Elissa Baxter wrote an article entitles “Pocket Gallery” for the Green Guide that discussed the possibilities that new technologies have upon the art world. The article explored different applications that mobile phones have within the art world, including animated video, photography and the creation of music. The way that modern mobile technologies are constructed can include a quite sophisticated camera and, in the case of the iPhone, the addition of applications that allow the phone to become a musical instrument.
I became interested in the use of a mobile phone as a tool within the art making process when I heard an album that was innitially recorded on a mobile. The album was called “one minute songs and sounds” and is available for free download at www.apocketfullofstones.com/onesandzeros. On the album, every song was only about one minute in length. The length of the songs were determined be the fact that the phone would only allow that length of recording at one time. The recordings were made while on holidays overseas. The very portable nature of the mobile phone allows the creation of digital art to happen anywhere with a certain amount of ease.
A question that needs to be asked is; is the creation of digital art becoming more accessible to the general public? If so, is there going to be a large influx of digital art made with mobile technology appearing on the Internet?
I would argue that the general public may use the features on their mobile phones for happy snaps and fun, but, it is only those that are artistically inclined that will utilise the new technologies for artistic purposes. It is the way that art is created that is evolving within the modern age and the Internet allows for an effective delivery method. This is another example of a technology being
On a side note you should check out an Austrian music group that is mentioned in the Baxter article called iBand. iBand use their modern mobile phones as instruments. You can see a video of them on Youtube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwoPgnvpPQg . The band consists of a drums, guitar and keyboards, all synthesised through applications that were downloaded onto their iPhones.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Life in a Mash-up Society!
Recently while I was doing legitimate academic study on youtube and I became very interested in the idea of the ‘mash-up.’ In music, a mash-up is a song that is seamlessly made up from pieces of other songs. Traditionally the vocals of one song are placed over the instrumental of another. When successfully fused, the song can sound faultless and a whole new and funky media is created. One very famous mash-up is Dangermouse’s The Grey Album, a cd that was banned by EMI for copyright infringement. The Grey Album fused the Beatles White Album and Jay-Z’s Black Album. Initially I was interested in how mash-up’s applied to music. Many of the most current pop songs are remixed in such a way. Every media text can be used to create a mash up. Video mash-ups often combine two texts that are diametrically opposed in genre to create a sinister movie clip.
This is a clip made from the movies, Toy Story and Requiem for a Dream.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1qihwMN0JM
A cool song that combines Britney Spears with Gwen Stefani.
The mash-up is also a way that society can make sense and laugh at the serious political and social situations within the world. There are many mash-ups that poke fun at politicians, most notably George W Bush. Many of these clips take political speeches and create a message that is different from the original.
Bushwhacked is a video on youtube that has seamlessly changes a speech given by George w Bush and makes light of the Iraq war.
George Bush serenading Tony Blair.
As I explored, I theorised that many film and TV narratives are accessed in a mash-up kind of way. Narratives are made up of many media texts and have become the way that stories are told within society, driven by mass media. In many cases the way that the whole story or narrative is accessible is only through many forms of media. In 2002, the Fox network aired a series called Firefly, which after one season was cancelled. The narrative and back-story of characters were continued through the media of feature film, comic books, and soon an online role playing game.
The nature of media today allows us, the viewer, to gain our information from many different sources. The mash-up is a societies way of venting and making light of everyday pressures. It is also a unique art form.
This is a clip made from the movies, Toy Story and Requiem for a Dream.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1qihwMN0JM
A cool song that combines Britney Spears with Gwen Stefani.
The mash-up is also a way that society can make sense and laugh at the serious political and social situations within the world. There are many mash-ups that poke fun at politicians, most notably George W Bush. Many of these clips take political speeches and create a message that is different from the original.
Bushwhacked is a video on youtube that has seamlessly changes a speech given by George w Bush and makes light of the Iraq war.
George Bush serenading Tony Blair.
