Kevin Cummins
February 27, 2006
 Kevin Cummins Arca
Paul Stolper Gallery
78 Luke Street
London
EC2A 4PY
9 February - 11 March 2006
Wednesday - Saturday 10am - 6pm
[left] Joy Division: Hulme, Manchester
6 January 1979
Gelatin-silver print, 2006
40.6 x 50.8cm, edition of 75, 10AP's
Had all sorts of plans for today but just vegged out recovering from Trev's party - Think I'm getting really bored by house music though... I even had a few hours sleep during the party, although we did carry on for another 12 hours after I was rudely awaken by everybody traipsing back from the summer house... Thankfully Rob played a Justice track, which seemed to annoy a few people. I liked that!
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Transvision
February 25, 2006
 We went to Transvision at the V&A last night - What a lot of people!!!! I certainly didn't expect that many. A club night in a museum? well, kind of...
Unfortunately the DJ and bar were at the front, thus causing a bit of a bottleneck to the visuals - which, and I don't know if it was intentional or not, were mapped in a somewhat, erm... arty fashion!
So a lot of folk were actually looking at the general museum pieces instead. But that can't be a bad thing. A wonderfully eclectic mix of tunes, befitting the location I think and although I didn't see everything, before my stomach decided I should mosey dinnerwards, some beautiful pieces.
Left is an Untitled light sculpture by UVA that had some fantastic audio accompanying it - It sort of turned white and made Sci-fi noises as you got near it, like some portal to a different dimension. I want one at home! The other outstanding piece for me was Jason Bruges Visual Echoes.
Got handed a dreadful flyer at Victoria, on the way home, for a Gay/Lesbian club night that appears to be in a Chinese restaurant. it was photocopied and claims the night will have, and I quote, a "Wide range of music, atttentive DJs, nice dance floor, lighted dance pole and fine dinning upstairs" Dress code casual or drag!!! We were handed that shortly before passing a beggar chatting on his mobile! Strange. Not as odd as the snippet of conversation we overheard at Herne Hill, where a girl said to her two friends, "She did a handstand and gave him a blow job".
Happy Birthday Trev!
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V&A 1.0
February 23, 2006
 onedotzero have been invited by the Victoria and Albert Museum to curate a special event as part of the museum's late night series, which takes place on the last friday of every month. For this, onedotzero has invited over 20 key creatives from diverse fields, representing the full breadth of moving image programming that onedotzero explores, across motion graphics, music videos, short films, interaction design, live audio–visual performances, music, and architecture.
Featured artists will include Airside, Hi-Res!, Trevor Jackson, Allofus, The Light Surgeons, D-Fuse, Intro, Jason Bruges, Neutral, Peepshow, Phillip O' Dwyer, Pre-Loaded, Sennep [see image above], Tank.TV, Universal Everything, Usman Haques and United Visual Artists.
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Deep And Darkly... Amen
February 22, 2006
Just signed up to Odeo and been listening to Ohh, shit, nobody likes deep house mixed by Milovanov - A deep and funky Ableton session. I know some DJ types could get themselves on here!
Boing Boing have unearthed some good links... This new Scanner Darkly clip. I've been waiting ages for this to be released. can't be long now. A link to this essay, about MySpace, by Danah Boyd "Why Youth Heart MySpace".
Another movie clip... Nate Harrison's Can I Get An Amen? A 2004 recording on acetate, turntable and PA system is an audio installation that unfolds a critical perspective of perhaps the most sampled drum beat in the history of recorded music, the Amen Break. It begins with the pop track Amen Brother by 60's soul band The Winstons, and traces the transformation of their drum solo from its original context as part of a 'B' side vinyl single into its use as a key aural ingredient in contemporary cultural expression. The history of the Amen Break is the history of Hip-Hop and Drum And Bass.
Continuing a movie theme, the Internet Archive has a whole host of downloadable Open Source movies, including Fritz Lang's Metropolis.
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Flyer Art And A Mixed [Media] Bag
February 21, 2006
 This flyer found its way, unannounced, into my inbox. By a very circuitous route as well... I imagine it's because of a previous mention when this exhibit was in London. It's now in Manchester.
