Written on April 18, 2008 – 8:03 pm
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten,
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AI, for Artificial Intelligence still seems like something from the distant future. But Artificial Creativity is here! It’s name is ABSOLUT MACHINES.
Two artists, Jeff Lieberman and Dan Paluska, sponsored by Absolut (with money, not wodka), have been given the opportunity to experiment with the concept of Artificial Creativity. Right now there are two installations that can be played with and watched live on the web. The result is very exciting. I played with it for almost 15 minutes and than kept the music running in the background for another hour or so.
As seen in the beginning of this video, a visitor (could be you) enters a melody on their computer keyboard. The machine then uses this melody to generate a unique 2.5 minute piece of music. And you can watch the result live in your browser and from different angles too. The site isn’t very popular so you can dive right in and compose your own masterpiece and watch it being performed.
You can also visit the machine if you happen to be in New York. It is on display at 186 Orchard st (between Stanton and Houston) NY NY 10002 until April 25th, 2008.
Visit absolutmachines.com to interact with the machine every day between 9am-11pm EST or see how it works here:
More information at http://bea.st/sight/absolutQuartet/
Written on April 10, 2008 – 4:12 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Although everybody seems to be raving about video on Flickr, I just like to bring something totally different - yet photo-related - subject under your attention. It’s a really interesting photo project by Jonathan Harris called The Whale Hunt. For some of you, this might be old news as it’s published six months ago, but I don’t want to risk that other people miss this incredible photo series. Moreover, I think that some media art doesn’t hurt this blog. After all, our main purpose is to inspire you.
Eleven months ago, Harris traveled to the Inupiat Eskimos in Barrow, Alaska, to see how they hunt on whales. Before you ask, his project is not a political statement whatsoever, he just wanted to cover a ritual that has been going on for ages.
His photos series of the whale hunt is quite special, since it’s a new way of human storytelling:
The photographs are presented in a framework that tells the moment-to-moment story of the whale hunt. The full sequence of images is represented as a medical heartbeat graph along the bottom edge of the screen, its magnitude at each point indicating the photographic frequency (and thus the level of excitement) at that moment in time. A series of filters can be used to restrict this heartbeat timeline, isolating the many sub stories occurring within the larger narrative (the story of blood, the story of the captain, the story of the arctic ocean, etc.).
He collected the photos by making one pic every five minutes, even when he was asleep. The result looks something like this:
I think Harris discovered a new interesting way of telling a story. Imagine how this would look like when you cover a soccer match. You can tell by the heartbeat when the match turns interesting. Or a political debate. I hope to see some examples of that. Or do you know one already?
Written on March 27, 2008 – 3:27 pm
Guest blogger, sharing views on The Next Web
This is a guest post by Dagan Cohen, he’s the curator of PRE
Lets face it: we live in a fast economy, where the hunger for the ‘next big thing’ is so strong web entrepreneurs tend to minimize risk by copying and mashing up proved concepts. Although we wouldn’t like to admit it, the pressure of the marketplace narrows our vision and makes it hard for the industry to come with truly new ideas.
So, where to look for fresh ideas? Arguably the best place to start is where creative people can develop their ideas away from pressure of the market. Places like universities, art schools, small-scale research labs and small companies committed to creative experiment.
PRE shows a selection of projects by Dutch students and young artists who are driven by the new possibilities of the web and the digital realm. PRE celebrates the phase before an idea becomes a business concept. In this ‘green phase’ ideas are rough and vulnerable. They can be easily killed when the rules of the market are applied too rigidly.
Though some ideas immediately show a market potential – they just need a little push, others are more ambivalent and need to be looked at by different people from different angles to reveal their true purpose. That purpose is not necessarily a marketable product or service. It can be an autonomous art piece which purpose it is to make us think and reflect. It can be a conversation starter, or a stepping-stone for another idea.
The great thing about rough, ambivalent ideas is that they trigger us to finish or alter them. To add or change something so they’ll become better. At least in our minds. That’s why it’s important to get those ideas out of ‘the greenery’ into the open. And what place is more suitable for that purpose than the Next Web Conference?
Attendees of the conference can be inspired by the ‘premonitions’ of artist and students; the young creatives can profit from the knowledge and wisdom of industry professionals. After all: there’s no ‘Next’ without ‘Pre’. PRE is hosted by Draftfcb. (more…)
Written on March 26, 2008 – 10:23 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
You probably know the Amazon Mechanical Turk. It’s a crowdsourcing marketplace that makes up for the inabilities of computer programs. You can buy some human intelligence for prices of a few cents. Oh, and human intelligence might sound good, but most of the tasks are repetitive and boring. Combine that with the low prices and you understand why some critics call the Mechanical Turk a ‘virtual sweatshop‘.
Let’s face it, new working technologies and labor systems often arouse negative feelings. We don’t like things to change. News about outsourcing journalistic work frightens us since it doesn’t match with our beliefs about the profession of journalism.
Artist Aaron Koblin finds his inspiration in trends and changes in this information age. According to his website, the San Francisco- based artist ‘playfully turns lots of data into lots of information’ in order to raise questions.
On Wired I’ve noticed a video about his latest project The Sheep Market. He asked the ‘providers’ of The Mechanical Turk to ‘draw a sheep facing to the left’ for 2 dollar cents. He received 10,000 sheeps and combined them into one art piece. From far away, it looks like a some sort of bar code, but when you come closer you notice the small drawings: data turns into info.
Written on February 28, 2008 – 1:53 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Today I received an email by Antonio Roldao Lopes, he is one of the creators of WebCanvas, a world-wide collaborative painting project, started in London. Can projects get even more charming than this one? It’s Flower Power 2.0! On a Dutch blog, I’ve once drawn a comparison between hippies and bloggers, inspired by what LSD promoter and professor Timothy Leary once said:
Internet is the LSD of the 1990s
Just like the hippies, we’ve created a place where everybody has the freedom to publish his or her thoughts. We have the power to criticize multinationals, a place where we can discusses whether our world leaders do the right thing and people with the same passion from all over the world now have a place to meet. Not to mention the geographical resemblance. And now can we work on an art piece together.
Anyone can move around an ‘infinite’ canvas. Using available painting tools is it’s also possible to draw and upload images. Furthermore it is possible to view other users painting if they happen to be painting within the same viewing area.
Check out some highlights on the WebCanvas blog, like the skeleton on the right.
Absolut Machines, Absolut wodka, AI, art, Artificial Intelligence, creative Intelligence, Dan Paluska, Jeff Lieberman
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The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show of, the future of the Web. (
