Reveil 24-hour live broadcast 2024
neoscenes is again participating in the Reveil global audio streaming project for the tenth year, adding a small sonic expression to this ongoing collaborative broadcast: Reveil 24-hour live broadcast 2024 (one dimension of Soundcamp) 03-05 May (depending on your time zone — see below for exact local times).
Reveil is a collective production by streamers at listening points around the earth. Starting on the morning of Saturday 4 May in South London near the Greenwich Meridian, the broadcast will pick up feeds one by one, tracking the sunrise west from microphone to microphone, following the wave of intensified sound that loops the earth every 24 hours at first light.
Streams come from a variety of locations and situations, at a time of day when many people are unaccustomed to be up and out, but sounds are vivid, especially in Spring. The Reveil broadcast makes room by largely avoiding speech and music, gravitating to places where human and non human communities meet and soundworlds overlap.
Sounds produced by birds, amphibians, weather, fish, electromagnetic fluctuations, people, machines, vegetation, transmission artifacts, convey the variety of planetary soundscapes, captured from many specific places and projects. In the process, Reveil brings together dispersed and lesser known ecological projects and practices across disciplines and time zones, in a sketch of an acoustic commons in the making.
Streams range from temporary projects in people’s homes to large research networks. Each open microphone adds to the diversity of the mix.
You can tune in to the overall 25-hour Reveil stream at the Reveil platform or on Wave Farm Radio or at Resonance Extra.
neoscenes/Reveil 2024 landing page: https://streams.soundtent.org/2024/streams/utc-6_-9b9ee361-46a4-4315-be94-985377df3a5f [active during event only]
Check the time!
- the time span of the whole event starts at 5 AM London time (UTC+1) Saturday, 04 May until 6 AM on Sunday, 05 May
- that’s 10 PM Colorado time (UTC-6) Friday, 03 May until 11 PM Saturday, 04 May
- that’s 12 PM midnight New York time (UTC-4) (Friday night) 04 May until 1 AM Sunday 05 May
- use the World Clock meeting planner to convert to your local time otherwise…
This Reveil stream, neoscenes’ tenth year participating, comes from the property of friend and artist Jennifer Riefenberg, a tract of land sitting at 6850 ft (2015 m) on a rich riparian corridor along Surface Creek in western Colorado. The nearest village, Cedaredge is a couple miles away. To the northwest, north, and northeast, 10 miles (16 km) as the raven flies, sits Grand Mesa, the largest flat-topped mountain in the world, at 11,000 ft (3300 m). The surrounding property was formerly an agricultural area relying on irrigation waters coming off the Mesa. Before the white colonization in the late 18th century, this area was the Ute tribal homeland: it still is. There is a rich range of wildlife in the area—birds including Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), Red-tail Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis), Great Horned Owls, Ravens (Corvus corax), Black-billed Magpies (Pica hudsonia), Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), Western Meadowlarks (Sturnella neglecta), Mountain and Western Bluebirds, Nuthatches, House Sparrows and Finches along with bears, mountain lions, coyotes, mule deer, foxes, raccoons, skunks, marmots, and ground squirrels. Surface Creek, the main drainage for the area, runs on the east side of the property in a shallow valley lined with cottonwood, juniper, box elder, mountain mahogany, 3-leaf sumac, service berry, yarrow, rabbit brush, and volunteer fruit trees. In the sonic foreground there is an irrigation holding pond that sees regular visits of a variety of birds. Early May is a time for maximum snow-melt off the Mesa, and Surface Creek can swell to more than 600 cfs (17 cms)—two orders of magnitude over minimum flow. It typically displays large diurnal variations in flow, depending on the ambient temperatures. The creek flow will be the dominant sonic texture.
The neoscenes stream, hosted on the locusonus soundmap will be live for the entire weekend; it will be selectively broadcast in the Reveil stream as follows:
Date: 06 May 05:50-06:20 AM MDT UTC-6 (this is the approximate time that the neoscenes stream will be mixed into the whole 25-hour stream)
Civil twilight (local time): 5:40 AM / 0538 (UTC-6) Local time in Cedaredge
Sunrise (local time): 6:07 AM / 0606 (UTC-6) Local time in Cedaredge
Location: online and Cedaredge, Colorado, USA
Streamer: John Hopkins / neoscenes
Coordinates: N +38.92349163182399° / W107.91730709264802°
Timezone: MDT UTC-6 — 7 hours behind London
that season (again)
Reveil 24-hour live broadcast 2023
It’s that time of year again, a rare instance for neoscenes to focus a small expression on collaborative audio streaming work: Reveil 24-hour live broadcast 2023 (one dimension of Soundcamp) 06-07 May — see below for exact times depending on your time zone:
Reveil is an annual collaborative 24+1-hour streaming radio broadcast of the sounds of daybreak, co-produced by streamers around the world. Reveil follows the changing wave of sound that circles the earth continuously along the grey line of first light, returning to its starting point after 24 hours without repetition.
Sounds produced by birds, amphibians, weather, fish, electromagnetic fluctuations, people, machines, vegetation, transmission artifacts, convey the variety of planetary soundscapes, captured from many specific places and projects. In the process, Reveil brings together dispersed and lesser known ecological projects and practices across disciplines and time zones, in a sketch of an acoustic commons in the making.
Streams range from temporary projects in people’s homes to large research networks. Each open microphone adds to the diversity of the mix.
You can tune in to the overall 25-hour Reveil stream at the Reveil platform or on Wave Farm Radio or at Resonance Extra.
neoscenes/Reveil landing page: https://streams.soundtent.org/2023/streams/utc3_-2d4acffa-9676-4dff-b6fe-f530e03ddd0e
Check the time!
- the time span of the whole event starts at 5 AM London time (UTC+1) Saturday, 06 May until 6 AM on Sunday, 07 May
- that’s 10 PM Colorado time (UTC-6) Friday, 05 May until 11 PM Saturday, 06 May
- that’s 12 PM New York time (UTC-4) (Friday night) 05 May until 1 AM Sunday 07 May
- use the World Clock meeting planner to convert to your local time otherwise…
This Reveil stream, neoscenes’ ninth overall, and the third that is coming from a small ranch sitting at 6800 ft (2000 m) on the Surface Creek alluvial fan near the small town of Cedaredge in western Colorado. To the northwest, north, and northeast, 10 miles (16 km) as the raven flies, sits Grand Mesa, the largest flat-topped mountain in the world, at 11,000 ft (3300 m). The property surrounding the house was once an apple orchard, beginning 140 years ago, but that came and went, leaving open grazing fields that rely on irrigation waters coming off the Mesa. Before the white colonization, this area was a rich Ute tribal homeland. There are a range of birds — bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), red-tail hawks (Buteo jamaicensis), ravens (Corvus corax), black-billed magpies (Pica hudsonia), starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), meadowlarks (Sturnella neglecta), sparrows, and so on. Surface Creek Road runs on the east side of the property, so there will be the occasional pick-up truck, ATV, or car racing up or down the long grade. The view to the south is to the magnificent San Juan Mountains, and to the southwest and west spans the long horizontal swell of the Uncompaghre Uplift at 9,000 ft (2700 m), looking everything like a massive dark tsunami, frozen in geologic time. The nearest neighbors are 1000 ft (300 m) away or more, but with few trees, one may hear goats, chickens, dogs, and cows in the background. Surface Creek is not far away, and will be experiencing peak springtime snow-melt, so there will be a low background sussurration arising from that.
The neoscenes stream, hosted on the locusonus soundmap will be live for the entire weekend; it will be selectively broadcast in the Reveil stream as follows:
Date: 06 May 05:50-06:20 AM MDT UTC-6 (this is the approximate time that the neoscenes stream will be mixed into the whole 25-hour stream)
Civil twilight (local time): 5:38 AM / 0538 (UTC-6) Local time in Cedaredge
Sunrise (local time): 6:06 AM / 0606 (UTC-6) Local time in Cedaredge
Location: online and Cedaredge, Colorado, USA
Streamer: John Hopkins / neoscenes
Coordinates: N 38.91734719755037° / W107.91045876607403°
Timezone: MDT UTC-6 — 7 hours behind London
Reveil 24-hour live broadcast 2022
It’s that time of year again, one of the few instances for neoscenes to focus on a small expression of collaborative audio streaming work: Reveil 24-hour live broadcast 2022 (one dimension of Soundcamp) this weekend — see below for exact times depending on your time zone:
Reveil is an annual collaborative 24+1 hour streaming radio broadcast of the sounds of daybreak, co-produced by streamers around the world. Reveil follows the changing wave of sound that circles the earth continuously along the grey line of first light, returning to its starting point after 24 hours without repetition.
Sounds produced by birds, amphibians, weather, fish, electromagnetic fluctuations, people, machines, vegetation, transmission artifacts, convey the variety of planetary soundscapes, captured from many specific places and projects. In the process, Reveil brings together dispersed and lesser known ecological projects and practices across disciplines and time zones, in a sketch of an acoustic commons in the making.
Streams range from temporary projects in people’s homes to large research networks. Each open microphone adds to the diversity of the mix.
You can tune in to the overall 25-hour Reveil stream at Resonance Extra or on Wave Farm Radio or on the Reveil platform.
Check the time!
- the time span of the whole event starts at 5 AM London time (UTC+1) Saturday 30 April until 6 AM on Sunday 01 May
- that’s 10 PM Colorado time (UTC-6) Friday 29 April until 11 PM Saturday 30 APRIL
- that’s 12 PM New York time (UTC-4) (Friday night) 29 April until 1 AM Sunday 01 May
- use the World Clock meeting planner to convert to your local time otherwise…
This Reveil stream, neoscenes eighth contribution, and the second that is coming from a small ranch sitting at 6800 ft (2000 m) in the Surface Creek drainage near the small town of Cedaredge in western Colorado. To the northwest-north-northeast sits Grand Mesa, the largest flat-topped mountain in the world, at 11,000 ft (3300 m). The ranch was once an apple orchard, beginning 140 years ago, but that came and went, leaving open grazing fields that rely on irrigation waters coming off the Mesa. Before the white colonization, this area was a rich Ute tribal homeland. There are a range of birds — bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), red-tail hawks (Buteo jamaicensis), ravens (Corvus corax), black-billed magpies (Pica hudsonia), starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), meadowlarks (Sturnella neglecta), sparrows, and so on. Surface Creek Road runs on the east side of the property, so there will be the occasional pick-up truck or car racing up or down the long grade. The view to the south is to the magnificent San Juan Mountains, and to the southwest and west spans the long horizontal swell of the Uncompaghre Uplift at 9,000 ft (2700 m), looking everything like a massive dark tsunami, frozen in time. The nearest neighbors are 1000 ft (300 m) away or more, but with few trees, one may hear goats, chickens, dogs, and cows in the background.
