Software over the rainbow

Over the weekend, while researching ways to combine cocoa and openframeworks I stumbled upon this sweet simple code to grab the pixels below an openframeworks app. Thinking of what to do, I dusted off my old ofxHalftoner* to dither the content of the screen and to my surprise everything worked reasonably fast in real time.

Here are some results:

I also recorded some video. The quality of the dithering is poor due to the video compression, but you get the idea.

Here’s the app over body magic by the amazing 53os

An then over a docu about the opening of an op art exhibition from the 60s published on ubuweb, which seemed totally appropriate.

While writing this I’ve seen that creative apps has written about it, which is very flattering for a quick hack. Thanks!

(shameless plug)

I keep going back to this beautiful story in my head.

After having had a show cancelled, steve roden drove back home and performed there alone, when the sun was rising. He recorded himself and made the piece available along with the story and a couple of blurry cell phone pictures of the moments in which he started and finished. The piece is a calm and intimate improvisation, with imperfections that denote the just-because-ness of the event:

when sun rises in spite of hooligans

The three elements (writing, music, pictures) make the story so lively that I’ve almost came to regard it as my own memory.

Some months ago I listened to this beautiful remix by 3spds. It’s based on a record of a religious group whose 900 followers committed a mass suicide.

He tells the story in a light but touching way.

At the time of this recording, they believed they had found the key to happiness and equality.

Next time I tried to login somewhere I still had them in mind.

Recovering an old habit.

Back in january I spent some time exploring simple electronic circuits for sound, following the lovely handmade electronic music. One of the greatest discoveries was voltage starving, which gave a great degree of unpredictability to any circuit.

I recorded some explorations. I find it interesting to imagine what is happening inside the circuit to make the sound vary so wildly, as I was just slowly turning up and down a couple of knobs.

handmade, 15 jan by jesusgollonet

speaking of which, there’s also The Real London Underground: Experimental Music at the End of the 90s, in which kenneth goldsmith makes a map of the london underground (music) of the time.

His mention of chris cutler makes the article appropiately relevant for the discussion sparked by his recent filesharing epiphany published in the wire, in which he admitted “As a result, just like you, I stopped buying music.”, and got responses from chris cutler and david keenan. The fact that the 90s article seems to be based on one of the record hunting field trips that he mentions in epyphany no.4 gives a nice context to the discussion.