As I explored, I theorised that many film and TV narratives are accessed in a mash-up kind of way. Narratives are made up of many media texts and have become the way that stories are told within society, driven by mass media. In many cases the way that the whole story or narrative is accessible is only through many forms of media. In 2002, the Fox network aired a series called Firefly, which after one season was cancelled. The narrative and back-story of characters were continued through the media of feature film, comic books, and soon an online role playing game.
The nature of media today allows us, the viewer, to gain our information from many different sources. The mash-up is a societies way of venting and making light of everyday pressures. It is also a unique art form.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Is this the beginning of the end?
Within the first week of this subject the question was posed ‘how long can we keep on torrenting music and movies before people are prosecuted and charged?” I think that the question sounded more like “ how long can this heaven last?” but you get the picture. Within that very week an answer to that question appeared in the news.
The Age reported on the 4th of august that the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT), under pressure by the film industry, had proposed that Internet service providers send warning letters to people who download movies illegally. The warning letters would indicate to the downloader that the Internet providers know what they are doing and that their activities aren’t anonymous. This technique known as a ‘graduated response’ has been trialled within the United States and it was found that nine out of ten users stoped their illegal downloading of movies after only their first warning.[1]
The question that needs to be asked is, is this approach going to benefit the movie industry or are the film studios just being to precious about copyright? In contrast, within the music industry, there is a very successful argument for allowing the free downloading of music. By allowing free downloads, a large amount of interest and hype can generated around a certain band that will lead to high ticket and merchandise sales at live performances. One example is the Sheffield band, the Arctic Monkeys, who when first starting out, uploaded all of their music onto Myspace, allowing fans to download their album free of charge before its public release date. When the Arctic Monkeys played at the Glastonbury festival, they had a large audience that rivalled that of the headline acts.
This is all well and good for the music industry, but the relationship that people have with movies and with music is very different. The music industry has other ways of generating income other then CD sales where as the movie industry relies heavily upon box office and DVD sales. I believe that the movie industry does have reason to be scared about online downloads and any way that this can be combated is a plus from their point of view. Perhaps these proposed warning letters will change the way Torrents are viewed and used within the future.
For my seminar presentation I am discussing peer to peer (P2P) and including torrents and Skype etc. I was hoping that if you happen to come across any articles or relevant news items regarding this topic that you could please send me a link or the relevant information. Thank you.
[1]The Age, http://www.theage.com.au/news/web/online-movie-fans-face-scrutiny/2008/08/03/1217701901151.html accessed on 4th August 2008
The Age reported on the 4th of august that the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT), under pressure by the film industry, had proposed that Internet service providers send warning letters to people who download movies illegally. The warning letters would indicate to the downloader that the Internet providers know what they are doing and that their activities aren’t anonymous. This technique known as a ‘graduated response’ has been trialled within the United States and it was found that nine out of ten users stoped their illegal downloading of movies after only their first warning.[1]
The question that needs to be asked is, is this approach going to benefit the movie industry or are the film studios just being to precious about copyright? In contrast, within the music industry, there is a very successful argument for allowing the free downloading of music. By allowing free downloads, a large amount of interest and hype can generated around a certain band that will lead to high ticket and merchandise sales at live performances. One example is the Sheffield band, the Arctic Monkeys, who when first starting out, uploaded all of their music onto Myspace, allowing fans to download their album free of charge before its public release date. When the Arctic Monkeys played at the Glastonbury festival, they had a large audience that rivalled that of the headline acts.
This is all well and good for the music industry, but the relationship that people have with movies and with music is very different. The music industry has other ways of generating income other then CD sales where as the movie industry relies heavily upon box office and DVD sales. I believe that the movie industry does have reason to be scared about online downloads and any way that this can be combated is a plus from their point of view. Perhaps these proposed warning letters will change the way Torrents are viewed and used within the future.
For my seminar presentation I am discussing peer to peer (P2P) and including torrents and Skype etc. I was hoping that if you happen to come across any articles or relevant news items regarding this topic that you could please send me a link or the relevant information. Thank you.
[1]The Age, http://www.theage.com.au/news/web/online-movie-fans-face-scrutiny/2008/08/03/1217701901151.html accessed on 4th August 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
