Since October 2011, myself and four other artists have been taking part in a London based collaborative art project called 'Collective Exchange'. Working with University of the Arts London and national homeless charity Crisis Skylight, we have been given an opportunity to develop our critical thinking and artistic practice through the process of researching and developing new artwork.
The results of this collaboration form the Collective Exchange Exhibition which goes on view in the entrance gallery at Central Saint Martins Back Hill Site from Friday 10-17 February, 2012 during normal daytime opening hours.
The Preview and Artists’ Talks will be held on Thursday 9 February 6-8pm and admission is free on all days.
The full address is: Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London, 10 Back Hill, London EC1R 5LQ.
Visualizing Ambiguity in Architecture
My contribution is photographic and explores themes of ambiguity in architecture. Most of the digital images combine long exposure times with compound camera movements to generate new forms, colours, and textures. Here are 10 of the 26 images I have on display as prints and digital media. There's further information about the images on my Behance Project Page
‘Collective Exchange’ refers to the conversations between the artists and tutors over the past few months that have inspired new ideas and helped their work to evolve. The artists are:
I've created a Slidestaxx presentation for information about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the US. Focusing on the current debate, opposing arguments, security and technical concerns, the package offers a resource toolkit for anyone interested in learning about the issues involved. Featuring content from prominent commentators, online awareness campaigns and a range of Internet protest tools. Links to both Acts are included.
Last week I was invited to Ogilvy's music and brands event ‘Lab Day Live’. I outlined the event in my previous post and here I'd like to mention a little about the success of the day and my observations.
Taking place in Ogilvy's Canary Wharf offices in the heart of London's banking and media district, the scene was set in an area symbolic of regeneration and financial strength. Private music festivals are rare in this part of town.
For most musicians trying to scrape a living from the troubled music business, the invitation to arrive for work at 9.00am to the grand entrance of a Canary Wharf establishment, must have seemed about as far removed from reality as it gets. Of course musicians are used to playing in wildly exotic locations, quite often removed from reality, so this was not about to faze the Lab Day performers.
Subjectively the experience was slightly surreal and possibly what a lucid dream episode of Mad Men might feel like. Imagine 15 bands turning up to play loud sets of music on stages in open plan offices, full of Ogilvy employees, perched merrily if not bemusedly in front of their large Mac monitors.
Add to this hundreds of guests wandering from office to office, audio visual crews and equipment, food, drink, live Internet streaming, a cast of 30 music business exhibitors scattered at various locations, and you get the big picture. This took some planning and from my point of view as a guest it all appeared to run pretty smoothly. Although I hear neighbours Barclays bank complained about the noise.That’s impressive!
No doubt the uniqueness of the experience was carefully factored into Ogilvy's planning. The flair of the team to initiate such an occasion shows serious commitment to their vision of connecting brands with music. As the David Ogilvy quote high on one of the lobby walls states boldly:
"Look for people who aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine"
The Morning Talks
The first half of the day was devoted to a series of talks from a range of music industry figures. The 9th floor conference room with it's lofty views over the East End, carpeted in the agency's signature colour red, soon became full and there was a buzz of anticipation in the air.
Apart from a few of the long-time music biz professionals I had no idea who all these people were. The multitasking couple sitting next to me were constantly thumbing their respective smartphones and many were vocal in their contributions during moments of audience participation. The talks moved swiftly with panels and individual speakers stating their case for why music is important to brands in the digital age. The audience seemed keen to absorb what was on offer and the speakers were received appreciatively.
Here are some of the key issues that were expanded upon with links to further information. I've grouped the 'messages' under general headings and the order in which they are listed flows chronologically to give some sense of timing. A complete list of speakers is available at the Lab Day LIVE website.
For a visual representation of the key points take a look at David Coxon's infographic: Lab Day Live visualized
Immersive soundscaping can be used to change crowd behaviour
SoundCloud becoming more engaged with artist enterprise
Art concepts can be used on products
Artists still need support like record labels used to
For more on immersive soundscaping and sound design see IllustriousRecord Labels
Music Industry asks brands: Embrace us
Music industry has changed beyond all recognition
WMG are focused on developing serious artists careers, long term
Synchronisation is growing, labels and publishers have put in a lot of energy
WMG want to integrate brands into the music industry, looking for partners
Music rights difficult to navigate, previous price points were incorrect
Creative process can be supplied by labels working directly with agencies at the creative level
Social Music Apps
Spotify says you need two things a)The Content (millions of songs) b) Good user experience (i.e. Apple)
Brands/music needs to be everywhere in order to be relevant to consumers (portable devices, appliances, cars, etc)
You have to be better than piracy, hence freemium model
You can only make music social if you have a free tier
Pinpoint music for campaigns based on demographics
Analyze from top down; Social engagement to personal engagement
3 methods: Crowdsourcing individual reviews, surveying social interactions, identifying and testing top genres
Track highest volume of conversation
Socialization more important in Germany, hence digital landscape important to understand
Electronic music interaction is high in Germany
Search engines required to find and license music
Use systems to find out what resonates most
See Libspotify for information about Spotify’s API for third party developers, an example of a ubiquitous, freemium, social music application.Sound Branding
Consensual contracts: Brands beware of jumping ship from one creator to another, the music business can track you
Minimum cost of copyright infringement £50,000 (cost of license)
You need a consistent branding strategy that enables consumer understanding when you bend the rules
Understand the context and how music is used in different ways from say, apps to live events
The brevity of a sonic signature is crucial e.g. at the top of an ad before people decide to skip
Brand and sound ‘fit’ is vital
When music ‘fits’, brand propensity to buy goes up by around 25%
Music in ads can change people’s purchasing behaviour e.g. from French wine to German Wine
It takes about 2 years for the brand sound to be understood by the consumer
In 5 years time sound will be recognised as a major part of the marketing investment
Firstly this was a direct plea from the music industry for brands to: "Embrace us" and to "consider us in your marketing plans".
Economically this makes sense in the light of data from a recent PRS for Music press release:
Total business-to-business licensing revenues from PRS for Music, PPL and activities such as sync licensing and artist endorsement grew 2.2%
Advertising and sponsorship (including live music sponsorship, event creation, artist endorsement, digital, TV and advertising support) grew 4.2% on 2009 to £94m
Clearly B2B and licensing revenues are key growth areas. This includes music in computer games, films and TV.
However with brands creating their own digital content the boundaries between brand, record label and publisher are becoming blurred, effectively a brand could be all three. The same applies to games developers. The music industry recognizes this and is inviting brands to partner with music companies that can offer specialised creative services and resources.
Key to this strategy is metrics. Advertisers need to pinpoint their target audience and measure the market potential. Until now music has always been a last minute add-on for advertisers, frequently decided upon just days before project completion. Now with the development of Internet music apps and digitized services, music companies can provide valuable data that previously was missing. It's now possible to target the right song for the right demographics. This is a potential game changer.
But still it's a complicated scenario and much work will need to be done to make these 'partnerships' realistic. Lets remember artists, writers, management, record labels, and publishers will all have their views on working with brands.
Essentially the music industry is diversifying as conventional revenue streams are falling. It's interesting to note the mention of other big areas of revenue such as tourism, considering we're at the end of the festival 'season', now expanded from May to October, and festivals show large growth throughout Europe. Again brands figure strongly in live events. The Music
(my life as a lab rat for the day)My analogy of a lab rat is apt. During the course of the afternoon I found myself scuttling the Ogilvy warren, in pursuit of the next fix to be found on one of the three stages located in different parts of the building. Given the circumstances, some of the musicians may have felt apprehensive, however on the day all nine of the acts I saw performed well and appeared to enjoy it. These were showcase performances lasting around 30 minutes each. Some of the bands like Wolf Gang rearranged their sets to accommodate the venue, providing a more 'acoustic' style of performance.
