2006-12-16 until 0000-00-00
Museum of New Art
Detroit, MI, USA United States of America
Douglas Gordon won the 1996 Turner Prize on the basis of a single work: his famous 24 Hour Psycho. First shown at Glasgow's Tramway 13 years ago, it was and will always remain the one work synonymous with his name. It is Gordon's shark, his bed, his bloody head. Even if you have already seen 24 Hour Psycho, Gordon is giving us all another chance at what seemed impossible to improve upon - as he unveils his remake of this seminal work at the Museum of New Art (MONA) this December 16.
Whenever I've watched 24 Hour Psycho, Gordon's slowed-down video presentation of Hitchcock's thriller, I somehow manage to miss the shower scene. I always arrive too early or too late, and have never had the patience to see it through. Most recently I failed to catch the ominous shadow at the shower curtain yet again, in Edinburgh's Royal Scottish Academy Building, where 24 Hour Psycho is currently installed in a major survey of Gordon's work.
Gordon’s reworked masterpiece One-Minute Psycho, in its two versions presented in Detroit, not only allows me this missed viewing but more, and all in the time it takes most titles to scroll onto the screen.
Douglas Gordon's success with 24 Hour Psycho has oddly given him the desire to remake it. As an artist, he believes the first try was a failure on one important level.
“24 Hour Psycho showed that you can't always appropriate,” he recently confided. “Or you can appropriate, but it's not going to be great art simply by association. Part of me totally believes in anonymous art. By making a second version, I make the first anonymous and the second the appropriation."
When the artist announced he was remaking 24 Hour Psycho, loyalists to the first work were baffled, puzzled, outraged, soured, and in the mood of total rejection. Why do it? they asked. What was the idea? A host of related questions were raised, not the least of which was: what is Gordon's idea of a remake anyway?
He had been toying with the idea for the last several years, and one motivation was to renew its appeal. The original 24 Hour Psycho is filmed in black-and-white, not a very attractive medium to the younger generation in itself. The difficulty increased when Gordon decided to recreate the original not in the usual fashion of remakes. The most apparent changes were that this modern remake was shot in color, and alternately sped up to a minute rather than slowed down to a full day as before.
It had been the success of the first work that has made Gordon’s second attempt seem so foolhardy and frustrating. In imitating himself, he had to rise to a higher occasion, but now constrained to a one minute playing time rather than the original twenty-four hours. All this has not only heightened the expectations of audiences, but also increased their skepticism. Whatever the motivation, the fact remains that a classic remade with such ambitious standards was bound to be subjected to intense scrutiny. Comparisons are now inevitable, especially by the unforgiving older audiences. Still, one has to be fair to Gordon and to his honestly stated motives - to attract the youth culture, and to revive interest in his earlier work.
In the final analysis, Gordon’s motives do not matter. One must judge the product by the results, based on one's perception of this work on aesthetic grounds. And on such grounds One-Minute Psycho succeeds masterfully. The transition of black-and-white to color does seem a happy choice. Today color in film is so dominant it seems almost unthinkable that a modern work, even of the darkest subject, could be filmed in anything but color. Color and color tone affect the viewer's psychological disposition and help determine the emotions a film, and a violent film to boot, will evoke.
Also, Gordon’s choice of fast-motion is deliberate, to mitigate the shock of blood swirling down the drain in the shower scene, and to invest the film's gothic subject-matter with an aura of comic gloom. Such speeded action alters the tone of the grim tale into what seems a carefree holiday adventure in the tradition of the Keystone Cops on acid. As now-familiar images flash by they have become signs referring to the earlier work as well as a twisted view of our new millennium.
Finally the success of One-Minute Psycho must be attributed to Gordon himself and to his mirrored artistic vision. Times change, and so do people's outlooks. Today's audiences are gorged with violent spectacle. The shower scene, though still shocking and frightening, can no longer traumatize them to the degree that it did in the original. One-Minute Psycho is able to penetrate audience's inner fears, irrational desires, and mad urges at the attention speed of a Play Station gamer. This updated version references the latest trend of shock art and horror film so prevalent now in our culture. Gordon, above all, wants to communicate with this audience; their pity and fear matter to him. With a condensed expression of these mental states, the tragic drama remains here on a level of emotional liquidation and dark indifference. A truly grand success and approachable companion piece to his overlong Warholian original.
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Friday, December 29, 2006
Nintendo's Wii Breaks the 3 million sales mark worldwide!!
Due to strong sales in Japan and North America in the build up to the holidays, Nintendo's Wii has now sold over 3 million copies worldwide, over twice as many as Sony's Playstation 3 in a similar timeframe.
read more digg story
read more digg story
5 Predictions for Apple in 2007
2006 is coming to a close, and all anyone can think about (in regards to Apple, at least) is the upcoming Apple Phone…but what happens next? What are we going to be salivating over and speculating about after Macworld? What changes are in store for Apple in 2007? No one knows for sure…but it sure is fun to take a guess…
5 Predictions for Apple in 2007
1) Expanding the Mac Brand - 2007 is going to be the year of the “Mac”. Apple is going to expand upon the Mac branding to include the new Phone product (my guess is MacMobile), and possibly even the “i” software suites. MacLife anyone? The “i” branding is played out, and, with the exception of the iPod and possibly the iMac, the “i” is on the down hill slide. There will be a dramatic shift away from the lowercase “i” in 07.
