David Emery OnlineSecondary attention and the ghosts in the corner
I remember seeing a talk once from a guy who did sound for the ER (on TV, not in actual hospitals). He was telling stories with the sound - foreshadowing moments, enhancing themes, adding drama - all via secondary attention. And I've always wanted to try and use sound as a way of telling you what's going on in/on/with the web. We've been mucking about with a few varients of this - from the abstract and arty to the slightly less abstract and arty - and we're going to try them out via some boxes which Adrian's building for us.
There’s something really interesting in all of this. Not sure exactly what it is yet, though.
Visit ➔"Orient yourself"
It was fairly common in medieval times to put east at the top. Which has a logic to it: when traveling across open terrain, the one consistent thing you had to orient yourself by when you broke camp in the morning was the sunrise. In fact, that’s the source of the term “orient yourself”: it literally means to face east.
Whoa.
Visit ➔Fans Crack Twitter Code for Sneak Peek at New Batman Film
Hardcore fans of Warner Bros.’s Batman trilogy undertook code cracking of epic proportions Friday after the site for the next film, The Dark Knight Rises, hit the web.
It’s pretty “marketing”, but still kind-of cool (I’m a big fan of the “hiding messages in audio waveforms” thing).
Visit ➔Made by Ideas
Made by Ideas is a service for people with too many ideas.
All ideas are anonymous until you start working on one, at which point you are invited to join a private conversation with the brain behind the idea.
I hold out very little hope that any of these ideas will actually happen (ideas are easy, implementations are hard), but still a fun site nevertheless.
Visit ➔An end of magic
No doubt that there will be magic again one day... magic of biotech, say, or quantum string theory, whatever that is. But one reason for our ennui as technology hounds is that we’re missing the feeling that was delivered to us daily for a decade or more. It’s not that there’s no new technology to come (there is, certainly). It’s that many of us can already imagine it.
Interestingly timed post from Seth considering my last post.
Visit ➔Followers/Feeds
I always used to rely on people using RSS if they wanted to keep up with the spurious ramblings that I occasionally post up here, but I think it turns out out these days people use services like Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook to do that sort of thing. So, if you’re one of those aforementioned people here are some links to some new feeds for your delectation:
Twitter (not the same as my personal Twitter)
& RSS if you are still using that, like me.
Saturn fly-by video
There is no 3-D CGI involved in this amazing Saturn fly-by video...it's made from thousands of hi-res photographs taken by the Cassini orbiter.
I scarcely believe this is real:
Visit ➔A this for a that
There are three things I really want to see.
1. Stories written for the the kindle - that use 'kindleyness' the way novels use 'bookiness'.
2. Music made for the shuffle - pieces designed to appear randomly but still hang together. More than a bunch of songs. And long too, filling up a shuffle, hours worth of it.
3. Comics made for an iPad. Something that's not just a port of a comic, that combines words and pictures in a way that exploits the iPad's capabilities.
I’m very much looking forward to seeing how literature adapts to the new possibilities that eBooks open up, and on the music front I think you could make a pretty good argument that a lot of pop music is “designed for shuffle” – or at least, not designed to be consumed in a linear album format.
Visit ➔Best of 2010
As you may have noticed by the glut of list-based posts that have flooded the internet in recent weeks (and months, some people being far too eager), it’s the end of another year and hence roundup time.
Last year I elected to eschew the traditional albums of the year thing, as it was more of a singles year. This year, in all honesty, it feels like it’s neither a singles or albums year this year; lots of good music, don’t get me wrong, but a distinct lack of knock-out greatness.
In the spirt of the year then it feels prudent to do a slightly half arsed, less fully baked rundown, but make up for it in quantity (everyone likes lists, right?):
Albums of the Year
#20 Caribou – Swim
Rough Trade put this as their album of the year which is overstating it a bit, but it is rather lovely.
#19 Tinie Tempah – Disc-Overy
What? Good pop, innit.
#18 Delorean – Subiza
Perfect summer pop. Mystifying they’re not far bigger then they are.
#17 Hot Chip – One Life Stand
This seems to have fallen slightly flat critically, but it’s my favourite Hot Chip album I think (none of the others have quite ‘clicked’).
Read more ➔
London tuition fee protest
Yesterday, in central London, thousands of students and others gathered to protest as Britain's Parliament met to vote on a proposal to raise university tuition fees significantly - nearly tripling them - as part of a continuing set of austerity programs. During the protest, several clashes took place between police and protesters, resulting in numerous injuries and 43 arrests. Late in the demonstration, a group of protesters attacked the car of Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall as the couple were inside, being driven to the London Palladium. The car was slightly damaged, the royal couple unharmed, though a bit shaken by the incident. Parliament did end up narrowly approving the measure, and the fee increases are set to take effect in 2012. Collected here are images from London last night.
Amazing set of photos from yesterday. Interesting times that we live in…