There was a special intimacy between the artists and audience intensified by the working environment. It’s easy to become a fan when you feel a direct connection to music in this way and I can honestly say I enjoyed every performance. It was a great opportunity to discover new music up close and in the flesh.
Listen There are some live audio recordings over at Felt Music on Awdio from acts Digitonal, Kidda, and Wolf Gang. You can also check out the video wall to see what some of the artists had to say about Lab Day. During performances the live stream received 15,000 hits from 86 countries. Live video footage of artists taken from all three stages is available to stream via the Lab Day website (link at top of post).
And Finally Shortly after watching the final band of the day Tribes, who were great, it was time to leave. In the lift on my way down to earth I had a few moments to reflect on a quite other-worldly experience. On my way I bumped into some of the guys from Boy Mandeville and Digitonal before saying my farewells and venturing into the drizzly world outside. Ah, another day at the office. Canary Wharf won't feel the same for me, for a while, I think.
My thanks to the Ogilvy team for a special and enlightening day!
International advertising and marketing agency Ogilvy Group UK are staging a one-day event called Lab Day LIVE designed to engage both the advertising and music communities. On the 9th September Ogilvy's offices in London's Canary Wharf will play host to a music industry conference and live music festival.
It promises to be an informative and entertaining occasion focusing on the latest digital media opportunities mutually available to brands and the music business. The morning conference panels and talks will feature key figures from Last.fm. Spotify, PRS and other leading music organizations (List of speakers). During the afternoon live music performances from name and up-coming acts will take place across three stages (see below).
Entitled: Making music matter as much to brands as it does to consumers
The event is part of Ogilvy’s on-going drive to help clients and their brands navigate the rapidly changing landscape of the music industry in the digital age.
In this video clip Lab Day organizer Tara Austin talks about her role in making music a more central part of the creative process at Ogilvy. To see what other members of the team are saying take a look at the Video Wall.
The Rules of Engagement
Ogilvy are looking to the music industry for innovative ideas on how brands can use music to to build engagement with their audience. Earlier in the year, at MIDEM 2011, they made a stirring appeal for music publishers to "‘look beyond the cheque' and contribute more than just a piece of audio to an advertising campaign" emphasising Ogilvy's vision to "create added value: value for our brands and, ultimately, value for the artist whose music our campaigns promote".
I'll be attending the event and listening closely to what's being said about sonic branding and new ideas for using music to create a 'brand sound'. I'm also looking forward to learning more about the power of sound and music when applied to areas such as 'retail soundscapes' and how we can be informed by hard data.
As a long-time advocate of Open Media licensing tools, when and where appropriate, I'll be hoping to see more open and collaborative business frameworks designed to minimize the friction permeating traditional licensing models. Many Internet audio and video platforms have already successfully integrated Creative Commons licensing making it easy for people to share, remix and reuse media legally, notably SoundCloud and YouTube (list of corporate support).
Creative Commons has always been about promoting creativity and the power of openness to build communities based on shared ideas. Unfortunately the established licensing system, especially with regards to CC licenses in Europe, makes widespread media sharing difficult, thereby blocking the most valuable thing which is attention. Hopefully the wider debate around open and closed systems will eventually lead to innovation that fosters audience attention, participation, and better user experiences in the digital music space.
Event Info & Live Stream
Website
Full details and live streaming of acts from the 3 music stages on the day can be found at http://www.labdaylive.co.uk/
Twitter
You can follow updates using the hashtag #labdaylive plus there's further tweet analysis, tracking and visualization via my channel at The Archivist
Clem Leek is a musician, composer and sound artist based in the UK. He creates modern classical ambient music which has been released on several independent labels.
Clem's works are subtle and dreamlike, using pianos, guitars, ethereal pads, field recordings, and other solo instruments. His SoundCloud stream features beautifully balanced compositions that perfectly compliment those special moments of solitude and creative isolation. These tracks will take you to a calm place and leave you floating in suspended animation.
You can discover more about Clem and his music via MySpace and Twitter
A haunting composition played to perfection by Italian artist Sergio Altamura, guitar and loop machine. From his first solo album "Blu" produced by William Ackerman in 2004, available at http://www.candyrat.com
Fans of solo guitar music can listen to more gems like this via the CandyRat YouTube Channel and there's a selection of favourite Solo Acoustic Instrumental Videos on this PLAYLIST
"Passenger" is a 28 minute audiovisual work created by musician Julien Mier and VJ Daan Kars. Featuring vocals by Zefora, with violin and contrabass recordings by Myrthe van de Weetering (see website for links to all artists).
Passenger tells the story of the liquid matter transforming into the physical in which humanity is able to manifest itself. As time passes by the physical is bound to disintegrate. We are all passengers in time.
The piece glides seamlessly through nine compositions starting gently and progressing rhythmically as scenes shift between organic natural environments and man-made ones. The effect is to transport you as a passenger through discreet moments of natural calm and bursts of urban motion. Shimmering windows of fragmented worldly images slide across the surface of a constantly reconstructing musical undercurrent. The fluid themes, punctuated by electronic pulses and pauses, form into recognisable patterns and momentary pools of clarity, that are quickly carried away again in the creative stream.
This is the first release on the new Born Digital netlabel, which is part of the Born Digital electronic art assembly and production house based in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Complete free download available from the Internet Archive under CC license.
Shuush is a web-based Twitter client that allows you to focus attention on the people that tweet less frequently.
Twitter users are assigned a frequency level of 1-11, calculated as a function of how many tweets per day each user has averaged since joining.
A simple on/off switch allows you to flip between normal and amplified views, the latter giving a visual boost in text size to those infrequent but valuable tweets that often get lost in the firehose. The updates of less active tweeters are scaled up whilst more active tweeters arescaled down, making it easy to retrospectively scan the tweetstream of people you are following for those rarer communications.
This is a really useful tool, for dialling down the level of frequent updates and surfacing the missed messages, to achieve the balance that Twitter currently lacks. It would be great to have a way of doing this with hashtags too.
The sole purpose of this project/organization will be to raise money through various programs for groups and individuals in need of aid (financial or otherwise)... Our first fundraising campaign is called MUSIC AGAINST HUNGER, with the goal of raising $10,000 through various music events and projects.
For ways to participate and learn more please read.
'Upular' - a new mashup track from Australian electronic music artist Pogo, composed using chords, bass notes and vocal samples from the Disney Pixar film 'Up'. More Pogo video tracks via http://www.youtube.com/user/Fagottron
This 'Split LP' is a five track, instrumental post-rock release from Australian bands Sleepmakeswaves (Sydney) and Tangled Thoughts of Leaving (Perth).
'Keep Your Splendid Silent Sun' 06:19 - Sleepmakeswaves
'We Sing The Body Electric' 05:23 - Sleepmakeswaves
'This Is How We Remember (Secret Robot)' 06:49 - Sleepmakeswaves
'A Vexing Predicament' 03:22 - Tangled Thoughts of Leaving
'The World Is A Deaf Machine' 15:13 - Tangled Thoughts of Leaving
Although both bands are musically quite different the respective recordings are nicely balanced and complementary. Each offering anthemic and emotive excursions into experimental rock landscapes, with gutsy guitars churning out crunching metal mantras over driving drum and bass rhythms. Epic themes are entwined with more delicate piano and guitar melodies, ranging through ethereal ambient spaces, jazz inspired improvisations and dynamic freeform passages exploding with tribal energies. The track titles are interesting and evocative too.
The album is a teaser for each bands' earlier works and upcoming 2010 full length releases, below are links to their websites and social networks where you'll find gigs and lots of great music to explore:
Tweet Cloud is an online service that lets you generate a customizable word cloud from your tweet archive. Log in using your Twitter account to create and save multiple word clouds at an address like http://tweetcloud.icodeforlove.com/DavidHolmes - Clicking the image above will take you to the saved cloud page. Each page has a date stamp at the time of creation.