The neoscenes stream, hosted on the locusonus soundmap will be live for the entire weekend; it will be selectively broadcast in the Reveil stream as follows:
Date: 30 April 05:45-06:16 AM MDT UTC-6 (this is the approximate time that the neoscenes stream will be mixed into the 24-hour stream)
Civil twilight (local time): 5:45 AM / 0545 (UTC-6) Local time in Cedaredge
Sunrise (local time): 6:13 AM / 0613 (UTC-6) Local time in Cedaredge
Location: online and Cedaredge, Colorado, USA
Streamer: John Hopkins / neoscenes
neoscenes/Reveil landing page: https://streams.soundtent.org/2022/streams/utc-6_cedaredge
Coordinates: N 38.91735 / W 107.910422
Timezone: MDT UTC-6 (7 hours behind London)
Reveil 24-hour live broadcast 2021
It’s that time of year again, one of the few instances for neoscenes to focus on a small expression of collaborative audio streaming work: Reveil 24-hour live broadcast 2021 (one dimension of Soundcamp) this weekend — see below for exact times depending on your time zone:
Reveil is an annual collaborative 24+1 hour streaming radio broadcast of the sounds of daybreak, co-produced by streamers around the world. Reveil follows the changing wave of sound that circles the earth continuously along the grey line of first light, returning to its starting point after 24 hours without repetition.
Sounds produced by birds, amphibians, weather, fish, electromagnetic fluctuations, people, machines, vegetation, transmission artifacts, convey the variety of planetary soundscapes, captured from many specific places and projects. In the process, Reveil brings together dispersed and lesser known ecological projects and practices across disciplines and time zones, in a sketch of an acoustic commons in the making.
Streams range from temporary projects in people’s homes to large research networks. Each open microphone adds to the diversity of the mix.
You can tune in to the overall 25-hour Reveil stream at Resonance Extra or on Wave Farm Radio or on the Reveil platform.
Check the time!
- the time span of the whole event starts at 5 AM London time (UTC+1) Saturday 01 May until 6 AM on Sunday 02 May
- that’s 10 PM Colorado time (UTC-6) Friday 30 April until 11 PM Saturday 01 May
- that’s 12 PM New York time (UTC-4) (Friday night) 30 April until 1 AM Sunday 02 May
- use the World Clock meeting planner to convert to your local time otherwise…
This Reveil stream, neoscenes seventh contribution is coming from a small ranch sitting at 6800 ft (2000 m) in the Surface Creek drainage near the small town of Cedaredge in western Colorado. To the northwest-north-northeast sits Grand Mesa, the largest flat-topped mountain in the world, at 11,000 ft (3300 m). The ranch was once an apple orchard, beginning 140 years ago, but that came and went, leaving open grazing fields that rely on irrigation waters coming off the Mesa. Before the white colonization, this area was a rich Ute tribal homeland. There are a range of birds — bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), red-tail hawks (Buteo jamaicensis), ravens (Corvus corax), black-billed magpies (Pica hudsonia), starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), meadowlarks (Sturnella neglecta), sparrows, and so on. Surface Creek Road runs on the east side of the property, so there will be the occasional pick-up truck or car racing up or down the long grade. The view to the south is to the magnificent San Juan Mountains, and to the southwest and west spans the long horizontal swell of the Uncompaghre Uplift at 9,000 ft (2700 m), looking everything like a massive dark tsunami, frozen in time. The nearest neighbors are 1000 ft (300 m) away or more, but with few trees, one may hear goats, chickens, dogs, and cows in the background.
The neoscenes stream, hosted on the locusonus soundmap will be live for the entire weekend; it will be selectively broadcast in the Reveil stream as follows:
Here’s a recording of the stream as it happened:
(01:34:37, stereo audio, 227 mb)
Date: 30 April 05:44-06:16 AM MDT UTC-6 (this is the approximate time that the neoscenes stream will be mixed into the 24-hour stream)
Civil twilight (local time): 5:44 AM / 0544 (UTC-6) Local time in Cedaredge
Sunrise (local time): 6:13 AM / 0613 (UTC-6) Local time in Cedaredge
Location: online and Cedaredge, Colorado, USA
Streamer: John Hopkins / neoscenes
neoscenes/Reveil landing page: https://streams.soundtent.org/2021/streams/utc-6_cedaredge-colorado
Coordinates: N 38.91735 / W 107.910422
Timezone: MDT UTC-6 — 7 hours behind London
This feed is set-up by Dr. John Hopkins (aka neoscenes), a visual/sonic media artist, learning facilitator, info-organizer. He holds a creative media practices PhD from La Trobe University/University of Technology Sydney, an MFA from the University of Colorado Boulder (where he studied film under renown experimental film-maker, Stan Brakhage), and a BSc in Geophysical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. His transdisciplinary research and workshops explore issues surrounding sustainable creative practices, systems thinking, networked & tactical media, distributed and community-based DIY & DIWO processes, networked creativity, and Temporary Autonomous Zones. His international media arts practice explores the role of energy in techno-social systems and the effects of technology on energized human encounter. He has taught across more than 20 countries and 60 higher education situations. He currently works at the Colorado Geological Survey where he translates geoscience data into natural language that the public might understand; he is on the faculty of the aforementioned Colorado School of Mines.
You may track his hopes for a prosperous way down and out for the human species at: https://neoscenes.net/blog/
how it works
Ambient sound recording entails an active and concentrated listening while in stasis in the particular, enveloping location. Not a bad avocation. A full-bodied attention to sonic energies is often a suffusing balm amidst the chaotic swirl of (human) Life.
Reveil 24-hour live broadcast 2020
Coming up 02-03 May, neoscenes joins in another annual live streaming broadcast for the sixth time with the Reveil 24-hour live broadcast 2020 that is one dimension of Soundcamp:
Reveil is a 24+ hour radio broadcast of the sounds of daybreak, co-produced by streamers around the world on Dawn Chorus Day each year.Reveil follows the changing wave of sound that circles the earth continuously along the grey line of first light, returning to its starting point after 24 hours without repetition.
Sounds produced by birds, amphibians, weather, fish, electromagnetic fluctuations, people, machines, vegetation, transmission artifacts, convey the variety of planetary soundscapes, captured from many specific places and projects. In the process, Reveil brings together dispersed and lesser known ecological projects and practices across disciplines and time zones, in a sketch of an acoustic commons in the making.
Streams range from temporary projects in people’s homes to large research networks. Each open microphone adds to the diversity of the mix.
hopkins/neoscenes sends a dawning stream into the ether from the dividing line betwixt plains and mountains … enjoy!
This Reveil stream, neoscenes’ sixth, is out the kitchen window listening to the ambient neighborhood sounds surrounding Delong Park, a new park-in-the-making, in Golden, Colorado. Nestled at the base of the west flank of South Table Mountain, the sounds are under the dampening influenced of the moment: coronavirus, lock-down, social-distancing, quarantine, and so on. The park sits at 1765 m / 5790 ft. In the immediate foreground is a “ditch” — an dis-used irrigation ditch that used to carry water from Clear Creek Canyon all the way to the Plains to the east for agriculture in this dry climate. Children use the ditch as a play area. The Park was once a strange-shaped concatenation of lots, perhaps two acres in total, with a house on it. For some reason the house was destroyed and the lot donated to the city. It’s been used by locals already on a regular basis for, yes, dog walking, but also, snowball fights, frisbee, soccer practice, and picnicking. Soon, however, the city will unveil a *plan* for the space, to make it an ‘official’ park in the city schema. Not much else going on!
The live microphone feed will include: local neighborhood car and dog-walker traffic; interspersed with the conversational cries of the black-billed magpie (Pica hudsonia), the hunting sounds of the occasional red-tail (Buteo jamaicensis) and Cooper’s (Accipiter cooperii) hawks, the territorial cries and pecking of the northern flicker (Colaptes auratus), and the cooing of the mourning doves (Zenaida macroura), along with a variety of other birds. There may be the occasional coyotes (Canis latrans) kicking up a racket, trying to seduce house dogs to come out and play (and get eaten)!
This feed is set-up by Dr. John Hopkins (aka neoscenes), a visual/sonic media artist, learning facilitator, info-space organizer. He holds a creative media practices PhD from La Trobe University/University of Technology Sydney, an MFA from the University of Colorado Boulder (where he studied film under renown experimental film-maker, Stan Brakhage), and a BSc in Geophysical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. His transdisciplinary research and workshops explore issues surrounding sustainable creative practices, systems thinking, networked & tactical media, distributed and community-based DIY and DIWO processes, networked creativity, and Temporary Autonomous Zones. His international media arts practice explores the role of energy in techno-social systems and the effects of technology on energized human encounter. He has taught across more than 20 countries and 60 higher education situations. He currently is translating geoscience data into natural language that the public might understand at the Colorado Geological Survey which, strangely enough, is now part of the aforementioned Colorado School of Mines.
Here’s a recording of the stream as it happened:
(02:53:52, stereo audio, 398 mb)
The neoscenes stream parameters:
Date: 2 May 04:45-06:30 AM MDT UTC-6
Location: online and Golden, Colorado, USA
Streamer: John Hopkins / neoscenes
Link(s): https://streams.soundtent.org/2020/streams/utc-6_golden-colorado-47128682-fd2e-411e-a2c1-646043e26a15
Coordinates: N 39.748188 / W 105.208542
Timezone: MDT UTC-6 — 7 hours behind London
Civil twilight (local time): 5:26 AM / 0526
Sunrise (local time): 5:56 AM / 0556
TUNE IN HERE [PROJECT OVER]: soundcamp listen: https://streams.soundtent.org/2020/streams/utc-6_golden-colorado-47128682-fd2e-411e-a2c1-646043e26a15
The direct neoscenes stream [DOWN NOW] is located at https://locus.creacast.com:9001/neoscenes.m3u (open in iTunes or VLC … it may or may not be active at any given time as I have to keep my kitchen window open for the mike to sit).
Reveil 24-hour live broadcast 2019
neoscenes joins in yet another annual live streaming broadcast with the Reveil 24-hour live broadcast 2019 that is one dimension of Soundcamp:
We organise overnight soundcamps where people can sleep outside and investigate the sounds of unusual locations, especially at daybreak. We transmit REVEIL: a 24 hour radio broadcast that tracks sunrise around the globe, relaying live audio streams from collaborating artists, independent channels, and a variety of streaming media assembled for the event.
We are a platform for artistic and trans disciplinary work in the emerging field of live streaming audio.
We contribute to research and development of open source solutions for relaying live sounds, and establishing a permanent open microphone network as a resource for artists, researchers, activists and other listeners.
We assemble and produce materials online and in print as contexts for The Live Archive which Reveil taps into and extends.
Join soundcamps and streamers who will open microphones for the Reveil 24 hour radio broadcast, tracking the sunrise around the world for one earth day.
This Reveil stream is coming from a house set in a suburban mountain neighborhood at the fringe of wildlands on the east-facing side of Apex Park in Golden, Colorado. Overlooking the wide expanse of the High Plains, the house sits at 1890 m/6200 ft, the Mother Cabrini Shrine isn’t so far, at least as the red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) flies, nor is Deadman Gulch. Apex Park is yet another expression of the Laramide Orogeny of the Rocky Mountains as they rise from the Great Plains of middle America. The view to the east is expansive and includes Lakewood, and off in the middle distance, the high-rise towers of Denver, Colorado, and the eastern horizon, looking towards the state of Kansas, is far enough away that you may easily see the curvature of the earth.
