One more doodle for the day.
No instruments were harmed while making this track.
Monthly Archives: April 2012
Songs from the water closet (excerpt)
What is the sound of 180 first year students?
Raw unedited field recording:
Gonzo remix:
Gmail Tap
A new way to hurt yourself
It goes without saying that augmented reality eyewear is not without problems. The following spoof of the Google Project Glass video points out some of the obvious ones in a comical fashion.
Project Glass @ Google
Google has posted information about Project Glass. The photos and video show a stylish, lightweight eyeworn see-through display operated via a speech interface, which allows you to do many of the things you already do with your iPhone, but without manual interaction. This announcement has been expected for some time and we mentioned it in an earlier post on HMDs titled Retro-Future. It will be increasingly difficult to justify the purchase of outrageously priced and bulky retro-HMDs when consumer products with superior form-factor and functionality come on to the market. Currently price estimates for the AR eyewear run from $200.00 to $600.00, but this is guessing. No doubt Google will make APIs easily available for the eyewear, so that R&D can be conducted by anyone with modest means and sufficient motivation. The video, available via YouTube, is probably mostly a mock-up and I’m wondering where the battery will be located.
Small Music – Rolf Julius Memorial – Gallery Niji
Thanks to Atsushi Nishijima, former guest speaker in the zemi, for information about the Rolf Julius Memorial Exhibition which will be at Art Space Niji (アートスペース虹) until April 15th. Rolf Julius, who, sadly, passed away last year, was one of the earliest artists to explore relations between sounds, objects, and settings. Here is a rare and valuable opportunity to see original works by an influential sound artist right here in Kyoto. If you visit the exhibition you may have a chance to meet and talk with people who knew and worked with Julius. I met his daughter, curator and art historian, Maija Julius, gallerist Sumiko Kumagai (熊谷寿美子) who opened Art Space Niji in 1981, and art photographer Toshio Kuwabara (桑原敏郎) who showed a work created in collaboration with Julius. The exhibition includes works by other artists that worked with Julius, including Akio Suzuki (鈴木昭男) who is scheduled to be an invited speaker in our seminar in 2012.
Here is a photo of a work by Rolf Julius, linked directly from the Niji Gallery web site:
Access/Opening times for the Exhibition. Note here will be a symposium held at MOMAK (京都国立近代美術館) this coming Saturday afternoon.
新入生 2012
Some informal observations after yesterday’s ceremony:
- This may be our largest class yet
- M/F ratio is abnormally high
- Lots of suits
I wonder whether these observations reflect generational, situational changes or do they reflect changing perceptions of the faculty? I’ve heard that students from Western Japan are more reluctant to attend University in the Kanto region after 11/3/11. One can only speculate.
Marc Riboud @ Kahitsukan
The Kahitsukan (何必館), a contemporary art gallery in Gion that frequently exhibits black and white photography, currently has a show of prints by Magnum photojournalist, Marc Riboud. The exhibition closes on April 22. If you are interested in seeing the exhibition, and would like a free ticket, let me know.
There’s a really good tsubo niwa (坪庭) on the top floor of the Kahitsukan.