You can also view clouds by people you follow that also use Tweet Cloud, via the Friends link once logged in (top right). Recently created Tweet Clouds are shown on the homepage, which is useful for discovering people with similar interests.
Note that upon generation a tweet is automatically posted in your tweetstream along the lines of: " I just generated my #TweetCloud out of a year of my tweets - http://w33.us/1ta" or whatever the period it is you choose ie. a day, a week, a month, 3 months, 6 months, a year. You're also given a choice of small, medium, large or HUGE cloud sizes.
The official video for "Wiinter Winds" the new single by London folk quartet Mumford & Sons, from their debut album "Sigh No More" released on 5th October 2009 (iTunes album downloads)
"Sycamore Cowboys" - a mashup by Colatron for the Mashed in Plastic project. Merging Little Jimmy Scott: "Sycamore Trees" (from the Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me soundtrack) and Portishead: "Cowboys"
There's a raw and live sound to these tracks that makes you feel like you're in the same room as the band, sharing something honest and real. You can see how this fast recording method works via their YouTube Channel.
Band member Rich Huxley shares his insights on what true independence can do for a band's career in a recent post on the Creative Deconstruction website titled The Declarations of Independents. The article provides information about the social strategies, ideas and tools used by the band to connect with fans, both online and off.
FeedUps is an online feed aggregator for news about Web 2.0 tools and services. It provides a one-stop resource for quickly scanning 18 popular sites focusing on Web startups and applications.
Inspired by a photograph of birds perched on the wires of a street light, journalist and musician Jarbas Agnelli decided to write a song using the relative proximity of the birds as notes on a stave. "Birds on the Wires" is his musical interpretation of the picture. He says "Inspiration can come from anywhere, but we must be alert". You can follow Jarbas at http://twitter.com/jarbas_agnelli
The video has received widespread attention, appearing on popular websites like Laughing Squid, Wired, and Gizmodo. Jarbas's friend, Sean Crownover (Candlegravity) from Tokyo, has also posted a version on his FaceBook page (player bottom left).
"...recombinancy appears everywhere as a natural evolutionary and creative process. All the great books in the English language, for example, are constructed from recombinations of the twenty-six letters of the alphabet. Similarly, most of the great works of Western art music exist as recombinations of the twelve pitches of the equal-tempered scale and their octave equivalents. The secret lies not in the invention of new letters or notes but in the subtlety and elegance of their recombination."
These "hidden structures" are present all around us, at the very core of sound creation in the natural world. For more on exploring the hidden data in nature see Evan Grant: Making sound visible through cymatics (YouTube video)
An online CO2 converter built by David Kjelkerud, Henrik Berggren and Jorge Zapico at Ecomo09, an environmental hacking day in London. It is designed to help you more easily understand what a kilogram of CO2 really means.
You can convert CO2 amounts to other units such as bottles of beer or compare different emissions for instance how many apples are equivalent to a litre of milk. The data used is mostly localized to Sweden.
David and Henrick also built http://citysounds.fm/ the web app that lets you listen to the latest music from cities around the world.
Swedish folk/indie duo First Aid Kit release their new songs "Hard Believer" and "Waltz for Richard" on October 5th via http://www.wichita-recordings.com/ - If you like the song above you can vote for it to appear on the official BBC 6 Music Playlist through Steve Lamacq's Rebel Playlist, the vote closes at midnight on Sunday 6th.
Sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg come from Enskede near Stockholm. They have a loyal following of fans built through their personalised and direct style of social media marketing. An example is their use of Twitter to invite cover song requests which they publish online as video performances (First Aid Kit Sessions). The request form is at http://thisisfirstaidkit.com/your-requests/ the tweetstream is http://twitter.com/faksessions and the videos are shared via http://www.youtube.com/jagadambarecords
In fact it was their video cover of the Fleet Foxes "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song" that attracted worldwide attention in 2008 (currently at 790,987 views).
The girls will be touring the UK with Fanfarlo during September/October. You can get tour details and purchase tickets via their website or Music Glue (includes exclusive free tracks). They have also announced tour dates for The United States of America in October, see their MySpace for further info.
PressPausePlay (by House of Radon)
“A Film about Hope, Fear and Digital Culture - Does democratized culture mean better art or is true talent instead drowned out?” @presspauseplay
http://www.presspauseplay.com/
For behind the scenes info on the making of the film read: A Democratized Culture - http://mashedmusings.tumblr.com/post...
NetCoalition represents leading global Internet and technology companies, including Google, Yahoo!, Amazon.com, eBay, IAC, Bloomberg LP, Expedia and Wikipedia, providing a platform from which members can engage legislators, through active dialogue, on public policy that raises important and fundamental issues involving NetCoalition’s primary agenda. - David Holmes
Information about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the US. Focusing on the current debate, opposing argument, security and technical concerns. Featuring content from prominent commentators, online awareness campaigns and a range of Internet protest tools. Links to both Acts are included. - David Holmes
Information about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the US. Focusing on the current debate, opposing argument, security and technical concerns. Featuring content from prominent commentators, online awareness campaigns and a range of Internet protest tools. Links to both Acts are included.
International advertising and marketing agency Ogilvy Group UK are staging a one-day event called Lab Day LIVE designed to engage both the advertising and music communities. On the 9th September Ogilvy's offices in London's Canary Wharf will play host to a music industry conference and live music festival.
It promises to be an informative and entertaining occasion focusing on the latest digital media opportunities mutually available to brands and the music business. The morning conference panels and talks will feature key figures from Last.fm. Spotify, PRS and other leading music organizations (List of speakers). During the afternoon live music performances from name and up-coming acts will take place across three stages (see below).
Entitled: Making music matter as much to brands as it does to consumers
The event is part of Ogilvy’s on-going drive to help clients and their brands navigate the rapidly changing landscape of the music industry in the digital age.
In this video clip Lab Day organizer Tara Austin talks about her role in making music a more central part of the creative process at Ogilvy. To see what other members of the team are saying take a look at the Video Wall.
The Rules of Engagement
Ogilvy are looking to the music industry for innovative ideas on how brands can use music to to build engagement with their audience. Earlier in the year, at MIDEM 2011, they made a stirring appeal for music publishers to "‘look beyond the cheque' and contribute more than just a piece of audio to an advertising campaign" emphasising Ogilvy's vision to "create added value: value for our brands and, ultimately, value for the artist whose music our campaigns promote".
I'll be attending the event and listening closely to what's being said about sonic branding and new ideas for using music to create a 'brand sound'. I'm also looking forward to learning more about the power of sound and music when applied to areas such as 'retail soundscapes' and how we can be informed by hard data.
As a long-time advocate of Open Media licensing tools, when and where appropriate, I'll be hoping to see more open and collaborative business frameworks designed to minimize the friction permeating traditional licensing models. Many Internet audio and video platforms have already successfully integrated Creative Commons licensing making it easy for people to share, remix and reuse media legally, notably SoundCloud and YouTube (list of corporate support).
Creative Commons has always been about promoting creativity and the power of openness to build communities based on shared ideas. Unfortunately the established licensing system, especially with regards to CC licenses in Europe, makes widespread media sharing difficult, thereby blocking the most valuable thing which is attention. Hopefully the wider debate around open and closed systems will eventually lead to innovation that fosters audience attention, participation, and better user experiences in the digital music space.