The live microphone feed will include far-away-though-still-violent vehicle susserations from Interstate 70 and 470; un-throttled air traffic ascending hard to cross the high mountains from the Denver Int’l Airport; local neighborhood car and dog traffic; interspersed with the conversational cries of the Black-billed Magpie (Pica hudsonia) and a variety of other birds. It’s not unusual to see large herds of elk (Cervus canadensis), very fat suburban coyotes (Canis latrans), lynx (Lynx rufus), and mountain lions (Puma concolor) among the houses here, but they are generally silent or absent at dawn.
Here’s a recording of the stream as it happened:
(02:04:20, stereo audio, 297.2 mb)
The neoscenes stream parameters:
Date: 05 May 0445-0630 MST UTC-6
Location: Golden, Colorado, USA
Streamer: John Hopkins
Link(s): https://streams.soundtent.org/2019/streams/utc-6_golden-colorado-39412544-e716-4ca1-8733-9ea05c371380
Coordinates: N 39.717319 / W 105.215913
Timezone: MDT UTC-6 — 7 hours behind London
Civil twilight (local time): 5:25:57 AM / 0526
Sunrise (local time): 5:55:31 AM / 0556
TUNE IN HERE: soundcamp listen and my continuous stream that is live (though very quiet) now: https://streams.soundtent.org/2019/streams/utc-6_golden-colorado-39412544-e716-4ca1-8733-9ea05c371380
The direct stream will be at https://locus.creacast.com:9001/neoscenes.m3u (open in iTunes or so…)
Reveil 2019 :: madrugada::dawn::drift
40pc.png "Reveil 24-hour live broadcast, online and Golden, Colorado, May 2019")
Rápidas manos frías
retiran una a una
las vendas de la sombra
Abro los ojos
todavía
estoy vivo
en el centro
de una herida todavía fresca. (1)
A half-circle rotation, standing, looking east: from the far north, left, the Flatirons, vertically-tilted 280-million-year-old sandstone spires; then, North Table Mountain, a broad mesa of Paleocene lava flows, paired with South Table Mountain; then a wide gap straight east across the flat Denver Basin and, eventually, Kansas; book-ending the view to the south-south-east, right, the low expanse of Green Mountain; behind me, the raw mass of the Rocky Mountains. Late spring dawn slices directly through this horizon, the actual sunrise a brilliant post-Cartesian process. There is, yes, the left-right-up-down event, (artificially) timed — astronomical, nautical, civil — along azimuth, ecliptic, and the eventual arrival at zenith way up above, later.
But every instance, every now of dawn, every sequential instant is different. It is the same difference — the anisotropic distribution of energized matter in the cosmos — that drives the gravitational oscillations rolling our Gaian marble on a nautiloid trajectory, revealing and hiding stars, planets, and sun. Here, though, on the dividing edge, one is affected by that same attraction of masses. The mass of the mountains to the west — at one’s back while watching the dawn — create a slight lightening effect on the body: given the calculated metrics of the “terrain” and “Hammer” corrections to the local gravitational field. This, a complication of the two-infinite-half-spaces geophysical model of the earth that speaks only of earth below and heaven above, what the I Ching reads as matter and spirit, darkness and light. But it is the incremental, the incomplete, the fuzzy, and the complex interplay signified in the fluid transitions of topography, of ecosystems, of orbiting bodies, and specifically, of dawn that bring us to Life.
Beyond the unbalanced weight of waning dark and waxing gray; beyond the vocative release of the local aviary; beyond the grinding realization that it is probably a work day; beyond the memory of the reported deaths of the previous day; beyond the inexorable procession of awakening to light; beyond the rime of red-eyed pollution staining the horizon; beyond the shreds of nightdream; beyond the warmth of feathered bedding and gently aspirating partner; there is the underlying nature of reality:
Two forces rule the universe: light and gravity. (2)
(1) – Octavio Paz
(2) – Simone Weil
The stream as it happened:
(02:04:20, stereo audio, 297.2 mb)
Reveil 24-hour live broadcast 2018
neoscenes joins in another live streaming broadcast with the Reveil 24-hour live broadcast 2018 that is one dimension of Soundcamp:
We organise overnight soundcamps where people can sleep outside and investigate the sounds of unusual locations, especially at daybreak.
We transmit REVEIL: a 24 hour radio broadcast that tracks sunrise around the globe, relaying live audio streams from collaborating artists, independent channels, and a variety of streaming media assembled for the event.
We are a platform for artistic and trans disciplinary work in the emerging field of live streaming audio.
We contribute to research and development of open source solutions for relaying live sounds, and establishing a permanent open microphone network as a resource for artists, researchers, activists and other listeners.
We assemble and produce materials online and in print as contexts for The Live Archive which Reveil taps into and extends.
Over the weekend of International Dawn Chorus Day on 5-6 May, soundcamps and streamers around the world will open microphones for the Reveil broadcast, sharing the sounds of places we hadn’t heard of or heard in this way before.
From a house perched on the rugged east-facing side of Mount Zion, at 1865 m/6120 ft above sea level, the view of sunrise is spectacular. Mount Zion is the first uplifted (remaining, continuing) expression of the Laramide Orogeny of the Rocky Mountains as they rise from the Great Plains of middle America. The view to the east is expansive and includes the town of Golden, Colorado, once the territorial capital, in the foreground; then comes the low North and South Table Mesa neither completely obscuring the view of the far horizon that is perhaps 75 mi. away towards the state of Kansas. The curvature of the earth is apparent, looking over this western edge of the Great Plains.
The live microphone feed will include a constant machinic backdrone of the Coors (beer) Brewery that sits on the east side of Golden; along with that is the sucking hiss of cars driving at high speed along a piece of 6th Avenue; often there is a significant wind; possible early-morning mountain bikers huffing up the Chimney Gulch trail below the house; interspersed with the conversational cries of the black-billed magpie (Pica hudsonia), the buzzing flight of ruby-throated hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris), and the rattling duel of gilded flickers (Colaptes chrysoides). There are red-tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis), and the occasional golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), the occasional neighborhood dog barking, lots of LBBs (little brown birds) that I cannot name in the moment.
This year, for the morning sunrise, I plan to have a soft-and-sweet-spoken guest, and we shall have a dialogue that will float in the background of this sounding.
This stream is initiated by Dr. John Hopkins (aka neoscenes), a visual/sonic media artist, learning facilitator, information-space organizer. He holds a creative practices PhD from La Trobe University/University of Technology Sydney, an MFA from the University of Colorado Boulder (where he studied film under renown experimental film-maker, Stan Brakhage), and a BSc in Geophysical Engineering from the& Colorado School of Mines. His transdisciplinary research and workshops explore issues surrounding sustainable creative practices, ‘big-picture’ system views, networked & tactical media, distributed and community-based DIY and DIWO processes, networked creativity, and Temporary Autonomous Zones. His international media arts practice explores the role of energy in techno-social systems and the effects of technology on energized human encounter. He has taught across more than 20 countries and 60 higher education situations. He is currently organizing the geoscience dataspace and archive of the Colorado Geological Survey which, strangely enough, is now part of the aforementioned Colorado School of Mines… strange circles.
You may track his hopes for a ‘prosperous way down’ at: https://tech-no-mad.net/blog
Sorry, didn’t record the stream on this broadcast!
The neoscenes stream parameters:
Date: 05 May 0445-0600 MST UTC-6
Location: Golden, Colorado, USA
Streamer: John Hopkins
Link(s): https://streams.soundtent.org/2018/streams/utc-6_golden-colorado-151d28a3-e611-408b-b458-86b7f2b957b0
Coordinates: N 39.7443396 / W 105.2327856″
Timezone: MDT UTC-6 — 7 hours behind London
Civil twilight (local time): 5:48 AM / 0548
Sunrise (local time): 6:17 AM / 0617
Broadcast window (London time): 1212 – 1339
Start time (approximate – London time): 1325
TUNE IN HERE: soundcamp listen and my continuous stream that is live (though very quiet) now: https://streams.soundtent.org/2018/streams/utc-6_golden-colorado-151d28a3-e611-408b-b458-86b7f2b957b0
The direct stream will be at https://locus.creacast.com:9001/neoscenes.m3u (open in iTunes or so…)
Reveil 24-hour live broadcast 2017
neoscenes joins in another live streaming broadcast with the Reveil 24-hour live broadcast 2017 that is one dimension of Soundcamp:
We organise overnight soundcamps where people can sleep outside and investigate the sounds of unusual locations, especially at daybreak.
We transmit REVEIL: a 24 hour radio broadcast that tracks sunrise around the globe, relaying live audio streams from collaborating artists, independent channels, and a variety of streaming media assembled for the event.
We are a platform for artistic and trans disciplinary work in the emerging field of live streaming audio.
We contribute to research and development of open source solutions for relaying live sounds, and establishing a permanent open microphone network as a resource for artists, researchers, activists and other listeners.
We assemble and produce materials online and in print as contexts for The Live Archive which Reveil taps into and extends.
From a house perched on the rugged east-facing side of Mount Zion, at 1865 m/6120 ft above sea level, the view of sunrise is spectacular. Mount Zion is the first uplifted (remaining, continuing) expression of the Laramide Orogeny of the Rocky Mountains as they rise from the Great Plains of middle America. The view to the east is expansive and includes the town of Golden, Colorado, once the territorial capital, in the foreground; then comes the low North and South Table Mesa neither completely obscuring the view of the far horizon that is perhaps 75 mi. away towards the state of Kansas. The curvature of the earth is apparent, looking over this western edge of the Great Plains.
The live microphone feed will include a constant machinic whining from the Coors (Beer) Brewery that sits on the east side of Golden; along with that is the sucking hiss of cars driving at high speed along a piece of 6th Avenue; often there is a significant wind; possible early-morning runners and mountain bikers huffing up the Chimney Gulch trail below the house; all this interspersed with the conversational cries of the black-billed magpie (Pica hudsonia). There are red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis), and the occasional golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), a neighborhood dog barking, and lots of birds that I cannot name in the moment.
It had been a dry winter here, in the transition zone, though the mountains got plenty of snow, up until last weekend when we got 30 cm of wet springtime snow. Now things are quite green.
This stream is initiated by Dr. John Hopkins (aka neoscenes), a visual/sonic media artist, learning facilitator, information-space organizer. He holds a creative practices PhD from La Trobe University/University of Technology Sydney, an MFA from the University of Colorado Boulder (where he studied film under renown experimental film-maker, Stan Brakhage), and a BSc in Geophysical Engineering from the& Colorado School of Mines. His transdisciplinary research and workshops explore issues surrounding sustainable creative practices, ‘big-picture’ system views, networked & tactical media, distributed and community-based DIY and DIWO processes, networked creativity, and Temporary Autonomous Zones. His international media arts practice explores the role of energy in techno-social systems and the effects of technology on energized human encounter. He has taught across more than 20 countries and 60 higher education situations. He is currently organizing the geoscience dataspace and archive of the Colorado Geological Survey which, strangely enough, is now part of the aforementioned Colorado School of Mines… strange circles.