2) The “true” Video iPod…Finally - After years of speculation, the full screen video iPod will make it’s debut just in time for the 07 holiday season sales push. The device will feature a beautiful screen and a new, clickwheel-free, design. My guess is it will not be touch screen, and will in no way live up to the 2+ year hype surrounding it…in spite of that, however, it will be a “must have” item for Christmas 07.
read more
5 Predictions for Apple in 2007
1) Expanding the Mac Brand - 2007 is going to be the year of the “Mac”. Apple is going to expand upon the Mac branding to include the new Phone product (my guess is MacMobile), and possibly even the “i” software suites. MacLife anyone? The “i” branding is played out, and, with the exception of the iPod and possibly the iMac, the “i” is on the down hill slide. There will be a dramatic shift away from the lowercase “i” in 07.
2) The “true” Video iPod…Finally - After years of speculation, the full screen video iPod will make it’s debut just in time for the 07 holiday season sales push. The device will feature a beautiful screen and a new, clickwheel-free, design. My guess is it will not be touch screen, and will in no way live up to the 2+ year hype surrounding it…in spite of that, however, it will be a “must have” item for Christmas 07.
read more
Video Killed the Painting
2006-12-27 until 2007-02-03 Yoshiko Matsumoto Gallery Amsterdam, , NL Netherlands
Yoshiko Matsumoto Gallery is pleased to present ‘Video Killed the Painting’, an exhibited curated by Bart de Koning Gans, which will be on view from December 27, 2006 until February 3, 2007.Our language of immediacy has made us hungry for quick imagery, however video art teaches us to 're'-observe by taking our time to look. True it is very annoying when it is bad but when it is good the reward is worth the wait. Video forces us to view, listen and take time to adjust. Paintings and sculptures can more easily be divided into bad and good with a brief glance, yet with video it demands your time. This exhibit features 4 video artists whom interpret various stages of the human mind and its behavior.
Absence of Humans in Nature:
Bill Albertini approaches his visual field as a sculptor shaping each frame into a conscious sequence. Through creating a digital world he confronts the viewer with absence, memory and time. In isolation and lack of human engagement the viewer becomes aware of composition and space, while eerily being confronted with a ‘peaceful’ loneliness.
Human and Artificial Nature:
Liselot van der Heijden’s focus is on documenting an environment influencing humans. This offers a beautiful contrast to Albertini’s desolation. Her close up of a monkey eating becomes a fascination with the mundane, as you are staring at the face you hear the voices of zoo visitors and we become aware of being a spectator. After a while you wonder who is observing whom, and who influences whom. Does a surrounding create us or do we create it?
Human versus Human:
David Guinan’s video is a discourse on the Cargo Culture, through its direction and focus it becomes a discussion of culture versus culture. Within the video Guinan relays how a myth can become a salvation from oppressive Western religions (i.e. the reborn Christians and Mormons). We see a native culture clinging onto a tradition and admiration of America, founded in WWII, to save them from oppressive Western religion.
Humans and their Desire:
Jillian Mcdonald displays humans with their own imagination. She plays with the power of adoration by projecting herself into movie scenes with cultural icons (i.e. Johnny Depp to Billy Bob Thorton). Through this visual manipulation Mcdonald comments on our obsession with the unattainable, yet she illustrates the root of the desire: wanting to be recognized and admired. She attains this reality through fiction, and the notion of “it’s on TV so it must be true” becomes very apparent.
mondomedeusah
Yoshiko Matsumoto Gallery is pleased to present ‘Video Killed the Painting’, an exhibited curated by Bart de Koning Gans, which will be on view from December 27, 2006 until February 3, 2007.Our language of immediacy has made us hungry for quick imagery, however video art teaches us to 're'-observe by taking our time to look. True it is very annoying when it is bad but when it is good the reward is worth the wait. Video forces us to view, listen and take time to adjust. Paintings and sculptures can more easily be divided into bad and good with a brief glance, yet with video it demands your time. This exhibit features 4 video artists whom interpret various stages of the human mind and its behavior.
Absence of Humans in Nature:
Bill Albertini approaches his visual field as a sculptor shaping each frame into a conscious sequence. Through creating a digital world he confronts the viewer with absence, memory and time. In isolation and lack of human engagement the viewer becomes aware of composition and space, while eerily being confronted with a ‘peaceful’ loneliness.
Human and Artificial Nature:
Liselot van der Heijden’s focus is on documenting an environment influencing humans. This offers a beautiful contrast to Albertini’s desolation. Her close up of a monkey eating becomes a fascination with the mundane, as you are staring at the face you hear the voices of zoo visitors and we become aware of being a spectator. After a while you wonder who is observing whom, and who influences whom. Does a surrounding create us or do we create it?
