randform

google video link
sequence by Satyajit Ray
Ray Film and Study Collection

A classic in midi-to-graphics “generative” animation is “pipedream” by Dave Crognale and Wayne Lytle. It is sold together with other works by them on a DVD compilation via their website animusic. The “pipedream”-video itself is however also downloadable via the SIGGRAPH animation site on archive.org. However if you have an ATI graphics card you can render it also in realtime via the ATI rendering-gadgets sites for MAC and Windows.

Wayne Lytle has worked also in scientific visualization, e.g. on this mathematical visualization video for string theorist Brian Greene.

speaking about virtual architectural icons in my last post, it worthwhile to mention that the american company Lichtenstein Creative Media is organizing concerts and interviews in the commercial (and expensive) virtual environment called second life. On their webpage they currently feature a virtual concert with wellknown songwriter Suzanne Vega, including a machinima of her concert. If the link is gone — here is another youtube machinima of the concert.

Also MIT professor John Maeda was there. Reflecting on his second life experience in his blog, Maeda suddenly expressed his concern for mathematicians (thats how i interpret it ;)):

At the recent SIGGRAPH, one of the most popular talks was the fellow from i>SL where he spoke about the higher “emotional bandwidth” one gets with communicating through a fully-rendered avatar versus a pitful smiley like :-). Our resident media philospopher Burak took great offense at this comment. He felt that signs/symbols were invented not because we crave for constant realism in life, but that we can get engage deeper feeling through experiencing abstractions of reality. The more abstract the better, in his mind.

And that’s where it is: “in his mind.” Where the emotional bandwidth is truly the highest and where no computers (currently) can venture. To live without reality (or even a simulation of it) and to instead be immersed in a sea of symbols and even more abstract thoughts. Seems like one can go crazy in such a world.

So let’s wait for Madonna to appear there — would relieve her may be from the pressure to do cosmetic surgery for being an icon.

A short link to a swedish site which is a sharing site for piano music. On this site people can submit their own piano recordings. Likewise the submitted piano music can be downloaded for free. There are no copyright problems if the composer had been dead for over 70 years or consented to the publication.
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Yesterday the ORWOhaus celebrated its first “Klang der Ideen”-music festival. (more…)

Inspired by chinese shadow plays and the works of Georges Méliès young …
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Check this out.

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a comment on architecture in different contexts: two videos by Michal Levy and Pierre-Abraham Rochat

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As some readers may know, we like the game pong and awkward versions of it. (see also pong.mythos.) Apparently other people share this passion …as e.g. viennese computer science students (called emcgames), who did this great pink pingk pong.
Unfortunately it seems the game is for windows only.
kotaku called pingK an Electric Kool-Aid Acid pong, however this is a strange kind of acid sound in the video … or lets say the truth: i think it is better to switch the sound off.
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