You may track his hopes for a ‘prosperous way down’ at: https://tech-no-mad.net/blog
Here’s a recording of the stream as it happened:
(01:45:23, stereo audio, 252.4 mb)
The neoscenes stream parameters:
Date: 06 May 0445-0600 MST UTC-6
Location: Golden, Colorado, USA
Streamer: John Hopkins
Link(s): https://streams.soundtent.org/2017/streams/utc-6_golden-colorado
Coordinates: N 39.7443396 / W 105.2327856″
Timezone: MDT UTC-6 — 6 hours behind London
Civil twilight (local time): 5:48 AM / 0548
Sunrise (local time): 6:17 AM / 0617
Broadcast window (London time): 12.12 – 13.39
Start time (approximate – London time): 13.25
TUNE IN HERE: soundcamp listen and my continuous stream that is live (though very quiet) now: https://streams.soundtent.org/2017/streams/utc-6_golden-colorado
The direct stream will be at https://locus.creacast.com:9001/neoscenes.m3u (open in iTunes or so…)
Reveil 24-hour live broadcast 2016
neoscenes joins the 2016 live broadcast of the Reveil 24-hour stream 2016 that is part of Soundcamp:
REVEIL relays the sounds of live open microphones provided by streamers around the world.
Starting on the morning of Saturday 30 April just before daybreak in Rotherhithe near the Greenwich Meridian, the Reveil broadcast tracks the sunrise west from microphone to microphone, following the wave of sound that loops the earth every 24 hours.
Sounds are provided by the LocusSonus network and other streamers, together with a collection of live audio sources assembled for this broadcast.
REVEIL is different from the vast majority of radio available online: it is not dedicated mainly to music or talk, and none of it is pre-recorded. Each sound is propagating live somewhere in real time.
Our aim is to open a space for listening to something else – especially, but not exclusively to non humans and from wild places – and in the course of one earth day to provide a sketch of this emerging field.
The Live Audio Archive is both paradoxical and fluid: streams come and go in response to technical issues, seasonal changes, and the movement of people and other creatures on different projects or migrations.
From the Prescott National Forest, (altitude 5400 ft/1650 m) in a third growth ponderosa or blackjack pine (Pinus ponderosa) forest, sitting on a 1.5 billion-year-old granite batholith, a live microphone feed before, during, and after dawn brings the sounds of the common ground-dove (Columbina passerina), red-naped sapsucker (Sphyrapicus nuchalis), common raven (Corvus corax), and a variety of other birds, some neighborhood dogs, a few wind-chimes, the occasional susseration of automobiles in the distance, and the wind in the pines. It’s springtime, but after ten weeks of late winter that broke all records on heat and lack of precipitation, the environment is stressed and desperate for any moisture. Wildfires, once seasonal, may now start at any time of year.
This feed is sent from the small under-reconstruction cabin studio of Dr. John Hopkins (aka neoscenes), a visual/sonic media artist and learning facilitator. He holds a creative practices PhD from La Trobe University/University of Technology Sydney, an MFA from the University of Colorado Boulder (where he studied film under renown experimental film-maker, Stan Brakhage), and a BSc in Geophysical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. His transdisciplinary research and workshops explore issues surrounding sustainable creative practices, ‘big-picture’ system views, networked & tactical media, distributed and community-based DIY & DIWO processes, networked creativity, and Temporary Autonomous Zones. His international media arts practice explores the role of energy in techno-social systems and the effects of technology on energized human encounter. He has taught across more than 20 countries and 60 higher education situations. He is currently hunting for meaningful work in a social system that is itself under severe psycho-spiritual duress. Is this the beginning of collapse?
Here’s a recording of the stream as it happened:
(01:25:21, stereo audio, 207.2 mb)
The neoscenes stream parameters:
Date: 30 April 0445-0600 MST UTC-7
Location: Prescott, Arizona, USA
Streamer: John Hopkins
Link(s): https://streams.soundtent.org/2016/streams/utc-7_prescott-arizona
Coordinates: N 34 31′ 48.763″ / W 112 28’56.712″
Timezone: MST UTC-7 [no DST] 8 hours behind London
Civil twilight (local time): 5.12 AM / 0512
Sunrise (local time): 5.39 AM / 0539
Broadcast window (London time): 13.12 – 13.39
Start time (approximate – London time): 13.25
TUNE IN HERE: My continuous stream is live between 29 April – 01 May [and of course, during the broadcast window listed above]: https://streams.soundtent.org/2016/streams/utc-7_prescott-arizona
OR AT my direct locus-sonus stream: https://locus.creacast.com:9001/neoscenes.m3u (this URL is live sporadically before and after the actual dawn stream time period). You can copy/paste the address into iTunes (use ‘File’ menu — ‘Open Stream’ option), or other mp3 players once it’s live. Headphones recommended to capture the ethereal density of the stream!
Reveil is in collaboration with the International Dawn Chorus Day.
Reveil 24-hour live broadcast 2015
ss.jpg "Reveil 24-hour live broadcast 2015, online and Prescott, Arizona, May 2015")
neoscenes joins in another live streaming broadcast with the Reveil 24-hour live broadcast 2015 that is one project of Soundcamp:
We organise overnight soundcamps where people can sleep outside and investigate the sounds of unusual locations, especially at daybreak.
We transmit REVEIL: a 24 hour radio broadcast that tracks sunrise around the globe, relaying live audio streams from collaborating artists, independent channels, and a variety of streaming media assembled for the event.
We are a platform for artistic and trans disciplinary work in the emerging field of live streaming audio.
We contribute to research and development of open source solutions for relaying live sounds, and establishing a permanent open microphone network as a resource for artists, researchers, activists and other listeners.
We assemble and produce materials online and in print as contexts for The Live Archive which Reveil taps into and extends.
From the Prescott National Forest, (altitude 5400 ft/1650 m) in a third growth ponderosa or blackjack pine (Pinus ponderosa) area, sitting on a 3.5 Billion-year-old granite batholith, a live microphone feed before, during, and after dawn brings the sounds of the common ground-dove (Columbina passerina), red-naped sapsucker (Sphyrapicus nuchalis), common raven (Corvus corax), and a variety of other birds, neighborhood dogs, the over-powered air-conditioning system that the empty neighbor’s house has running, a wind-chime, the occasional automobile, and wind in the pines. It’s definitely spring, so there may also be the sound of some of the flying insects that are out in large number.
This feed is sent from the studio of Dr. John Hopkins (aka neoscenes), a visual/sonic media artist and learning facilitator. He holds a creative practices PhD from La Trobe University/University of Technology Sydney, an MFA from the University of Colorado Boulder (where he studied film under renown experimental film-maker, Stan Brakhage), and a BSc in Geophysical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. His transdisciplinary research and workshops explore issues surrounding sustainable creative practices, ‘big-picture’ system views, networked & tactical media, distributed and community-based DIY and DIWO processes, networked creativity, and Temporary Autonomous Zones. His international media arts practice explores the role of energy in techno-social systems and the effects of technology on energized human encounter. He has taught across more than 20 countries and 60 higher education situations. He is currently materializing a successful Kickstarter project in the mountains of Arizona and serving as education adviser to the Ecosa Institute.
Here’s a recording of the stream as it happened:
(01:07:04, stereo audio, 161 mb)
The neoscenes stream parameters:
Date: 01 May 0445-0600 MST UTC-7
Location: Prescott, Arizona, USA
Streamer: John Hopkins
Link(s): https://www.soundtent.org/2015/streams/streams_2015_UTC-7_prescott.html
Coordinates: N 34 31′ 48.763″ / W 112 28’56.712″
Timezone: MST UTC -7 [no DST] 8 hours behind London
Civil twilight (local time): 5:12 AM
Sunrise (local time): 5:39 AM
Broadcast window (London time): 1312 – 1339
Start time (approximate – London time): 1325
TUNE IN HERE: https://wavefarm.org/ and my continuous stream that is live (though very quiet) now: https://www.soundtent.org/2015/streams/streams_2015_UTC-7_prescott.html
Reveil is in collaboration with the International Dawn Chorus Day.
You’re born, you start crawling
You’re born, you start crawling, then you stand up and walk. But you have to live upright, not just walk upright, you have to live upright.
So says Alex, a Russian/Moldavian/Polish/Jewish metal fabricator that I will talk to in front of his open garage for some time.
I had a flat tire on my bike — the one time I go out on some errands without my pump. I had stopped to make some ambient recordings on the way home, and during the third stop, when I was done, I started to get on the bike and the rear tire was dead flat. This, two miles from home. So, start walking and after a long time, as I get close to home, I hear a whistle which I ignore. It goes again, a shrill whistle, so I look in the direction, across the street a man is gesturing me to come over. So, I do. A conversation ensues and ends with the above statement after a half-hour. We discover that yet again, my inner-tube has sheared at the stem, annoying. With no fix accomplished despite Alex digging up a new valve, conversation turns to his history — as a “master mechanic, welder, and fabricator” he worked in the oil biz in Siberia and elsewhere. Long stories. I am invited back for a beer and a longer conversation. I will do this, with camera and recorder. Another interesting encounter in Prescott.
eine sondersendung von radio aporee und colaboradio
Udo cranks up yet another collaborative streaming project linked to https://radio.aporee.org. So neoscenes joins in for the first time in a while — setting up the Nicecast stream and using the H4n to stream ambient quiet neighborhood sounds from The Mountain Club neighborhood.
1900 GMT+2 / 10 AM GMT-7 until tomorrow 1100 GMT+2 / today 11 PM GMT-7
It’s also going out on https://senderberlin.org and FM 88.4MHz (Berlin) / FM 90.7MHz (Potsdam).
TUNE IN!
radio aporee spezial
eine sondersendung von radio aporee und colaboradio
radio aporee
radio aporee continuously plays recordings from its global soundmap project. however, it’s a responsive stream of sound, a radio that listens, that may (or may not…) recognize and react to events, e.g. new sound uploads, listeners tuning in, mobile app activity, live sessions, phone calls etc. it’s an ongoing experiment and exploration of affective geographies and new practices related to sound/art and radio.
radio aporee ::: maps has started 2006, based on former artistic research on mapping, spatial conditions and the navigation between the real and the virtual. The idea being to connect sound and space, and to create a cartography which focuses solely on sound, and open it to the public as a collaborative project. It contains 1000s of recordings from numerous urban, rural and natural environments, showing the sonic complexity of these environments, as well as the different perception and artistic perspectives related to sound, space and places.
radio aporee 52° 29′ 66″ N, 13° 25′ 26″ E ::: maps https://aporee.org/maps/ ::: stream https://radio.aporee.org ::: miniatures for mobiles https://aporee.org/mfm/
M of IT – Day 17 – 24 October
week 9:
24 october – day 17 – MID-term exam in-class
asides (extra credit – 3-400 word blog entry on one of these):
biomodd
Dark Social: We Have the Whole History of the Web Wrongfacebook demetricator (creative programming project)
faceless: the movie (trailer)
Tactical Technology Collective
appropedia (appropriate technology wiki)
open source ecology
farmitracker (genocide tracker)
finnagain
*
*
*j*
*
*
Now I am thoroughly disgusted.
GBU. snafu.
New York rubber rooms:
Rubber Hobo Economies, R.H.E.,U.S.A.:
Today my face is the Good the Bad the Ugly,
with 51 percentz lezz guudz ….
The Diet (of amplification)
of Juvenile Automata ….