Human versus Human:
David Guinan’s video is a discourse on the Cargo Culture, through its direction and focus it becomes a discussion of culture versus culture. Within the video Guinan relays how a myth can become a salvation from oppressive Western religions (i.e. the reborn Christians and Mormons). We see a native culture clinging onto a tradition and admiration of America, founded in WWII, to save them from oppressive Western religion.
Humans and their Desire:
Jillian Mcdonald displays humans with their own imagination. She plays with the power of adoration by projecting herself into movie scenes with cultural icons (i.e. Johnny Depp to Billy Bob Thorton). Through this visual manipulation Mcdonald comments on our obsession with the unattainable, yet she illustrates the root of the desire: wanting to be recognized and admired. She attains this reality through fiction, and the notion of “it’s on TV so it must be true” becomes very apparent.
mondomedeusah
The 20 Most Innovative Tech Products of the Year
A PC that's half desktop, half notebook. An operating system that runs entirely on the Web. A radically made-over office suite. A thin, superstylish handheld with both Wi-Fi and a usable QWERTY keyboard. Our Innovations Award winners exemplify the best kinds of breakthroughs--ones you can get right now.
read more digg story
read more digg story
The 15th annual Art Salon at the Bay
2006-12-22 until 2007-01-11 Bay Hotel Cape Town, , ZA South Africa
An expertly selected cross-section of the vibrant and rapidly growing South African art scene will be on view at The 15th annual ART SALON AT THE BAY. Rose Korber will once again showcase an overview of the finest that the local art scene has to offer, based on her experience as an art consultant and curator in Cape Town. The exhibition opens this year on the 22nd December 2006 and runs until 11 January 2007 in a specially appointed display area at The Bay Hotel, Victoria Road, Camps Bay, Cape Town. Exhibition hours are 10am to 9pm daily. With a reputation built upon the quality of the previous Salons, Korber has curated a show that takes full advantage of the new-found, international interest in South African and other non-Western, contemporary art. read more
An expertly selected cross-section of the vibrant and rapidly growing South African art scene will be on view at The 15th annual ART SALON AT THE BAY. Rose Korber will once again showcase an overview of the finest that the local art scene has to offer, based on her experience as an art consultant and curator in Cape Town. The exhibition opens this year on the 22nd December 2006 and runs until 11 January 2007 in a specially appointed display area at The Bay Hotel, Victoria Road, Camps Bay, Cape Town. Exhibition hours are 10am to 9pm daily. With a reputation built upon the quality of the previous Salons, Korber has curated a show that takes full advantage of the new-found, international interest in South African and other non-Western, contemporary art. read more
Thursday, December 07, 2006
{gaming} Xbox 360 vs. Sony Playstation 3 By: James Yu and Sarju Shah
Need for Speed Carbon
Both systems have fairly similar graphics in Need for Speed Carbon, but the Xbox 360 has better lighting while the PS3 has sharper textures. The 360 has better high dynamic range lighting in the Camaro image. We're not sure if the PS3 version blurs the background tree leaves on purpose, but it's another noticeable difference. The lighting in the street shot appears more realistic on the 360, but the building textures are sharper on the PS3. We also seem to be missing some lighting and a few landmarks in the rearview mirror of the PS3 version.
read more and see online graphics demo
Both systems have fairly similar graphics in Need for Speed Carbon, but the Xbox 360 has better lighting while the PS3 has sharper textures. The 360 has better high dynamic range lighting in the Camaro image. We're not sure if the PS3 version blurs the background tree leaves on purpose, but it's another noticeable difference. The lighting in the street shot appears more realistic on the 360, but the building textures are sharper on the PS3. We also seem to be missing some lighting and a few landmarks in the rearview mirror of the PS3 version.
read more and see online graphics demo
{gaming} Warhammer 40,000: Dark Crusade by Dan Boaden
Hot on the heels of the critically acclaimed real-time strategy game Company of Heroes comes the second expansion for the Dawn of War series, Warhammer 40,000: Dark Crusade. Once again, developer Relic has not disappointed.
Dark Crusade introduces two brand new and innovative factions taken from the board game universe, raising the total number of playable races across all three games to 7. There are new units for each of the returning factions along with an abundance of skirmish maps. Accompanying this, a brand new Risk-esque single player mode has been added to tickle the taste buds of the Dawn of War veterans but also provide something slightly unique and exciting to lure in the rookies.
read more
Dark Crusade introduces two brand new and innovative factions taken from the board game universe, raising the total number of playable races across all three games to 7. There are new units for each of the returning factions along with an abundance of skirmish maps. Accompanying this, a brand new Risk-esque single player mode has been added to tickle the taste buds of the Dawn of War veterans but also provide something slightly unique and exciting to lure in the rookies.
read more
Apple Launches iTunes & Online Apple Stores in New Zealand
Apple launches new store giving New Zealanders access to outstanding local music and the same innovative features, breakthrough pricing and seamless integration with iPod® that have made iTunes the most popular music jukebox and online music store in the world. Apple today also opened the online Apple Store® New Zealand (www.apple.co.nz/store), where customers can quickly and conveniently purchase Apple’s complete lineup of innovative products, including the wildly popular iPod digital music player, the critically acclaimed Intel based Mac® desktop and notebook computers, the iLife® ‘06 suite of digital lifestyle applications, a vast assortment of iPod and Mac accessories from Apple and third parties and Mac OS® X, the world’s most advanced operating system.
