Congress Restores Arts Funding, Drops Arts Stimulus Ban, After Public Outcry

Photo CC Brian Talbot. Here in the US, Congressional Democrats have reversed not one but both bad decisions on the role of the arts in the economic stimulus package. Provisions that would have blocked any stimulus funds from reaching arts centers, museums, and theaters have been dropped. (Golf courses and casinos are still in the […]

Cybernetics and Spare Parts: A Robotic Opera and Workshop in Ontario, Online

Before you correct me, this is actually a Commodore B128. But it’s one of the oddities you’ll see at the Personal Computer Museum. What if all the technology you loved, everything that ran on electricity, came to life and played one epic musical performance? That’s about as best as I can sum up the “Emergence” […]

Akai APC40 Will Be a Many-Buttoned Controller For More Than Ableton Live

Akai was one of the music manufacturers that stole the show at this year’s NAMM trade conference. The simple reason: the APC is a rare combination of a whole mess of colored buttons with a whole bunch of faders and knobs. Now, the APC’s big selling point is its out-of-box experience with Ableton Live. Contrary […]

Simple DIY 3D Scanning: Projector + Camera + Processing

DIY 3D Scanner from Kyle McDonald on Vimeo. Kyle McDonald sends us a hacked-together 3D scanner. I love that it’s slightly inaccurate in aesthetically-pleasing ways, I love that it’s something you can put together using stuff you already have at the ready, and I love that it’s powered by Processing. The applications could range from […]

Democrats, Republicans Join to Ban Arts Stimulus, Declare Arts Worker Jobs Not “Real”

Fore? Photo: Dan Perry. Folks, we have a lot of work ahead of us. To wrap up the thread I started, the plot in US politics, in the space of a few short weeks, has gone something like this: 1. A new Administration could bring new vision to making the arts part of the economy. […]

Handmade Motion: DIY Visuals Wanted for Brooklyn Event, Too

It’s called “Handmade Music,” but I’m hopeful CDM’s ongoing DIY party in Brooklyn will start to add more visualists. Jay Smith of Livid has made an appearance, and most recently we were able to feature the wonderful, circuit-bent Nintendo console motion art of noteNdo (Jeff Donaldson), pictured above. We have a lovely projector ready to […]

Projection Mapping Behind The Scenes: AntiVJ's Virtual 3D Painting

AntiVJ, that projection mapping luminary, has shared some behind the scenes video of a live painting and projection mapping performance in December 2008. AntiVJ – Live Painting: Shackleton from AntiVJ on Vimeo. It’s fantastic to see this kind of process stuff, and a beautiful reminder that projection mapping doesn’t need to be paired with 3D […]

Guest Blog: Digital, Artists, Labels and the Crisis of Plumeting Expectations

Enough of the empty cheerleading. Web-only networking can have a dark side, too — and the music community can do better. Playing devil’s advocate this week to one-dimensional Web 2.0 optimism, we welcome Dave Dri, musician, producer, and founder of Segue. -PK I write a column for a weekly street press magazine in Australia. The […]

Handmade Music 2/19: Grooving Electric Junkyard Gamelan, Call for Works

Nothing digital here, but for any fans of sound exploration, there’s still plenty to inspire, regardless of the level of tech you’re using. It’s time again for Handmade Music, the party – musical performance – science fair geek-out for musicians and the musi-curious. We’ve got an amazing lineup this month if you happen to be […]

Streaming Tomorrow: Sampology AV Turntablist Set Live in Herovision

This time tomorrow (6PM AEST, 8AM GMT, 3AM New York), I’ll be streaming live with AV turntablist Sampology from the Game Over party at the State Library of Queensland. Following on from our previous Game On Set. Sam will be kitted out with Serato’s Video-SL (review on CDMo), and I’ll be bringing a brace of […]