HeisenHower: the prophecy of MICocracy:
the millenary idiom-dusty compress:
head-test traumaturgy:
the statement was already *quaint*
when it was made …. once upon a time:
bedtime story: “the news”: since that phase
of the metastasis of weapons-prod had begun
during the 1930s: German Japanese Tempires:
“fuses” set to explode: armor: tanks: radar:
V2 rocket:
ME 262 jet-aircraft: Fat Man Little Boy:
The Super:
these
were accomplished: *fait accompli*
when the HeisenHower spoked. A spook.
The factories had been operational for more
than a decade. HH, some ghost memorial out
of Shookspeer, Spookmerde.
Savant, Sirrpants,
of Pobolick Uppiniun.
My perceptions now correspond with Buñuel.
I cannot regard the *hiccup* the *halitosis*
proper to politic: the law: as something
other than Alibi, Hypnosis, Amnesia.
AHA.
Ubu roi.
Franz Kafka: the trial: the castle: the alibi.
I do not regard the texts as satires of “20th-
century bureaucracy”: the texts examine the
absurd consistency (Kurt Gödel) of the crazy
quilt of the Austro-Hungarian Empire: AHE:
“a family saga”: “tree”: minus “the family”:
*holy* family: the law exists *passively:* as in
the illusion: “time passes”: the law accumulates
(constipation of the cloud) and absorbs:
its function is intestinal: the apparition:
“the doom” of all who “enter” and “serve” it:
it performs no active intelligence, no perception:
it borrows “everything” “it has”:
Poe: The Conqueror Worm:
The famous *blindness* of Oedipus: exists *intestinally:*
labyrinth: blind intestine:
sphincter: riddle of the sphinx:
payment: prepare to receive: the word:
awe: the key: substrate of law:
to fast: to cleanse the ambient atmospheric body
of vain intestinal combats:
Roland Barthes: *I am sick of images* [image: as
blind accumulation: identity: (commercial) brand:]
The reporter in Antonioni’s *Passsenger:*
he knows disgust: he loathes: the image:
which imprisons him: society: social propriety:
the succubus:
metallurgy: bullets armors:
weapons sold within the church:
Joyce: hit upon it:
*Finnagain:*
to spell “correctly”:
is to cooperate: with succubistic law:
Enjoy the hills, the rills ….
A
mapping: or not
All that writing is is a protocol: a reductive way of describing reality. The best writing more deeply invokes the energetic nature and spirit of reality’s flow. The closer that writing lies to an individual framing of lived experience, the more powerfully it moves life, moves lives.
Taking walks with Luna a few times a day. Will explore the canyon edges (at the bottom). It’s an extremely interesting locale. It seems to have been isolated from heavy Western ranching that I thought was a feature here in Glade Park. Most typical areas of cryptobiotic soil are undisturbed. But with a well 600+ feet deep, no historic use of water, aside from the ambient fall, which is scant.
It did rain yesterday, a heavy passing shower in the night, starting on Thursday evening. The air was as the air in the last night and day in Dinosaur — dry for the prior month or two — then, after a fine rainfall the whole, the everything swelled up with sensations to be received (gratefully).
The scale of the place is very interesting — it is an intimate canyon. With the scale effect on human movement similar to Echo Park’s but without the massive 600-foot cliffs. Here they are perhaps 100 feet on average. Sometimes overhung, sometimes in cross-bedded and gentle sloping sinuosity looking like pink skin. The site of flash-floods, there are some massive water-transported boulders, and many small ones. But most the erosion is evident with the sandstone itself, which rots and powders quickly, in human-scaled time even.
Model assumptions: Dynamic Energy Budgets
- There are two state variables: structural body volume and energy reserve density.
- There are six energy fluxes: assimilation; somatic maintenance; somatic growth; maturation; maintenance of the state of maturity; and reproduction. These energy fluxes are irreversible.
- There are maximally three life stages: embryo’s, which neither feed nor reproduce; juveniles, which may feed but do not reproduce; and adults, which may feed and reproduce.
- The rate of food uptake is proportional to the surface area of an organism, and is a hyperbolic function of the food density.
- Energy assimilated from food becomes part of the reserves. The dynamics of the energy reserve density are first order, with a rate that is inversely proportional to the length of an organism.
- A fixed fraction of the energy flowing out of the reserves is used by somatic tissue (somatic maintenance and growth), and the remainder is used for maturity maintenance, and maturation or reproduction (stored until reproductive event); maintenance demands have priority. This partitioning of energy cancels when somatic maintenance needs cannot be fulfilled; then somatic maintenance demands have priority.
- The chemical compositions of structure and reserves are constant. Thus, the following are constant:
- the conversion efficiency of food into energy;
- the cost to maintain a unit of structure;
- the cost to form a unit of structure;
- the cost to maintain the acquired state of maturity;
- the cost to mature a unit of structure;
- the cost to form a unit of reproductive matter.
- Life stage transitions occur when the cumulative amount of energy that is spent on maturation exceeds a threshold. An embryo initially has a negligible amount of structure. With eggs, the energy reserve density of the embryo at hatching equals that of its mother during egg formation. A foetus develops at a rate that is independent of the reserve density of the mother; at birth, its energy reserve density equals that of the mother. Micro-organisms divide into daughter cells a constant interval after the initiation of DNA replication; replication starts at a threshold size.
- There is one state variable for each toxic compound: the density of that toxicant in the aqueous fraction of structure.
- There is one independent compartment: the aqueous fraction of structure. The density of toxicant in the aqueous fraction of structure is always in equilibrium with the toxicant density in other parts of the body (dry fraction of structure, reserves and stored resources for reproduction). Toxicants are exchanged with the ambient through the aqueous fraction of structure.
- Toxicants in ingested food are assimilated with a constant efficiency. Other toxicants in the environment are taken up at a rate that is proportional to the surface area of an organism and the ambient toxicant concentration.
- The rate of toxicant removal (excluding the release of reproductive matter) is proportional to the surface area of an organism and the toxicant density in the aqueous fraction of structure.
- Toxicants do not affect energy budgets when their density in the aqueous fraction of structure is below a fixed value, the no-effect concentration (NEC). At higher levels, the effective toxicant concentration is proportional to the density in the aqueous fraction of structure corrected for the NEC.
- The flow of energy declines as a hyperbolic function of the effective toxicant density. Demand driven fluxes (maintenance demands) are compensated such that the net commitment to maintenance increases linearly with the effective toxicant concentration.
- Toxicants act on different energy fluxes with equal strength.
Nisbet, R.M., Effects of Metal Toxicants on the Energy Budgets of Marine Organisms: A Modeling Approach. Available at: https://www.coastalresearchcenter.ucsb.edu/scei/Metaltox.html.
BogoTrax: Berlin/Bogota
Tapping in to the network started by the bogotrax crew, neoscenes sends an ambient mix signal to the street party in Bogota via Berlin.
Since 2004 Bogotrax is a self-made mixture of social action, street-arts, and retro-avant-garde. To present it as a festival of electronic music and culture could be a first stop in the way to a more complex strategy of social and artistic experimentation. But it could also be an easy way to consume it as a more or less wild product of bored entertainers. If you haven’t make the choice, we’re on our way to help you!
changing the course of nature
Changing the course of nature, a series of actions, grew out of a fundamental principle that the embodied and living Self (as organism) alters the existing flows of the ambient natural system — the system which the Self is (merely) the energized extension of. If one envisions life itself as being a negentropic phenomena occurring as part of a field of energy without known limit, then it makes some recursive sense that a life-form would seek to extend the alteration of the flows that are moving around it, through it. Predation is a form of this, eating, consuming; sensing even could be construed to be an alteration (as Quantum) confirms — that the observer changes that which is observed. Alteration, fluctuation, change occurs at all scales.
One easily accessible phenomena that presents the idea of energy flow with a certain universal precision and intuitive simplicity is water. Fluid flow surrounds the body in water vapors, airs, sprays, and floods, while we also consume this flow directly, finding necessary sustenance for the body-system. Although the internal system is, topologically, simply an extension of the surface area of the external skin — both skin and gut are sensitive interfaces with submerging energized flows — with liquid energy flows everywhere.
Life speeding up entropy …
more “changing the course of nature”
Tempora mutantur
Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis
verily on the road. but many complexities to solve or let spin away. walking in the High Country clears head, but raises certain questions. as does convocation time with good friends. influence comes from all directions with the flows of ambient energy. some are more powerful than others. subtlety is a factor.
road :: amplifier / the difference?
The amplifier/road difference would sound something like this:
I defined the amplifier as a concept which exists at many different scales and in both ‘natural’ and human-dominated systems (though that particular dialectic is a problematic one). It is a system which concentrates (and by default attenuates) energy flows. It is a defined set of pathways for that energy to flow along. (a life-form is an amplifier!)
(As an example, fundamental physical laws, such as the set of principles—gravitational attraction, strong/weak nuclear forces, EM radiation, thermodynamics, etc.—’govern’ the process of stellar evolution and ‘supply’ the ‘protocols’ for the ‘expression’ of Light energy (radiation) in a highly specific and concentrated form (compared to the availability of that same energy in any random location in the universe).
In essence, humans are simply harnessing these physical laws to form their own pathways of energy flow. Indeed we can do nothing else, as these laws govern the entire observed and implied universe. So the difference between the amplifier and the protocols that ‘define’ it may only be question of articulation — that is, those physical laws, in human terms, simply exist (for us to discover and articulate over time). The protocols arise as humans initiate articulations of the extant energy flows within which we simply are. So the protocol is, again, merely, a human (socio-linguistic) reduction of observed and extant phenomena. We cannot do anything counter to those phenomena that those laws are ascribed to. However, using these reductive protocols/formula, we set up a wide variety of sub-systems which, cumulatively, are our techno-social systems — complex systems of re-routed energies. As soon as energy is re-routed, you have an amplifier situation because you consequently have a concentration/attenuation of flows. An amplifier is perhaps merely the condition of the existence of a concentration of energies. (this does get into the question of the role of, for example, gravity as a ‘protocol’ which drives the coalescing of energized matter in the universe — or is gravity actually increasing the entropy of that matter?)
change
The argument may be made that a fence, a window, an article of clothing, a wall are — one-and-the-same — deflectors of the extant natural flow of energies out there. They represent a set of energy deflectors imposed by humans on their environs.
The other issue, tied to this is the production of waste (unusable) heat energy which impinges on a locality after the use of high energy sources which are subsequently rendered into usable and unusable forms of energy with varying efficiency. The primary source of this unusable energy is in the actual production and maintenance of the energy deflector systems: making and installing a fence, fabricating a window (glass being an extremely energy-intensive manufacturing process), building a wall, a building, a dam. more “change”
bathroom ambience
48-Stunden Neukoellen 2010 : flickering wastelands IV
Clui: Day Five — tangential contact
In the sonic realm, this part of the western desert (the spatial extent defined by precipitation at least) seems, at first, quiet. Stepping out of the car after a bruising day of fighting the wheel, ah, only the susurration of blood pumping in the ears. But, despite this initial impression, human intrusion in the western desert is never silent. The ambient pre-human sonic domain is defined by a few animals making occasional signals “I am here.” Ravens and coyotes are perhaps the noisiest, with others following in a rapidly declining decibel range. Wind is mostly, literally, in the ear of the beholder as a register of turbulent flow around the aural orifice but occasionally one is in a place where the wind makes some secondary sound (in a riparian regime, in seasonal leaves, or whistling around a certain rock formation, but these are rare and difficult to record without exceptional and expensive equipment). Otherwise, then, there is only the human incursion. This incursion is typically related to the movement of those intrusive humans through the domain as few have the desire to stop and actually hear silence. The few who volunteer or are forced to stop for a longer time are not necessarily prone to sonic disturbances, though that group, as a whole, are dominated by willing or unwilling participants in the military-industrial machine. The balance, a small remainder, are likely seeking the silence. The members of the machine make plenty of noise via everything from weapon systems testing to mining to toxic waste incineration, but access to these secretive sonic sources are for the select, not the transitory rabble.