“We’re thrilled to bring the iTunes Store and the online Apple Store to our customers in New Zealand just in time for the holidays,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “With over two million songs, the iTunes Store features the largest catalogue of local and international music in New Zealand, and with the new online Apple Store, it’s easier than ever to shop for everything from a personally engraved iPod to a customized Mac.”
With a catalogue of over two million songs, the iTunes Store features the most music of any digital music store in New Zealand with songs priced at just NZ$1.79, music videos at NZ$3.59 and most albums at NZ$17.99. Exclusive music featured on iTunes includes tracks from New Zealand artists Fat Freddy’s Drop, Brooke Fraser, Tim Finn, The Datsuns and Bic Runga as well as extensive catalogues from New Zealand greats including Shihad, Crowded House, The Black Seeds, Breaks Co-Op, Elemeno P and Dei Hamo. International exclusives on iTunes include albums from The Doors, Faithless, Incubus, Foo Fighters, George Michael and more. The iTunes Store features iTunes Originals from international stars Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ben Harper, Black Eyed Peas and Jack Johnson. The iTunes podcast directory currently features over 65,000 podcasts, including featured New Zealand podcasts from TVNZ, The Voice Booth and Radio NZ.
At the online Apple Store New Zealand, customers can browse and purchase Apple hardware, software, accessories and a large selection of third party products with just a few clicks of a mouse. Customers can custom engrave any iPod through the online Apple Store, and can easily custom configure their Mac to suit their individual needs. With iPod engraving, a new holiday gift guide and the convenience of shopping from home or the office, the online Apple Store is the ideal shopping destination this holiday season. The online Apple Store offers special education pricing to teachers and university and college students.
Additionally, Apple announced that the iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition is now available in New Zealand, only at the new online Apple Store. The iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED, available in 4GB and 8GB models, comes in a beautiful red aluminum enclosure and features up to 24 hours of battery life, Apple’s innovative Click Wheel and an incredibly thin and light design. Apple will contribute a portion of proceeds from the sale of each iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED to the Global Fund to help fight HIV/AIDS in Africa.
Pricing & Availability iTunes 7 for Mac and Windows includes the iTunes Store and is available as a free download immediately from www.itunes.com. Purchase and download of content from the iTunes Store for Mac or Windows requires a valid credit card with a billing address in the country of purchase. Games are available for download and play on the fifth generation iPod.
The iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition is available today in a 4GB model for NZ$349 including GST and an 8GB model for NZ$449 including GST through the online Apple Store (www.apple.co.nz). All iPod nano models include redesigned earbud headphones providing superior comfort, fit and sound quality, and a USB 2.0 cable. The second generation iPod nano features up to 24 hours of battery life and completely skip-free playback.*
iPod nano requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 port and Mac OS X version 10.3.9 or later and iTunes 7.0.2 or later; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4), Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 2) and iTunes 7.0.2 or later. Internet access is required and a broadband connection is recommended.
read more
“We’re thrilled to bring the iTunes Store and the online Apple Store to our customers in New Zealand just in time for the holidays,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “With over two million songs, the iTunes Store features the largest catalogue of local and international music in New Zealand, and with the new online Apple Store, it’s easier than ever to shop for everything from a personally engraved iPod to a customized Mac.”
With a catalogue of over two million songs, the iTunes Store features the most music of any digital music store in New Zealand with songs priced at just NZ$1.79, music videos at NZ$3.59 and most albums at NZ$17.99. Exclusive music featured on iTunes includes tracks from New Zealand artists Fat Freddy’s Drop, Brooke Fraser, Tim Finn, The Datsuns and Bic Runga as well as extensive catalogues from New Zealand greats including Shihad, Crowded House, The Black Seeds, Breaks Co-Op, Elemeno P and Dei Hamo. International exclusives on iTunes include albums from The Doors, Faithless, Incubus, Foo Fighters, George Michael and more. The iTunes Store features iTunes Originals from international stars Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ben Harper, Black Eyed Peas and Jack Johnson. The iTunes podcast directory currently features over 65,000 podcasts, including featured New Zealand podcasts from TVNZ, The Voice Booth and Radio NZ.
