art and technology

. .one step forward 3 back ! learning all these bits of code is a bit like trying to learn chinese and russian with a blindfold on ! juggling new stuff in Processing, arduino and pure data – thay have some similatires but are specific in what they are good at – yesterday managed to get a video into processing – hurray ! but this morning when I checked it out again, it wouldn’t work . . . then after about half an hour of faffing around dicovered that when I saved it, it had made itself into an arduino file ! what’s that about then ! guess I should have noticed but the sketch was blue rather than grey – but none of the files work in the arduino state, in that they got error messages but in theory does it mean they could work through the arduino ? anyway some sort of progress is being made though not really interactive – yet !

. . .beyond the screen is proving rather painful – not that interested in interactivity – well interactivity that goes beyond looking listening thinking and moving around ! however not to be defeated, have spent the afternoon getting 3 LEDs to light up in different sequences – albeit in a rather weedy way !

but am soooooo uninspired and bewildered by the idea that millions of people (well, mostly blokes) spend their time making ‘weekend projects’ of little gizmos that measure their lives in various ways via a bit of arduino work and acres of code – it’s all very well Lacan saying that women are forever outcast as “other” – don’t think he realised how much “other” we might be ! I almost feel like another species when I looks at all this stuff !

Playing with Processing, a direct and visual language designed for artists and designers.

Good for moving and coloured lines, patterns and pictures.

Can be used with pure data and with ardunos – after quite a bit of fiddling around.

All works swimmingly when there is someone to ask but like learning all computer languages it requires patience, time, a methodical approach !

Hmmm not so sure how much time I want to spend making nice colourful sketches and hard to see how it might work within my existing practice but it’ll be intesting to find ways of making it meaningful

Took part in a 2 day sound workshop – a really good way to learn intensively about making a sound piece – used found sound, some decent digital recorders and edited with GarageBand.

I could see immediately how this might impact on my existing practice (often I am left wondering how Flash, an arduino, processing etc might fit into what I do already) but this seemed a natural extension to the work I’ve already done.

When I was on the beach today, I stopped to pay attention and listen and was surprised that the sea was really really loud !

Art and Technology – what a big gap ! now in second year of MA. Digital Media Arts and am wondering where it will all lead ?

Working on unit called Beyond the Screen and we will be using electronics and code to make interactive work – trickey, unnerving and intense.

Hard to see how the interactive thing will work within my practice but feel it could add another dimension to it.

Need to avoid anything with too many whistles and bows, plenty of that already, but am massively impressed with Pipilotti Rist’s imaginative use of digital media.