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ani-gif: Still Images from ANI GIF 1.4: Global Value by Andrew...

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 14:13:09 -0400

Still Images from ANI GIF 1.4: Global Value by Andrew Benson (2011)

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Stills from my ANI-GIF show, “Global Value”

prostheticknowledge: Rhizome: Prosthetic Knowledge Picks -...

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 19:07:08 -0400

Rhizome: Prosthetic Knowledge Picks - WebGL

In this submission, I take a look at a web technology that brings impressive 3D projects into the browser.

Read it here

I like it here. After finally working out how to do a first...

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 18:01:23 -0400

I like it here.
After finally working out how to do a first person navigation “camera” in WebGL, I wanted to do something with procedural landscape where the terrain is dynamic and shifting as you explore. This was on the way to making something else, but I found myself wanting to stay in this space, wandering alone through the hills and valleys, and peeking under the edges. For a minute I thought I should make a game or something, but I like not having a goal here. The unpopulated digital space doesn’t feel lonely so much as quiet and solitary. The landscape is here to keep me company. GO THERE »>

are you still taking submissions/toying with the idea of a radical video e-zine? i would really like to contribute /// i am no longer able to find your post about it here (maybe it got taken down?) many greetz — laskfar

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 18:14:27 -0400

Good question. I had to put that idea on the back burner. I got really into it for a couple of days and spent a bunch of time researching ebook formats and distribution methods, and got overwhelmed. It also dawned on me that I’m just too busy to do a good job of organizing and begging for writing. I still really like the concept, and kinda wish someone else would do it so I could contribute something to it. I feel like there’s something there, and should be more conversation about it.
Anyways, I took down that post because I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up that I’d be taking any immediate action on that.

This is an excerpt from a longer running, work in progress...

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 20:14:03 -0500

This is an excerpt from a longer running, work in progress video.

WebGL Projects

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 20:10:00 -0500

I’ve been working with WebGL and Web Audio API for the past little bit, mainly to see what’s possible. Here’s a small collection of things I’ve made with in-browser graphics.

Radical Paintings is based on the feedback and drawing system I used to make several of my videos, but without the webcam input and with totally random colors.
Escape! has a similar engine, but more constrained color and with a realtime feedback FM synthesizer/sequencer built with Web Audio API. It only really sounds right on Google Chrome browser though. Web Audio is cool, but too bad there isn’t much support on other browsers.
Bouncy Gradients let’s you toss wiggling, bouncing gradient critters into a big pile. This uses verlet integration, which is my favorite way to make wiggly, bouncy, life-affirming motion without too much trouble.
I like it here is a first-person experience wandering over procedurally generated hills that shift and breathe underfoot. Run around the edges and look underneath or just stand there and watch it all develop.

Radical Paintings

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 19:20:16 -0500

Check out Radical Paintings, my first WebGL project that totally works in your browser and is awesome.

My Sheroes <3

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 17:34:59 -0400

For a few months now I’ve been part of a ragtag crew of artists assembled by Lorna Mills and Rea McNamara for a monthly series of events, GIFs, tumblr posts, called SHEROES. It started with Lorna inviting me to create some Yoko Ono-inspired animations, which I happily obliged, especially since I was teaching myself character modelling and animation for other projects, and this seemed like a good opportunity to goof around. I have been profoundly influenced by Yoko’s work, so it was also a great opportunity to show some love. Since then we’ve done Marianne Faithfull, Etta James, I skipped Erykah Badu for some other obligations, and now we’re doing Dolly Parton. In each instance, I’ve found the monthly process of meditating on and responding to a female celebrity image to be a refreshingly fun and surprisingly poignant activity.

It is easy to not take SHEROES seriously. Lorna and Rea are deceptively casual about it, there is no judgement that I’ve encountered, and there is a general air of good humor and comedy among most of the participants. There is no dividing line between good taste and bad jokes. The full spectrum of the ghouls and ghosts of feminine fame are acknowledged and equally displayed. They bill the project as little more than a party in Toronto, with some cool projections, installations, and live performances. So why does it feel like it’s something more than that?