At the online Apple Store New Zealand, customers can browse and purchase Apple hardware, software, accessories and a large selection of third party products with just a few clicks of a mouse. Customers can custom engrave any iPod through the online Apple Store, and can easily custom configure their Mac to suit their individual needs. With iPod engraving, a new holiday gift guide and the convenience of shopping from home or the office, the online Apple Store is the ideal shopping destination this holiday season. The online Apple Store offers special education pricing to teachers and university and college students.
Additionally, Apple announced that the iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition is now available in New Zealand, only at the new online Apple Store. The iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED, available in 4GB and 8GB models, comes in a beautiful red aluminum enclosure and features up to 24 hours of battery life, Apple’s innovative Click Wheel and an incredibly thin and light design. Apple will contribute a portion of proceeds from the sale of each iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED to the Global Fund to help fight HIV/AIDS in Africa.
Pricing & Availability iTunes 7 for Mac and Windows includes the iTunes Store and is available as a free download immediately from www.itunes.com. Purchase and download of content from the iTunes Store for Mac or Windows requires a valid credit card with a billing address in the country of purchase. Games are available for download and play on the fifth generation iPod.
The iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition is available today in a 4GB model for NZ$349 including GST and an 8GB model for NZ$449 including GST through the online Apple Store (www.apple.co.nz). All iPod nano models include redesigned earbud headphones providing superior comfort, fit and sound quality, and a USB 2.0 cable. The second generation iPod nano features up to 24 hours of battery life and completely skip-free playback.*
iPod nano requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 port and Mac OS X version 10.3.9 or later and iTunes 7.0.2 or later; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4), Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 2) and iTunes 7.0.2 or later. Internet access is required and a broadband connection is recommended.
read more
Teenage clicks in Second Life
By Gareth Mitchell
A few days before my trip to San Francisco, I was in the online world of Second Life having problems with my avatar - the digital manifestation of myself in this massive 3D virtual environment.
Linden have been making efforts to protect teenagers in Second Life
Around me, perfectly proportioned boys with prominent torsos floated around with skinny mini-skirted girls. After an hour fiddling around in the "edit appearance" menu, Therag, my avatar, stubbornly refused to be anything other than an anonymous silhouette. The only thing I could change was Therag's hair colour. I settled for purple.
Three days later, I found myself at Second Life in real life. The virtual world is the creation of Linden Lab, located on a quiet road near Telegraph Hill in San Francisco.
It runs on 4,100 computers housed in two server farms - one in San Francisco and the other in Dallas. Over a 24-hour period, an average of 60,000 of Second Life's 1.5 million users log in.
Despite my avatar-related frustrations, this was something of a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory moment for me - an opportunity to peer behind the scenes of this social phenomenon with over three times the population of Luxembourg.
Business and porn
In a large, airy open plan office generously decked out with pot plants and figurines of characters from various sci-fi movies, around thirty people sat at their computers keeping an eye on their digital world.
Linden Lab's vice president of platform and technology development, Joe Miller, is one of those charged with keeping it all going.
"We feel like we're surfing a very large tidal wave of popularity and we're staying out ahead of that crashing wave and surfing it successfully right now", he told Digital Planet.
But as Second Life has grown, so has criticism of it. Far from being a utopian online paradise, some regard Second Life as a seedy, even violent place, compromised by the presence of big business and porn.
And if my experiences are anything to go by, its technical capacity has failed to keep up with the rapid increase in membership. At busy times, scenes take ages to load, and navigating the landscape is slow and tedious.
"There are some bottlenecks in the system," Mr Miller concedes.
"We're actively working to remove those bottlenecks so that we can distribute the load that is perhaps causing some performance reduction at peak time.
"One of our challenges is just the sheer amount of bandwidth that we use. That's something we can easily solve by adding another one gigabit data line which is literally going in as we speak."
But last week, a Digital Planet listener told us that the newly expanded World of Warcraft online game supports four times as many people as Second Life and it never falls over.
"World of Warcraft touts a six million or larger active user base - but they shard their world off into smaller servers so you never see 16,000 people in the same place", said Mr Miller.
"That's unlike Second Life, where tonight you will see 16,000 people enjoying exactly the same world all able to communicate with each other, all attending the same live music event should they wish to."
Global issues
I mentioned my difficulties with my avatar and Joe Miller obligingly introduced me to one his team, who cranked up Second Life on my errant laptop and started fiddling with the graphics settings.
Meanwhile, for Digital Planet's contribution to the BBC World Service Generation Next season, focusing on issues surrounding young people, I made it to the other side of the office.
I wanted to find out more about Teen Second Life, an area of the virtual environment fenced off exclusively for younger users.
The idea of the Teen Grid is to act as a safe haven for younger users, free of the adult content that pervades much of the main space.
Through their avatars, Teen Second Life's young users can go shopping, hang out and island hop just as their grown-up counterparts do on the Adult Grid.
But community manager Claudia L'Amoreaux told me that the Teen Grid is also a place for young people to tackle serious global issues that affect them.
"They built this maze as a project on global sex trafficking," he said.
