Physical Media

Just got back from a few days mixing at The Inside Track in Auckland and apart from working I had a bit of time off & enjoyed some retail therapy – physical media! Remember that? Coincidentally, or not, I also bought a copy of the latest issue of The Wire (331) and there is a great article by Amanda Brown as part of an ongoing discussion (Collateral Damage) about the impact of download culture. Unlike previous rants this one discusses the issue from a psychological and experiential point of view: “When music has been reduced to the status of junk mail, and groups’ entire discographies are skimmed and dismissed in half an hour, what depth of understanding or appreciation for these creations can we have? How do we remember what we’ve eaten if it’s been swallowed, not chewed?”

 

The vinyl I picked up below might seem a case of cause and effect, but I actually read the article on the flight home… regardless it is good food for thought. But one book at Parsons bookstore I bought is completely about physical media and experiencing it: A Touch of Code published by Gestalten is beautiful book about the intersection of science and art in the form of interactive installations.

 

 

The book is full of intriguing projects from the practical (eg a 3D touch screen i.e. that your touch can sink in to!) to the machine featured on the cover above (a drawing machine controlled by the heart rate of stationery cyclist) to the whimsical (a jellyfish theremin? a device for converting twitter feeds into birdsong? a clock that knits time?) to the almost familiar:

 

 

The hardest part of the book is that it leaves you with the intense desire to experience the projects yourself – its great that thanks to vimeo & youtube many of these projects are documented, and the index at the end of the book lists websites for every project so it is a great resource for exploring other projects by these artists, but take this example – it would be spatially amazing to hear this work:

“Nemore” is a garden, consiting of 36 bendable graphite poles. “Nemore” senses the visitor. Each pole has a behavior and reacts to it’s neighbours only: and to the visitor, of course – the visitor acts an “alien neighbour”. We are interested in the question: Does a system arise from the poles behaviour, that we (the observers and the visitor) perceive as angst, curiosity, nervousness, etc.? Each pole has a distinct sound, that builds up a chord, fluctuating in resonance with the movement of the poles.

 

As far as physical media goes I think anyone who buys vinyl has a few records in their collection they bought solely due to the cover art, which was the case with the first record below… The results of shopping at real groovy and conch – a Debussy box set for $6? Excellent!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Window seat on the flight home….
I deliberately chose which side of the plane to sit on, for the setting sun