Event Info & Live Stream
Website
Full details and live streaming of acts from the 3 music stages on the day can be found at http://www.labdaylive.co.uk/
Twitter
You can follow updates using the hashtag #labdaylive plus there's further tweet analysis, tracking and visualization via my channel at The Archivist
'Upular' - a new mashup track from Australian electronic music artist Pogo, composed using chords, bass notes and vocal samples from the Disney Pixar film 'Up'. More Pogo video tracks via http://www.youtube.com/user/Fagottron
Following the Sony copyright problems associated with his earlier track 'Bangarang' (see previous post), I notice Pogo has included Disney Pixar credits at the end of the video. Considering the Blogger platform now supports direct integration with Amazon Associates, mashups like this can be a powerful promotional tool for all content creators (see below).
Australian electronic music artist Pogo has started a blog at http://pogotracks.blogspot.com/ currently featuring an FAQ and a list of interviews. His unique sound comes from the sampling, sequencing and reimagining of popular childhood movies. Tracks are constructed using sounds lifted from movie scenes (sometimes entirely), drums, bass and percussion.
Melodies are formed using cut-up dialogues in a non-lexical vocal style; "There are no definitive lyrics to my tracks because I have never intended to form sentences with the samples I use." The music is then synced to video cuts from the original movie to create a new mini-trailer.
Pogo has a growing fan-base on YouTube where fresh uploads and the viral potential of video widgets quickly attract thousands of visitors. Creations such as Expialidocious have now reached far in excess of half a million views. You can browse the growing collection of mashups at http://www.youtube.com/user/Fagottron
Below is the recent video for his track 'Bangarang' composed of sounds from the classic Spielberg film 'Hook'
Today, Sony Pictures Entertainment claimed that 'Bangarang' is an infringement of copyright, and the video has been removed from YouTube. I suppose this had to happen eventually given the kind of world we live in. (September 10th 2009).
Unfortunately this is a common experience for remixers of controlled media, such are the constraints of heavily restricted copyrights. However you can still play and download the full track here (while it lasts!)
Mosaik is the electronic music project of Stockholm based musician Jakob Svanholm. The Apologies EP features 7 instrumental tracks that combine melodic bass and synth sequences with delicate percussive rhythms. The sonic spaces are subtle and calming, with centered tonal themes, repeating motifs and ambient textures that conjure the emotions and imagination.
Tracer is a free online tool that tracks where your website content is reused and inserts an attribution link back to the original published source. It also provides analytics to help you understand and measure user engagement. You simply add a line of java script to your blog or website and whenever someone pastes your work to another webpage, Tracer automatically generates a return link including Creative Commons license details if applicable (full instructions are given).
The following paragraph has been copied and pasted, showing the automatic attribution link at the bottom of the quote,
What does Tracer do?
Download Information Sheet
Tracer tracks when users copy content from your web site and automatically adds a link back to the original page when your content is pasted. So, why do you need Tracer?
Tracer is easy to implement and offers a convenient way to track user interaction and generate site traffic. Supports Blogger/Blogspot, Ning, Register.com, Typepad, WebsiteWorks.com, WordPress.
The second full-length album from the Canadian folk duo, released under a Creative Commons-License. Album artwork by Norbert Reissig. Available in MP3, OGG and CD formats from http://aaahh-records.net/the-wind-whistles/
A useful collection of Inspiring Youtube videos to use in the classroom. Recommended by teachers from all over the world, the presentation features lots of engaging ideas to stimulate discussion, learning and self-improvement. Here's the full screen Google Docs page.
"Why let all of your ideas die with you? Current Copyright law prevents anyone from building upon your creativity for 70 years after your death. Live on in collaboration with others. Make an intellectual property donation. By donating your IP into the public domain you will "promote the progress of science and useful arts" (U.S. Constitution). Ensure that your creativity will live on after you are gone, make a donation today."
Promiscuous Songs - American writer Jonathan Lethem, best known for his novels, short stories, and essays, freely gives his collection of song lyrics and lyrical fragments to songwriters, musicians, and bands for use in new creations. Selected sound files of completed songs are available for listening via the site with attribution to the writers and performers.
This is part of the The Promiscuous Materials Project where Jonathan also offers stories for filmmakers or dramatists to adapt, priced at a dollar apiece. The works are available non-exclusively, so other people can use the same material, for short films (30 mins) or one-act plays (45 mins) only. For the stories some rights are restricted and the materials may not be republished in text form on websites or books etc.
The OpenWater project was a group project for an Instructional Technology class at Utah State University.
About 75% of the material used in OpenWater is remixed or used from other sources licensed under public domain or creative commons. The remaining 25% is original footage that was shot by the OpenWater team.
The soundtrack is supplied by Magnatune artists and the video is licensed under Creative Commons.
You can buy the ALTERNATIVE FREEDOM DVD/SOUNDTRACK COMBO (2 DISCS) for $12 knowing that $1 of your purchase goes to EFF, a donor-funded nonprofit organization that depends on your support to continue successfully defending your digital rights.
The Alternative Freedom soundtrack features over 52 minutes of full length songs from:
TagCrowd is a web-application that allows you to enter any text and generate a tag cloud to visualize word frequency. These visualizations can be revelatory due to spontaneous perceptions triggered by displayed patterns in the tag cloud, such as word proximity and weight. Interesting and meaningful connections between keywords emerge including meme-like phrases, concepts and new sentence fragments.
Here's a hybrid cloud made from combining the two original political lists to create a Slantscape mashup. In all cases the clouds have been restricted to display a maximum of fifty keywords and the last cloud shows a frequency count for each word.
As a tool for working with language the creative possibilities are fascinating. TagCrowd can be applied to a multitude of artistic and interperative situations including blogging, songwriting, sloganeering, poetry, hyper linking etc, and the range of input material is obviously limitless from recipes to religion. More language tools and toys can be found on the REPROMAN sidebar.
ThePowerOfWords - A text analysis of political discourse during times of crisis.
US Presidential Speeches Tag Cloud - Shows the popularity, frequency, and trends in the usages of words within speeches, official documents, declarations, and letters written by the Presidents of the US between 1776 - 2006 AD.
Lasse Gjertsen uses video editing techniques akin to music sampling to create new digital media compositions. In the video below called Amateur he creates a cut-up illusion of himself jamming on drums and piano. In another video he makes an appearance as a human beatbox.
Lasse also creates animations and a good introduction to his creative influences can be found in Jeg går en Tur - A self portrait that you can watch below: In animation, EVERYTHING is possible!
The reactable, is a multi-user electronic music instrument with a tabletop tangible user interface. Several simultaneous performers share complete control over the instrument by moving physical objects on a luminous table surface. By moving and relating these objects, representing components of a classic modular synthesizer, users can create complex and dynamic sonic topologies, with generators, filters and modulators, in a kind of tangible modular synthesizer or graspable flow-controlled programming language.
This instrument is being developed by a team of digital luthiers (Sergi Jordà, Martin Kaltenbrunner, Günter Geiger and Marcos Alonso), at the Music Technology Group within the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain.
The WGBH Lab is an online destination and initiative designed to help independent media makers. Selected video clips from the WGBH Media Library are being cleared for copyright and made available for people to cut, loop and mashup via the Lab Sandbox.
These four time-lapse videos show human evolutionary processes and cosmetic transformations over varying periods of time. These type of clips became significantly popular via YouTube and other new media outlets during the latter part of 2006.
I have posted the clips here in order of appearance on YouTube, over the 3 months of August, September and October (dates may be innacurate). Each successive video was compiled over a longer period of time apart from the final clip which was shot relatively quickly and digitally manipulated later.
For the first two videos shown below, the viewing figures quickly reached into the millions each and the level of interest was high across many important forms of media dissemination including blogs, social networks and mass media news outlets.
The clips continue to capture the imaginations of millions and it seems fitting to profile the trend in a single post. There's obviously a powerful fascination with the aging process and the technique of projecting these visions of accumulative degenerative processes over time. The fourth clip, possibly influenced by the success of the earlier videos, shows the power of cosmetic / technological practices to promote an image of desirability, albeit dependent on particular cultural perspectives and identification. Click through to the YouTube sources to get further details and comments.