"They were interested in helping other students learn about it so they could protect kids around the world who are being taken advantage of. It's a way to share what it's like for kids who are held captive in the sex trade."
The walls of the maze are emblazoned with images and posters giving information on the problem. Being ensnared in the puzzle is meant to mirror the experience of being a child trapped in prostitution.
Meanwhile across the office, Joe Miller and his colleagues had successfully configured my laptop to display Second Life properly.
Therag sprang on to the screen in the regulation Second Life newbie uniform of blue jeans and white t-shirt. Job done, it was time to go.
mondomedeusah l'ectronique
A few days before my trip to San Francisco, I was in the online world of Second Life having problems with my avatar - the digital manifestation of myself in this massive 3D virtual environment.
Linden have been making efforts to protect teenagers in Second Life
Around me, perfectly proportioned boys with prominent torsos floated around with skinny mini-skirted girls. After an hour fiddling around in the "edit appearance" menu, Therag, my avatar, stubbornly refused to be anything other than an anonymous silhouette. The only thing I could change was Therag's hair colour. I settled for purple.
Three days later, I found myself at Second Life in real life. The virtual world is the creation of Linden Lab, located on a quiet road near Telegraph Hill in San Francisco.
It runs on 4,100 computers housed in two server farms - one in San Francisco and the other in Dallas. Over a 24-hour period, an average of 60,000 of Second Life's 1.5 million users log in.
Despite my avatar-related frustrations, this was something of a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory moment for me - an opportunity to peer behind the scenes of this social phenomenon with over three times the population of Luxembourg.
Business and porn
In a large, airy open plan office generously decked out with pot plants and figurines of characters from various sci-fi movies, around thirty people sat at their computers keeping an eye on their digital world.
Linden Lab's vice president of platform and technology development, Joe Miller, is one of those charged with keeping it all going.
"We feel like we're surfing a very large tidal wave of popularity and we're staying out ahead of that crashing wave and surfing it successfully right now", he told Digital Planet.
But as Second Life has grown, so has criticism of it. Far from being a utopian online paradise, some regard Second Life as a seedy, even violent place, compromised by the presence of big business and porn.
And if my experiences are anything to go by, its technical capacity has failed to keep up with the rapid increase in membership. At busy times, scenes take ages to load, and navigating the landscape is slow and tedious.
"There are some bottlenecks in the system," Mr Miller concedes.
"We're actively working to remove those bottlenecks so that we can distribute the load that is perhaps causing some performance reduction at peak time.
"One of our challenges is just the sheer amount of bandwidth that we use. That's something we can easily solve by adding another one gigabit data line which is literally going in as we speak."
But last week, a Digital Planet listener told us that the newly expanded World of Warcraft online game supports four times as many people as Second Life and it never falls over.
"World of Warcraft touts a six million or larger active user base - but they shard their world off into smaller servers so you never see 16,000 people in the same place", said Mr Miller.
"That's unlike Second Life, where tonight you will see 16,000 people enjoying exactly the same world all able to communicate with each other, all attending the same live music event should they wish to."
Global issues
I mentioned my difficulties with my avatar and Joe Miller obligingly introduced me to one his team, who cranked up Second Life on my errant laptop and started fiddling with the graphics settings.
Meanwhile, for Digital Planet's contribution to the BBC World Service Generation Next season, focusing on issues surrounding young people, I made it to the other side of the office.
I wanted to find out more about Teen Second Life, an area of the virtual environment fenced off exclusively for younger users.
The idea of the Teen Grid is to act as a safe haven for younger users, free of the adult content that pervades much of the main space.
Through their avatars, Teen Second Life's young users can go shopping, hang out and island hop just as their grown-up counterparts do on the Adult Grid.
But community manager Claudia L'Amoreaux told me that the Teen Grid is also a place for young people to tackle serious global issues that affect them.
"They built this maze as a project on global sex trafficking," he said.
"They were interested in helping other students learn about it so they could protect kids around the world who are being taken advantage of. It's a way to share what it's like for kids who are held captive in the sex trade."
The walls of the maze are emblazoned with images and posters giving information on the problem. Being ensnared in the puzzle is meant to mirror the experience of being a child trapped in prostitution.
Meanwhile across the office, Joe Miller and his colleagues had successfully configured my laptop to display Second Life properly.
