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Thoughts on the “performance lab” at Music Tech Fest

I love this discussion of people coming together to create an interesting experience in “The Absorption Chamber” (a cavernous concrete space built around the DDR-era concert halls of Funkhaus Berlin, the East German radio and sound facility):

But I could go on about each of the individual artists, neuroscientists, engineers (some migrating in from the MIT lab), designers, and hackers who got involved. Via an invited international group, we had people who were as handy with a Max patch as they were with a needle and thread, who could sing and write code, who could parlay research knowledge into on-the-spot experimentation. In just one week, they invented from-scratch performance interventions – most of the collaborators meeting for the first time. Everyone shared with everyone else, but there were eventually three distinct performance groups (one including Viktoria), plus some offstage experiments, presented to the public in an afternoon.

Link (CreateDigitalMusic)

Great take on why Ghost in the Shell movie misses

Masamune Shirow created an interesting set of complex characters in Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell. I appreciated the thought he put into constructing a world that involved deeper questions about life. Read through the Appleseed manga, I was struck with the themes of humanity, struggle, political positioning and the theme of a digital soul. Example of some dialog:

Deunan: “Still, I like the way they’re picking a fight with Olympus and both Americas straight on. You gotta give ’em credit for balls.”
Briareos: “All the third world countries are like that. What they don’t have is money. This whole OP could be an Aegis-backed diplomatic ploy.”

I highly recommend the great write-up on the recent Ghost in the Shell movie. I haven’t seen it yet, and after reading this excellent review, I’m not sure I will.

Apparently, “you can’t lead” with philosophy in Hollywood….But I’m not sure Sanders understands how or why these moments became so iconic. His interpretation of the original film—which was slower, indeed almost glacial in places—centers on explosive energy and plumes of broken glass; it’s Daft Punk gone the way of the Boondock Saints. Consequently, Sanders’ rebooted version of Ghost in the Shell is a peculiar hodgepodge of original scenes and lines, sutured together without much rhythm. We get the hacked garbage collector without the poignancy of his subsequent revelations, while the water fight that Sanders mentions is almost caricatured. And Mira Killian has none of Motoko Kusanagi’s restraint as she beats her quarry without compassion.

As the action gets more frenetic, the thoughtful theme of humans merging with machines becomes blander. –Cassandra Shaw

Microbroadcasting: find unused FM radio frequencies

You can broadcast your own (small) AM or FM radio station, as long as it doesn’t access licensed broadcast frequencies.

Part 15 regulations govern all the many varieties of low-power RF transmitters in use today, including “cordless phones, baby monitors, garage door openers…”J. Hale, Go Beyond Now

Find unused Radio Frequencies with RadioLocator.com. Here is an example of what I found locally to me:

Screenshot of website showing radio frequency useage.
Vacant channel results from RadioLocator.com

The FCC also offers the option to search for unused frequencies on their Low Power FM (LPFM) page. Note: the FCC isn’t accepting low power FM applications now, so you have to stick to broadcasting your own signal for yourself.