Those engaged in field recording are left with the experience of tangential contact. That is, functioning as a stationary point, recording the arrival and departure of a nearby transport vector — trains, planes, and cars. Given the proper conditions, especially the lack of wind, these can make interesting (and startling) recordings. Trucks may be heard many miles away and render an impossibly slow Doppler shifting that is also modulated by differential density and velocity metrics of the intervening air. Planes are often more difficult as the most dramatic contact is with the low-flying fighter aircraft which will show up practically without warning and are so loud that recording is impossible. The db peak of that tangential contact pegs the meter. Before the air-to-ground missiles are launched at you, the target, and field incursions become moot.
So, what to do? Muddle along. Hit the casinos. Though I’ve been tossed out of those in the distant past for making photographs, the H4 Zoom looks suspicious, so I think it also will attract attention from security for sure. Ach.
Sydney Non-Objective Gallery exhibition
[ed: An excerpt of neoscenes::drift was recently included in the Sydney Non-Objective Catalogue and CD 2005-2010, SNO Gallery, Sydney, AU, 2010 (gallery catalog and audio CD) ISBN 978-0-9805877-3-9, Mar 2010]
reflections on neoscenes :: drift
lost in a maelstrom of sonic simulations and stimulations, re-collected, re-presented, via various creato-destructive algorithmic methodologies, drift moves through many post-cartesian spaces and through several parallel universes. depending on your frame of reference you may follow a similar path. or you may not. drift demands relativity and provides quantum realism.
(01:00:00, stereo audio, 115 mb)
blurb for SNO gallery exhibition web site, November 2009, NSW, Australia:
drift arises from an ordered archive of ambient phonographic fragments recorded over the past twenty years or so. From this archive improvisational works are assembled: indeterminate and reductive modulations that critically sample the flow of embodied be-ing. Known objects and discrete events populate our world only because we are social animals who have learned the dominant protocols of the techno-social system that we inhabit. This condition is especially onerous with the protocols circumscribing the failed (object-oriented) materialist worldview. drift consciously moves algorithmically with-in and with-out of recognizable protocols, acknowledging that without these memory-impressed protocols, all immediate experience becomes an incomprehensible flow. However, the cosmos we participate in, and indeed, are part of, is composed of these flows and comprehension is an illusion. What we know is only the temporal persistence of patterns in our embodied consciousness which resonate with an attenuated selection of those flows. drift simulates the full signal width of the flows, recognizable or not, and simply transits the field which is the present.
on participation, part one
I was telling someone the other day that I am a good participant. I know how to jump into a situation and contribute in a way that is sensitive to the ambient flows that are happening at the same time as clearly manifesting a unique set of contributing flows. Perhaps a bit too conservative in respecting the paths of those ambient flows, but it’s probably better to be slightly more conservative than liberal. Uhh, such loaded terms. Useless words after they are so distorted by socio-politics of certain cultural configurations. Although it is ironic to note that here in Australia their political meaning is in (antipodal) opposition. Which simply emphasizes the idiocy of politics (as Peter Tosh observed once: Politics, “poli” means people, “ticks” are parasites, politics, parasites on the people). Words, language, always tends to go through this reification process. Followed by a morphing process when the reified language becomes overwhelmed when attempting to explicate new situations or when circumscribing known situations with a different point-of-view. The reified structures will be bolstered and protected until usage simply makes them redundant.
more “on participation, part one”
affects and intentions
The idea comes that I can place different narratives and sonifications in the aporee context, making a global mapping of ideas mixed with sounds mixed with voices. But somehow this seems flat. Not that the platform lacks some aesthetic appeal, but the tendency would be to continue the same old process of archive-building (with the same old criteria of acquisition of material). Or, I thought about making a performative series in the Speakers Corner in the Domain. Still, the best idea to this moment is the one where I would simply engage with this material with one Other, expanding on it, presenting it in a dialogic setting, and reproducing that. Or this dialogic situation as a live performative undertaking with an audience.
more “affects and intentions”
Splinter Orchestra
(00:31:52, stereo audio, 61.2 mb)
Better late than never. Postings fall by the wayside in the stead of other text-generation. Shannon invites me along to a late evening live broadcast performance of The Splinter Orchestra on the New Music Up Late program from the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Goossens performance hall/studios across the street from UTS in Ultimo. Small intimate event—nothing like live-broadcasting to intensify the energy of a performance. it is energy that governs this form of performance, like all other performance situations, but especially when moving somewhat outside the established paradigm for music. restraint drove it. by this I mean that a low-level seeking-to-arrive at a ephemeral flow, a confluence that gathers all available input but is never overwhelmed by any one source. this generates a certain tension which then carries the listener through time with an imminence of potential.
Not very satisfied with my image documentation, though. Just haven’t been in a documentation/concert mode for such a long time. Images get stale at some point, and I never did like to interject the snapping camera into live performances unless there is plenty of ambient noise (think Ted Nugent).
café ambient
bush-walking
Today, after that small amount of moisture in the night, the entire place is vibrating. When standing still, there is a loud and continuous background buzzing that is non-specific in source direction. Standing near a particular blossoming plant, there is the sensation of particular bees and other insects doing their thing, but otherwise, there is this background humming that has no point source but rather simply is — like the hissing of blood in the ear.
On the way in to Sycamore Spring both times, I note the existence of a lone Cottonwood tree growing up in the middle of a lightly sloping alluvial fan below a sizable unnamed mesa. The only possibility for a Cottonwood to be there is water, and plenty of it. A good objective for a bushwhack. After the numerous encounters with slithering and rattling things yesterday, attention to movement and especially foot placement becomes aligned with breathing. Of course, any movement has to be calculated when in such an environment. Miscalculated movement will be punished by some extremely sharp and pointed object intersecting and likely penetrating the body wall. I escape these four days with only two of those painful encounters, both arising in the thin slice of time between a visual scan of upcoming terrain and a glance at some specific object within the field of view. Then aiiii-shit! as the pain jolts upwards from compromised shin.
This bushwhack takes me to the Cottonwood. It looks to be around a hundred years old, there are a few other water-seeking plants, a tamarisk, rooted in a whitish rock ledge. Apparently some near-surface water is available. Paradise in the shade under the tree. Except for the stench of death which I trace to the desiccating corpse of a cow 20 meters away in the scrub. The shifting wind brings eye-watering wafts on occasion, but otherwise I spend an hour or two soaking up the energy of being under the lush green canopy surrounded by hard-core Sonoran desert. It is a singularity like Sycamore Spring on a smaller scale and with no running surface water.
Minuscule F/A-18 fighters are frequently dog-fighting in the airspace above. In the day and night. Moving in and out of unaided vision, tightly circling each other, dropping flares, and, with afterburners, roaring in such volume that all ambient sound is swallowed. For our nation’s security. So it goes.
Otherwise, commercial flight contrails gradually fill the sky with high-level cirrus clouds that soften the terrain and its re-radiative impact, but this effect diminishes the Light of the desert — and with that, its nature; along with distorting the energy flux among the organisms living here. They did not evolve with spent jet fuel clouds hanging overhead to shade them from the burnishing sun. This is a problem. Just another problem that the human species have applied through their amplification system — this is the waste product, waste energy, which alters the environment.
The rest of the day is a slow and rambling return to base. Run across some small mining digs, one trenched into a pegmatite dike that includes some coarsely crystallized black tourmaline with its classic trigonal (rhombohedral hemimorphic) cross-sections. Someone has tramped this land, and in the hunt for extractive wealth, has, literally, left no stone un-turned. The West is everywhere scarred by these digs from small two-meter test pits to the massive kilometer-wide open-pit gashes. That mineral bonanza, that natural ‘surplus’ regime drove and still drives the development of the West. Straight north of here about 15 kilometers, is the Phelps-Dodge copper/molybdenum open-pit monstrosity. Without which, well, as the old Colorado School of Mines bumper sticker suggested — Ban Mining, Let the Bastards Freeze in the Dark — the developed world could not exist.
tools to thrive
spend the afternoon at a meeting with a group of about 15 enthusiastic Mizzou students who are interested in fundamental issues around sustainability and social activism. the meeting (Open Sustainability Network Mid-Missouri, under the title Tools to Thrive. hosted by Richard Schulte, one of the founders of the Mid-Missouri group (which is connected to the umbrella Open Sustainability Network). OSN-MM is also the initiator of the Columbia Missouri Exchange Circle. Lonny Grafman, the featured presenter, is a lecturer at Humboldt State University and is the founder of Appropedia Foundation, the self-proclaimed sustainability wiki which provides a public platform for information on sustainable community practices along with pertinent knowledge-sets for implementation. Lonny is also the Executive Editor of International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering (IJSLE). He introduced some of his work in the form of a presentation Democracy Unlimited Humboldt County Rainwater: A Case Study in Open Source Community Action for Sustainability which explored community activism in deployment of sustainable (in this case, domestic rainwater gathering) systems. words: creation of human networks … the search for a deliverable … starts with a sonic ambient exploration a rainstorm … examples of rainwater sequestering … Bechtel in Bolivia … anthropocentric impurities … a lesson in rainwater catchments: free … local infrastructures generate independence / autonomy. Too many details at first. without the principles of appropriate technology use — public perception, policy situation, know-how, resources, initiative, currency in Humboldt … hemp paper, soy inks … Temporary Autonomous Zone break-out groups: creation and organization of more and better public art; bike-powered something; CSPAN (Columbia Sustainability Policy Action Network); local economy (in general); moving from thought to action; facilitating dialogue; sustainable creative activism; expanding the sustainability community; empathy and interconnectedness; rooftop gardens where possible on campus; community networking club celebrations, gardening; organizing / participating in one implementation workshop for a physically appropriate technology setup; less plastic use, healthy local food, teaching sustainability to children … sorry no more detailed notes, I had to leave right after the break-out sessions to meet Nick and Deb to look at houses. I cycle across downtown from campus to the Walgreens where I lock the bike and go in to buy a snack. when I come out I wander across the parking lot looking for Deb’s car. a chubby white woman gets out of a sedan and asks me if I need a ride. she says she normally doesn’t do that, but I looked like I wasn’t a killer and that she’d be happy to help me out. I say no, no thanks, I’m just waiting for friends to pick me up. mid-western courtesy? I’m wearing a black leather biker’s jacket, black jeans, black half-gloves and a baseball cap from Germany, and dark brown sunglasses. who’s she kidding? she must have been one of those mild-mannered mid-western serial killers. just then Deb pulls up. saved! Nick stayed with the kids, so we drive into the countryside to some small towns looking at houses. the area is really depressed, many empty storefronts on Main Street. and this area is relatively affluent compared to much of the rest of the state. it would be very interesting to travel through these areas and document what is happening. sustainability? indeed. things are not sustained here. help is needed.
thesis proposal :: Background
Background for Research
While individual human presence in this world has fundamental repercussions on be-ing, it is the ever-present and synergistic exchange between humans — forming what I call a “continuum of relation” — that governs much of life. This energetic field of human relation is sometimes fraught with difficulties and complications in spite of the rich and necessary dynamic it brings to life. Technology, as a ubiquitous factor in mediating human relation, often dominates while presented as providing the only opportunity for mediated connection and interaction between humans.