Me: Girl takes pic of herself every day for three years
Noah takes a photo of himself every day for 6 years
Living My Life Faster - 8 years of JK's Daily Photo Project
Students learn the art of Furby reprogramming in a circuit bending workshop with Ben Goldstone. Below, an adept demonstrates the fruits of circuit bending knowledge as applied to a Kawasaki toy guitar.
cicuit bent "Double Neck" kawasaki toy guitar
Kawasaki motorcycle company licensed DSI Toys to use their name on a line of musical products. Unfortunately it's difficult to find online info about these particular electronic toys. If your interested in circuit bending and modifications to electronic sound toys here are some links worth exploring:
Metalriffs.com Guitar Toy Museum - a small picture gallery of electronic guitar toys. Miniorgan.com - a private collection of rare small music keyboards and vintage musical electronic toys. WarrantyVoid - the electronic sound toy and keyboard modification site. Wikipedia Circuit bending - provides info and links to other websites.
If you're looking for online virtual sound toys and interactive music guides see the Museum of Sound Toys.
This work by artist David Ellis combines the body of a double bass with modern day audio hardware and electronics.
SKDubs gold (double bass boombox fiddle)
36 x 50 1/2 x 17"
Medium-modified double bass fiddle, spraypaint, casters, oak, plywood, metal, iPod, two tube pre-amps, B and C mids and tweeters, Electro-voice woofers, JVC tweeters, Crown XLS 602 Poweramp, and Behringer equalizer - 2005.
Via Hulger.org where you can find lots more interesting and arty contemporary designs.
The Double Bass
Along with classical music, the double bass has found its place in genres such as the blues, bluegrass, jazz, rock and roll, rockabilly, psychobilly, drum and bass. It has been used widely in pop and rock music on recordings by artists like Kate Bush, Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel and Frank Zappa. A well known example being the Lou Reed song "Walk on the Wild Side" where session musician Herbie Flowers created the distinctive sounding bass hook, by using a mix of old and new sounds. He recorded one part on acoustic upright and then overdubbed a crossing part a major tenth above on electric fretless bass. The song was later recycled by other artists including A Tribe Called Quest who used a sample of it in "Can I Kick it?" - You can just about hear it on the intro of the video remix below. For more examples of recordings using double bass, see this thread from the TalkBass forums discussing Examples of Upright in Pop Music.
Perceptions
David Ellis's work evokes some interesting perceptions through the marriage of old and new world technologies.
At first site the juxtaposition creates a slight element of cognitive dissonance, a clash between the older acoustic culture and the contemporary electronic culture. However, the sense of discomfort is lessened by the idea the two cultures are not completely contradictory. The fundamental function of sound reproduction, for the purpose of music and entertainment, remains intact. In fact the instrument has merely been rewired, the strings replaced by electric wires.
Originally the source of sound was generated by a human drive mechanism. The machinery of bow and fingers controlled the perceived pitch, loudness and tone production. These have been replaced by electronic counterparts. The output of the iPod is the sound source, the amplifier and equalizer control the loudness and tone respectively.
The acoustically resonating wooden body becomes the architecture for the electro-magnetic speakers and electronics which are embedded in the belly. The electronics span a progression of successive developments where each stage builds on the past, from mechanical, to electronic valve, transistor and finally digital micro-chip.
There's much to contemplate in this piece that embraces change and cultural heritage: the new functionality, shape, symmetry, the handle ontop, the missing head/neck, the fact that it's no longer 'upright'.
Detritus.net is a web site devoted to recycled culture. Budding detrivores wishing to make new creative works out of old ones will find it a good source of inspiration.
Information about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the US. Focusing on the current debate, opposing argument, security and technical concerns. Featuring content from prominent commentators, online awareness campaigns and a range of Internet protest tools. Links to both Acts are included.
International advertising and marketing agency Ogilvy Group UK are staging a one-day event called Lab Day LIVE designed to engage both the advertising and music communities. On the 9th September Ogilvy's offices in London's Canary Wharf will play host to a music industry conference and live music festival.
It promises to be an informative and entertaining occasion focusing on the latest digital media opportunities mutually available to brands and the music business. The morning conference panels and talks will feature key figures from Last.fm. Spotify, PRS and other leading music organizations (List of speakers). During the afternoon live music performances from name and up-coming acts will take place across three stages (see below).
Entitled: Making music matter as much to brands as it does to consumers
The event is part of Ogilvy’s on-going drive to help clients and their brands navigate the rapidly changing landscape of the music industry in the digital age.
In this video clip Lab Day organizer Tara Austin talks about her role in making music a more central part of the creative process at Ogilvy. To see what other members of the team are saying take a look at the Video Wall.
The Rules of Engagement
Ogilvy are looking to the music industry for innovative ideas on how brands can use music to to build engagement with their audience. Earlier in the year, at MIDEM 2011, they made a stirring appeal for music publishers to "‘look beyond the cheque' and contribute more than just a piece of audio to an advertising campaign" emphasising Ogilvy's vision to "create added value: value for our brands and, ultimately, value for the artist whose music our campaigns promote".
I'll be attending the event and listening closely to what's being said about sonic branding and new ideas for using music to create a 'brand sound'. I'm also looking forward to learning more about the power of sound and music when applied to areas such as 'retail soundscapes' and how we can be informed by hard data.
As a long-time advocate of Open Media licensing tools, when and where appropriate, I'll be hoping to see more open and collaborative business frameworks designed to minimize the friction permeating traditional licensing models. Many Internet audio and video platforms have already successfully integrated Creative Commons licensing making it easy for people to share, remix and reuse media legally, notably SoundCloud and YouTube (list of corporate support).
Creative Commons has always been about promoting creativity and the power of openness to build communities based on shared ideas. Unfortunately the established licensing system, especially with regards to CC licenses in Europe, makes widespread media sharing difficult, thereby blocking the most valuable thing which is attention. Hopefully the wider debate around open and closed systems will eventually lead to innovation that fosters audience attention, participation, and better user experiences in the digital music space.
Event Info & Live Stream
Website
Full details and live streaming of acts from the 3 music stages on the day can be found at http://www.labdaylive.co.uk/
Twitter
You can follow updates using the hashtag #labdaylive plus there's further tweet analysis, tracking and visualization via my channel at The Archivist
Angel investor, Ali Partovi, is stimulating discussion in the area of "renewable" food technologies and has just launched FixFood, a forum for people to share ideas on how to fix America's broken food system. You can learn more about sustainable approaches to agriculture in his informative TechCrunch article - Food Is The New Frontier In Green Tech.
The rapidly growing world population is creating a shortage of natural resources and harming the environment. These short videos raise awareness of the unsustainable levels of human consumption and the urgent need for renewable food production solutions.
This video was created by cultural anthropologist Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University.
It provides insight and statistics on many important issues relevant to students and educators today, including cultural, social and technological concerns.
Music soundtrack by Try^d: Listen - Both the video and music are released under Creative Commons license.
An online CO2 converter built by David Kjelkerud, Henrik Berggren and Jorge Zapico at Ecomo09, an environmental hacking day in London. It is designed to help you more easily understand what a kilogram of CO2 really means.
You can convert CO2 amounts to other units such as bottles of beer or compare different emissions for instance how many apples are equivalent to a litre of milk. The data used is mostly localized to Sweden.
David and Henrick also built http://citysounds.fm/ the web app that lets you listen to the latest music from cities around the world.