Hedonist Gallery G
18 Smithfield Buildings
44 Tib St.
Northern Quarter
Manchester
0161 833 0800
March 3rd - 31st.
12pm - 6pm
Electronic music pioneer, Morton Subotnick, performs Until Spring Revisited, featuring surround-sound and projected images, at the Purcell Room on March 10th. Devised for three laptops, Subotnick's software interprets the position, speed and gestural quality of the mouse movement, as well as which keys are pressed and when they are pressed translating that information into musical variation and spatial motion. The projected images are provided by video artist Sue Costabile, whose new CD/DVD Mini Movies is out now.
There are free films to download at Surreal Scania. Digital video is combined with GPS-technology to explore different visual representation techniques. partly the work of Robert William.
Phil Hartnoll [formerly of Orbital] is teaming up with Chuck Palahnuik and Irvine Welsh for a performance at the Brighton Festival. May 7th at Brighton Corn Exchange. they willl be jamming improvised ideas and storylines back and forth with the writers and guest VJs to create Stories in Motion.
Great list of links of New Media Artists over at Soundtoys.
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There Are Limits
February 18, 2006
 Ian Wilkinson
Limits
2005
£230/$450
Limits is a 4 colour silkscreen on Moulin Du Gue 300gm [edition of 10] measuring 23" x 22" and is one of the better pieces I've seen on Britart lately...
You can buy one here. Pretty reasonable price too. Britart do an interest free credit scheme as well which they don't make very apparent on the site.
Just listening to Wind In The Wires by Patrick Wolf, who has a unique genre blending style that takes a little getting used to but is worth persevering with. Folk-electronica I suppose!?! This album has been out for a year so I doubt I'm telling you anything new.
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Cairo SW9
February 17, 2006
 Click Click Whirr
Café Cairo
88 Landor Road
SW9 9PH
Thurs 23rd Feb
7.30pm - 1am
Free
I can't make this so I hope it's a regular event. Sounds just my sort of thing... Your computer programmers of the night will be Matt B-M and Simon Automatic. I hadn't heard of Cafe Cairo before but sounds worth a visit whoever is on. Here's what the Open Guide To London has to say about it.
The Cafe Cairo is an exotic and wonderful place, known by few but loved by all who frequent it. It's a tea and coffee house that combines an upstairs in the best tradition of the Middle East with a basement of a much more modern, Western style. The cafe sells freshly made fruit cocktails and "smoothies", and teas and coffees of various impeccable pedigrees, as well as offering [shisha] (aka narghile, hubble-bubble, hookah) pipes and a range of flavoured tobaccos to smoke in them. Alcohol is not on offer here.
 The crown jewel of this establishment must be the back room: a long, warm place, with a tented roof and wall hangings, gentle lanterns to illuminate it, low wooden benches with numerous cushions and Arabic or Arabic-flavoured music playing - a faithful representation of a Middle Eastern coffee tent. The atmosphere is comfortable and friendly, and the air is full of the aromas of coffee, tea, and smoke. People tend to settle in here and stay for a long time, so you might need to get in early if you want somewhere to sit.
The Open Guide to London is part of the OpenGuides network of community-maintained city guides. Everything you ever wanted to know about London - written by Londoners. Check out this Flash Movie
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Bird Node
February 16, 2006
Interesting work by Maria Mencia - The basis for the work is an exploration into the idea of the translation process... In this case from bird sounds via the human voice and back to birdsong. The birds are animated 'text birds' singing the sound of their own text while flying in the sky. The letters, which create their physical outlines, correspond to the transcribed sound made by each of the birds but the sound is produced by the human voice slightly digitally manipulated.
Bird Singing And Other Birds' Songs is part of the node.London events occuring in March and will be at the Chrisp Street Idea Store.