Presence, as apprehended by the Other, circumscribes a range of sensory inputs that require energy (from the Self) to stimulate and drive. The efficacy and sustainability of human connection builds on the very real and tangible transmissions and receptions of energy between the Self and the Other. An interconnected plurality of dialectic human relation may be described as a network. These networks, made up of a web of Self-Other connections form the base fabric of the continuum of relation. Technology appears in these networks as the mediating pathway that is the carrier of energy from node to node, person to person. Technological systems also appear to apply absolute restraints on and attenuation of the idiosyncratic flows inherent in that continuum of relation. The discrete objects that populate the (technological) landscape of the continuum of relation and that modulate the character of communications are literally artifacts of a materialist point of view. A primary assumption in my research is that a materialist or mechanistic view of the world no longer suffices to adequately circumscribe the phenomena occurring within the continuum of relation. more “thesis proposal :: Background”
pool
seven visits to the pool, either Vesturbaer or Laugardalur, sunny after the fog rolls back by late morning. old folks doing aquarobics. what’s different in Iceland this time? seems all the crosswalks and corners have been improved with stroller and handicapped ramps. that’s new. more cars. more construction, more fancy flats. more of all kinds of stuff. food, furniture, more foreigners, immigrants or whatever. people with different colored skin. not just tourists. uh.
(00:07:30, stereo audio, 18 mb)
the economy is in pretty bad condition with inflation cranking up as is the case in Eastern Europe, around ten percent. the Euro is around 127 kronur, the dollar at around 85, this makes the prices for local things slightly more reasonable than on previous visits. bus tickets are the same as in Berlin, the swimming pool tickets when buying ten at a time are just EUR 2.00. not bad. but food prices are increasing on a weekly basis. economics. this was the situation when I lived here in the early 90’s. not pleasant. stagflation.
drop by noisy opening of works by Hamish Fulton, and end up talking to a whole bunch of folks that I’ve not seen in years — Kees, Kristin, Ingolfur, and many others. strange to think how much I was into that sector of the society here all those years ago. how life makes pathways open and close.
(00:05:03, stereo audio, 9.7 mb)
and no visit to Reykjavík is complete without a stop at Hlemmer, the main city bus station, Iceland’s version of Port Authority in New York on a microscopic scale. the fringes of social behavior are relevantly displayed. notably, on this stop, a couple clothed teenagers demonstrating a variety tantric positions on one bench, faces making a range of slurping and sucking noises, whilst a Dutch tourist argues with the ticket lady about the bus schedule for the next morning. only the tourist is easily evidenced on the ambient sonic recording.
náttúra
Just away from the Björk and Sigur Rós náttúra event in Laugardalur. Chilled to the bone from standing for the last five hours up stage front. Damn Nikon battery went dead right upon arrival. (flickr shots); did some audio recording, but the wind was pretty blustery, so most of those samples will be useless, methinks. But maybe some short cuts or a remix piece. Never met Loki and the others, he didn’t want to come over before the show started, so I left the house to catch Ghostigital with Finnbogi Pétursson doing an two hour ambient remix performance under the name: that was okay. The whole event was so-so. Sigur Rós cranked through a 90-minute set with some interesting covers of previous work, and played well despite the chill, but frankly, the music seemed repetitive in a concert setting, compared to having an iTunes collection on shuffle play with a mix of experimental-slash-pop. There was a little electricity when Björk joined in one song as a drummer (a tentative one at that!). The smoke from the smoke machines just blew away. That’s what the energy felt like, it blew sideways away, towards the big LED screen where those not down front could see the artists close-up.
(00:11:59, stereo audio, 28.8 mb)
more Sigur Rós
(00:10:06, stereo audio, 24.3 mb)
some Björk:
(00:18:15, stereo audio, 43.8 mb)
And the next day’s newspaper noted that the entire park where the concert was held was completely filled with trash — bottles, cans, garbage everywhere: so much for the consciousness-raising aspect of the concert. People still seem to believe in some kind of remote ‘nature’ out there somewhere. Theoretical and not containing the Self as an extension. Or not even an extension, but simply part of it. period. Until there is a deep understanding of that, nothing will change.
Room Tone: counter-clockwise
Working with architects from around the world, I sent them three recordings of my apartment in Berlin. Trying to capture the space in sound, the recordings document the ambient, material and dimensional conditions of the apartment. The architects were then given the task of making a physical model of the apartment by having the sounds as their only directing information. In this way, a process of translation and interpretation unfolds, incorporating an understanding, however factual or fantastical, of the auditory into the process of rendering a spatial form. Room Tone, Brandon LaBelle
As an extension of his project Room Tone, Brandon invited me to make an ambient recording that sonically explored the mapping of personal living spaces — in this case, my apartment in Friedrichshain. I titled it “counter-clockwise.”
sharemtl & share nomad
a performance evening at tmp.lab that Marie-Hélène and Jim set up. I do some ambient sound work, but otherwise focus on the remote situation, monitoring the stream and partners in Chile and Canada. the functionality of the ustream.tv platform (Flash- and browser-based) is quite good with controls on stream quality, multi-point collaboration, a built-in chat channel, archiving, and so on. it would have been a dream for past projects! (all this with the caveat that the stream image has the branded logo of ustream.tv on it, and the company is clearly an eventually-for-profit enterprise. that and while the archival and sharing possibilities are very well-developed, so far I have not determined if it is possible to download stand-alone flash media files from the archive. to play, one needs access to the database — all data including the chat texts reside in their server.
Derek comes by. hinting that the Regime text scared off one of the panel for the Sonic Architectures conference in July, so, I won’t be involved in that event. (thanks for trying, Derek!) and on a reciprocal note, Rasa definitely wants to include it in Spectropia. albeit with references (huh? it’s a speculative essay, but they are seeking peer-review status) and at approximately half the finished length (oh, this is really an impossible challenge to cope with). so, not sure if I want to go through the work on major revisions instead of continuing on with the other chapters. it’s a book chapter, I don’t want to re-write it. but having it published in Spectropia would be nice. they always do really beautiful and innovative design work. so…
Art and Teaching Philosophy
ART
Art, at its social core, is the trace of an engaged and immersive pathway. A pathway that conducts the circulation and exchange of creative human energies as they are attenuated and directed by a vast range of mediative (materialized) carriers. The artist is that person who opens and offers the Self in a humane seeking: to engage in a dialogue of energies with an Other. Finding a proper pathway for those energies—transmitting: simultaneously receiving the expressions of the Other—this is the moving act of creativity. Creativity is the charged flow of energies between and through the Self and the Other over relative spaces and times.
These two proto-definitions are the basis of my art and teaching praxis. more “Art and Teaching Philosophy”
after the full moon
This was a night of the full moon, and the eclipse which takes place here in the early morning, well before sunrise, deeply affects the character of sleep. noting the next total lunar eclipse to be seen in North America is on the winter solstice 2010. I’m there!
And, I still haven’t found a vessel to pour milk from for my tea. I bought a small tea thermos a couple weeks ago in Kreutzberg, one that holds four cups or so. I take this to the desk with a small clear glass to drink from. but as I have to have my tea with milk, I need a small vessel of milk. so far, I’ve tried every option available in the flat. everything spills or dribbles! I may have to buy some small milk decanter. maybe a special antique if it leaps across my path. this reminds me of a previous long-term search a decade or more ago for a decent letter-opener. I had a nice hand-carved wooden one from Ghana, but it split, and I was never able to find another which fit my demands — good design, sharp, safe, efficient, nice material.
I just want to drink my tea while writing in concentrated peace and not leave blobs of drying milk on the desk.
anyway, the writing process. uff. this morning I have yet another stupid realization about my own process (doh!). the writing can be a script, a prescription to action, a narrative about possible action. and my narrow thoughts around a substantive text as a necessity for personal viability in the social system is a phantasm. actions based in the ideas that are danced around in the text can generate that viability as well. actions are often promoters of ‘better’ viability. (what is viability anyway? survival, thriving, materially, spiritually?) I always imagined myself as a person of action, but there is at least some tendency to talk and to words. what is done as action is often in the passive mode (observing, recording). actions that grow from that process are of ambient character — that is, they take the form of atmospheric presences, not active stances, positions, opinions. opinion was not accepted as a child. yes, interesting. so now, the last word is important. teaching allows for last words, although I consciously ask, in a classroom, for someone else to make the last word(s).
sotto voce (to brainstorms): A quick thought popped up as I struggle with some texts, sitting here in my sublet flat in east Berlin. As a person, I like to have the last word. What a lousy habit! In the learning situation, I consciously ask for someone, at the end of a class, to have the last word. I am thinking I will incorporate this more formally — to the degree that I pose the question (either to a volunteer or not) “S_, How about if you make a short (one minute) statement that you consider to be the last words for our session?”
When I’ve been doing this very informally, the reactions are quite interesting, with people vying for a last word a bit (people being anxious to leave and such), and then suddenly a consensus forms and the class ends. I think I’ll have to play with that idea/dynamic. I have the feeling it could be a powerful tool to impress (literally) the learning session into the self.
so, one conclusion is that, yes, the creation of a performance/exhibition situation that illustrates the idea (the script) is just as good as writing a text about it. the only difference is the social scale of audience.
of course, the dialogue, the one-to-one, as I define and act upon it, is a powerful (socially?) transformative process. but the relation of that action to social viability is highly … disconnected? I mean, there is the direct connection between the vital process of creating and sustaining a human community around ones-Self, or of embedding ones-Self in an extended community and ones survival, but this definition of survival seems to be somehow oblique to that of larger scale social viability. am I missing something obvious?
Michael Shanks
not sure where the link to Michael Shanks site comes up, but the syllabus for his course Ten Things is deLightful and incisive. he’s got some really interesting thoughts on the life of objects, the presence of humans, and the history of both.
If we look at processes as well as discrete objects, we can be led into a myriad of connections and trajectories. In the heterogeneous networking that is the engineering of a thing, there is no end to ramification. An artifact disperses through its scenarios, networks and genealogies of origination, manufacture, distribution, use and discard.