A journey through time charting the information power shift caused by the Internet and the ensuing development of a new global politics. Website
Gaia, a New World Order, is born today, the 14 August 2054. Racial conflicts, ideological conflicts, religious conflicts, territorial conflicts belong to the past. Every man is a world citizen, subject to the same law. The Internet has driven the change, spreading communication, knowledge and organization at a planetary level. Transcript
A thought provoking presentation by the Director of the Havas Media Lab, Umair Haque, about Constructive Capitalism and Why Ideals are the New Business Models.
The Ten Laws of Constructive Capitalism
1. Strategy is a commodity
2. Competition is obsolete
3. There is nothing more asymmetrical than an ideal
A short animation explaining the system of borrowing and lending that led to the current financial meltdown:
The goal of giving form to a complex situation like the credit crisis is to quickly supply the essence of the situation to those unfamiliar and uninitiated.
A radical new project designed to punish and reform illegal downloaders of copyrighted music could prove to be a huge money spinner for tech savvy investors. The Pirates Prisons Project aims to capitalize on the current copyright crunch by building 100s of 1000s of new prisons to house the unlimited supply of illegal internet users. If proposed legislation to criminalise billions of music fans goes ahead, the high probability of re-offending represents a once-in-a-lifetime investment opportunity to secure real financial gains for PPP shareholders.
The ingenious shares scheme relies on the music industry's desire for economic dominance. However critics of doom and bust policies believe the music industry's strategy of using a failed business model is enevitably doomed to failure (See links below). Only (prison) time will tell.
Prison/Copyright Reform Related Two articles I wrote in 2006 warning of the impending copyright crunch:
Do you feel more of a connection when you see a face on someone's avatar or don't you care what their avatar is? You can see what other people think and cast you own vote at this ask500people poll.
Perspctv is a dashboard for comparing and monitoring search queries in real-time. The service also provides data comparison widgets of your search results to put on your webpages. The widget shown here compares today's Google search volume, news and blog mentions for the keywords Google, Microsoft, Yahoo.
A futuristic talking dashboard and web mashup for what's happening in the world right now. Full of real-time widgets providing facts and measurements on a range of data. This is a fun promotion for Sprint's mobile Internet service. To see the full interface visit Sprint: Plug into Now
The trailer for an upcoming documentary about the 2008 presidential campaign. More political video mashups available at ThePartyParty.com and here's the YouTube Channel.
Includes mobile interfaces, gaming platforms, portable computers, online music services, social networks, media players, productivity suites, image editors, Windows OS, and video distribution.
BetaVote 2008 is an experimental online polling site that lets people from any country submit their vote for a candidate in the 2008 US Presidential Election. At the time of writing the first several thousand votes place Obama well in the lead with 80.87% of the vote count, McCain has 10.88% and Other 8.25%.
It's a small but interesting sample bearing in mind the consequences of this election will affect the rest of the world. Consider the first Betavote poll in 2004 which finished Kerry 421,770 (88%), Bush 55,242 (11%).
My SpyPoint lens currently features some real-time tracking tools for the 2008 presidential election. You can also share and view sites with auto-updating crowdstreams for other types of social data.
Photo by pixarman Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
PRINT THE TRUTH is a blog offering poster designs about the 2008 US presidential election. The satirical designs have a pro Democrat Party spin designed to make you think about the election candidates, their opinions, facts and follies.
PRINT THE TRUTH is the first distributed political poster system in history. Every day until the election, we give you a free poster. Print as many as you can, paste em up. Put them on the office fridge, the cars in the lot, on your vacuum cleaner, wherever you can."
With 100,000 people printing 10 posters a day, we can hang 60 million important messages between now and election day. Power to the printer, power to the people.
You can track election developments and other real-time crowdstreaming data at SpyPoint
WikiMatrix.org is a Wiki feature comparison tool. Simply choose the Wiki engines you want to compare from the panel on the left, click the button and compare their features in a convenient side-by-side table.
Every year hundreds of "top lists" representing the opinions and recommendations of music enthusiasts worldwide are published online. Here are a couple of resources that make it easier to find and explore these lists, ultimately speeding your journey to discovering good music. Many of the lists also provide album reviews and information for buying the music online.
At a Glance Metacritic.com: best Albums of 2005 provides a table displaying the highest-scoring albums for the year in Metacritic's database with a minimum of 7 reviews. Also listed at the bottom of the page are year-end top ten lists provided by various critics and publications. Use this list for a quick overview and comparison of albums from popular music resources and publications.
When news broke about the potential security threat to computers caused by millions of Sony BMG's music CDs, most people had never heard of a Rootkit. Hopefully the blissful tide of ignorance is changing as wave upon wave of outraged opinion floods online communities. Or is it?
To many, his low opinion of Sony customers appears to be out of kilter with the main-stream of America and elsewhere. A Sophos survey of 1,501 respondents reveals 98% of business PC users think Sony DRM copy protection is a security threat. Since Mr Hesser's notorious rootkit sound-bite, the "Sony Sitcom" has taken a route all of its own. Every episode in the sorry saga has presented new and ironic twists in the unfolding story.
Lawsuits litter the horizon and this may yet be a digital tragedy of epic proportions.
In another ironic twist to the tale CNet'sJohn Borland reports Sony BMG has so far sailed through the rootkit CD backwash apparently unharmed. Data from market analysts Nielsen SoundScan and Gracenote shows no appreciable change in sales or trends for the titles in question. The Register follows up with further insight as to why this may be.
The crash course in DRM technologies offered by the tech savvybloggers may have hit a brick wall. The vast majority of the CD buying public actually don't care, partly because they don't need to play CDs on computers anyway and partly because they are not very security conscious. The alarmed minority keen to alert consumers to unethical practices represents a blip in the blogosphere rather than a storm in the media. With the support of RIAA members, Sony will no doubt make all the right noises, sit it out and continue with the anti-piracy wars. (See Music biz to 'hijack' Europe's data retention laws - From terrorism to filesharing)
Did I mention piracy wars? The Wikipedia entry for a pirate is:
Pirate may refer to someone who robs other ships at sea, or sometimes the shore, without a commission from a sovereign nation.
Someone who commits copyright infringement, including pirate decryption, computer piracy and in particular, software piracy.
Pirate radio, the practice of making unauthorized radio broadcasts.
Unlike the stereotypical pirate with cutlass and masted sailing ship, today most pirates get about in speedboats wearing balaclavas instead of bandannas, using AK-47s rather than cutlasses. Fragment
Welcome to Neverland. In a story that gets stranger and stranger it appears the real battle is between the major record labels and Apple over the iTunes music store.
Both Sony BMG and EMI "hope to reach a deal with Apple, which will allow users to move songs onto iPods. But by launching the copy-protected CDs without iPod compatibility, the labels are raising the stakes in an ongoing conflict between Apple and the rest of the music business, which wants the tech company to open its proprietary iPod and let others sell antipiracy-protected songs that work on the device" Forbes.com
Instrumental in this "Treasure Island" the big labels are dreaming of is a variable pricing system where they can dictate what songs are worth. Variable prices means the labels can send signals to consumers that some products are better than others. This can be used as leverage against artists to manipulate deals in favour of the labels. Apple on the other hand (hook) uses a fixed price system. The conflict is about who gets to manipulate what music we buy. Joel on Software provides a good explanation in Price as Signal.
Looking more like the Battle of Trafalgar and the spoils of war, this is a struggle where the artists and consumers are the collateral damage.
With millions of infected CDs still in circulation and the prospect of similar DRM technologies to come, the emphasis is now on security software companies to protect us, but that's another story.
Beware the citizen who dares to rip, mix and burn. The blazing path to DRM glory rumbles with the sound of gladiators in their chariots of fire. This is no route 15, this is the hallowed ground of Hollywood and the only burning here will be heretics at the stake. This is the long and winding road to nowhere that angels fear to tread... a lost highway. Stand and deliver.