NODE.London [Networked, Open, Distributed, Events. London] is committed to building the infrastructure and raising the visibility of media arts practice in London. Working on an open, collaborative basis, NODE.London will culminate, in its first year, in a month long season of media arts projects across London in March 2006. Check out more about node.London here
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| The Chrisp Street Idea Store opened on 19th July 2004 and offers the Idea mix of learning and library services for all. The Store offers free internet access, courses and events for every age and interest, thousands of books for loan, and CDs and DVDs for hire for a small fee. It was funded by London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Leaside Regeneration, Lloyds of London Charities Trust and UK Online.Idea Store Chrisp Street1 Vesey PathEast India Dock RoadE14 6BTMAP
Nearest DLR: All Saints. Cross the A13 at the crossing, turn left until you reach an open square. The Idea Store is on your right.
Bus routes 15, 115, D6, D8
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A Quiet Riot
February 15, 2006
 I got an e-mail from Eve at stolenspace advising me of an upcoming exhibtion there. The blurb goes...
Conor Harrington's work is a result of both formal and informal training in fine art and graffiti, using both oils and spray paint his work features opposites and contrasts and the tensions existing in such relationships when taking two opposing elements to develop a visual language.
Set up by the artist D*Face, stolenspace claims to be the only dedicated urban contemporary art gallery whose new home is at The Old Truman Brewery!
The show is on for two weeks only and they don't mention if there's an admission price but there may be a £1 "donation" on the door. You can e-mail them for more info. Media sponsors are Modart. Who, I assume, are this lot... but may or may not be this lot, or even both!
24 February - 7 March
11am - 7pm, Mon - Weds and Fri - Sun.
11am - 9pm, Thursdays.
Nearest tube: Liverpool Street/Aldgate East
The Dray Walk Gallery
Dray Walk
The Old Truman Brewery
91 Brick Lane
London E1 6QL
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OverNeate
February 14, 2006
 As part of >OVER, currently showing in Gallery 39 in Cardiff, Stefhan Caddick explores the text phenomenon. An LED sign facing the street from the gallery displays text messages sent from members of the public to its receiver. The intention being to encourage members of the public to evolve a new use for Variable Message Signs, which usually carry important but mundane information, by carrying messages which, by their nature, are often deeply personal.
>OVER runs from 11th Feb to 18th Mar
>G39 is open 11:00 -1.30 Wednesdays to Saturdays.
To send a message to the sign text: 07929 461727 [add +44 if you're texting from outside the UK]
Photo by Near Near Future
Why do I never see any Adam Neate stuff around? More about his work here and here.
The Outside Institute has something too. Not sure how up to date that site is, but it's interesting nonetheless.
There are about 100 Digital Art links I need to find time to plough through as well, over at the Thames & Hudson website.
Sorry if your RSS got pinged loads from this post but I kept losing connection to Blogger and lost a few edits along the way.
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MP3eedom
February 13, 2006
 This little MP3 is a condensed version of the 30 most popular tracks by recent plays on my i-Tunes, compiled using the i-Tunes Signature Maker. Though I can't make out half of it, I'll have to have another go. Click the little blue Play Tagger, conveniently supplied by del.icio.us, to listen.
Talking of MP3s - I found this Hercules DJ Control Mixer via Shiny Shiny. At first glance it looks to be an expensive toy, but is in fact a pretty useful tool - With USB connection and MIDI compatiblity it works with most music creation apps, including the ever wondrous Ableton Live, which I am currently trying to get to grips with... So, if you are using Live as a songwriting tool and fancy a bit of DJing on the side £160 is pretty reasonable I reckon. Wonder how it fares next to something like Final Scratch? I don't suppose they are really in the same league but it's certainly a cheap alternative.
Must quickly mention Geek Mafia, a novel, by Rick Dakan, of comics, games and crime. Rick is the Co-Creator of City Of Heroes.
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Tron Birds Parallel Lancs Pet!
