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I was lucky enough to meet this woman with the School of Panamerican Unrest. Here are some photos of her from a previous entry.
SPU Day2
Pictures
Happy Holidays
Sean
]]>For the full program and more info on the talks, installations and performances check out the Interactive Futures Web Site.
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Sign up for one time slot before the event and then another on the night of (or just show up the night of if you don't care when you play) - a good opportunity to play with a random array of folks! or just watch & listen if you prefer... Everyone gets 1 or 2 channels for 45 minutes.
Check at "June 15" then email 69deathrattle@gmail.com to grab inputs.
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Check it out. I received this email a while back about the Canadian New Media Awards and the category of Emerging Innovator. I applied and now I'm afinalist. Im very exited.
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Definition from Dictionary.com
n.
An adherent of antinomianism.
adj.
1. Of or relating to the doctrine of antinomianism.
2. Opposed to or denying the fixed meaning or universal applicability of moral law: “By raising segregation and racial persecution to the ethical level of law, it puts into practice the antinomian rules of Orwell's world. Evil becomes good, inhumanity is interpreted as charity, egoism as compassion” (Elie Wiesel).
I dunno. I found it in The Anti-Aesthetic (ed. Hal Foster)in an essay by Jurgen Habermass. Philosophy is fun. At least I think its philosophy.
]]>It s almost 10 in Toronto on the Friday after the Performance I enacted for the CGSA. at York University. The performance was a continuation of Medium from SWARM 07 in Vancouver. Pass or Fail was a continuation of the game I started in Vancouver of Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. I again played for 24 hrs in a small hallway with a very small window fro another 24 hours in the attempt to finish this notorious game.
Ill write about some of the other elements of the performane in a bit but it’s the residual traces of sounds and images in the game that are really sticking out in my head right now. For example when I was walking down the hall of the building thereafter I would hear sounds if the distant voices from the game. It took my brain a split second longer ( due to fatigue) to register certain sound frequencies as sounds. First I heard the sound of the whining motor bike engine from the game in a sound of the construction from across the street though my mind knew it was construction, it recognized a frequency with that sound and registered as the bike. Similar to when you hear a sound in everyday life and it sounds like your celphone but its not really ringing. Its almost a visceral response and I learned this from the game instead of reality. The best visual response was when I exited the building to go to next door and there was a really nice speed bike sitting across the street. For a split second I envisioned myself immediately running over and hopping on the bike.
It was immediately upon exiting a building, like in the game, that I looked for a vehicle. This action translated into to my reality…an action that I was doing over and over again in the game. I seriously laughed out loud.
How much do we take away with us and how long does it take to wear off. The game is interesting and compelling enough to play it for 2 days straight. This is where I fell asleep. After the gaming experience I was pretty out of it once I stood up for about an hour but after that I was in this mildly delirious but mostly lucid state, I had really good converstaions with people and I was able to communicate my ideas really easily. The next day however was a different story. I had trouble talking and even staying awake in the conference (no offence to the speakers, I very much enjoyed it) my body was just reacting. It was the next day after I slept that I felt the toll of the allnighter.
]]>Well the 24hrs came and went and im trying to reflect on the experience. The thing is that 24hrs isn’t really that hard, its MEDIUM. Most, if not all of us at one time or another have stayed up 24hrs plus working, playing or partying. Regardless of the reason, the uniting factor in the prolonged process of an allnighter is the stimulus that keeps us awake enough to stay interested without passing out on the couch or face first on our desks (deadlines permitting).
At first I was into the game because it is really fun and I have played it before but hadn’t really gotten too far. As the night drew on I think it was the mixture of the game and the people that kept me fired up, locked and intent on the CJ (the main character). I remember from my younger years as a gamer a certain magic that still exist but doesn’t have as much of a hold as it once did. I felt this loss shortly after 1 or 2 and lasted a few hours. After a couple of hours though, I seemed to get my groove on again, settling in to let myself be engulfed in this harsh popculture reality.
The game in a nutshell is that the 3 cities in the film (i actually wrote this_Freudian slip??_Ive edited since the experience for coherence) represent costal American cities and the rural outlying areas. Afteryou pass all the mission in the first city you get outted and the ultimate the goal is to build yourself up enough to go back and take revenge on your homies who were involved in killing your mom. I found myself even after the 24hrs were almost wanting to complete one more mission so I could get a little bit farther. Its not like I was going to start playing again the next day (which I considered on the Saturday).
I don’t buy into the idea are addictive but we as humans want to win or best our foes whether they're real or virtual. One of the thoughts I had while playing and the next day, after i caught myself strategizing a mission I was unable to pass, was how I would navigate the map to head off a drug courier that I would kill and steal his money. How much of my memory was taken up or wasted or diverted from more pressing issues in my life, and dedicated to memorizing the topography that corresponded with colours and symbols on the maps and shortcuts between places? The learning curve in a game like this, for someone whose played 3d 3rd person games before isn’t very steep so you are able to move the character intuitively making the most important part of the game play cerebral.
