Brian Eno once famously remarked that the problem with computers is that there isn't enough Africa in them. I kind of think that its the opposite: they're bringing the ideals of Africa: after all, computers are about connectivity, shareware, a sense of global discussion about topics and issues, the relentless density of info overload, and above all the willingness to engage and discuss it all - that's something you could find on any street corner in Africa.
I just wanted to highlight the point: Digital Africa is here, and has been here for a while. This isn't "retro" - it's about the future.
Noteworthy says: There's some great stuff at around 57:00, in conjunction with Duke Ellington's "Afro-Euraasian Eclipse". I first heard these samples on DJ/rupture's album, Minesweeper Suite, which I've been meaning to recommend for a while now. From the emusic review:
Barcelona-based DJ/rupture shows off his formidable turntable skills (and frighteningly deep record collection) with a three-deck mix that spans dancehall reggae, Middle Eastern drumming, underground London breakcore and Hot 97-ready a cappellas. ... /rupture's knack for drilling holes through genres (mashing up Aaliyah's "Resolution" with apocalyptic drum 'n' bass, screwing hip-hop into psychedelic glitch-folk) threads a groove that could spin any pair of hips out onto the dancefloor. The form (beat-oriented fusion) and the content (any sound you can imagine, never deracinated but instead radically re-contextualized) make the perfect icebreaker to get trainspotters talking politics, and vice versa.
Conceived by Brian Eno as "visual music", his latest artwork, 77 Million Paintings is a constantly evolving sound and imagescape which continues his exploration into light as an artist's medium and the aesthetic possibilities of "generative software".
Its a DVD and the idea is you could leave it running on a flat panel all the time like a screen saver.
More free music, all sourced from the same 5 samples. Includes a new Logickal track.
"And upon the pages were the most infernal of diagrams; my mind reeled as I traced the signal paths - slowly at first, but with developing fervor as comprehension dawned upon me. There was only one thing that these phantasmagoric blueprints could describe, only one possible device with this pentagonal symmetry. I hoped it was not too late..."
It’s official - the first single by Logickal is hitting the streets on dPulse! It’s slowly creeping out to thee Internets by way of some of your favorite download services, with more to come in the next few days.
Big thanks go to the remixers - BlueDeceiver and Maurice Syntax provided their own personal interpretations of the title track, which is in some ways an homage to some of the sounds of my heroes - take 2 parts SP/Doubting Thomas/Download and mix with mid-period Coil and blend with some old-fashioned Logickal layering. Both remixes add take the formula and discard it completely, which is exactly what I was hoping for. Speaking of remixes, we decided to feature Randy Garcia’s Polar Attractor remix from Krushjob on this single, so big thanks to him for the stellar track as well.
I should also note here that Sugarknife features the sugary voice of Angelique Fisher, the knife-edged tones of John Sharp and the wonderful contact-mic’ed skulduggery of Mr. Natural on the sugar bowl and chef’s blade. Hints may also be heard of young Master Ryne lurking about in there somewhere as well. Thank you, my wonderful friends and collaborators.
Rounding out this single release are new improvisations called Students Fear The Three Cs (the stylistic partner to Krushjob’s Feels Atomic which is also included here) and the soothing Lullabye 43. I do hope you all enjoy - I have included a player from last.fm here for your listening pleasure, but please don’t forget about the download links below. If your favorite service isn’t yet listed (and I can think of a certain largeish service that is so far conspicuous by its absence), do not despair - I have been assured that they will be available shortly!
Pollock's Fractals | Physics & Math | DISCOVER Magazine
Topic: Arts
10:18 am EDT, Apr 23, 2007
In 1949, when Life magazine asked if Jackson Pollock was "the greatest living painter in the United States," the resulting outcry voiced nearly half a century of popular frustration with abstract art. Some said their splatter boards were better than Pollock's work. Others said that a trained chimpanzee could do just as well. A Pollock painting, one critic complained, is like "a mop of tangled hair I have an irresistible urge to comb out."
Yet Pollock's reputation has outlived his detractors. A retrospective of his work several years ago at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City drew lines around the block, and an award-winning film of his life and art was released at the end of 2000. Apparently "Jack the Dripper" captured some aesthetic dimension—some abiding logic in human perception—beyond the scope of his critics. That logic, says physicist and art historian Richard Taylor, lies not in art but in mathematics—specifically, in chaos theory and its offspring, fractal geometry.
Kurt Vonnegut, the satirical novelist who captured the absurdity of war and questioned the advances of science in darkly humorous works such as "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Cat's Cradle," died Wednesday. He was 84.
A good idea that doesn't happen is no idea at all. -- Louis Kahn
This quote is relayed by Richard Saul Wurman in My Architect [2]. I enjoyed the film and would recommend it to those with an interest, but some architects seemed to want less personal journey and more architectural analysis.
Louis Kahn said to me shortly before he died that an idea that does not happen is no idea at all. Late in his life, Mies van der Rohe told a student interviewing him about his work that the secret to his success was to "do good work."
Nathaniel Kahn: I think you've built way more ... you've had way more success ... rate, in terms of your buildings that you --
I.M. Pei: [sighs] Oh, building doesn't mean success. Building ... three or four masterpieces [is] more important than fifty or sixty buildings. ... Quality, not quantity.