Interpretation, as re-articulation, can track certain affiliations or lines of connection, as I sketched with the aryballos. There is always more that remains unsaid, unacknowledged, unseen, because interpretation may not go down a particular track. This is so evident in archaeological fieldwork, or indeed in any scientific research, where there is always a choice to be made of what matters to the research interest. What is left behind, ignored or discarded is the background noise of history and experience. This is far from inconsequential. First, because something important may have been overlooked. Science constantly takes a second look at things and finds something that was missed. Second, because things stand out as significant against this background; without it there could be no story, no message, no understanding. Third, because this is the noise of the ambient everyday work that makes society what it is; it is the noise of the life of things constantly reweaving our social fabric. — Michael Shanks
I recently tracked down Andreas Voigt, a documentary film-maker who I met back in the early 1990’s at a film festival at Regnboginn in Reykjavík. He was present for the screening of his deeply moving black-and-white features made in and around Leipzig in the late 80’s and early 90’s during the early post-Cold Wars days (Letztes Jahr – Titanic and Leipzig im Herbst). He emails me that his most recent documentary, Mit Rentiernomaden über den Ural is on tonight. Christian and I watch while Steffi is out at choir practice. Very fine work.
another TAZ?
tmp.deluxe. call for interest. huh? a large empty space inside a renovated neoclassic building with high ceilings and big windows. controlled on the U1 line by two smiling-but-thuggish youngsters merely flashing their KVB identity cards. as a performance or so. fortuitous to have the right ticket. €2.10 normal tariff. not so cheap. I’m committed to a single round-trip maximum per day. how to do this when a typical day might require getting to four destinations or so. anyway, make it to the tmp.space. they are asking for proposals. slowly the space fills. black clothes, I’m no exception other than wearing faded jeans. there are two of us sitting at a raw chip-board table. call for interest. two large stacks of bluish-white A4 paper, two glass ash trays, one with a few pens cradled in it, one empty. the ubiquitous stench of cigarettes. why is that smell the quintessence of stale? somebody changes the music — electronica for death-metal or so. conversations trip along and don’t seem to get through the aesthetic miasma that is anchored in the stacks of paper and the ashtrays. following the reasoning, following the line. and attempting to insert energy into the situation. having seen and been seen. and a child in a pink t-shirt wanders around. Papa! Papa! making space-testing sounds. to locate herself in the space. doing this, she locates all other receivers in themselves. placing them in the stiff reserve of their aesthetic opinions which they trade in measures, lubricated by wine. locative media while Rome Burns. or is this an exaggeration? more “another TAZ?”
share
On the way in, a curious Indian national promotion in Bryant Park. A fashion show in a miniature Taj Mahal.
And finally met dear Keiko, hang for the evening, some nice performances. Do a little ambient mixing in later. Head home with Eric after he graciously offered a place to crash so that I didn’t have to negotiate the train to Jersey…
And am working on a redux audio of the evening.
OHV
Ready to vacate the camp ground: the omens and portents are not good.
Bbbbbrrrrrrrraaaaaaapapapapapapapapa, brapppapapapapapaaaaaaa.
Nothing like the amplified throb of hydrocarbon explosion to go to sleep by and to wake up by. Camping in a BLM (Bureau of Land Management) OHV (Off-Highway Vehicle) area. The premise is simple, the social system has generated devices, machines, both two-wheeled and four that allow a single driver to mount somewhat like a horse, and to ride at speed on rugged and steep terrain. For entertainment. (Note: three-wheeled machines were banned from production 25 years ago because of the vast toll of injuries and deaths which ensued as a fault of the basic design). The word entertainment is key. It is absolutely true, straddling one of these machines, with hydro-carbon explosions vibrating the body, landscape rushing by a high speed. The body transforms itself into the body of a god (or goddess). Speed and flight, and the power to conquer the land makes one a lesser though very carnal deity. It’s great fun. The wider world is narrowed down to a small slice of the road ahead and some limited peripheral vision that is otherwise masked with the (state-mandated) helmet. The system narrows to the challenge of moving forward along a pathway (state-defined, in this case, with designations for beginner, intermediate, and expert, like a ski area), maintaining forward motion and lateral balance while negotiating the shifts in speed and orientation. Essentially an immersive video-game experience. Back to the virtual. Hearing is both muted in the helmet, but also assaulted by the viciously loud hydrocarbon explosions happening with minimal attenuation between the legs, touch is overwhelmed by the vibrations of hands, holding onto the handlebars (feeling reduced by gloves) and actions reduced to wrist rotations for accelerating, and gripping for braking. Sight, limited by the helmet. Smell coming through a nose filter, and otherwise, smell and taste dominated by the grit of dust that chokes everything. This is circumscribed by my definition of virtual as that which entails an attenuation of sensual input to the body-system.
It’s a holiday weekend, one for remembering the dead, fallen heroes, and the reasons that nation-states exist. The right to bear arms under any circumstances.
A radio blasts into the night as soon as the working folks arrive late on the Friday evening for the three-day weekend. Motors are tuned, beer is drunk, laughter and shouting echoes around the local space. The local space is a mis-en-scene, a tableau. The trees are decorations to be cut for fire, nails inserted into and chopped with hatchets because they are there, extruding from what is taken simply for painted or projected backdrops.
The camp ground is, as darkness falls, a backdrop for yet another kind of entertainment to take place. The BLM has posted a regulations sign-board, but it is the victim of target shooting with large-gauge shot-guns. Most of the regulations are unreadable, peppered with holes leaving letters, words, whole sentences unreadable. No shooting so far this weekend yet, but it’s sure to happen. Our campsite has a mound of big red 12-gauge shotguns shells, spent, under one tree, and several hands full of high-power rifle shells of a variety of calibers scattered around. And every once in a while one sees side-arm shells. Spent ammunition. Broken glass, beer bottle tops. Past remembrance-of-the-dead weekends. Celebrated by shooting into the air, shooting the trees, shooting anything that looks non-human. Most of the time.
The ambient audio mix also contains material from the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas compound.
There is nothing that does not flow forth from the Dharma Realm, and nothing that does not return to the Dharma Realm.
bbbbbrrrrrrrraaaaaaapapapapapapapapa, brapppapapapapapaaaaaaa.
flashback
Montgomery Village Junior High School, MVJHS. seventh grade. Miss Burrough’s English class. was carrying a small Sony cassette recording deck. recall recording some of the top-100 pop hits off the radio, when home sick from school one day, and I wanted to play music at school during lunch with my friends. anyway, I covertly recorded part of class, including Miss Burrough’s yelling at us — she probably had very good reason as Gary, myself, Fritz, Bruce, and few others of us were constantly cutting up in class — she found out that I had made a recording, and I ended up in the principle’s office. my first foray into ambient phonography got me into big trouble.
opera?
Meet Sophea, from ‘podes to antipodes. Three continents in less than a year. Shaming our carbon footprints and our inst- & dis-abilities.
Earlier wandering around the Opera. and making a 15-minute piece skyline of Sydney along with some sonic work. that should end up being quite good — catching the ambient reflective sonic environment and the microscopic skyline with the video cam zoom on full. slowly and unstably tracing the man-made and natural intersection. earth and sky (back to the infinite half-spaces) — that is, the tracing of the separation of earth-bound objects and the sky. trouble, what trouble? can you pick out the numerous CCTV’s?
Over to Randwick, do the coast walk to Bronte, recording some lawn bowling, eating fish&chips. Once a decade enough on that score — last time was in London visiting Joanna in 1996. Sitting in the park that adjoins Bronte Beach, twiLight falling, the atmosphere cool, reduced, mellow. Somebody playing Bob Marley on a decent sound system, a rasta picnic at the beach. Hmmm, pretty nice lifestyle.
I am in my mother’s room. It’s I who live there now. I don’t know how I got here. Perhaps in an ambulance, certainly a vehicle of some kind. I was helped. I’d never have got there alone. There’s this man who comes every week. Perhaps I got here thanks to him. He says not. He gives me money and takes away the pages. So many pages, so much money. Yes, I work now, a little like I used to, except that I don’t know how to work any more. That doesn’t matter apparently. What I’d like now is to speak of the things that are left, say my goodbyes, finish dying — Samuel Beckett in Molloy
lanfranchis
First-responders on the way home last night. On the way back from checking out the local sonic scene and to meet Shannon and Rick for their solo performances at LanFranchis, a (the!) local alternative space — reminded me very much of FishBon in Santa Barbara except folks were smoking. Also met Katherine, a creative writing student at UTS. The performances were good with a decent 5.1 sound system. It would have been nice to do a mix like I did for leplacard in Helsinki two weeks ago. Here’s an ambient mix from the evening.
Make it to Bondi this morning after long transport delays.
Other notes on the antipodes: clouds (definitely the wrong word!) of black fruit bats the size of fat and dumpy seagulls drift (definitely do not fly!) in the late twiLight airs above the treetops. A … disturbing … sight. Not for its natural curiosities, but for the way the beasts move — as though they are in a drunken haze of meditative zen tranquility while moving across a space of thick gaseous vortices, all lying at the bottom of the sea, and me looking upwards.
The next note: so far, while the National Art Museum has a permanent exhibition of Aboriginal Art, I have seen only two drunk Koori around Kings Cross — near the 20-meter-high Coke advertisement. Enough said. Maybe a dumb idea along with this Colonial geometry but I would like to get a decent didje for working the breath when next in desert lands.
The whole world was asleep. Everything was quiet, nothing moved, nothing grew. The animals slept under the earth. One day the rainbow snake woke up and crawled to the surface of the earth. She pushed everything aside that was in her way. She wandered through the whole country and when she was tired she coiled up and slept. So she left her tracks. After she had been everywhere she went back and called the frogs. When they came out their tubby stomachs were full of water. The rainbow snake tickled them and the frogs laughed. The water poured out of their mouths and filled the tracks of the rainbow snake. That’s how rivers and lakes were created. Then grass and trees began to grow and the earth filled with life. — Koori creation story
More notes: in the water. For the first time in surf for a long time. Body at first not responding, that combined with the size of the breaks. A few minutes conversation with a beach guard who is out in the break herding folks away from a rip. He says it’s a hell of a first day to visit Bondi — they were pulling people out all day, jet skis crashing through the foam heading out beyond the breaks to check on surfers, and hovering choppers. Sets get up to 3 meters, look like even more occasionally. It’s a workout to get through even the secondary shore breaks which are easily at a meter-and-a-half. Noticed the surf report online is in feet. Old timers guarantee that maybe? Great to be out there, though. damn. But no room for error. No body surfing, just stroking between breaks, diving deep under the curlers, and staying out of the way of anything turbulent.
long eventful day
not enough sleep after the dinner at Mokki with the Pixelache folks and the Prix Mobius people. finally caught up with Juhani who was on his way to Manchester today.
up early to meet Tapio at mbar for a short session about future polar/solar plans and dealing with future web-documentation and such.
then over to the gallery at noon to begin the final set-up. remote presence :: streaming life gets underway with preparations for the evening’s happening. all runs smoothly. except for the entire network going down about an hour before opening time. turns out to be one of those crazy glitches around a print job submitted to the wrong printer. it brought down everything for a tense 30 minutes before I could figure out what was happening. otherwise the transformation of the gallery space was completed some hours before the opening, and it looks very nice. did miss the final session of the conference with Lisa and Armin, as well as missing the last event of the Nordic VJ program. too busy.
many folks come to the opening — Antti, Bernice, Owen and his wife Irma, Kaisu, Amos, and on. I was not so able to chat much, monitoring the outgoing streams and incoming communications, but the vibe was good. the sonic stream is an interesting mix, though the video input was sparse and not so electric. we would need another couple days to spruce up that medium & means. the ambient sound in the gallery is warm and party-like: