the idiot

It was going to be a long creative week. Instead, it's been a week of fixing one thing and getting another thing not working. Either the midi would not communicate, or the IBVA would crash, pro-tools would crash, the computer would crash. A chain of reactions. Steadily, and with patience, much patience, I addressed each issue presented. I experimented with different approaches in composing the music for the piece. Ideally each instrument would follow the melody/harmony of the speech from the interviews. Although this was manageable, it did not sound right. The pieces did not really fit. Other attempts using noise, experimental pianos, classical approaches were again futile. Not only that, but eventually when something did sound right, pro-tools would always crash on bounces. So I decided to bounce 20 min long parts of the piece seperately, to allow more sounds to be incorporated (and hopefully less crashes). This seemed to do the trick. It gave me chance to do some filming with the fish tank and ink. The bounces finished right at the point where my camera's card was full, so I begun transferring the footage on the computer. Meanwhile I was looking at art theory terms on the internet.
Then firefox crashes. Force quit only closed the window, but the icon in the dock was still selected. Then final cut is non responsive. I press and hold the magic button for a force shut down. Turn it on again. Magically, or through some divine intervention, Acrobat pops up and presents me with an ebook titled "Music composition for dummies".
This does not convince me completely that there is someone up there taking the piss out of me. It is confirmed though that the greek dramaturge would be quite envious of my tragic irony: when my computer gained consciousness to mock me (and all the in-between).

ink(ling)

This work in progress relates to a larger piece dealing with language. A play in language. Interviews have taken place regarding a common theme: art - its meaning and capability in bringing about a social revolution. The word interview should probably be replaced by the word "discussion". For the conversations at times would end up at completely unrelated directions. Unrelated yet linked back to the original theme (assuming linearity in reverse). Questions were asked in English or Greek. The answers were given in a variety of languages including German, Swedish, Greek, Bulgarian, Hungarian etc. For the languages not understood, the rule was not to be given a translation or explanation. The audio has been split up randomly, either between words or halfway through sentences. Equally random will be the mixing of all fragmentary words, now only sounds. Meaning is removed, the words are now stripped bare and, in relation to one another, sound like gibberish, incomprehensible. Music will be composed according to the melody and harmony of the voices. After the final piece is finished, which will have a duration long enough for no one viewer to bare listen in its entirety, drawings will be made while listening to it. During this process, IBVA will be used to record the brainwave activity and trigger midi sounds. A strange loop is created. The audio piece is affecting the brain and drawings. The sound from the IBVA, that is essentially brainwave activity transformed into sound, affects the drawings. The drawings affect brainwave activity. The recorded IBVA sounds will then be incorporated into the final music piece. The drawings will perhaps work as the visual representation. Confusing? It should be. Meaningless? Overdone? Antagonising? perhaps.

Read Books animation

The following animation was made in collaboration with Daphne. The brief for her art direction project asked to create an animation for promoting the reading of literature. Daphne drew and all the elements in Illustrator and Photoshop while I did the animation in After Effects.

inspirational work "Khoda"

Khoda from Reza Dolatabadi on Vimeo.

Empyrean Speculum

Does humor belong in art and can it make an equally strong statement? The question is rhetoric. Visit Jonathan Gilhooly's website and read the review by Micheál O'Connell here.

time lapse

Another time lapse sequence. This time longer. Camera started losing focus at nightfall due to settings. All owed to the good guys at CHDK who have hacked the firmware of canon cameras allowing several scripts to be written for it. Including but not limited to intervalometers, motion detectors, raw and hdr capabilities etc. Makes one wonder why these capabilities, in consumer cameras, are not included to begin with. These things should not be uttered. Anyway, check out the wiki styled CHDK site if you own a canon and 'unlease its true capabilities'.

Genius of the Crowd

Animation using ink on paper. Filmed then edited in After Effects. Added some camera movements. Tried to keep it as minimal as possible so as not to deduct from the actual reading of the piece. Audio taken from "Born into this". Reading obviously by Bukowski. Although the version without the music had been more preferable, there were some glitches due to the editing of the speech covered only with the piano and background ambience. The original film was ten minutes long. An attempt to cover the duration by using two different versions of the poem (one taken from "70 minutes in hell") was unsatisfactory. Hence, the smaller version. Personally, I think this works much better.

archetypes

Collaborative work between Daphne and I. These three interactive pieces relate to the theories of archetypes by Carl Jung. Although there are many, we picked the shadow, the mother and the anima. It is a humorous approach and we hope that they're seen in that way. These small pieces will hopefully drive one to find out more about Jung's theories which personally I find very interesting and glaring of truth (even though placed on the side and considered fairly outdated by mainstream psychology).
One should also be patient for the files to load, they're a bit large. If one wants to view them at their actual size then go here. or here. or mere. Also be on the lookout for Daphne's 'Carl's Archetypes' which should be posted soon enough on her blog.

meanwhile

Here is a time lapse 'making of' the Mince Festival:



And here is a test in time lapse:


When I grow up I will make films just like this. No seriously, I will.

Following is the breakdown of that largest project I mentioned in the previous post:

Mince Festival

A stop-frame animation with mince. This was a sort of rehearsal for a larger project. What I did not bare in mind was the foul smell of the meat after a short amount of time. The music was done today, though I think it could be better. With many thanks to Kritwnas and Elena for the much needed help (and their patience).

the genius of the crowd

there is enough treachery, hatred, violence,
absurdity in the average human being
to supply any given army on any given day.
and the best at murder are those
who preach against it
and the best at hate are those
who preach love
and the best at war - finally -
are those who preach peace.
beware the average man
the average woman
beware their love
their love is average, seeks average
but there is genius in their hatred
there is enough genius in their hatred to kill you,
to kill anybody.
not wanting solitude
not understanding solitude
they will attempt to destroy anything
that differs from their own.
not being able to create art
they will not understand art
they will consider their failure as creators
only as a failure of the world.
not being able to love fully
they will believe your love incomplete
and then they will hate you.
and their hatred will be perfect
like a shining diamond
like a knife
like a mountain
like a tiger
like hemlock
their finest
art. (C.B)

the baby seagull...

...that got ill and landed on our porch. Puked some white puffed stuff and spend the night here. He attempted flying a couple of times but ended crashing on the wall. Where are the animal lovers when you need them most? Maybe the opposite of this?

shmall animated tree

Trees

Bravo Mr. Schmidt (*applause*) for writing an amazing xpresso code. When I grow up I want to be just like you.

They're watching you

It has come to my attention that after the "ahoy space" post yesterday, I had an interesting visit on my blog a while ago. Busy, busy little bees, or erm, spiders?

Today's lesson: ITT works! So does StatCounter. Invest in either for pure voyeuristic pleasure. Good times.

#321

Codex: Seraphinianus

Accidentally came across a book by Luigi Serafini, titled "Codex: Seraphinianus". It is an ebook version of the book and an instant infatuation from the first couple of pages. Perhaps it is my fascination with mysteries and myths that has led to me spending hours looking through it. I say searching because the book - a visual encyclopaedia of another world - is written in an undeciphered language. Codex gives detailed descriptions of fauna and flora, physics and chemistry, historical development of the humanoids and their writing, architecture and so on. This, to the non-believer, would be a break through of imagination. Personally, I find it much in-depth and analytic to consider it a simple creative work. If this is the case, then Luigi must have had his own personal muse dedicated in helping him make this book.
The illustrations in the book are brilliantly coloured, very detailed, and often depict surreal versions of things found in our world. The architecture chapter, I thought had great similarities with the works of M.C. Escher.

In any way, if one gets the chance, should have a look at this. A very detailed journey of a man researching the codex. Fascinating.
I tried finding the book as well, but it's very rare, and start from £350 on amazon and up to £3000 on ebay. Which makes it even more desirable. For the middle class citizen, a visit on Grey Lodge should satisfy.

ahoy space

"With piracy on the rise, commercial space satellites equipped with ITT imaging systems are becoming an important tool for locating exactly where the attacks occur and where the hijacked ships are being held". (link)

But then there's this: "The pirates showed "quite clearly - and subversively - that ships did not have to be run in the brutal and oppressive ways of the merchant service and the Royal navy."" (link)

And when the number of deaths from swine flu reaches 3000 then we'll start calling it a pandemic.

A daily dosage of Bill Hicks and South Park is bound to free you from fearmongers (I repeat myself when I'm distressed).