I needed a project in my life where I felt okay about doing silly things, trying out some far-out ideas, and using humor and representation in ways I had a hard time incorporating into my other work. SHEROES has become a monthly meditation on fame and public image that I’ve fully welcomed into my life, and I look forward each month to receiving the email from Lorna that tells me who I will be working on next. Not only that, I actually think SHEROES is important in a way that I didn’t quite expect.

Part of this realization came while thinking about Dolly this month and working on my animations. I really admire her, but rarely have an opportunity to articulate for myself and others why. There is something infectious in the disarming good-naturedness of Dolly’s public demeanor. She has digested every criticism you could throw at her and turned it into a joke that’s ultimately on you. “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap!” In employing an absurd, comical asexual hyperfemininity, she looks you in the eye and dares you to dismiss her many talents on the basis of her artificial appearance. Under her self-aware self-effacing humor is the awareness that ladies, this is the monster you have to become to make it in this fucked up and superficial world. She has turned this image-awareness and talent into a hugely successful crossover career, and in the process paved the way for other women to not have to become Dolly Parton to make it. Her absurdity is her weapon, and you don’t even realize it when it strikes.

Without SHEROES in my life how would I, a nerdy white man who has spent much of his artistic career making abstract experimental videos, animations, and electronic performance work, find time to think about Dolly Parton’s image and rise to fame and the gender politics surrounding it? In allowing for some good fun to enter into my studio practice, I’ve opened myself up to thoughts and processes that I would previously have dismissed as extraneous to my work. Strangely, what I’ve gotten out of it is a more holistic view of what my work is about, and I’ve been able to rethink what my work could be if I don’t hold myself in a particular formal or thematic container. I have to commend the Sheroes crew for assembling this diverse cocktail of artists (both men and women) to freestyle on the images of fame and femininity that comprise the League of Legendary Ladies. I hope that someone more articulate and influential than me is able to look over these notes and trace a thread that highlights the unexpected importance of the casual endeavor that has me delving into my own attitudes on what it means to be famous and female. Maybe it’s not important to art history, to critics, to the new generation of Net Artists, or to the world, but I’m having fun, and it’s affecting me.

ree raw reeraw re rea re: ree raw: Y'all know we dig that ingenious assexual hyperfemininity

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:41:13 -0400

ree raw reeraw re rea re: ree raw: Y'all know we dig that ingenious assexual hyperfemininity:

fuckyeahsheroes:

The titz and glitz of Backwoods Barbie

Dolly Parton latest inductee to the League of Legendary Ladies

Sheroes will be presenting their latest event, Sheroes #9: Dolly Parton, on Thursday, April 26 at The Beaver (1192 Queen Street West).

The monthly,…

Hey, saw your stuff on my dash, just wanted to say nice work! Keep it up! love&peace Shawn.

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 02:02:03 -0400

Hi Thanks!

Inside the Depth Mapped vortex

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 23:40:01 -0500

I’ve been working on some kinect-based video systems lately. Here are some studies from that.

These Radical Hands is the latest in the “Radical”...

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 23:25:59 -0500

These Radical Hands is the latest in the “Radical” video series, all of which combine animation, experimental video, and throbbing synthetic sounds.

jst morfn a bunch of video takes I had lying around. This uses a...

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:12:00 -0500

jst morfn a bunch of video takes I had lying around. This uses a Jitter patch that chooses some arbitrary morph points and creates the motion transition in realtime. In other words, auto-morph! Silky smooth melting of clips into each other.

xmas GIFt

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:53:01 -0500

Ho Ho Ho Ho

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 13:32:00 -0500

GLI.TC/H IS HAPPENING. Chicago_USA: Nov...

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 01:45:18 -0400

GLI.TC/H IS HAPPENING.
Chicago_USA: Nov 4-6 2011;
Amsterdam_NL: Nov 11-13 2011;
Birmingham_UK: Nov 18-19 2011;
http://gli.tc/h

barbarian studies

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 04:39:00 -0400

no idea where I’m going with this.

UV Map Process shot

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 12:03:45 -0400

UV Map Process shot

ANI-GIF 004 is ME! GLOBAL VALUE

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 02:55:19 -0400

ANI-GIF 004 is ME!

GLOBAL VALUE

Photo

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:51:56 -0400