Update! I'm going to do a performance as part of a games conference in Toronto. Originally I was going to play an online game with another artist in a different city but due to web access restriction ive decide to create a sequel performance (for lack of a better title) to Medium titled Pass or Fail. I am challenging myself to finish the game in another 24hr binge whilst surrounded with academics and game artists. Ill follow up shortly with another blog describing the performances with synopsis and concept outlines.
Link to conference site--->CGSA Conference
]]>After the first night one of our volunteer drivers took us to this crazy loft party. It was downtown in China Town on the eight floor of some run down building. The party was pretty fun and the beats were just getting good when our ride left. There was a guy with a vintage t-shirt the said Canada – fits you budget. Probably a throw back to the eighties and early nineties. Regardless the funniest part was a story about how those searching for booze in the wee hours of the morning can go to this Chinese restaurant and order a pot of cold tea. What is cold tea? one might ask. A refreshing Chinese beverage similar to North America's iced tea. Nope, better. Its a big tea pot full of MGD (Miller Genuine Draft). Apparently its expensive but worth it.
Boston is a really nice city tho. The people are really friendly and were staying in a really nice area. The performance went really well despite gale force winds almost blowing the screens off the cars. There were 3 locations and the third was in front of the night club for the opening party of SIGRAPH. There was at least 2000 people in the club(s) at the Roxy and subsequent attached clubs and there was a line up down the street. We paid off the Valets and they had white cones in the street for us. We backed in diagonally all three cars on to the curb and set up the screen and speakers. It was crazy there were so many people milling around. Unfortunately I was busy documenting the performance on video and completely forgot to take images with my cell phone.
Check out the photographers
We arrived with few supplies, a tent sleeping bag, some water and a cooler full of beer. As we snaked along the path and the sound of techno beats drew louder the path oupened up to a dancefloor of sand and a stage were set up with people dancing wildly to the rythms laid down by the dj. It was still quiet at this point. We cruised though the party and past by tents and kiosks and cars parked in the woods. A colourful undergrowth of tents peaked up from everywhere. Along the path as we searched for our site we ran into citizensof the burn dressed in costumes. Their costumes and make up could be placed somewhere between a late nineties rave and a hippy love in from the 60's. Some of the costumes were body paint while others were just naked, strolling about with their bits and bites flopping about.
We weren’t traipsing though the woods for nothing, we were searching for the frog camp. At this camp everyone was supposed to dressed like a pond creature and a close friend was DJ'ing there that evening. Upon arrival at the "Frogpound", we entered a colourful world of green. The inhabitants were setting up for that night's party and there was even a little dock on the edge of the river. It was truly a serene setting with what seemed like a kind of cheesy décor. We later would discover that at night the pond creature new what they were doing and had indeed created a truly magical place. We set up camp and ventured about to mingle with the locals.
That night there were so many little tents and kiosks with nothing to sell but only to share. As I skirted along the shore I came upon some sort of pagan ritual really quite close in proximity to a booming speaker. This young guy who looked like he was a real estate agent camping for the weekend was sitting in this circle of candles and strange symbols being "worked" by this mysterious fellow in a black robe. The ceremony was still and quiet even though the dance floor and the 1000's of watts of sound pumping was only a short ways away. There was also a fire show on a sand bar in the middle of the river. From darkness on the river emerged a sea of flaming toys, spinning and dancing and floating. It was pretty amazing though I didn’t see the whole thing and flocks of people from the party crowed the paths along the water to take it all in.
My favorite of the night places aside from the hot tub run on geothermic heat or something was the puppet karaoke booth. There was a puppet booth with a chair and curtain and a small screen the size a of pda running the text for the song and a mic a face level so you could dance your puppet around to an array of classic rock songs and some other eclectic goodies. I participated in on such performance to the tune of "Istanbul Constantinople…" with a beaver a big breasted long red haired puppet and another strange sock puppet. The audience was about 30 or 40 people and they loved it.
The thing about this place and all its bizarre people and organization was the energy in the air. Im not sure if it was the land, the music, the people or a combo of everything, but you felt high without being on anything. I stopped drinking quite early in the evening and had such a fun time nonetheless. That night the stars were out in full force and as I lay with one of my best friends on the little dock beside the frog pound and stared up into the heavens we discussed moments and timing and that happiness rests in the acknowledgement of the moment. The intrinsic nature of when and where moments happen and recognizing that they are fleeting so as not to hang on to them too tightly or else you hand will cramp up and you'll miss the next one.
The party raged through the night and never really stopped. By the time we left it was just ramping back up at 9 in the morning. There were great DJ's and people with great light toys playing and frolicking thought the bush. I even had a duel with one of those fancy light sabers . People were kind and very little if any conflict arose.
Shout out to the Frogpound, Doug, Wiggle and Squiggle, Mish and Mash and their lovely owner.