FLTR
FLTR 2.0 <all things shining version>
[11.05.01]


Content:::::::::::::::::::::::::::

{audio}
1. Jim O'Rourke / John Cage: May '00, 2000
2. crash!media: looplabs

{video}
3. Timothy 'Speed' Levitch: Waking Life

{interactive}
4. Sensomatic: elektro eier
5. Kleber for Warp Records: LFO

{architecture}
6. Frank Gehry et al.: Disney Concert Hall Construction Photo Documentary
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1.

Jim O'Rourke / John Cage: May '00, 2000
http://www.whitney.org/bitstreams/player/player.html?selectedClip=orourke

Last week's Stereolab focus was well received, so here is further proof that
Stereolab producer/ collaborator Jim O'Rourke is officially hep.  This audio
excerpt is from the Whitney BitStreams joint of yore.  O'Rourke takes short
chunks of a John Cage piece and tweaks them.  Who cares how or why.  It sounds
very pretty.


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{advert}

And finally, An old review of Stereolab's _Cobra and Phases Group..._,
cross-referencing such luminaries as William Gibson, Run DMC, Steve Reich, and
Abba:

http://www.pifmagazine.com/vol34/m_clon.shtml
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2.

crash!media: looplabs
http://www.looplabs.com

looplabs is a relatively complex sequencer/ mixer made in Flash.  The available
sample library is predictably techno, but there is also an entire "ambient"
subset of pads and loops from which to choose.  And of course what beat engine
would be complete without the obligatory (yet nonetheless gratifying) tabla
loop?  With a little patience, you can milk some pretty keen stuff out of this
engine, without having to sound like Depeche Mode doing a 27-minute house remix
of "Don't You Want Me, Baby."  Sound Forge makes all sorts of software like
this for more professional uses, but the novelty of looplabs is that it runs in
real time on the web, right there in your browser window. Actual mileage may
vary.  Check download rates and local CPU speed for details.


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{advert}

The Way Things Go

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/6304551630/lab404webcreatio
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


3.

Timothy 'Speed' Levitch: Waking Life
http://www.wakinglifemovie.com/clip3_sm.html

Timothy Levitch is that effeminate, stream-of-consciousness Manhattan cruise
bus tour guide from the aptly named documentary, _The Cruise_
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0784012024/lab404webcreatio>. Released
in 1999, _The Cruise_ ends with Levitch spinning around between the WTC towers,
falling down dizzy, and looking up.  This makes the buildings seem like they're
falling on top of him, which is the point of the whole exercise.  Eerie.  At
any rate, here Levitch resurfaces as a dream guide in _Waking Life_.  Already
way cartoonish and surreal, Levitch seems born to be animated.

It's not that I find any of the individual things he says profound or even
lucid; it's just the whole deal taken together; it's Levitch himself.  I don't
know why, I just like him.  The cool thing is, you know he's just ad libbing
this stuff, as he's done a thousand times before leading guided tours.  Levitch
has definitely earned his right to ramble -- a proletariat amalgam of Spalding
Gray and Steven Wright.  "Starring clowns."


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{advert}

Syd Barrett gets his 15 minutes twice

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000001194/lab404webcreatio
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


4.

Sensomatic: elektro eier
http://www.sensomatic.com/sensorama/shox/elektro_eier.dcr

I like this piece because it feels so lo-fi.  Most interactive flash things are
all vectorized and futuristic.  But "elektro eier" seems straight from the age
of vacuum tubes and self-assembled home microscope kits.  The audio, the
visuals, and even the fuzzy behavior of the interaction work together to
establish an electro-analog vibe. Click on one of the blobs, and it kind of
squooshes away from you, but in a vague way.  Click and drag a blob, and it
gradually gravitates back towards where it was.  Keep clicking and dragging,
and eventually all the blobs disappear outside the viewable area. You can hear
them moving around out there.  Click and drag on the blank space, and sometimes
the blobs reappear.  Sometimes they don't.


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{advert}

my source code

http://www2.warnerbros.com/willywonka/med/video/wilder_sings_qt_300.mov
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5.

Kleber for Warp Records: LFO
http://www.warprecords.com/lfo/lfo.html

Yet another funky interactive Flash thingy, but this one's a bit more advanced. 
A jacked-up kaleidoscope?  A spirograph on shrooms?  It can output a fairly
versatile range of stuff.  Whereas most abstract interactive web pieces leave
the user with only nominal control, LFO really lets you do some stuff.  It's
not just hit or miss either. Once you get the hang of the parameters, you can
begin to intentionally craft some gorgeous movements.

Keyboard letters control the parameters (draw mode, motion blur, random
distort, scale), numbers control the audio loops (and prefab synchronous motion
behavior), clicking and dragging the mouse spins the whole thing.  I'm a fan of
audio #4, draw mode E, medium scale, with just a tad of motion blur.  For a
more grotesque experience, try audio #3, draw mode E, medium scale, full blur.


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{advert}

i found truth and beauty online

http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~rintanen/qbf/3QBF60.truth.gif
http://www.dartmouth.edu/dms/physiol/cells/beauty.jpg
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6.

Frank Gehry et al.: Disney Concert Hall Construction Photo Documentary
http://www.archinect.com/frank/index.html

This project is less a testament to Gehry and more a testament to the
architecture fans obsessed enough to follow his work so closely. It's an
ongoing, online series of construction site photos (starting in June, 2000 and
leading up to the present) of Gehry's Disney Concert Hall.  Another building
might not be so interesting to watch develop; but this one is so funky and
organic, these images look cool in and of themselves, even apart from to the
ongoing documentary aspect.  At certain stages, the structure looks more like a
kind of gnarly Venusian roller coaster.  Construction is still ongoing so check
back every now and then to see how things are shaping up.

The architect as rock star, just as Ayn Rand prophesied.


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FLTR -- less sporadic; more emphatic.  chewin' the phat like the wife o' Jack
Sprat since two thousand aught one.
FLTR