Repeat after me, the minority reporter's rootkit mantra...
"Most people, I think, would like to know what a rootkit is, and care very much about it."
Swingometer: Currently in Sony BMG's favour due to no obvious signs of a drop in sales to infected CD titles. However, the rootkit revelations are less than a month old and serious litigation combined with bad public relations could prove costly for the media giants in the long run. It remains unknown to what extent artists will suffer losses due to issues of trust. Consumers are the main losers having paid for products that degrade the performance of computers, open new security vulnerabilities, and install updates through an Internet connection to Sony BMG's servers.
SEQUENCE1 is a 42 track album of outstanding ambient and experimental music from various artists, compiled and released by electronica magazine Futuresequence.com. Conceived as an anniversary release, marking a year since Futuresequence's launch, this epic production contains exclusive tracks and new works exploring the global frontiers of the electronic music scene.
Fetal Pulse is the name of an experimental electronic music project by Canadian musician Pedro Costa. ‘Aurora’ was the first video for Fetal Pulse’s debut album Cityscapes, a 10 track album released on the 8th March 2011.
Cityscapes is an instrumental album with a lot of charm and character. Mainly down-tempo, part ambient, mostly melodic, the tracks sit perfectly side by side to create a beautifully balanced whole. Pedro puts his musicality to good use conjuring up themes and dynamic changes that always flow and sustain interest. The sounds are colourful and the cleverly designed musical arrangements offer the right sonic combinations at the right times. This is an album that always feels comfortable and welcoming, like an old friend whose company you appreciate, time and again.
Film by: Richard-François Léonard, Stéphane Drouot and Zakaria Mofril, licensed under Creative Commons.
Photography by: Craig Cloutier, licensed under Creative Commons.
Also available via http://soundcloud.com/fetalpulse
and http://www.facebook.com/FetalPulse
A haunting composition played to perfection by Italian artist Sergio Altamura, guitar and loop machine. From his first solo album “Blu” produced by William Ackerman in 2004, available at http://www.candyrat.com
Fans of solo guitar music can listen to more gems like this via the CandyRat YouTube Channel and there’s a selection of favourite Solo Acoustic Instrumental Videos on this PLAYLIST
This post marks the migration of “Dave’s Imaginary Sound Space” previously found at http://soundblog.spaces.live.com/ to it’s new WordPress home, here at http://imaginarysoundspace.wordpress.com/
All blog posts from the original Windows Live Space are now archived here, however the extensive link-lists are not supported by the automated migration process and are only accessible via the original link. Eventually all of DISS will vanish by March of 2011 when Microsoft will disable access to the Live Spaces blogging platform completely.
Original announcements regarding the new Live Spaces/Wordpress partnership and related details can be found via: The Windows Blog and WordPress Blog
Microsoft have released a new version of Windows Live Writer, the desktop application that makes it easy to publish rich content to your blog. Having created this post immediately after a smooth upgrade installation, first impressions are good.
Some of the new authoring features include:
Comprehensive table creation and editing tools
Auto spell checking as you write
Improved hyperlinking and image insertion
Full synchronization between online and offline applications
Paste Special - Plain Text or HTML (Embed Tags, YouTube etc)
Support for categories, Blogger labels and back-dated posting
Excerpts and extended entries
Writer can now publish to Windows Live Spaces, Sharepoint, WordPress, Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, Moveable Type, Community Server, and other weblog services.
Customization
With just a mouse click the feel and look of the application can be changed instantly to any color you like using the new colorize button on the menu bar.
New image editing options allow rotation and contrast adjustment and it’s now possible to automatically link to a previous post via the insert hyperlink menu.
Other useful Writer capabilities include back-dated posting – you select any date for the post to appear, easy insertion of maps from Virtual Earth, and rich media plug-ins like audio and video tools available from Windows Live Gallery and reviewed at Windows Live Writer Plugins. Just Select Add a Plugin from the app sidebar to launch the Live Gallery site.
Good Things Coming…
Having been nine months in the making, this is a worthwhile update for existing users with a range of very usable improvements. The open plug-in platform and API-driven building tools make further customization ongoing and easy to implement. Judging by developments at Popfly the future looks very promising indeed, watch the video below.
The above video was inserted using Paste Special.
If you’re upgrading from a previous installation remember to update your account settings to ensure you’re getting all the latest features (Tools/Accounts). As usual with beta software releases, reporting and solving application problems is part of the process so don’t expect perfection.
Further details of this release and developer information can be found at the Windows Live Writer team blog – Writer Zone. For more Live news, free applications and Vista resources see Windows Live Tools.
Recordings of these performances under Creative Commons licenses are rare but Swedish composer/guitarist Thomas Almqvist ( right) is sharing a cool live recording of a 16-string harp guitar at MacJams.com called Embla. Thanks Thomas!
xkcd is a webcomic created by former NASA roboticist Randall Munroe. His drawings are published under a Creative Commons license and you need no permission to reuse them for non-commercial purposes, just provide attribution to xkcd.com. New comics are published on the site at midnight every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Here are some samples from the collection archives, click on the images to visit the source.
Digital Rights Management
"If you think the purveyors of DRM simply want to protect artists, check out chapters 13 and 14 in Free Culture, by Lawrence Lessig. Their goal is the elimination of all culture they don’t control."
Content Protection
"How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity" Lessig.
XKCD Linkage
There’s more info about the characters, themes and content style (Nerd/Romance Humor) at Wikipedia xkcd
You can also find lots of interesting things to see and do in the Forums including other artists sharing works under Creative Commons.
Ourmedia has relaunched with a minimalist look and new focus on media channels. There is now more emphasis on the social interaction around media and ways to draw attention to the good stuff. Here are some of the features available.
Channels @ channels.ourmedia.org
Channels are media streams categorized by subject or interest that include content such as music, podcasts and video. People can highlight media hosted anywhere on the Web and group media together into themes. Ourmedia members can now easily create their own social broadcast networks and post items to their channels using the special browser tools mentioned below. Each item is a bundled document of media data; on posting you simply enter the relevant details into the template fields and click submit. The fields include:
Media URL
Media Page URL (source)
Thumbnail URL
Screen Shot URL
Artist Name
Artist Homepage URL
Comments URL
License (option menu)
Player (type)
Here’s an example that took just a few minutes to create: Chill Channel
RSS Feeds
Available feeds are split across two domains with the new user-created channels residing at channels.ourmedia.org.
Ourmedia.org
Has four main channels that are currently enabled for media streaming:
All user-created channels have RSS feeds although at the time of writing these were not media-enabled for streaming files via widgets. Hopefully this will change as the new features are rolled out.
You can also view related news feeds using the aggregated News Reader.
Browser Tools
Toolbar Buttons – Let you post and view channels from within your browser.
Two bookmarklets can be dragged to your browser bookmarks toolbar:
Post to Ourmedia Channels – This button allows you to post your current page to your Ourmedia channels.
My Ourmedia Channels – This button allows you to quickly view your Ourmedia channels.
These provide a useful way to populate your Channels with media just discovered or when revisiting favorite sites.
Open Media Search
Located at the top left-hand corner of all ourmedia.org pages is the new Google powered search engine. This makes it easy to search for ‘open’ media by source, media type and license. Searchable domains include:
The Learning Center provides help with key aspects of media creation and distribution through a series of how-to guides and tutorials. Everything is published under Creative Commons.
Along with the social functionality of Ourmedia, the features I’ve outlined above make it easy for people to create and share legal media in an open environment.
The Search Engine and Open Media Directory both help you locate free and legal media which in turn can be posted directly to your Channels using the browser buttons. Overall a clean and tidy package without all the clutter and commercialization of other media sharing destinations.
Related DISS Media
Free Sounds – Legal Audio Samples, Loops, Software, Music and Video Downloads.
