime job (which I am no longer at), which kept me pretty busy. When I did get some time, I ended up experimenting with typography, color, simulations (particles, springs, and fluid), audio-input and simple rule based systems. These images are the results of half a year or so of coding, tinkering, tweaking, manipulating, and massaging algorithms for generative typography. Read more about these images and how these were created.After briefly experimenting with typography and dynamic systems in Nov. 2010, I started to experiment with color after being inspired by Paul Smith’s vibrant color palette. I believe in minimalism, and for a long time I used only monochromatic color palettes. I still believe in minimalism, but utilize color to make things pop and to give them a playful personality.

The full set of examples can be found at Reza’s blog here

Bronson Caves by Brice Bischoff

Experimental long-exposure photography in natural cinematic location:

Notes: A performance executed after sunset. Since early cinema, the Bronson Caves have been used as a film location, mainly appearing in science fiction and western movies.

Complete collection can be seen here

Marshal McLuhan – The Medium Is The Massage CD Re-Issue (via DJ Food)

Marshall McLuhan’s experimental LP will be released next month:

And here it is! After at least 18 months since I supplied a quote to Noah Uman for his reissue of ‘The Medium Is The Massage’ celebrating 100 years of McLuhan‘s record of the book, it finally dropped through the letterbox this morning. It’s gorgeous, full deluxe mini LP style CD sleeve, 40 pg booklet and all in the style of the original.

I’m sharing page space with some pretty esteemed commentators too: Warhol, Woody Allen, Steinski, Don Joyce, Jello Biafra, DJ Spooky… The CD is out on Five Day Weekend (who also have releases from Edan, Mr Chop and the ’80 Blocks From Tiffanys’ DVD) on December the 12th. Well worth it, a unique record, history, literature, social commentary, cut and paste and comedy all rolled into one.

More photos here