Therag sprang on to the screen in the regulation Second Life newbie uniform of blue jeans and white t-shirt. Job done, it was time to go.
mondomedeusah l'ectronique
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
The Happy Jazz Show - iPodyourmondo.com with Adrian Leach and Mark Taylor - December 2006
Happy Jazz Playlist for December 2006 Show 1
Part A - Adrian Leach
Ronnie Ross : Cleopatras Needle
Dexter Gordon & Slide Hampton - A Day In Vienna
Art Taylor : Syeeda's Song Flute
Karel Krautgartner : Ludek Halen
Jazz Quintet 60 : Yake De Yak
Dick Morrissey Quartet : Storm Warning
Sonny Criss : Ode to Billy Joe
Borje Fredriksson : Brollopsvals
Harry South Big Band : Costa Fortuna
Johnny Lytle : Selim
Horace Silver : Cape Verdean Blues
Part B - Mark Taylor
Eri Ohno : Butterfly
The Danish Jazz Ballet Society Ensemble : Jive Samba
Triste Janeiro : Without Him
Cal Tjader & Charlie Byrd : Samba De Oneida
Auracle : Sno Fun
The Peddlers : I Have Seen
Catharsis : Styx
Brian Bennett : Discovery
Marilyn Scott : You Are All I Need
Seawind : Free
Zeca Do Trombone E Roberto Sax : Ta Legal
Plumstead Radical Club : The Coast is Clear
Mike Westbrook : Original Peter
http://happyjazz.ipodyourmondo.com
http://mondomm.com/blog
Part A - Adrian Leach
Ronnie Ross : Cleopatras Needle
Dexter Gordon & Slide Hampton - A Day In Vienna
Art Taylor : Syeeda's Song Flute
Karel Krautgartner : Ludek Halen
Jazz Quintet 60 : Yake De Yak
Dick Morrissey Quartet : Storm Warning
Sonny Criss : Ode to Billy Joe
Borje Fredriksson : Brollopsvals
Harry South Big Band : Costa Fortuna
Johnny Lytle : Selim
Horace Silver : Cape Verdean Blues
Part B - Mark Taylor
Eri Ohno : Butterfly
The Danish Jazz Ballet Society Ensemble : Jive Samba
Triste Janeiro : Without Him
Cal Tjader & Charlie Byrd : Samba De Oneida
Auracle : Sno Fun
The Peddlers : I Have Seen
Catharsis : Styx
Brian Bennett : Discovery
Marilyn Scott : You Are All I Need
Seawind : Free
Zeca Do Trombone E Roberto Sax : Ta Legal
Plumstead Radical Club : The Coast is Clear
Mike Westbrook : Original Peter
http://happyjazz.ipodyourmondo.com
http://mondomm.com/blog
Friday, December 01, 2006
{art} Annabelle Jasmin Verhoye
2006-11-30 until 2006-12-15
Opera Gallery
New York, NY, USA United States of America
The Opera Gallery in New York City is proud to present the first solo show in New York of paintings by Annabelle Jasmin Verhoye beginning Thursday, November 30th, 2006. Annabelle Jasmin Verhoye's work seeks to create imagery on multiple dimensions that is at once true to her subject's form, yet with an additional layer of interpretation. The resulting effect is one of elucidating both the scene‚s objective nature as well as its inner essence and the mood it organically creates.
Many of her new pieces are pure landscapes, but some also involve human subjects seamlessly integrated within natural settings with an intent and purpose that is emotive and powerful. She plays with both monochromic backdrops as well as vistas that pull the viewer into the piece with gradients of light and depth. It is in part in the detail of her work that the artist‚s style is first revealed: painted on the backside of glass, the colors of the images are applied in various coats, inspired in part by Europe‚s stained glass windows.
Annabelle's artistic process cannot be completely predetermined. Her technique and conceptual framework is in many ways the polar opposite of many past and current approaches in two important ways. For example, she gives her paint in part free rein, as she works in a reverse layering process sometimes obfuscating form with each application. The result is her first layer of paint is often the first image the viewer sees, as opposed to the last brush stroke of an oil painting being the most forward facing. The unveiled result is stunning; just as a forest itself does not evolve as a predetermined collection of trees, Annabelle‚s work begins and ends in a similarly natural way–uncalculated yet true to the spirit of her subject's sublime nature.
Additionally, she has extended her traditional palette of glass and acrylic paint to raise the significance of the naming of her work, in a sense attempting to synergistically bring visual art and prose together. The intent is to not limit the viewer's experience, but to in fact enhance it, adding another dimension to the piece yet within a framework that is provocative; in a sense a movement away from the relativism embraced by some contemporary artists.
Born in Germany and raised in France, she ultimately moved to Manhattan where she received her MFA degree from the School of Visual Arts. Her work has won numerous awards and has been exhibited at Opera Gallery (New York), BMW (New York), R2 Gallery, Thomas Werner Gallery (New York), The Society of Illustrators, The Tribeca Arts Club, School of Visual Arts (Korea), Catherine Malandrino ( New York) and La Samaritaine (Paris), in addition to other venues.
mondo
Opera Gallery
New York, NY, USA United States of America
The Opera Gallery in New York City is proud to present the first solo show in New York of paintings by Annabelle Jasmin Verhoye beginning Thursday, November 30th, 2006. Annabelle Jasmin Verhoye's work seeks to create imagery on multiple dimensions that is at once true to her subject's form, yet with an additional layer of interpretation. The resulting effect is one of elucidating both the scene‚s objective nature as well as its inner essence and the mood it organically creates.