OpenSonics – Open Music Community News and Copyleft Media Resources.
Open Music Search – A Google Custom Search Engine for exploring the Open Music Ecosystem. Grab the widget and spread free music!
Blog Signature Generator allows you to create a dynamically updating news banner (signature) that links to the original feed source. It also generates a Gravatar connected to your email address - "an 80×80 pixel avatar image that follows you from weblog to weblog appearing beside your name when you comment on gravatar enabled sites."
RSSConverters.com has an online wizard that converts RSS news feeds and podcasts into Javascript or PHP code. The wizard can batch convert multiple feeds and apply blanket customization features for display options and style.
Mash and Grab RSS Feeds
You can find a good selection of RSS feeds via the Mediaspheres Grazr - Right click on any list title to grab the feed (copy shortcut).
You can also grab a selection of pre-mashed RSS feeds via Dave’s FeedRaider. Each single-page aggregator has RSS, OPML and Embed options at the bottom of the page.
The FeedRaider RSS feeds can be pasted into the Grazr address field (open View on menu, choose Address Bar), then select the refresh icon on the right of the browser to view the combined feed mashup.
The state of online music remixing and Open Music distribution took a significant step forward recently with the release of ccMixter’s new audio Playlist feature at ccMixter.org. A community-driven playlist tool for sharing Creative Commons sound samples and music.
About
The application combines several key areas for creators that make it easy to find, share and promote legal audio and music works:
Collaboration – It’s about connectivity, creativity, distribution and interaction. Social media at the heart of Web 2.0 – Web4
Creative Commons Licenses – Open, flexible, copyright options designed to foster freedom of ideas. Ranging from some rights reserved to public domain.
In the ‘Create’ view you can quickly make customized, automatically updating playlists using the simple online interface. There’s a choice of parameters to choose from that allow you to locate and filter media files for fine-tuning the list.
These include: Playlist Types, Artists (users), Tags, License Type, Ratings, Time Period and more.
Free Registration
Registered users can save and share their playlists including individual list items such as songs and samples. Full integration between community lists make it a breeze to add media items from one list to another with a single mouse click.
New playlists can be created on the fly instantaneously, for example when browsing and listening to audio, in a seamless listening environment. Each list you create is automatically added to your community profile area.
RSS feeds are generated for all your playlists. You can also edit important elements in your list such as dynamic parameters, the order of list items, tags, playlist title and description.
Simple html formatting is allowed in the description so you can include links to websites, contact information or the location of a web page widget that uses the playlist feed.
The ability to dynamically create playlists/podcast feeds by licence type, combined tags and other key factors makes it easy to create hybrid audio channels including sound sample based feeds as well as music playlists.
For example here’s a dynamic RSS feed for a capella melodies based on user ratings:
Make no mistake, ccMixter is the complete package. No other remix site commands the same level of respect amongst musicians, producers and content creators.
The tight social networking fabric combined with a philosophy of open media creation provides a truly creative environment for users of all levels and musical styles. In this community everyone works together; sharing, rating, reviewing, mixing, promoting, distributing, learning – Forums
ccMixter playlists utilize the power of citizen DJ distribution, contributing to the growing culture of shared media networks and social tribes.
Artists, bloggers, filmmakers, listeners, and podcasters can all interact to create collaborative resources and original compositions. Anyone can use these compositions to build new, derivative works, be they music, video or other media forms like web-mashups, in accordance with the licensing terms.
Widgets, Pipes and Tubes are the plumbing through which these rich media creations can flow using URLs and RSS feeds.
These intelligent crowdsourcing activities are becoming increasingly prevalent as the need for media filtering and recommendation prevails. Musically and culturally speaking, DJs have always provided the editorial factor so important to informing the wider music community. Todays web DJs are restricted only by the technologies they use and their knowledge of Social Media. To learn more about this topic read the online ebook What is Social Media?
Communications Advisor at ASK Newham (Hestia Housing and Support)
Music | London, United Kingdom, GB
Summary
David Holmes is a Blogger, Digital Curator and Content Creator, focusing on Internet Music, Open Content and Social Media.
A former freelance audio engineer and recording studio owner, with experience of independent music management and publishing partnerships in the UK music industry.
David is a long-term advocate of Free Culture, Open Media, Creative Commons and the Open Source movement, participating as an independent commentator and web-resource creator.
He blogs about online music, Internet tools, web trends and innovations. Specialising in areas such as copyleft content, digital audio and video, free and open source software, Internet startups and applications, media distibution, music production, podcasting, real-time web and social media.
His original soundblog, "Dave's Imaginary Sound Space", a micro-portal for audio and music related information, was twice listed on Microsoft's Best of Windows Live Spaces website. The blog was migrated to Wordpress in the fall of 2010 where it rermains.
David was a founding curator and editor of the "Open Media Directory" at Ourmedia.org. The first comprehensive clearinghouse for sources of legal, podsafe audio and video. Focusing on Creative Commons licensed works and related media distribution platforms.
He currently curates "Open Music Search", a Google custom search engine indexing thousands of copyleft music resources. Designed for finding reusable media, collaborative projects and free music tools.
David has worked on a diverse range of recording and live projects for music industry artists including:
Colin Blunstone DJ Chris Paul Furniture Gonzalez Gwen Guthrie Jeffrey Daniel (Shalamar) Jon King (Gang of Four) Kiss AMC Love and Rockets Misty in Roots Paul Young (Q-Tips) Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks) Ruthless Rap Assassins Shades of Rhythm Sir John Gielgud (Actor) Steve Marriott (Small Faces) Tom Robinson The Pale Fountains Wang Chung
For further info see the various web links on this page.
Specialties: Digital curation and web annotation, blogging, content creation, digital photography, social media.
Independent researcher of Internet music culture and digital music technologies.
Recording engineer and remixer working in a wide range of musical genres, studio management, music production and artist/project development.
Guitarist.
International live sound and touring experience (Europe, Canada, USA).
Urban agriculture and horticulture, community food growing projects.
Experience
Mar
2011 - Present
Communications Advisor / Hestia Housing and Support
Voluntary position for ASK, the mental health service user involvement project in Newham, London. Admin/developer of ASK websites and online presence, digital content, and social media strategies. Lead on IT/Internet workshops for ASK members at the University of East London. Photographic documentation. http://www.ask-newham.org/
Jan
2011 - Present
Social Media Specialist / Social Enterprises
Developing digital media projects for social enterprises and charity organizations, including social media strategies, digital asset management, content curation, web resource creation, photographic documentation, peer support workshops and training.
Aug
2010 -
Feb
2011
Voluntary Roles / Bromley by Bow Center
Independent research into service user experience and voluntary work in a social enterprise/community setting (Artychoke). Involving therapeutic horticulture, art, digital media and photography.
1986 -
1992
Freelance Sound Engineer / UK Recording Studios
Studio and live sound engineering, record production and project development.
1977 -
1985
Sound Engineer, Company Director & Shareholder / Village Way Sounds LTD
Lead role and management of successful independent recording studio in Harrow, London. Providing professional services to major record labels, publishing companies and the independent music sector. Also company director and shareholder of Watergate Records/Publishing and DSO Records (Independent music labels)
Arts, Audio, Blogging, Creative Commons, Design, Drama, Food and Farming, Free Culture, Free and Open Source Software, Guitar, Health and Wellbeing, Horticulture, Internet Applications, Internet Music, Internet Start-Ups, Long-Tail Economics, Martial Arts, Meditation, MIDI, Movies, Music, Music Marketing, Music Production, Open Content, P2P, Participatory Media, Permaculture, Photography, Podcasting, PR, Publishing, Remix Culture, Social Media, Sound Recording, Technology, Transition Culture, Video, Web 2.0 Platform.