February 10, 2006
 I'm late with most of the stuff in this post and this is no exception, of course, but there's an interesting bit on the Urban Eyes Project, via WMMNA, which involves Pigeons and RFID! And why shouldn't it?Just caught onto Be Your Own Pet, the rockingiest teenagers in whatever town they happen to be in right now - I suppose most peeps that are in the know caught them on the John Peel stage last year at Glastonbury. Apparently guitarist Jonas Stein’s father manages, among others, Vince Neil of Motley Crue. Somebody has to I guess. So, anyway, there's a session of theirs on WFMU [NYC] and talking of online US radio stations, there is a Karl Hyde interview somewhereabouts on Just Off The Radar [out of Athens, Georgia] - Sort it out for yourselves!
Talking of Underworld, here's a very vague link to a blog I found yesterday. I'm hoping that Underworldlive will have the full, three hour, Electraglide set from last years Tokyo gig, online [please, please, please] soon. My fave album this week is Chan Marshall's [Cat Power] - The GreatestThe voice of a post-coital bar of chocolate! Sigh.
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Phosphorous Songbird Sex Pistols
February 08, 2006
 Songbird is a desktop media player that offers an open source alternative to services like iTunes and the Windows Media Player. Instead of connecting to one locked store full of DRM controlled goods, it can connect to any and all available music [and video] on the internet.
The brains behind this project include people who helped build Winamp and developers from Mozilla. Initial release is for Windows only. The Songbird site is overloaded right now, but there is a download mirror.
You can get these cool Sex Pistols "Kubricks" [left] over at mech-a.com.
Check out the living, phosphorous, bacteria pixel art of this GFPixel Portrait [left] over at Media Lab Madrid and David Byrne has a page for his bizarre collaboration with Norman Cook, Here Lies Love, the life of Imelda Marcos, in song!
And finally, as they say... for the guitarists out there - Get yourself a USB Guitar and combine it with these Classic Amps and you can get yourself some rock action, straight to PC, no problem!
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Art Space Invaders
February 06, 2006
Well, there was a Space Invaders game here earlier, but it's causing problems so I've taken it down - The page just refuses to finish loading. If I get it sorted out I'll put it back - In the meantime go and have a look over at bunchball.com - I'll try and find a permanent home for it if I get it working again. Although it does seem to have sound that can't be turned off, which is a bit annoying.
I've been trying to think of an excuse to go to Bristol and stay in the City Inn for a while now and I think I just found one. 6th British Art Show is due to arrive there on July 15th.
Running until September 17th, venues involved include Arnolfini, Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, Room, Royal West Of England Academy, Spike Island, Station and Watershed Media Centre. The tour, which started in Gateshead, also takes in Manchester and Nottingham.
You can add images to a Virtual Gallery as well - Should you fancy it. Instructions here. This is designed in conjunction with icodesign, who were responsible for the Virtual Dan Flavin Installation, currently at the Hayward as well.
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Mix Me A Moleskine Mash Up Baby!
February 04, 2006
 I like these collages and illustrations by Minkoff. They are mostly works scanned from her Moleskine, which make me very concsious of all the erratic scribbles I fill mine with. I must try harder.
This map is a mash-up of the London Underground map and a history of music. Via the Guardian.
The link takes you to a PDF of the map so you can print yourself one out and, if somebody has half a mind to, they could fill an iPod with 2 minute snippets of each artist and compile an audio accompaniment to play as they travel each line! It takes approx 2 mins/stop by the way - in case you've never been to London or fathomed that out.
If you have a weird and wonderful selection of bottles of booze at home and want to know what you can concoct from them then Extra Tasty is the site for you. A fine example of Web 2.0/Ajax doings too.
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Cut Up Kemistry
February 03, 2006
 A few of these guys' cut ups have been appearing on the streets of London recently and have been documented elsewhere... At the forefront of a new breed of urban intervention, Cutup have rethought traditional methods of making a statement through the subversion of the visual landscape of the city. So It says here
CutUp's billboard images are created by slicing up adverts and collaging the pieces into a newly ordered image. From April 5th - 30th you can see their work at Kemistry
Monday - Friday 11.00 - 1800
Saturday 12.00 - 19.00
ADMISSION: FREE
43 Charlotte Road
Shoreditch London
EC2A 3PD
gallery@kemistry.co.uk
MAP
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I wonder if the 