Many of her new pieces are pure landscapes, but some also involve human subjects seamlessly integrated within natural settings with an intent and purpose that is emotive and powerful. She plays with both monochromic backdrops as well as vistas that pull the viewer into the piece with gradients of light and depth. It is in part in the detail of her work that the artist‚s style is first revealed: painted on the backside of glass, the colors of the images are applied in various coats, inspired in part by Europe‚s stained glass windows.
Annabelle's artistic process cannot be completely predetermined. Her technique and conceptual framework is in many ways the polar opposite of many past and current approaches in two important ways. For example, she gives her paint in part free rein, as she works in a reverse layering process sometimes obfuscating form with each application. The result is her first layer of paint is often the first image the viewer sees, as opposed to the last brush stroke of an oil painting being the most forward facing. The unveiled result is stunning; just as a forest itself does not evolve as a predetermined collection of trees, Annabelle‚s work begins and ends in a similarly natural way–uncalculated yet true to the spirit of her subject's sublime nature.
Additionally, she has extended her traditional palette of glass and acrylic paint to raise the significance of the naming of her work, in a sense attempting to synergistically bring visual art and prose together. The intent is to not limit the viewer's experience, but to in fact enhance it, adding another dimension to the piece yet within a framework that is provocative; in a sense a movement away from the relativism embraced by some contemporary artists.
Born in Germany and raised in France, she ultimately moved to Manhattan where she received her MFA degree from the School of Visual Arts. Her work has won numerous awards and has been exhibited at Opera Gallery (New York), BMW (New York), R2 Gallery, Thomas Werner Gallery (New York), The Society of Illustrators, The Tribeca Arts Club, School of Visual Arts (Korea), Catherine Malandrino ( New York) and La Samaritaine (Paris), in addition to other venues.
mondo
{art} The Problem with Photography: Marco Breuer
2006-11-28 until 2007-02-10
Galerie Bernhard Knaus
Mannheim, , DE Germany
Bernhard Knaus Fine Art is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new works by Marco Breuer. In “THE PROBLEM WITH PHOTOGRAPHY (z.Zt)” Marco Breuer continues his systematic investigation of the conditions of the photographic medium. In a series of cameraless photographs, Breuer marks the surface of photographic color material with a razor blade, building the image line by line. Through this process of subtraction, layers of the material are physically removed and color is forced out of the material (in photographic color material black contains all other colors).
Many of the images in the exhibition are created through a cycle of imaging and re-imaging: shifts in scale and color, moving from positive to negative, going in and out of focus – with every image possibly being the result of a previous one.
The works of Marco Breuer are photographic revelations about what happens between forces: light, chemistry, and physical processes clashing on photographic material. Every resulting piece is unique – and truly surprising in range of colour, rhythm and depth.
Marco Breuer born in Germany in 1966, lives and works in New York. Marco Breuer has exhibited widely throughout the United States. His work is in numerous collections, including the Museum of Modern Art; the New York Public Library; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, Germany.
Galerie Bernhard Knaus
Mannheim, , DE Germany
Bernhard Knaus Fine Art is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new works by Marco Breuer. In “THE PROBLEM WITH PHOTOGRAPHY (z.Zt)” Marco Breuer continues his systematic investigation of the conditions of the photographic medium. In a series of cameraless photographs, Breuer marks the surface of photographic color material with a razor blade, building the image line by line. Through this process of subtraction, layers of the material are physically removed and color is forced out of the material (in photographic color material black contains all other colors).
Many of the images in the exhibition are created through a cycle of imaging and re-imaging: shifts in scale and color, moving from positive to negative, going in and out of focus – with every image possibly being the result of a previous one.
The works of Marco Breuer are photographic revelations about what happens between forces: light, chemistry, and physical processes clashing on photographic material. Every resulting piece is unique – and truly surprising in range of colour, rhythm and depth.
Marco Breuer born in Germany in 1966, lives and works in New York. Marco Breuer has exhibited widely throughout the United States. His work is in numerous collections, including the Museum of Modern Art; the New York Public Library; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, Germany.
{music} Wata (Water) featuring Mutabaruka
Taken off of Beat Pharmacy’s Constant Pressure album and featuring reggae legend Mutabaruka, the latest single on Francois K’s Deep Space Media label combines the depths of underwater dub with elegant and flighty techno riffs, all kept together by a relentless bass beat.Whether you’re looking to gear your groove deep or to keep floor-filling the dancefloor with a demanding number, “Wata” will satisfy your thirst. Hypnotic and mystifying, Beat Pharmacy, aka Brendon Moeller, knows how to combine all the different elements without making a track sound congested. The result is as gratifying as the sonic of dub reggae sounds, while still gearing it towards 4/4 house fans.The original track can be found here in all its progressive beauty. The b-side contains an all out minimal techno re-rub, much like what you would hear Richie Hawtin drop from his Minus label. As swirling sound effects surround listeners, plodding drums make for a particularly punchy and trippy late-night ride. Clocking in at over 9 whopping minutes, you couldn’t be more satisfied with the track progressions and minimalism.. more
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